One BIG example ? The Omnidbusmen positon, it was his idea. The part in bold is were he started the idea. I got this email after chatting with him a few days ago on MSN.
Tok`ra's email to forums personal email adress wrote:Heres the email he sent forum in which he proposed it
From:
Tok`ra's email
To:
Forums personal email
Almost forgot to mention, if you DO want to fix whats wrong with the fourms, not just do a quick fix but a longlasting solution, heres what you do. (because despite what you wrote, no doubt based upon info provided by pookie and or other mods, I actualy have been trying to fix things. Yeah, Im blunt and abrasave, its just how I am.
1- Get rid of the mod numbers. THeyre silly. Even the mods dislike them, and half the mods ignore them anyway.
2- Have a LOT more transparency from the mods. Obviously, making the mod section visable would not work, however having something like a weekly mod update. with a differnt mod each week writing it, would be quite effective. One of the BIG causes of problems is the secrecy of the mods, percived or real. Take away that factor, and it becomes a non-issue.
3- dissent: Dissent should be allowed and encouraged. How better to find stuff to fix ? The MAIN problem that causes it to become bitter tho, is that the fourm has a longstanding habbit of people seeing a thread they disagree with, or by someone they dislike, and just spamming it with comments that come out to little more than 'no u sux'. This is not to be comfused with ah argument were facts are presented, however. This should also be the only manner in which mods need reguarly crack down. Furthermore, if this type of posting is dealt with, it WILL slowley restore the cooperatve atmosphere on the fourms, which have died over time as massing became MUCH more easier.
4- Rotate admin positions. Power Corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutley. Admitedly, a fourm admin doesnt have absolute power (and on older unpatched php versions one need not even HAVE an account to be an admin) but still, there is a trent Ive noticed in virtualy all past admins execpt for wolf359, they tend to flex their 'power' on the fourms more and more as they have it longer.
With Psi, he 'banned' me for 5 months, (of course, I jsut ignored the bans). When I eventualy wound up in the same alliance as him and discussed it with him, he said he just was 'too lazy' to set an unban date.
ETL, he let too many members of his alliance and allies into the mod ranks (not that they were all bad mods/admins) and otherwise had a slight air of bias at times (althought Rhett will never admit it, its true)
Pookie went from fun and approachable, to unapproachable and one would think, paranoid, about anyone who might dispute his power or decisions, even if just in the form of an alternate opinion.
Admitedly, my own views are also biased, but then everyones views are biased somewhat.
5- and that leads into point 5.It would work quite well to establish an ombudsmen position of sorts. Essently, have someone whose job it is to not so much moderate the mdoerators, but deal with the complaints about them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ombudsmen
6- Rules. Fourm rules need to be KEPT simple. Admitedly, you killed most of the useless ones allready. Rules should be kept to the following basic types ---age appropiate posts/material---advertising other games---Basic post etiquette (which would include treatment of others, to an extent, and purposly de-railing a topic or otherwise not contributing to it) --- And lastly NO cheating ingame, or anything pertaining to how to do it othturning someone in for it.Those should be (and pretty much are) the basic rule types. In reality, there should be no need for legaleze from the rules, keep em simple, and follow the bloody spirit. That said, the mods should ENFORCE them based on the spirit, that means no looking for ANY violation from someone they dislike while letting those they like get away with what they have banned others for (doesnt happen THAT often, but it happens on occasion). There shuld be beside the rules a moderator code of conduct, such as how they will treat the users, and in the event of mod action (a ban for example) how it will be handled. I had a great long post for this point, but it was deleted when you got rid of my fourm account, and I cant feel arsed this late at nite to re-create the post. (tho you will find it intersting, despite your claims that I only attacked, in the thread I referd to, I wound up having a lenghty discussion with a modertor. Good luck on finding the post to, as I cant recall if the mod quoted me or which one it was)
So everyone says hes so bad, but even just after having been banned by forum (a seprate banfrom his current one) he tries to propose ways to FIX things, including one idea that resulted in a new and still existant forum position today. Too bad the omnidbusmen positon turned into a popularity contest, instead of findin someone who has the moxie to stand up to those in power when nessacary on the behlaf of others, even those he/she might dislike.
And what has occured since his ban ? The forum has sunk back downhill, and noone can even get adminmark to communicate with anyone, or even do anything more than a few times a week aparently. Too bad he seems to be an in real life freind of fourms. Forums freinds tend to be untouchable, or if they get touched their ingame ID gets changed.
admitedly, the forums aint as bad as they used to be, there isnt any rule against speaking against the mods like there was under the nazi-like reign of pookie, but things could still stand a LOT more transparancy. And the omnidbusmen positon could use a massive overhaul.
Hell, I say bring Tok`ra back as omnidbusmen.
If the mods/forum were in the wrong, he'll say so.
If the user was wrong, he'll say so.
Besides, its not like the positon is of any value now, its one massive popularity contest.
Personaly i think tokra is a pretty cool guy. eh stand up to forum and doesn't afraid of anything.
