Rocket League's Discord (which will be referred to as RLcord) has more than 500k members, and has everything any player would ever need. It has been around since 2016, and I've been part of it since November 2017. It was a community project, and it became RL's official Discord in 2018. Since then, people can share their gameplay highlights, look for teammates, ask for tips, hang out during Esports events or just chill in written/voice chats with other members. A server animated by its community, whose member could only grow up by the day.

What could go wrong, I wonder...

In November this year, the old staff team was thanked for their service and disposed of. There isn't really any other way to put it: staff members got their permissions removed, and everything was transferred to a paid 'behind-the-scene' moderation team. I have no idea how this works, but eighty people or so were now responsible for managing RLcord's moderation, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year (don't ask me about leap years, I have no clue). So, a remote, super-efficient moderation team? Nice!

No. Not nice. Because, by "behind-the-scene", it means that these moderators are not on the server. I've been told it was to avoid any moderating bias when it came to sanctioning members. Makes sense, it would be bad to have a moderator not take action on a member because of personal bonds. Ok, great. We got rid of any human contact! 500k+ members are now left under the watch of an unreachable moderating service that did not only got rid of social interactions, but mostly every single bit of context around the messages they would deem worthy of a warn, a kick or a yeet.

Psyonix. What is happening with Modsquad is exactly what they teach us in school about AI replacing humans in key jobs. The results are exactly the same. Where a local moderator would understand what a friendly banter between two close members is, Modsquad's tunnel vision only sees that one member is being annoying to another, and draw the might sword of unneeded justice.

This is barely one example. Unexplained warns, unexpected misunderstandings, random yeets when no rules are broken. We went from RLcord to RussianRoulettecord, and this sadly isn't a joke. Members aren't encouraged to be active anymore, because every message, every joke, every laid-back interaction can risk you your spot in a server you may as well have spent years chatting in.

You are losing your members, Psyonix. Yes, this doesn't affect the game whatsoever. But Discord was the perfect place for the community to interact with devs, mods, pro-players, and everyday players. It used to be our home of laughing, sharing and gaming. It now a place of hiding, where it takes multiple reports to get hateful speeches dealt with, and a few misunderstandings to get your account permanently yeeted.

And even with a ban-appeal server, some members struggle to get back because it is the very same people who unrightfully banned them who are in charge of reviewing appeals.

Months later, it's clear to absolutely everyone that Modsquad was a mistake. Dear Psyonix, you can still set us free and go back to the older, better system.