Official Off Topic Discussion Thread #1
- Thread starter Chrisplosion
- Start date
It seems to be a little sporadic. Slow one minute and fine the next. A few members have commented on it but admin, as is well documented, aren't as present as they once were, so I don't know if anyone's looking into it or not.
Hello; The effects of the purge of a few years ago has side effects. Some active members simply left this site during that time citing the onerous actions of the moderators. They wrote of a disgust for the underhanded processes and actions before they left. Some others were banned or in the case of three of my friends put on probation permanently. After a year i wrote to Mods asking why they were still on probation. I was told they, the mods, can do pretty much whatever they want.
I only check in from time to time to see if my friends have posted in a private message we have used for many years. Out of the six lately only two sometimes post messages. I miss my friends a great deal.
Some days when i sigh in there is a post on this thread, such as today.
Seems the mods and some of their favored members set this up. I do not know if the result is what they were after.
I could write pages about things which happened but one thing tells the tale well enough. Some were all bent out of shape becsuse some of us had skull avatars with flag backgrounds. So a major rewrite of the rules was done including a rule that an avatar must be of an aquarium fish. Pops had to take down his bird image. many others had to change their images just to get at me and my friends skull avatars.
So the new rules go into effect and I change my avatar to meet the rules. Within a day a protest was launched about my new avatar and it was taken down by a mod . I will put that avatar image up in a few minutes so any to see. Thing is soon after that new rule was relaxed. I do not thing the intelligent members of this site miss much.
I think you could even bring back your old skull avatar at the moment, the mods dont seem to pay much attention to anything these days.
Maybe I read
C
Chub_by
post wrongly, but I thought when he referred to the "site being horribly slow", I thought he was referring to the glitches that some of us have experienced as regards to slow loading etc etc.
Reading his post again though it could well have another meaning too. He could have been referring to the lack of activity on the forum recently, which is how S skjl47 read it.
Reading his post again though it could well have another meaning too. He could have been referring to the lack of activity on the forum recently, which is how S skjl47 read it.
Surely the betta avatar that you are now showing did not receive complaints?
So did I, especially since that problem has been especially onerous lately...including right now...
Hello; As strange as it may seem now such was the case. I may have the post text saved somewhere. I will have a look. But yes within a day of using the betta image as my avatar one member complained in a post in the open forum about the image. Withing hours one of the mods took it down. I did not take it down myself. Since that time I do not use a personal image as an avatar, only a blue circle with an S which is the default.
If I cannot find that post i will summarize later.
Hello; Found the two posts information that got my betta image deleted. The text of that post from island guy follows. Then after that a conversation between myself and a Mod on June 7 2020. NOTE- best I can recall from back then I was made pink (put on probation) at the time while not breaking any forum rules.
[Quote island Guy] Fair enough, maybe not the best example but I hope you can still understand the very valid point I was trying to make -- so let me put it another way: if a group of people started flying (for example) ANTIFA flag colors to show their solidarity on MFK, and then spouting left-wing propaganda in the Lounge all heck would break loose. But it's all ok by the new TOS, right?
With all due respect I really can't understand your line of thinking here: you say you want politics and other controversial subject off the forum but then you let a gang of flag-clinging, far right groupies openly flaunt their nationalistic, maga leaning symbolism right in front of your and everyone else's face? Not the greatest start to bringing about peace on the site imho.
I love and my respect my home country's flag as much as most Americans -- but I (and most everyone else) already has to see enough Americanism (and all the crazy BS/polarization going on there now) in the news all over the place every single day as it is. Like many people I come to MFK to escape from all that junk and look at/talk about fish, not be reminded about America's greatness (or it's foibles). If I saw 6 or 7 members clanning together like sheeple and doing the same with Chinese or Russian flags I'd say the same thing without hesitation.
If the group in question really, actually kept the fish in their avatar it would be semi-understandable. However, as none of them even own betta of any color we can only assume they've chosen those avatars with specific colors to make some statement: which any way you slice and dice it, comes down to being a political statement: MAGA!
But hey if y'all are OK with that and them slapping your new "Let's Make the Peace" campaign right in the face, that's cool, I'll leave you to it.•
Reactions: Safina, Eclipse390, Stanzzzz7 and 3 others
Jun 7, 2020
Hendre said: The "skulls" all had similar avatars, when that was broken up the red, white and blue bettas came up. This becoming the new emblem, in the colours of the US flag, wasn't appreciated by staff either.
JEFF - Hello; I will concentrate on this item for now. There is an important point to be made. I understood right away what headbanger and that particular Coin gang member did not like. Now I have further evidence other mods had the same view. It was that of the six so called "skull" gang five of us used the image of a male betta. I also suspected the colors as being objected to. That said, was my image in violation of the rules? I sent a PM to headbanger right away. He never to this day replied. The coin gang member who protested our bettas used a made up objection about something he called a "burning fish". Headbanger used the excuse to delete our images. He choose raw power over fair play.
You mods made up the rules about the avatars. I did not get any say. I followed the rules to the letter. I even changed my avatar well before the deadline. That five of us used similar images was not forbidden by those new rules. That the betta images had similar colors is not a rule violation either. I have seen male bettas with these colors. Fair play is when I act within the rules that I not get punished by, in that case, having a within the rules image deleted.
The main point being we acted within the rules as written. We did not break the rules. Our images being deleted was not fair play is a secondary point. We played by the rules while some mods took actions outside the rules at the request of a COIN gang member.
At the same time some of the COIN gang had avatars which seemed questionable, at least to me. I recall one. The one used by RD of a shark leaping out of the water after a hot dog. Clearly not a common aquarium fish as are male bettas.
Please understand, I know my posts will not make much difference. My striving for fair play will not likely bear any good fruit. I point out flaws in the way this site is being run which, in my opinion, are hurting the site more than the stuff you mods are so focused on. I suspect had true fair play been in effect back last August, the site would be much better off today. Do you mods actually think only a few of us more outspoken are the only ones who see what is going on?
I close with this. I get most of the mods are well satisfied that deleting our betta avatars was OK to do even tho they were not breaking the rules. That you expect us members to follow the rules you write while you mods can ignore them when it suits.
A question. One of the former "skulls" used a different common aquarium fish avatar. Well bfore we othes picked a male betta. An image also well within the rules, but it was also deleted. Why was that?
You mods are willy-nilly with the rules and seemed surprised we members are often confused and frustrated. True enough, if I was like most members you guys would never hear about these things. Most do not talk to you about these things is my guess
[Quote island Guy] Fair enough, maybe not the best example but I hope you can still understand the very valid point I was trying to make -- so let me put it another way: if a group of people started flying (for example) ANTIFA flag colors to show their solidarity on MFK, and then spouting left-wing propaganda in the Lounge all heck would break loose. But it's all ok by the new TOS, right?
With all due respect I really can't understand your line of thinking here: you say you want politics and other controversial subject off the forum but then you let a gang of flag-clinging, far right groupies openly flaunt their nationalistic, maga leaning symbolism right in front of your and everyone else's face? Not the greatest start to bringing about peace on the site imho.
I love and my respect my home country's flag as much as most Americans -- but I (and most everyone else) already has to see enough Americanism (and all the crazy BS/polarization going on there now) in the news all over the place every single day as it is. Like many people I come to MFK to escape from all that junk and look at/talk about fish, not be reminded about America's greatness (or it's foibles). If I saw 6 or 7 members clanning together like sheeple and doing the same with Chinese or Russian flags I'd say the same thing without hesitation.
If the group in question really, actually kept the fish in their avatar it would be semi-understandable. However, as none of them even own betta of any color we can only assume they've chosen those avatars with specific colors to make some statement: which any way you slice and dice it, comes down to being a political statement: MAGA!
But hey if y'all are OK with that and them slapping your new "Let's Make the Peace" campaign right in the face, that's cool, I'll leave you to it.•
Reactions: Safina, Eclipse390, Stanzzzz7 and 3 others
Jun 7, 2020
Hendre said: The "skulls" all had similar avatars, when that was broken up the red, white and blue bettas came up. This becoming the new emblem, in the colours of the US flag, wasn't appreciated by staff either.
JEFF - Hello; I will concentrate on this item for now. There is an important point to be made. I understood right away what headbanger and that particular Coin gang member did not like. Now I have further evidence other mods had the same view. It was that of the six so called "skull" gang five of us used the image of a male betta. I also suspected the colors as being objected to. That said, was my image in violation of the rules? I sent a PM to headbanger right away. He never to this day replied. The coin gang member who protested our bettas used a made up objection about something he called a "burning fish". Headbanger used the excuse to delete our images. He choose raw power over fair play.
You mods made up the rules about the avatars. I did not get any say. I followed the rules to the letter. I even changed my avatar well before the deadline. That five of us used similar images was not forbidden by those new rules. That the betta images had similar colors is not a rule violation either. I have seen male bettas with these colors. Fair play is when I act within the rules that I not get punished by, in that case, having a within the rules image deleted.
The main point being we acted within the rules as written. We did not break the rules. Our images being deleted was not fair play is a secondary point. We played by the rules while some mods took actions outside the rules at the request of a COIN gang member.
At the same time some of the COIN gang had avatars which seemed questionable, at least to me. I recall one. The one used by RD of a shark leaping out of the water after a hot dog. Clearly not a common aquarium fish as are male bettas.
Please understand, I know my posts will not make much difference. My striving for fair play will not likely bear any good fruit. I point out flaws in the way this site is being run which, in my opinion, are hurting the site more than the stuff you mods are so focused on. I suspect had true fair play been in effect back last August, the site would be much better off today. Do you mods actually think only a few of us more outspoken are the only ones who see what is going on?
I close with this. I get most of the mods are well satisfied that deleting our betta avatars was OK to do even tho they were not breaking the rules. That you expect us members to follow the rules you write while you mods can ignore them when it suits.
A question. One of the former "skulls" used a different common aquarium fish avatar. Well bfore we othes picked a male betta. An image also well within the rules, but it was also deleted. Why was that?
You mods are willy-nilly with the rules and seemed surprised we members are often confused and frustrated. True enough, if I was like most members you guys would never hear about these things. Most do not talk to you about these things is my guess
Two kayakers were nearly swallowed by a humpback whale off the the coast of Avila Beach,California.
