Stratics: The "unvarnished" events of the past few days

[Nexus]

Ditto, but I have been here closer to 10 years. It would seem Elenni is the key member of the Gamer's Gambit, LLC.

Copied from Wikipedia's Stratics page (Stratics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

"In December of 2015, Bazaaro Community, Inc., placed Stratics up for sale and following a successful crowd funding campaign [6] the website was purchased by a team consisting of several of the administrative volunteer staff members, who have organized to form Gamer's Gambit, LLC. to act as the principle owner of Stratics.com and associated properties on behalf of the community at large."

Oh you mean to highlight the portion that was added 2 days ago by a random individual who isn't named on the pages history?

 

[hen]

Who is Elenni? Joins in Sep 2015 and within a few months is sitting with the bank card with all the donations.

 

[JC the Builder]

Oh my goodness gracious; the lure of more drama and untold secrets and gossip...don't anyone leave your seat!

I don't know what else to say to move this discussion forward into a more productive area. I also can't imagine how things are going to be even 1 week from now.

This whole mess started inside Stratics. Instead of trying to clean it up we get the forum rules thrown out the window and a slugfest in this thread. Whether or not Norrington acted on his own to ban people, that is not the main issue here. Neither is whether every i is dotted on the LLC paperwork.

People are upset and frustrated over Stratics itself and there has been no visible progress or future plans to make things better in the four months since the site changed ownership.

 

[OREOGL]

I don't know what else to say to move this discussion forward into a more productive area. I also can't imagine how things are going to be even 1 week from now.

This whole mess started inside Stratics. Instead of trying to clean it up we get the forum rules thrown out the window and a slugfest in this thread. Whether or not Norrington acted on his own to ban people, that is not the main issue here. Neither is whether every i is dotted on the LLC paperwork.

People are upset and frustrated over Stratics itself and there has been no visible progress or future plans to make things better in the four months since the site changed ownership.

At this point, there is nothing we can do.
I'm sorry that things devolved so much in the past week, namely that included targeting yourself and the few others.
There are decisions you will all have to make about the continued involvement with the community.

I encourage you to think if it is currently worth carrying a pitchfork and torch at the continued expense of everyone but the few individuals involved.

One day I hope you all can put this behind you and forgive them, or at the very least move on to salvage the community here.

Thanks for your continued support in the UO community.

I hope you find the answers you're looking for.

 

[Eärendil]

Thanks for the final words. And now back to Business...

 

[Archnight]

I think this pretty much sums it all up...

To jC/Link: If you end up buying Stratics the 4th time, then and only then will you get to decide the rules

 

[BrianFreud]

Wake up. This place has been overmoderated to the point of irrelevance and near-death for years. You have maybe a couple dozen active posters tops, and as of this moment there's still a post from February on the front page of your busiest forum.

Reality check time. I've personally held an auction as recently as last month with 70+ unique winners. Yes, that's not even counting bidders; that's only people who actually won something and then met with me in game. 70 is rather a bit more than 24.
Additionally, Rares forum, bottom thread at the moment was posted on Apr 10, 2016. Trader's Hall, the bottom thread was posted 2 days ago.
Your "facts" seem to be rather non-factual.

 

[whiterabbit]

Is it alright for the police to form a list of common criminals to round up and shoot? I mean, they HAVE been proven to break the law in the past. Might as well get them before they can break the law again right?

they have a list " most wanted"

 

[Keith of Sonoma]

I was called a racist then used this slander against me by your supreme leader. Nothing is happening to that person. Do you really think I care? I will be checking into the legal aspects of this.

This is the funniest/most childish thing I have seen on the whole thread. Thank you for giving me something to laugh about! OMG "legal aspects"! ROFL

 

[BrianFreud]

I don't know what else to say to move this discussion forward into a more productive area. I also can't imagine how things are going to be even 1 week from now.

You know, one step towards ending this might be for you to lock the attack threads at HOT.

People are upset and frustrated over Stratics itself and there has been no visible progress or future plans to make things better in the four months since the site changed ownership.

JC, you have no concept of what is being worked on. State of the site posts have been documenting the behind the scenes work which already has been announced, vis hardware, licenses, etc. So in both regards, you have absolutely no clue what you are talking about.

This whole mess started inside Stratics. Instead of trying to clean it up we get the forum rules thrown out the window and a slugfest in this thread. Whether or not Norrington acted on his own to ban people, that is not the main issue here. Neither is whether every i is dotted on the LLC paperwork.

As for the forum rules, the only people being attacked (counter to the rules) in this thread are staff, mods, and specifically the senior staff. There's also been at least twice now where someone has directly evaded the swear filter, among other rules that have been broken but overlooked by the mods. You yourself have been posting innuendo and attacking, and in no way improving the situation.

I will only suggest that you follow your own advice when you yourself told one of these same people to stop posting this same crap on your site.



Oi! Might that be the beginnings of the exact same moderation that Stratics has to do, for exactly the same people and the same reasons?

 

[Picus at the office]

Why would a thread on a different board matter at all to this site? If the people who ran this place gave a minor thought to the long term they would be remaking actual info for the game. Reworking all that Petra did and redoing what Link has/had at uoguide. This is a forum and nothing more, old content and crap management.

Get a clue.

 

[Oscar the Grouch]

All,

I have been reading through this thread as it has transpired and I know a lot of questions have come up and some have been answered. Getting to the 307'th post (312 as I typed) I can't remember if there are any that I need to answer so if you want to throw something at me just do the @Oscar the Grouch. I apologize for not interjecting earlier but this has been a very busy week for me professionally and any spare time I have had I've been looking into the recent slowdowns on the site.

Transparency:
About me:

Ultima:
Joined in June 1999, quit Sept 2006 for the birth of my first son, re-joined February 2009.
Home shard: Catskills
Primary shard: Atlantic
Like Giggles, PvP is my favorite activity though also like Giggles I don't have time to participate as much as some.
Full Transparency, I joined HOT in February 2011 (I went and found my application back when they did applications). Yes this means I am actually in a guild with JC. Has this situation caused a single issue between us? No, we have always had good communications. I think we both hope that we can still improve relations between Stratics and UOGuide. Actually I am probably in guilds on various shards with many of the PvPers who post on Stratics. Disclaimer: I am not a pvper, I am a pp-pvper (piss-poor).

Stratics:
Joined in Oct 2001 (still have the sign up e-mail which is the only reason I know this)
Became staff as a moderator in 2009.
Became part of the Administrative team in when Ron Bron took over. I was actually recommended to him by Zuckuss. I migrated from moderation to site support during that time due to being a Server/Network Administrator by trade.
When Stratics went up for sale I jumped on board with the other Senior Staff to help out. That isn't exactly true, Zuckuss persuaded me to jump on board with the other Senior Staff to help out. Elenni (who many have asked about) solidified it for me as I was impressed with her wealth of professional knowledge and experience especially in publishing. Full disclosure, I originally intended to purchase Stratics out right but I was inspired by what the community was doing and stepped down from that. It would have been out of my comfort zone anyway when it passed the 9k mark.

Today:
I don't get involved in "community" management very frequently. My personal and professional life keeps me very busy so it is a challenge to stay on top of the community at large. I do try and stay involved in major decisions. Admittedly "the list" was not something I had exposure to yet until it blew up. Truthfully I didn't even hear about it until I received an ICQ from JC. I have been working with the other Senior Staff since to try and resolve this situation. It isn't that I didn't have access to "the list" but more so I hadn't caught up on Stratics business to know it was being discussed. Generally I do all of my work behind the scenes and that doesn't always require constant interaction with the other board members.

Moving forward:
My goal has always been to bring the larger (not just Stratics) community together. I've been in contact in the past with Kayhynn (UOForums) and of course JC. I'd still like to see this happen. There are hard feelings and some of them will fester while others will smooth out. We will make mistakes, I will make mistakes. Hopefully we learn from them. I don't actually dislike anyone in this community. I may cringe sometimes at things people do but that is part of being human.

The larger community:
What I have gotten from this thread is that everyone is looking for a fair moderation system. I am positive no system will be perfect but one that minimizes perceived or real favoritism is attainable. I think most people who are put in charge of moderation want clearly defined criteria so there is little need for interpretation. We can't cover everything but hopefully we can get something that works. I don't believe in banning people because they annoy me sometimes. If that were the case most of my friends would have been banned at one point or another. I can't promise Stratics will be perfect, what I can promise though is we are trying.

JC:
A lot of people were upset about what happened to JC, I was too. Some folks have trouble understanding JC's perspective and personality. I won't claim to be his best buddy and know him 100%. We don't exchange thousands of text and have one of those new age "bor-mances". What do I know? He has thick skin and is community minded. Was he upset about some of this mess? Probably, ask him. Not once did I see him refuse to work through anything though.

Ending:
Stratics is more than a forum but it isn't everything and it shouldn't be. I didn't get involved with the Stratics board to make this site the end-all be-all of UO. Stratics is part of the greater UO meta and that my friends is what I want to see come together and thrive.

I just typed this up quick before a meeting, if things don't make sense I will try and clarify them later. Thanks for reading to those who made it through this post.

**edited to spell Kayhynn's name correct.

 

[Uriah Heep]

After reading Nexus's postings, I can see that Stratics has evolved from what it was when I started here into a Country Club. One whose membership dues are donations, and being submissive enough to stfu and do what you are told. And only post about pretty fairies and tall hunting tales.

Got it, why didnt ya just say so in plain English.

 

[Archnight]

After reading Nexus's postings, I can see that Stratics has evolved from what it was when I started here into a Country Club. One whose membership dues are donations, and being submissive enough to stfu and do what you are told. And only post about pretty fairies and tall hunting tales.

Got it, why didnt ya just say so in plain English.

Well that's funny cause I don't see your SUPPORTER banner or donation... care to donate to prove your point

 

[Uriah Heep]

Well that's funny cause I don't see your SUPPORTER banner or donation... care to donate to prove your point

Lol. I support everytime I click the link to come here, dummy. And you proved my point about the Country Club mentality---don't have a support tag you don't belong and your opinion doesn't mean ****.

Thanks for making the point.

 

[Archnight]

Lol. I support everytime I click the link to come here, dummy. And you proved my point about the Country Club mentality---don't have a support tag you don't belong and your opinion doesn't mean ****.

Thanks for making the point.

Sure anytime and thanks for making this one, I guess your not only cheap

Hello, My name is Uriah Heep, and I am an ass.

 

[Winker]

I stopped coming to stratics when it was under the rule of Petra. This place was corrupt and the moderation was stifling discussions about UO. Bans left right and centre. Threads locked or deleted just because Admin felt it went against their idea of what we should be discussing. The privileged were allowed freedom of speech and the rest of us had to fall in to line. Anyone not toeing the line was deemed to be a trouble maker and treated as a trouble maker.


I started to come back to stratics when I heard the players/posters had bought stratics out. I had hopped there would be more freedom of speech and there would be less corruption from the admin team.


Reading this thread let me see nothing has changed and its more than likely never going to change. Its engrained into the stratics admin culture now. I think the stratics RoC has much to do with it. The stifling of discussion about what Admin get up to, is a real problem. When admin can do and say things that are not up for discussion without fear of being banned creates an atmosphere much like they have in Russia.


Sad to see nothing has changed. I may just do what I did for the last 2 years and ignore stratics and just play the game.

 

[GarthGrey]

Glad I could oblige. Now go stfu so I can eat some popcorn and see what other barking can be heard.


(and of course, if you really know me, you now just how serious i am... oi)

There are quite a few moderator/supporter people and also regular posters on here that also need to stfu, but they can't seem to stop themselves from getting "the last word" in.

 

[Kayhynn]

I can't believe I'm about to do this, but screw it, here it goes.

Former Stratics Reporter, Former Stratics News Manager, Former Stratics Content Manager, and perhaps the most important former title, Former Stratics PR Coordinator

Previous Community Manager/Forum Admin for Twin Galaxies International.

Current Forum Admin/Community Manager for an unnamed professional forum and UOForums. And let's throw in Owner/Manager of UOHomeDecor.

All of that said, the situation here sucks - not just for the community as a whole but the staff as a whole as well.

I think what everyone here is forgetting is that the staff, just like the community, are human beings and as human beings we err.

The leadership was, obviously, looking at ways to reduce some of their work load. Some of the reasons and justifications on some of the bans might not have been totally within the ROC, others were. Some of the people on the list have admitted that they probably deserve it. Not to throw anyone under the bus here, but @Aran has been perma-banned (i doubt he'll deny that) in the past due to his behaviors and actions and that was lifted when the site moved from the ancient system Stratics had pre-2009 to VBB. He's cleaned up his act a lot since then, but still toes the line at times (I don't see all of his posts, so I'll assume he's probably crossed the line sometimes too).

Clops violated his volunteer agreement (no, I won't call it an NDA, because no where on the document did it state it was a Non-Disclosure Agreement and every NDA I've signed has clearly stated it was NDA and required signatures of both parties). I think, perhaps, in part, he did so because he felt that creating a list of people to permanent ban was wrong. While I agree that a list is wrong - it should be a thread per user, well documented with violations that shows their violations of the forum rules repeatedly - it happened by a group of people who are relatively new to running a COMMUNITY as big and volatile as Stratics.

As I mentioned earlier - everyone here - moderators, staff, board of directors - is human and humans err. There was an error made here, which I am sure they are learning from. And while I'm sure that everyone here has different opinions on how a forum should be handled, I'm also positive they are handling things to the best of their abilities - whether or not we agree with it. If you were in the same shoes, I'm sure there would be situations, that if released to the community at large, would be just as adamantly disagreed with.

While I don't agree with how things were handled, I understand that things happen and we make errors of judgement when we make decisions. I think everyone needs to step back and let things cool down just a bit.

Community, remember, staff and board members are human and make mistakes. Staff and board members, remember that the community members are human and make mistakes. At this point, apologies from both sides would go a long way to repairing this rift. Just something to think on.

 

[Shamus Turlough]

Well that's funny cause I don't see your SUPPORTER banner or donation... care to donate to prove your point

You won't see that banner under my name either. I have never been in the habit of swimming TOWARD a sinking ship..

 

[Tyrath]

The bigger concern for me here is the secret forum where the senior staff trash talks the regular users. The next concern is the level of bias by some of the staff. Grandma used to say "Don't talk behind someones back unless you have said it to their face first." Sure looks like the senior staff could have learned a lot of Grandma.

 

[elster]

Is it against the rules for the staff to be involved in any in-game cheating? For an example, using unapproved third party programs and scripts?

 

[Uvtha]

What world do you live in? Police officers keep records on habitual offenders.

heh, that's what I was thinking.

 

[Uvtha]

sheshhhh folks.. we are talking about a website and some forums, not a nuclear weapon or Top Secret Military maneuvers... at this point the river card has been turned, the bet called and time for all the cards to be on the table... smh

Yeah, I think it's pretty funny how gravely everyone (mods and posters) are framing all this. It's a forum for a dying nearly 20 year old game, people.

 

[Poo]

wowsers!

very interesting thread.
i find it more interesting to see peoples responses to this thread then to what happened.
i like how the trolls of stratics still find time in their day to come in and troll a thread that started out as a admin troll hunt. you can cut that irony with a knife!

what have i got to say about all of this?
nothing.
while a active member of the community me coming on here and getting some kicks in on people isnt gonna do anything but perpetuate the landslide of hate and resentment that is picking up speed already.

do i like the current mod/admin team?
i can honestly say i have no opinion on them, i dont know a single one of them.
do they or have they done a good job.... looks like they are doing ok, i dont see too many over the top posts and if ones come up they get killed in a fair amount of time. from a x-mod i cant find fault in how they are working the site.

did they mess up with their list?
while an interesting way to approach the problem im sure they understand now after learning the hard way that nothing is secret on the internet.
that said i can see what they where trying to accomplish with the list.
truth be told if i was asked as a long term member of this community and x-mod to make a list of people who should be posted on a moderator only forum so everyone was on the same page and watching the same people my list would have looked a lot like the one they generated.

except for JC.
that one came out of left field, but then i dont see all the posts that get pulled so im looking at the situation with a narrow window allotted to me.

going forward from here.....
i honestly dont know.
we've got what we've got here.
lump it or leave it is where we are at i think.
if i got into a tizzy and said -thats it im out!- would the site continue, sure it would. so will the site crash because a couple people are mad? no. will we have a change over or admin? no. we have too much tied up in the fledgling start up to turn over admin staff. we will im guessing be getting a couple new mods to replace the ones who caught the axe, so new blood there.

at the end of the day the staff stood up and for the most part owned their mistake(s).
personally i like the fact that not one person is deciding if im a asshat and need a ban, rather everyone weighs in and a quorum is found, i for one would encourage to staff to stay the course and make their list going forward of people who have historically been trouble. if you dont like that i would suggest you endeavor to make sure you dont do stuff worth of getting your name on the list in the first place!
people who were on the list may want to evaluate their posting style, just a guess on my part, but if you made the list he first time chances are your gonna be on the list the 2nd time.

now that ive weighed in (from the Moderator Retirement Home)
on a funny side of this - who went and had a look at the list and was relieved that they where not on it?
i cant be the only one who had that cold sweat for a couple seconds.

 

[Poo]

Is it against the rules for the staff to be involved in any in-game cheating? For an example, using unapproved third party programs and scripts?

absolutely not.
im sure if your into the whole 3rd party programs you can even find some x-mods who may have scripts written and posted.... some even under their same names.

what people do in game has nothing to do with volunteering here and stratics.

 

[Uvtha]

The bigger concern for me here is the secret forum where the senior staff trash talks the regular users. The next concern is the level of bias by some of the staff. Grandma used to say "Don't talk behind someones back unless you have said it to their face first." Sure looks like the senior staff could have learned a lot of Grandma.

Really? Is private trash talk about annoying people in a professional scenario not universal? Anywhere I have ever worked there has always been plenty of "god this person is annoying" about customers, coworkers, random tangential people. It's just what happens. And lets face it, I think a lot of us find at least some of the posters on that list annoying as ****. I don't fault them for venting a bit.

 

[Ox AO]

This is the funniest/most childish thing I have seen on the whole thread. Thank you for giving me something to laugh about! OMG "legal aspects"! ROFL

At least you don't find the part about twisting my words from Islamic fundamentalism as me being a racists as funny.

This is really very simple stuff. What their doing finding something they disagree with then changing the context to get them banned.

JC he wasn't allowed to talk about PVP because that will turn into a flame war. So he goes to another site and talk about PVP then raise those issues here because the game designers are here. They change that to mean he is a trouble maker.

Again, they take statements and actions out of context and ban them for made up reasons. I don't find that funny.
This is all VERY easy to fix. Just let people talk.

 

[Oscar the Grouch]

Is it against the rules for the staff to be involved in any in-game cheating? For an example, using unapproved third party programs and scripts?

Keeping in mind I don't do a lot of the accepting of volunteers though I do try and review applications, I would say that we try and stay out of "their business" off Stratics. Certainly in situations where someone might have a lot of notoriety for it there could be discussions with them.It really becomes a situation by situation basis. I know there has been a lot of topics related to things happening off Stratics affecting people on Stratics but ultimately I would like that to not be the case.

It would be my desire that if someone is accepted as a volunteer on Stratics it is based on their behavior here.

 

[Lord Nabin]

I don't know what else to say to move this discussion forward into a more productive area.

Good Morning Friend - Let me help you with some bullet points. Then you can put it into your own words.

1. Thank You for removing the Ban and letting me participate in the conversation
2. I appreciate the apology and respect the challenges of managing a site
3. I'd like to apologize for my side of this because we both really want the same thing, to grow the UO Community as a whole.
4. When can we get together offline to discuss how we might be able to support each other to grow the community.
5. oh by the way I will take care of all that crap on my site.

This would leverage your leadership in the community to help develop a good way forward for everyone.

 

[Lord Nabin]

@Oscar the Grouch

Just had to try it! Thank You and the team for all your hard work. I am pretty impressed how open to the feedback in this thread you all have been. The Moderation has been excellent as well.

Note, Not a single clean up just a few verbal warnings. They asked for it and you all provided it.

 

[Ox AO]

i dont see all the posts that get pulled.

yea, I did write here what I got banned for.
They're being exceptionally lenient today. Why they can't do that all the time is the issue.

 

[Oscar the Grouch]

@Oscar the Grouch

Just had to try it! Thank You and the team for all your hard work. I am pretty impressed how open to the feedback in this thread you all have been. The Moderation has been excellent as well.

Note, Not a single clean up just a few verbal warnings. They asked for it and you all provided it.

If your question is regarding my interest in a glass of Moonglow red ask me again after 5.

 

[Kayhynn]

If your question is regarding my interest in a glass of Moonglow red ask me again after 5.

Would some good old rum work better?

 

[Ox AO]

5. oh by the way I will take care of all that crap on my side.

In your words what did JC do wrong?

 

[Oscar the Grouch]

Would some good old rum work better?

Only if you forgive me for misspelling your name for the umpteenth time.

 

[Lord Nabin]

In your words what did JC do wrong?

No reason to go there with you friend. It's not part the continued conversation from that post.

Looks to me that as of this morning or late last night this thread took a turn towards.

How do we move forward from here - Let's keep it that way

 

[Kayhynn]

Only if you forgive me for misspelling your name for the umpteenth time.

No worries.

 

[Angel of Sonoma]

Question for you... Nexus is the guy who's handling all the hardware and running the software that IS Stratics. So let's follow your argument a moment. Let's say Nexus quits. So... who runs the hardware and software now?

am i the only one that sees this as a problem? i would never put my organization in a position where it is reliant on one person.

 

[Oscar the Grouch]

am i the only one that sees this as a problem? i would never put my organization in a position where it is reliant on one person.

Don't fret, it is just a misunderstanding I wasn't going to bother addressing unless someone asked.

 

[Tina Small]

I would like to make a suggestion here: Could we open up a new, separate discussion thread to toss around ideas for a way to implement a highly transparent/visible warning system to be used going forward? I suspect Xenforo might have one or more ways to support something like this and that it might go a long, long way towards smoothing things out. I think any forum needs to have the ability to ban certain users. As many others have mentioned, if you ever check Stratics in the middle of the night, you occasionally see some truly disgusting things posted (e.g., pictures of someone eating excrement) and there has to be a way to minimize those occurrences else you soon will have a forum that most people refuse to visit.

What I would like to see is a discussion where we can get people to toss around their ideas about what should and shouldn't be allowed, which actions should earn a warning, how many warnings lead to a temporary ban, lengths of temporary bans, what leads to a permanent ban, and whether they are comfortable with the idea that every user's warning points, warning reasons (possibly including links to offending posts and how many reports were made and who did the reporting), and ban reasons will be visible to anyone who looks up their name in the member list.

Maybe we can get some kind of consensus on what most people are willing to live with and then someone can ask on the Xenforo forums how much it might cost to program it if an "off-the-shelf" solution won't do everything that people want.

 

[Val Van Wolf]

"Captn Norrington has stepped down from the Stratics Board and from staff."

The truth is he stepped down because the people on the list got unbanned.

Where can I see this "LIST" everyone is talking about?

 

[Kylie Kinslayer]

I would like to make a suggestion here: Could we open up a new, separate discussion thread to toss around ideas for a way to implement a highly transparent/visible warning system to be used going forward?

Personally I think that would be a good idea, but, I think it would be better suited (and possibly serve as an olive branch) if someone from staff actually started the discussion.

 

[Aran]

absolutely not.


what people do in game has nothing to do with volunteering here and stratics.

Unless you make a mod mad in-game and suddenly find yourself on a hit list in the mod forum~~~~~~

@Aran has been perma-banned (i doubt he'll deny that) in the past due to his behaviors and actions and that was lifted when the site moved from the ancient system Stratics had pre-2009 to VBB. He's cleaned up his act a lot since then, but still toes the line at times (I don't see all of his posts, so I'll assume he's probably crossed the line sometimes too).

I was 13 when I first started posting on Stratics in 99-00. After my first permaban in my mid-teens, I made ban evasion a hobby for a few years of high school. I turned 30 this week.

 

[Kylie Kinslayer]

Where can I see this "LIST" everyone is talking about?

Can't link you there, would probably break TOS if I did (no, not a dig at the mods, just honestly have not read the TOS completely... I ain't Bilbo Baggins lol). The info is on the boards that JC runs on one of his sites. Sorry, can't link you there either though...

 

[Lord Nabin]

I would like to make a suggestion here: Could we open up a new, separate discussion thread to toss around ideas for a way to implement a highly transparent/visible warning system to be used going forward? I suspect Xenforo might have one or more ways to support something like this and that it might go a long, long way towards smoothing things out. I think any forum needs to have the ability to ban certain users. As many others have mentioned, if you ever check Stratics in the middle of the night, you occasionally see some truly disgusting things posted (e.g., pictures of someone eating excrement) and there has to be a way to minimize those occurrences else you soon will have a forum that most people refuse to visit.

What I would like to see is a discussion where we can get people to toss around their ideas about what should and shouldn't be allowed, which actions should earn a warning, how many warnings lead to a temporary ban, lengths of temporary bans, what leads to a permanent ban, and whether they are comfortable with the idea that every user's warning points, warning reasons (possibly including links to offending posts and how many reports were made and who did the reporting), and ban reasons will be visible to anyone who looks up their name in the member list.

Maybe we can get some kind of consensus on what most people are willing to live with and then someone can ask on the Xenforo forums how much it might cost to program it if an "off-the-shelf" solution won't do everything that people want.

Great job Tina

I like seeing ideas for solutions

 

[Tyrath]

Really? Is private trash talk about annoying people in a professional scenario not universal? Anywhere I have ever worked there has always been plenty of "god this person is annoying" about customers, coworkers, random tangential people. It's just what happens. And lets face it, I think a lot of us find at least some of the posters on that list annoying as ****. I don't fault them for venting a bit.

Ummm guess you never worked for me. Everyone knows exactly where they stand with everyone else, and I will be the first one to tell an annoying customer they are to stupid to buy my products. Yes some of the people on that list are about as annoying as it can get, why not bring those people into the private discussion and correct the problem with them and remove them if need be. Rather than keep a top secret discussion behind the backs. Just reeks of spineless and coward to me. But that is the world we live in now days online or IRL.

 

[Tina Small]

....I think it would be better suited (and possibly serve as an olive branch) if someone from staff actually started the discussion.

100% agreed.

 

[Giggles]

This topic has been moved to a more appropriate forum for it. Please keep all conversations related to this issue within this thread. Any addition threads made regarding this will be deleted and/or converted into this thread.
Thank you.

 

[Angel of Sonoma]

I would like to make a suggestion here: Could we open up a new, separate discussion thread to toss around ideas for a way to implement a highly transparent/visible warning system to be used going forward? I suspect Xenforo might have one or more ways to support something like this and that it might go a long, long way towards smoothing things out. I think any forum needs to have the ability to ban certain users. As many others have mentioned, if you ever check Stratics in the middle of the night, you occasionally see some truly disgusting things posted (e.g., pictures of someone eating excrement) and there has to be a way to minimize those occurrences else you soon will have a forum that most people refuse to visit.

What I would like to see is a discussion where we can get people to toss around their ideas about what should and shouldn't be allowed, which actions should earn a warning, how many warnings lead to a temporary ban, lengths of temporary bans, what leads to a permanent ban, and whether they are comfortable with the idea that every user's warning points, warning reasons (possibly including links to offending posts and how many reports were made and who did the reporting), and ban reasons will be visible to anyone who looks up their name in the member list.

Maybe we can get some kind of consensus on what most people are willing to live with and then someone can ask on the Xenforo forums how much it might cost to program it if an "off-the-shelf" solution won't do everything that people want.

i've been through enough of these type discussions in r/l to know they are not effective when dealing with so many opinionated personalities.