courtesy of dbowie.
Reason? Because I need to rant. Yes, it's a selfish personal
reason which members don't expect me to, but drastic action calls
for drastic measures. Too many things are happening and 90% of the
time people don't read what I say. Fine by me that you don't give
two hoots about what I say, but if ANYONE still remembers the first
thread I started in the news section after SGAnime switched to
SGCafe, you'd know that SGCafe runs by MY RULES, MY POLICY.
I do what I want with this forum, including closing it down
temporarily or permanently. So if you have even the slightest idea
that you have the right to whine about the forum being closed, or
that I shouldn't do it, shut the hell up and live with it. I've
been having too many new people in the forums who think that SGCafe
is some crazy zoo where you're able to do whatever you want and get
away with it because there's no zoo keeper around. WRONG. That's
not the way I run things. Senior members will probably have a
better idea of how I run this place, and I am SO tired of dealing
with people who don't bloody listen to other members.
Now that that's out of the picture, if you're one of those innocent
members who haven't done anything (0 posts) to deserve my fury, my
apologies for dragging your reading pleasure into this. For
everyone else, there are 1001 things that could have pissed me off
during your days as an SGCafe member. There might be a few people
who didn't, but I probably can count you with my fingers.
I'm not getting heard by the members, members do not know me (I
don't mean personally) nor know what I am saying. That's my main
concern. I don't have any worry for the senior members (you know
who you are), because you know how to contact me and get things
done. The reason I'm guessing is that when SGAnime moved to SGCafe,
there were barely 2,000 members. Now, there are 6,000 members, so
we're looking at 4,000 new members, of which probably 1/2 of you
are the ones who are the cause of this temporary closure. You have
no idea how I want this forum to run, do NOT make the effort to
find out, and simply just click the post button either to voice out
(good), or simply to increase your GOD DAMN POST COUNT (bad).
Fine, half of the above problems are my fault. I was busy for a
couple of years so I didn't have time to sort out the forum stuff.
By the time I did, it was probably too late. The news section needs
a cleanup but I haven't gotten around doing it. That still doesn't
mean you as a member, do not have the responsibility to find out
information on your own.
Some history for those that don't know. When I was running SGAnime,
it was based on one single rule, common sense. Every post, every
action, had to have some common sense involved. "Do not do to
others what you do not want done to yourself." It worked well for
some time until people started getting personal with me. I tried to
make everyone happy, so I did stuff for good of the majority of
members, not just listen to the mobs who were against it and
voiced. I fought my own wars then, and got tired, which resulted in
the forming of SGCafe, and the major change to the rules. Common
sense still applies, but I call the final shot. If I say NO, its
NO, regardless of what you think. Worked pretty well for then,
until now when the situation has gotten what I'll call, out of
hand, because the 2,000 members I'm looking at have NO idea what I
am talking about, this "common sense" thing.
FFA. Free For All. This is the way I wanted SGAnime, and now SGCafe
to run. This is the mentality I have, which some, but not all of
you know. I didn't make specific mention of this, but I think I
should now since I'm ranting. Free For All refers to the right for
anyone to say whatever they want. Of course, FFA alone is a REALLY
bad idea. I can imagine how chaotic the situation would have gotten
very quickly, so I implemented the need for common sense. For you,
to use WHATEVER common sense you had in you to decide what to say,
and whether or not to say it. By doing so, you will also need to
BEAR RESPONSIBLITY for what you said. In short, what I wanted was
an unmoderated forum, where members could interact peacefully (as
far as possible) in a civilized manner, always exercising common
sense and responsiblity.
Now, when I refer to common sense, a lot of people, especially the
2,000 of you I'm targeting are going to say stuff like common sense
is what you think is right. NO, NO and NO. That's not common sense,
that's your selfish ego. Common sense is what is "common" to
everyone, meaning what the majority think is right. Think about
others, and their response to your post, before posting something
that's probably going to piss everyone off. If it doesn't need to
be said, don't say it.
One thing I see in common with a lot of new members (and some old
ones), the lack of RESPECT. How are you going to co-exist with
someone without an ounce of respect for each other? Peacefully or
non-peacefully, there still needs to be some form of respect, which
I see very much lacking in the forums. I can't teach you respect,
but without respect, you're not going to be able to exercise common
sense. Either find some way to learn both respect and common sense,
or keep quiet.
Flaming. I already expected flames, and already decided that I WILL
NOT GET INVOLVED. FIGHT YOUR OWN WAR WITH YOUR OWN WORDS.
Unmoderated means I do not take any action against content, except
when it is absolutely necessary to, such as legal reasons. I
probably didn't "advertise" this stance of mine enough, but here it
is. I DO NOT GET INVOLVED IN FLAMES. I DO NOT CLOSE THREADS WHEN
YOU ASK ME TO. I DECIDE WHETHER OR NOT I WANT TO TAKE ACTION.
Thread owners are expected to close their own threads, get them to
close the thread if you need to, but it's their own decision
whether or not to do it. If you feel you have been defamed,
insulted, whatever, find a lawyer and he/she will know how to
contact me.
Lack of moderators is the other complain I see all over the place,
and usually by the newer members. First, what is the point in
having moderators in a forum that is suppose to be unmoderated? You
are suppose to be able to freely post whatever you want (exercising
common sense) without being restricted by moderators. Second, every
person thinks differently, which means every moderator is going to
have a different opinion. I'm going to have hell trying to manage
all these different people, opinions and decisions in the forums.
So no, I run this forum by myself and it stays that way. If you
think I need to step in (after making sure the above are met),
contact me. Whining about having moderators in threads, or posting
in a thread saying "Kenshin/Admin, do something" is not going to
work because I BARELY read any thread. You want my attention, make
sure it DESERVES my attention then contact me via PM or
email.
Spamming is fine by me, but again, exercise common sense. Spam
where you're suppose to spam, use your DAMN COMMON SENSE. Who am I
talking about? Someone posts a complain thread about spamming, and
you go SPAM IN THERE? Where's your BLOODY RESPECT FOR OTHERS?
Where's your COMMON SENSE? This is the no. 1 reason to spark me off
this rant. I definitely didn't expect such a response to someone
who put up an honest complaint. I asked the thread starter to close
the thread and start a new one, and what happens? Same damn thing.
Didn't bother to see the closed thread on the same page? Must I
totally change my policy outright and stop all spamming? Respect
the thread starter, keep to the topic if the thread starter wants
it that way. Do your spamming in the right places.
I don't ban people unless necessary, and when I mean necessary, I
mean when banning works. I ban one account, they just start
another, so what's the point? Asking me to ban people who can
easily create a new account is not going to work. You don't want
them to spam or irritate you, stop feeding them by replying to
their posts. Ignore them, the option is in the control panel. Do
whatever necessary in your own power, stop expecting me to
spoonfeed you by taking care of all these problems. This is a
public forum, you're going to have all sorts of people, live with
it.
I'll work out some way to put up this information so that new
members from now on know, and will remember, but that'll take some
time. Everyone needs to know how I want to run this place, work
with me to have this place running properly. You want a good time
here, so do I. I want to give you a good time, but you need to help
yourself first.
Targeted groups of people now. I see an influx of 14-16 year olds
(as of 2007) joining the forums. I'm not trying to discriminate
against all of you, but some of you obviously do not know how to
respect the older members. These members are probably older than
you, and can be considered your elders. Minus some of them who are
probably acting like kids instead of their age (you bunch can join
the REAL under 16s in my rant), most of them have more experience
in life than yourself, so listen and respect. I know most teenages
nowadays simply don't listen to their parents/elders and are very
rebellious, but I'm not having any of that rubbish in my forum.
Either you learn to respect every other member and even more for
members than yourself, or else delete SGCafe from your bookmarks
and stay out. Find somewhere else to feed that attitude of yours,
definitely not SGCafe. Also, regardless of my age, I expect some
decent respect when you talk to me. Get your high and mighty
attitude out of the window before even attempting to PM/email me,
or reply to any post I make. I will make your SGCafe life a living
hell IF I want to, so don't make me go that route. When I say
something to you, I expect you to listen, like it or not. Whoever
pissed me off on this accord, you better know who you are, cause
the next time you piss me off again, I'm not holding back.
Commerical entities. There have been people representing various
shops/companies in the forums over the past few month. I am fine
with the occasional advertisement in the announcement forum, and
mentioning that your shop/company provides the service/product in
various threads, but what I do NOT want to see is false
advertisement or blatent brainwashing of the members. You know who
you are, I don't need to say further. As again, don't make me do
things unnecessary, cause when it becomes necessary, you sure as
hell don't want to see me do stuff.
SGMarket. I've already did the tidying up of the SGMarket forum
into categories. I EXPECT you to read the sticky in the forum
before posting. The rules of the market are in there. I already
banned some people from SGMarket, and I will not hesitate to do so
again if you do not follow the rules. It's the only place with
rules, and only a few simple rules. If you can't follow them, don't
post anything, simple as that. Sick and tired of having to do extra
clean up work. My thanks to those who followed the rules and also
those who helped report. Your effort in keeping the SGMarket forums
clean and tidy is great, keep up the good work.
Trades and orders. Trades I mean buying/selling in the forums. Bad
trades happen all the time. People disappear before/after the
trade. There's no guarantee or anything, and that's just it.
There's nothing I can do to help, banning is out of the question,
rating is not easy to do. The easiest way is for you to warn
everyone by actively monitoring the market for people who you have
dealt with and had bad experiences. Same for mass/pre orders, there
have been many cases where things don't go well. If you have a bad
experience, go ahead and post in the sellers' threads, both new and
old. If you have a real case, I'll not take any action, no matter
what the thread starter says. And sellers/orderers, please don't do
business unless you're sure you can handle it.
Announcement forum. I'll be frank. The whole lot of you that are
posting all sorts of crap in the announcement forums? You're
childish. Fighting, mimicing each other's threads, turning the
announcement forum into some kind of A vs B forum. I'm not doing
anything yet because I'm not getting involved, but look at
yourselves. Some of you are adults behaving like kids, the rest of
you who aren't kids or acting like kids, are adding oil into the
flames. If you have something constructive, fine. The announcement
forum is for members to share information with each other,
definitely NOT for the kind of threads I've been seeing.
Trolls & attention seekers. There are bound to be people like
that. But the rest of you come bitching to me about them, when you
obviously are giving them what they want, ATTENTION. Ignore them,
treat them as invisible, and it'll probably work better than you
getting involved in a mud slinging fest with them. You're giving
them the attention they want, and they'll just keep on going. Then
you come complaining to me about them? Deal with these people
yourself, find ways, means, whatever.
Unhappy with Kenshin people. Some people don't like me. Some people
hate me. After this closure, my guess is the number is probably
going to increase. Sorry, but I don't like you much either. You
don't like the way I do things? Leave. You don't like me
threathening or actually closing the forum like this? Leave. I've
given up pleasing everyone. I please myself and the majority who
want SGCafe to keep going. If you're the minority, either learn to
co-exist, or just please just leave.
People who ask me to act. I appreciate the help that you guys are
doing, letting me know if something requires my attention. but I
hope you will really read the above, and make sure that it does
deserve my attention. Whoever reported the spam complaint thread,
thanks. But whoever is reporting the announcement threads, trolling
threads, etc, no thank you. Based on the above, the chances for me
to act is unlikely because you guys/gals need to settle it
yourselves.
I'll end my rant here. If you want to treat this temporary closure
as a punishment, fine. If you're innocently punished, sorry, but
it's not my fault, go blame the above people I mentioned. I have no
idea what else I can do to get people to listen anymore, so this is
what I'll do whenever things get out of hand. Hate me if you want,
this is still my forum and I'll do things my way, the way I want
for the majority of members to be able to enjoy the forums. I'm not
running this forum for my own good. A huge amount of money and
effort is spent running a forum this large and the least you as a
member can do is work with me and keep the forum a great place for
hanging out.
Kenshin
imagine if jason did cos of the peeps in bar
