PM: Private Message or frowned upon modification?

Last I checked, it was 2016. The internet is something that is completely normal and understood to everyone.

Or so I thought.

I don’t really expect many of you to understand exactly what this title is referring to. But, the issue it relates to is one that I feel needs to be brought to more people.

To keep it short, Project M was a successful (and 100% free) mod for the extremely successful fighter: Super Smash Bros. Brawl.  It’s development lasted over four years, (from 2011 to 2015) and the Smash Bros. community constantly kept mentioning how this mod made Brawl more like its more competetive predecessor, Melee.

However, my topic comes into play when the Miiverse platform was introduced in 2012. This service is Nintendo’s first try at a social network, and to call it perfect is a complete long shot. I could go on about all of its issues, but that’s not what I’m here to talk about.

Miiverse has one major problem, a lack of a proper moderation system. Now, programs themselves can only do so much. Context is everything, and that is something that programs cannot easily understand. (At least simple ones.)

Now, Project M was a forbidden topic on this service. Even using the term “PM” (Which could stand for private message, or the popular RPG series Paper Mario.) was “forbidden” at one point from what I have heard.

This of course led to many false positives for the moderation system. In the end, it led to a bunch of angered users. Now, you’d think there’d be some sort of way to contest this, but there isn’t. At least not obviously. The best method would be to contact their customer service, but this is not made obvious at all.

No such “If you think this was in error…” message appears anywhere on this site.

If you plan to punish users for wrongdoing, at least hear both sides of the case.

Not doing so must mean that your userbase is complete garbage, and that such a “illegal” post must be intentional. If you think that lowly of me, why should I continue using your services?

Newsflash. We’re human.

We make mistakes. Not every post that fails your filter is wrong.

As such I will not be using these services. At least until the one user whose ban led me to this post expires.

Now, sure, I mentioned one service, but in general this needs to be a thing. Your users are your customers, your friends, those who should stand behind you when things get tough.

If you don’t treat them that way, why should they use your services? If anything, they should completely avoid you.

The phrase “Treat others the way you want to be treated” doesn’t apply just to the religious.