The Joys of Overzealous Moderators

[Gandalf Parker]

There definitely is room within the Dom3 community for both.
There is a standard, corporate-owned, Q/A forum, support for all aspects of the game, where the mood of the forum is prime.
And then there is a fan-owned, fan supported, fan moderated forum where the quality of the answers is prime over considerations of mood.

It does no good to try and shut down or alter either one since both seem happy with their forums, and have people who feel comfortable there. As long as both are willing to allow mention of the other then I would (irritatingly diplomaticly appropriate because it is on this forum) tend to say that the community in general is happy.

[Fantomen]

Nice theory, but if it was true that this fora is oh, so nice and cosy, then why is all the drama, fighting and inflammatory discussion HERE and not at dom3mods?

Seems to indicate repression as cause rather than solution.

[momfreeek]

Its not "repression" if you are free to leave at any time (just to diffuse hyperboly).

Seems to me that there is much inflammatory stuff on dom3mods directed at individuals on this forum. That this doesn't result in infighting is surely BECAUSE it is written there and not here.

[Soyweiser]

Wow... wait a minute. We do have drama at dom3mods. It was my fault . I was pointing out some hypocrisy of a new member of dom3mods and shrapnel. People asked me to do it at dom3mods. So we did.

And the dom3clone thread is also a bit drama like.

@momfreeek
"you are free to leave at any time" you forgot to add, but "leave your stuff behind". This is still the main forum for dom3 newbies. I doubt they would like it if there was a sticky pointing to better places to get your questions answered. (Which is usually Calahans issue, people not explaining the game mechanics in detail enough, usually he did this without any regard for diplomacy).

[momfreeek]

Originally Posted by Soyweiser

"you are free to leave at any time" you forgot to add, but "leave your stuff behind".

Yeah true, I guess it would be repression to be ejected from your own home. In the case of being ejected for not following the forum rules (Calahan claims no innocence) "repression" is hyperboly.

In my experience its very easy for insolence to lead to bullying. One knowledgable individual may insult others for a cause but when others follow his lead and start hurling insults for their own causes (often less righteous) the result is chaos and those who suffer are those trying to be civil. At dom3mods I suspect the sense of unity against a common cause (this one) creates much feeling of brotherhood right now. Doesn't mean it isn't bull**** (disclaimer: poorly informed opinion ).

[Peter Ebbesen]

Originally Posted by PriestyMan

The biggest joke of them all is that Crapnel will refer to their Terms and Agreement and say he messed up. but in them they have a detailed infraction system that includes infraction points (i know pyg got like 1 point once) and temporary bans before anyone is supposed to get perma-banned. Of course Crapnel has never once followed their own procedure. Just like in the Sombre thing, they just banned and didnt give a **** what their own rules were

Say rather that, just like in the Sombre thing, you and several others didn't understand the rules or, more probably, didn't want to understand the rules.

The forum has a detailed infraction system, yes. But this is not the only way to get banned, it is just a guaranteed way to get banned.

The very same section of the rules that contains the infraction system contains the following words, which you and other rules-lawyers usually ignore:

A permanent ban can be applied for any reason and at any time if the Admins determine it is warranted to promote the harmony of the community.

In other words, whether you like it or not, the rules are very clear on this issue. You can be banned for anything that is considered, at the sole discretion of the forum administration, to be detrimental to the community mood.

[Soyweiser]

Peter you are the one rule lawyering. (Rule lawyers also tend to write a lot of rules. Which trolls then abuse to make their points. Which leads to the dom3mods rule of ... (and only spambots get banned)).

I think the rest just understands that the rules are just bull, and the mods will do as they please and think up reasons and justifications afterwards.

This whole rule system is worthless. But you know this. You now perfectly well what I'm talking about. As we discussed this to death with you the last time somebody was banned.

We already discussed this the last time. You think written rules are important. I think it is more about unwritten social rules. I imply you do not understand unwritten rules. You imply I do not understand written rules. Etc.

And again, like I said the last time, the problem with shrapnel is that they do not apply any of the other they say they should do. Like having two user accounts for example. A new player here has gotten a new account while he still had an old one. That is allowed. But suddenly calahan gets banned. It is the ambiguity that is the problem.

Look at my posts for example. I have clearly been out of line every once in a while. Did I ever get warned for that? Or infractions? Nope. Not once. The only way for me to see if I crossed the line is to look if I'm banned or not(*). (Not that I want to).

Ps: The infraction system has not been used for years. Just ask the mods. They will either come clean and say "indeed has not been used for years". Or they will make up some story that they cannot give examples because that would void the privacy of the people infracted. Or some other lie that we cannot confirm or deny.

@momfreek. Yeah, I know, gotta pipe down with the mob mentality. But I have not really felt that much community brotherhood of us vs shrapnel myself. And have not seen that much reaction. Not that much people seem to care. (Apart from calahan, executor, and a few of the other posters here).

And I have repeatedly told people when they crossed lines. The constant harassing of batman (we get it, we know who he used to be) and ghoul was really annoying. (And I have crossed some myself of course). Of course, I also cross lines... but yeah.

Once again, Calahan probably deserved it. But why today/this week? Why not when he posted the bad stuff he posted.

Ps: looking at the rules again. I see this:

"Strong profanity should generally be restricted. "Damn," "Hell," and "Microsoft" are all okay."

And this:

"Do not post any material which is knowingly false, and or defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, hateful, harassing, racist, obscene, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, or encourages conduct that would constitute a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability, or that otherwise violates any local, state, national or international law or regulation."

Good job not defaming Microsoft shrapnel.

*: there is also an informal method. Lets call it the Strider way. If he shows up, people get banned. Just like last times "who the **** are you" episode.

[Amhazair]

Originally Posted by Peter Ebbesen

The very same section of the rules that contains the infraction system contains the following words, which you and other rules-lawyers usually ignore:

In other words, whether you like it or not, the rules are very clear on this issue. You can be banned for anything that is considered, at the sole discretion of the forum administration, to be detrimental to the community mood.

Well, I certainly won't argue this point. I also won't argue that Calahan can be quite rude at times.

He's always right mind you, but he doesn't bother to be polite about it. (At least, he usually is frienly enough the first time he argues something, but loses patience when people disagree for unsound reasons.) So honestly, even though I like the guy, I can kinda see where the mods are comming from.

What I am upset about though is a genuninely helpful community member getting banned without a warning, nor being asked by anyone if he'd be willing to change his behaviour*, and at a time when he had actually consciously - and publicly - decided to stop bothering to argue with idiots (There, now even I have been tempted to call people names. Probably the first time in my entire internet career. I hope you're all proud of this achievement, because I doubt this will happen too often in like the history of the world ever and stuff.) and stick to helping (new) people with game settings and maps and the like.

* At least according to him nothing of the sort happened, and I'm inclined to trust him on this.

[Soyweiser]

Explain me this one thing. Why are the rules so important people? I don't get it.

[Gandalf Parker]

"Laws don't stop anyone from doing anything. Tthey aren't really expected to. But they will stop most of the people most of the time, and the rest we will handle as they come." -AAGP

Rules arent laws but the sentiment seems to fit. Maybe if you call them guidelines instead of rules you would be more comfortable. Then the way that some feel they are getting used would be easier to accept. It would be "These are a list of guidelines on what we want our forum to be. And we reserve the right to ban for that purpose at anytime".