The Joys of Overzealous Moderators

[Stagger Lee]

Originally Posted by Gandalf Parker

Well if he had a reason and was contrite then rolling the accounts into one has happened in the past.

Originally Posted by Gandalf Parker

You guys are really something about digging up stuff from years ago. That might be a couple years farther back than even the blog incident. Wow.

Actually I was referring to something more recent iirc altho still enough years ago that many here might not remember.
My accounts were blended at the great site conversion along with lots of other people. That was when they did a huge update to the forum software and a bunch of things broke for awhile. The account blending for me didnt go quite like I wanted since my usual account login gp1628 was blended into my name account. But I didnt want to lose my "joined" date to fix it. Its kindof a pain to remember to use my full name to login with instead of the way I do hundreds of other sites.

Most of the blends at the time were for people who remade for reasons like forgetting their passwords or wanting a space login for Space Empires and a fantasy login for posting to Dom3. They all werent mass-banned. Just asked why and it was fixed if they said they would comply from then on. Most got the "chance to volunteer to be banned" conversation that used to be pretty standard altho that was back when there was more staff.

I think the guy you said was already gone long before that.

It wasn't me, it was some other guy = the alt definition of contrite?

[Foodstamp]

Every time something like this happens, the other forum turns into a victim support group.

[Fantomen]

That's a compliment I think. ****nel treats person x like **** - community turns into support group for person x, hard to see anything wrong with that.

[momfreeek]

ChrisP is certainly getting a hard time of it. I've been told the general history and understand the animosity but you're really out to get him, Fantomen. You have a history with this guy personally?

Originally Posted by Stagger Lee

It wasn't me, it was some other guy = the alt definition of contrite?

I see "contrite" but I don't see how its misused. Am I missing another example..?

[rdonj]

Personally I don't think either calahan or chrispedersen should have been banned for the reasons they were. Both were pretty lame reasons for banning, in the scheme of things.

[Executor]

That's my general feeling as well. Buy hey, we all know Shrapnel is in for all or nothing when it comes to these things.

[Fantomen]

I wouldn't want any person banned ever, if it was up to me.

What I would require of Chrispedersen, Gandalf and other people who use alt accounts, is to be honest about it. Do I have a personal history with Chrispedersen? I've played with him and found him a very dishonest and generally frustrating player, but all that I can accept, it's only the part where he creates an alt account to avoid standing up for himself, then keeps acting like a douche, then won't fess up when he's exposed, that I think is really not ok.

What Stagger lee points out in his post is that Gandalf still pretends like he wasn't wikd thots, which was proven, a correct use of "contrite" would require a confession, no? Again, I don't care that he made alt accounts to fake flaming himself, I mean that's actually pretty funny and could be a good joke all around, but it requires that you stand up for what you do.

But the bottom line of all this is the hypocrisy in banning some of the most genuinely contributing members of the community, just because they don't bother to hide their less flattering sides. It's the inability and laziness in not actually bothering to see what's really there. I don't want anyone banned, it's a retarded system, but if you're gonna use it at least use it somewhat responsibly instead of actively harming the community.

[Anaconda]

Just noted that Shrapnel removed their randomly appearing Eat Electric Death -banner ad from the loop of the banner ads at the top of the site after this ruckus started. It is, say, 4 years since the game was unofficially abandoned? Are they waking up?

But last night you could still pick it up from the Gamers Front...

[parone]

remmember, shrapnel doesn't really know or care what goes on here. they don't know the members. don't know who contributes what, who's a decent lass or lad, or who is a total d-bag.

they have what? 20 forums? while we all like dominions and have friends within the community(like callahan), they just throw it on a server and classify it "game support". so it isn't that surprising they might get it wrong now and then.

[Executor]

Originally Posted by parone

remmember, shrapnel doesn't really know or care what goes on here. they don't know the members. don't know who contributes what, who's a decent lass or lad, or who is a total d-bag.

And this is the heart of the problem. Shrapnel doesn't seem to realize this affects them, and not in a small way either. And this is also a problem which could have been easily solved with little to no effort from their part.
How they run their forums directly impacts their sales. If they run it badly (which I think they do), don't care about their members, threat them with disrespect, generally don't bother at all with anything and even manage to split the forum in half like is the case with Dominions, than those members will be less inclined to purchase more Shrapnel games and recommend Shrapnel games to others. Further more, the more livelier the forum is the longer said game will last, meaning, more people will eventually buy the game, more people will get involved in projects, be interested in a sequels perhaps, which that same company might publish, etc. Shrapnel doesn't really care about any of that so it's their own problem they are losing business.

A simple solution to this would have been to appoint several very active and appreciated members to supervise the forum they are active in, and leave those mods to handle internal matters regarding those forums. Help new members, organize new projects, intervene in situations like this where two members were pointlessly banned, etc. I'm sure many member would have been glad to help (people like Soy, WL, Frozen, Maer...) and those people would actually be able to promote harmony on the forums and help the company as well.
Is that really that hard to do? And yet imagine how much better this forum would be, how much more people would be here, how many more people would actively contribute and participate on the forums, and how many more people would actually buy this game?

So I can't really accept anything in defense of Shrapnel since it's their own incompetence that's the cause of all these problems.