posted 07-05-99 07:44 PM ET        

1. First, trip has to either post on the bulletin board or e-mail to JKM a statement saying something like"I won't use profanity on the forum from now on." Note that he does *not* have to revoke any of his ideals or comments that he made in his post, nor does he have to apologize to *anybody*. He simply has to promise to refrain from profanity in the future.

2. JKM then has to post a message on the bulletin board containing:
a. What sort of profanity or *'s are acceptable and what sort are not
b. A statement saying that all violators will be prosecuted objectively, not based on any comments about the game or about Firaxis.
Note that JKM does *not* have to apoligize to trip for banning him, he does *not* have to ban wang, and he does *not* have to apoligize to anybody. He simply has to promise to be objective in his decisions.

3. Then, JKM has to remove the ban on trip.

posted 07-05-99 07:45 PM ET            

Trippin', there is no shame in promising not to cuss.

JKM, there is no shame in restoring his priveliges once he promises to behave.

posted 07-05-99 07:51 PM ET            

The pair of you. Just sign up to that and we can then bin this whole (non)issue.

posted 07-05-99 07:55 PM ET            

They just don't have the balls to ban DarkStar or I right on top of the ban on trippin, because that would make it too obvious.

posted 07-05-99 08:37 PM ET         

I don't think it's about Trip being banned for criticizing Firaxis, Jeffrey or any of their staff. I think it was a case of the straw breaking the camel's back.

I remember the posts in question. Too often we've said "Oh, it's only TD" but he does cross the line, and has being doing it more and more recently. That one took the biscuit. (and no, I didn't register the complaint either)

He got banned from the Apolyton forums for his spamming every thread with his "MarkG is an **** " - very mature - but every thread - even the fiction writers? What did we ever do to you Trip? Do you hate the game so much that you can't stand any fiction about it being put on the forums?

But to the point. e_c has offered a good solution. If Trip needs an audience, we supply one, (and I don't know if I speak for the "silent" group of lurkers on this issue, but the flaming invective and obscenity was getting tiresome. Wank has explained his 'defense' of Koshko, and his recent posts have been civilzed.

MtG, you have said that others should be banned, and several of you have posted provocative material trying to goad JKM into banning. Why should he? You do not have a history of continual obscenity writing, and if you did, I've no doubt that you would go the way of Hardman. And many of us would say "good riddance" (not to you personally, but to see this forum rid of the crass vituperations that make reading about "The Game" or "Strategy" so painful.)

So to trip, and those of you that are bemoaning your peception of censorship, kiss and make up, or disappear and let the rest of us get on with discussing SMAC.

posted 07-06-99 01:05 AM ET            

If your vision of life is such that being on one forum or another in any way relates to having "power," then I truly are pity your existence. Since you've admitted your ignorance of the ACOL site (in spite of numerous posts about it here, and in the multiplayer forum for MONTHS), isn't it a tad presumptuous for you to describe my participation in the site's "power structure?" (What a concept!)

Then you go even further and read my mind for all to see: "the reason is siplicity itself" - well, one reason is that you can edit out the spelling errors, and there are many others, but of course with your mind reading ability, you don't need to bother checking out either the site, the facts, or your presumptions.

Well, to set you straight, I've been at ACOL since May, and am just as happily powerless there as here. It is a better site, pure and simple, and has about 240 registered users so far, so it's hardly my "power trip" dear. Obviously, you are either a firaxian, or so mentally challenged you couldn't read my post three above yours which described numerous objective reasons for the superiority of the ACOL site.

The url is: http://www.an-identity.com/ac.cgi/login

posted 07-06-99 01:27 AM ET            

I came back to find the board in ruins. (Way to go Freddz for predicting Forum Wars a while back, who would have guessd the moderators would be involved!)

First of all...for everyone who found Trip offending....grow up. If you don't like it, don't read it.

Second...I've read every post about the issue and I have to side with MichaelTheGreat....Firaxis's refusal to ban Wank was too blatant. This smells of corporate favoritism...it reeks. I won't sign for 3 reasons.

1)trip continues to post under other names...So he wasn't REALLY banned.

2)Wank runs free.

3)Firaxis refuses to appologize for #2.

that in my oh so humble opinion.

posted 07-06-99 01:40 AM ET            

Just a thought.

posted 07-06-99 02:41 AM ET            

Chagarra - several of us mailed trippin earlier, but this is less and less about trippin personally - the forums say moderated by none, and when asked about obvious problems like the double posting bug, Firaxis, if they respond at all, point out that this site is "maintained" by Origin and EA. So while doing nothing to support the site, one Firaxian, with a good deal of animosity, decides to ban a critical poster - they won't bother to support and maintain the site (not their problem), but jump on one profane poster (suddenly their problem, but only one of dozens)

ACOL is a better functioning site, and is being expanded and built up all the time, and user requests are responded too. If this was a superior site, with good support, there would be less reason to walk, and more to ask for some common sense in the trippin and jkm tiff. This is instead an inferior site, hardly maintained, which is simply bigger due to age and exposure.

posted 07-06-99 03:57 AM ET            

do you guys have something like a real life?

posted 07-06-99 10:56 AM ET         

In real life I'm Lady Deirdre's bodyguard

posted 07-06-99 12:59 PM ET            

http://www.an.i-dentity.com/ubbcgi/Ultimate.cgi?action=intro

He can close a thread but not outright kill it.
He can edit posts when needed but the post is marked for all to see as modified.

Moderator=helper there, not censor

posted 07-06-99 03:49 PM ET         

I would sign, if I cared. I rarely come by these slums anymore anyway.

posted 07-06-99 04:32 PM ET            

This is a highly civilised sight!!

Obviously you wouldnt recognize and intellectual if you saw one!

PS. I agree, Trip should be allowed back aslong as he follows the rules.

(God you owe me big time!)

posted 07-06-99 05:06 PM ET            

At ACOL - the rules (and the rights and tenure of moderators) are set by the user community as a whole, democratically. The only reason for moderators is to help with admin tasks as the site grows, since it is a part time personal effort by one individual, Asian Flu.

Come over and check the site out - see if you don't think the funcionality and responsiveness isn't superior, but give it a week or two, as it is being expanded and developed rapidly. We'd welcome your participation, and that of anyone else.

MtG

PS - if nothing else, snoop around and if you think of things you'd like to see to make it a better user community, let us know, even if you decide not to stick around. We'd appreciate your input. We're even civilized over there.

posted 07-07-99 01:56 AM ET            

As for not being able to find the adress for ACOL, I hve no excuse, as a matter of fact I found it inly a couple of clicks later and decided their was a definite need for an edit button.

posted 07-07-99 02:05 PM ET            

Reasons: Trip should be damned well and able to type as he chooses. It would be unfair to ask him to not do something the REST of us can do.

Reason 2: Trip was banned due to his attacks on specific people of Firaxis (i.e. "If they Can't program/test any better that a sick monkey on chemo") and on SMAC. I doubt they cared much about his attacks on SMAC (i.e. "After 3 months of solid play, I have realized its nothing but a Civ2 SF Mod with a graphics engine swap. My greatest compliments to the Artist of SMAC since they gave it a look that absolutely fooled me for months. Nice damned pictures!"). There have been many that have done that since the demo and inevitable warezing of SMAC. But the personal attacks on the development team in such graphic matters is what put him in the danger zone. Was their a complaint? Probably, although it may simply have been Jeff or another Firaxian who made it. No one likes to be criticised, especially on their turf. And for your information, if Trip identifies a new ID as him, its banned.

Trip was over the top, but there have been many who have been. He got dumped because he went from being a supporter of SMAC (i.e. "You ****head! How dare you say that? SMAC is a great game that lets you stomp people in the dirt! Nuke the ****ers in their bed! And Poison Gas their graves! You can do all sorts of neat **** with the probe teams! And the Diplomacy is ****ing great! Do this, or I will crush you like a bug! HAHAHA! " ) to a SERIOUS flaming heavy critic. It's that change (Like Imran going over to the "Civ2 with SF Mod Pack" crowd) AND the personal and professional assaults. They got their feelings hurt, and got rid of him. Otherwise, Jeff wouldn't waste his time banning Trip. He'd let him on in another ID, and just warn him to behave or lose the ID.

posted 07-07-99 06:21 PM ET            

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We at this BB also reserve the right to reveal your identity (or whatever information we know about you) in the event of a complaint or legal action arising from any message posted by you."

Recognize that? It's part of the disclaimer that everyone agreed to when they registered at this forum. Maye some people skimmed over it, but it's important to be aware of these things. Maybe trippin daily wasn't. And as for "objectivity"...Firaxis can delete any message they want for any reason, or for no reason at all. You agreed to comply with that when you registered. Stop complaining. Thank you.

posted 07-07-99 08:03 PM ET            

Darkstar (and laurens and everyone that agrees with them : I agree with you that a whole bunch of other people were doing actions that were just as (or almost as ) bad, and that his criticisms of Firaxis were a large part of the reason behind his removal. However, complaining about it won't solve the problem, because it only makes JKM less likely to reinstate him. So:

1. Trip *was* violating the rules. Therefore, he should promise not to do so in the future in order to get his ID back. Fair enough, right?

2. Even so, JKM *was not* using objectivity to ban trip. Therefore, he should promise that in the future he would use objectivity and not subjectivity in his decisions.

Your problem is that you want JKM to apologize -- and that will never happen, in the same way that you will never get trip to apologize either. They have egos to preserve (as you know ). Therefore, this is the only way to get trippin daily's priveliges restored.

posted 07-07-99 08:07 PM ET            

Cut 'n' paste gives me power...........

Wow......

posted 07-08-99 03:00 PM ET         

Create an award-winning, best selling game and a forum for it, where people can rip you a new one over and over again, and when you finally get sick of the nonsense from a particularly egregrious idiot and boot him, you can expect to put up with even more abuse!

Doesn't that sound like fun?

Be quiet, people. There are plenty of folks here that have shown you can be a really in-your-face critic to firaxis and not get booted.