A small rant

[DaDigi]

I joined this game around November 2005 during the weekend of my Thanksgiving Vacation. I was sitting on the computer, searching through google, trying to find something to cure my eternal boredom. I forget exactly how I found SGW, but somehow I did. I joined the game as an eager Tau'ri, because why (if I'm a human) would I want to be anything other than what I am? I guess it's a limitation of my imagination... but whatever. So, I started playing and slowly built myself up ingame. Parallel to playing, I joined the forum and started looking for a commander and an alliance. I also was interested in helping out, trying to assist people when they reported a bug, and I also dabbed in the suggestions section, both telling people their ideas sucked and that others were intriguing. I never really got into the whole "warmonger" thing, and I generally played with a passive attitude. I never got really far into an alliance's power structure, as I just never was that type of person. I stayed to the side, quietly watching things as they progressed.

Because of my staying neutral and out of harms way, I never really suffered. I remember the most talked about thing I ever did, I scammed a scammer. Amittomar was known for scamming people out of their resources, and was good at it. So, one night, I was bored. I MSNed him, and eventually scammed him out of a large sum of turns. I remember the response I got from the community. I was attacked by respected members of the community both on the forums and ingame. Even though I had divvy'd up the turns and sent them back to the people that Amit had scammed, I was still labeled as a "bad guy" because I was no better then him FOR scamming him! I quickly returned to the shadows of the game, and eventually took a break for a few months.

I came back, remembering my lesson from the last time. I didn't want to draw attention to myself. Long story short, I worked my way through the river of moderators to get myself where I am today. I'm a moderator because I feel like I can help the community this way. I still draw attention, but that's only because my name is green and I can lock topics. But that's not my point.

There is currently an ongoing discussion (behind the scenes) of what role the WTH is allowed to play in the community. Why do we need an WTH to begin with? It started out with accusations by users, suggesting the mod team/admins were corrupted. Yeah, there were a few bad apples, but everything was under control. There were a few key users that didn't take after my "passive" methods, but instead wanted to be vocal and cause controversy wherever they went. It's been some time since these events, yet we still have an WTH. There's approx. 50 actual topics in the WTH "corner", of which a good percentage of them are from a select few of these "non-passive" and "warmonger" type community members.

Nobody is perfect. NOBODY. Not REK, not Lore, not AdminJason, and not anybody else living on this planet Earth. There's bound to be a few screwups and errors, but hey... Welcome to reality. Do we really need an WTH anymore? The elections are glorified population contests. All polls usually are (although the people who win are not always the wrong people, it's just the method of voting that's flawed). I think it's time to "retire" the position of the WTH. If we ever come to a point in which it's truly needed again, it can be resurrected. At this point in time, it's not needed.

</end rant>

[buck]

To be fair i reckon anyone who trys to win in game by haveing a forum position isnt going to get very far, and visa versa...

However i would contest your point of there being no need for an ombudsperson. The role certainly needs more clarification (however it has been explained on several occasions) , but the ideal behind it is to act as a check and balance, in America, You have the president, high court, and elected congress and senate, the 3 act as a "check and balance" on one anouther, The same can be said about the Ombudsperson, The mods, And the admins. They offer checks and balances, Removeing the ombudsperson would remove a more user based point of view, the ombudspersons have direct contact with the admins and , although admins are most wise and gracious people, they do sometimes fail to see other points of veiw etc, which the ombudspersons provide.

Yes, the Polling situation isnt the best, i'l agree with you there, but all elections, be them political or on a forum, are based on popularity and want to be more powerful, thats something that i doubt will ever change.

Although no, noone is perfect (though i myself am pretty darned close) i do feel that the ombudspersons do a job that needs doing. Accusations of biased etc aside, they may not be seen as needed or needing to do alot, but if anything they give the users someone to go to who is not a member of the establishment, and if only for there peace of mind when its needed, then it is doing good.

[SSG EnterTheLion]

Nobody is perfect. NOBODY. Not REK, not Lore, not AdminJason, and not anybody else living on this planet Earth. There's bound to be a few screwups and errors, but hey... Welcome to reality. Do we really need an WTH anymore? The elections are glorified population contests. All polls usually are (although the people who win are not always the wrong people, it's just the method of voting that's flawed). I think it's time to "retire" the position of the WTH. If we ever come to a point in which it's truly needed again, it can be resurrected. At this point in time, it's not needed.

</end rant>

Good thing you didn't mention Me! Cos I AM PERFECT!

[Castiel]

Nobody is perfect. NOBODY. Not REK, not Lore, not AdminJason, and not anybody else living on this planet Earth. There's bound to be a few screwups and errors, but hey... Welcome to reality. Do we really need an WTH anymore? The elections are glorified population contests. All polls usually are (although the people who win are not always the wrong people, it's just the method of voting that's flawed). I think it's time to "retire" the position of the WTH. If we ever come to a point in which it's truly needed again, it can be resurrected. At this point in time, it's not needed.

</end rant>

Good thing you didn't mention Me! Cos I AM PERFECT!

[Noobert]

Excuse me sir, Megan Fox is mine. Please remove her from your signature before violence occurs.

I do not think this belongs here in a sense as it will attract some 'replies' that are probably meant for Moderator discussion but I will give my piece on the Ombudsman position..

It's not needed. They check everything with the Admins to begin with. It's just like.. a middle man, I suppose. They don't even need that much power to see the Moderator forum, but they have it. The only thing they need to do is deter if the warning is right or wrong then advise the Admins of their conclusion and lately, it seems to be abused and overused for every little cry baby whiner that gets warned for something he purposely did.

Either way, I say no.

[Mordack]

I don't think this forum needs an ombudsman either.

In my view, the existence of such an entity creates further disparity between the users and the moderators. Mods and users should solve disputes between themselves, and appeal to global moderators and admin if a specific issue can't be resolved.

Contrary to what the Nimras spouts, I do not believe that there's a greal deal of genuine corruption and bias on this forum, and certainly not enough to warrant the existence of a third party. We have the manpower to solve issues on our own. The ombudsman is an unecessary position which creates needless red tape and work for the administration.

[Castiel]

Excuse me sir, Megan Fox is mine. Please remove her from your signature before violence occurs.

NEVER!

But seriously never.

But seriously seriously she's smooooooookiin fine

[REK]

why did u mention me twice ? lol

and I am PERFECTION! the kitty is just jealous ...

[Caprila]

In a perfect situation, the ombudsman would not be needed, as users and mods would be able to solve issues, clearly and calmly themselves.

However, we don't have a perfect situation here, we have a work in progress, that still requires it's presence imo. Perhaps we will get to the point Ombudsman is not needed, or perhaps not. But for now, I think we still do.

[DaDigi]

We will never get to that point if we keep the WTH.

[Q Man]

i read this thread when it was first posted earlier and i read through the ombudsman section and without pointing fingers, it seemed to be alot of silly pointless threads that aren't the genuine problem! alot of those threads have generated from grudges users have come across with certain moderators!
i've only seen maybe one or two genuine problems and they weren't recent! i don't see a need in the current climate for such a position!

i can't see any moderators abusing powers in their favours and i believe that there is no gain in having the section anymore.

[REK]

whats the point I called deni an 80 year old drunk cause she was stuttering and robe felt I was seaking about her so had earendil 's crybaby ass warn me for it then I made a thread pointing out robes abuse of power since she felt offended by me calling deni and old drunk since and im only speculating that robe truely is an old drunk she deleted my thread and every post I talk about it in lol this place is a joke

[Casshern]

sorry but you can not have a situation were the mods police themselves and the admins are just glorified mods with more power and therefore they can not police the mods or themselves. That is why we need an ombudsman position. Now there was a time when bias was clear shown by mods on the forum and general clear out of the bad seeds and the ombudsman position, stopped this. If the ombudsman position is gone who is there to stop the abuse of the power that mods and admins wheeled. where do people with genuine complaints go if we have no ombudsman and for all the stupid ones its not right to not allow the righteous ones to be cleared. In rl the ombudsman would be truly neutral and from outside the game but since this is unlikely to happen a player from the game is the best option we have. The voting for it is flawed, a new system will have to be used for the election of an ombudsman.

[Mordack]

sorry but you can not have a situation were the mods police themselves and the admins are just glorified mods with more power and therefore they can not police the mods or themselves. That is why we need an ombudsman position. Now there was a time when bias was clear shown by mods on the forum and general clear out of the bad seeds and the ombudsman position, stopped this. If the ombudsman position is gone who is there to stop the abuse of the power that mods and admins wheeled. where do people with genuine complaints go if we have no ombudsman and for all the stupid ones its not right to not allow the righteous ones to be cleared. In rl the ombudsman would be truly neutral and from outside the game but since this is unlikely to happen a player from the game is the best option we have. The voting for it is flawed, a new system will have to be used for the election of an ombudsman.

Even if all of the mods and the admin were corrupt, what could the ombudsman do about it?

The answer is nothing. He has no actual power to remove moderators or nullify warnings. All he can do is make recommendations to the admin, which they then review and act as they see fit; and if the admin was bias, then they'd just ignore him.

All the ombudsman does is look at cases and refer them onto the admin with an opinion. That opinion doesn't have to be followed, and the admin just end up looking at the evidence themselves and making an opinion. As someone has pointed out, it's basically just a middleman.

[Noobert]

Crap. Mordack beat me to it.

+1 for Mordack.