Question for possible discussion. Just tossing ideas out there. There have been relatively frequent attacks on game designers who may or may not be active members of the forum. I'm not talking about criticisms of games (which I think should never be quashed), but actual personal attacks on the designers themselves. For example, Mearls and Crawford have frequently been called liars, lazy, incompetent, stupid, intentionally sabotaging the game because they want it to fail, etc. I'm assuming Mearls and Crawford aren't members of this forum, because otherwise I'd expect moderation of said personal attacks just like any other poster, and they aren't, ever.
There is another forum I won't name, but one of the rules there was that game designers were afforded the same protections as posters. One of the reasons given was because when you have a community that has frequent name calling and attacks on designers themselves, no game designer will want to be part of that community and put themselves in the line of fire with that kind of aggressive behavior. And wouldn't we want the people who actually design the games be part of the community to answer questions? It also just gives a bad impression of the community when members can just sling out personal attacks whenever without recourse.
I am not saying instituting a rule where public figure game designers are afforded same protection as active posters is the answer. I just think we should have a discussion, and see if it is, or if there's a better solution.
