Originally Posted by Sordrak
Hi guys
I would like to discuss an issue here on this site. Maybe I do not understand something correctly, but it seriously bothers me.
The issue I currently have is censorship. I've posted around 4 comments to an addon, which is quite a bit suspicious to say the least (i guess some of you already came across that addon). I've posted my doubts and brought up technical facts, which might be interesting for other users, as the addon might be a huge security thread (containing an exe and manipulating LUA code on the fly). Yet, all my comments are getting deleted pretty fast. As I never deleted any comments so far, I'm not aware if the author can directly delete a comment or if some admin interaction is involved.
Anyway, I think it is pretty concerning when such information, technical facts and warnings can easily be removed from an addon. Imho i consider this censorship and in this case it might even put users at risk who otherwise would have been more careful.
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Yes, addon authors can delete comments. As an addon author yourself, you might have noticed that/you'd be able to check. I've actually done it myself before, (a comment that was quite clearly not related) but it's definitely not something that I have a habit of doing. I imagine the idea behind addon authors being able to delete comments on their own addons is that they are able to keep it on topic/related to the addon, and/or to prevent other players from being a nuisance. It would likely be a lot more work for the site admins to moderate the comments of every single addon. In general, I don't think addon authors abuse their power - there's many comments around the site that I'm sure the addon author would prefer did not exist. Generally though, they get buried pretty quickly, just because other people post comments.
I'd also like to point out that, while I did not see the actual comment, this short quote of yours:
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Originally Posted by Sordrak
blah-blah-blah
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is likely something that I would say an author is completely within their rights to delete. (Of course, I admit I have no context on that. Maybe it was an ok comment) While pointing out security flaws is perfectly fine, you also need to consider
how you point them out. I don't know for sure if the addon you are referring to is Nirn Auction House, but if it is, I'd also like to point out that quickly checking shows there are multiple other comments warning about security - so it seems likely that censorship was not the reason for deleting your comments.
.exes
are a security risk, and I'm not going to say that they aren't. Depending on the specific addon you are referring to, the source code might be freely available. Additionally, the site has rules around .exes: "Executable files are not allowed, except for some very specific cases. We test and decompile all executable files that are submitted. In some cases we may ask for the source. This processes could take awhile." That said, I don't know how rigorous the testing they are put through is.