Why does everyone think its so bad?

[SCpoloRicker]

SP is evil....

Yawn

Friendly Corner, anyone? How many times must we bear the "oh noes"?

[50 cal]

AO has become more like pbn. Sad to say, but it's true. AO was a place were people could post serious questions and have them answered without the assinine "that suxxors" replies.
If someone had a decent topic, it went on for a few pages with good intelligent discussion. Now it's not that way.
Look at the Sig line topic that ran a bunch of pages then got locked because people acted like 5 year olds.

I really liked this site. I still visit periodically and post if I have something worthwhile to post.

[SlartyBartFast]

This AO is becoming PBN existential garbage is getting to be as bad as the eternal navel gazing of Canadians worried about becoming too American.

[Lohman446]

I don't know - I have had a serious discussion regarding negligence that has been ongoing with a good number of people, I have disagreed with a number of them and nowhere has it been anything but civil. Even in discussion of different markers it very seldom turns negative. Many many topics go on, with people who disagree, with very little if any hostitlity. I think its just a matter if your looking for where the problems are... sure there are some but they tend to be trivial (IMHO) things that have the most hostility surroudning them with NOTABLE exceptions.

[hitech]

Yawn

Yeah, yeah, yeah, but I still think SP is evil...

[Muzikman]

And when you are gone, I will cry and scream to everyone on AO on why it is just not fair

[Lohman446]

You won't get banned... you question with some reasoning... as have others. Its just sometimes, often people whine rather than question nicely (not in every case). Things got out of hand, I think they will cool back down if both sides give it time without pushing further and escalating the situation

[MarkM]

One problem is that some users find it difficult to stand behind the courage of their convictions, which means when you post something to be read you don't go back and delete it, if it hasn't had the effect you were trying to get. Admittedly there has been recently some individuals who have pushed and pushed and this latest round of bannings and also the signatures getting switched off is the result. You all, myself included accept the rules when you sign up. Break the rules and you are dealt with, don't break the rules and nothing will happen.
The grass was never greener before (I have read the old forums so I do know what I am talking about) Fewer members meant fewer issues.
Nit picking trying to disect the "true" meaning of a word in a rule/guideline creates issues. Rule is straightforward in meaning as is Guideline which means anything outside the Guideline is against it so that means action.
Contextual arguements are as old as the hills unfortunately a great many members do not now share this age. Why do you think I recently started a thread about the first song you ever bought and look the answers it provided...it was a fishing expedition!! (plus a thread everyone could take part in) Two years ago the average age was probably 17 now it is closer to 12 and with all the angst that goes along with that age of person.
At least the "use the search button" replys have slowed down. I can get anywhere for 10 to 25 emails per day with reported threads...if everything was so peachy here then that number would be dropped to basically zero, it is the users who are reporting the threads and then the Mod acts on that information given to them by ANOTHER user. The Mods do not go searching for issues they get sent to us.
I have posted this as myself not as the AO Moderation Team (any Mod can be that account but then you had probably already worked that out) so you can actually have someone to reply to without any sarcastic remarks about hiding etc. I would love to be able to just surf AO and move the odd post about if it was in the wrong section but life isn't that neat.

[hitech]

Admittedly there has been recently some individuals who have pushed and pushed and this latest round of bannings and also the signatures getting switched off is the result. You all, myself included accept the rules when you sign up. Break the rules and you are dealt with, don't break the rules and nothing will happen.

Can you tell me what rule(s) were broken here:

30 Day bans for not letting the LPB thing go PER a warning in thread :

Aegis - 30 days

Automaggot68 - 30 Days

spacedtedybear - 30 Days

If you guys think I am joking I am far from it.

-R

Heck Ill just edit this one to add peoples bans.

Z-man - 30 Days

cabldawg - 30 days

Welp adding some more

bornl33t - 30 days

CaliMagFan - 30 days

RtDaNiMaL - 30 days (not added by Rob)

-=Squid=- - 30 days (not added by Rob)

[punkncat]

Can you tell me what rule(s) were broken here:

The problem was that(most of) these people mentioned "the unspoken" after a post was made that said doing so would constitute a 30 day ban.

Right or wrong (which is the subjusct of much discussion), they were warned and knew the consequence before posting

[shartley]

I have posted this as myself not as the AO Moderation Team (any Mod can be that account but then you had probably already worked that out) so you can actually have someone to reply to without any sarcastic remarks about hiding etc. I would love to be able to just surf AO and move the odd post about if it was in the wrong section but life isn't that neat.

[MarkM]

Can you tell me what rule(s) were broken here:

Your own quote is the answer. A warning was given and not followed the result were those bans. Although you have asked politely it is questions like yours that have been the cause of many of the flare ups bwtween the Mods and other users. I am not saying you can't ask, you have and I have answered but the PM system needs to be used more than it is to discuss these problems.

The Ban List thread was created because of individuals complaining that if someone was banned then how could they receive a pm or email explaining to them personally why the ban had happened if they couldn't access the PM system.So the Ban List is visible to Guest's which is what you become when you are banned, plus in most of the cases the user already knows they have stepped over the line.
In it's own way the Ban List thread is still not perfect because of questions like yours made in public and especially since you are not one of the list. Users wanted visible modding and then complained very loudly in some cases when it was implimented. Do not think we are not aware of concerted pm/aim/phone calls that round up the "troops" to flood a thread.

No ruling is going to be accepted by all people that is just one of those things that we as mods and you as users are just going to have to accept. This isn't meant in anyway as "if you don't like it etc etc" just a simple observation. The exception to this last sentence is that all users and Mods have to abide by the rulings if any of us wish to continue using this forum.

I could be really pedantic and push a ruling through about the way in which some stuff is posted on here but it would create more problems than it would solve so I haven't.
I like to have my signature, as it (and all signatures) adds to the colourful nature of the forum it now can't be included so I will have to live with it being gone (other than in My Profile) This would have happened if users had stuck to what was written in so far as what you can and cannot do..already covered contexual arguements in my previous post.

I personally would like to see the uploading of attachments to AO servers turned off and that way the user who wants post an image would have to host the image themselves, I have argued for this for some time but still they are allowed. Remember when the AO server attachment was on the blink how calm the forum was? Well doing what I have tried to do would have this effect, it certainly didn't stop attachments but they certainly slowed down.

[MarkM]

Sam, the comment about the difficulty is way off base...I didn't say that, I may have inferred it had drawbacks but that was the limit of it. This thread is about what people are trying to see what is wrong/could be made better.

I am also an admin on another forum and I get to do the sum total of zero from a moderation point of view, mostly it is moving stuff to the correct areas. In fact I think there have only been a total of 3 bannings since the forum was created.
Don't be starting with the police officer route since a police officer has to abide with the rules same as a regular person...do you agree with the cop when he pulls you over for some kind of violation...of course not (most cases)
You even say this yourself above when you comment on deciding what to do with a reported post, I have let things be many times with some of the reported posts as in my eyes there was nothing to deal with ..and not once (to date) has a post I left alone come back to bite me. Now I am not suggesting that I am perfect but would every other mod who got that reported post done the same thing I don't know as I can't answer for them...will I back a decision they make..YES.
You personally have been the subject of more than one attack and things came out the right way in your case...now do other users like that it turned out the way it did?..very simply NO. Have you stirred things? YES have they been dealt with? YES. Playing Devils advocate is not a very clever perch to be sitting on. Your one saving grace is that you don't make a post and then delete it afterwards and for that I applaud you on. Do I agree with the things you post, sometimes but not always and quite often it would be pointless replying, this is a different case since you are asking and commenting directly upon a post I have made.

The AO Mod Team was created so that users did not have the target of hate that could be directed at any individual moderator for doing something. This is because often personal issues get brought up as the reason why such and such was banned/editted etc again people looking for an arguement where none exists, a user broke the rules and was punished because of this. I have been the subject of one such thread where all i did was apply the rules as written in the threads I was reading/getting reported, conicidently I happened to moderate an entire clique of friends... to me they were just users who had broken the rules nothing personal what so ever but did that stop the hate thread?

[Blazestorm]

I didn't bother to read all of it.

Guys, it's a forum, if you care this much about it, you need a life. [EDIT - Outside of AO that is...]

TEH DRAMA OMGZORS YOU ALL SUCK NO YOU SUCK NO YOU SUCK LOLOLOL TAFFY!!1

[MarkM]

I didn't bother to read all of it.

Guys, it's a forum, if you care this much about it, you need a life. [EDIT - Outside of AO that is...]

TEH DRAMA OMGZORS YOU ALL SUCK NO YOU SUCK NO YOU SUCK LOLOLOL TAFFY!!1

I agree that there is a life outside AO but it is posts like yours just now that do nothing to add to the life inside AO if you can't be bothered to read the comments then why post a negative reply with no reasoning? It is posts like yours that have become symtomatic of a great many of the problems on AO.