And as a result, we were unable to discuss a large number of topics that we would have enjoyed discussing. Hence why many of us supported the MEC.

Lol, by hardline rule that one is off topic as well

I'm pretty certain that it's a general issue of more use and a specific case of someone being targeted at times. Honestly, there are many times that I am quite certain many posts would have been actioned if someone hit the report button, whether it was malicious or not. However, the button simply was never hit. I'm also aware that the report button is being used more often now simply because I've seen several people say as much, and the people who have are not people who seem to have made the list of trolls.

Exactly! That's what I'm trying to communicate here. The "hardline rule" is not the one that is being enforced. However, Boris's post was completely unrelated to the game in any way, shape, or form . These threads, OTOH, are simply indirectly related.

Well the significant difference between the SWM OP thread is that one is telling people where SWM events are being held, and was put up by a member of the official SWM event team.

The other is a thread referring people to another website where they can read about planning correctly for attending a particular convention. It's not even about SWM, except for a mention of league at the very end of the article.

Look I don't have a problem with the thread or with the person who posted it and a year ago I would have defended its presence on the SWM general board. But those days are over if they are going to warn and/or ban people for that sort of posting.

I think we're mostly differing on whether or not NN's thread and your post were the same level of "off-topic."

So what? So are a lot of people's, and not just in SWM. I am the first, or one of the first, people to ever be banned for such a thing. And I don't need to see the records. I'm confident that if people were being warned and/or banned on a regular basis for going "off-topic" there would be a lot more outcrying about the way board moderation decisions are conducted.

There are not levels of "off-topic." There's on-topic and off-topic. Period. And that comes from WotC CS, not me.

You know I am not one to add fuel to the fire and on this point I do agree with boris even though I do think some of his post are unwarranted but just as so as the opposite that a lot of post and well put together and do shed a lot of light on a subject. as such I will submit some evidence that their are post right now that are unrelated (by me even) to the subject and not about star wars minis which is found here

http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=1189921

I don't know if anyone reported it and even if it does I really doubt that anything would come of it and it could be found offensive to people who live in Ohio (which I am from and find funny since I also made the comment)

Again, I'd have to see that particular email to comment... and I can't find it anywhere.

However, there have always been "levels" of off-topic. There's pretty much directly related to SWM, indirectly related to SWM (GC and such), directly related to SW but indirectly related or unrelated to SWM, and just plain off-topic for SWM. The first and the second have always been allowed, the third is the reason Tosche Station exists, and the fourth should never have been allowed, though it has at times. NN's post is in the second level, yours is in the fourth. It's a pretty significant difference.

Honestly, this belongs in the MEC . Threads that are in General but do not belong there are completely irrelevant.

its why the station exist now

Bah, yeah, wrong forum.

Every breaking of a rule does not need to be enforced and the lack of enforcement doesn't necessarily mean it's now allowed or unfair to those who are cited for the exact same thing.

Cops only pull over a tiny percentage of speeders that they see and the reasons for this are varied and would include many that are not "fair".

It's not really your concern to worry about which speeders cops are citing. It's your concern to do your best not to speed.

There has never been anything to suggest that there are "levels" of off-topic. Never, not in the 5 years I have been posting at WotC (which btw I think people tend to forget that when they talk about me posting on SWM. I was here a long time before SWM and never once got a warning for anything, and I posted in the Magic section!! LMAO, talk about a rough crowd).

Anyway, look at this:



Did he say it was deleted as a "level 4 off-topic?" Nope. He just said "off-topic." The level concept is completely fictional and not at all supported by anything that has ever been said on the subject by anyone in a position of authority.

Okay and to use your analogy, if I drive down a street where someone who doesn't like me sees me pass every day and "thinks" I'm speeding and calls the cops to report me, whether I am speeding or not, whether it is 1 mile over or 10 miles over when I am, what do you think eventually happens?

I found a different route to drive, the cop stops coming by, etc. I do NOT continue to drive that route, even if I creep along at 10 mph.

I have a real problem with the notion that it's okay for some people to break the moderation rules. You can't have your cake and eat it, too.

Also, your position on this is anathema to what WotC says it wants, what Eric says he wants: for the community to report ALL infractions regardless of how slight. But if they are not going to act on the ones that don't target people they don't approve of, then what the hell difference does it make?


I'm done discussing this. Neither one of us is going to persuade the other on the issue, and arguing about it further is pointless.

oops. You're done which is fine. So post removed. I don't need the last word.

Well I just went back and read this thread, and realized that I had missed some stuff.

Che = Tao. WOW. It took me a few minutes to wrap my head around that one. I still thought Che was Tao's brother. WOWIE WOW WOW WOW. That changes EVERYTHING about my perspective on this.

TAO called us criminals. TAO said I was "gunning for the mods."

Okay, now that I understand that aspect of it, it's a different game.

Tao WAS Che back in 2007 and before becoming a MOD.

After Gleemax killed his brother's account, and since Tao wasn't using the Che account, he gave it to his brother.

Earlier in the thread I posted that I thought Tao was taking it back after the last fiasco and some people (including but not limited to me) confused Che's comments with Tao's since they had been the same person in the past. But Tao confirmed in various posts here that it's still in use by his brother. So that's my mistake, and I apologize for any confusion.

Not positive but reasonably sure enough to post it:

Previously
Tao= Matt
Che= Matt

Now
Tao= Matt
Che= Bobby

@ S1AL...

Maybe you weren't around much before the Mos Eisley Cantina and Tosche Station sections were set up. There was a few months were ANYTHING remotely off-topic was being deleted or moved over to the generic WOTC off-topic section, which was A) nearly impossible to find, and B) 99% non-SWM people. So when threads got moved over there, they died immediately. A large majority of those threads would've fit into your 2nd and 3rd categories (if categories even exist, as I tend to agree with Boris on that aspect, per the emails we've been seeing from WOTC personnel).

So yes, threads about GenCon were getting moved to the general Off-Topic section of the boards, where nobody could ever find them again. Threads talking about Star Wars characters, or what other Star Wars books would be good to read, etc. were getting moved over there. So, posts/threads that were 100% Star Wars related, were getting moved to a section of the forums were probably 90% of the regular visitors to that section, didn't give a flip about Star Wars. To many of us at the time, those posts seemed more off-topic in the Off-Topic section, then they had in the SWM General board!

So that's why they eventually started the Tosche Station and MEC. So yes, the post Nickname made about GenCon is OFF-TOPIC for the section of the forum it is in. It should be in either MEC or Tosche Station. As should Moses' OP thread probably, since it's talking about events and such.

The whole point is that Wotc_Erik, Tao, ORC_Chaos, the WOTC Customer Service people....they are ALL telling us that people only get warned/banned because they get reported, and that they desire to have consistency on the forums, but it requires the community to be consistent in reporting. Well, that's all Bill and Boris are trying to do. Be consistent. So, for the same things that they got reported/warned/banned for, they are being consistent and reporting those same types of things in other threads.

But lo and behold, when the reports get to the WOTC Mods, they aren't taking any action on them. So, they obviously AREN'T being consistent if Boris gets a 24-Ban for an off-handed comment, and yet posts like mine here (http://forums.gleemax.com/showpost.php? ... tcount=128) go not only un-edited, but I didn't receive a warning, or a ban, or anything. I have a hard time believing that people reported posts in other threads, and yet didn't report mine. And I'm sure that ORC_Chaos was reading the threads. If Boris posted a simple observation of fact, with a single sentence and no malice in it all, then how is my post ANY better at all?? I was personally SHOCKED when I logged in earlier this week and didn't get a notice that I'd been banned. Not that it would have mattered to me much, but that's probably the worst I have EVER blown up on a forum.

I just don't get it. It is NOT consistent. Anyone who thinks there is consistency is either turning a blind eye to it all, or is just plain stupid, IMO.