Regarding this weekends events

[jwhitehorn]

The forums are actually one of my homepages,

How does your browser have two homepages? Is this more Internet Explorer magic I"m not familiar with or do you mean bookmarks?

Chief PeePooKaKa
MM Tribe

[staxjax]

I lied, it is my only homepage

[jwhitehorn]

I lied,

I know.

Bad habits are hard to break. The Chief will be here to help you through these difficult times.

Chief PeePooKaKa
MM Tribe

[TotalyMoo]

This thread is not yours, Chief, so cut it with trolling stax and Potjeh. If you have legit complaints put them forth like a normal user or keep it to yourself.

Once in a while we have a thread where everything doesn't need to be humorous. This is one of them.

[jwhitehorn]

/serious

But firstly I apologize for not being here when it happened, I was busy all weekend so had no time for work.

No need to apologize. Don't think anybody expects ONE person to be on the forums 24/7.

I am aware that a group of users find my moderators unfair and in certain cases abusing. Now this is not uncommon and whoever moderates and however it is done there will be people that do not agree. Yet I feel the need to clarify certain things for future reference. To make it easier on the eyes I'll do it in a simple Q&A fashion.

Communication is always good. Action to prevent this topic from coming up next week would be better. I already saw a lot of good suggestions in this thread.

Q: Moderators favorize their friends and don't warn/ban them where it is needed.

I personally don't think this is a HUGE problem. Its not always what mods DO its what they DO NOT do. I have never seen Stax ban anybody affiliated with his crew. Or mod ban anybody they converse with. Now maybe they didn't deserve it. But in the case of Dallane Trolling or Mishibag Sockpuppeting Roaul the problem here is that certain members commit the same crimes with immunity. I think them being friends with Stax is NOT RELEVANT in these cases but I can definitely see why it causes the conspiracy theories. Perhaps its time to just slap a 24H ban on the offenders who have been pointed out several times so that the conspiracy theories can work on getting newer material and/or working on finding other cases of favoritism.

Q: This user was warned/banned and I don't understand why.
A: The forum is still in somewhat of a beta stage, that means all rules are not yet completed and we're working on our systems to get them up and running. I agree that transparency on decisions could improve and I have added a moderation rule to always include reason in the "User was warned/banned for this post" massage as a direct response to your complaints.

Great idea and I agree. It would be nice if the mods were given a COPY PASTE they could do for the rules. Most already do this but if its policy to COPY/PASTE the rule they are violating then there will be less opportunity for misinterpretation.

Q: Why are moderators trolling/being mean/acting like normal users?

Are we 1000% sure that there exist NO member of these forums that doesn't want to moderate in a PROFESSIONAL manner AT ALL TIMES? Even if a volunteer? I mean I'm pretty sure we have people like techx and Sevenless who could pretty much ALWAYS write in green and nobody would be offended. I sympathize with the mod who wants to post like the normal user but are we that low on volunteers that nobody is willing to MOD and give up their rights as a normal forum citizen? I would think there are those mod-type personalities who would be fine just being a mod 24/7.

Q: Then why have normal users as mods? Why is this forum not run like -insert MMO- forums?

I think everybody would do themselves well to understand that Paradox/Moo/Salem KNOWS that this system is not ideal but they are doing the best they can with what they got.

Q: I still don't agree with how things are done.
A: Then bring it up in PM to me or in the rules thread. Spamming it around the forums is considered just that: spam.

Sometimes the place to contest things is @ the spot of where they happen. Occupy Wall Street for example. If the US said that all those protesters must write their congressman and protest in one tiny roped off area you would have seen riots. Sometimes the best place to showcase an injustice is the place in which it happened. Thats all we see here on the forums... nothing more... nothing less. I think trying to "herd" those who point out the inadequacies of the system into one thread is a mistake but thats just me.

Q: The H&H mafia is running Salem! My suggestions and ideas get shot down instantly. The mods and chosen few are conspiring behind my back in the hidden forums!

I think this is just silly. I don't think H&H politics is playing as big a role in Salem politics as people like to pretend.

Q: Mod X abuses bugs, hacks and is a general meanie.
A: Game is in beta, we want the users to find bugs, hacks and exploits to fix this game. Stax for example is active on the bug tracker and reports everything he finds as far as I know. Once again, game is in beta.

Problem here is when affiliates of stax CLAIM and POST that they are in fact hacking and using bugs like Dallane. Then of course they pretend he is just trolling..... but then his crew is caught red handed by several different sources..... but then he is just trolling right? This could all be mitigated if there was a strong NO HACKING policy and a swift 3 day or more ban on anybody found using an exploit that isn't reported AND anybody who admits to it.

Q: Mod X uses his/her super-powers in-game to get an advantage over normal users.
A: The moderators have no super-powers in-game or out of game. They can simply enforce rules set by me, that is it.

Tonyhawk already pointed out that Potjeh used his forum powers to change the INGAME landscape. These are not as disconnected as some would like to believe.

If anyone has any other related question, please ask it here and I will add it to this list. Consider this the megathread to get all rage out and set this situation straight -- then we can return to being happy Salem and kill eachother.

Thats all I got. I'll go back to scalping now.

Chief PeePooKaKa
MM Tribe

[shrunkin]

careful chief they might perm ban u man

[TotalyMoo]

careful chief they might perm ban u man

As mentioned; this is not the place for witty remarks. Take it in the MOD ABUSE MEGATHREAD, please.

[shrunkin]

i said nothing about mod abuse or anything like that all i was doing is warning chief -_-

[TeckXKnight]

i said nothing about mod abuse or anything like that all i was doing is warning chief -_-

While your concern is appreciate, warning other users like that isn't necessary in cases like this. Thanks though. =)

[Potjeh]

Tonyhawk already pointed out that Potjeh used his forum powers to change the INGAME landscape. These are not as disconnected as some would like to believe.

What?