Cutstuff Forum

Cutstuff => Cutstuff Discussion and Feedback => Topic started by: King Dumb on September 23, 2012, 01:37:15 AM

Title: Regarding Our Community
Post by: King Dumb on September 23, 2012, 01:37:15 AM
Quote from: "LlamaHombre"
Only do what you think is best. That one day in that one Zombie Horde server, you called us (Me, Ken, Etc.) the "awesome community". I can guarantee that no longer stands, but I myself would enjoy having you back.


The above quote was originally posted three and a half months ago on the MM8BDM Skype Family thread, in response to the very temporary return of Ashley, a prominent individual of this community’s past. The poster is none other than our own LlamaHombre, member of nearly two years and Global Moderator of three weeks.

Ask yourselves, Cutstuff, to whom does LlamaHombre refer when he says “us (Me, Ken, Etc.)”? To whom was Ashley referring with the words “awesome community”?

Allow me to shed light on the ambiguity. “Us” refers to none other than that entity which, just three weeks ago, Human Destroyer attempted to bring under public scrutiny.

Quote from: "HD"
Quote from: "Ivory"
ignoring pride and friendships to remain as neutral as possible


I'm afraid that although this is true for Sora, not so much for LlamaHombre.

Some of you may know about this, for it was not long ago. In fact, it was in the merry merry month of May.

I was just being an average person in the Cutstuff Community Chat on Skype. (Wat IV to be specific) when some people singled me out; a certain group of prideful people: this group included (but is not limited to) LlamaHombre, Kenkoru, Roc's Creation (Tesseractal/Ice-IX), Red (Red Eyes/Lag Man) and thatguy74.

These people often called me derogatory names, such as "Huge Dicks". It was often of great annoyance that I would hang my virtual head in shame and take the abuse like a punching bag.

I have also seen LlamaHombre, this moderator "unaffected by pride" so you say, casually insult others like it was no big deal. He often listens to his friends before actually doing anything, and fights to keep his high status in this community.

And with that, I challenge your promotion of LlamaHombre to global moderator status. I believe it is time that those 10 people with huge egos and shameful bullying tendencies stop ruling the community and preventing others from enjoying it as it should be enjoyed. I may not be the member of highest status in this community, but I believe there are others who will stand by me in this calling out.

It is time for the people of the Cutstuff community to judge for themselves just who controls your community. Notice HD’s post centers around Skype. Skype has become a new medium for socialization and interaction within the community, and though it allows for easier communication and information transfer, its integration into the community has not been for the betterment of us all.

Quote from: "Yellow Devil"
A lot of this bullying behaviour happens outside of the forums on skype or steam, therefore impossible to moderate, and potentially less threatening. Problems should probably be resolved privately, but for the priders to chip in and help out wouldn't go amiss.

What Yellow Devil has failed to fully understand is that Skype is no longer a subsidiary of the forums. In the current state of the community, Skype is nearly a requirement for anyone wishing to gain status, reputation, or influence in the community. Even Orange Juice, member since October 2010 and notorious for his refusal to join Skype has since done so. The self-proclaimed liaison between the “homies” and Cutstuff, Outragous, realized very quickly how Skype-centric our community is, and as such quickly signed up and saw to it he was added to the “main community chat.”

And to whom was he immediately subjected when he joined Skype? None other the aforementioned “us.” In Skype, a communication medium where our precious few moderators have no authority, power is in the hands of a select few individuals – LlamaHombre’s “us” – who govern mainstream community Skype usage. This "us" includes a variety of people, but the culprits of the decadence that rule a central part of the Cutstuff organism are named now: LlamaHombre, Korby, Kenkoru, Red, ThatGuyOverThere, Nostalgia, Dr. Freeman. In a positive feedback loop, these individuals feed off the decadence of each other; many of you may find one or two of them very friendly and likable on their own, but together they create a virus that plagues our community.

Cutstuff, do you trust a group of individuals who spend little to no time active on the forums and even less time experience the community in-game with one of the community’s most important platforms of interaction?

Do you trust a group of individuals who avidly and viciously reject competition, experimentally shown to inject at least temporary life into a community that most will say is declining, with one of the community’s most important platforms of interaction?

Do you trust a head global moderator who associates constantly with this decadent group of social dominators, and to whom Roc’s Creation referred as a “feral dog” with one of the community’s most important platforms of interaction?

Do you trust a newly-promoted admin who is surrounded – in an elite Skype chat where only the aforementioned select individuals and their closest friends are present – by the depraved, indifferent judgments these individuals pass on the community?

Do you trust a group of individuals who, in a medium where they cannot be punished and in the presence of the head global moderator speak these words after removing Obelisk from their “community chat”, with one of the community’s most important platforms of interaction?:
(click to show/hide)

You must ask yourself all of these questions, because all over these are circumstances and conditions that your community leadership is subject to as we speak, and has been subject to for months. The fact of the matter is, the entire Skype-centric aspect of the community, with its importance to socialization, bonding, teamwork, integration, and gameplay, is corrupt.

It was not easy for me to speak out about this issue. Many of the people I named are my friends. Or, more accurately, were my friends. My friends foster community growth.

It is the time of reckoning for this community. On the brink of utter decline, do you resign yourselves to the decadence that ensures we will never recover? The people of the community must be the jury and the judges in determining whether the current state of affairs is for the best. It is time for the fate of the community that we all hold so dear to be put in the hands of the people.

Let the community speak about this matter civilly but freely, I say, and let your voices be heard.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: Rozark on September 23, 2012, 01:55:54 AM
Wow.. that's.. quite alot.

As of now I have no opinion on this. However, I'll quickly develop one.
Title: AP English Literature helped me read this post
Post by: Hallan Parva on September 23, 2012, 01:58:55 AM
Truer words have never been spoken.

I used to not know Skype even existed, and survived solely on the in-game chat system and the Cutstuff forums.
That worked just fine, and people began to easily recognize me around places. I started building up rep.

Then I finally learned of Skype and its secrets.



There hasn't been a day that I play 8BDM / TF2 / whatever that I don't log on to Skype before even launching it.



Yeah, it's pretty freakin' ridiculous if you ask me. I'm positive I'm not the only one. :ugeek:
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: Galaxy Sisbro on September 23, 2012, 02:02:07 AM
I'll also be developing my opinion regarding to this kind of stuff shortly. And you all know what to expect.

Let's just say that I agree with KD entirely.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: Blaze Yeager on September 23, 2012, 02:13:35 AM
I agree with KD wholeheartingly. I will post my opinion aswell.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: Ivory on September 23, 2012, 02:14:04 AM
If I may ask, could you clear this up.
Quote from: "King Dumb"
Do you trust a newly-promoted admin who is surrounded – in an elite Skype chat where only the aforementioned select individuals and their closest friends are present – by the depraved, indifferent judgments these individuals pass on the community?

If I read this right, as in I'm in a chat with such the people. I can ensure, I am not in any such Skype Chat. I actively avoid being in large chats.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: King Dumb on September 23, 2012, 02:17:24 AM
But you are! Currently this chat is titled "Outer Heaven".

This is a good opportunity for me also to note that that specific question is not to question Ivory's inherent competence, which I believe everyone can agree is at its most basic form very good. Rather, it is to question whether the possibility of influence or inappropriate information/opinion exchange is present when such a chat exists.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: Ivory on September 23, 2012, 02:19:30 AM
Oh, right. That place tends to be rather dead a lot of the time, so I don't really pay too much attention to it. Sorry, I thought you meant I was in a chat with all the people you named as the 'aforementioned “us.”'
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: Dr. Freeman on September 23, 2012, 02:20:59 AM
Forgive me if I got this wrong, because I might.

But from what I am understanding, me hosting a skype chat and other people hosting skype chats is causing the community to fall apart? I'm sorry, but that doesn't quite make sense.
I know what you're saying, that new users can't join the crowd of old users, but I'd have to disagree with you there. During the crowd of new users in the last month people who wanted to be added to Skype, have been added to Skype (I believe it was Outragous and Hero Wolf and maybe a few others. People usually add people when I don't pay attention)

(Also, "Little to no time on the forums"? More than half of the list you've made are people who are constantly on the forums...)
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: Nostalgia on September 23, 2012, 02:23:19 AM
I don't want to look like a pompous ass since you mentioned me, but I have no idea whether I want to opine on this or not.

If I do, it might take a while since I have tons of ideas but I'm generally bad at organizing them.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: Galaxy Sisbro on September 23, 2012, 02:25:29 AM
Yup, the really controversial Outer heaven chat. Let's speak with the hurting truth. I was added in that chat, but shortly after I left for the following reason.

Quote from: "Us"
Paladin #ExtraPerson says: Galaxy why are you in Outer Haven with Roc and all the people coller than you
Paladin Daisy says: Nos says that the only reason you're in OUter Haven
Paladin Daisy says: is because you share animu moemoe shit interests with Roc
Paladin Daisy says: and that he's too blind to see that you're a fucking halfwit

Yup, judging people by their coolness. Truly pitiful. And also, that group calling people halfwits and dumb is not anything new.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: Gumballtoid on September 23, 2012, 02:26:38 AM
I don't have a whole lot to say on the matter, but quite nearly every damn word of KD's post is completely true.

While it hasn't bothered me as much as of late because I tend to avoid "that group," it's still a problem and it needed to be said.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: LlamaHombre on September 23, 2012, 02:27:12 AM
I'm going to speak my mind here, as I've tried to maintain this community long before I received this green name. Whether or not I believe I actually succeeded is something I will go into later.

I feel Skype has corroded this community, but I also feel it's helped preserve it.

I feel we're misusing it, and as such we're growing apart and have drawn a clean line right down the middle of our community between two shades of beliefs, akin to political parties. From what I've seen and heard, those added to the main central Skype chats have ended up not having enough willpower to change their minds about a topic. These people would be those included in the Foxdie/Wat chats, and the current "Cool Kids" chat run by Dr. Freeman. I myself am especially guilty of not giving people second chances, and I feel that Human Destroyer helped me realize this. Speaking of him, I feel him, his friends, and most newcomers make up the other party. Those are the ones who are trying to be friendly and have gotten sick of the abuse.

Quite frankly, I think they're right.

I'm going to use the dead remains of a ghost here when I bring up the topic of the late MegaLAD. He and his brothers received constant abuse from the Foxdie Party and as such it sparked multiple cases of controversy throughout the forums. They, and I at the time, never gave him a second chance. Human Destroyer's Party, on the other hand, accepted him and allowed his company. Nowadays, this man is known as TheClayman6. I've seen improvement out of him personality-wise and if he's reading this I hope he understands how sorry I really am for treating him and others like him the way I have.

If only the others would believe me.

I wish to know what Human Destroyer's Party thinks about this community and how a compromise could be made. This is a Mega Man fan board, and we're treating it as if Mega Man fans aren't welcome. We shouldn't be asking for the fourth coming of Jesus Christ like we have in the past. We're all human. All of us have flaws, some moreso than others, but that's no reason to turn them away completely. This is where the Foxdie Party is being moronic. We all make stupid mistakes and we have no right to bash each other over them.

I'll save those of your who don't want self pessimism the details: this is the end of my post. Feel free to respond or remark on anything I said, I'd love to hear what you have to say.

I feel there's just some things I can't hold in anymore.

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: King Dumb on September 23, 2012, 02:29:36 AM
Quote from: "Dr. Freeman"
But from what I am understanding, me hosting a skype chat and other people hosting skype chats is causing the community to fall apart? I'm sorry, but that doesn't quite make sense.

Your oversimplication of my argument has made it sound ridiculous and nonsensical. By removing the chain of cause and effect and any reasoning and logic, anything can be made to sound nonsensical.

Quote from: "Dr. Freeman"
(Also, "Little to no time on the forums"? More than half of the list you've made are people who are constantly on the forums...)

When I say "on" the forums, I mean active, attentive, informed, and involved; think of it as "on top of" the forums, perhaps. Additionally, when we're talking about the vitality of the MM8BDM Cutstuff Community, which is what I care about, Forum Games are hardly contributory.

Quote from: "Nostalgia"
If I do, it might take a while since I have tons of ideas but I'm generally bad at organizing them.

Present your thoughts, by all means and in any civil manner. The community as a whole will be the judge.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: TheDoc on September 23, 2012, 02:33:53 AM
Quote from: "LlamaHombre"
I'm going to speak my mind here, as I've tried to maintain this community long before I received this green name. Whether or not I believe I actually succeeded is something I will go into later.

I feel Skype has corroded this community, but I also feel it's helped preserve it.

I feel we're misusing it, and as such we're growing apart and have drawn a clean line right down the middle of our community between two shades of beliefs, akin to political parties. From what I've seen and heard, those added to the main central Skype chats have ended up not having enough willpower to change their minds about a topic. These people would be those included in the Foxdie/Wat chats, and the current "Cool Kids" chat run by Dr. Freeman. I myself am especially guilty of not giving people second chances, and I feel that Human Destroyer helped me realize this. Speaking of him, I feel him, his friends, and most newcomers make up the other party. Those are the ones who are trying to be friendly and have gotten sick of the abuse.

Quite frankly, I think they're right.

I'm going to use the dead remains of a ghost here when I bring up the topic of the late MegaLAD. He and his brothers received constant abuse from the Foxdie Party and as such it sparked multiple cases of controversy throughout the forums. They, and I at the time, never gave him a second chance. Human Destroyer's Party, on the other hand, accepted him and allowed his company. Nowadays, this man is known as TheClayman6. I've seen improvement out of him personality-wise and if he's reading this I hope he understands how sorry I really am for treating him and others like him the way I have.

If only the others would believe me.

I wish to know what Human Destroyer's Party thinks about this community and how a compromise could be made. This is a Mega Man fan board, and we're treating it as if Mega Man fans aren't welcome. We shouldn't be asking for the fourth coming of Jesus Christ like we have in the past. We're all human. All of us have flaws, some moreso than others, but that's no reason to turn them away completely. This is where the Foxdie Party is being moronic. We all make stupid mistakes and we have no right to bash each other over them.

I'll save those of your who don't want self pessimism the details: this is the end of my post. Feel free to respond or remark on anything I said, I'd love to hear what you have to say.

I feel there's just some things I can't hold in anymore.

(click to show/hide)

I'll be frank. When I first entered this community, I tried to avoid Llama, but since then, I've seen changes in him. I'd say give him another chance, because he seems VERY willing to change.
As for the Skype thing, I'm gonna stay away from that; I don't really....you know......have Skype.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: King Dumb on September 23, 2012, 02:36:55 AM
What I'm implicating is, again, up to the community to decide. It is up to the community to determine what to do about the decadence that no one can deny. It is up to the responsible admins and moderators of this forum to ensure that in our review of the state of affairs, the discourse remains civil.
Title: This post contains opinions. Read at your own risk
Post by: Nostalgia on September 23, 2012, 02:42:05 AM
I haven't collected all my thoughts yet, but here's one thing I immediately came up with:

I think that you saying that us (the six people you mentioned) not playing the game anymore is a bad thing is... (have to choose my words carefully) not applicable...? because it's been pretty much dead (as in, far less active than before) since around early 2012 maybe? I'm not sure but that's besides the point

You mention that not playing the game is severing communication ties, yet you claim that Skype is a major place for community interaction, which is somewhat contradictory to me

I may be incorrect but this is what I think/feel

UPDATE or something:
(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: HD_ on September 23, 2012, 02:45:14 AM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtvOmYcW ... ata_player (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtvOmYcWO5g&feature=youtube_gdata_player)

That wasn't in early 2012, doesn't seem very dead.

I abstain from revealing my opinions for now because exhaustion.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: Orange juice :l on September 23, 2012, 02:47:41 AM
See? You've already given the game up for dead. Besides, this forum's main purpose is for playing CutmanMike's games, not to chat about TF2 or make voice calls with your friends. Not playing the game isn't severing communication ties; it's the communication ties that come from Skype that are severing MM8BDM from the community. Not only this, but the fact that Cutstuff's supposed community neither plays the game nor is accepting does not help us recruit people here to shoot pixely robots.
Title: what is this I don't even
Post by: Sora on September 23, 2012, 02:49:47 AM
Pretty sure I'm totally misconstruing your words

but the basic gist of it is that forums and skype can't coexist, and people in skype (Llama, as people are constantly mentioning) are trying to eventually cause the corruption and destruction of the forums to bring themselves to community prominence?

Edit: Hnnng Oj quit saying what I'm feeling
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: King Dumb on September 23, 2012, 02:51:44 AM
I don't assume any collective, malicious intent on the part of the individuals I mentioned. I do imply that the nature of the Skype-centric aspect of the community breeds the decadence which I have described.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: Davregis on September 23, 2012, 02:52:03 AM
Nos, you've based everything you say on biased conjecture; rationalized opinion.

Mind you, I'm semineutral on this, yet [dogers] exists, does it not?
A community SEPARATE FROM THE FORUMS.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: Shmeckie on September 23, 2012, 02:55:07 AM
Oh my, this is.... certainly dramatic...

All I can say is I always thought L-Hombre was a decent dude, the Skype chat was boring and no one ever said anything interesting and all I ever did was give the main chat room silly titles, and yes, there are a lot of dicks around here, but the worst one is banned so whatevs.

Is this community really that Skype-Centric?! Because half the type all the Skype chatting consists of spam and talking about whatever game someone happens to be playing. Not to mention the rampant ADHD that seems to change topics of discussions in a matter of seconds. Is that the community we're talking about, here?
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: King Dumb on September 23, 2012, 02:59:48 AM
Additionally, I'm sure it will be pointed out that I am in the very chats of which I speak. Note just how active I have been in these chats recently. Very inactive.

My presence in these chats means I know what transpires within them.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: Hallan Parva on September 23, 2012, 03:05:27 AM
I've been trying to fish around for the "split" of the community's behaviour myself, but I haven't been able to grasp the words I was looking for, or get a nice way to phrase everything. Then I read this.
Quote from: "LlamaHombre"
From what I've seen and heard, those added to the main central Skype chats have ended up not having enough willpower to change their minds about a topic. These people would be those included in the Foxdie/Wat chats, and the current "Cool Kids" chat run by Dr. Freeman. I myself am especially guilty of not giving people second chances, and I feel that Human Destroyer helped me realize this. Speaking of him, I feel him, his friends, and most newcomers make up the other party. Those are the ones who are trying to be friendly and have gotten sick of the abuse.

Quite frankly, I think they're right.

I'm going to use the dead remains of a ghost here when I bring up the topic of the late MegaLAD. He and his brothers received constant abuse from the Foxdie Party and as such it sparked multiple cases of controversy throughout the forums. They, and I at the time, never gave him a second chance. Human Destroyer's Party, on the other hand, accepted him and allowed his company. Nowadays, this man is known as TheClayman6. I've seen improvement out of him personality-wise and if he's reading this I hope he understands how sorry I really am for treating him and others like him the way I have.

If only the others would believe me.
Hit right on the fucking nail.

((Editor's Note: After reading Llama's post, I wrote the remainder of my response below while listening to an extremely calming piece of modern game music. If you enjoy Spiral Knights, things that are soft and soothing, or replicating my thought process, then here's a link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwOYuWFHGGU) to what I had my ear holes filled with. Please enjoy.))

Myself, I have personally experienced exactly what Llama's talking about. I'm not sure how many of you are aware or even care about this sort of thing, but about two weeks ago I acquired access to the popular Steam game Team Fortress 2. Several other Cutopians play this game on a semi-regular basis, including the "usual suspects" like Korby, LlamaHombre, and Kenkoru. I also found other users playing this game such as Daveris, and at first I was somewhat surprised by the surprisingly large overlap between TF2 and Cutstuff. (Heck, I've gotten to the point where it's easier to ask if someone doesn't play TF2, but I digress.) I've had a few interactions with Daveris before on the forum, such as the brainstorming sessions at Cutstuff Community Classes and his interest in the Awesome Network expansion project. The guy wasn't perfect (and neither am I) but like Llama said, everyone has flaws, and I seem to be one of the few who still remembers that. I picked up "Davy" as a pretty cool guy.

Back to the story, I recently joined TF2 right? Well, I was soon placed in a match against Daveris. The battle was fun, sure, but we ended up talking a lot through the round. I felt like the Steam moniker of "friend" had finally gained its meaning in that match. Today a select handful of TF2 regulars (and me, hah hah) participated in Human Destroyer's three-week Highlander event, which was jokingly referred to as "The WHYlander" due to the numerous lag spikes. This time, Davy and I were allies, among a motley assortment of other quote-unquote "outcasts" such as Rozark, Chuggaafan1, Gumballtoid, Tengu & Tango, and Solarblast5 (now Solar Equinox). Aside from Chuggaa's constant spammy outbursts (which were intended for joke, yes, but by the gods he got annoying fast), the team communication was smooth and effective, both through Skype and in-game. This was the defining moment in my opinion of Daveris; yeah, I had thought of him before as a pretty cool guy, but that's just that. He was simply the "pretty cool guy" who liked AwNet. After working as a team in a semi-competitive, semi-shenanigans setting, talking about everyday life, you know just fucking hanging out like normal guys, he wasn't that "pretty cool guy" anymore. Daveris was a fucking baus.

Give people a chance, even if you previously judged their beings as the equivalent to bioprocessed human fecal matter. You'll always make a new friend or two (or five!) along the way, and you might end up learning a thing or two as well.

Thanks for your post, LlamaHombre. Your words were the key that helped me open this locked door that was shrouded in my thoughts under a sea of confusion. I appreciate your insightful words, as they have enabled an insight of my own. You are and always were a real friend, and I'm glad to have called you my Battle Brother.

I'm taking a break from any more games tonight. I think it will help me reflect some more on this. You can still hit me up via Cutmail, Skype, or Steam though, I'll leave all my 'ware up and running in case someone has to contact me.

((Editor's Note: I haven't read anything between HD's post and this post. I wanted to get my thoughts on the thread for you all to digest. If something's been mentioned already, I apologize for any overlap. Thanks again for reading.))
Title: And so KD kicked the community into rage
Post by: Sora on September 23, 2012, 03:07:41 AM
Sorry, but I really don't see how Skype is causing THAT much of a decline in the community, not as much as MM8BDM is itself.

Do you play a game after you find everything in it, day after day, month after month?  The problem lies in MM8BDM itself; people are bored of the same and they quit...and when something new gets released?  They'll play it for a while then go back to other things: Saxton Hale is a very good example of this. I see Skype merely as a way for people to stay in touch and have fun until 8BDM comes back to life.

I'm pretty sure that when MM8 gets released, a lot of old faces will be back playing, and, eventually, everything will die until the next big release.  It's just the ebb and flow of the community.

And keep in mind there have always been online chats during the entirety of 8BDM's life, this isn't anything new.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: Zellough on September 23, 2012, 03:11:38 AM
KD, as though you've got a good point and you're pulling the community together, this is a poor way to pull it off, and blaming someone for a decline is even worse. My judgement in this community is no bigger than a snail trying to cross a street, but if i must say it, i find the decay in the community since the day Cutstuff needed to be moderated and kept in order, rather than it being a community where one would just hang out and be thrilled by the new updates. As for a solution, i can't singularily think of one myself, but that's why it's a community and we need each other.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: Orange juice :l on September 23, 2012, 03:14:27 AM
Quote from: "Sora"
Things Sora said
I fully accept that Skype helps to bind together some players. I also accept that plenty of players don't find MM8BDM fun anymore. What I'm not going to accept is that there are people in those chats who have no interest in MM8BDM and make it difficult for those who do still enjoy the game. We could pick up more players if it weren't for these chats for reasons mentioned earlier, and those big releases are made so much less satisfying when you go right back to a game like TF2 or LoL.

Besides, both those games are older than MM8BDM, and you guys still find them fun. Cutstuff wasn't exactly made for those games either.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: Hallan Parva on September 23, 2012, 03:27:32 AM
Quote from: "Kenkoru"
"Give people a chance, even if you previously judged their beings as the equivalent to bioprocessed human fecal matter." This is the trueriesit thing I've read in the whole topic. I've been wanting to become friends with people like daveris and stardroid venus and such, but I haven't had the oppurtunity to. Neither of them have been added here, I haven't been added to any chats with either of them. They were in the TF2 chat at one point, and it's easy to become friends with people with an easily accessible common interest, but they were booted out shortly after
I'm glad to see there are some of you who can understand what I'm talking about. Yeah, Skype can be the devil's spawn, but only if you really want it. In the right hands, it might end up making the community stronger, both with the "old vets" and with newcomers entering the game. I'm sure we'll find a way to handle Skype and the like by the time v3 rolls around. I'm sort of looking forward to the (few, but I'll take 'em) new players who will show up for it.

((Editor's Note: Well, it happened again. I asked Ken if I could quote him, and... well... yeah.))
(click to show/hide)
Title: Thanks for injecting life into the forum KD
Post by: Shade Guy on September 23, 2012, 03:32:51 AM
Some of my points have probably been noted by other people except everyone keeps posting while I try and form my opinion into a coherent post and it's hard for me to keep up with the topic and type at the same time

To me, the use of Skype in the community has extended far beyond MM8BDM. Aside from specific chats regarding MM8BDM projects (dev chats for CSCC RNC, etc.), I see Skype being used as a means for people who became friends through MM8BDM to maintain this friendship while playing other games. Hell, I'm not sure if most of the people in the 'main' chats even play MM8BDM anymore; I see groups of people running off to play TF2 more than I see people run off to play MM8BDM. Not that I disapprove of this; I personally am impressed by the level of tight-knit-ness (for a lack of better word) these folks have developed.

I would type more stuff but my train of thought kinda stopped on me
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: Orange juice :l on September 23, 2012, 03:39:58 AM
@Smash
That's the same issue coming back again. It's much harder to interact in a Skype chat than it is on the forums or in an MM8BDM server. It's easy to meet someone in a DM server. It's not easy to meet someone when you need an invitation. The reason we had the Homie "pseudo-clan" wasn't entirely because they worshipped Slyfox so much. It was partially because they couldn't be accepted into a collective any other way.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: TheDoc on September 23, 2012, 03:41:27 AM
I need to get me skype. I've heard people (from this community) say that MM8BDM is near-death. I dont agree. Sure, it used to be more popular, but its not going to die just yet. I've gone onto Doomseeker multiple times to see that the top server is a MM8BDM server. I see many people online everyday. People join this community as we speak, not to mention allthe players that don't join. Give MM8BDM a chance.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: King Dumb on September 23, 2012, 03:43:37 AM
Quote from: "Shade Guy"
To me, the use of Skype in the community has extended far beyond MM8BDM. Aside from specific chats regarding MM8BDM projects (dev chats for CSCC RNC, etc.), I see Skype being used as a means for people who became friends through MM8BDM to maintain this friendship while playing other games. Hell, I'm not sure if most of the people in the 'main' chats even play MM8BDM anymore; I see groups of people running off to play TF2 more than I see people run off to play MM8BDM. Not that I disapprove of this; I personally am impressed by the level of tight-knit-ness (for a lack of better word) these folks have developed.

I agree with what you say, Shade. The issue arises when these chats that maintain these friends' friendships are meant to serve the double purpose as MM8BDM Cutstuff Community chats. I am aware that there exists a Team Fortress 2 chat; I'm even aware that nearly everyone in the main Cutstuff chat is in said chat. Th problem is that what is supposed to be, and what is advertised and generally regarded as, a Cutstuff Community chat, is actually not such a chat, regarding Cutstuff as the MM8BDM community.

Quote from: "TheDoc"
People join this community as we speak, not to mention allthe players that don't join. Give MM8BDM a chance.

Firstly, the first sentence is a blatant untruth. Joining the community means becoming a part of it, and not only do I not see that happening on the forums, but to truly become integrated in today's Cutstuff you need to join Skype. Refer to the rest of the thread for discussion on that point.

"Give MM8BDM a chance"? MM8BDM has been passively given its "chance" for 9 months now. This is about removing the need for chance and calling for a need a for change.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: Rozark on September 23, 2012, 03:45:52 AM
(click to show/hide)

Well, here's the somewhat related story of the hospitality of the community @ how I saw it. After about a year of being here, I believe only NOW I am getting some comfortability with everyone that I should've gotten many, many moons ago. For the longest time I mostly stayed to myself. I gained some familiarity, and decided one day to take up mapping, and I enjoyed it. I had Knux be my mentor/first feedback person for my maps, which gave me hope that I wasn't completely going to waste. Maps later,  I was then asked to join the 4MI chat. I hesitated because I knew what Skype could do, and that I really didn't want any chances. Well, after finding other reasons to get Skype, I took a chance. As for what groups I've been accepted in, I'm quite complacent/pleased with them. I see someone who's friendly, I'll usually request an add/vice versa. Then we get chat in servers themselves. Mostly it's just random stuff/all fun, but then THEY show up. The "Bik and Friends" appear and give me trouble for being a casual player and not being like them, but that's just me; I can't change my playstyle after a decade and quite frankly, I'm not going to become an asshole just for the hell of it. As said earlier, take awhile to learn someone before you just judge them on skill; you might just enjoy them.

It's also about time someone made this topic.

inb4 talk swerves to corrupted social classes of cutstuff with names
ANNNNNNNNNNNNNNND before CMM makes a comment.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: SmashTheEchidna on September 23, 2012, 03:49:53 AM
I don't really know what to say to all of this, to be honest. I stopped using Skype a long time ago because I felt very uncomfortable and out of place in most of them. And as people constantly moved on, they eventually stopped adding me to new chats. So even if I do log into Skype, it's not like I can really do anything regarding this community. =/
I'm not even in the group that my brothers (literal and honorary alike) are all in.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: Gummywormz on September 23, 2012, 03:54:10 AM
Quote from: "Kenkoru"
"Give people a chance, even if you previously judged their beings as the equivalent to bioprocessed human fecal matter." This is the trueriesit thing I've read in the whole topic. I've been wanting to become friends with people like daveris and stardroid venus and such, but I haven't had the oppurtunity to. Neither of them have been added here, I haven't been added to any chats with either of them. They were in the TF2 chat at one point, and it's easy to become friends with people with an easily accessible common interest, but they were booted out shortly after

Why don't you add them to the chats then? There are also more ways to contact them than through skype. Try to convince the others to give them second chances. You're letting the rest of the "elite" choose your friends.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: Davregis on September 23, 2012, 03:59:29 AM
There's a cycle of repetitive human behavior through this. Give me a day.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: Ivory on September 23, 2012, 04:53:54 AM
So after going on a walk and reviewing the topic, I'm ready to let my thoughts be known.

King Dumb, while you (and many others) have raised some good points, I can't say I fully agree with you.

1. You made a rather large opening post, but what I fail to see is any suggestions on how things could improve. What are you trying to accomplish by starting this topic without any specific goal to work towards? You simply called the entire nature of communication corrupt.

2. You (as I interpret it) also act as if I'm influenced by Roc's Chat (or any other chat I'm in). Yes, I'll listen to them on the matter, just as much as I would listen to any community matter that someone shares with me. But have I ever been a person to be easily swayed? No. I think after all my years on Cutstuff, that should be clear. I've never been someone to take 'sides'. I simply follow what I believe is right and strive to to act with good intentions. I'm not a hero, and I'm not a villain.

3. Skype has allowed the members of Cutstuff to grow closer and become friends. Something that isn't feasible on forums or in-game alone. It's convenient, it allows us to stay connected. But this isn't unique to Cutstuff, just about any forum, game, etc does something similar. It may not be skype in all cases, but don't people want to connect and find friendships with each other in an easy to manage way?

4. With the above said, It was obvious that the community split into may different groups, wasn't it? A feeling of belonging is something sought after by most people. You want to be around people you like, and agree with. With that being said, and proven by this thread itself, not everyone agrees with the other. Groups come into conflict for that reason mainly. Part of my job is to stay objective and meditate between the different sides. And I do trust that my global moderator staff would strive to do the same.

I've always been someone to give everyone a chance to prove themselves to me. I prefer seeing action over words. If someone proves to me that they changed, then I give them another chance. Likewise, you have to take action to change things King Dumb, you can't expect to simply make a thread have the problem fix itself.



Next is a comment on the only response I found to have no logical sense in at all.

Quote from: "Zellough"
but if i must say it, i find the decay in the community since the day Cutstuff needed to be moderated and kept in order, rather than it being a community where one would just hang out and be thrilled by the new updates.
Coming from a person who randomly posted things like single post "meow" in threads. What you failed to grasp is that behavior was never accepted to begin with. If Mike saw that, he would have warned and scolded you for it too. You only view it that way because I'm far more of a forum watch-dog than Mike was. If Cutstuff wasn't moderated, then the community would have fallen short ages ago. Trolls would be given full reign to what they please and arguments would breakout as a daily occurrence. You simply cannot expect the place to be lawless and not have it abused. That's why there are moderators such as myself to strive to keep the place orderly. --Just keep that in mind and remember, order has to exist to balance out the chaos.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: King Dumb on September 23, 2012, 05:35:13 AM
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1. You made a rather large opening post, but what I fail to see is any suggestions on how things could improve. What are you trying to accomplish by starting this topic without any specific goal to work towards? You simply called the entire nature of communication corrupt.

The original and only definite goal with the posting of this thread was to present as a wholistic issue the debilitating issues of the community. What I desire to produce is a community reaction, in whatever direction the community sees fit.

Quote
2. You (as I interpret it) also act as if I'm influenced by Roc's Chat (or any other chat I'm in). Yes, I'll listen to them on the matter, just as much as I would listen to any community matter that someone shares with me. But have I ever been a person to be easily swayed? No. I think after all my years on Cutstuff, that should be clear. I've never been someone to take 'sides'. I simply follow what I believe is right and strive to to act with good intentions. I'm not a hero, and I'm not a villain.

I believe it should be clear, as well. In fact, I counted on this very fact when posting this topic originally. I trust you to allow this discussion to take its course as long as it remains civil. If I had thought you were easily swayed by this collective, I would not have wasted my time with a discussion that would be quickly derailed, and had I gone ahead, a focus on corruption in the day-to-day administrator of this site would obviously have garnered more support. Regarding my question concerning you in my original post, in that regard I merely serve to provide the community with the whole truth, let each individual judge and speak for him/herself, and then my desire is that the community as a whole will come to a decision.

Quote
3. Skype has allowed the members of Cutstuff to grow closer and become friends. Something that isn't feasible on forums or in-game alone. It's convenient, it allows us to stay connected. But this isn't unique to Cutstuff, just about any forum, game, etc does something similar. It may not be skype in all cases, but don't people want to connect and find friendships with each other in an easy to manage way?

I agree with your statements here as well. The problem and the issues I describe are products of the specific circumstances of Skype usage in the Cutstuff community; that is to say, it is a combination of individuals, these individuals' interactions, AND the use of Skype as a medium that creates the problem. Regarding the creation and maintenance of friendships, refer to my response to Shade Guy's post.

Quote
4. With the above said, It was obvious that the community split into may different groups, wasn't it? A feeling of belonging is something sought after by most people. You want to be around people you like, and agree with. With that being said, and proven by this thread itself, not everyone agrees with the other. Groups come into conflict for that reason mainly. Part of my job is to stay objective and meditate between the different sides. And I do trust that my global moderator staff would strive to do the same.

Disagreement and argument are a part of every functioning community; they are akin to political parties in that not only are they inevitable, but their omnipresence makes them vital. When one group with a certain set of opinions completely dominates, other groups are repressed or oppressed. Once again, however, there is a key difference between competing opinions and the situation we have here, which is the inherent dominance of one group over the rest, the decadence of this dominance, and the negative effect it all has on the growth and development of the community.

Additionally, in the matters of this discussion, I also trust that moderators will act in an objective manner when it comes to moderation duties; I do not deem them, however, as restricted from expressing their opinions like the rest of us.

Quote
Likewise, you have to take action to change things King Dumb, you can't expect to simply make a thread have the problem fix itself.

The thread doesn't fix the problem, no. The thread presents the problem to the community at large. My first action is complete with the creation of this thread. There was nothing I could do alone to change an entire community until others had had an opportunity to form their opinions and speak out.
Title: Other note: MM7 also sucks.
Post by: Tesseractal on September 23, 2012, 07:28:41 AM
Quote from: "King Dumb"
Do you trust a head global moderator who associates constantly with this decadent group of social dominators, and to whom Roc’s Creation referred as a “feral dog” with one of the community’s most important platforms of interaction?
My original statement referred to all of the global moderators. All of them (past and present) have at one point or another gone "off the rails" and have to be put in line by Ivory. Remember when a dozen IPs were posted on the forums? Or when SmashBro was banned for a forum game post? I used this in defense of Llama before: I do trust Ivory. He isn't always right either, but he's light-years ahead of the other mods in terms of keeping it together. In the time I've seen them all of the mods have had to "fall back" on Ivory's own judgment when their own has failed. I trust Ivory because quite likely, he is the only one who can do that.

And that's why I think Ivory had a sort of reluctance with the mods he chose. I figure he looked for the attributes that were similar to him, but largely came up short in this community. My guess is that anyone he picked would basically just be like Korby. It'd be nice to have mods that were more like Ivory, but it'd also be impossible. That's why I think you have no solution for this problem: You don't like the administration, but you also don't like everyone else qualified because they're also friends. There isn't really much room for who can be a mod, but it isn't just about being mods - in things like this people always fall back on people they know. The "LA voiceover community is very close-knit" - referring to the majority of Skullgirls' VA being pulled from Squid Girl. There might BE a person who is more qualified to be a mod or admin... but none of us would know. Having a high degree of temperance / impartiality is important, but being able to expect it  is also important. I trust Llama to act in accordance with Ivory's wishes. The other reason you can't find a solution being...
Quote from: "King Dumb"
Do you trust a group of individuals who avidly and viciously reject competition, experimentally shown to inject at least temporary life into a community that most will say is declining, with one of the community’s most important platforms of interaction?
No. Now, look closely: Which part of the community rejects competition? (I don't.) Is it really any single faction? The people who play on Hotel RP maps, who only play TF2 against each other - do they belong to one group? I think it's actually all of them, which is why your point doesn't really matter. Messatsu banned SR50; are him and the people on his servers part of the skype oligarchy? He made it physically impossible for anyone competitive to use his servers. (Unless I played the game without arrow keys, which is worthless.)  MM8BDM is primarily a multiplayer game, ergo it is dependent on the people who play it. The people who play it now bore me to tears. What are you going to do about that? Even if the people you don't like, the seven skype lords of decadence left or lost influence, would it really change anything? So what if you have a more friendlier skype chat? The reason this game has become anti-competitive is BECAUSE it's community-based. The people I enjoyed dueling were never a part of that chat. When I wanted to duel someone, I went to funcrusher. When I dueled Kombat, Rawk, -Ran, etc., I had fun. I never talked to any of them as part of a "community" - it doesn't matter. (Now I could duel five "community" members just to get OJ, who I then have to play on a garbage MM7 map. Pretty much 100% of the time. I get tired of Turbo Man and Spring Man showing up in map rotations.)

If you don't like the skype chats, start your own. See how far it gets. Since it's such a hot topic around here, I'll tell you why I made mine. I made two chats, Foxdie and Outer Haven. Foxdie was made to create a more concise community than the old, bloated Pirate Ship. Outer Haven was made because I don't trust Korby. Foxdie went beyond my control so I killed it. It's very unusual from how most people think, but I use a "less is more" mentality - I get more out of people the fewer of them I have. Although having a broader is a community is nice, having a close circle also allows for a "free-er" discussion - some people like to share their thoughts in private, I being one of them. You're in the chat; have you noticed the difference? How the people in this topic noted the "community chat" was "mostly spam and ADHD"? Why is that important to the community?  I find it kind of humorous what you label "decadence". If a group of people don't want Obelisk in their chat, why does removing him cause "decadence"? Skype I don't think has as much weight on this forum as you'd think.  You can get more people to play this game and to form their own communities. You won't get it just by complaining about a skype chat. When people pick up this game, they don't give a damn about what some buffoons in a pirate ship are saying - they care about the game itself. That's where the REAL 'decadence' lies. The people playing this game focus on the community, on playing their own mods. When a regular person like a homie sees all that garbage, it's off-putting. People who play this game for fun don't want to play CSCMR, or Saxton Hale, or Classes, but it's the "community" who continues to keep them going. The homies were the first to break the community cycle of "Play bad mods, complain about mods and play vanilla, make more bad mods" and were shoo-ed off by the xenophobic. Worrying about skype chats is the last thing you should worry about if you want to "promote community growth".

tl;dr version: All global moderators are dependent on Ivory, no matter who is chosen. People do not play this game because of skype chats, but because of having fun. People stop playing the game because of bad mods. If you play on Mess's servers or classes mods, you probably suck at this game. If you make skype chats more friendly or fair, you will still suck.
Title: Why am I of all people giving a lesson in forgiving people?
Post by: Myroc on September 23, 2012, 09:51:59 AM
Quote from: "Tesseractal"
Quote from: "King Dumb"
Do you trust a head global moderator who associates constantly with this decadent group of social dominators, and to whom Roc’s Creation referred as a “feral dog” with one of the community’s most important platforms of interaction?
My original statement referred to all of the global moderators. All of them (past and present) have at one point or another gone "off the rails" and have to be put in line by Ivory. Remember when a dozen IPs were posted on the forums? Or when SmashBro was banned for a forum game post? I used this in defense of Llama before: I do trust Ivory. He isn't always right either, but he's light-years ahead of the other mods in terms of keeping it together. In the time I've seen them all of the mods have had to "fall back" on Ivory's own judgment when their own has failed. I trust Ivory because quite likely, he is the only one who can do that.
Allow me to go off on a tangent. Bear in mind that the moderators are all, shockingly, still only human. We all do mistakes. So far I think that the administration has had an excellent overall track record, I'm willing to let a single mistake slide as long as they realize it's a mistake. We can't judge everyone by every single act of decadence they had ever committed in the past, we need to be able to forgive, eventually.

Case in point: Tsukiyomaru0. At the time he was banned he was a major arse and possessed an ego whose size rivaled that of the universe himself. I don't think anyone missed him at that time. Now? He still remains rather secluded from the community, but the few times I see him on servers he is one of the most chill people I have ever seen. Hell he even helps a lot of fledging coders with DECORATE and ACS. I kind of feel like an arse myself for taunting him at the day he was banned. Like I said, we all do mistakes.

-----

Returning to the subject at hand, community splits like this are nothing new, nor unique to Cutstuff. Skype is only the means to how it happened regarding Cutstuff itself. I've seen it happen in other online communities as well. You thought this was the only community I was part of? I may be slightly less active in the others, but I can see similar trends that are comparable to our current situation. Community members becoming friends and forming groups is a change eventually happens in all communities. Whether or not it's a change for the better or for worse is up for debate.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: Max on September 23, 2012, 10:59:03 AM
Maybe we could all play vanilla? Vanilla gets stale pretty fast.

Maybe we could all be in one chat? Just look at what happened to OJ's (now replaced) competitive chat.

Maybe we could all be friends? Problem is most of the 'HD Party' can be annoying to talk to for the 'Cool Kids'.

I don't know what point I'm trying to make here, perhaps it's that any sort of improvement is wishful thinking. I genuinely think there's no problem with the whole group split issue as long as ties between groups are kept relatively friendly. Short post, everything's been said already.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: King Dumb on September 23, 2012, 01:28:36 PM
Quote
My original statement referred to all of the global moderators. All of them (past and present) have at one point or another gone "off the rails" and have to be put in line by Ivory. Remember when a dozen IPs were posted on the forums? Or when SmashBro was banned for a forum game post? I used this in defense of Llama before: I do trust Ivory. He isn't always right either, but he's light-years ahead of the other mods in terms of keeping it together. In the time I've seen them all of the mods have had to "fall back" on Ivory's own judgment when their own has failed. I trust Ivory because quite likely, he is the only one who can do that.

And that's why I think Ivory had a sort of reluctance with the mods he chose. I figure he looked for the attributes that were similar to him, but largely came up short in this community. My guess is that anyone he picked would basically just be like Korby. It'd be nice to have mods that were more like Ivory, but it'd also be impossible. That's why I think you have no solution for this problem: You don't like the administration, but you also don't like everyone else qualified because they're also friends. There isn't really much room for who can be a mod, but it isn't just about being mods - in things like this people always fall back on people they know. The "LA voiceover community is very close-knit" - referring to the majority of Skullgirls' VA being pulled from Squid Girl. There might BE a person who is more qualified to be a mod or admin... but none of us would know. Having a high degree of temperance / impartiality is important, but being able to expect it is also important. I trust Llama to act in accordance with Ivory's wishes.

Your statement in the New Global Moderators thread referred to all global moderators prior to LlamaHombre and Sora becoming such; this group is one person.

Otherwise, you seem to have quite largely missed my entire point. Perhaps you should dispel the preconceptions you had when you read the thread, you should read the original post (or maybe the entire thread) again. I do not doubt Ivory's ability to administrate (and moderate) capably and objectively. I thought I had made this clear. I don't imply or suppose he is unfit for his job, or that there are better candidates.

Quote
Cutstuff, do you trust a group of individuals who spend little to no time active on the forums and even less time experience the community in-game with one of the community’s most important platforms of interaction?

Do you trust a group of individuals who avidly and viciously reject competition, experimentally shown to inject at least temporary life into a community that most will say is declining, with one of the community’s most important platforms of interaction?

Do you trust a head global moderator who associates constantly with this decadent group of social dominators, and to whom Roc’s Creation referred as a “feral dog” with one of the community’s most important platforms of interaction?

Do you trust a newly-promoted admin who is surrounded – in an elite Skype chat where only the aforementioned select individuals and their closest friends are present – by the depraved, indifferent judgments these individuals pass on the community?

Do you trust a group of individuals who, in a medium where they cannot be punished and in the presence of the head global moderator speak these words after removing Obelisk from their “community chat”, with one of the community’s most important platforms of interaction?:

All of these circumstances exist - are directly caused by - because of the reality I proposed. These questions demonstrate the breadth of potential influence of the main subject, and in intent are meant nothing more than to be answered by the community. I supply the community at large with the reality of the situation, and what needs to happen for the betterment towards the community will become clear on its own. Questions I posed regarding moderators or Ivory are to be answered by the community, and by this I mean a large majority. We don't know what the majority thinks yet. We know what you think. I have already stated what I think.

Cutstuff is not a democracy. The people to whom I address my original post have no legitimate authority to enact change. However, Cutstuff is also not a nation; it is an online community. It is detestable and unintuitive that the way this community is run is not in the best interests of the majority.

Quote
Skype I don't think has as much weight on this forum as you'd think.

Really? The MM8BDM Skype Family thread tends to say otherwise. Many posts on this thread tend to say otherwise. The reaction in the very Skype chats of which I have spoken says otherwise. The constant, gradual death of the "homie" influx says otherwise. The absence of countless individuals that joined the forums in the past two months, but were ignored by the Skype-centric community or were ignorant of its existence, says otherwise. Many posts in this very thread, identifying how Skype has allowed friendships to grow stronger or how Skype has been a detriment to the community as a whole, say otherwise.

Quote
You can get more people to play this game and to form their own communities. You won't get it just by complaining about a skype chat.

No, I won't. You're right. I never implied this thread would fix the problem; I've already addressed that argument, because Ivory brought it up as well.

More people that have found MM8BDM have formed their communities; there has been an increase in Chilean servers and players in the past months. The homies had their own cluster of servers (though others could join). I don't have anything against these communities; I've very little interaction with the former and the latter I found quite pleasant. My point is these communities couldn't be integrated into the Cutstuff MM8BDM community even if they wanted to be. And if that's the case, they may as well not exist as far as the condition of the Cutstuff community is concerned.

The second half of your second-to-last paragraph is a somewhat different issue, as far as I understand. But perhaps someone will provide a connection.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: Turbodude on September 23, 2012, 01:45:29 PM
Seeing as this storm has calmed down a bit, I'll put in my two cents if anybody wants to hear.
Kindly prove me wrong if I've misread anything, I'm avoiding hostility and I believe any in opposition should follow suit.

The way I see it, throughout this entire thread we have all made conclusions and pointed out various flaws, problems, and maybe even a few compliments here and there....
But where's our solution to this? We're all at impact here, and the way I see it there's no true way to please everyone.
Some people here want Cutstuff to strive by putting less dependance on Skype and more people discussing/playing what Cutstuff is made for, am I correct?  That can only last for so long, especially when 8BDM has yet to be updated. We've all played V2C front to back, we know all the twists and turns. MM8BDM's just like any other game, you play it day by day, or whatever period of time you prefer, and expect it to be equally as fun every time. That's like playing Brawl every day and having fun with it each time. Sure, it'll be fun for the first few days, but you'll feel less and less attracted to it, because it's the same crap different day.

Once this happens with 8BDM, people will most likely leave it for a while. and when people do that without dependance on Skype, valuable friendships that may have been made over the course of playing, will become distant or maybe even lost.
And who wants to lose friendships? I'm going to be brutally honest when I say this, but some people in this community have a harder time making friends in real life than on the internet, and some feel like their online friends are more important than their real ones. This is undeniable, but is that a bad thing? No. I used to be one of those people, but now's not the time for my Middle School/High School life story, this is about Cutstuff and Skype.

Some may argue that Skype is the source of controversy amongst similar users, and others pull the blame at those who reside on Skype. Admittedly I was feeling that way at first, but then something occurred to me...
Couldn't these controversies be equally as possible had everyone just stayed on Cutstuff? The way I see it, yes they can.
Let's face it, nobody can get along with everybody, there's always going to be someone who will have a beef with someone else, it's not a good thing, but it can't be helped. Because Skype is essentially where most communication outside of 8BDM talk takes place in, it's commonly referred to as the PROBLEM of things, when in actuality it's only the stage set for these outbursts. Look at the escapades of Lad and Lum, a lot of things involving them happened on MM8BDM itself, and not on Skype, they were ostracized from most people because of how people thought of their actions. I'm neutral on that scenario now, but it's a prime example that arguments and hostility can happen in any part of this community.

All in all, I feel that Skype isn't what should be blamed, and that it's a great tool for securing friendships with those who don't play 8BDM anymore, and let's face it, you can't keep playing the same game forever. *Hell, look at the SRB2 community, most people there hardly play the game but still communicate using their IRC chat.*
Secondly, If you see a problem rising, take a step back and look for a resolution, rather than trying to point fingers at someone or something.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: Gumballtoid on September 23, 2012, 02:10:34 PM
For the most part, I agree with Turbo. I'm in a small Skype chat of about 14 or so. A good many of them are friends I've made over the year I've been on Cutstuff.

None of them have played MM8BDM in a good while.

If not for Skype, I'd probably not see those fellas for a good while, and eventually forget about them. But no. We've used Skype as a means to preserve friendships. Like Turbo said, some of us have a harder time making friends in their everyday life than they do online. I myself am one of those people. But having friends anywhere counts for something. We play TF2 together, we have Skype calls every-so-often, and I honestly can't remember a single day I haven't logged into Skype and struck up a conversation with someone.

However, there are a select group that have used Skype as a medium to stir up trouble amongst the quote-unquote "outcasts."

I'm going to make a throwback to about late February-early March, during that hellish shit-fest. I was playing on Shmeckie's classes server, going one-on-one with 75chris5, someone I'm sure you all know. I was minding my own business, tryin' to make the best of that time period, when all of a sudden, several individuals that make up a part of the group accused of being "corrupt" join the server and, seemingly for no reason, other than their disdain towards myself, call a vote kick against me. Everyone except 75chris5 and myself vote yes. Now what was I to do in that situation?

I couldn't do shit.

Hell, at the time, I didn't even know Skype existed. All I knew was that they were using something outside the game and outside the forums to organize it. It felt as if I wasn't welcome to play MM8BDM, even though I hadn't done a whole lot to anyone (or, at least, made an effort to).

I'm not saying Skype is a bad thing; it's not. It's helped me preserve friendships I would have lost ages ago. However, there are individuals that misuse it, which is a bad thing. And I'd put an arm and a leg on the fact that I'm not the only one who has suffered because of it.

All things considered, and correct me if I'm wrong, Skype isn't the problem. Those who misuse it are.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: King Dumb on September 23, 2012, 02:22:40 PM
Quote
Couldn't these controversies be equally as possible had everyone just stayed on Cutstuff?

The answer is no, controversies of this degree could not have spawned had Skype never been incorporated, a primary reason being is that there is far less exclusive potential on the forums (zero, even, unless a group were to communicate and interact solely via private message). Similar and of equal weight to this reason is that moderators and administrators have legitimate authority on the forums, whereas they do not in Skype.

Quote
All things considered, and correct me if I'm wrong, Skype isn't the problem. Those who misuse it are.

Even more precisely than this, the problem is the misuse and abuse of Skype and the Skype-centric aspect of the community.

Quote
Secondly, If you see a problem rising, take a step back and look for a resolution, rather than trying to point fingers at someone or something.

Resolutions to problems must always begin with identifying the source of the problem.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: Korby on September 23, 2012, 03:38:02 PM
Just thought I'd bring up some points that have probably already been brought up.

The "Cool Kids Club" is not the Cutstuff chat. Nowhere is it stated to be that. It's just where a bunch of guys/friends/smashbro hang out.

As for not allowing new people in, Outragous (http://www.cutstuff.net/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=2005) is still in the chat, despite being inactive for quite some time.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: Clayton on September 23, 2012, 05:06:44 PM
Quote
I'm going to use the dead remains of a ghost here when I bring up the topic of the late MegaLAD. He and his brothers received constant abuse from the Foxdie Party and as such it sparked multiple cases of controversy throughout the forums. They, and I at the time, never gave him a second chance. Human Destroyer's Party, on the other hand, accepted him and allowed his company. Nowadays, this man is known as TheClayman6. I've seen improvement out of him personality-wise and if he's reading this I hope he understands how sorry I really am for treating him and others like him the way I have.

I'm so glad that me changing had some kind of impact on people. The only reason I changed was basically to take this game seriously. I never would have thought it would have lead to such a hot topic.

By the way, I'm not in HD's party. Had nothing to do with him always or anyone in that "category".

I don't think my comments on this topic would really be taken seriously or have much impact mostly because I would be speaking on an entirely different dimension. Besides, you guys are already starting to realize your mistakes and I am very grateful for that.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: MusashiAA on September 23, 2012, 05:50:05 PM
Topic is Regarding Our Community.

The community's active side is pretty small, yes. As we saw with the homies, promoting the game won't increase this permanently, and it is to be expected; I don't think much can be done about it. Despite this, we have a lot of people contributing to the game (many of the active people), so it's pretty alive. The game's active playerbase is also small, and promoting doesn't increase it permanently as well. Any means that help people have an easier access to the currently desorganized and not-easily accesible additional content WILL help keeping a somewhat-consistent and hopefully large playerbase that stays for the game, and perhaps try joining the community.

Social escalating? Cool kids? Skype elite chats? All cockypop. You're acting like children, for God's sake. Got a problem with the cool kids? Think they have power? They don't have any factual and legitimately given power over this place at all, and any other representation of power they may portray is but a product of the rest of you thinking they DO have power over the community's social aspect: they have authority, but not power. I don't mind them. I don't mind this "social escalating" corruption that is "enhanced" by Skype, because it's pathetic, and as such the way out of it is pathetic: DON'T PAY ATTENTION TO THEM. Ignore them, or more well-put: just stop caring about something as superflous as social escalation, and this will dimish their authority over it.

If these "issues" keep people away or from ever trying out or staying for the community, and this group of cool kids have some sort of social authority over anyone, then just strip them from this.

Everything that needed to be said has already been said, save for what it is (tried but failed to define it) and how to stop it. The rest is just argumentation about this being logical or not.

There is a small group of users that has been given a social authority on this community. There are moderators that are closely linked to these people. There are moderators that are closely linked to Ivory. This group of users do influence the social development of our community, and even gang up and unrightfully harm some people's gaming experience because of what they think of said person. They do use Skype as a means of communication. Skype DOES serve as a way to enhance communication between users.

Should this group of people exist?
No matter what we do, or who they are, this kind of group will always exist, as it is a common social phenomena.

Should this group of people have social authority over the development and growth of our community?
Authority, unlike power, is willingly given. Social authority like this was given to them by the community, and can be easily taken from them. If their authority is handicapping the growth of our community, they cannot keep this authority, as only they would be shaping the community to their liking. No need for banning or casting them out: just stop thinking they have any authority over the community.

Skype existing or not is irrelevant, and if it helps mitigating this group of people's authority over the community or not will not matter if the rest of you lot stops thinking they have authority over it.

Should moderators stay closely linked to this group of people, and take their advices?
Yes, and just as much as they could take anyone else's advice. If I was the sole close friend of a moderator, and said moderator comes to me for advice, should he listen to my advice? He CAN, but it's up to him/her what and how he will act. If what this moderator does is exactly what I told him to do, it's his problem and not mine's. The problem arises when this moderator is easily coerced by me to do things repeatedly, or if he puts my advice very highly; this is bad because moderators should decide mostly ON THEIR OWN and act IN COOPERATION WITH OTHER MODERATORS only: they should trust their own gut and wit, and despite them being capable of hearing other people's opinions on a matter and take them in consideration, a moderator is expected to be capable of having their own opinion that takes the wellbeing of the community in mind. Applied to Llama's case, he can be a moderator, because he can act alongside other mods and does seem to care about the wellbeing of the community; he shouldn't be a moderator though, because he has admitted that he takes what this group of cool people say and think very highly, and because his past shows him as being like this very group of self-centered, short-sighted and prejudiced people KD and HD denounce.

Should moderators be chosen depending on how much Ivory trusts them? No, but if Mike is ok with this and he hasn't stopped him, and if a large part of the community sees Ivory as a good global moderator and no one has challenged his current position with enough and substantial proof that shows him as not being qualified to be a global mod, then he can and should in order to keep moderation consistant and coordinated between people that work better together.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: Tengu on September 23, 2012, 08:39:15 PM
I am in a full agreement with this statement.


Might I recall a quote someone once told me. "Tengu. Don't join Skype. It is one of the prime reasons the community is falling apart." This statement is very true, and it's very tiring. Skype is not the same thing as the forums, yet what happens there constantly, (and I can't stress that enough) affects everyone's attitude toward each other. I mean, I watch some people practically get outcast by all of their fellow community members over something as ridiculous as:

"I don't like how your voice sounds during Skype calls." or "You like attention too much". These reasons are just absurd, and are no reason to judge someone and be discriminatory toward them.

If you ask me, no matter what happens on Skype, we should all learn to get along and appreciate each other in the end. Or we're going NOWHERE, AND I MEAN NOWHERE.

With regards to the whole Moderator thing, I think that warnings shouldn't be given as freely as they recently have been being given out. A prime example I can recall is Exi getting warned for telling someone that they shouldn't double post. Come on, really? (I also still don't think terribly highly of Llama being a mod, but that ship has sailed.)

I also thing that Moderators should be be voted in on a fair, non-biased and non-personal basis.


Yet again, I doubt many people will bother reading this whole post so who am I kidding.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: Ivory on September 23, 2012, 08:57:17 PM
Exi isn't a global moderator and I don't look too kindly towards back seat moderators. So what do you do? You use the report button.

As for the other comments. Why do you think I'm a global moderator admin? Mike trusted me. I was around since the GvH days, so he knew who I was. He trusted me because I was one of the more level headed active members. He gave me the job because he felt I was suited for it.

Now in terms of voting people in, who did the public vote for? Brotoad. Was Brotoad a good global moderator? Not really. No offense to him, but he barely did anything. He just kinda sat around with a green name.

So likewise, what did Korby and I discuss for months? Who do we feel would be a best fit to assist in day-to-day moderation. And after I was promoted to Admin, I realized Cutstuff should really have a bigger moderator team than just 1 active person. So I had to come to a decision, and we decided to give Llama and Sora a chance. Cutstuff isn't a democracy, it's a dictatorship. Not an evil type of dictatorship, but ultimately, what Mike says goes. We choose to listen to what you, the people think and suggest, but we don't have to.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: MusashiAA on September 23, 2012, 09:15:01 PM
Quote from: "Ivory"
Cutstuff isn't a democracy, it's a dictatorship. Not an evil type of dictatorship, but ultimately, what Mike says goes. We choose to listen to what you, the people think and suggest, but we don't have to.

(click to show/hide)

Exactly why I'd rather have moderators to be chosen. Why? Because people will end up voting for a charismatic person, and not a competent person.

Yay we're discussing politics 8D
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: Mr. X on September 23, 2012, 09:16:32 PM
Suddenly, random person jumping out of the woodwork!

There's quite a few things I feel need addressed here that have made me annoyed enough that I feel I have to say something.  First of all, the mod issue.

Quote from: "King Dumb"
Otherwise, you seem to have quite largely missed my entire point. Perhaps you should dispel the preconceptions you had when you read the thread, you should read the original post (or maybe the entire thread) again. I do not doubt Ivory's ability to administrate (and moderate) capably and objectively.

Or maybe you need to reread the first post, specifically the part where you call into question Ivory's ability to administrate and moderate.

Quote from: "King Dumb"
Do you trust a newly-promoted admin who is surrounded – in an elite Skype chat where only the aforementioned select individuals and their closest friends are present – by the depraved, indifferent judgments these individuals pass on the community?

If you honesty didn't doubt Ivory's ability, why the heck would you even call it into question?  Not only that, but while bringing it into question, you drag in the people Ivory associates in a negative light.  Don't give me that "I merely wanted the community's opinion" spiel because it's a lie:  the way you phrase a question influences the answers in a huge way, and you purposely phrased your question to get negative answers.

Quote from: "MusashiAA"
...moderators should decide mostly ON THEIR OWN and act IN COOPERATION WITH OTHER MODERATORS only: they should trust their own gut and wit, and despite them being capable of hearing other people's opinions on a matter and take them in consideration, a moderator is expected to be capable of having their own opinion that takes the wellbeing of the community in mind.

I speak to Ivory on a daily basis, and I know from personal experience that this is exactly what is already happening.  Mods both talk among themselves and use personal judgement before handing out punishment.  Elsewhere, Ivory has mentioned that I'm one of the top 3 people xe talks to online, and sure I say what I feel from time to time:  but it's in a way that's no different than me using the report button.  I am never asked beforehand what I think, or what my call would be.  As for other mods, if they step out of line, they are dealt with - just not necessarily publicly.  I don't know the full details (which is proof that the friend influence isn't as strong as everyone seems to think in itself), but from my understanding, this has happened with the IP incident.  They aren't perfect, but nobody is.

Now, Ivory has ninja'd me before I was able to post this, but yeah:  as for voting in moderators, this isn't a democracy.  Forums never are.  Basically, whatever the people running this site (Mike, Ivory) are ultimately in charge.  They'll listen to opinions, but it's not the call of the community.  The only one that has ever been the community's call is Brotoad.  And that worked out reeeeaaaaal well.


Now, onto Skype.  Is Skype basically a necessity to become accepted into the community?  Of course, but it's not surprising in the least.  If you move into a new school, you can't expect to just have friends fall into your lap.  Sure, you can talk to people in class from time to time, but if you want to actually make friends, you're going to have to make the conscious effort to get to know people, and having an instant, slightly more personal form of communication to do so makes sense.  It's also naturally harder for a new person to adjust.  We've all already formed groups of friends and know each other.  I know I have two groups I'm in and they're tightly knit.  We tried adding a brand new person into one of them, and it proved to be disasterous.  The point is, if I want to spend time with someone, I'm going to spend it with people I know I can count on.  When we do add people to one of the groups, it's only after they've stuck around and proven to be a good match for us.  It isn't elitism, it's just making friends.  This isn't to say adding new people to these groups is impossible:  it's just without the shared history the older people have, it's going to be harder.

As for the the bullying, I've got to agree with this:
Quote from: "MusashiAA"
Social escalating? Cool kids? Skype elite chats? All cockypop. You're acting like children, for God's sake. Got a problem with the cool kids? Think they have power? They don't have any factual and legitimately given power over this place at all, and any other representation of power they may portray is but a product of the rest of you thinking they DO have power over the community's social aspect: they have authority, but not power.
This isn't some phenomenon created exclusively for this site - anywhere you go, you're going to find mean people in this world.  I mean, look in any high school anywhere:  everybody has their cliques, and there's always a group of kids being jerks.  It's always going to happen, and you just have to ignore it.  It's only fun to them if you get mad because it's exactly what they want.  Of course, it's also going to be plentiful here because lest we forget a good majority of the members here are in high school and thus prone to do this.  People are always going to talk about each other behind their backs, and there's almost always going to be people being mean for the Hell of it.

Now, is Skype the ruination of the community like you all claim?  Ha.  There would be no community without it!  Do you honestly think we'd have stuck around playing a doom mod for over 2 years if we hadn't made friends on here and talk to them on a daily basis on Skype?  Not a chance.  Sure, the tight groups may have scared some newcomers away, but really, would you think the number of newcomers coming in would outnumber the number of us who left due to lack of updates?  We have what:  like 2 new members a month who come and go?  The game is old:  naturally, it's not going to be as popular as it was when it was released.  Almost every online game in history has tapered off in popularity, with very few exceptions for things like World of Warcraft and TF2, but both have way more content and frequent updates than such a small fan project like this could provide.

With Skype, many of us have made friends, but all good things have their problems, and the problems addressed here are just some of them.  To me, though, the good still outweighs the bad.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: MusashiAA on September 23, 2012, 09:23:02 PM
Who's moderating the "official" MM8BDM Skype chat?
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: Laggy Blazko on September 23, 2012, 09:38:56 PM
I really don't see how telling someone to not double post is trying to moderate. I wouldn't have used the report button because I didn't even know there was a rule against that. (Or maybe that has something to do with the "keep it sane" rule which I never understood except for the direct examples given there)
Back on topic... Um... I don't know anything, I don't use Skype nor Steam. Sometimes I'm playing and then some people join the server and "throw" random insults and I don't know what's going on. Well, I haven't seen that for a while.
So... Yeah, I don't know about this "status" thing, I just run mindlessly and try to napalm-bomb whatever is in front of me in-game.


(Crap, I feel so self-centered for using the word "I" so much in a topic about the community)
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: Red on September 23, 2012, 09:45:17 PM
Quote from: "MusashiAA"
Who's moderating the "official" MM8BDM Skype chat?
There is no "Official" MM8BDM thing. OJ tried to make one and added a lot of people, but that easily went to hell.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: Orange juice :l on September 23, 2012, 09:50:11 PM
Again, having friends is all well and good, and nobody expects you to give up your friends and private chats. The problem is how these private groups permeate all of Cutstuff. Instead of installing Skype and making an outstanding name for yourself to join a small close knit group (comparable to a clan in larger games like Mr X mentioned), there's a not entirely unfounded belief among those new players that they need to do so to join Cutstuff in even the broadest sense. The Skype chats are overpowering the forums. As for a more benevolent approach, I propose we attempt to make Cutstuff grow instead of make Skype shrink. Create new trailers and post them on popular sites, possibly even get semi-popular reviewers to cover MM8BDM [Now I realize Slyfox's homie invasion didn't quite work out- we were largely unprepared for a rush of new players, and as such, couldn't hold on to them; not to mention they were mainly here for their idol]. Hire new blog writers and maybe even appoint community guides to help players around Cutstuff or to install MM8BDM and other mods. If we can manage this, both players and chatters can be happy.

And yeah, MM8BDM does not work on Skype. We've tried.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: MusashiAA on September 23, 2012, 10:14:48 PM
Hire new blog writers?

We have a blog?

We used to HIRE blog writers?

We had blog writers?

What in tarnation do you write in a blog about one game? And what would there be left to write about?

Skype is an IM client. That is, INSTANT messaging. No forum can beat THAT. Skype itself isn't BAD, it's just what we use as a chat.

Didn't we have an IRC chat? Who even started the Skype fad?
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: Ivory on September 23, 2012, 10:21:47 PM
There was also a mm8bdm xat chat.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: MusashiAA on September 23, 2012, 10:44:28 PM
And this chat went down the toilet because of Skype taking its duty?

Skype is just a chat client for people who want to chat. It's not a disease. Private and apparently cool chats, and the people in there, can only "ruin" the community if everyone else lets them.

You guys are seriously taking this "cool kids club" thing too far. Childish, I tell you. Just ignore the people or, if you want to seriously get rid of them, denounce them in public so everyone knows the kind of crap they can be. Just like what HD started and know KD is doing.

These people have no power nor superior importance over this place, they matter and count as much as anyone else.

Now that the jig is up, please answer this: what should be done about it?
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: SmashTheEchidna on September 23, 2012, 10:45:24 PM
Quote from: "MusashiAA"
Who even started the Skype fad?

I could be wrong, but I believe it was Ashley.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: King Dumb on September 23, 2012, 11:39:43 PM
Quote from: "MusashiAA"
They don't have any factual and legitimately given power over this place at all, and any other representation of power they may portray is but a product of the rest of you thinking they DO have power over the community's social aspect: they have authority, but not power.

You've got this totally backwards. Authority is the right to exercise power; rights must be conferred by will. Moderators and admins have authority on the forums. No one has authority in Skype. These people have power.

Quote
Should this group of people have social authority over the development and growth of our community?
Authority, unlike power, is willingly given. Social authority like this was given to them by the community, and can be easily taken from them. If their authority is handicapping the growth of our community, they cannot keep this authority, as only they would be shaping the community to their liking. No need for banning or casting them out: just stop thinking they have any authority over the community.

You are correct; authority is conferred willingly by writ or popular will. Changing how we view this group does not fix the problem, it ignores it, and we who conform based upon petty conclusions become as destructive as those we had sought to fight. Authority does nothing to hurt this community.

You say many times, actually, that if we stop thinking these people have authority (by which you meant to refer to what is actually power), the 'problem' will go away. Since this is basically an antithesis to my entire point, I refer you to my original post and to the testimonies presented in this thread as proof that the problem (meaning, this specific distribution of power and the abuse of power) does in fact exist.

Quote from: "Mr. X"
If you honesty didn't doubt Ivory's ability, why the heck would you even call it into question? Not only that, but while bringing it into question, you drag in the people Ivory associates in a negative light. Don't give me that "I merely wanted the community's opinion" spiel because it's a lie: the way you phrase a question influences the answers in a huge way, and you purposely phrased your question to get negative answers.

How could you think that telling me not to use a specific argument would invalidate it?

Actually, if I had wanted to influence answers, I would have done one of the two things I just did: use visual cues, or instill a tone of disbelief in the question itself.

Why would I call it into question if I didn't doubt it to begin with? Well, suppose, rather than in question format, I merely stated the information contained in that sentence. How would an average Cutstuff user, who, being an average Cutstuff user, has never been in the mentioned chat, react?

Once again, I merely wish to bring this situation to the community's attention as a standalone issue. Explain to me why I would have phrased my question to encourage negative answers, if I my myself have no doubt in Ivory's ability. If you can't, then one of those two premises must be wrong. Which one is that?

Quote
If you move into a new school, you can't expect to just have friends fall into your lap. Sure, you can talk to people in class from time to time, but if you want to actually make friends, you're going to have to make the conscious effort to get to know people, and having an instant, slightly more personal form of communication to do so makes sense. It's also naturally harder for a new person to adjust.

In your analogy you have highlighted a central issue presented by many in this thread. The "new school" is not Cutstuff; the new school is MM8BDM. The "conscious effort" is meant to be forum involvement. The way Skype has been used for the past year has destroyed this relationship: now, MM8BDM is almost irrelevant to the dominating social group.

Quote
With Skype, many of us have made friends, but all good things have their problems, and the problems addressed here are just some of them. To me, though, the good still outweighs the bad.

The good and the bad aren't on the same scale. The bad side of the scale of forming friendships would be destroying friendships (which can be argued as well, but that isn't my focus right now); the good side of negative influence on the development of the community is positive influence on the development of the community, which does not mean forming friendships between an exclusive close-knit group of people. Which leads me nicely to my next point.

Quote from: "Korby"
Just thought I'd bring up some points that have probably already been brought up.

The "Cool Kids Club" is not the Cutstuff chat. Nowhere is it stated to be that. It's just where a bunch of guys/friends/smashbro hang out.

Then why does it have a negative influence on the community? Why does it have such an influence at all? I don't mean to destroy friendships that have been forged through Skype, but I do mean to remove from Cutstuff the influence of groups disconnected from Cutstuff.

Now, in terms of this whole democratic-versus-dictatorial system of authority and the distribution of authority:

Quote from: "I"
Cutstuff is not a democracy. The people to whom I address my original post have no legitimate authority to enact change. However, Cutstuff is also not a nation; it is an online community. It is detestable and unintuitive that the way this community is run is not in the best interests of the majority.

Quote from: "Ivory"
Cutstuff isn't a democracy, it's a dictatorship. Not an evil type of dictatorship, but ultimately, what Mike says goes. We choose to listen to what you, the people think and suggest, but we don't have to.

Only through assumption of hidden meaning, assumption of intent, or blatant misconstruing of my words have people arrived at the conclusion that I oppose the current system of authority within the forums. I think a lot of you are trying to outsmart the truth, which really never works out all too well.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: Mr. X on September 23, 2012, 11:54:55 PM
Quote from: "King Dumb"
Quote from: "Mr. X"
If you honesty didn't doubt Ivory's ability, why the heck would you even call it into question? Not only that, but while bringing it into question, you drag in the people Ivory associates in a negative light. Don't give me that "I merely wanted the community's opinion" spiel because it's a lie: the way you phrase a question influences the answers in a huge way, and you purposely phrased your question to get negative answers.

How could you think that telling me not to use a specific argument would invalidate it?

Actually, if I had wanted to influence answers, I would have done one of the two things I just did: use visual cues, or instill a tone of disbelief in the question itself.

Why would I call it into question if I didn't doubt it to begin with? Well, suppose, rather than in question format, I merely stated the information contained in that sentence. How would an average Cutstuff user, who, being an average Cutstuff user, has never been in the mentioned chat, react?

Once again, I merely wish to bring this situation to the community's attention as a standalone issue. Explain to me why I would have phrased my question to encourage negative answers, if I my myself have no doubt in Ivory's ability. If you can't, then one of those two premises must be wrong. Which one is that?

You instilled a tone of disbelief in the question by mentioning that Ivory is in a group with people you had previously declared to be part of the problem, and bringing Ivory into the discussion in the first place.  You have given no real solid reason for making this declaration as it is your opinion.  I'm reading your original post right now.

Quote
power is in the hands of a select few individuals – LlamaHombre’s “us” – who govern mainstream community Skype usage. This "us" includes a variety of people, but the culprits of the decadence that rule a central part of the Cutstuff organism are named now: LlamaHombre, Korby, Kenkoru, Red, ThatGuyOverThere, Nostalgia, Dr. Freeman. In a positive feedback loop, these individuals feed off the decadence of each other; many of you may find one or two of them very friendly and likable on their own, but together they create a virus that plagues our community.

The only evidence you give for ANY of these accusations yourself is a chat in which Ken, Red, and nostalgia talk about Obelisk later behind his back:  an act which really isn't indicative of their influence over an entire community, but rather that they're just talking about him behind his back.

And yet you feel the need to raise the question about the administration of the entire site because Ivory is in a chat with some of these people.  It's not presenting unbiased information to the people of cutstuff - it's presenting YOUR version of the information to the people of cutstuff, a version which implies an admin is under the influence of people you are declaring to be the problem.  You only backtrack and say "I didn't really mean I was questioning it" when Ivory actually showed up.  All I've seen in this topic from you is backtracking over your flawed points over and over to the point that I don't even know what your point even is.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: Tengu on September 24, 2012, 12:03:36 AM
Quote from: "Mr. X"
it's presenting YOUR version of the information to the people of cutstuff, a version which implies an admin is under the influence of people you are declaring to be the problem.



Well, to be fair, he isn't the only one that can confirm his statements if I recall correctly.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: Davregis on September 24, 2012, 12:12:54 AM
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=3818&start=110 (http://www.cutstuff.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=3818&start=110)

Except Civil War
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: Ivory on September 24, 2012, 12:17:00 AM
That wasn't a civil war, that was Watermelon and his friends coming onto our forums to act high and all mighty about their crappy version of GvH.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: Davregis on September 24, 2012, 12:19:25 AM
And this is that, except civil war.

Ironic that the very things going on in this topic are the reasons for the creation of this topic.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: Orange juice :l on September 24, 2012, 12:36:01 AM
@MrX
I don't think KD was ever really doubting Ivory's ability. He's simply stating the facts that these chats have become so omnipresent that the Admins and Moderators take part in them. The Obelisk thing was just an example- although they're not bullying members out of the community constantly, they do have some negative effect on members already present.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: MusashiAA on September 24, 2012, 12:36:24 AM
lolcivilwar

Who here is defending the la li lu le lo? I've seen none but themselves doing that.

KD's pretty much questioning Llama's promotion and the la li lu le lo's existence and social authority, as well as their influence over the current moderation. It's exactly what HD said back when Llama and Sora were named mods.

Both things should be dealt with. Ivory already cleared up why he chose Llama to be a mod (and Llama himself has stated he wants to change), now we're discussing the existence of the la li lu le lo and their influences on both the community and the current playerbase.

Civil war is everyone against everyone, taking sides with certain mods. This is something along the lines of a protest against a group of people that have apparently been a social detritment to the community, and one mod who is known to side with them.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: Dr. Freeman on September 24, 2012, 12:43:17 AM
The best part about the Watermelon topic is that it's the only time I've actually seen the entire community put aside their differences and work together.

Even if they were all working to yell at crappy mods.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: Tengu on September 24, 2012, 12:59:02 AM
I don't want to point fingers and yell and whine, but I think it might be better to have more actual specific examples as to why Skype and Cutstuff should stay separate.

My first example being about long ago, Wat IV chat. I mean really, if you say one thing that the mod doesn't agree with, you're out. I remember back when Roc kicked probably a good 19 or so people from it. Then a few were let back in and momentarily kicked out by TG. If I recall correctly, it was for no specific or clarified reason and all it did was create even more enemies.

My next example is from quite recently in the Team Fortress 2 chat. YD Removed some people for some rather absurd reasons, such as not liking the way someones voice sounded. I mean, I dunno about you, but if someone treated me poorly because they didn't like how my voice sounded, I don't think I would have a very high opinion of that person or their friends for that matter.


Speaking of friends, that's how this whole thing works. It's one person saying "Oh, I don't like you, I think I'm going to treat you with utmost disrespect" then all of their friends pretty much hopping in the band wagon and treating said people the same way.


In short, Skype just needs to stop directly having an impact on the community.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: MusashiAA on September 24, 2012, 01:01:45 AM
Quote from: "Tengu and Tango"
In short, Skype just needs to stop directly having an impact on the community.

Nah, just point fingers at the mean people and ask them to be more polite.

Or ban Skype.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: Mr. X on September 24, 2012, 01:08:09 AM
Yes, the end problem isn't going to go away because of Skype.  The end problem lies in the people themselves.  They'd find a way to talk privately no matter what and still do this.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: Ivory on September 24, 2012, 01:11:41 AM
Just to throw this out there, the Cutstuff Administration does not acknowledge that Skype is an official part of the Cutstuff community.

We can't control if people in this community want to use it, or another client for that matter. We can't stop how people use it. No matter how much you want to wag your finger on the matter. How the heck would we even ban people from using Skype? That would be like me telling everyone that they can't eat yogurt. And It's not as if we can ban people from the forums because they use a specific messaging/voice call client.

This entire notion on stopping Skype is fundamentally flawed.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: MusashiAA on September 24, 2012, 01:16:44 AM
Which is why I've already said numerous times that the community should just not take these people seriously. If the Cutstuff moderators can't punish them or at least warn them for their behavior, nothing can be done save for telling people to not pay attention to them, much less empower them.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: TheDoc on September 24, 2012, 02:38:31 AM
Quote from: "MusashiAA"
Which is why I've already said numerous times that the community should just not take these people seriously.

Pretty much this. Come on, guys, this is life. You think throughout your entire life, you'll never be bullied? Every community has its fair share of bad apples, but if you ignore them, they aren't going to track you down and kill you in your sleep. If you act as if these guys are better than you, you can bet they will take advantage of that.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: Rozark on September 24, 2012, 04:42:57 AM
Quote from: "MusashiAA"
Quote from: "Tengu and Tango"
In short, Skype just needs to stop directly having an impact on the community.

Nah, just point fingers at the mean people and ask them to be more polite.

Or ban Skype.

I can't even begin to wrap my mind around this post.


Oh, and this:
(click to show/hide)
(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: Ivory on September 24, 2012, 05:08:06 AM
Quote from: "Dictionary.com on Dictatorship"
1.
a country, government, or the form of government in which absolute power is exercised by a dictator.
2.
absolute, imperious, or overbearing power or control.
3.
the office or position held by a dictator.

Quote from: "Dictionary.com on Dictator"
1.
a person exercising absolute power, especially a ruler who has absolute, unrestricted control in a government without hereditary succession.
2.
(in ancient Rome) a person invested with supreme authority during a crisis, the regular magistracy being subordinated to him until the crisis was met.
3.
a person who authoritatively prescribes conduct, usage, etc.: a dictator of fashion.
4.
a person who dictates,  as to a secretary.

Quote from: "Dictionary.com on Choose"
1.
to select from a number of possibilities; pick by preference: She chose Sunday for her departure.
2.
to prefer or decide (to do something): He chose to run for election.
3.
to want; desire.
4.
(especially in children's games) to contend with (an opponent) to decide, as by odd or even, who will do something: I'll choose you to see who gets to bat first.

Try again next time.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: Rozark on September 24, 2012, 05:35:32 AM
Just more sleepy logic. I'll see if it makes sense tommorrow, but feel free to do whatever is needed to it.

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: Mr. X on September 24, 2012, 05:54:51 AM
There's a large number of problems with letting the community help choose mods/providing feedback on choices.  Let me just list a few off the top of my head.

1)  The community will pick their favorite person, not the one best for the job: see also, brotoad.

2)  Those best suited to lead may not be liked in the community for the exact reasons that they'd be fit to lead:  speaking from what I've seen, people on Cutstuff tend to hate authority and try to avoid having to play by others rules at all costs.  You know, hence part of the entire thing discussed in this thread.  This was shown brilliantly when long ago, there was a server issue and Mike basically gave everybody one day to do whatever they wanted.  The forum quickly devolved into what can best be described as virtual monkeys throwing virtual feces at each other.  Simply put, someone who would be suited to enforce rules would have to be somewhat strict, and people generally don't like strict people.

3)  The entire problem being discussed in this thread revolves around groups of people being jerks.  If someone they don't like gets brought up, they'll likely say anything just to shoot their chances of getting selected down, even if it's not true.

4)  The community will likely want to pick someone they see as very lackluster:  one of them, who won't bother trying to come down on anybody too hard.

5)  The community can't agree on anything.  Basically, such a discussion would devolve into what this chat already is:  yelling back and forth with no forward progress

I had more when I started, but I got distracted so that's it for now.
Title: Re: Regarding Our Community
Post by: Ivory on September 24, 2012, 06:04:45 AM
Actually, this thread had its chance, but it's time to say good bye.

It's clear to me at this point in time that KD has no real argument in this matter. Even if there is some misconduct occurring on the skype chats, it's perfectly clear that there is no way for the Cutstuff Staff or anyone to actually do anything about it. Not to mention that Skype isn't even an official part of Cutstuff, it's the equivalent of an out of school hang out spot. Can your principle or teachers punish you for misbehaving off school grounds? Typically, no.

I've seen many members of the community bring up some good points, some not so good points and all that middle ground in between. Which leads to my next reason. Another flaw with what KD is trying to say is that the community is 'dying' due to one cause. Would something as complex as a social organism like Cutstuff really be dying because of one factor? No, there would be more than one root, and simply trying to abolish Skype Chats isn't going to fix anything. If we really want our community to grow and expand, then all these roots have to be cut. It's not a linear problem that can be solved by one solution. It would take far more than just one solution, believe me.

This thread has turned into a heated argument, individuals having their own stance, but it wasn't even going anywhere. It was just back and forth bantering over a topic that never had any rational sense to begin with. I kept this thread open to give KD a chance to restructure his thoughts and present himself in a more organized and coherent fashion. It never occurred, he continued to ramble his various points no matter how hypocritical or nonsensical it really was.

Rozark- If you wanted to make a case about Llama, you should have done it (like everyone else), in the promotion thread when it occurred. I've already given my reasoning to why I chose Llama and the only thing I ask is that the community of Cutstuff give Llama a chance to prove what I see in him. Korby and I already spent months on and off taking all the main names in the community into consideration. People aren't static entities, people change. Even Llama. If Llama is truly not suited for being a moderator, then I'll demote him. He's not superglued to the position, nor is Korby, nor is Sora, nor even myself.

In any case, good bye Regarding Our Community and thanks for all the onions.