Board/site future

[Zhs2]

Kinda funny how that post hits me straight in the heart. I thank you humbly for sharing the few facts I was hoping someone would come forward with, in turn allowing me the incentive to strike up my own post.

James has not really wanted to post such again (having done so in the topic that got nuked which only few people saw,) but a move is not in the question at this point in time; at least, not what Grime is offering, as lucrative as it may be. As for any radical changes in administratorship, I'm pretty sure that's something best left up to James and I. In regards to the future that this topic is discussing, we're pretty happily (haha) settled as it is - if someone had problems with the fact that I didn't bother to update the main site when Grime pretty much assumed responsibility for doing so, they could have said something. I know, I know, it sounds like a pretty lame excuse, but excuse me for inadvertently stepping on someone's toes while trying not to inadvertently step on someone's toes!

I also feel like an explanation about whatever happened on IRC is in order, for whatever it's worth (not necessarily for anyone's real benefit but mine, but something that should probably be shared anyway.) The gist of what happened was that Spade and Skree had yet another public falling out, and my decision to remove both users seemed to offend the parties responsible for this topic; while I now realize that Skree was right in removing Spade from the room in the first place, I had wanted to go one further and remove them both since they were clearly responsible for what happened that night - Spade joined (albeit under a different nick, which seemed to attract the same attention as opposed to her joining normally), and Skree called her out. Sure, people may argue that I did what I did because I was friends with N-Spade (or, if you want to accuse me of 'white knighting', because she was female) but - regardless of those facts - I didn't believe it was very fair for Skree to stick about when he was clearly half of the problem.

Call me a shithead if you so desire, but I believe in what is fair and just for the individual and not for the community, as unpopular a leader as it may make me. If someone is an elitist bastard who believes that only the cool kids should stick around, but clearly contributes and makes the place all around better, then I'm willing to put up with them for as long as they please to stay - same with all of the "dip-shits, annoying cunts, cocksuckers, you name it" that come in and post along with the rest of us, as Bloodsonic so nicely put it. As far as I'm concerned, people that contribute to the site don't just have to be the people that make awesome hacks or contribute content - a simple post of criticism or light-hearted intentions for the creators of said hacks can mean all the world as well. While topics may end up not looking hack-oriented or business-feeling, and while I, too, agree that the content should probably be kept to off-topic boards and such, hackers are people, too; they have feelings and emotions, and maybe they can't get around to a giant post in off-topic boards and they're posting to help from a cell phone and just want to throw in a "Sorry I can't say more, but I'm posting from a cell phone and I've really got to get to work now" (I'm not condoning such behavior, but I'm not opposed to it either.)

The point of what I'm trying to say is that the real heroes are the ones who keep on chugging, getting the fucking work done so that the community can be a better place for everyone. Whether that means venting personal problems to the world at large so that they can carry on with what they do or leaving the community because they don't like the way things are being done or rolled in in order to create another community he thinks will be much better geared to the purposes at hand doesn't matter. I know for sure I'm going to keep doing my job.

To address 'Grime being admin', he essentially already is - while only James has the authoritative say (and the root password, wink wink) on what may or may not get installed on the server via cPanel, none of this would have stopped Grime from taking action via his full access to FTP and installing/deleting whatever he may have pleased to. It's not complete access, but I daresay 'damn near' is an accurate quantifier in this case.

tl;dr - The community is going to stay pretty much the same way it already is, unless we really need to take drastic changes. I don't believe this is one of those times in the least. Do you?

[Hiroshi Mishima]

Although I have been accused of it in the past, and I suppose given my personality and attitude towards things, I'm probably guilty of it on more than one occasion.Hopefully no one will accuse me of "white knighting" when I say that I've never been able to figure out what Spade does to upset people. I think I've seen her on a couple times in the length of time I've in #sr388 and #metconst, and I've just not seen her cause trouble, so I don't know.

Then again, I've never really cared for kicking (or banning) people for no real reason besides disliking them, unless they're genuinely causing a problem at the time. I know DS was a handful and given a number of his posts I can understand the anger or dislike towards him, and he probably should have been dealt with faster. But insofar as I'm concerned, he's gone now so I don't see a problem. I know another member was named and I'm not sure if he's gone yet (starts with a g) but I seem to recall him having an actual interest in SMILE and such even if it was a little.. mis-aimed at times.

Other than that.. I can't really think of anything else to add at the moment.

[Lunaria]

Spade tends to spam a lot for no reason at all, was well as attempting to piss people off. @Hiroshi.

I did not want to bring this up, but I think I will anyway.

I dislike zeke, not in a way that I hate him, nor that I tend to hate everything he does. I just dislike the way he acts in several issues. I'd rather have grime as an admin for the reason that he is willing to kick idiots like DS out when needed.

Though, both of them each have one side of the coin, and I want the coin to land on the middle.

Both zeke and grime handle general staff issues well in most cases, but they just handle some issues in other ways. DS is someone they both would have kicked out eventually, Grime would just have kicked him out sooner, that's all. The question is, how soon?

There is a clear line between kicking someone out after they have proved to be a moron a few times and kicking someone out right away. And this, is what I fear might happen.

[spoiler="Gunnar factor"]
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I'm also sure gunnar would have already been kicked out by grime a long time ago too, something I would not have agreed with, but I know many would.

I know I might be waging war with half the forum when I say this, but people really need to stop being redesigns little bitch.

Gunnar is one of those people that came off from a bad start and have a very noobish attitude. A noobish attitude is not always something bad, I had it when I first got into this too, and if I would have been kicked out by my peers then I would most likely have kicked the bucket and you all would have missed a great hack. Sure, not all beginners ends up making great/awesome things, but you never know who unless you give them a fucking chance.

Sure, Gunnar came of as a bad start as he ripped shit straight from redesign. I was also one who raged against this, as I'd hate if someone stole shit straight from my hack too. But these days he goes around working on a very heavily redesign inspired hacks. In which, people rage at him for seemingly no reason. Yeah, sure, his level design might be shit, but did you not suck at that when you first started off too?

Even more so, I'm heavily disappointed that several staff members takes part in this bigotry.

I was heavily inspired by certain other hacks when making a few of my earlier projects that never caught wind. I'm certain this goes for many others of you. So I don't see the reason why you have to be an asshole to someone simply due to where he got his inspiration. In fact, I'd go so far as to compliment him on how far out of his way he goes to try and make his hack look like it without ripping. God damn, it would be amazing if anyone did that for my hack, not to mention we would have more tileset with around the same style on the table for other people to use!

-----------------------------------------------------------------[/Spoiler]

While I think zeke gives some morons way too long time to be kicked out, grime on the other hand might kick them out waaaaaay to soon. Not to mention skree who tends to want to kick people out due to him not liking them right now, rather then on an overall basis. (I'm not going to act like I know what happened with N-Spade that zeke mentioned as I was not there. This is based of other things.)

I see no issue with either moving host or having grime as an admin. But I do have (now that I thought it over) a problem with zeke being kicked from admin place. I don't think two people each having one side of the coin will make it land on the middle, but god damn it's better then just having one side at least. And I still see NO REASON WHAT SO EVER to stop using this forum software. Unless we want more functions instead of less. But from what I gathered, it's the other way around. Once we server jump the bandwidth won't be an issue anyway from what you said, making the whole idea of changing forum a painfully and unnecessary process. :/

[JAM]

IMHO, we shouldn't ban people too fast, just for a few rules violation. I'm think of several warnings in PM and if the person isn't listening at all, then ban for a few days. But I think, we should ban and warn here people who troll at #metconst as they are sometimes causing other people to leave. Don't sure why exactly Bloodsonic quit, but there was something via IRC. This is an example and it's just my opinion.

As for DS, yes, he posted too much anywhere but his hack inspired me. It looks like a vanilla hack, but the palettes are nice though. I might say: good enough for the first try.

And I agree with Crys. We might lose some great (in future) hackers if we'll ban most of noobs for a few violations. We should help them to learn. And even ban shouldn't last forever. Everybody (with small exceptions) deserves a second try.

Also agree with this:

I see no issue with either moving host or having grime as an admin. But I do have (now that I thought it over) a problem with zeke being kicked from admin place. I don't think two people each having one side of the coin will make it land on the middle, but god damn it's better then just having one side at least.

Losing one of them will brake the sheaky balance.

[squishy_ichigo]

Anyone that has been banned thus far has been given multiple warnings. That's plural warnings, not singular warnings.  As in more then one, and still didn't want to listen.

:justification:

[Hiroshi Mishima]

As you say, Squish, the people who've been banned had multiple warnings and when they were banned more than deserved it. What Crys and myself are concerned with is premature banning simply because someone was an ass once. Overall I do agree with a lot of what Crys says.

[Phazar]

Also, no one so far has ever received a permanent ban.  The worst posters that have been banned so far got about 6 months at the most(unless I'm wrong).

[personitis]

A good staff , imo, should consist of people who see and handle situations differently but are able to get together to converse what actions should be taken and if their infraction should be 'this' long or 'that' long. Obviously having someone who always has to have it their way doesn't make good staff and neither do people who completely follow all the members of the community. There needs to be a constant open ear to things and communication from member to member, staff to member, member to staff, and staff to staff.

Now that Crys mentions it, I do kind of admire how Gunnar was able to put up with all our bullshit. Even though taking part in it at points myself, it's hard to tell where someone's coming from on the internet. Quoted from James a while back, "There's no sarcasm on the internet" (unless obviously noted).

Personally, I think the whole psychology here is that we have people who are recognized here and those that aren't get shafted someway. I mean, it's not like we're some huge community.

TL;DR - Open ears, open eyes people.

Note: After typing that, I realize the last post was on the 6th... but eh, here ya go. Just voicing. A thread like this makes for a good site critique thread anyways.