Future of Forum Games and next steps

Hi all,
I want to be as upfront as possible and communicate clearly about what we’ve been experiencing over the last few weeks and months, the impact it’s having on our core function at The Student Room, and how we will move forward if things don’t improve significantly.
Over this period, a huge amount of our moderation and safeguarding resource has been taken up by consistent and relentless behavioural issues in Forum Games. This has included over-reporting, brigading in private messages, nastiness in both public and private comments, and ongoing conversations about bans and moderation decisions, all of which go against TSR guidelines.
The Student Room moderation team has a significant duty of care to its users, who range from age 13 onwards. We allow discussions on incredibly sensitive topics such as sexual health, relationships, mental health, politics, religion, because we believe the space we provide can be constructive, supportive, and genuinely positive for young people. However, these conversations come with real risk and require our team to handle reports, check in on user welfare, and support our volunteers in fostering the right environment. This is by far the most important aspect of what our moderation team does.
To be blunt, the incidents of the last few months have massively distracted from this work, demanded more time than we have available, and cannot continue. We simply cannot justify the level of resource currently required to keep these games running when the volume of complaints, rule-breaking, and general reports is this high. If we are forced to choose, we will always prioritise safeguarding our most vulnerable users.
With that in mind, I want us to find a constructive way to draw a line under the last few months and move forward so Forum Games can continue. I’m asking for your support in making that happen. Tomorrow we will be releasing new Forum Games guidance to centralise processes and help volunteers and staff manage issues in a way that requires less resource. We will also be drawing a line under previous behaviour and giving everyone a completely clean slate. This is a chance for all of us to start again and work together in the right way.
However, we will be taking a firm stance on moderation in three key areas:
Openly discussing moderation decisions will result in a card, and those cards will escalate. Repeated discussion of this topic will eventually lead to a ban.
Frivolous or false reports/complaints will first be addressed in conversation, but repeated behaviour of this kind will result in a card, which will escalate and may ultimately lead to a ban.
I will check in monthly with our moderation team and the volunteers who run the section. If it’s clear things have not improved, we will consider either closing Hurt/Heal games or closing the entire Forum Games section.
This is our opportunity to move forward together and continue enjoying the community you have built. Thank you for your patience and understanding as we do that.
EH

Have I participated in any of this?

I should have said. I've tagged in all posters in Forum Games over November

I should have said. I've tagged in all posters in Forum Games over November

Anyone thinking "does this mean me?" can easily check this by looking at their community record here.
On a personal note, outside of my time volunteering on the site, Forum Games has had its ups and downs over my 11 years posting here. I haven't ever, ever seen a message like this threatening to close the forum. I have seen two other cases where sub-communities within The Student Room have been shut down. It wasn't pleasant in either scenario. In both of those cases, the reason for the decision was that too much time was taken up of moderators having to deal with cruel, unkind, petty (ridiculously so) and at times even dangerous behaviour. You may not like TSR's approach with this, or their moderation policies. Fact is you don't have to like it - you agreed to them when you created your account. If your response to this is that users might leave the site, my answer would be that having some of those users on the site at the moment is clearly not a beneficial thing.
On behalf of those who have been counting to a million (with me) for over a decade, I'd ask everyone to think carefully please before potentially throwing away something that isn't just yours. I joined CTAM during part 7. It's now at Part 80. I've always said to myself that I wouldn't leave the site while it was unfinished. If that is stopped due to the actions of others it will be very very sad.
Part of playing a Forum Game is following the rules. If we can't get that right what's the chuffing point?

I should have said. I've tagged in all posters in Forum Games over November

Ive never played a forum game before 😔