Recent Downtime

[Newfoundking]

As Voodoo_Operator has stated previously, and did so, many signatures have been in violation of the TOS, and they're being removed all together. The TOS states, there is a limit on signatures. Traditionally, we just had it as two regular sized banners, or one double tall banner.

A remind that the following is unacceptable and will be removed: Signatures may not exceed 450kb per image. Signatures should remain to about a total of 250 pixels tall. That means if you've got 700 images, that's fine so long as they don't reach over 250 px in total height, or surpass 450kb.

This is a final warning, because it has gone from a slight problem to a site shut-down factor. All signatures in violation will be removed, and if people replace them with that, they'll receive a loss of rights for signatures, as well as a +50% warning.

I ask your co-operation in this, so that Emergency-Planet can continue to exist happily. Thank you

[L.C. Long]

OOHHH!!! LEARN TO SPELL NEWFOUNDKING!! (see it's not nice is it!!!) You are still going on about me not being able to spell, just leave it will you! (refering to other topic). It's funny because you just close a topic when it gets to heated for you!!!! OOHHH scared are we?????

[Voodoo_Operator]

OOHHH!!! LEARN TO SPELL NEWFOUNDKING!! (see it's not nice is it!!!) You are still going on about me not being able to spell, just leave it will you! (refering to other topic). It's funny because you just close a topic when it gets to heated for you!!!! OOHHH scared are we?????

I had been itching to do something radical, and you just gave me an excellent reason to free the beast within. Thanks.

See ya when I say so.

[Sgt Alex4028]

A request from myself being that moderators of the site start a new thread why by active members can discuss some sort of revamp and say on some of the moderators. It has been bought to my attention on a few occasions that some feel the need to abuse their authority of the forum channels. I may not have high status in this forum, but feel this will be beneficial to secure the future of further visitors coming and joining.

I had been itching to do something radical, and you just gave me an excellent reason to free the beast within. Thanks.

See ya when I say so.

Such comment like this one, is purely unprofessional and in some circumstances, intimidating. Not to mention the other incidents including this moderator that I've experienced myself, and also a few others.

By all means, I will include my own evidence ad scour for more across these forums. I do believe that bullying or intimidation of any kind is strictly prohibited in these forums..

By all means you may ban my account, or even my IP if you feel its necessary, But I am purely a member of the forum who has seen to much abuse of status and authority recently, and find it sickening that the regulator(s) of the channels allow it to happen.

Personally, Newfoundking I have no problem with you whatsoever, but forum members deserve to have an input.. and i believe a controlled debate thread where members can talk about issues is much needed in circumstances such as this..

As a moderator on several forums myself, I understand the common ins and outs of procedures and rules, the procedure for banning is being abused. I have seen the debate session take place many times on forums, and have seen how successful it is.

[Newfoundking]

The response by Voodoo was on a basis of more than just that one topic. This guy has had it in for the moderating team, and really, he was just itching closer and closer to a reason to be banned. As for the see ya when I say so, well that's on the terms of an indefinite ban, meaning depending on his response to the contact made by the moderation team. On numerous occasions, this happens. You're banned for something, and then depending on how you respond to the ban, that determines whether we unban you or leave you to sit in the other world.

A continuation of a ban would look something like this:

Go **** yourself you *****, who the **** are you to tell me what to ****ing do. You can't tell me what to do, that's against the law, it's free speech.

And no, I'm dead serious, that is a PM I received when I banned someone for tearing into a member because they posted in the wrong forum. Did I mention he used every curse word I knew (and I had to actually look up 2 new ones).

As for the debate, I'll make a topic, and it will be under strict control.. If you've got a problem voice it. But follow the rules of the site, because it doesn't matter what your problem, if you come in cursing and swearing, you're temp banned for however long deemed necessary.

This member can deal with his ban with us privately though, as he has lost his right to post, due to the inability to use it properly.

[Sgt Alex4028]

The response by Voodoo was on a basis of more than just that one topic. This guy has had it in for the moderating team, and really, he was just itching closer and closer to a reason to be banned. As for the see ya when I say so, well that's on the terms of an indefinite ban, meaning depending on his response to the contact made by the moderation team. On numerous occasions, this happens. You're banned for something, and then depending on how you respond to the ban, that determines whether we unban you or leave you to sit in the other world.

A continuation of a ban would look something like this:

Go **** yourself you *****, who the **** are you to tell me what to ****ing do. You can't tell me what to do, that's against the law, it's free speech.

And no, I'm dead serious, that is a PM I received when I banned someone for tearing into a member because they posted in the wrong forum. Did I mention he used every curse word I knew (and I had to actually look up 2 new ones).

As for the debate, I'll make a topic, and it will be under strict control.. If you've got a problem voice it. But follow the rules of the site, because it doesn't matter what your problem, if you come in cursing and swearing, you're temp banned for however long deemed necessary.

This member can deal with his ban with us privately though, as he has lost his right to post, due to the inability to use it properly.

Yes, I agree I don't criticize the ban feature whatsoever, I get quite offended by cursing and On other forums I have received messages like this... I receive more personal, and in depth ones though...but luckily I'm thick skinned

After reading my previous post back, it looked really negative and a more of a biased post by looking at only one side, by which I apologize for, profusely.

I agree with revoking his right, if he is going to abuse it then by all means do so for the good of the forum community. I feel rather guilty at the moment for having a very lopsided post, and once again apologize for looking at only one side.

I do think the debate Idea is a good idea, just to have members discuss the rights and the wrongs of the forum, and have everybody agree.. if you where I'm coming from?

[Voodoo_Operator]

I would like to take this opportunity to answer to your concerns, Mr. Sgt. You may disagree with my methods, but I see you're still one of the more mature ones here, which is something I respect and value these days. By no means shall I ban you unless you cross the proverbial line, and no, unlike what you may believe, disagreeing with me or any other moderator is not grounds for banishment.

The funny thing here is that a lot of members of the site praise the moderating team for bringing a humorous touch to what they do, and having a very low tolerance for childish behaviors. And then again, another lot of members despise us, roughly for the same reasons. So I'd then to say the truth is somewhere in between.

You mentioned that you don't "have a high status" here, and you're right. After all, you joined a little more than 3 weeks ago. I've been here for longer than I can remember (but then again, my profile says 5 years). Of those 5 years, I've been a moderator for 2 or 3 of them. My point is, I know this place and its history a lot more than you ever will. I'm glad you have moderation experience on other sites, but, well, they're other sites.

I have witnessed this place slowly changing for the worse over the years. 5 years ago, it was a busy hangspot for game enthusiasts aged between 15-30, where people would follow common sense rules, and wouldn't become offended like catholic schoolgirls if we slided into more mature language, humor or subject matters every now and then. There were a few kids who would get out of line every now and then, but they could be counted on the fingers of one hand and would be dealt with accordingly. Funny anecdote: If you play the LA mod, you may notice a traffic van marked "FCW". That stands for Forum Child Watch, an initiative we had back then to deal with the more immature ones of the bunch

Fast forward 5 years to today, and the tendency has been inverted. My estimate is that most members here are under 15 years of age, and there are very few members of the "old guard" left here. The game itself is dead, and has been for 2-3 years now. So you get people who can't follow the most elementary common sense rules (such as not asking for release dates every 5 seconds, or not having sets of signature pictures that span for the length of 3 pages), even if you keep repeating them over and over. But then, we older members (and moderators) come under scrutiny for every little thing we do. Soon as we let something slide or attempt a bit of more mature humor, we're called for everything you might imagine - abuse, favoritism, being nazis, name it. And that sucks.

So now it seems to me like you want to elevate yourself to the rank of leader of those who can't stand getting told to stop harassing for release dates but who also can't stand having a moderator say "damn". And you could be their leader - you share their belief that the moderators of EMP, especially me, are assholes who have become drunk with power, yet you are also articulate and brave enough to call us on it. And, by all means, do as you see fit. But there's something you should know first.

I believe I pointed out earlier that as of now, the only site staff on duty whatsoever are NFK and me. As it stands now, this site does not have any active administrators (I suspect the webmaster may be back at some point, but he has not shown any signs of activity in the past 2 months), so it would not even be possible to make any staff-related changes (additions or removals) as we lack the necessary clearance to do so. I don't know what you intend to achieve by "including evidence", "scouring the forums" and "starting a debate thread", but I am telling you this in all honesty, without any intimidating intent: The only higher authorities on this site at the moment are NFK and me. And we do not have the power to appoint any new staff members, nor to make any other changes to the current site staffing.

So what happens next? Maybe you decide to join the side of those who think we're doing a great job. And you realize that if you use common sense and relax, this is a great place to hang out - and you get a cheap chuckle out of seeing me theatrically ban someone for being annoying.

Or maybe you keep up your attempts to change things around here and/or get us "fired" (this is the Internet, not real life, so we're not going to get foreclosed and go homeless because of that) and rally the disagreeing populace behind you, Occupy Wall Street style. Believe me, at least half of those who follow you won't be as mature as you are. You get your debate going over the moderators' authority, and soon enough, a lot of people just stop listening to us at all. So then, either we REALLY get drunk with power and start banning everyone's ass. Or, like many other moderators before us, we just leave this place. Then you've got a site with no authority whatsoever (remember, we can't appoint new staff and the webmaster's gone - I'd give you the password to my account, but hey, there can only be one Voodoo). Soon enough, this place is filled with spam topics, and goes down every few hours because everyone has a dozen of 7 mb animated gifs in their signature. Not to mention most mod topics having dozens of pages of "When is it coming out". So much for "securing future visitors coming and joining"...

So, yeah... Honestly, I could leave this place anytime I want, because my interest for pretty much everything this site covers has faded over the years. I've been contemplating leaving a couple of times lately. The only reason I don't is because I kinda feel like I owe it to this place to keep it alive, for the past good times. Also, because it's a great feeling to ban someone who's being a complete dick - believe me, it's a good way to let off some steam after a shitty day at work. And also because some people understand what we do and how we do it, and congratulate us on it - this always makes my day.

Oh and by the way,

bullying or intimidation

Those two words are getting pushed around WAY too often lately. I didn't physically or mentally harm anyone here - I just banned a guy for going berserk at a moderator. Just try insulting a police officer on how he does his job, then call him a bully when he arrests you for it - you'll see what I mean.

[Sgt Alex4028]

I think you're great moderators and you're more proactive than I have seen in a long time on many other sites, and for such a small team you bring a good spirit to the members. I merely was attempting to look at both ends of the spectrum, but Like I stated focused on negativity and criticizing rather than actually praising you for what you do already. I also agree with banning them because of the signatures.. It gets on my tits when i can't get on the site to look for updates.. I should of really read over my post, and displayed praise and positivity rather than negativity and criticism. Personally, I'd rather not get involved with the group who hate moderators and status, that would probably demoralize me. I enjoy getting into discussions, and I'm 101% sure, you guys enjoy bringing in your own value of humor and view to the forums.

But once again, I do apologize for being so negative!

[L.C. Long]

I have cooled down after my little ban, so all good sorry for being ennoying guys!

[pyrofreak]

I would like to take this opportunity to answer to your concerns, Mr. Sgt. You may disagree with my methods, but I see you're still one of the more mature ones here, which is something I respect and value these days. By no means shall I ban you unless you cross the proverbial line, and no, unlike what you may believe, disagreeing with me or any other moderator is not grounds for banishment.

The funny thing here is that a lot of members of the site praise the moderating team for bringing a humorous touch to what they do, and having a very low tolerance for childish behaviors. And then again, another lot of members despise us, roughly for the same reasons. So I'd then to say the truth is somewhere in between.

I do not know if I have been here long enough to be considered in the "high status" realm, but I do know this. In my time here, at least in the initial stages I got into my fair share of arguments with Newfoundking, and Mikey. Most were minor, but a few resulted in a warning or two. Of course that was than, and I have changed since then also. Unfortunately, as Voodoo has said it is almost a war of two sides. On one side you have those who are over 18, those are usually staff members, and those who create mods. These members are usually mature, outgoing, and obey the rules. While on the other side you have those who aren't over 18. They are rude, rash, derogative, and usually end up being banned. There are, of course, exceptions to this rule. People like yourself (Sgt.) are the exception, those are members who do care, they are mature, and respectful. As I see it myself, I am like everyone else. I do not want to read three or four pages of flaming, and I like the humor that the moderators add. Professionalism is one thing, but at times I believe people deserve a taste of their own medicine. This can be debated, but I think the mods here do a fine job of being professional, and down to earth. But, as I have mentioned before this is only my two cents.

[L.C. Long]

Are you putting in a good word for the sgt. to be promoted?

[Newfoundking]

Thank you, finally, someone agrees with me. I'm technically the newest moderator, still two years old, but the newest nonetheless, and I remember being appointed, and thinking, oh golly jee, I get that fun little banner under my signature. And it was fun. I was brought in on high recommendation (long story short, we needed another mod, stan announced it and before he could even ask if I wanted it, there was four nominations for me on the topic) so I was the favourite in the way of moderators, and I could really do anything, and people wouldn't argue it. Fast forward six months, now there are a bunch of new people, that don't know me as a member, and therefore I get no respect, and they assume anything I do and get recognized for is because I'm staff. Therefore when I shut down topics, people tend to get frustrated and up in arms. Suddenly you look around and most the old members are gone, and now no one knows the member Newfoundking and only the mod, so it becomes a much more difficult job. Most people quit after a while, but some people continue to do it just becuase they like the site, and it's really not all too bad. I mean, not only do you get to remove the little childish fools, (who argue I'm in violation of their constitutional rights by telling them they can't curse and swear someone out, and they are taking me to court, I'm serious) but you also get to lay down the law. Now we'd be awful boring if we only enforced, and didn't make light of it. That's where the joking comes in. You have three types of people when you make a joke, or add humour.sarcasm to your enforcement. 1. The kind who are either the ones receiving it, or friends of, who will fight it tooth and nail, 2. The self-righteous, pretentious, arrogant, annoying, well you get the point, who kick up a storm because they are inadequate in other aspects of their life, and they feel the need to exert their superiority by fighting on the internet, and then 3. The mature, who just laugh because they know we are 100% right, and really, that person had it coming.

Very seldom do we actually fully violate rules because we kinda made them, and we know them in and out, so it's second nature, making it hard to break.

And that's my blurb

[Sgt Alex4028]

I totally agree, I mean its easy to see how good of a job the moderators do on this site.. IF you go onto most others, they enforce only on anti-racism values, or very offensive posts leaving room for swearing and a few other offensive posts. I love using this forum, and being able to network with so many different people. Also with other forums, moderators don't interact with users, they are merely there to make your life a misery, but here its different. You do add humor to the forum, and interact with us, which I think 99% of the members appreciate. But like everyone has said, there is the minority who like to make things difficult, I always use the London Riot example.. The only reason people rioted was to be able to get at police, and get in with the group. I think this is what happens with the minority of immature users, but of course not on a large scale like that. But you guys doo well, to combat these sort of groups. I think the incident with Michael is a good, clear message to people who do like to cause issues, and be tits in the forums, that It won't be tolerated.

I have to agree about the banners too, I can't begin to describe how frustrating it is when you see all these banners on one signature and its like "Arghhhhh!!"

but agreeing with pyrofreak, you guys do a good job.. I was being negatively critical, and to be quite honest, I didn't really have a point..

[acather96]

I'm relatively new to this forum, and have been making the same observations myself about the childishness, immaturity and flagrant disregard for social norms and etiquette - the belief amongst so many of the kiddies that because they are behind the computer, they can tlk liek dis cuz no1ne rily cairs anywayz? (for my full rant on englick comunicateshun skillz c dis: http://forum.emergency-planet.com/index.php?/topic/15722-only-here/). The lack of a basic English skills is only one factor that contributes to the lack of intelligent conversation, the lack of ability to read, comprehend and follow simple instructions, not understanding the need to adhere the TOS (heck, not even bothering to read the TOS), and whingeing every time someone criticizes them or their work. Any comments which don't follow the 'gr8 model man' line will get an angry reply saying how 'it's not nice', and any attempts of rule enforcement/forum moderation comes with a flood of protestations about bullying, brutality, lack of free speech, and i dident no and i iz rily sory plz dont bann me plz plz plz ill b gud from now oni promise!!!!

Don't get me wrong, there are lots of highly intelligent and mature users on this site - they usually tend to be the mod makers, as some degree of competence is required to actually make a mod. An example of this childish lunacy actually having a noticeable detrimental effect is on the MM thread - Dyson was constantly asked the same question three times by the same user (each time giving the same answer), and a couple of posts later after harassment from the kiddies posts this, which pretty much sums up the way things are going and will continue to go without tough enforcement:

Seriously what has happened to this forum? I remember when everyone was nice, like genuinely nice, now everyone's out for a cheap dig at everyone else. Sickens me that thhe community has turned so sour.

Please no more off topic still.

Respect to all the mods, mod makers and mature members of this site, you're doing a great job, keep it up

Cheers,

Acather96

P.S And please tell me someone else noticed the irony in this:

OOHHH!!! LEARN TO SPELL NEWFOUNDKING!! (see it's not nice is it!!!) You are still going on about me not being able to spell, just leave it will you! (refering to other topic). It's funny because you just close a topic when it gets to heated for you!!!! OOHHH scared are we?????

*refering = referring* (and don't get me started on the grammar)

[L.C. Long]

?

[Voodoo_Operator]

*refering = referring* (and don't get me started on the grammar)

We've turned the page on this matter.

[acather96]

We've turned the page on this matter.

Apologies, in retrospect maybe this was a bit out of turn - but my original point still stands.