I realise we have moderators for a reason, no complaint there. However, I do object to the moderators closing threads just because the opinions expressed therein do not agree with their own personal opinions. Moderators should not be able to just lock threads for this reason.

I am of course talking about the thread in Technical support that has just been locked because the moderator didn't like the comments made in there. It shouldn't matter whether the moderator, personally, doesn't agree with them. I thought these forums were for the majority, not the minority that are the moderators. The thread in question had not got out of hand, and the comments therein were valid ones.

I also believe there was nothing wrong with the opinions expressed in there, and, just because the moderator cannot justify his actions doesn't call for the thread to be locked. We are not robots, and therefore, are going to have differing opinions.

I agree with it being locked, we knew what went on and people made their feelings known. The only thing that was gonna happen was more people would say the same stuff. The original poster says he has now bought the game so the job was done and time to move on

SuperCat didn't lock it Neves, I did!!
Throughout last week in particular, a few sectors of this forum were descending into altercations, that weren't greatly beneficial to the majority of forum users. I have no great interest in the current state of the league, so that area of the forum is for someone else to manage, but I do spend a degree of time in the Real Racing and Technical sections, and on request, Mark kindly provided me with moderator privileges in those two parts of his forum.
I'm not here to police anyone, nor am I interested in doing so, and I'm sure most people will attest to the fact that I'm an opinionated pain in the arse, so I'm certainly not here to restrict the views of others either. What I am attempting though, is to sanitise both sectors from irrelevant threads, make them more user-friendly and ultimately keep them on-theme.
The reason behind locking the thread in question is as follows : I'd like to address the wholly unacceptable use of cracked software in a main topic, rather than in a by-product of a current thread, with Mark's approval of course, so that there can be no ambiguity among new users; It's best that this is done without the ongoing rehashing of views, but once it is done, I see no reason why the thread in question cannot be opened back up.

Fair enough DB, toys picked up from floor and put back in pram

So glad you replied as this reads a lot more polite than mine would of

Thanks DB. I admit I haven't been around enough to be able to moderate the forum consistently or properly. But my comments stand and I feel that a line was crossed, so I stepped in where I thought I needed to. I do however understand that neves obviously disagrees with my decision but please note Mark's rules at the top of this General Discussion board:

http://www.startersorders.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2147

i also agree that the thread was rightly locked and i also wondered how many of the people who kicked off or wanted to have downloaded music on lime wire or movies via bit torrent.

i have never downloaded a pirated version of a game because i dont trust them for crashes etc and also they have lots of longevity so i dont mind paying good money for them. i do however download cartoons and films and i am not ashamed to admit to this. prices such as 12.99 upwards for music albums and films is nothing short of disgraceful and undoubtedly the reason why awful actors such as daniel radcliffe get payed in excess of 20 million quid per movie. Sorry but i refuse to pay those kind of prices for movies ( my dvd collection is huge btw before anyone decides to have a go - just these movies are all 5 quid or less when they are on a deal).

Stealing a movie via bit torrent is no better than stealing a game via piracy, however you dress it up, it's still theft.

charging 19.99 for a dvd film when released is theft mate!

no matter how anybody dresses it up, we get ripped off left right and centre for pretty much everything. my wedding is next year and my missus needs implant work done on her teeth. the charge is 2,500 pounds. this is one example of companies/organisations taking the piss out of us so yeah i will take a little back where i can. like i said i wouldnt and havnt downloaded games but i do download some films.

dont worry pal, theyre still making theyre money - daniel radcliffe still got his 40 million for the last harry potter.

40 million quid for trying to act that's stealing money, come to think of it I wonder how much I would get for stealing from my local bank....my guess 15 years lol

exactly!

and keanu reeves has been getting away with it for years, hes even worse than radcliffe.

you need to learn to take a little back where possible. another example - putting personal buys through business so to get back the vat and another 10per cent.

So basically you're condoning a great deal of illegal activity except for pirating PC games. Of course, if everyone starts pirating music and movies, and no-one buys them legally, there will be no movies or CD's to pirate. I am sure, considering the box office receipts for Mr radcliffe's latest movie, that the film company justifies his wages. I agree, when movies initially come out and they cost a tenner online (as the majority do) then they're not worth it, all you need to do is wait until they drop to a fiver and then buy them. Pirating them, as you clearly say you do, is the same as someone pirating SO4, which you claim to not agree with, double standards?

The last topic was locked to stop this conversation so could we please stop it here. Thanks

or alternately it could always be moved to off topic? Just a thought as it is quite obviously a relevant conversation given recent activity on here, and is, by no stretch of the imagination, getting out of hand.

i dont think there is any need to lock this thread, maybe like neves suggests, moving it to off topic could be good.

yes bud, maybe it does come across as double standards . way i see it tho is i know that the film and music industry are okay without my custom and i know it wont come to drastic conclusions of no1 paying for it anymore. and like i said i do buy some movies and have a huge dvd collection. i also spend money on itunes - and obv the 400 quid for the ipad!! so im not a tight bastard, i just like to take a little back where i can.

mark is obv an independant game developer working hard to make a living and i have bought so4 for the pc and ipad. only cracked game ive ever played is football manager 2010, and ive bought every other one since the first championship manager so i doubt they would have been hit in the pocket when i didnt buy that one.

so yeah , basically i dont condone pirating absolutley everything, but for sure take a little back here and there.