Notice Addressing the drama in the OT section this weekeend

Greetings and happy holidays to everyone. Seems like we've had a ton of drama in the off topic section of the forum that needs to be addressed. Some of it you guys know about it and some of it only I and the people directly involved do. Time to bring everyone up to speed and to clear some misconceptions up.

@Lanny please do not post racial slurs in the forum again. I don't care what the reason is. That is not acceptable. Since there is someone demanding you be banned and claiming that I won't do it since we're friends I will state publicly, if you do it one more time I will ban you for a month, if you do it after that I will ban you forever. This follows the exact same order of events we took when someone else continued to post the N word in game threads.

@Fez Forthright I closed your thread because come on, that was a bait/troll thread. It wasn't about MMA or that fight, it was to provoke a reaction from Trump supporters. As clearly shown by the arguments that followed you were very successful stirring shit up. I would consider that a win for you. We really don't need anymore wins like that around here.

@Cupwizer props to you for digging up that old email from 10 years ago and using it to send me your insulting rant. I'm giving you a week away from this place for you to rethink how you interact with some of the members of this forum and the staff on here. I will say you are great for reporting posts. A huge thank you for that, it truly makes things easier for staff to respond to problems in the forum. What I do not appreciate is you using the reporting feature as some sort of weird justification to insult others. Too many times have I gone to a post that you've reported and agreed with you that it is a personal insult only to see that you've insulted them right back AFTER you've reported the post. Really? It doesn't work like that. And clearly you understand what a personal insult is because you've accurately reported it yet you still insult someone back?!? The personal insults need to stop, the picking at people and engaging only to argue with them needs to stop.

Now for the reason I gave you a week long vacation from this place, you complained and complained about staff, then argued with them, and then started trolling them by repeatedly making threads similar to the ones that were just closed. I can not tell you guys enough, when you work hard to provoke a reaction you don't get to pick what that reaction will be. I had 3 staff members actively trying to put out forum fires and you're lighting more. I ended that.

@MARIS61 your continued accusations and lies about me really hurt. We were not in an argument, and I didn't ban you because you won this fictitious argument. You were banned because of personal insults to members of the forum and staff. Now I understand that you claim otherwise but lets see if you really believe that. I have no interest in digging through old posts of yours for insults. Most are edited or deleted but I know I left some because you have a problem not owning your shit.

If you agree to the rules and outcome of this game I propose the following forum game:

I will offer $5 per post of yours that anyone finds that is a personal insult. Once 4 personal insults are found I will ban you forever. If no personal insults are found I will donate $50 to the charity (charities only, no political donations) of your choice. So, if it's true as you claim, that you've never ever ever posted a personal insult in this forum you should have nothing to worry about. The only thing that happens is a charity of yours gets $50 richer. If you agree to that then I will make a thread outlining the rules and unleashing anyone who wants to make a few extra bucks. Also, I will post the moderator logs from every thread an insult is found in so there is no claims that your posts were edited and an insult was added.

@MarAzul you have a serious problem with personal insults, especially against staff. I've talked with you about this multiple times both publicly and privately. I've edited posts, deleted posts, temporarily banned you from threads, permanently banned you from threads, and even temporarily banned you from the forum. I've really tried everything. @Chris Craig or any other member of the forum have not abused their special mod powers nor have they ever used their mod powers unjustly against you. I have tried every way and thing I can think of to get you to stop insulting forum members and staff. I have failed. From the angry email you sent me last night to the phone call you had Mags make to me it sounds like you're done with the place anyways. Good luck to you, may you have many amazing adventures in that beautiful boat you built.

@bodyman5000 and 1 where do I even begin? Let me start off with that you are truly one of my most favorite members on here. You are extremely intelligent, more intelligent than I think even you realize. But the way you instigate behind the scenes is truly masterful and yet a bit concerning at times. But that is one of the reasons why I enjoy you so much. While others come straight at a person, you have this unique way of trying to get someone while they're not looking. It's something that I appreciate because at different times in my life where I've had to do something similar.

I must say, though it really didn't involve me, it wasn't against forum rules, and I didn't truly find out about this until this past month, your campaign via PMs to get HCP fired was masterful yet disturbing. It was also concerning. There is nothing that HCP has said or done to anyone on here that merits him losing his job. To try and talk someone else into emailing the Blazers to get him in trouble is a shitty thing to do don't you think? To try and escalate things to such an extreme is... ummm... odd.

Also, while I only saw the reports and have not read the entirety or context (yes, I used context intentionally. lol) of what was said between you two, you sending PMs to Lanny telling him you wanted him dead is again, very extreme and concerning. Now if you remember I did PM you asking about this and you never replied. It was shortly after that you started your "long goodbye" campaign of telling us weekly that you don't post here anymore and how much this place and certain people suck.

Since you have sent Lanny's post to certain Blazer advertisers I too have a screen grab of Lanny's post that I am going to send to the Blazers tomorrow along with your PMs about trying to get others to try and get HCP fired and hopefully, if @Lanny isn't too upset with me over my post to him tonight, he will send me the emails you sent to him wanting him dead. I think it will provide the Blazers a more complete overview of the interactions, why you're upset, and some of the email campaigns you've tried to instigate in the past. Also I will be showing them the actions that staff took concerning Lanny's post and that he was officially warned that is not acceptable behavior in the forum.

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To everyone else, this is more FYI, I instruct our staff to act more like firemen than policemen. I find this is the best way to promote healthy discussions and debates. Again, forums are boring and useless if everyone agrees. It's the different opinions and beliefs that make forums engaging and fun. There are some who just don't understand this and will unleash personal insults when someone doesn't agree with their specific belief. It's also why there is no agenda against people with certain political affiliations. Go to some of the bigger forums, ones that have subforums for specific political beliefs. BORING! No real debate or discussions, just a circle jerk of agreement. We do not have that here. And because we don't have that here we have some very vigorous and informative discussions and debates. I think that's great. Please, remember this when you get upset with subjects and/or people in the forum or the actions of staff. Often, they are just trying to end the arguments, not to play forum cop. On rare occasions they may get something wrong or do something that you feel is an overreaction. Always feel free to PM me and/or them. I have found all of them to be very receptive and respectful in explaining why they took the actions that they did. Also, it's perfectly okay that you may not agree with them. No one is asking you to. We're only asking is that you understand that we have people who put in hours of their personal time to make this place enjoyable for all.

 

He's the hero the OT section deserved.

 

It's never misery. I actually really like all of you. I've had the pleasure of meeting everyone in my first post except for Fez and BM. All are great guys.