Colin Manson
11-Dec-06, 03:52
Hi,
Firstly I'd like to apologise for the delay in posting this message, many things have conspired to keep me from posting a full explanation of the recent events. I was also wanted to wait for the post by DrSzin as I thought that his view of events might clear the air a little.
At this point it may be advisable to put the kettle on and make yourself a cuppa this could turn out to be a rather long post.
The History
I apologise to Phoenix and Kingetter but I feel that this must be covered - sorry.
kingetter was mentioned on the moderator forums via complaints about the volume & style of some of his posts. Some of his material was great, interesting and thought provoking, however a large majority were one liners, conversational style posts. There wasn't a rule in place to cover this so we didn't take any action.
I think he managed to make 120 posts in 1 day, both Bill and Niall tried to have a word with him but he didn't feel that there was a problem with his posting.
A few weeks ago we had a spate of attacks from a person signing up with multiple accounts and switching to a new account each time that the old one was banned. In the past we've also had characters like micky monk that did the same sort of thing. It's frustrating trying to protect the forum from this kind of abuse, as you can imagine.
Now this is the Important part that wasn't included in the email, the initial post where the Miserable User plug in was discussed was in reference to these types of attacks, I was asking for suggestions on how to deal with this kind of abuse and the MU plug in was suggested.
I created a new topic to discuss the plug in and yes moderators were laughing and enjoying the idea that someone that had caused so much trouble would be 'sorted out' via this new system. We hoped that they would assume that the forum was slow and not bother creating more accounts in order to abuse the forum.
So I hope that clears up the idea that it was the general membership that were being made fun of, it wasn't and never would have been applied to any of those users. In the email and on the post I did state
I don't see that many people being added really, obvious troublemakers/spammers could be added immediately pending the outcome of the poll.
There were concerns from the moderators about how the system would be used to make sure that it was used in a fair manner and only against those that really were out to spoil the forum for everyone else.
Around the time that we were being attacked Phoenix sent me a PM asking for her account to be removed, I PM'd back asking why but she said that this time she'd made up her mind and wanted to be removed. I changed her account by moving her to the Ex-Orger group. (more about that shortly)
I asked everyone (the mods) to see if they could speak to her and find out what happened, I'm always concerned when someone wants to leave and I like to know why, in this case after her previous problem I was doubly concerned. I wasn't told that whole story and I still don't know exactly what caused her to leave but I did get the hint that kingetter was involved again.
The Ex-Orger group was setup so that they can view the forum but not post any messages, during the setup of this group I made a fairly big mistake, they couldn't post but they could read, that was what I wanted, however they could also read the moderators section. That explains why Phoenix saw the posts that she did.
Testing the MU plug in, in order to understand how any thing of this type works it is neccessary to test it, in order to do that I used my old test account named Beatme (named so because he was the test account for the infraction system) I found that the default initial settings were a nightmare, great for using to save the day against a person determined to abuse the forum. I realised that the settings could be toned down to slow down the page refresh and therefore slow down an individuals posting rate. There is already a 2 minute flood timer between posts (that is standard forum system, not a plug in) I didn't want to increase that because it would affect everyone but with the MU plug in I could effectively delay a single person.
Now this wasn't fair, it wasn't right nor can it be justified, I installed the plug in, I refined the settings for this new purpose and I applied it to kingetters account, as DrSzin mentioned, it lasted for about 4 hours and in that time kingetter was still posting and moving around the forum without major problems, just with a slight delay, equivalent to the difference noticed between dialup and broadband for surfing the forum, not a great deal really.
Now I will apologise to Kingetter personally outside of this post, I took this action for a couple of reasons, firstly attempts had already been made to try and resolve his posting and secondly I felt justified after what had happened to Phoenix (please note none of this was ever proven and for that reason alone no ban was issued) So as far as I know kingetter has done no wrong and it was clearly wrong for me to punish him by using this system, even if I was just trying to change his posting style.
My decision clearly affected by rumour and I acted badly, as a result the forum is in turmoil and moderators are being persecuted for something which they had no control over. I accept that some of them might have reacted badly when replying to the posts in the last couple of days but I ask you to bear in mind that they weren't responsible and they have been dragged over the coals for no reason whatsoever.
Now several members have been calling for resignations, directing the calls at the mods, since it wasn't really their fault I guess that calls should have been directed at me, the website link to the copy of the email certainly has my pic at the top so I guess someone knows who is to blame. I've already considered it and I spoke to Niall about it today, I would leave if I though that some good would come from it but unfortunately Niall can't run everything himself and he said that if I leave then the forum would probably be closed.
That being said I'm up for some change and I'd like to give up the mod side and just do the Admin tasks, I'd be available for advice but it would suit me to take a back seat and let the thing be run by the moderators(this would include the new mods as suggested by the .Orger usergroup)
A change is needed, I think that was clear from the chat room meeting that was held on Friday, I'll make a separate post to cover that.
I will leave this post open for comments but I do ask that replies are measured and that you consider what I have said. I will make an effort to answer any genuine questions about what happened but I refuse to let this thread turn into a coup d’état.
The system/rules/forum are open for change but it will have to come through a structured group and not by demands from individuals.
Firstly I'd like to apologise for the delay in posting this message, many things have conspired to keep me from posting a full explanation of the recent events. I was also wanted to wait for the post by DrSzin as I thought that his view of events might clear the air a little.
At this point it may be advisable to put the kettle on and make yourself a cuppa this could turn out to be a rather long post.
The History
I apologise to Phoenix and Kingetter but I feel that this must be covered - sorry.
kingetter was mentioned on the moderator forums via complaints about the volume & style of some of his posts. Some of his material was great, interesting and thought provoking, however a large majority were one liners, conversational style posts. There wasn't a rule in place to cover this so we didn't take any action.
I think he managed to make 120 posts in 1 day, both Bill and Niall tried to have a word with him but he didn't feel that there was a problem with his posting.
A few weeks ago we had a spate of attacks from a person signing up with multiple accounts and switching to a new account each time that the old one was banned. In the past we've also had characters like micky monk that did the same sort of thing. It's frustrating trying to protect the forum from this kind of abuse, as you can imagine.
Now this is the Important part that wasn't included in the email, the initial post where the Miserable User plug in was discussed was in reference to these types of attacks, I was asking for suggestions on how to deal with this kind of abuse and the MU plug in was suggested.
I created a new topic to discuss the plug in and yes moderators were laughing and enjoying the idea that someone that had caused so much trouble would be 'sorted out' via this new system. We hoped that they would assume that the forum was slow and not bother creating more accounts in order to abuse the forum.
So I hope that clears up the idea that it was the general membership that were being made fun of, it wasn't and never would have been applied to any of those users. In the email and on the post I did state
I don't see that many people being added really, obvious troublemakers/spammers could be added immediately pending the outcome of the poll.
There were concerns from the moderators about how the system would be used to make sure that it was used in a fair manner and only against those that really were out to spoil the forum for everyone else.
Around the time that we were being attacked Phoenix sent me a PM asking for her account to be removed, I PM'd back asking why but she said that this time she'd made up her mind and wanted to be removed. I changed her account by moving her to the Ex-Orger group. (more about that shortly)
I asked everyone (the mods) to see if they could speak to her and find out what happened, I'm always concerned when someone wants to leave and I like to know why, in this case after her previous problem I was doubly concerned. I wasn't told that whole story and I still don't know exactly what caused her to leave but I did get the hint that kingetter was involved again.
The Ex-Orger group was setup so that they can view the forum but not post any messages, during the setup of this group I made a fairly big mistake, they couldn't post but they could read, that was what I wanted, however they could also read the moderators section. That explains why Phoenix saw the posts that she did.
Testing the MU plug in, in order to understand how any thing of this type works it is neccessary to test it, in order to do that I used my old test account named Beatme (named so because he was the test account for the infraction system) I found that the default initial settings were a nightmare, great for using to save the day against a person determined to abuse the forum. I realised that the settings could be toned down to slow down the page refresh and therefore slow down an individuals posting rate. There is already a 2 minute flood timer between posts (that is standard forum system, not a plug in) I didn't want to increase that because it would affect everyone but with the MU plug in I could effectively delay a single person.
Now this wasn't fair, it wasn't right nor can it be justified, I installed the plug in, I refined the settings for this new purpose and I applied it to kingetters account, as DrSzin mentioned, it lasted for about 4 hours and in that time kingetter was still posting and moving around the forum without major problems, just with a slight delay, equivalent to the difference noticed between dialup and broadband for surfing the forum, not a great deal really.
Now I will apologise to Kingetter personally outside of this post, I took this action for a couple of reasons, firstly attempts had already been made to try and resolve his posting and secondly I felt justified after what had happened to Phoenix (please note none of this was ever proven and for that reason alone no ban was issued) So as far as I know kingetter has done no wrong and it was clearly wrong for me to punish him by using this system, even if I was just trying to change his posting style.
My decision clearly affected by rumour and I acted badly, as a result the forum is in turmoil and moderators are being persecuted for something which they had no control over. I accept that some of them might have reacted badly when replying to the posts in the last couple of days but I ask you to bear in mind that they weren't responsible and they have been dragged over the coals for no reason whatsoever.
Now several members have been calling for resignations, directing the calls at the mods, since it wasn't really their fault I guess that calls should have been directed at me, the website link to the copy of the email certainly has my pic at the top so I guess someone knows who is to blame. I've already considered it and I spoke to Niall about it today, I would leave if I though that some good would come from it but unfortunately Niall can't run everything himself and he said that if I leave then the forum would probably be closed.
That being said I'm up for some change and I'd like to give up the mod side and just do the Admin tasks, I'd be available for advice but it would suit me to take a back seat and let the thing be run by the moderators(this would include the new mods as suggested by the .Orger usergroup)
A change is needed, I think that was clear from the chat room meeting that was held on Friday, I'll make a separate post to cover that.
I will leave this post open for comments but I do ask that replies are measured and that you consider what I have said. I will make an effort to answer any genuine questions about what happened but I refuse to let this thread turn into a coup d’état.
The system/rules/forum are open for change but it will have to come through a structured group and not by demands from individuals.