Lack of new people is killing the backroom and the entire forum

[caravel]

Oh he is not a mystery to those who know him. But why the masquerade and why didn't you try this reform when wearing the green?
I remember a certain thread on swearing where you did conform to the current standard. Which rules does aggravate you so, our former bot instagib champion?

I did mention this while I was on the staff here. Swearing is another matter, equating my statements about moderators easing off or relaxing some rules, to simply "allowing swearing" is misleading. This mistake has already been made in this thread by another staffer. It's necessary to think outside the box here and not jump to the same textbook conclusions. My opinions on swearing are irrelevant now, but at the time I argued for a simple swear filter rather than the current intrusive and labour intensive method of editing posts. This idea was immediately shot down. A swear filter IMHO is still the best option, the moderators are not here to nanny or educate people - this is the same opinion I expressed in private discussions with other staff. Spotting and manual edits are also not a catch all - so what's the point? Search the .org for your favourite four letter expletive, I'm sure you'll find something.

A number of your points ring painfully true, but I wonder at your refusal to identify yourself and the comment that you are not yet banned. It's clear that you're upset with us for some reason.

There is no point in me identifying myself. It will achieve little and I'm not here to stop. I'm not yet banned is true. Not alluding to anything there. There is no bad blood between myself and staff members at least I don't think there is, that's another oversimplification of this as "ex mod with a grudge comes back to air grievances" or whatever. Not what this is about. The .org and it's interests are bigger than any perceived grudge or a few staff members that are not the majority of orgahs.

I agree that the old guard's dislike of the new TW games played a part, although you cannot claim we didn't accommodate them. Every TW release got its own forums, guides, etc. It simply isn't a case of putting out chairs and people will come. If the community doesn't generate interesting content or discussion, people will simply move to another community, in this case the TWC or the OT fora.

They were accomodated begrudgingly, not with enthusiasm - let's be honest shall we?. If you remember it was I that first posted suggesting we needed a Shogun 2 forum and fast and then continued to apply pressure. If I hadn't done, then who knows it may have gone the same way as NTW or not happened at all or come along very late. As ever TWC were way ahead of us. When it did happen, it was set up, given a temporary name and the members were left to go at it. The place soon turned to a mess and the never-ending waves of spambots didn't help much either. It took another absolute age to get any mods installed there. I also remember a thread where members were calling out for a mod - it had gotten that bad.

If on the other hand anything needs to be done in the backroom, it happens like lightning. While the S2TW forum had no mod assigned, the backroom had at least four, to hyper moderate a small group of regulars. Laughable, honestly.

My point here is that we have an admin and staff here that have for the most part, like myself, completely lost interest in TW and are unwilling to change or move with the times. Case in point I'm not sure what some of the staff and indeed some members, are afraid of if they abolish junior members? As I said back then, yes you may get one idiot spammer posting something nasty, but you may also get 1 decent member you otherwise might not have had. Other forums seem to manage ok, without such a system.

Also, I doubt that overzealous moderation is responsible for the stagnation. You'll find a fair number of OT posts even in the Watchtower. The only thing we insist on is that people stay polite and don't derail threads, and I'd rather keep it that way.

I think it goes much further than that in some areas. You don't really need to tell me this as I've seen the workings of this particular machine. If someone is not polite to someone else - supposing both parties are adult enough, then it is up to both parties to sort this out. If they haven't posted porn, swearing or links to wears how is it that a moderator needs to get involved. If the thread disintegrates into a flame fest, then the mod can step in, but all too often threads are closed or posts edited on a whim because the mod predicts trouble. It's this that stifles this place.

If Kikuchiyo is who I think he is, then indeed, some of the things he says are a complete U turn compared to his previous opinions.

That doesn't automatically mean, however, that he is talking nonsense. In fact, some of the points he raises need to be taken into consideration, imo.

I don't see how my opinions have changed? When did I not speak against the nannying moderation we have here in some forums?

When except for a long time ago, before I was a mod here, did I support the JM system? I can't remember supporting the JM system for the last few years? I had posted extensively - at great length in fact against the flawed idea that the system somehow keeps the "riff raff" out. When the mods were given extended powers to tackle spambots several months back, I brought up the issue again. I remember arguing that now spambots could be removed efficiently by all mods, that the argument for having JMs in order to contain bots was no longer valid and that we should consider scrapping it altogether. A huge thread followed, what came of that? Nothing as far as I can see? I was not the only staffer posting in favour of this.

When have I ever supported the portrait avatars? Not a huge issue but I don't see my U turn on this - I was all for restricting signature sizes, but never remember opposing personal avatars?

My arguments have always been for consistent moderation and not for example, hyper moderation in the members only backroom, and no moderation at all (until someone happened to walk in on them) in the members only social groups? I don't get where you're coming from with the U turn claim? To me it smacks of "don't listen to this former staff member's views, he said one thing when on the staff and is now saying something else entirely". Maybe try addressing any points in my post instead of this though?