Coming soon: updated terms of service

[biggiy05]

Freedom knock it off. If you wanna fight then do it in pm not OA. Phattonez the same goes for you.

[Freedom]

If you can't respect them, then why can't you just leave them the hell alone?
People can often use your help, but they never need your ridicule, it only serves to make their difficult times even more difficult.
By your own posts it's obvious you think yourself better than them, they're retarded and stupid, so be better, help them.

EDIT,
Biggiy, just saw you post.
It's not that I want to fight, but what good are new rules when they still won't address the problem that this board has had all along?
But yep, I'll knock it off to please you.

[ShadowTiger]

This is actually pretty interesting. We're all familiar with these "n00bs" who come in, make a lot of really weird posts, get banned for what most here would consider spam, then have them come in to provide a crude, yet effective explanation for their behavior. I've seen some of these people become very bright and productive members of the community, actually. Remember ZC Architech? I am honored to call him my friend. It only takes time, really. I wonder what provisions will be made to provide for ... well, .. ... I guess I would call it "Prehabilitation?" It'd be similar to abortion in nature: You would be getting rid of something that's currently unwanted, but that could become a future Einstein or Bach or Gates or Hitler.

[Masamune]

But yep, I'll knock it off to please you.

What's this? Don't punk out now. You haven't even proved your obviously correct point yet. Please continue to insist that you are correct.

[Prrkitty]

Freedom... *I* am and have been trying VERY hard to NOT be a bully and to help change, to a large degree, the "bullying" that you are so eagerly complaining about... around here.

If you would like to discuss this further please PM me and we can discuss this more in depth. Please and thank you.

[Freedom]

I wasn't referring to you Prrkitty.
I promise.

[phattonez]

So I have a question about the new TOS. Will we be able to say anything that might change them once they are posted or will they be set in stone?

[cyberkitten]

the new TOS will be compiled with the input of all of the available staff, most likely sometime sunday afternoon. that should give enough diverse viewpoints to arrive at a fair set of rules that aren't overly restrictive.
they're essentially going to be the old set (it's looking like) with some of the old rules dropped completely.

[AtmaWeapon]

I apologize for nothing, as I feel my statements were called for.

You don't make 4,000 posts over 7 years on a forum without getting a certain degree of attached to it. In the early days, AGN was pretty lax and I remember posting patterns comparable to what the past weeks have been. This was OK because when there's less than a dozen or so active members on a forum people tend to know each other better so the threshold of flaming is much higher. Additionally, it's nice to have some activity even if it is pointless threads and flamewars because the alternative is what I saw quite often over the last year: 2 new posts in a day on a fast day.

So I'm just starting to integrate AGN into my "browse the web" pattern again and having a good time of it when, out of nowhere, CK bans two of the four members that I personally believe are responsible for the surge of new activity. There was quite a bit of disagreement over this and the memberbase was split on the decision. Then we're notified that we're obviously out of control and a new TOS is going to be posted to maintain order and it's just like "what?"

I let all that slide pretty much though and was chill, but then Mr. Sunshine comes in all "Hey guys at PureZC it is SO cool and you just don't understand AGN is like the wild wild west and you guys need more rules. I mean the rules are here to make people happy and the majority of you seem to believe you are happy with the current rules I support the staff in their decision to completely ignore the sentiment of the users!". So yeah I draw the line of forced politeness there.

Incidentally, I do acknowledge that the AGN staff is under no obligation to respect the requests of the users. The staff's job is to run the site and for the most part users don't pay the bills so hey whatever. I do wish to point out that dissatisfied users (also banned users) don't tend to continue to visit the site, so while no obligation exists there is a convincing argument for the importance of user sentiment.

I seriously urge you to consider the number of active users on the forums and consider whether a stricter rule set that results in more banned users is a wise choice. Iron fist moderation has a place on forums with so many users that standards of behavior must be kept; it is my belief that AGN is just not large enough to warrant such tight control.

Also I couldn't figure out why I couldn't see any of Freedom's posts but then I remembered I put him on my ignore list long ago. I thought I was supposed to get some text that let me click to see what he said though?

Anyway I can't remember why I initially put him on there but it seems like it was an excellent idea!

Good thing I checked I thought his stuff had been deleted and I had a particularly venomous statement to make about that behavior.

[phattonez]

So then it will be less restrictive? Hmm, I think a lot of the people should be happy about this. But I want to see what we're going to get before I put my opinion on it.

EDIT: I know that it won't say it, but there will always be a difference between making fun of a newb and doing the same to a mod.