Warning. This post is quote long. If you’re curious about the current state of things, skip down to the “Last Straw” section below.
Background and Introduction
This is a post that’s taken me a long time to write. Mainly because in spite of the facts and reality which I’ve experienced, its truth is hard to convey without sounding like a paranoid or delusional lunatic. I am not a supporter of “victim” mentality by any stretch of the imagination. But there is a clear difference between being… playing a “victim” and being an actual victim (sans quotes) of unwarranted aggression by an oppressive person or persons. Some of you will read this and still cling to imagination over facts (and I’ve seen wild and inaccurate speculation on a few BGG posts already) and that’s fine. Wrong. But fine.
It’s also taken time because this last phase began at the same time I started showing symptoms of what would be diagnosed as COVID-19. It’s taken about three weeks to finally run its course (mostly), but today can say I’m probably at about 90-95% of my previous strength and energy. Some days just felt miserable. Thank the Lord there was no hospitalization required and my breathing never suffered. More on that later.
BGG has had a long history of unfairly and over moderating their forums. I’m the first one however to recognize that, in general, any privately owned site has the complete right to police their site’s content in any way they see fit. Private is private and we, well you, pay no fees to use BGG apart from advertising (or donations to block ads). I even initially supported Facebook and Twitter’s right to biasly censor free speech until it was clear that they do receive some government protections for their platforms as which point common sense says they cannot overreach. The problem with public created monopolies (i.e. the defacto “standard” for a market space) like Facebook, Twitter, and even BGG is that we’ve given them their power as private entities to function as pretty much a public utility. The first place you go for movie info would be IMDB. The first place (most) go for game information is BGG. Publishers know this and support the site with content, updates, etc… It’s a “public” service to their customers.
Anyway, rabbit trail followed there.
Matthew (aka “Octavian”) has been the primary community moderator for BGG for many years. He operates, presumably, with the full authority and approval of the don of the site Scott Alden (aka “Aldie”). Matthew’s heavy handed moderation, especially against folks on the political “right” is well known and well documented. Likewise, his excellent community involvement skills with regards to gift exchanges, charities, and trade/sale remediation are also well done. He does a lot of good. But he does a lot of bad. Very bad. Too.
Originally BGG has a moderation policy of initial warning, then timeouts (suspensions) of increasing length to try to remedy “bad” behavior. So it didn’t matter what the “next” offense might be, you just got the next tick on the scale. Admittedly, early on in my BGG days (I signed up in 2000 or so, but got “active” in 2011 or 2012 — username: HawkeyeLonewolf), I could be confrontational. Not just having different opinions, which of course we all do, but a little more aggressive in presentation of them. I assumed we were all adults and that BGG followed normal internet rules at the time. I’d dabbled on political discussion sites where everyone understood the rules of the game, moderation was reserved for egregious threats and insults. So most of my moderation dealt to me was deserved for not so much WHAT was said, but HOW I said it. I learned.
Due to a flaw in the BGG design, you could not request a username change. I had used HawkeyeLonewolf online all over for many many years, but grew tired of using a “handle” as they were called and wanted to use a more accurate “klkitchens” login on BGG. So I had that account removed completely and in October 2014 created a new account under that name (to the full understanding and discussion with Matthew). I then started a blog there “ones upon a game” that migrated to WordPress later on.
So moving ahead, eventually the rules of moderation on BGG changed and for the most part for the better. Instead of mandatory timeouts, offensive content was simply removed from the site. You’ve all seen posts replaced with moderator comments. This, I felt, was a much better solution. They could keep the site groomed to their liking while not punishing folks who accidentally stepped across their lines.
But while the moderation rules seemed to change, the rules of “behavior” and allowed content were not only constantly changing, they were kept secret from the general public. Things that were “ok” before were suddenly taboo. Enforcement likewise because unstable, unpredictable, and heavily biased.
For example, blogs had always been considered (by Matthew), personal opinion. You could express yourself (again within reason) courteously, but take a contrary position. When GENCON was threatening to leave the state a few years ago for a decision by Indiana’s government, I wrote an opinion piece supporting the government and encouraging GENCON to remain. Not wanting to run afoul, I sent it to Matthew in advance and he clearly expressed the blogs were given a little leeway and there would be no problem.
Even when someone crossed the line in a blog, the normal policy was to notify the poster and let them amend their post. A few years ago, Tony Boydell (of “Snowdonia” fame) used the “C” word (and I don’t mean cancer) in the TITLE of his post. So it was there on a front page for all to see. I reported it, he was contacted and given the OPTION of correcting it, not even a demand. Fortunately he did the right thing.
Flash forward to Spring 2020 when COVID was starting to spread, I shared an encouraging post with FACTS (and screenshots to support them) from CDC and other official sources. This was not fringe theories by any stretch just a hopeful, optimistic, we can do this, kind of post. Not only were my posts summarily removed without warning — no chance to correct what they felt was wrong — I was likewise suspended for two weeks for “spreading disinformation”. So the rules changed. Not only did the moderators remove the posts (on a blog which was supposed to be a little more protected) but also suspended my posting privileges. The rules changed, the violations changed, and then the punishment changed.
It was consistently inconsistent.
Seeing then that my blog was no longer safe on BGG, I decided to start moving some of the content from there to here. Somewhere safe from knee jerk reactions. Here’s the interesting part. I asked Matthew if he would reenable my posting privileges on the condition that I promised I would NOT post anything anywhere on the site during the two weeks. Here one might say “Scout’s Honor”, but since I was never a scout, I’ll refrain. But the gist is still the same. I agreed that should I slip up and and post, I would do so at the removal of my account from the site. I proposed this and gave my word and… he accepted. Because then, he knew that I am honest and honorable. No matter what those who disagree with me might say, they cannot and do not say that I’m a liar. Not tooting my horn here, I just try to keep my word.
So I learned on BGG to stay away from hot button areas. When the BLM-mania was going around last year, there was no way I was joining in the conversation. Not because I have any racist bone in my body, but because the conversation on BGG was not allowed to have the nuance required for serious discussion. The intolerant bullies were going to make sure you stayed on their track and not let logic or reason get in the way.
So since my early days of overstepping politeness, in the last two or more years, 95% of my troubles with BGG (and the malignant moderator Matthew) have been from accidentally and unknowingly crossing an ever moving, imaginary line of what one side feels is “correct” and any objections or conversation to the contrary is automatically assumed to be aggressive, no matter how sincere or politely expressed. Matthew got it into his imagination that I was deliberately setting off his fine-hair triggers. He never once considered the reality that I was just simply a part of “normal” people, who live and let live, are actually tolerant of different views, but likewise hold dear the American right to hold my own views and express them politely.
Through this time I was mislabeled and punished for being…
Sexist – For questioning how a game that made all characters male was sexist, but a game making all characters female was not likewise sexist.
White Supremacist – For bringing up the fact (in valid context on a Wargames Civil War discussion) that slavery was not the ONLY reason for the Civil War. Sadly one leading wargame designer proved he was no historian in this thread and turned me off to his designs forever.
Racist – Again. For commenting on a discussion about Spirit Island that I hoped it’d be rethemed because you had to play the “bad guys”. Meaning you play evil spirits killing human beings. I had no idea the evil spirits were killing “colonials”. But as a Christian the idea of playing evil spirits period was a turn off. But nope, I was (to Matthew) stating the colonists were the good guys for oppressing the native population. Nothing approaching those words ever came out of my mouth/fingers.
Troll – For seriously asking if the game CO2 was steeped in global warming or if it just dealt specifically with controlling CO2 levels. Global Warming is proven science to Matthew (and others) so to them there is no reason anyone should apparently object to it. I’d just heard it was a good game, but before buying it wanted more information to see if I personally could play it in good conscience.
The Last Straw?
If you’ve read this far, thank you. If you’ve scrolled this far, thank you as well.
Around January 5, I developed a small dry cough. Felt to me like post-nasal drip and nothing to worry about. But it continued on to January 6 and beyond on on the 8th my wife and I went to get a COVID test. Our son’s co-worker had it and a few others there, including our son, tested positive. So either we’d have natural immunity or we were in for a ride. We took the ride. Though my wife’s test came back negative (she probably tested one day too early as she did end up with it), mine came back positive the next week.
During this same time, Awaken Realms had decided a thank you to the community would be the addition of an Elon Musk character card for their game ISS Vanguard. Being a backer, I saw this update and thought it was cool idea, but no biggie. I didn’t give it much thought. Awaken Realms however later was lambasted by a noisy minority who made some claims about Elon Musk (which to this day I’m still not aware of) and how their woke little minds could not possibly allow this pioneer of space travel to be honored in a board game. The company folded and removed the card from consideration.
OK, so for this next part we need to consider something. If someone posts a thread asking about the benefits of eating red apples, then that is the topic of the post. There seems to be nothing wrong with red apples, the discussion is about red apples. Now if another person joins the discussion, but all they want to do is discuss how much better green apples are than red apples and red apples are for losers, etc… then suffice it to say the person who comes into a thread and starts posting contrary to the topic at hand would be the one “trolling”. Anyone discussing red apples would just be on topic. Logic and reason apply here… or at least should. If for some reason red apples are a taboo subject (as many subject these days have become taboo unaware to the normal, general public), that’s a different matter. So bear that in mind as I continue.
Someone posted on BGG in the ISS Vanguard forum asking if anyone had saved the Elon Musk card image before it was removed from the crowdfunding campaign. This was the first that I’d heard it was removed and could not for the life of me understand why. All AR had posted was that they apologized and didn’t want to create any bad feelings (they created more by removing it, but that’s another matter). On BGG, someone had saved the image and shared it. I’d stated I didn’t know why it was removed and someone offered speculation on it. The whole conversation was quite civil. I’d stayed pretty much on the periphery of anything that could be remotely considered controversial and even cautioned that the thread probably would not be around very long (as the anti-Elon forces — in this case: the Trolls were starting to show up. Someone commented that Elon was a positive role model for the African-American community, and I, knowing little about him besides 1. Space-X, 2. Tesla, 3. Moved his company from CA to TX, thought “Wow, didn’t know he was African-American. Cool!”. Some “troll” decided to post questioning how Elon could be considered “African-American”, so I looked it up and found out that he’s from Africa (South Africa) and was now an American. So yes, truly a first generation African-American.
I asked the person, in all sincerity, how he would NOT be considered to be African-American given the facts above. Any American of Asian heritage is Asian-American. Any American of Mexican heritage is Mexican-American. So logic says any American of African heritage is African-American. Common sense. He questioned if I could possibly serious or if I was just (get this) “trolling”. I assured him I was completely serious and sincere and he replied with a link to some word-twisting leftist think tank article justifying the claim. An opinion sure. But not valid policy and certainly not something that us normal people are going to be aware of. Regardless, and good for me, I let it drop there. I didn’t argue the point with the actual “troll” at all. I just let it go. In fact, at the point, as it was clear the “other side” was going to start invading the so–far civil thread, I immediately took preventative action and removed all my posts from the thread. I cannot delete replies others have made quoting me, but in the past, getting out of a thread has prevented any potential backlash from the malignant moderators. And again, since the thread (from the point of my exit) was pretty much mature people discussing an issue — that apparently was a hidden minefield — there was really no harm. The worst that would happen is the thread get locked, perhaps some posts removed. The new “norm” for BGG moderation. No worries. I was out of there.
Later that night I got a surprise message from Matthew inquiring about the meaning of my current avatar.
I explained it was nothing political, but just that I’d felt America as we knew it had died in 2020. Nothing related to the election or anything else. No matter what answer I gave him (and since when have avatars been questioned?) he kept probing with “How so” and “why”, etc… I guess just waiting for me to say something he didn’t like. After 3-4 rounds of this lunacy, I changed out my avatar and moved the above image to my bio page. I pointed him to another user who had blatant political commentary on his bio page that had stood for nearly a year and that any concerns about my avatar should not be objectionable anymore.
“And then it all went horribly wrong”
Hank Hill
The next morning I had a notification for a private message. The ominous “User Moderation” was the subject. That’s never good. But as I’d received my unwarranted and unfair share of them, I figured he’d removed my photo. Imagine my surprise when I clicked it to find out that my account posting privileges had been permanently suspended from the site for my long-deleted posts in the Elon Musk thread. It was claimed that I was “trolling” in that thread. Now in no way was I trolling based on the initial topic. Likewise there was nothing in any of my posts that was offensive — except for asking about the imaginary claim about African-Americans not being African-Americans. But regardless I had removed my posts. I forwarded this obvious error to Matthew, but he dug his heels in. Claimed removing posts beforehand doesn’t (now) exempt you from punishment. Basically he was “la-la-la-la-la” with his fingers plugging his ears, “the ruling stands”.
Of course this was the day my coughing was getting worse, we were going to get tested, and my brain function was starting to diminish. I didn’t feel much like arguing about it. I was sick. So whatever.
The thought of gaming was more than just a bit tainted by this wrongness. The COVID was playing a part sure, but coming into my office to try and work (where my game area is as well), was annoying me. The thought of gaming was no longer any fun. Not being able to share with others about playing, customizing, etc… It was, as they used to say, quite the bummer.
Slowly though, I began to accept this as my new status. At least I can still like, subscribe, tip, send private messages, etc. I can still respond (privately) to people commenting on my many site contributions. I can still maintain my collection information, post plays with the BGStats app, etc. I can still get updates from publishers and download files as necessary, etc. I just could not post on the site. And maybe, someday, Matthew would mature and undo the damage he’s done. So I could live with it.
I had no other choice.
So the next week was a roller coaster of COVID fun. Mostly the first week to ten days being like a bad cold. Then you either get better or it drops down into your chest potentially causing more issues. Did a phone visit with my doctor, got the standard regimen of drugs and began the next phase. Each day was different. I’d feel better in the evening, then wake up all night long in a fitful sleep. Or feel tired and zombie-like all day and then rest all night. It’s been very bizarre to say the least.
Saturday the 16th I was actually feeling pretty good. I’d started to be interested in at least playing some games soon. Perhaps paring down my collection (through BGG marketplace no less) and only concentrate on the games I really, really enjoyed.
I had subscribed to one auction item for a copy of BattleTech Starter Set. Looked to be in a reasonable range, the minimum reserve had not yet been met. So I decided to bid. Of course I could not post on the actual item, but I could “phone in” a bid to the seller and see if he would accept it. After explaining that I was not allowed to post and why, I offered him my bid of $20 and he accepted it. I told him that IF he were to post the “phone-in” bid on the auction item, I’d thumb it so that anyone looking would know it was legit.
So he did.
The auction ended later that night.
I won the item. Yay!
Banned on the Run
Visiting the site on Sunday morning however, it seemed the site was having trouble. I couldn’t get in. I asked on a MeWe.com boardgaming group if anyone else was having issues, but they were not. Odd. So I used the “contact us” page to ask if there was a site down issue…
@!%!**#~@#!!
Sarge, “Beetle Bailey”
Matthew was really grasping a straws here. I can understand if I contacted another user to post a reply to a general thread on my behalf. But here all I did was ask the seller if he’d take a bid via GeekMail. He did and chose to post the private bid on his own to the auction item. I explained this to Matthew, but his logic circuits have been seared completely.
My history of boundary pushing? When during a two-week suspension, he trusted my integrity enough to make the suspension “in name only”, so I could edit blog posts (to move them here). I worked WITHIN the boundaries of my suspension. I did nothing to circumvent the rules and restrictions. He could have seen the post was made by the seller. He could have reached out to the seller to confirm my story. But he didn’t want the facts, he wanted his feels.
You are a sad strange little man and you have my pity.
Buzz Lightyear
That’s pretty much it in a nutshell. He’s got issues. No idea what they are or why he remains with the unchecked power that he has. Unless Aldie and the rest are either just as bad. Or because of the good things he admittedly does, they turn a blind eye to his tyranny. Who knows?
Anyway… after the shock of this last completely unbelievable action of Matthew and the COVID haze began to clear, I realized that there was no longer a reason to keep my account on BGG. All the game modifications, videos, posts, etc… people could respond to me, but I’d never see them. People could private message me and I’d never see or respond to them. A ban is just that… you cannot log in for any reason. No longer could I sell on the marketplace, trade, private message, let people know what happened to me, etc., post plays of games (and I had planned to do a 25×4 challenge in 2021). But to the world my account would be there, just not logged on. My content I created for the community would reap BGG page views and add value, but would basically be stolen from me.
So a few days later, after I’d calmed down and thought it over. I requested my account be permanently deleted from the site with all my content.
Crazy boy was all too happy to comply. Good for him. Perhaps they’ll sharpen all his crayons for him as a reward for responding in only 22 minutes.
So endeth my era on boardgamegeek. I’m not the only one who has been driven off due to the insane moderation policies of the site. And I’m sure I won’t be the last. Seems that in the last year and even more so the last few months, the desire to “purge” and “cancel” has become the first reaction of a certain type of people. Rather than get along and be tolerant, they must eliminate thought they disagree with. BGG was doing it long before Facebook ever thought about it. But just because their brand of evil has become commonplace doesn’t make it right.
I hope that you’ve read this with an open mind. I’ve tried to be as honest as possible — sans a few last second digs at whatshisface.
I’m not sure what this means for me as far as blogging and content creation going forward. When the biggest boardgame community (the majority of its users being very solid and respectful people of all faiths, politics, and lifestyles) ignorantly cuts you off from participation, it makes it much harder to reach and build an audience. No hard and fast decisions now. Need to let things play out. But apart from missing the solo gaming community on BGG, there is a sense of freedom knowing that Matthew’s Mystery Minefield can no longer explode in my face for innocently making a wrong step.
I’m done with BGG, the outrage mob (who REALLY needs some knucklehead from Finland telling us how America should be governed) and also the egregiously biased moderation (Octavian is the worst on-site moderator I have ever encountered or ever had a problem with) just became too much. Not to mention BGG openly allowing people to blindly denigrate and trash CSW in a long-running thread while censoring/suspending anyone who politely came to CSW’s defense. What the f___?
Don’t get me wrong, BGG can be a great resource. However, I voluntarily erased my account, ended the BGG addiction, and am much happier doing so as a result – I don’t want to be associated with a site that’s operated like BGG, plus I have opened up more free time that I spend actually gaming!
The new CSW Community is focused 100% on gaming and history, so that’s now my go-to site.
What’s CSW?
Consimworld. A long standing wargame site. The older forums are bit archaic (no threading of message topics for example), but they’ve added a new social site at http://community.consimworld.com that’s really nice.
Mine is simple:
Hello Friends
I don’t know if you have heard, but Board Game Geek has canceled culture me because, I said to a response of a person saying that with COV-19, he didn’t know when he would be able to play “Wingspan” with his girlfriend. “I said wear a mask, get you shots, do not play if you are sick, you should be alright to play, unless you are a demorcate, you will have to wait until 2024.” They have banded me from posting. I said I was sorry; I didn’t think this was offensive to anyone and they still will not let me post.
I am sending this letter to all my gaming friends to with hold any yearly donations to them until they let me post again. I told them that I would do this because their response was to my post was overboard. They didn’t even warn me and yet I have seen posts with pictures of player flipping the bird which is more offensive to more people.
https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/119958/guess-who-just-got-back-today
If you do not want to help, I understand this is my cross to bare.
Thanks gaming friends
Mike George
Totally banned at this time.
Pity….
To have this foolish politically correct BS FORCE itself into our hobby by “virtue signalers”….is pathetic in the extreme…
Good luck, look for more venues—hell, maybe we start one and scrape and link to BGG, use all their content but manage
everything without this kind of BS.
I think you are right, the US as we knew it…for >60years is no more…..
I hope someone does this!
Left BGG last year and haven’t regretted it.
They used to have a very good solution to politics, which was to keep it in its own little RSP sandbox. Then they had to let politics sully the whole site – but only the kind of politics they like. No thanks.
There are a million places on the internet to argue about politics… why did they have to turn a boardgaming site into another one?
I’ve donated to BGG for years, but after they started supporting marxism last summer and started deleting ANY comment that in any way could be construed to be critical of BLM or any comment asking them to not go political, I decided to never send them a dime again, ever. I don’t mind the ads since my browser blocks them.
The thing about moderating is that you have to be a good person to do it fairly and you have to not let your personal beliefs sneak into your moderating or it ends up silencing other speech.
The internet has given people the power to shut down and silence others and it seems to have spread into the Biden “administration” as well. In many ways the nation did die in 2020, you can have an opinion but if it isn’t the “right one” (whatever that is) you will be canceled/silenced. Limiting speech has become a weapon for the intolerant.
Thanks for the interesting post.
Wow, I just completed an interesting journey . . . that led me here.
Kevin, this is Cliff (BGG: godurmyall). I was looking for a post that I thought you’d done for some LOTR:TCG upgrades over on BGG’s PIFF thread. I searched through the long list of item titles and couldn’t find the right entry, so I figured I’d look for you by username instead. . . . . And now I’m here. Again, wow.
We went through the COVID thing in our household last year, so there’s a bit of “I feel your pain”, but I simply wanted you to know that you’re not alone, my friend. We’ve never met, and I don’t know that we will this side of eternity, but I’m one who has found himself agreeing with things you’ve shared more than disagreeing with them, and I’ll miss your voice over on BGG. Happy to have found you here, and I’ll make it a point to pop in and comment every once in a while.
So, all of that to simply say, “Hi!”. Oh, and if you want to email me a link to that ridiculously-overpriced but ultra-cool LOTR:TCG token upgrade set, that’s cool.
Cliff, thanks for the kind words. I know you sent me a followup too, but for those playing along at home, the tokens were Burger Tokens (https://burgertokens.com/) and the LOTR ones are here: https://burgertokens.com/products/lotr-lcg-tokens
Hello Cliff and Kevin from the PiFF group. I also got banned from BGG. I got caught up in the BLM non-sense and shown the door. I’m also a Kevin my user name was (burgsrus), but you would probably know me as Orange Santa from PiFF. As someone stuck me with that name and it followed me for most of my years there.
I should have just stayed in PiFF, but I was also a member of a couple of guilds and that is what led to my downfall. It was when Ant Lab games quit. I just caught that in a guild post and was digging into that, in those post someone pointed out that Rahdo had made a post about it. I had went to watch that, and this was when he first started to proudly wear his BLM shirts. He also had made a post in his guild talking about it. I then just made a comment about I could no longer support him because of that based on my faith. That started a firestorm. Which led to my banning, because someone said I was a racist. Still unsure how that came about. But logic does not seem to be a strong point of the folks on that site.
Wow Kevin… so sorry to hear that. I don’t think they’ve improved at all over the last two years… probably getting worse. 🙁
So, I was over on BGG trying to find a post from a certain apparently now non-existent user and tumbled down the rabbit hole until I landed . . . here.Hey Kevin, this is Cliff (BGG: godurmyall). Just wanted to let you know that you’re not alone, that I’ve felt your COVID pain myself when it ran through half of our household back in September, and that I’m happy to have found my way here. Over the years on BGG, I’ve always discovered myself agreeing with your posts more than disagreeing, and I’m sorry that you went through all that nonsense. Keep on keeping on and be encouraged that you are not alone.And also know that despite your best efforts to cover your tracks, you couldn’t keep me from figuring out what that thing was that you posted that I couldn’t remember what it was . . . Burger Tokens FTW! Ha! Take that, KLoneKitchenHawkWolfWhatsyerface!
I had no idea this happened to you, though I admit I stay off of general discussion forums as much as possible. I learned by lesson during the Scramble For Africa bruhaha, where it became quite obvious to me that the moderators considered some posts “trolling” and others not, while there was no real distinction. A few specific individuals had free rein, and others (including myself) were having posts removed. I also had contact about this, but no clear answer was given. I realized then, that open discussion on touchy subjects was a no-go.
And, of course, in recent times, BGG has broken their own guidelines on mixing politics with gaming in News and General Discussion forums, and the like. As others countered: “But that’s not politics” or “Silence is consent”, I was certainly dismayed to see this nonsense seeping into the core of what used to be a board gaming community and website. There is, of course, a lot to be said about demographics and board gaming, and that there is much to gain, but arbitrary tie-ins of broader world politics and gaming is NOT the way to go, in my opinion. Though that opinion, in itself, will to some be construed as being part of the problem.
Anyway, Kevin, I am saddened and disheartened by your experiences, especially with regards to how much you have done for the (solo) board gaming community. I hope that, at some point, everyone wakes up from this mass psychosis, and we can all treat each other as we should: fellow human beings, fellow board gamers. There is no other measure that is worth holding to.
I was banned permanently from BGG several months ago for very politely and logically arguing against false victim blaming accusations being allowed and even promoted while views contrary to that position were being deleted. I’m glad to hear the BGG tyrant will delete your banned account, I think I’ll request that, it’s bothered me my account and all my data, reviews, and posts was still there benefiting them.
I suggest moving to Board Game Atlas as an alternative to BGG ( not a perfect solution by any means but the best I know of for now). It’s very slow/quiet there comparably, but if more and more of the BGG Banished start participating there it can become a viable alternative.
Sorry to hear about this Kevin. I too was banned from BGG for two weeks for posting something from the CDC website in one of the wargame forums where there was a discussion about COVID. I said absolutely nothing offensive and simply responded to what someone said with information that I got from the CDC site.
I enjoy a small group of people on BGG and I enjoy the 1PG. I stay off the rest of the forum and I try not to let the virtue signalers and the bullies get to me. There have been times where I have typed out long responses to something and just deleted it. Felt good.
Just like Gab, it’s time for us to have an alternative to BGG! 🙂 I wish you the best and will continue to follow you.
Hi Kevin,
I had no idea that this had happened. Really sorry to hear you have gone from BGG. I’ve always appreciated reading your posts.
With you, and people like Steve Carey gone from the site, BGG is a lot poorer.
I hope you continue to recover from the COVID-19 virus, and reach a full fitness again soon.
I also hope you continue to enjoy games and write about them , and share your thoughts.
All the best,
Dave Daffin
(Dave in Ledbury)
You have a twitter handle? I’d like to get in contact with you and organize like minded individuals who love games and can have free discussions.
@TheEnforcerTT
No… in the wake of the oppression coming from Facebook and Twitter and other social media platforms, I’ve removed myself from their putrid playground.
Glad I stumbled on this…you are not alone! I just got IP banned for pointing out the hypocrisy of their feigned inclusivity…insane after causing no trouble for 10 years. Luckily I am seeing there is a world apart from BGG. Trying BG Atlas now and will be open to a new community!
Seems they are “cleaning” house as it were. I hope that the thinking publishers (those who may or may not agree with them politically) will recognize how destructive this is for the overall industry. They were positioned to be the IMDB or Wikipedia of boardgaming, but have decided that their intolerant personal views are more important than being inclusive for real.
Unfortunately they are just like Wikipedia.
Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger blasts site for left-wing bias: ‘The word for it is propaganda’
https://www.foxnews.com/media/wikipedia-co-founder-larry-sanger-propaganda
Ditto. Got banned this week for a comment made over 10 years ago, after years of no moderation.
Lets be honest, Octavian is a petty little [BLEEP] who likely got his milk money taken alot as a child.
BGG discredits themselves by leaving a goof like that in charge of moderation. There is no consistency, and several reports verify his moderation notices are just as crummy as the post he moderated himself.
Again, spineless lil worm who would likely [BLEEP] himself if he had to take such a hard stance with anyone in person. Coward keyboard SJW.
Edited by Admin to keep site family friendly. Thanks!
I was just banned for a post that was 11 years old. Pathetic behavior, from someone in charge of moderating a forum. The fact that BGG allows his abuse discredits their site.
Octavian is a gutless [BLEEP], who would no doubt have a different tone if he tried to pull his garbage in a face to face situation.
All good things cone to an end, and BGG will continue its downward trend as long as they subscribe to their hivemind and leave their moderations up to a [BLEEP] like the coward Octavian.
Edits to keep family friendly.
That BGG has gone political should not surprise anyone. A fundamental aspect of the new American WOKE is that everything, literally everything must be politicized. The mere desire to play a game, watch a game, review a game or design a game without any reference to the systemic racism, sexism, and the overall “badism” of America in and of itself constitutes an offense against progressive philosophy, and needs to be regulated, reduced and eventually eliminated.
This leftist totalitarianism is just that, total. No aspect of life, even the tiny hobby of boardgaming, can be spared from ever more rigorous purges of the “unenlightened”. Here’s a prediction: Look for future games to come with disclaimers from the producers that the games do not advocate, slavery, capitalist exploitation, imperialism or sexism…
Matthew (aka “Octavian”) clearly has a political agenda and an inflated ego. I regret the monetary donations I have made to that site over the years and will never do so again. I am one of the many culled by him in the Tiny Epic Dungeons debacle post. https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2612018/can-we-talk-about-women-box-cover
It started with Elizabeth Hargraves, creator of Wingspan, choosing to air her grievances with the fantasy artwork for a female elf on the cover of the game in the Kickstarter currently running. The public may have their opinions on representation but but for a Game Publisher to crap on another publisher at the start of their Kickstarter is the epitome of classlessness and I will never, ever, give her a cent. The art was typical comic fantasy tropes of which a fair share of people got sand in their panties. Strangely nobody took offense by the shirtless hyper muscled and unrealistic male representations… Anyway, five pages in with the normal BS in motion and the publisher having already changed the art people were still frothing. I stated that after five pages of this the only thing I knew was that I was backing the game. Boom, multiple day ban for being dismissive. Apparently not agreeing with someone’s complaint is the definition of dismissive.
So a couple days later this mess starts on BGG. https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2613582/article/37175773#37175773 For those who aren’t aware scores of users were outright lifetime banned from the same thread I had been given a two day ban for. Looking into the comments on the KS it was clear many of those banned were simply at the will of Octavian since they did not agree with the issue and he was getting personal glee at swinging the axe. He went so far as to ban on user’s 9 year old daughter just because her IP matched her father although was a different user. He truly went full jackass. This new thread was talking about how many horrible BGG users there are which were revealed by the recent KS thread… Wow. You can see my comment on Page 6 (Ken H) and pasted below.
Ken H
@Musketeer_Ken
Posted, Mar 5
“Mart van de Wege @mvdwege
A community insulated from misogyny, racism, LGBT+-phobia sounds like heaven to me.”
and labels of misogyny, racism, LBGT+-phobia are never hurled around indiscriminately at the first disagreement with a position or complaint… Disagree with the definition of those in power with how those labels are applied and it cannot even be discussed, the bans are handed out. Only one opinion is allowed. I suppose that is a good thing if that opinion is yours and free discourse isn’t a priority. I believe there are grounds for a healthy dose of nuance and tolerance for all sides of the discussion so long as people are not hurling personal insults.
Immediately Mr. De Wege declared I was wrong and that all those comments did fall into said categories… Wow. My response was that this is the problem. We are automatically assuming all of these people are hateful, racist, sexist monsters without seeing that there is room for debate. Labeling them as such is wrong and banning them simply because you have a different opinion is also wrong. BOOM, lifetime ban!
Now I had gotten into an argument with Octavian years earlier with a temp ban in a thread about claims of sexual harassment against a game designer at a show, technically at a bar outside a show, in a pure he said / she said scenario. I made the point that making such claims, which carry real harm to them, without evidence is not proper and that someone is not guilty simply because an accusation is made. Octavian disagreed. According to him you can never question the details or accuracy and you MUST state that you believe the accuser. I look forward to the day someone accuses Octavian of something horrific because remember, it is only the accusation which counts…
The guy is an ass.
Make a thread claiming there something a is racist, sexist, etc. is fully approved! Questioning that is a banning offense.
My BGG Story
A few weeks ago, a person posted on their blog that they got their ‘COVID Jab’ and made a very rude and insulting comment about people who have a different view on vaccines. I expressed my opinion on the subject matter stating that we shouldn’t insult people based on their views especially religious ones. I went on to explain how virus theory was essentially a religious belief (I will get to the science in a bit so just bear with me). There were some other people who started to discuss the science with me. I was told off by the OP a couple of times (very rudely) and then as no surprise, my account was suspended.
Just note, I have had my BGG account since 2012 and never had any bans, warnings, etc. I mainly kept my comments strictly to gaming, rarely posting anything except content for the games that I love. But I feel strongly about this global insanity and felt that my view should be expressed without people openly being hostile to the people who hold these views.
Mathew informed me that I was posting disruptive comments on someone’s blog. I asked for clarity and we came to the conclusion that if the op says to go away, then regardless of what content you are adding (even when relevant to the post), that I would just go away.
But then Mathew slipped in that if I wanted my posting comments back, that not only would I need to agree to the above (which I did), but I would also have to agree to not post ‘misinformation’. And then he said if I would ‘argue’ any of the points, that it demonstrates that I do not agree and that my account would be permanently suspended from posting comments.
You can see that such a statement is nothing short of tyranny, an impossibility for rational and respectful discussion.
I wanted to know what he meant by ‘misinformation’ and how I could comply with such a rule (there are no rules regulating misinformation). Just me asking him the question of ‘what is misinformation’ got me permanently banned. Then he simply refused to answer my requests.
I sent a private message to the head admin (the first on the list). This was apparently forwarded to Mathew who just said that my message was forwarded to him. Nothing else.
So I send a private message to many of the other admins hoping for a way of remediation. All of my messages were deleted almost instantly (I could see in my outbox). I offered Mathew to have a face to face zoom meeting where I could explain my view points and we could address any information in which he thinks it is ‘misinformation’. Of course, this was ignored.
So I sent yet another private message to an individual admin asking if they would remediate.
Then, my account was completely suspended (just like you, I couldn’t see my profile, etc). So I sent an email to admins asking why I couldn’t log in.
Matthew responded that I have been permanently banned for ‘harassment’. I asked for clarification and received nothing back.
I found your post and that gave me the idea to request an account removal. They complied with my request. I did not want them profiting off of my content (which I have uploaded heaps to my favourite board games).
Virus Theory
Have you ever read a scientific paper on viruses? I surely had not prior to 2020. I was ‘educated’ about viruses from my parents, my teachers, and my allopathic doctors probably like most people. I live in New Zealand and was shocked to be locked down in my house for 6 weeks. During this time, I wanted to learn as much as I could about viruses and virus theory.
I started reading many papers on the subject of viruses. To my amazement, not a single paper actually provided valid scientific evidence for the existence of viruses. The first requirement is to make sure you have the ‘thing’ you are studying by itself. This process is known as isolation and purification.
Let me put it this way. If you want to study gold to learn about all of the properties of gold like its conductivity, you will need to isolate and purify gold. So you will dig gold samples from a mine, remove the dirt, dust, and rocks. Then you will melt the gold down and separate out any of the impurities so that you have 100% pure gold. Once you have your 100% pure gold, than it’s time to start doing experiments to classify your gold.
This process of isolating and purifying never was done for SARS-COV-2 (the virus that is alleged to cause the COVID-19 disease). Isolation and purification for any alleged virus has never been done.
To confirm my analysis, a colleague and I wrote to many scientific organizations around the world including the USA CDC, UK’s GO Science, and Universities. Using the Freedom of Information Act in their respective countries, we asked for any records demonstrating the isolation and purification for SARS-COV-2 (and many other viruses). All responded that they did not have any records.
There is at least a 100 year history of viruses (all before it was even possible to isolate and purify viruses). At least from the 1950’s it became possible to do the necessary process of isolation and purification. But they haven’t done this not a single time. Just to give an example, exosomes are rountinly isolated and purified from humans which are roughly the same size and shape as the alleged viruses.
Virologists have skipped this crucial step and flat out tell us it’s impossible to isolate and purify viruses from humans. Can you guess their excuses? It depends on who you talk to. Like religion where you have many different sects, so too do virologists have their different ideas.
I have read that some virologists will say that viruses cannot be separated from cells. Ok, then how does a virus transmit between cells? Doesn’t make sense.
I have also read that some virologists say that when viruses bud out and leave the cells, that they are extremely short lived and therefore there isn’t enough time to do the purification work. Ok, then how can a virus infect another person if viruses are too short lived to be purified?
Some virologists will say that there simply aren’t enough viruses in a patient sample to isolate and purify. Ok, then what about a cadaver (a person who died of the alleged disease caused by the alleged virus)? There should be heaps of viruses in a person who died from that disease. Well, I was told it’s too dangerous to harvest tissue from those people (I was actually told this on the phone).
Every virologist has their own take. The reason is simple, they don’t actually use science to prove their claims. I could go down the track of how Virologist is like a religion but this email is already very long.
If you would like to learn more about the papers that I have read and want free access to the Freedom of Information Act responses that I have received by the governments and science organisations, please see my web site: http://thevirushoax.net
I just got banned from BGG for nothing. They are cracking down hard over the Frosthaven thing. Just started a FB group call Board Game Ban Wagon. Hoping to create a fun “group for avid board gamers who want to respectfully discuss all kinds of issues. If you’ve been banned from BGG for expressing an opinion, or if you just value free speech in the context of our hobby, ALL are welcome. Just keep it respectful!”
The point of the group will be board games more than bashing BGG.
I left Fecebook behind in November due to their similar policies, unfortunately.
Not aware of the “Frosthaven” thing… what’s up there?
I was banned from the boardgamegeek facebook group by Matthew Octavian because I commented that “There is too much activism in the hobby” on some sjw’s post about representation in the Goonies game. No warning and honestly no I have history of fighting with people on that group. Then I saw Matthew gloating about the banning on twitter immediately after. Its interesting to me that I had 18 likes and 3 angry or laugh responses to my comment on facebook. That looks to be 84% of people agreed with what I had said.
So, what are the alternatives to BGG forums?
I see people creating FB groups. Is that what the BG community is down to?
TBH, I left Facebook for the same unwarranted policing of posts and restricting of free (not hate) speech. Right now for wargamers there is Consimworld (and its new community forum). For others, MeWe.com is a Facebook knockoff, well done but not (yet) as high volume. But FREE. And there is BoardGameAtlas.Com too.
I also got banned from BGG, in that I’m permanently locked out of my account. Tempted to email Octavian myself and tell him to torch my account completely. Primarily happened because I expressed concern with this information blackout regarding a potential reprint of a 1979 board game titled Divine Right. The controversial thing about that is the publisher publishing the reprint. I made some “art for art’s sake” argument, without any swearing or insults, on a BGG blog post. They canned me for that. Well, I opted to repost that same blog post on my website, except this time I didn’t hold back on the swearing and insults (my site isn’t family friendly).
Noticed BGG had been going down the tubes since about 2016, and it’s only gotten worse. All these jerks kept telling me I was being overly paranoid and overreacting to the SJW overreach. Well, they’d still probably tell me the same thing today, but that would just be ignorance on their part. Such a pity seeing which members are getting kicked off of (or just flat out leaving) BGG because of this, including Calandale, who was probably one of the most reasonable people out there.
Only reason I’m tempted not to request the admins to nuke my account just yet is because some of my reviews that are still up there link to my website. Plus I made this expansion to a cult classic board game from 1979 titled Magic Realm, where just the hints of its existence remain on the game page. Not to mention some extensive tutorials I made for the base game. Resources that have helped many learn the game. Would be a pity to have that go away.
Glad to see I’m not alone. I’m also locked out of my account for supposed trolling when I posted on the new Witcher game forum about female mages, and how many should there be. I suggested why not only female mages, because really why not? I kind of meant it as a joke, not mean spirited, but I really don’t care the ratio of genders in my board games. Once I realized I was locked out, I had a great (sarcasm) time emailing back and forth with Octavian, and he was trying to understand what the joke was, and I eventually realized what was happening, so I declared I was not joking, but rather quite serious, that there should be more female mages, and what would be wrong with that? Octavian seems to be quite the unreasonable fellow. Anyway, haven’t heard back, tempted to have my account nuked also. Sad. I’ve been with BGG since 2005 or so, and the moderation is so over the top, it’s astounding. Somehow back in the day we had all kinds of discussions with different viewpoints, and some jokes, and it seemed we all got along. Now, no joking….there may be offence somewhere!
Thanks for letting me vent……and I do appreciate all your stories. The world is becoming unhinged.
Wow, sorry to hear this. Had hoped it had died down over there, but seems it’s still a bad situation that the owners of the site don’t care to correct. I find it worse that not a single publisher has taken them to task for it, but then again, they’ve tolerated Fecebook too, so why would they.
It’s very easy to just assume that they are getting rid of truly “bad apples”, but a casual glance at the evidence doesn’t support that myth at all. And percentage-wise it’s so few people they’ve removed, that BGG still remains the #1 place for publishers to stay in touch with their customers without building their own community elsewhere.
I too was permantly banned , apparently for being dismissive, in the The witcher forum. Been a member since 2009 and was flabbergasted to have my account shut down, for such a misdemeanour. After a few messages back and forth with Mattthew, I’ve come to the conclusion he’s on a mad power trip, a complete narcissist..
So sorry to hear this keeps going on. I keep hoping things will settle down and civility, tolerance, and decency will take over the site… but so far the BGG powers that be allow one person to tarnish all the good that the site has done over the years. And game companies still allow it to be the de facto means of communicating with their customers… ignoring the fact that a good portion of their customer base is being dropped from the discussion for holding valid viewpoints that aren’t inflammatory at all except to people who cannot win on their ideas, but only with bullying and oppression.
I learned a lot from Octavian’s moderation, my suspension, and my account lockout, which resulted in significant losses to my board game businesses and a modest revenue loss to BGG. I hadn’t realized just how disturbed the community “fighting for social justice” had become.
Yes… that they extend their intolerance and oppression to actually hinder designers and the stores they claim to support is ludicrous. I sold and resold many games in the BGG marketplace as well before I lost my access. Hate to say it, but it’s one of the best places to move or trade games, but with Facebook a pale second (and themselves bent on oppressing non-hivemind freedom of thought themselves), I’ve struggled to continue on those lines. 🙁
Yeah i left the site voluntarily when i saw that they were banning people for asking BGG to just be APOLITICAL i mean board games are supposed for the most part be apolitical an escape from reality…They really are obnoxious people ruining, comics, films, tv, videogames now sadly tabletop.
I and many people like me are TIRED OF BEING LECTURED TO, by elitist …… who have a little bit of power now who were probably picked on for years.
They are now discussing in a forum thread what the phrase “dudes on a map” should be replaced with. You’re not missing anything. I’m not Christian and “believe” in viruses. I am, however, very pro-speech and anti-echo chamber.
Don’t know of anyone who doesn’t “believe” in viruses. Never heard anyone claim they weren’t real at all either.
However, proper science-based responses to them is certainly not what the current anti-science “panic” and mask/vaccine mongering is all about.
But no matter what side of those issues you fall on, healthy discussion is never a bad thing, but the ne’er-do-wells on BGG and other social media platforms can’t win on the merits of their views (on any topic really), so they have to suppress free speech and thought.
I also canceled my BGG account. When they first started posting BLM garbage on their home page, I contacted them (politely) and asked them if they could keep political stuff off of BGG. I told them one of the things I liked about BGG was the avoidance of politics. But they came back at me like there was something wrong with me for questioning their posting of such stuff. So things escalated, but before they could ban me, I deleted all of my posts, my games inventory, and then deleted my entire account. But not before giving them a parting shot, telling them that they should do a particular thing to themselves, preferably using a cholla cactus!
BGG can now go to Hades.
I am also a former BGG member.
I received many warnings over the Frosthaven dustup. I believe that the fact I have designed games kept the ban hammer from dropping instantly.
My posting ban came about when I posted the same view as the CDC: “People should not be forced to take non-FDA approved (emergency use approval) vaccines AND should not be punished for the choice to wait until a vaccine has full FDA approval.” The CDC has said that emergency use vaccines should not be mandated, in part because they have not been fully approved.
That was simply too much and my posts were deleted and posting rights revoked.
I asked for an account deletion and two days later it is gone.
I had been a member since 2005 and added many games and images to their database.
Some time in 2019 they went over the woke cliff. They have been intolerant and bigoted ever since.
That comment was moderated as spreading misinformation.
So sad that so many good and honest people are experiencing this oppression and the ownership (and publishers who use the site) don’t seem to care.
Damn, I figured when I didn’t see you posting in the 1PG that you had gotten banned or something, real shame that this happened. Nice to see that you’re still posting here though.
I totally agree that BGG has been getting worse and worse over the years. The level of sensitivity has gotten to sickening levels. I haven’t decided to actually leave yet, but my participation has become almost nonexistent especially when it comes to anything even remotely controversial.
Thanks for all you’ve contributed over the years.
I am a current (dormant) member. I joined in the early days, and became active some years later when a friend made an abortive attempt at starting a game company. Over that time I only ever received one or two warnings about comments I’d made in some threads that got contentious – nothing serious, and I always tried to observe common courtesy. It wasn’t until a few years later I began noticing Octavian/Matthew’s arbitrary and inconsistent imposition of penalties on users. In particular, I noticed him targeting several prominent contributors with escalating bans on increasingly petty pretexts. I questioned him about the excesses, and made jokes about them. He didn’t like to be questioned or joked about, and so he started banning me as well, for the catch-all violation of “disruptive”. The more I challenged him, the longer the bans I received and the more spurious the pretexts. I never violated the forum rules – all I ever did was criticize Octavian’s abuses of his authority. I even appealed directly to Aldie, but I assume Aldie didn’t care as long as the money was coming it. At one point I became convinced Octavian was going to lock me out of my account, so I deleted most of the content I’d contributed over the years, and I quit contributing even after the expected lockdown didn’t come. Now I only really use the account for occasional buying and selling.
All this was before Octavian started deleting posts he didn’t like, which was why I never deleted my account – to leave a lasting record o calling attention to his bullying and hypocrisy. Though he may have gone back and deleted them on a slow day. I haven’t looked, and at this stage I don’t really care – the [BS] I called him out on was small potatoes compared to what he gets away with now.
All this was also mostly before the nauseating corporate virtue signaling of the past couple years. Octavian was on the feminist bandwagon a bit, and it was shortly later when I first noticed him announcing the expulsion of certain members – an attempt at public shaming that was a direct contradiction to the stated forum rules. But that was nothing compared to the purges he seems to be conducting now. If he is really going back ten years or more looking for thought crimes to justify his purges, what an incredible stretch. I’m sure he could find something on me, since I used to participate in debates about history, economics, and such (yeah, we could actually do that back then!) and I’m sure my opinions didn’t coincide with his one bit. But again, I don’t really care, though it would be amusing to see him do it. This guy has already made himself a parody of Orwellian authority. I’m no psychologist, but it sounds like he has issues – big ones.
All I really know is that Matthew M. Monin is on the short list of people who can kiss my backside.
And all this on a BOARDGAME web site!
P.S. interesting reading:
https://www.bbb.org/us/tx/dallas/profile/social-media-marketing/boardgamegeek-llc-0875-90797308
I’m permanently banned now too, for the second time.
This thread basically says it all:
https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2721966/i-have-cancelled-my-pledge-after-learning-more-abo/page/1
Bring your popcorn..
So many innocent victims here.
I didn’t know anything about any of this so I’m coming in cold and all I can say is that from the outside it sounds like your experience with BGG probably matches your experience with other parts of the world. You still come off sounding as if you are trolling even when defending yourself (African-American literalism? Really?) so if you’re really not trying to get a rise out of people then you may just truly not be able to see yourself the way others do.
There are so many signals within your stories that most people would have picked up on before getting all the way to “suffering an injustice”. That didn’t happen here. If I get a speeding ticket at 26mph on the same 25mph street six times in a row, I can’t be incredulous when I get a sixth. From your accounting it sounds like you don’t believe in speed limit signs and think it’s OK because you smile and wave at other drivers sometimes.
Well, you got the first part right… There are a lot of innocent victims here of BGG oppression.
Then your comment goes of the rails of reality.
There are no “signals” just statements of fact that SJWs like yourself label as “signals”. It’s all nonsense. Everyone should be free to express themselves how they see fit with true respect for others, even in disagreement. BGG doesn’t allow that. They cannot win any issue on facts, so they simply silence the opposing voices. Nothing good about that at all and anyone with sense can see that that same (true) injustice can be turned on the ones they currently “agree” with as well.
As for your analogy, it’s faulty to say the least.
The actual comparison is that the speed limit sign is 25, I got a ticket once for going 30, then 26, sure. But then I also got tickets for going 15, 20, and even 25 because the crooked person pretending to be an officer (don’t want to malign real police officers) didn’t like the shirt I was wearing or had a bad day or some other made up reason that normal law abiding people had no way of possibly knowing would be an offense. But the faux-officer labelled it as “speeding” all the same.
That’s the reality of BGG at this moment. You’re a sheep who loves that their target is people you don’t like (so inclusive of you) so you give them a pass. We’re people (mostly, I don’t know everyone) who live on principle and fairness. Equality of opportunity, not outcome. But still, the fact is that reasonable people can and should be able to disagree without one side being shut down. Problems get resolved through discussion and compromise. But the left finds it ‘better’ to paint all their opposition as things they are not, dehumanize them and then obliterate them.
So thank you for commenting, even if to only remind us of the ignorance this country (and world) is facing. You’ve done that quite well.
RE: “The actual comparison is that the speed limit sign is 25, I got a ticket once for going 30, then 26, sure. But then I also got tickets for going 15, 20, and even 25 ”
Amen to that.
If you hear a dog whistle, you are the dog….
ANYTHING can be a “signal” today, even something that was fine yesterday.
Yes… the goal posts keep changing so fast that even the co-woke don’t get the memos in time and are burned by it 🙂
@Greg Mahler: A white supremacist frog? Just when I think they can’t possibly find anything stupider to be offended by, they do.
BGG is just one manifestation of a much bigger problem. Interesting read about the dynamic that seems to be at play here: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/10/new-puritans-mob-justice-canceled/619818/ The source is hardly right wing extremist, or right wing anything.
This mindless intolerance is unsustainable. I really wonder how it will all play out. It is like watching the start of a fifty car pileup in slow motion.
Hi, Kevin. I believe we crossed paths in a post or two on BGG.
I’m another casualty of the kerfuffle that Greg Mahler alluded to. The funny thing is; I’ve always steered clear of posting in those threads that I knew were full of landmines. During my time on BGG, I was always polite, fair in my trades and sales, and even sent free games/promos to people that seemed like decent folks. It’s not enough to be a conscientious member of the site, though.
I received my “your posting privileges are permanently suspended” message last week after I thumbed and tipped a couple of posts that lamented the fact that we are now being triggered by cartoon frogs. That’s it – I just liked the posts. Then, a couple of days after that, I noticed I’m now completely blocked from accessing my account. I’ve had no warnings or trouble of any kind with anyone prior to this. Banned from the site, without warning, for liking a post with which the moderator disagreed.
Octavian is completely unhinged.
I got a quick ban for replying to that a thread likely on the same game saying I would not back it because they caved into the pressure. That offended Octavian deeply.
He asked me to grovel to return, but forget that.
I thought Aldie and others were there, even putting up with my idiosyncracies, but this is ludicrous and I am done now!
(BTW, I saw a videocast of the publisher (I think that is who it was) and almost bought the game anyway, but I have finally cut my purchases way back. This idiocy did cost BGG and others some $$$$. I am not sure whether I will purge all corrupt publishers, since so many are corrupt, but the rot is deep in the games business.
Wow, glad I found this. I’ve only been on BGG for a short time, but I thought I’d do the geekmod thing for a little diversion. I’m checking out images, everything looking good, when I get knocked off for checking “inappropriate” images. I looked over their policy and everything that I checked looked like it was meeting criteria, so I asked what I was doing wrong. Matthew got back to me surprisingly quickly and wrote me a patronizing message that he would reinstate me if I promised to be good. I told him that without knowing what the rules of the game were, it would be hard to do this. Not sure how they’re going to maintain their community with a mod that is that touchy.
Stumbled upon this and I too was banned from posting anything to BGG. First, when trying to post something it sends me to a link to contact an admin and it just goes to a page can’t be found. Nice, right? So I reached out to Octavain. He starts quizzing me saying I was banned for harassment on other social media sites. Told him it wasn’t me and he can look at everything I have ever posted. I have posted a handful of my reviews on FB but don’t interact with anyone else and have no friends there–I just don’t have time to do that. Always post my reviews on Twitter but really don’t expand beyond that and have 1,000+ followers there. I have no other social media presence. He comes back and starts asking what I know about this BGG user. What do I know about this person? It was always the same, I do not know them and do not understand how I am even being linked with them. It went around in circles so I finally just gave up. Just not worth my time to bend over backwards to try and prove I didn’t do what he claimed–simply so I can post my reviews to BGG and interact here and there with folks which for me was on a very limited basis.
“Octavain”… not sure if it was a typo but is very accurate!
Sorry to read about your troubles with BGG, C Osborn. Please post your reviews to BoardgameAtlas. I’m sure the users there would appreciate your contributions.
I noticed today that the thread “Which users have left taking all their contributions” and the related discussion thread have been moved to the Complaint Department forum. It sort of makes sense, since so many contributors have been leaving due to Octavian, same reason as most of the other posts in the Complaint Department. But obviously their reason for moving these threads is to hide them, since the Complaint Department doesn’t show up on the dashboard page, and you really have to look for it. Actually, I’m not sure why they don’t just delete all of it, since Octavian deletes any comments criticizing him anyway.
Excellent point. Perhaps it helps him imagine he has integrity?
Many here agree with you Thomas and I look forward to your membership. I have canceled my 20+ year BGG ID and I encourage others to do the same. I am not supporting a site that treats its members with a Jackboot.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/boardgamegeekmods
Thomas Sowell was just a quote 🙂
The fact that you know who Thomas Sowell is, let alone that you recognize his wisdom and are able to quote him, speaks volumes about why you have been targeted by Monin & co. 🙄 I, on the other hand, salute you, sir. 😎
I haven’t been banned as such but I a reply immediately yanked for “derailing” a thread that was far from on rails at that point. Plus I was replying to a post that criticized people/countries that don’t “follow the science”. My response included words to the effect that “science” that doesn’t result from the difficult, rigorous work of the Scientific Method should not be “followed” and demanding so only erodes trust.
I’ve been searching for other sites since the above incident and have been coming across more and more reports like this in my web travels. It’s a shame since BGG’s database is extensive and probably unrivaled. I even got to here via a post about solo games then via a BGG link.
But it’s best to just treat BGG as a source for some files for some games I enjoy and ignore most of the rest of it.
I told a co-worker about 15 years ago why I didn’t use Twitter and I replied, “I predict that NOT being on Twitter will never harm me.” So far so good. I think I could more easily say the same for BGG.
Note how “the science” told us most of us would be flooded by now, all while the people pushing the flooding idea were buying seafront property!
They also changed from “Global Warming” to “Global Climate Change” because the former wasn’t happening.
And I find this even more ironic as a strong Christian who many of these same people would claim is the biggest threat to open discussions. Really sad, but expected.
Octavian might as well change his name to Caesar Augustus at this point as he seems to have assumed the powers of a tyrant. Board gaming in general has become overrun with Social Justice Dictators at this point. Any disagreement with their positions is deemed as racist, homophobic, transphobic, anti-science, misogynistic, etc. and therefore not “worthy of free speech.” It is a clever way of claiming to support free discord while at the same time marginalizing any who may disagree. BGG purges any who so much as question their authority to judge “rightness” and the board game community at large follow in lockstep.
It never ceases to amaze me how BGG, a for-profit company valued in the millions, succeeds in soliciting thousands of donations from its users each year, while at the same time treating its users and contributors with utter contempt.
BLM is calling for a December boycott of all white-owned businesses. Judging from the latest staff picture from BGG Con, it looks like BGG is 100% white owned and operated. For all their lip service to BLM and other woke causes, they certainly appear to consider themselves exempt from practicing the values they profess (apart from silencing alternative viewpoints). I hate hypocrites, so I think I’ll support the BLM boycott in this particular case.
This will be the first year I have not donated but I wish I had known better earlier. Of course I cannot say on BGG why I am not donating because Octavian banned me. It would be interesting if someone pointed out the uniform shade of the BGG staff and mentioned the BLM boycott. I love to see people hoisted upon their own petards.
I, too, was finally banned after years of watching the boundaries constantly shrink. I used to participate heavily in the RSP forums, where it was the normal free-for-all, where ideas could be fully discussed. Sure some people were asses in there, but so what? We’re all adults and hopefully have thicker skin than to be concerned when people stepped over the line from discourse to abuse. Moderation was light and only the most-egregious were ever addressed (as it should be). Fast forward a decade or so and the moderation had changed to what we’re all describing; heavy-handed, one-sided moderation that made clear that there was a “right think” being enforced and, if you didn’t agree with it, your views weren’t welcome. I eventually got banned from the RSP forums (imagine that – can still post in game/general forums but not the forum specifically created for less-moderated discussions of politics, etc). For a few years after I simply avoided most discussions because it was obvious the ownership had gone full-SJW/virtue-signal and were purging anyone who disagreed.
The Frosthaven thing was the last straw. I didn’t care about the game, nor was I a backer, but I happened upon the debacle that was one of the kickstarter updates, where the designer was lamenting that his prior game Gloomhaven, lacked in some areas of cultural sensitivity (a game of fantasy races – WTH?). He then went on to mention he’d hired a man, known as a professional outrage/PC consultant, to fix these aspects of Frosthaven. Many people rightly complained that this was modifying what they backed and was introducing even more delays in a game already late. That same update included insulting language that essentially said that the designer’s new level of morale awareness was the “right” level (despite him having just admitted in the same update that his prior level was lacking as expressed by the errors in Gloomhaven). And, further, he then doubled down by suggesting his new moral heights were far beyond any of his readers’ level, by suggesting that if they disagreed with his steps of hiring the PC consultant or the import of the insensitivity he’s mentioning (that he was guilty of!) that they could request and receive a refund, like the people who got refunded because they objected to BLM and thought “black lives don’t matter”.
The gall of such hypocrisy was too much – I entered one of the BGG threads about the issue and basically suggested it was hypocrisy of the highest order that the designer, who just admitted in the same update to being guilty of the thing he’s trying to get rid of (cultural/racial insensitivity), who has now risen to a new level of such awareness, assumes everyone in his audience hasn’t similarly already concluded something along the same lines (or has considered it as much or more than him, yet reached a different conclusion), and that if they didn’t reach the same conclusion as him they must be racists. Instant ban. I didn’t even bother responding to the ban message, which indicated I could attend re-education camp to resinstate posting privileges, because I’d seen the nonsensical biased moderation for so long I knew there was no way I’d agree to their purity tests. I nuked my account, taking more than a decade of posts/reviews/images/etc all with me, like many of you.
I don’t know where this all ends, but it better not be with dimwits like this dictating discourse over the internet.
Thanks PD for chiming in. Sorry it took so long for me to respond or approve your post… real life has been hectic of late!
I was banned today.
Months ago, someone responded that they thought a box for an expansion had too many duplicate pieces and was “environmentally problematic”. I indicated that it probably made economic sense as the box likely saved the company a lot of money and retooling. These comments were deleted and I was given several warnings. I was very, *very* polite. Doesn’t matter. When tone can’t be used as an excuse, they don’t need to use it anyway.
Last night, Alma Mater went on sale and someone linked to a giant thread about how the game, set in 15th century Italy with highly stylized art, didn’t have “diverse representation”.
I responded that I thought this was silly. I wanted no politics in games, and it seemed “diversity” didn’t go very far considering all the comments to that thread which offered any disagreement were deleted. I made it very clear I just didn’t like the politics getting into game aspect – I don’t care about the art and it’s not important to me.
Within 12 hours, all of my comments were removed and I was banned from the site.
So much for “diversity” and “inclusion”. If you don’t tow the line, you are subhuman.
Sorry you got caught in their sights. It’s really very frustrating that the ‘Gulag is allowed to be and recognized by publishers as the primary site for communication with the gaming community.
One thing I forgot to mention which I found hilarious:
The Alma Mater post decrying the horrors of not-enough-skin-colors-in-game (https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2477850/disappointed-alma-mater-has-no-characters-color-al) has what appears to be hundreds of removed comments.
When I pointed this out as an example of “no diversity of thought”, I was told the moderator claimed that these were all recently created Russian bots trying to interfere with the American election in 2020.
I’m not kidding.
Russian bots? LOL. That tells you everything you need to know about the Gulag’s politics.
I always chuckle a little when I hear people insist on “diversity” but do not allow diversity of political thought.
I decided to leave the Gulag well over a year back now. I had a lot of player aids on BGG that were quite popular that I had created over the years. I had Octavian delete my account after having my posting permissions revoked. Cancelling others because you don’t agree with their views is completely unethical. I donate my money to ConsimWorld now instead of to BGG. I’m a bit surprised that I don’t really miss BGG as much as I thought I would.
I miss walking around BGG.CON and helping others. But I refuse to participate in this type of cancel culture.
Thank you so much for sharing this as now I know at least I’m not alone!! I posted a thread on BGG yesterday regarding Jamey Stegmaier blocking me on instagram because I commented on his post around abortion rights questioning why he was using his company Stonemaiers platform to post about divisive issues. No comment back from him just instant deletion of my comment and blocked. I made the post on BGG questioning if this is the state the hobby is in and Jamey replied directly in the thread. I respectively shared my thoughts with him on silencing people who have a differing opinion than his own. Of course the mob had his back but the thread has gotten likes and others stating they have had similar things happen. Long story short my thread, which was all completely respectful, was locked. All of my comments I had replied back to Jamey with in the thread were deleted with his comments being left in tack. I received an email from BGG stating that I was “Trolling”. Apparently having a different opinion from Jamey Stegmaier is considered trolling. This was my very first post on BGG which I have been using since 2016. I am now banned from creating any new posts going forward on the site. BGG, and the hobby in general, unfortunately do not hide the fact that different view points are not allowed in a space ran by elitists.
So sorry Matt… yes, the rabid intolerant folks over there (and in the world) think they own the place and your personal and valid views are not allowed if they are not in goosestep with them.
I relieved my collection of the Stonemaier taint several months ago. First Wingspan, because that designer Elizbeth Hargrave is such a troublemaker in the gaming community. Normally I don’t believe in cancel culture and to be fair, a person choosing to not use a product is not cancel culture. I don’t think Stonemaier or Miss Hargrave should be blacklisted by any stretch. But for me her assault on civil rights made her game unpleasant for me personally. Same with later on Jamey’s games. Scythe (I had everything for it) as well as Tapestry. He’s been quick to show his hatred (or at least lack of understanding) of freedom.
Ironically, they should face the consequences of what they desire and encourage. Making them face that is not cancel culture.
I have come to realize that many of these people only want minority voices when they believe they are in the minority.
They quickly squelch minority voices when they believe they are in charge.
Quite late reply, but I just saw this and I got hit with this last year.
I replied in a thread about a Kickstarter that I would not be backing a game that had cartoon artwork of a real frog changed because of outcry by a few.
My account immediately lost posting rights and Octavian confirmed that he was “offended by my post”, which just noted I wasn’t going to support the project due to the shift.
Matthew later geekmailed me to say I could have my posting rights back if I promised to “never do that again”.
I have volunteered at BGG.CON shows many times and liked most of the people involved with them. I have been on the site for many years and I would also have loved to changed my username at some point (it is andrews777) since I didn’t realize what I really wanted when first signing up.
What bothers me is that some great people are involved with BGG.CON and I had completely respected Aldie. Though this action and the toleration for it got me to sign off the site since.
I did check on two very quick threads linked on it via a Google search just now, but I had not been on otherwise since this happened (other than to load the site to logout, something it had been setup to automatically login).
Really annoying since the site has a lot of good information, but I despise cancel culture and refuse to be involved with it.
I have been involved with the hobby as a teen in the 1970s and then came back in with Catan when I had kids of my own. I am saving a significant amount of money now since I am buying very few games, but it is a shame that such a hobby is getting killed by so many leading voices being woke or at least fully tolerating it.
Matthew/Octavian told me in an email that the publisher of the game in question was a Nazi, something I have never heard any publisher claim or even admit to. I have seen some unethical ones (Up Front reprint anyone?), but no Nazis.
It is almost funny how intolerant these “tolerant” people are. You can have any views as long as they approve of them!
I am half tempted to set up an alternate site, but it would be a lot of work and I am not sure I have the dedication for it.
I am enough of a loner that finding a way to play more with others rather than just collecting is hard, but too many in meetups and such share the woke views that it is hard to find a group where I could play and not have to be in contention so much.
Anyone in the Fort Worth area should email me and maybe we can game together!
Good riddance to BGG.
I still love board games, and find them to be a great way to socialize in a unique way with family and friends on a more intimate level than what most people do for get togethers or outings. A lot of BGG users absolutely idolize board games, and to many it has become an all consuming obsession.
Those who have not willingly consumed the kool-aid, are instead quiet and go along with the politically correct tyrants because they are led by their passion for worldly desires.
It is truly no wonder that many who champion this nonsense are the universalist / secular arhiest sorts.
Do not love the world or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world, sensual lust, enticement for the eyes, and a pretentious life, is not from the Father but is from the world.
Yet the world and its enticement are passing away.
But whoever does the will of God remains forever.
I was blocked on BGG by this piece of trash idiot (Matthew) for posting a reply on the Tournament Fishing game forum, re the frog drama, that Suzanne Sheldon (another piece of trash human being) has falsely accused the designer of the game.
So they decided to delete my account without taking into consideration all the work, passion and content I’ve put on BGG, just because I had a contrary opinion to something.
That site is cancer now, Matthew should just disappear from the bgg sphere, Suzanne should face the consequences of her accusations and people over there (BGG) should start acting like adults, not babies.
Since I was blocked, I completely left my bgg addiction to die, haven’t played a game, haven’t bought a game and now I no longer feel any interest for this hobby.
And all thanks to Matthew (redacted by editor) and Suzanne (redacted by editor).
redacted by editor
Got blocked for clicking on the thumb up button of a user’s post ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ . Just call it “Ban Me” button next time, you dumb SJW-haven website.
Yeah, they are full bore intolerance. “We don’t think people with views that don’t fit our narrow unreality should exist, let alone take part in our site.”
Hi klkitchens,
I found a link to your post in a discussion on BGG about moderation and the departure of Razoupaf for similar reasons (wondering myself when that’ll happen to me). I’m very sorry you had to go, for trifling reasons too. I still fondly remember your gesture when you offered me the Street Masters Redemption pack. If I can help you in any way, let me know. Big hug
Best regards,
throughtheages56
Thanks… I’m managing. Hoping Elon Musk will buy BGG and set it free too!
It’s amazing reading all of these stories and realizing I’m not crazy. Matthew may be the most intolerant, sensitive snowflake I have interacted with. When he moderates you he often references “the moderation team” as if it consists of anyone else but him. Just nuts!
I just recently had my posting privileges revoked. I’ve been part of the site for 5 years and had 9 moderations, mostly for commenting on derailed topics and having polite debate. I’ve posted over 4500 times and although I enjoy debate, I’m far from mean or demonstrative. The last 2 moderations were odd, but not so much after reading comments here.
First, I was moderated for mentioning a work around for a Target sale that’s been discussed for years, but suddenly isn’t allowed. I messaged Matthew confused and asking for some guidance as to what I did and all I got was a link to the BGG Community Rules.
The last moderation, which got me banned, was an eyeball emoji after someone posted in a local game forum how they were banned on discord for claiming white racism was used on them by an account named BLM. Apparently somehow that was trolling and hateful and “my unwanted conduct” warranted a perma-ban on posting privileges. Funniest part is the OP comes in and scolds the guy claiming “white people need to be told how to act properly”. After the post gets nuked the guy who made that comment creates a new thread, which obviously means no moderation for him. So obviously Matthew is of the same belief. I messaged again asking for clarity and have gotten no such thing. We live in clown world!
Anyone know of a site where I can track my collection in the very least?
Thanks for reading
For tracking your collection, I use the BGStats app. It used to upload to BGGulag, though I cannot do that anymore. It will export your collection data, but not sure if other places can consume it.
RE: the target scam, if you mean the B3C2 cheat, I’m really not too in favor of people doing that, though I’m not sure why M wouldn’t allow it to be discussed… Seems it was discussed for quite a long time, but well known folks. Especially when they allow people to cheat PayPal by paying F&F for purchases (and do nothing to prevent that scam or solicitation of it).
With the woke, the rules change all the time and they catch new batches of folks unawares.
Just curious is Octavian french? Those folks seems to have a serious bug up their butts. Anyway, I haven’t been banned (yet), but have had 7 posts deleted a few years ago. Seems these two french guys or gals didn’t want the last week of WW2 in the Pacific with Japan as a post in DVG’s Zero Leader. Heck, what I thought was interesting before and after the dropping of the two a-bombs, I guess isn’t to those two frenchies and I got moderated. Nice site you have and thanks for keeping it going.
Permanently banned a few months ago, not from the BGG website, but their official Facebook group. No warning, no contact, just straight to ban. Long story short, someone made a shitpost that existed just to mock a conservative girl’s review of “The Game of Life”. Say whatever you want about her or the OP’s politics, but I don’t go to BGG to read about politics, I go there to get information on upcoming games. I said this seems only tangentially related to board games and seems to exist mostly for the purpose of laughing at this person’s politics and I considered it political bait. I explicitly even refuse to make any points for or against the politics of the person in question, just that I felt it was off topic. Someone explicitly says to me EVERYTHING is political, and I replied, that to those who only have a hammer, everything looks like a nail, and apparently he took particular offense to that, half an hour later I’m kicked from the group
BGG can be pretty intolerant. I once posted a clever, apropos response that implied women have sexual impulses, and got a warning. Yet the site allows sexualized images of very young girls in Japanese anime games.
Hi Kevin,
I read your whole article; thanks for sharing, and my sympathies for the disturbing and despicable manner in which you were unreasonably and adversely treated by ‘the powers that be’ at BGG… I now understand why I could not find links to your content there; and BGG is all the lesser for their loss of your contribution there.
However, I am now following you here and on YT, so hope to be further inspired to:
a) solo play (which is my main option/aspiration for gaming these days), &
b) reduce table hog and setup time for games
warm regards,
Greg
Happy to help. It’s been weird not being able to use BGG more — especially when some publishers still use them as their only source of customer interaction. But I’ve survived. Maybe Elon Musk will buy the site and set it free like he did with Twitter/X 🙂
I was banned from posting 5 years ago
so I deleted 2000+ posts…
one-at-a-time.
hahahahahahahahaha! (burp!)
A result is the huge amount of time I’ve saved since!
Thank you, Octavian! A big wet sloppy kiss for you!
LOL… Sorry for the delay seeing this.
…it was a bit rancid to go through. Not everything is black & white, your opinions entails yourself. Please consider other people point of view
While some arguments in pure « play-dumb » logic works (the Elon Musk being technically from South Africa on this side of the apartheid)
I really hope you’ll be more curious and understand that the world is bigger than the US
Thanks for reading the post and educating yourself on the realities of what’s happening at BGG.
As for your Elon Musk confusion, it’s not “play dumb” at all, but pointing out the fallacy of meaningless phrases. Musk is, with no dispute, as African-American as any other person of African heritage (if not more so, since he was actually born in Africa).
It’s most of the moderators, and it’s still happening. It happened to me without warning. I was able to sway him into giving me back my account…but it’s a literal minefield like you say. Unless you agree with their woke vacuum ideologies (don’t dare differ), you’ll be out. They can opine, you cannot.
Yes. They do not understand “nuance” at all.
I was banned for correcting a well known hoax being used to cancel someone else. I won’t say it affects me much; I rarely posted, didn’t contribute, didn’t buy anything from there; I generally just looked up particular games for rule clarifications because that’s where people post them. But honestly?
Octavian needs to be fired. No moderation is better than bad moderation, and whatever his reasoning, it’s unacceptable. I’ve tried to find alternatives but the truth is that other than publisher websites, you’re not going to get it. But, it’s not a video game and we can just house-rule if we have a question we can’t resolve or find the answer to online.
It’s a shame. I tell people I won’t use BGG but I don’t tell them why. Unfortunately you see this same behavior everywhere; people in minor positions of power using it to manipulate what people can find out about reality. Wikipedia has become useless for anything with the slightest bit of disagreement, as an example. It’s not just BGG that has this problem. People are controlled by their ideology and the narrative is more important than the truth, no matter how reality-warping or how much cognitive dissonance you have to accept.
The only suggestion I have is to make an alternative and gatekeep these people from it.
Sorry you lost your spot there. So far it’s not been a problem UNLESS I need to ask something or download a file. Publishers rewarding them by making them the exclusive site for interacting with gamers has to end.
If you use Facebook there are some good groups there and you can usually find a place to ask questions if you need to.