It always amazes me how trolls want to both spoil the environment and have people continue to pay attention to them. They keep teasing, misrepresenting, dissimulating and then they want people to "accept" that this is simply "freedom." It is free for people to go away and let the site go down, as seen in many other places.

Then they still have the question: "why did normal users leave?". I believe that more than moderation having to deal with, the trolls, incels and alt-rights themselves that are destroying everything good that people build on the internet should focus on their ghettos, like the chans and gags of life. Stay among yourselves. It's better for everyone.

(Of course I know that the nature of people who make a living messing up the comment sections doesn't let them absorb what I've written. They want everyone to be "triggered" so they can then make fools of themselves. But that's how it is.)

"They've allowed a playground of on topic hate, but won't allow the rest of the community to call them out. "

User reports, comment reports, submit a ticket to discuss, send PM to discuss.

We're not always going to agree with people and there's a ton behind the scenes people don't see (especially how most often it's many people in various sides involved and even instigating things to a point and not just "these 4 users I think are the problem"), but we do listen and review when we can.

There are plenty of ways to report things, but never should the question of who is trolling or if they should be moderated happen in the comments section.

What was the bubble system? Can someone explain?

The comments on this site have always been pretty bad, there are many better places to go if you actually want to have a discussion about games, this site's strength has always been that it highlights interesting articles, the comments have always been a mess.

The state of the site in general.

I rarely comment on this site. Seems both the majority of the members and moderators seem to have very biased slant in favor of one console manufacturer.

Makes it hard to have open and honest conversations. Like some BS Videogame Cancel Culture up in here.

I just come to read the news and laugh at the comments 🤷‍♂️

Folks should be able to say what they want about video games & the platforms they are on no matter if the comment is considered negative or positive. Everyone has opinions & everyone's opinion isn't going to coincide with others. As long as the comments are not personally attacking an individual such as being disrespectful,name calling or bigoted & racial epithets. It's a shame when some folks get emotional or offended over a piece of plastic as if that piece of plastic is their mother or father,a sibling,their child or a spouse.

I saw this exchange take place and I have to say I can understand how you feel that way I don't think you should have been banned but I don't think either of you should have been in my opinion. But calling out an admin for not doing their job wasn't smart when you couldn't convince the person to change their view.

The person you call a troll isn't a troll he just had a unpopular opinion and was vocal about it. He didn't say anything offensive or attack anyone directly but he disagreed with the majority.

It was clear that person was trying to be provocative in the comments section I'll give you that but it's not trolling.

Disagreement with the majority doesn't make you a troll. Disliking a company also doesn't make you a troll.

I've been coming to the site for many years probably longer than the poster and I have seen popular opinion sway in a few directions but ultimately conversation is much more healthy than other sites in that asking questions or disagreement with the majority is not a problem but the bubble system is not something that I want to see again.

I've had bans in the past for really stupid reasons. I've seen much much more offensive commets go ignored.

The admins are biased.

It's sad becuse as a news aggregation site, it's otherwise quire good

We need a block button. There would be less drama.

troll and negative comments drive engagement which increases traffic and views which is what advertisers are looking for when buying ad time.

I think comments are much better then in the past. Sorry but we could see 200 or 300 comments very aggressive and with no information. You have an opinion but you don't need to call names to others. But it's not trolling when you are talking with more then one gamer and saying what you think without any kind of insults. Now there is something new happening and this is being talked on youtube about the unpayed ambassadors of brands trying to control the narrative and blocking news everywhere that arent good for their brand. For me thats unbelievable. Like one youtuber that I liked says "play games, not corporations". Bring us more games to talk about. OK, back to wot.

I had an account since 2007 that was banned without any information on why. It was terrible and detrimental considering how long I had the account. That helped hammer in the thoughts that ultimately, I do not think moderation has displayed a positive effect within the N4G comments. It has always felt very subjective and dogmatic rather pragmatic and rule based. I have definitely been discouraged from investing time into any filling discussion from my experiences.

My first account from 08 got banned the admins used to be way stricter and kind of snobbish when you would go back at them. Trust yeah it’s kinda a PS4G joke now but it’s better than it was back then. Lol I’m old enough to remember this site was all about the Xbox 360 before the PS3 Slim evened the field.

Well hey someone finally called it out. N4G is full of toxicity. Very opinionated and full of trolls and fanboys. The only articles that actually have comments are the ones that have everyone going at each other's throats. There are also legit articles or opinions against or with a certain company that get flagged because of angry fanboys.

Honestly, I think the disagrees should go away. As for the fanboys and trolls, please just stick to your platform of choice's articles. But hey, it's the internet so this is everywhere, there are sites that have better communities though.

Anger breeds engagement. That's why nothing changes for the positive.

Like someone said just stop feeding the trolls.

Why let them get to you when you already can predict how they are going to comment?

Ay man these admins once approved a prostitute bj vid from GTA IV. I directly quoted the video in a comment and they banned me for 30 days lmao. How does one approve such a video then deem the content innapropriate two seconds later, at my expense 😂. I asked the admin and he was some weirdo on a power trip.

For those who are saying this site is biased, there's a simple solution for it, just go and join (if you haven't) any main/popular gaming site like IGN, Gamespot etc and feel free to post there, those sites are biased but for the platform you like. If you feel uncomfortable here then moving to another site may be the best decision for you.

The problem starts when anyone get offended , this place is much better than many , believe me , I've seen much worse from many different places without mentioning any names.

This site wants to treat everything with kid gloves.

I’ve said it numerous times over the last 2-3 years that this site has gone way down hill. Whether the old bubble system worked is not here nor there. But the site was fundamentally run better. This cancerous Sony shill PR stunt team that runs it currently is the problem.

In that time of course there’s always been console wars and that will always continue because - well people are stupid, over their silly plastic toys! But Let’s get this straight the last 2 generations I’ve only had PlayStation consoles. Before that I had an original Xbox then 360. But recently my gaming news tends to be Sony news. At no point should that mean I can’t critique or complain when something doesn’t work or is just plain wrong!
The behaviour on here goes from the apparent “PlayStation community” is way beyond stupidity and into the realms of serious issues with mental health or just mindless corruption. A lot of it is quite clearly paid and manipulated nonsense that is pushed by moderators. Which Is quite clear by the content of the posts made. Followed by moderators censorship of valid responses. This site needs to grow up along with its moderators. It’s embarrassing.

Mods are very selective on this site.

I know if you criticise or call out Microsoft too much, a corporation not an individual, no bad words, no insults to anyone, just telling how it is, disappointingly, that's enough to get you banned. Buts that is the state of censorship on the internet today.

I have to say I agree with this article 100%

Lmao yup… I got week ban once because I responded to a troll comment that gas lighted me over the fact I typed 32mb ram instead of gb and instead of warning or banning the troller, they banned me. N4G is like walking on egg shells and the comment section is full of cringe fanboy comments. Rare to get an actual intellectual conversation about games. Is there an alternative site like this? I do usually enjoy the conversations had here but I’ve learned to just ignore a lot of the bait articles

Mods and comments have been horrible here for awhile. I use to come here daily, nows it's bi-monthly

If you see my name and think I’m trying to troll you, know that I am not. I’m just being honest or making a joke. I admit that I sometimes trigger folks with my opinions but that is not intention.

People shouldn't be so invested in news pages. No offense but say what you want, how you want, anybody spending extra time to troll for fun or otherwise is just sad and I don't care lol.

"You cared enough to post" said the person right under me, I'm sure, but seriously relax and get news, comment casually. Pieces of plastic, that's it.

You can always ignore the comments you dont like.

Can anyone make a blog post then? I'd like to make one on nude mods and why they're an N4G tradition.
Seriously though I didn't think you could be suspended here for for calling someone a troll; I'm sure I've seen people say that to each other forever since being here. The normal penalty for any infringement of Christopher's law is comment gets hidden with the dreaded label of inappropriate. It must've been a repeat offence I'm afraid to say. Free Mr Cheese I'd say in an ideal world, but that is not the case. You shouldn't have fed the t r o l l. I don't think you'll be missing much scintillating chat in the next 6 days somehow.

If I ever ran a site like this one for example, I would enable free speech and no bans would be given, unless there are real true threats then of course there would be a ban.

As long as people aren't personally attacking each other, like bad name calling, cursing, being racist, homophobic, or things of that nature I don't see a problem. We come here to read video game news and have debates/arguments about them..that's the fun. The problem is you have to be very very careful what you say about one system in particular because the mod often comments in favored of that system..I mean clearly, and doesn't even pretend to be neutral in the position.

We should be able to argue/debate and discuss within the above criteria as long as it's about videogames..any game, any system and any non-offessive opinions.

my previous account was permabanned for reporting actual spam comments a couple of times in a week. or that is what I have to assume, because the moderators never gave me the reason for the ban. even after multiple requests for comment. to this day I still check to see if I can log in to my original account just for the heck of it.

Pretty much. Probably been a member here longer than most (back when this was actually 3 separate news sites). There is a reason why I hardly comment nowadays. Nobody here can actually carry a conversation about gaming anymore. Always trying to start shit, and it's been that way for years. Nothing being done about it, but hey it brings in the web traffic gotta pay for server maintenance some how.

Let us bring back the O P E N Z O N E

Would like to give props to the mod team for letting the article be posted and keeping the comments open. It would be uncomfortable going through the comments from a mods point of view, but they are allowing the discussion to occur. I do not think a lot of other places would allow this type of open discussion about how things have been and are being moderated. I have had my disagreements with moderation, and have made it known, but this deserves props.

The upvote downvote system is the source of all sh!t.

"Bubble system." Oh God you brought back plethora of memories back. Ah... PS3 launch days. Really missing Marty and his fanatic xbox friends. 😅

Nowadays, i just scan the top news because I'm tired of the same shit happening. I guess even trolls need a break, that's why I don't see the old gang here anymore. 😥 They were entertaining at least.

Look. A large portion of gamers are immature and toxic. But that’s also how many people are in real life. It’s free speech. Your post sounds like your trying to create something positive that just cannot happen. You can’t control speech. That’s woke ideology. There’s always going to be trolls. But people keep feeding them. Stop feeding them. That you can control and the majority of people here blame the admins, but most here ALSO feed into the trolls, reply and take the bait. Free speech is free speech. All they can do is ban for certain things. Maybe the answer is stop taking the bait. They will wither and die if they go unseen. Trolls need food. Stop feeding!!!

Christopher is the worst mod and definitely most bias on N4G. He constantly bans me for little to know reason yet I see people make far worst comments and nothing happens to him. Any negative Sony comment and it seems like he just goes into ban mode. If you ask me it’s certain mods around here who need to be cleaned up not just the comment section…

Hey man, I feel you. I've been a member of this page since 2013. The bubble system was not perfect, but it sure was better than giving trolls/fanboys multiple chances to post their dumb flame bait opinions.
I remember back in the day, they decided to make one of the known Xbox fanboys a mod (and the guy is a mod to this day), so that tells you how things are

Trolling and fanning the flames of the console war has kept me here since 2013.

Moderating a gaming site has to be grueling. Sure a few people like to stir the pot but I prefer more freedom of speach over more censoring. As long as people keep their "trolling" respectful to other users I don't see the problem. So what if they insult your favorite gaming company? The problem isn't them it's you for tying too much of your identity to it.

The problem with the bubble system, even if a person was not arguing-but simply stated something like: “Forza is better than Gran Turismo due to the physics engine” you could get massively downvoted by Sony fans. The only people with bubbles where the ones that confirm the website bias at the that time. I had plenty of bubbles, but I saw that pattern.

For the record. I’m not a big fan of the sim racing genre and both are equal to me.

Maybe N4G should consider removing the disagree button and just have agree. It might seem trivial but to some people, seeing a lot of disagrees on a comment can really affect mental health in a negative way and that can escalate things. Just a thought.

I didn't see the issue in question here but judging from a lot of the comments above, there is a fine line between what people consider "trolling" and simply disagreeing.

The bubble system was the best thing about N4G.

The bubble system was terrible. It gave the power to the majority. People would gang up all the time to either downvote a person or to increase each other’s bubbles.
Then people with a lot of bubbles would say some inflammatory things and could ensure they would get the last word in. If anything it muted a response.
As for this opinion/venting article , didn’t know you could write your own and post.

2007? I joined 30 Aug 2006! Nice to know there are some other old timers in here :)

My two cents.

Admin/mods should only get involved if it's extreme comments.

Everything else the users could have a voting system.

If other users think it's trolling, just let us mark it as such.

If someone is threating someone, or being racist etc then sure swing your ban hammer.

I do think the bubble system was good as others could vote if they wanted to hear more of your takes or not.

"Some people just want to watch the world burn."

This is only one of a handful of times i've gone to the comments section on here in many years. The best thing i ever did was start ignoring the comments as it was so toxic and no matter the article just childish pathetic fanboys arguing which at times many years ago sometimes included me. Take my advice guys ignore the comments and just get you gaming news and updates from the articles, there's literally nothing constructive to be gained from these comment sections.

My thoughts? I honestly believe that heavy-handed policing of online forum conversation over the years has numbed an entire generation to the idea of censorship and I'm afraid it's going to eventually spill over to every day speech where everyone is just okay with the idea of losing their freedom of speech in the interest of being un offensive. I say let people speak their minds and if you can't suck it up and handle it, maybe you shouldn't be here. Sticks and stones people. Sticks and stones! We were taught this in kindergarten!

I’ll be frank here, I think the moderators are just as bad. I’ve been blocked as spam for non-trolling and on-topic comments before. I just never bothered to dispute because it’s a comment and life goes on.

I sort of want to see the old bubble system back. My first account was banned for well tbh I was not to sure. I was a big 360 fan at the time back in 2008 I think. But also enjoyed PS3 and was liking the way the future of PS3 was looking.

I think I got banned because of a comment I made about Halo 3. Didn't say anything negative about it other than I didn't like the multiplayer of Halo 3. But resistance fall of man MP was fun. Well I remember I got slated I think someone even told me to kill my self. I didn't responde to any comment next day or so I was banned 🤨.

But something needs to change on here imo.

You want to call people names rather than have conversations? And if the mods won't let you, "that's bad"?

Where is this razzerredux mod that banned my account that i had for 10 plus years. That is the problem is the mods are fanboys. I never swore or made racist remarks. I even emailed with my post and never got a response.

The bubble system was legitimately terrible. Any user with opinions that weren't in line with the community hivemind lost their ability to expose their views, leading to nothing but a sitewide echo chamber.

I hardly ever use the site anymore after being an active user since 2008, for exactly this reason. There was a time when you could have a conversation with like minded gamers without too much interference but things steadily declined and it was right around Gamergate that I had to tap out. I'd had enough. It's distressing to see that in the 8 years since Gamergate ruined game forums everywhere, sites like N4G still haven't resolved the issue of toxic commentators who exist simply to troll fans of gaming.