Ban-a-thon

[Ironhawk]

Wow. I go away for a few weeks and some of the most knowledgable players in the game have been mass banned? Makes me question why I came back. Is there a boilerplate comment about the incident?

[13lackGu4rd]

might wanna check out these threads: http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=45509 ; http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=45498

it all started with Sombre getting perma banned for "disregarding the forum rules" which later turned into "he was treated with silk gloves but enough is enough" and than the majority of the community jumped into the thick of things in Sombre's defense, things got quite rough and the mods decided to not let it slide and ban the main "troublemakers" as they(not me) called them, so Maerlande, Frozen Lama and Trumanator were also perma banned. don't think anybody else was, but I do know that Burnsaber also left these forums due to this whole incident, so now the modding forums is missing its 2 main contributors(Sombre and Burnsaber).

for more information hop into our IRC channel, there's still an ongoing discussion about this even now, the ripples of it just won't die...

[Gandalf Parker]

Mass Ban? I thought it was 2

[rdonj]

There were 4.

[Zeldor]

Ironhawk:

But Shrapnel people were much better at insulting

Anyway, new forums are coming, I wonder how many people will stay here... I guess both sides will be happy. We, that we don't have to deal with Shrapnel and Shrapnel that does not have to bother about people that already bought the game.

[chrispedersen]

[quote=Zeldor;744103]Ironhawk:

I'm deleting my post as it probably doesn't contribute anything helpful to the debate.

[Gandalf Parker]

ok I found out (asked in IRC)

[Verjigorm]

At the risk of being unpopular, I have always found that forum trolls are always of detriment to the community regardless of whatever contributions they make. They drive away new people and make others want to leave or not participate.

Any mods those guys made are contributions prior. They can still play--they just can't be nasty on the forums which is how it was explained.

If they want to get hot over spitting in the face of the mods after being offered a chance to return, that's fine. I'm sure there are other people who will be more than willing to take up the slack that was left from their departure, and perhaps with weeds pulled the community as a whole will be better off.

I don't have anything against any of them personally, nor do I know the event that caused the bans in the first place and I don't care. I have been on many forums and without qualification, trolls are always a negative force regardless of how much useful information may be stored within them. Anything within them can be found elsewhere.

I spent probably 30 minutes the other day responding to what I thought was a request for strategy assistance only to find that it was some dude trolling and trying to start fights by insulting anyone who tried to help in earnest for whatever purpose. That thread has been deleted. Forums are Dictatorships not Democracies. Rules are generalities not absolutes. Mods have discretionary power to do what they decide is best for the community in general.

[rdonj]

Originally Posted by Verjigorm

At the risk of being unpopular, I have always found that forum trolls are always of detriment to the community regardless of whatever contributions they make. They drive away new people and make others want to leave or not participate.

Any mods those guys made are contributions prior. They can still play--they just can't be nasty on the forums which is how it was explained.

If they want to get hot over spitting in the face of the mods after being offered a chance to return, that's fine. I'm sure there are other people who will be more than willing to take up the slack that was left from their departure, and perhaps with weeds pulled the community as a whole will be better off.

I don't have anything against any of them personally, nor do I know the event that caused the bans in the first place and I don't care. I have been on many forums and without qualification, trolls are always a negative force regardless of how much useful information may be stored within them. Anything within them can be found elsewhere.

I spent probably 30 minutes the other day responding to what I thought was a request for strategy assistance only to find that it was some dude trolling and trying to start fights by insulting anyone who tried to help in earnest for whatever purpose. That thread has been deleted. Forums are Dictatorships not Democracies. Rules are generalities not absolutes. Mods have discretionary power to do what they decide is best for the community in general.

Sombre - made mods, you know exactly why he was banned, and if you don't it's very easy to figure it out why since it is posted both here and in more complete detail on the forum people are migrating to. Sombre never spit in the face of the mods for offering to return him... he was never offered this so far as I'm aware. If you want to accuse him of doing something, at least make sure it's something he actually did.

Maerlande - did not make mods, had a grudge against septimius and said some things about him in the past, definitely a troll, but the vast majority of this was of a subtle and/or harmless type. With regards to the deleted thread in question, I once again refute accusations of baiting people into arguments. I saw that thread, I posted in it, and you and peter ebesson were being just as abusive of him there as sombre ever has been, I am not kidding at all when I say this. The two of you got the already hostile IRC crowd riled up, and that's what got you hit. Sorry, but it was your own fault. *shrug*

Frozen Lama and Trumanator - Neither modders or trolls. Perfectly helpful and decent members of the community, until they were set off by the banning. They got banned because they wanted to be banned, no more, no less. Don't go painting everyone with the same brush, whether out of malice, ignorance, or laziness.

There are a good number of IRC folk with similar opinions who just did not go so far as to get themselves banned, and IRC people constitute probably at least 70% of people who regularly post advice to people. You may be an experienced enough player not to care about these people leaving the forums, but there are a lot of people who SHOULD care. Anyway I have nothing else to add to this that wasn't said yesterday.

[Verjigorm]

Originally Posted by rdonj

...
Maerlande - did not make mods, had a grudge against septimius and said some things about him in the past, definitely a troll, but the vast majority of this was of a subtle and/or harmless type. With regards to the deleted thread in question, I once again refute accusations of baiting people into arguments. I saw that thread, I posted in it, and you and peter ebesson were being just as abusive of him there as sombre ever has been, I am not kidding at all when I say this. The two of you got the already hostile IRC crowd riled up, and that's what got you hit. Sorry, but it was your own fault. *shrug*

I did not make any rude comments. I didn't say anything insulting except to reference the fact that the suggested strategy was not a good one. In the beginning, I suggested that rather cordially, but when he began trolling via insult, I responded more bluntly. Then the troll-posters proceeded to try to make fun of me for not understanding their inside info--I don't hang on IRC, so I have no idea what they're talking about. I pop on to look for strategy info, play with mods, and help out if people need something.

I don't come here for drama. If people want to talk about me on some IRC channel that's fine. People who make decisions about my character without reason are probably not going to like me anyway. That doesn't make me a bad person just to not be liked by some random Internet people. I'm sure there are plenty of fine people to talk to who have better manners.

As for the "Sombre wasn't offered a chance" defense, I believe, I can refer you to Annette's posting wherein she offered to let him stay provided he agreed not to continue his negative behavior and he refused to do so. I assume he was trying to leverage the fact that he's good at making mods to give him free reign to do as he pleased on the boards which is an invalid argument.

That being said, I'm not going to continue responding to this nonsense hereafter. I was not talking about the other two mentioned, only Sombre and Maerlund, though Tru was trolling in the aforesaid thread as well.

Thank you,

V

...and I'm not a mean person, but I do reserve the right to defend myself when attacked. Although, I do not do so through childish name calling and mockery, but through valid and hopefully profitable debate.