Category: censorship

  • Departed Developer UnsolidSnake’s Achievements Taken Down as “Unwelcome Concepts”

    Muted Just for Saying There Is a New Alternative for Playing Those Achievements

    To see UnsolidSnake’s developed sets on RA, click here.

    Mirrored at the sole discretion of clymax for sake of transparency on Retro Achievements, which was one of the aims of Moderator BahamutVoid in leaving his farewell letter not long after Administrator televandalist’s own resignation letter dropped. If you have any concerns with this mirror, please reach out to clymax directly.

    Related Post:

    Departure of Developer UnsolidSnake of Retro Achievements [Mirror]

    Original Link: https://retroachievements.org/forums/topic/26361?comment=403197#403197

    July 22, 2026

    Moving Goalposts of “Unwelcome Concepts” Cited

    Were these achievements justified to be demoted?

    Some users speak out.

    Muted for Response in the Set’s Official Forum Topic

    Well, thanks for showing why I want nothing to do with this site anymore.

    If anyone actually likes them, I have a significantly improved implementation. Message me if you are interested.

    The site mute was handed down even though the alternative was not even mentioned by name.

    A site-muted user cannot post in the forums or even respond to direct messages on the site.

    Was a site mute even warranted here? What forum rule was broken anyway?

    Related Post:

    FB Neo Combo Trials by UnsolidSnake

    This post has been viewed 32 time(s).

  • YouTube Breaks Promise, Removing “Dislike” Button from Shorts

    In the Latest Installment of Treating Your Content Creators Like Snowflakes

    For clymax’s projects, click here. You can also follow him on YouTube or Twitter.

    A while back, YouTube removed public Dislike counts as announced here (emphasis added):

    We’re making the dislike counts private across YouTube, but the dislike button is not going away.

    This change will start gradually rolling out today.

    Despite such a statement—and perhaps to no one’s surprise—YouTube recently finally added insult to injury by actually removing the Dislike button from Shorts, as announced here:

    [W]e’re … retiring the dislike button.

    Instead, we’ll rely on … “Not Interested” and “Don’t recommend this channel,” to … tune your feed and serve up content….

    The update sparked discussion across the web, such as on the r/mildlyinfuriating subreddit.

    Thanks a lot, YouTube.

    This post has been viewed 8 time(s).

  • RDHN User Posts Rants Even After Moderator Warns to Be Nice

    Posts Quickly Removed by Moderation

    For clymax’s projects, click here. You can also follow him on YouTube or Twitter.

    Original thread relates to an ongoing project for a Dragon Quest IV (SFC) translation addendum.

    The thread can be found here.

    A moderator steps in with a warning following an exchange between two users regarding writing style for the translation addendum.

    A third user decided to post the following rants.

    These were quickly removed. The site does not make clear on its user profiles whether a temporary or permanent ban has been handed out.

    For reference, RHDN’s forum rules state:

    So, what do you think? Was the user out of line? What moderation action was warranted here? Comment below, or come check us out on Discord.

    Related Post:

    Dragon Quest VI: Aflame Released

    This post has been viewed 106 time(s).

  • Retro Achievements Suddenly Claims Achievement Logic is “Proprietary”

    New Language Silently Added to “Legal & Terms” Page

    Mirrored at the sole discretion of clymax for sake of transparency on Retro Achievements, which was one of the aims of Moderator BahamutVoid in leaving his farewell letter not long after Administrator televandalist’s own resignation letter dropped. If you have any concerns with this mirror, please reach out to clymax directly.

    Opinion Piece by clymax

    Original Link: https://retroachievements.org/terms

    February 23, 2026

    The following new section was added via a Pull Request here with seemingly no announcement made on the website (emphasis added):

    Achievement Data

    Achievement titles, descriptions, and related metadata may be referenced or reused by third parties (eg: for tracking sites or community tools).

    Achievement trigger logic (the code and conditions that define how achievements are evaluated) is proprietary to the RetroAchievements community and may not be reused, redistributed, or reproduced without explicit permission. The GPL-3 license covering the RetroAchievements web application source code does not extend to achievement data.

    This claim may be questionable for many reasons.

    Achievement [trigger] logic may not necessarily be protectible by copyright. But let’s set that aside from now.

    To the extent that the achievement logic is protectible by copyright, the copyright vests, at least initially, in the achievement author. Not in Retro Achievements.

    According to their Developer Code of Conduct here:

    Achievement Ownership

    When you publish your work you are giving it over to the community to be reviewed and reworked over time….

    This language, however, does not necessarily mean that achievement authors transfer copyright to Retro Achievements.

    Neither does it necessarily mean that Retro Achievements has any exclusive license to use the achievement logic.

    It could mean that Retro Achievements has at best a non-exclusive license to use the achievement logic.

    In that scenario, only the achievement authors have authority to decide whom else can “reuse[], redistribute[], or reproduce[]” the achievement logic.

    Retro Achievements would have no authority, under copyright, to tell any party that he or she cannot “reuse[], redistribute[], or reproduce[]” the achievement logic.

    So, Retro Achievements, what gives?

    This post has been viewed 18 time(s).