Regarding Our Community

[King Dumb]

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.

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.

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)

[7:56:26 PM] Red: why did he go
[7:56:26 PM] Red: again
[7:56:38 PM] Captain Barlowe of Ecclesia: He took what Ken said to heart
[7:56:42 PM] Nostalgia: because he thinks it's funny and it's not
[7:56:45 PM] Nostalgia: it's completely fucking stupid
[7:56:48 PM] LlamaHombre: that
[7:56:51 PM] Kenkoru: Obelisk isn't a bad guy
[7:56:55 PM] LlamaHombre: No, he's not
[7:56:56 PM] Kenkoru: He's just not funny
[7:57:03 PM] Nostalgia: obelisk isn't a bad person he's just kinda dumb
[7:57:05 PM] Red: he's 10 times better than me anyway, and i'm here
[7:57:14 PM] LlamaHombre: he's a pretty cool dude
[7:57:15 PM] Kenkoru: Red, however, is a bad person, as well as not funny
[7:57:21 PM] Kenkoru: but he's like swiss
[7:57:30 PM] Kenkoru: It's funny because of how dumb he is
[7:57:32 PM] Red: but he's like swissexcuse me what
[7:57:35 PM] Red: oh
[7:58:03 PM] Red: well isn't that denigrating
[7:58:13 PM] Kenkoru: Isn't it

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.

[Rozark]

Wow.. that's.. quite alot.

As of now I have no opinion on this. However, I'll quickly develop one.

[Hallan Parva]

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.

[Galaxy Sisbro]

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.

[Blaze Yeager]

I agree with KD wholeheartingly. I will post my opinion aswell.

[Ivory]

If I may ask, could you clear this up.

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.

[King Dumb]

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.

[Ivory]

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.”'

[Dr. Freeman]

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...)

[Nostalgia]

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.

[Galaxy Sisbro]

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.

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.

[Gumballtoid]

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.

[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'm the reason this community is the way it is. I allowed myself to be corrupted through outside means and in turn broke the rules three times. To this day I regret everything I've ever done, but I've learned that by holding on to it all, I'm doing more harm to myself than I could to the community.

If many of you were to declare what this community's large evil is, I could probably name it. Tsuki, Bikdark, etc. Have none of you traced back any of the gigantic messes that stained this community? 9 times out of 10 I've been the cause of them, and it hurts me nowadays to think of that. King Dumb and Human Destroyer have both been correct for calling me out, as I'm what's been hurting this community. The rest of the names given have all done bits and pieces wrong, but I've done all of it wrong and I feel I need to change. I've tried and I'm still trying, but I'll never reach the goal I've set for myself. I've forced people out of the community, I've flat out screamed at people to hurt themselves, and in the end it benefits no one. If I hadn't received my third warning on February 8, 2012, I might have never realized this. Now that I have, I realize I'm too late. I apologize and I'll still apologize for years to come, but I feel that by doing this I have the potential to make up for all the sins I've performed against this community. I've tried to ignore my friends' opinions about people and actions and do what I believe is right.

Do you believe what I'm doing now is right? It's practically the only thing that matters to me anymore.

[King Dumb]

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.

(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.

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.

[TheDoc]

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'm the reason this community is the way it is. I allowed myself to be corrupted through outside means and in turn broke the rules three times. To this day I regret everything I've ever done, but I've learned that by holding on to it all, I'm doing more harm to myself than I could to the community.

If many of you were to declare what this community's large evil is, I could probably name it. Tsuki, Bikdark, etc. Have none of you traced back any of the gigantic messes that stained this community? 9 times out of 10 I've been the cause of them, and it hurts me nowadays to think of that. King Dumb and Human Destroyer have both been correct for calling me out, as I'm what's been hurting this community. The rest of the names given have all done bits and pieces wrong, but I've done all of it wrong and I feel I need to change. I've tried and I'm still trying, but I'll never reach the goal I've set for myself. I've forced people out of the community, I've flat out screamed at people to hurt themselves, and in the end it benefits no one. If I hadn't received my third warning on February 8, 2012, I might have never realized this. Now that I have, I realize I'm too late. I apologize and I'll still apologize for years to come, but I feel that by doing this I have the potential to make up for all the sins I've performed against this community. I've tried to ignore my friends' opinions about people and actions and do what I believe is right.

Do you believe what I'm doing now is right? It's practically the only thing that matters to me anymore.

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.