Raaz Satik wrote:You led the exodus from MD to EBank, but now your rarely seen on either?
Okay, I could point out that I've been damned busy but that would be half an answer. True mind you but only half.
The reason I don't visit eBank's forums anymore is because I felt that too many people there exercise power instead of restraint. Kind of the opposite problem that MD was going through at the time. (Being that no moderation was taking place).
Hmmmm.... I probably should elaborate:
MD (at the time)
It had recently been moved up the category list. Had an influx of new posters, most likely bored peeps from C&P and COAD, who were bringing in a wave of non-stop useless threads and trolling. Repeated reportings and emails to the moderators had null effect. (Null is bad as it encourages bad behavior.) Finally it got to be too much and I left.
eBank's Forums
I kind of lay this one on SentryRaven but I posted an idea of trying to regain control of MD once moderation seemed to start stirring again. I suggested that we "group" report troll threads working from the idea that the more something is reported the likelier something is to be handled. SR locked my thread but while doing so decided to add his very negative opinion of my actions. Calling it "creating a denial of service attack" and that he was exercising his authority to lock up the thread.
Well, truth be told, he did not (and does not) have that authority. He does have the power and ability but not the authority. Not to mention the fact that the idea itself was as far from being a DOS attack as possible. (Even 200 people filling out a thread report at the same time could not possibly create a dos attack where thousands browse regularly every hour)
The thing that I realized about eBank, that had always bothered me, is that it is just like any community, hostage to the lowest common moron. While I was, and am, viewed as a loose cannon one thing I've never done is unilaterally decided to act based solely upon my solitary judgment. Several people at eBank have no problem with deciding for themselves what needs to be done right now, doing it, and then finally going to their team mates (it is supposed to be a team) and seeking collective advice/answers.
Such behavior embodies the worst attributes of being a maverick. IMNSHO when one decides to be part of a team/group/corp/whatever you also decide to take your worries/issues/concerns to them
first. You can be loud, obnoxious, whatever about the matter (which creates its own problems) but you do it privately amongst your peers. You don't just go acting out in public based on your sole say so.
So, between SentryRaven's ignorance of Denial of Service and inability to differentiate between having power and having authority I realized that eBank was not the place for me. So I've not been back since I've called him a fucktard. Probably a bit harsh and overboard in response. However I was highly annoyed not for the above reasons but for the fact that I had worked very very hard at making eBank's forums a livelier place. To encourage people to read it more as an MD alternative. To have SentryRaven moderate so unilaterally and so stupidly was, imho, to torpedo the efforts to be a suitable MD alternative.
We were supposed to be better than MD in regards to tolerance as well as moderation. In one smooth move, that was tarnished.
As for TTI: I was kicked as a security risk and malcontent in Aug '03. The first charge was patently untrue but was good as a method to tar me to those who were raising a fuss about why and how I was kicked. The second was true, I was vocal regarding the excessive license and abuses that the management of (then) TTI were taking. I said it back then and I'll say it now: Atlas Shrugged was not just a book about how man should be but it was, more importantly, a book about how man can be abused by others. It supremely detailed how to loot your fellow man and, imnsho, that is exactly what Ragnar and his cohorts had done.
So for lèse majesté, I was supposedly punished. The purging went so far as to kick out people considered "too close" to me as well. Rumors and deceitful accounts about me were floated about and in the short term it was a bit painful. Schoolyard antics of course but no one likes being falsely made a pariah. Of course I laugh when I consider the eventual outcome, Ragnar best known as a crackpot, his cohorts not known at all, and myself - (in)famous to a degree that they could have only dreamed about. Which is surprising of course since fame was the furthest thing on my agenda.
Well, not so surprising actually. The eve community is contrary by nature. Go seeking fame, you'll fail. Go seeking something else, and do it well, you'll wind up with all kinds of secondary benefits.
