Elder Scrolls Online forum moderators are easily baited

Want to get someone in trouble? Get their account a Warning and possibly a suspension? It's easy to do on the official Elder Scrolls Online forums -- just complain about their post!

From various examples (that subsequently get quickly deleted by the forum moderators for "discussing moderator actions"), it is clear that forum moderators just react to complaints mindlessly and cut and paste a "You've been warned".

It's easy to bait a forum moderator into taking such an action because they clearly don't bother actually reading and investigating complaints and take into consideration the context. Then some people feel they have been singled out for discriminatory action -- because they have.

At the same time, the forum moderators don't moderate the rest of the forums in the same way when there aren't complaints. The objectional content is still there, but they clearly have a double standard.

(And we'll discuss deleting posts outright after the examples below)

Example 1: PSA: Do NOT use this MMO term in ESO forums because it is considered "Hate Speech" : elderscrollsonline (reddit.com)

Even though there are literally hundreds of usages of the word "twink" on the forums, all you need to do is complain about one post and it will get moderated. It doesn't matter that the usage was in the correct MMO context and the post had nothing to do with "twink" as a derogatory gay term.

Example 2:

The forum frequently has posts discussing and even defending the simulated sexual violation of t-bagging but apparently none of it falls under the category of "tasteless, vulgar, or obscene material". However all you have to do is accuse someone of something vaguely sexual and they will receive a warning. I saved this post from 2021-March-21 where it was forum discussion 566599 before it got deleted, probably for "discussing moderation actions".

On the policy of deleting posts outright, especially posts that "discuss moderation actions", this is really quite a suspicious policy for forum moderation. If reports and tickets were handled appropriately and ethically, then any challenge can/should be met head-on with head held high, with no fear or shame.

Deleting posts of this nature merely encourages suspicion that they are hiding wrongdoing.

We can see a contrast in how these types of posts are handled at Star Wars: The Old Republic: Community Manager JackieKo calmly responds to a post that directly challenges and makes accusations against forum moderation. In the Elder Scrolls Online forums, such a post would have been "snipped" of content as "bashing" and "discussing moderation actions" and without even any feedback provided.