Conquer Club

[soapbox]
I am relatively new to the site, and just recently started browsing the forums, but, I'm awfully surprised at how much animosity people have in their posts when referring to or directly addressing the admins/mods/site owners, etc.

Now, I'm not privy to all that's happened to lead up to this, and I really don't care, but I think if I had the ban hammer to swing I'd be out of breath.

I'm not looking to flame anyone in particular, or kiss any ass, I just think folks could show a little appreciation/courtesy for people that are doing work, most of them for free, to support this place. If you really don't agree with them, or really don't like this place, instead of trolling on here trying to start fights with the admins and mods, maybe you should consider other ways to spend your time.

I'm sure you're probably discouraging other potential new players and members of the forum with this kind of behavior. I am members of other forums that are really like a community, but not this one. I like this place, and I have fun with the games, but the forum is nothing I'll spend a lot of time on until this type of thing stops. I'm sure you will remind me that you will be no worse for the loss.
[/soapbox]

Well that was very sweet of you to say that. What a darling young man.

72o wrote:[soapbox]
I am relatively new to the site, and just recently started browsing the forums, but, I'm awfully surprised at how much animosity people have in their posts when referring to or directly addressing the admins/mods/site owners, etc.

Now, I'm not privy to all that's happened to lead up to this, and I really don't care, but I think if I had the ban hammer to swing I'd be out of breath.

I'm not looking to flame anyone in particular, or kiss any ass, I just think folks could show a little appreciation/courtesy for people that are doing work, most of them for free, to support this place. If you really don't agree with them, or really don't like this place, instead of trolling on here trying to start fights with the admins and mods, maybe you should consider other ways to spend your time.

I'm sure you're probably discouraging other potential new players and members of the forum with this kind of behavior. I am members of other forums that are really like a community, but not this one. I like this place, and I have fun with the games, but the forum is nothing I'll spend a lot of time on until this type of thing stops. I'm sure you will remind me that you will be no worse for the loss.
[/soapbox]

it wasnt always like this, there has recently been an influx of trolls, mostly attempting to get friends of theirs unbanned for trolling... it will take time for all of them to get through all of their warnings. but once theyve all been warned a dozen times, then comes the bans....

one day we will have our general discussion forum back, and it will be good, til theyve banned all the troublesome folks it will be like this tho...

72o wrote:[soapbox]
I am relatively new to the site, and just recently started browsing the forums, but, I'm awfully surprised at how much animosity people have in their posts when referring to or directly addressing the admins/mods/site owners, etc.

Now, I'm not privy to all that's happened to lead up to this, and I really don't care, but I think if I had the ban hammer to swing I'd be out of breath.

I'm not looking to flame anyone in particular, or kiss any ass, I just think folks could show a little appreciation/courtesy for people that are doing work, most of them for free, to support this place. If you really don't agree with them, or really don't like this place, instead of trolling on here trying to start fights with the admins and mods, maybe you should consider other ways to spend your time.

I'm sure you're probably discouraging other potential new players and members of the forum with this kind of behavior. I am members of other forums that are really like a community, but not this one. I like this place, and I have fun with the games, but the forum is nothing I'll spend a lot of time on until this type of thing stops. I'm sure you will remind me that you will be no worse for the loss.
[/soapbox]

Well, you are parially correct, but one of the things you miss with the situation, which is what many miss, is that some people really just like to complain. They simply look for any reason to complain whatsoever, and so it wont matter what the mods do, how the site is run, who is in charge, some will complain, no matter what. Some are at least intelligent enough to know this. Others truly dont even realize that it is simply some subconscious need to complain about something that is triggering their thoughts on the subject.

They actually are able to convince themselves, that they are doing good, and fighting the good fight, and fighting the establishment, and that their actions are worthy of respect, and are useful. However, most are just here to play a game. Some are good at the world domination game. Some are good at the forum game. Some are good at both. Others arent well... as good.

In any case, you cant let others dictate what you do or how you act. There are plenty of great people here on CC. Most are good people actually. They are successful, intelligent, fun loving games of all ages, nationalities and creeds. Most, and by most, I mean the absolute vast majority, dont post alot, and just come here to have some fun.

Now, obviously, others simply come to well, vandalize it. In every community on the web, every city, every town, there will be vandals. There will be those that simply are not happy, unless they are trying to make others unhappy, or simply waste their time. But in the end, they pay a price, because as good as denial can be, at shielding oneself from ones actions, no one is truly that blind. And if they are, they are helplessly lost to the point where it simply doesnt matter...so.... in response to the body of your post.

Of course to some degree you are correct, but thats no reason to let it affect your time here on CC. Spend your time countering it, ignoring it, or even joining in without breaking the rules if thats your pleasure, but dont let negative people or posts affect you, because in the end, whatever is posted really doesnt matter, and its all just amusement of one kind or another.

72o wrote:[soapbox]
I'm sure you're probably discouraging other potential new players and members of the forum with this kind of behavior. I am members of other forums that are really like a community, but not this one. I like this place, and I have fun with the games, but the forum is nothing I'll spend a lot of time on until this type of thing stops. I'm sure you will remind me that you will be no worse for the loss.
[/soapbox]

As Fitz just said, there are far more people here who are decent. If you like debates, there are a couple of user groups dedicated to civil debate. No one can gaurantee you won't find a few jerks, even there, but they do tend to get ousted more quickly than from the regular forums.

hwhrhett wrote: but once theyve all been warned a dozen times, then comes the bans...

really? a dozen? where did you come up with that number? takes six posts to get you perma-banned... so, if you are smart, you'll just keep kissin' up...-0

Some people enjoy pissing in the wind and I believe that's their priviledge,
but blaming the mods for bannage timeouts is still kind of silly.

Many people require less subtle hints than others to get the full picture.

72o wrote:Now, I'm not privy to all that's happened to lead up to this, and I really don't care, but I think if I had the ban hammer to swing I'd be out of breath.

I understand your desire to voice your concern, and it is great that you are doing so, however if you are to voice your concern you should care what happened to lead up to this, because that could be an issue that continually repeats itself and causes the same response forever down the line. If this is the case the issue should be stopped.

I assume though that you just felt that we would flame you or tell you to go read what happened, so you felt the need to say "I don't care"... that is fine if you aren't going to post on the matter, but like a fair judge you are going to need to hear everyone's side of the story before you make a decision on who is right and who is wrong.

Imagine if you had a tumor in your brain and because of it you were having awful headaches. You go into the doctor and he said "well I don't know what happened to cause these headaches and I don't really care, but the headaches have to stop." So he gives you advil and sends you home. The tumor is still there, and if he doesn't try to stop the root of the problem then the headaches will be there forever, even if the medicine works for a couple of weeks or months.

So some people are trying to cure the root of the problem, while others call them complainers and tell them there is no problem. Yes, it's a nasty thing to see on the forums, however people who were here for years want to fix a bad problem they see on the forums, and it's going to take some heavy scrubbing if you know what I mean. You can either help or sit by and wait for them to finish.

To help you catch up with recent events:

Subject: Welcome to Cutesy Club!
Subject: fix please
Subject: Flame Wars Removed

What you are witnessing is the blandification of the forums, the removal of all the interesting posters deemed unsafe to the moral health of the forums.

hwhrhett wrote:it wasnt always like this, there has recently been an influx of trolls, mostly attempting to get friends of theirs unbanned for trolling... it will take time for all of them to get through all of their warnings. but once theyve all been warned a dozen times, then comes the bans....

one day we will have our general discussion forum back, and it will be good, til theyve banned all the troublesome folks it will be like this tho...

Yeah, what happened to all those wonderfully exciting "Yay, I made even more points" threads. Don't worry hwhrhett, as soon as all the colourful posters are gone, you'll get your homogeneous generic congratulatory points accumulation threads back.

i actually agree with that the removal of flames wars was a good thing!

Is this the kiss ass thread.....where do I post?

72o wrote:[soapbox]
I am relatively new to the site, and just recently started browsing the forums, but, I'm awfully surprised at how much animosity people have in their posts when referring to or directly addressing the admins/mods/site owners, etc.

Now, I'm not privy to all that's happened to lead up to this, and I really don't care, but I think if I had the ban hammer to swing I'd be out of breath.

I'm not looking to flame anyone in particular, or kiss any ass, I just think folks could show a little appreciation/courtesy for people that are doing work, most of them for free, to support this place. If you really don't agree with them, or really don't like this place, instead of trolling on here trying to start fights with the admins and mods, maybe you should consider other ways to spend your time.

I'm sure you're probably discouraging other potential new players and members of the forum with this kind of behavior. I am members of other forums that are really like a community, but not this one. I like this place, and I have fun with the games, but the forum is nothing I'll spend a lot of time on until this type of thing stops. I'm sure you will remind me that you will be no worse for the loss.
[/soapbox]

Hang around...you can help me piss them off! <laughing>

"Why can't we work things out? Little people, why can't we all just get along?"

4myGod wrote:

72o wrote:Now, I'm not privy to all that's happened to lead up to this, and I really don't care, but I think if I had the ban hammer to swing I'd be out of breath.

I understand your desire to voice your concern, and it is great that you are doing so, however if you are to voice your concern you should care what happened to lead up to this, because that could be an issue that continually repeats itself and causes the same response forever down the line. If this is the case the issue should be stopped.

I assume though that you just felt that we would flame you or tell you to go read what happened, so you felt the need to say "I don't care"... that is fine if you aren't going to post on the matter, but like a fair judge you are going to need to hear everyone's side of the story before you make a decision on who is right and who is wrong.

Imagine if you had a tumor in your brain and because of it you were having awful headaches. You go into the doctor and he said "well I don't know what happened to cause these headaches and I don't really care, but the headaches have to stop." So he gives you advil and sends you home. The tumor is still there, and if he doesn't try to stop the root of the problem then the headaches will be there forever, even if the medicine works for a couple of weeks or months.

So some people are trying to cure the root of the problem, while others call them complainers and tell them there is no problem. Yes, it's a nasty thing to see on the forums, however people who were here for years want to fix a bad problem they see on the forums, and it's going to take some heavy scrubbing if you know what I mean. You can either help or sit by and wait for them to finish.

Fair point. Let me restate. I didn't mean that I don't care what happened, I meant that regardless of what happened, and who was right or wrong, the derogatory comments and continual stone-throwing at the mods is a pointless knee-jerk overreaction, regardless of what happened. I will read some of this past stuff and see if I can find where the animosity originates, but I can already be certain that whatever it was doesn't warrant this type of behavior. And why I'm also certain that if I was one of these mods, I'd be banning people too.

I just don't get how you can join a community that's been provided to you free of charge by someone else, is the property of someone else, and then you act like it's your god-given right to say how things should be!

You say that this is because they are trying to address the root of the problem. If you mean that the root of the problems are the mods and admins, why don't you just not log in anymore? Find another forum, perhaps. That would really show 'em. Maybe even <gasp> start your own forum! I think it's highly unlikely that you all are "helping" the situation with your current behavior, so I guess I'll be "sitting by and waiting for you to finish".

To use your example, if I'm continually visiting a doctor who prescribes me nothing but advil, he tells me, "tough luck, i know what's best for you and it's advil," and the headaches keep coming back, am I going to go to that doctor every day just to complain about how poor of a doctor he is? Am I going to sit in the waiting room every day, and moan on and on about the headache? Am I going to demand that I have brain surgery immediately? Or would I go to a different doctor? What if it turns out the doctor is right, and Advil is what I need? After all, I'm not a doctor.

These doctors say that Advil is what you get. I think you need to keep in mind that at the end of the day, this is someone else's place. If you have a problem with their rules or actions, it might not be the place for you.

However, since there seem to be a lot of you that like it this way, maybe it's not the place for me.

Artimis wrote:To help you catch up with recent events:

Subject: Welcome to Cutesy Club!
Subject: fix please
Subject: Flame Wars Removed

What you are witnessing is the blandification of the forums, the removal of all the interesting posters deemed unsafe to the moral health of the forums.

I wasn't around then, but assuming that you are correct, doesn't having almost every thread I've read in the past month or so degenerate into a mods suck/ban rant only further the blandification?

72o wrote:I just don't get how you can join a community that's been provided to you free of charge by someone else, is the property of someone else, and then you act like it's your god-given right to say how things should be!

"I am relatively new to the site, and just recently started browsing the forums"
Well once you're here for awhile you'll realize that there are quite a few problems with this site. It's not like people all start complaining about the same thing because "they feel like it". Most of the people here who are upset have a valid reason.

72o wrote:That would really show 'em. Maybe even <gasp> start your own forum! I think it's highly unlikely that you all are "helping" the situation with your current behavior, so I guess I'll be "sitting by and waiting for you to finish".

With your "like it or go home attitude" I wouldn't be surprised if your first on the list to join TeamCC.

72o wrote:To use your example, if I'm continually visiting a doctor who prescribes me nothing but advil, he tells me, "tough luck, i know what's best for you and it's advil," and the headaches keep coming back, am I going to go to that doctor every day just to complain about how poor of a doctor he is? Am I going to sit in the waiting room every day, and moan on and on about the headache? Am I going to demand that I have brain surgery immediately? Or would I go to a different doctor? What if it turns out the doctor is right, and Advil is what I need? After all, I'm not a doctor.

Good try, but this doesn't make sense. This would be assuming that there are "plenty of other websites to go to just like this one" just like how there are plenty of other doctors. Plus you're assuming that only a few people are complaining, but there are plenty of people in the forums that know that things need to be changed.

I mean seriously, there have been so many unwarranted bans of contributing posters that it's pretty ridiculous. If you look at the list of people who have the most posts, a lot of them have been banned for reasons that they don't even know themselves. And no, it's not because "the good guys suddenly went bad".

72o wrote:

4myGod wrote:

72o wrote:Now, I'm not privy to all that's happened to lead up to this, and I really don't care, but I think if I had the ban hammer to swing I'd be out of breath.

I understand your desire to voice your concern, and it is great that you are doing so, however if you are to voice your concern you should care what happened to lead up to this, because that could be an issue that continually repeats itself and causes the same response forever down the line. If this is the case the issue should be stopped.

I assume though that you just felt that we would flame you or tell you to go read what happened, so you felt the need to say "I don't care"... that is fine if you aren't going to post on the matter, but like a fair judge you are going to need to hear everyone's side of the story before you make a decision on who is right and who is wrong.

Imagine if you had a tumor in your brain and because of it you were having awful headaches. You go into the doctor and he said "well I don't know what happened to cause these headaches and I don't really care, but the headaches have to stop." So he gives you advil and sends you home. The tumor is still there, and if he doesn't try to stop the root of the problem then the headaches will be there forever, even if the medicine works for a couple of weeks or months.

So some people are trying to cure the root of the problem, while others call them complainers and tell them there is no problem. Yes, it's a nasty thing to see on the forums, however people who were here for years want to fix a bad problem they see on the forums, and it's going to take some heavy scrubbing if you know what I mean. You can either help or sit by and wait for them to finish.

Fair point. Let me restate. I didn't mean that I don't care what happened, I meant that regardless of what happened, and who was right or wrong, the derogatory comments and continual stone-throwing at the mods is a pointless knee-jerk overreaction, regardless of what happened. I will read some of this past stuff and see if I can find where the animosity originates, but I can already be certain that whatever it was doesn't warrant this type of behavior. And why I'm also certain that if I was one of these mods, I'd be banning people too.

I just don't get how you can join a community that's been provided to you free of charge by someone else, is the property of someone else, and then you act like it's your god-given right to say how things should be!

You say that this is because they are trying to address the root of the problem. If you mean that the root of the problems are the mods and admins, why don't you just not log in anymore? Find another forum, perhaps. That would really show 'em. Maybe even <gasp> start your own forum! I think it's highly unlikely that you all are "helping" the situation with your current behavior, so I guess I'll be "sitting by and waiting for you to finish".

To use your example, if I'm continually visiting a doctor who prescribes me nothing but advil, he tells me, "tough luck, i know what's best for you and it's advil," and the headaches keep coming back, am I going to go to that doctor every day just to complain about how poor of a doctor he is? Am I going to sit in the waiting room every day, and moan on and on about the headache? Am I going to demand that I have brain surgery immediately? Or would I go to a different doctor? What if it turns out the doctor is right, and Advil is what I need? After all, I'm not a doctor.

These doctors say that Advil is what you get. I think you need to keep in mind that at the end of the day, this is someone else's place. If you have a problem with their rules or actions, it might not be the place for you.

However, since there seem to be a lot of you that like it this way, maybe it's not the place for me.

I really liked the bolded part. It effectively states that the writer has zip understanding of what he's writing about, apparently glories in that comprehensive lack of understanding, and even more wonderfully, feels absolutely no need to go and inform himself about the issue because...

72 wrote:but I can already be certain that whatever it was doesn't warrant this type of behavior

What are you basing that statement on...blind faith? One can only imagine the catastrophic events you stumble into daily with this kind of 'thought' process.

I understand wanting to make a bit of an impact here by questioning the orthadoxy of the place, but your lamentable lack of research into the topic you are writing about just screams ignorance.

Very poor show indeed. C- must do better next time.

72o wrote:[soapbox]
I am relatively new to the site, and just recently started browsing the forums, but, I'm awfully surprised at how much animosity people have in their posts when referring to or directly addressing the admins/mods/site owners, etc.

Now, I'm not privy to all that's happened to lead up to this, and I really don't care, but I think if I had the ban hammer to swing I'd be out of breath.

I'm not looking to flame anyone in particular, or kiss any ass, I just think folks could show a little appreciation/courtesy for people that are doing work, most of them for free, to support this place. If you really don't agree with them, or really don't like this place, instead of trolling on here trying to start fights with the admins and mods, maybe you should consider other ways to spend your time.

I'm sure you're probably discouraging other potential new players and members of the forum with this kind of behavior. I am members of other forums that are really like a community, but not this one. I like this place, and I have fun with the games, but the forum is nothing I'll spend a lot of time on until this type of thing stops. I'm sure you will remind me that you will be no worse for the loss.
[/soapbox]

After half a sentence my gut reaction was go f..., well you get the idea. Strangely though, after a while I have to admit that you make a really good point. The mods who are doing this for free really do deserve some thanks instead of all this bitching. And this was actually a very well written post (except the "I am members" part).

Anyways, I actually agree with most of this. May even send a thank you to all the mods who work for free. I'll still bitch to the guys who get paid though. Andy, can we have a list of all the mods and which ones get paid and which don't?

The change in the amount of bans being issued stems from a change in mod/admin behaviour. Either that, or a lot of long-standing, regular contributors to the forum have all had an unexplainable shift in attitude at around the same time.

I can tell you, with certainty, which of those two options at least one of the admins thinks is the case.

72o wrote:Fair point. Let me restate. I didn't mean that I don't care what happened, I meant that regardless of what happened, and who was right or wrong, the derogatory comments and continual stone-throwing at the mods is a pointless knee-jerk overreaction, regardless of what happened. I will read some of this past stuff and see if I can find where the animosity originates, but I can already be certain that whatever it was doesn't warrant this type of behavior. And why I'm also certain that if I was one of these mods, I'd be banning people too.

I just don't get how you can join a community that's been provided to you free of charge by someone else, is the property of someone else, and then you act like it's your god-given right to say how things should be!

You say that this is because they are trying to address the root of the problem. If you mean that the root of the problems are the mods and admins, why don't you just not log in anymore? Find another forum, perhaps. That would really show 'em. Maybe even <gasp> start your own forum! I think it's highly unlikely that you all are "helping" the situation with your current behavior, so I guess I'll be "sitting by and waiting for you to finish".

To use your example, if I'm continually visiting a doctor who prescribes me nothing but advil, he tells me, "tough luck, i know what's best for you and it's advil," and the headaches keep coming back, am I going to go to that doctor every day just to complain about how poor of a doctor he is? Am I going to sit in the waiting room every day, and moan on and on about the headache? Am I going to demand that I have brain surgery immediately? Or would I go to a different doctor? What if it turns out the doctor is right, and Advil is what I need? After all, I'm not a doctor.

These doctors say that Advil is what you get. I think you need to keep in mind that at the end of the day, this is someone else's place. If you have a problem with their rules or actions, it might not be the place for you.

However, since there seem to be a lot of you that like it this way, maybe it's not the place for me.

It sounds as if the gist of your idea is, these forums aren't ours, therefor if we don't like the way they are being run, whether we have good reason or not, we should leave and find a new website.

This is understandable from the point of view from someone who just came to the site and looked it over, however to some of those guys out there who have put A LOT of time/effort into helping create the site what it is today, they might disagree. They feel that this site is as much theirs as it is lacks. Everyone knows lack owns it, however some people feel they have been wronged, and they are going to fight it.

Here is the problems I have noticed people complain about in my short time here:

1. The escalating ban gets too high with a perma ban after 6 minor offenses.
2. The rules are too general which makes it so that nearly every post on the board can be breaking one of the rules if a mod wanted it to.
3. Perhaps because of 1 & 2, the mods end up punishing people unequally, some getting punished for the same thing others are doing without getting punished.

Right now we are working in a thread to lessen the 6 months, and soon after will probably help Team CC fix the other problems, however now what people are complaining about is that their old friends who got banned on what soon will be "the old system" are not going to be unbanned. So they are pushing to get their friends back here because they feel they were unfairly banned.

You need to be careful bud, not everyone is a rock, some people have emotions. And relationships online that last years are the same to some people as relationships in real life that last years. Then when someone takes away from them what they have it distresses them.

I have seen other forums where certain regulars from here frequent, however it's not the same because they are connected to everyone who plays this game, it's the community they are addicted to, not just the forums.

How many more admin/mod generated pseudo members are we going to see?

Fruitcake wrote:How many more admin/mod generated pseudo members are we going to see?

How long is a piece of string?

Ok, I figured I would take a lot of flak for not having all the facts before speaking. I will refrain from making judgment until I have read everything that you tell me is relevant to the current situation. Mr. C, please feel free to provide your approval/disapproval of my research efforts, or lack thereof.

The 3 posts I was referred to earlier, about the "blandification" of the forums, didn't appear to me to be somehow indicative of a radical shift in mod/admin behavior towards a 'thought police' type of mentality. Here are my thoughts on what I was told to read (all of this is in my opinion):

They played a joke on April Fool's Day. They made the website pink, and modified a lot of other details that probably took some effort and time. They removed the flame wars forum and replaced it with a fluff forum. Several people said, to paraphrase, "I will never come back because of this, even if they change it back". That is an overreaction, in my opinion. If you don't agree, let's discuss. If there were other parts of that thread that displayed the mod hatemongering you attest to, let's quote them.

Flame wars was not reinstated after April Fool's Day. As was mentioned several times, they had talked about removing Flame Wars for some time, and it was on its way out. That 20-page thread is full of useless flames at either side of the argument, with little actual discussion. The main point I got from the pro-Flame Wars side was the insistence that you all should have been notified, been given a valid reason for removing the forum, and apparently all been asked to give your blessing to this decision.

This doesn't make sense to me. As was mentioned in the thread, there is probably some monetary impact to the site of having an entire subforum that is full of explicit language, racism, bigotry, and god knows what else kinds of insults. I don't know, I wasn't here, but I get the idea. Like it or not, Lack owns this business, and I'm quite certain he doesn't feel that he should have to relinquish any potential additional revenue if the pro-flame wars guys tell him to. Sure, some of them have likely made large investments of time and efforts into this site. That doesn't make it any less his decision. They were permitted to reap the benefits (better gameplay) of their efforts during their time here.

The argument that "this will only increase flames outside of flame wars" misses the point entirely. The flames in flame wars gives the impressions that flames are acceptable on this site. Apparently that is not the intended impression. They don't want flaming on this site at all. So, when the flaming returns outside of flame wars, it is now enforceable with the inevitable bans. The fact that more people are getting banned now is because they couldn't refrain from the flaming that they had become so accustomed to. That seems logical to me.

For the complaints about the number of banned members and the escalating ban getting too high, I will defer my comments until I am adequately prepared for a discussion. I don't have enough information to speak intelligently on the topic. I would appreciate any references to threads/posts/anything that would give me a starting point for understanding the severity of the banning epidemic.

I don't pretend to be an authority on this subject, or any other for that matter. I'd just like to create a discussion that would actually be focused on issues and their possible resolution, and possibly curtail the pointless insult-hurling of the mods and admins that many threads seem to devolve into.

For the record, I'm not a admin/mod multi, nor am I friends with any of them, related to them, etc. I don't have any aspirations to be a member of their team, I have no ulterior motive. I just like to browse the forum while I'm waiting for turns, and found that too many threads are the same folks with the same contempt for the current "administration".

72o wrote:For the complaints about the number of banned members and the escalating ban getting too high, I will defer my comments until I am adequately prepared for a discussion. I don't have enough information to speak intelligently on the topic. I would appreciate any references to threads/posts/anything that would give me a starting point for understanding the severity of the banning epidemic.

I don't pretend to be an authority on this subject, or any other for that matter. I'd just like to create a discussion that would actually be focused on issues and their possible resolution, and possibly curtail the pointless insult-hurling of the mods and admins that many threads seem to devolve into.

For the record, I'm not a admin/mod multi, nor am I friends with any of them, related to them, etc. I don't have any aspirations to be a member of their team, I have no ulterior motive. I just like to browse the forum while I'm waiting for turns, and found that too many threads are the same folks with the same contempt for the current "administration".

I just received a formal warning for posting a picture of Michelangelo's David. I'd post a link to Wikipedia so you know what I'm talking about, but I can't do that because it includes a picture of the statue. The statue can also be seen with Googles Image search filter set to "Strict". I'm waiting to try it against a sonicwall content filtering firewall and see if it's "bad".

72o wrote:Ok, I figured... same contempt for the current "administration".

Supposedly the thread that got Dancing Mustard perma-banned is in my signature, feel free to read that as well, try to separate people from each other when reading comments. Often times you can easily group up a whole side saying they are full of nothing but spammers and flamers, when in reality there is a few individuals who are fighting for the same cause but using a less aggressive approach.

It is going to be hard for anyone to take your opinion seriously though as you have already shown that you have a huge bias towards the mods/admins and that you think no matter what the situation is everyone who is against the mods/admins are wrong.