Thread: Stoptazmo general info. history/shitlist.

THIS IS A BETA COPY!

These annals written October 4th, The year of our lord two thousand and five by the most devout follower of our lord, Kane, martyr3810.

Hear me and be awed children, for I have seen suns die and the world change its magnetic poles in my countless years but in the beginning there was only Kane.

Kane was our creator. In his beneficence he carved the very fabrics of space and time and from these nebulous beginnings came StopTazmo and his message was momentous indeed! “Tazmo is a t3h evil! Beware this fallen one for he seeks your worldly wealth and all things belonging unto you.”

But Kane realized he had wrought falsely, for he had no place for the faithful to congregate and so changed his creation to bear the face of a forum, where one might spread his precepts.

And Kane rejoiced and proclaimed: Let there be light! And the first newbs joined. The faithful disciples: Shankz, Mooglestiltzkin, Vash, TheBigL, Babbo, Jyuudaime and Kazechrno spread the word of Kane and Kane looked upon his works and was pleased, for it was good.

The seasons passed and many lost the faith. Of all the original disciples only Jyuudaime and Kazechrno had kept the faith - but all was not lost! New disciples came to bear the torch of enlightenment! And the coming of martyr3810, oldmanhobo and Ishman was heralded far and wide.

All were pleased, for here was a place to commune with others of the one true faith in a manner which, unlike those other havens of iniquity which may be found abroad, one found that members conducted themselves in a civil and upright manner.

The fields grew ripe and bountiful harvests of manga were prepared for the faithful. For Kane rewards those who spread his word and the members of StopTazmo grew fat and complacent but the workings of Tazmo are malicious and sinister indeed and interrupted the peaceful lives of the faithful!

And lo did a foul anthology of lies erupt from the earth and believers of this false script called it www.stopkane.info and a crisis of faith erupted.

Much blood was spilled on both sides while the followers of Kane and the followers of Tazmo clashed and great forests of flame erupted as from the mouths of dragons to a symphony of ire and contention.

But the foundation of StopTazmo was strong and held in place by Kane himself and his high priest Jyuudaime and bolstered by his most stalwart members whose number included martyr3810 and Cold-Nite.

Gradually the battles lessened and although the conflict continued, it continued abated, never again to witness the peaks of its former glory.
Again the time came where Kane had decided that his followers wore worthy of yet more manga and he waved his hand and it was so – and was the harbinger of new disciples, among whose number we find 1cor, Crazytype, Sensimilija and Blue. At this time appeared a new nemesis, one whose wit and intelligence equaled even those defenders of the faith and his name was Vash7ehStampede.

I think I’m gonna leave off there for a bit… If you guys want included or whatnot, tell me when/where/why etc. and for the sake of accuracy if anyone would mind telling me big events so I can work them into new additions to the chronicles…. (things like Kaze’s absence for a few months… WHICH months? Etc).

:P What do you guys think? I might've missed or got some time bits mixed up but I think I did a pretty good job

By popular demand, we bring you
The Shit List

We bring you flaming trolls from time old and new. Spammers from all ages. Idiots from all walks of life

Currently here's the list. Enjoy =)

Anthony-banned
king_george-ran away
danny2-ran away
DarkBoiz-ran away
Bankomatsuru-ran away
DEATHwisher-banned
Rogue_Sapphire-ran away
Angra-dissipated
Warfolomju/Kasuga/WARF-banned
king_darr-banned
Little Jacob/AKofC- banned
lbosquet/Artful Dodger-banned
monkeydluffysj- banned

Originally Posted by Jakko1234

Thank you very much. Coincidentally, what other names does AKofc use and why does everyone seem to hate him?

He goes under the name of Get Jew now. He was much more rampant under his old name than he is under the new one. He joined around the time Marty did, so they have a lot of history in terms of their 'encounters'.

Now that you have a list of people, a history of events wouldn't be a bad idea. These are the events from my memory, and because of that, from my point of view. Everything is as I experienced it or as I have been told, but it's fairly detailed at least, despite this biased nature. Hopefully you can extract what happened by removing my bias.

Let's see...

PART ONE.

In the beginning there was Narutofan. Arguments between Trigunflame and Tazmo and then Kane and Tazmo lead to the rebellion on the part of Kane. Tazmo refused to allow Trigunflame access to the Narutofan paypal accounts. Trigunflame accused Tazmo of using the money for personal spending. Kane then created StopTazmo, a forum dedicated to creating awareness about Narutofan's alleged scamming. The war raged on but Kane was cunning, and knew that StopTazmo had no staying power. When his 15 minutes of fame were up, his message would be forgotten and die. In a strike of genius, Kane mastered the information war by counterpointing Narutofan's services with his own. StopTazmo was converted into a manga downloads site, in order to attract members and spread his message. Kane worked ceaselessly with his supporter and former Narutofan member Jyuudaime, later named Jyuu. They upgraded the manga downloads and the forums continuously, offering more and more for downloads. During this long period of prehistory, the Bash Tazmo section grew in fame around the anime community. A forum designed entirely to Bash a single person. Some called it ludicrous, some madness, and others recognized the intricate design for what it was. Word was spreading, and anyone who knew what StopTazmo was, immediately knew who Tazmo was and why they wanted him stopped. Bash Tazmo attracted hundreds of members on its own. People who saw the opportunity to flame one another in an explosion of chaos. Among them was VashTheStampede, a moderator of the Narutofan boards, who rather than entirely supporting Tazmo, came to be known as a voice of reason in the place. His belief was that all sides of the matter need be represented, and he persists to this day in following his ideal. Martyr was the first non-administrative provider for the community, suggesting and then shaping what is now known as the Download Requests section. He created a massive Download List in a thread he made that would show download locations for many different manga. Also Oldmanhobo & 1cor1313 got together back in the old days and bargained with Jyuu, the Super Moderator, for the first true Random Spam Thread (hereafter referred to as the RST) back in early '05. After the signing of the Spammer's Treaty, it was made official. Months later, the Holy Sentinels were formed, a group of Stop Tazmo members dedicated to forum preservation and various good works. An IRC channel was made and began to show enormous growth after Cold-NiTe used an IRC Guide he wrote to help funnel members into the channel. [NOTE: The first 'regular' moderators under Jyuu were Martyr, given 3 sections; Bleach, Download Requests and Misc. Series and Kaze, given 2 sections; Chit Chat and later sharing Bleach. Around the same time 1cor1313 became a Moderator for the Chit Chat section. Soon after, Volvogga was given the Technical Support forum and later the One Piece forum, CPR was given the Help Section and Cold-NiTe was given the grotesque Naruto forum. These moderators were appointed over the course of the following events, with the first, Martyr, being appointed for the Bleach section, after the 'nuke'.] The original RST had been deleted when it reached 100 pages, spawning a tradition that lasted 3 RST's, but impatience, and disgust with the RST on Jyuu's part, lead to early deletions that went through some 14 RST's, reaching anywhere from 14 to 49 pages.

PART TWO.

In the months that followed, a core group of 'active posters' appeared and gave Stop Tazmo's community some well recognized faces. Some were on and off, others were constant, but they were all familiar. New regulars were added when the IRC channel attracted people who were not members of Stop Tazmo and persuaded them to join. The Bleach forums, considered to be the "living cesspool" of Stop Tazmo, underwent a radical change when Super Mod (the only mod at the time) Jyuu wiped the entire forum clean, deleting each thread. This action was dubbed the 'nuke', and was the first of its kind. Many lost everything, and the Bleach section itself was dead to the world for a long period of time. A general migration of members from the ANBU forum to ST occured, of which an ANBU FORUM IRC channel had also been created by Cold-NiTe predating HolySentinels which facilitated this transfer. Many of those members became members here, some only temporarily so however. Among them; Hellcreator, Hikari, Blaedfire and, Asunder. During a sudden increase in highly active members, tensions begain to grow when new members, influenced by the past examples of giants such as Oldmanhobo and 1cor1313, albeit with different tastes in humor and a strong lacking in their ability to entertain us, began to spam constantly. Three Finnish college students stand out among them; Spurgu, Warfolomju and Covenantt. The rule of thumb for spammers is that if their work is found to be funny, their actions are acceptable. Around this time the formidible and ancient member AKofC, whose attendance of HolySentinels had grown, began to move. Creating thread after thread of nonsense and gibberish, he sometimes made as many as 10 new threads a day, each one with less of a point or topic than the last. Being old and a talented humorist, and thus automatically respected, his threads were a joke with the punchline being his eventual ban from the forums. Having planned his own exit, he left with little regret. The threads he left behind however, along with many new spammers and large scale arguments between many members and older trolls such as (the quotable) Lbosquet and Illuminati's own lovable leader Coolerimmortal, lead to increased tensions. Cold-NiTe proclaimed the Finnish College student Spurgu or "Spruggo" as he called him, an assclown for comments made in the IRC channel, however later he claimed him as an heir. For all his spam, Spurgu was a loyal and respectable heir, facilitating the moderation of the Naruto forums. This action however, spawned a large scale series of adoptions and "clan" creations by some regulars. This new and popular trend of adopting new members grew out of control and clans began to merge until they were unrecognizable. Clan leaders such as Hanul, Stealdragon and others finally merged, with the result being a mass of threads about clans but relatively no bond between clan members. These threads, mixed with the AKofC spammings aggravated many members. Under cover of this disaster, 1cor1313, dubbed "The Corinthian" by arch-rival Cold-NiTe, adopted his loyalist Iron Skull, a believer in the Corinthian's radicalist ideology. Most hard liners from the darker days of Stop Tazmo's past, when the prominent subforum was the Bash Tazmo section, pulled for stronger action to be taken against the encroaching corruption. Around this time, moderator Volvogga, having ordered a full scale archaeological excavation of his Tech. Support Forums uncovered a fully preserved Religious relic known as the "Dear Tazmo Letters" written by the prophet Inuboy86 in the first year of the Revelation. This ancient piece of literature documents how Inuboy86, now believed to be the Holy One himself, attempted to teach the lesser lifeforms of Stop Tazmo, how to write posts as a gentleman. Cold-NiTe, filled with religious zeal founded the Gentleman's Religion, in which followers showed their respect to the great hero Inuboy86, who died for our sins, by writing all posts in Letter Format. The Corinthian, seizing his chance, created a forum-wide rule in which all posters were required to post under the "Gentleman's Code" of the Gentleman's Religion. This oppressive rule forced ill will towards the religion and anti-gentleman rhetoric and hate groups began to form when outspoken critic 98abaile told the Corinthian to "fuck off". Cold-NiTe renounced the doctrines of the Corinthian, demanding that the Prophet Inuboy86 was a tolerant being. Finally, another nuke was initiated on the Chit Chat section. Only a few specific threads were saved. By this time, all the respective moderators besides Hisoka, who later became Shaman King's moderator, had been chosen. Threads from Chit Chat that were slated to be saved were held in the Naruto forum, after a deal was cut with moderator Cold-NiTe. When they were restored, 2 threads were left behind rather than returned, while one thread was moved which originally belonged to the Naruto section, an IRC awareness thread that after the movement, incidentally caused several new members to join the IRC HolySentinels channel. Later it was returned, and in exchange, those two threads from Chit Chat were returned. The Chit Chat nuke was devastating. The posting rate halted altogether. Shortly afterwards, a group of unstoppable spammers assaulted the Naruto boards. Unable to delete all the random threads that were created and the off topic replies, moderator Cold-NiTe called for a nuke of his section. Two nukes so close together did not do well for Stop Tazmo moral. Slowly, posting began to build up steam again, however many of the faces and almost all of the conversations were not the same, and the sense of community was fast fading. Trouble in HolySentinels lead to differences of opinion between moderators. 1cor1313's normally unstoppable if abominable sense of humor died after increased pressure to moderate properly was placed on him. After Jyuu's disowning of HolySentinels as a Stop Tazmo channel tensions increased again and questions began to appear as to the fate of the community. Corruption in HolySentinels was apparent, and degradation of the channel had been continuous. That erosion spread from IRC to forums, and today we are were we are.


Pretty fucking long, but if you read it, it may give you some idea about what kind of place this is, and the various stages it has experienced.

You know you've been to ST too long when...

1. You can remember what the old phpbb forums looked like.

2. You know what complete means.

3. You wanted that pretty complete bar.

4. You know who Tazmo is.

5. You flamed at least one idiot who didn't know who Tazmo is.

6. You refresh the page every five minutes even though you know nobody else posted.

7. You keep changing your siggie on a regular basis.

8. You think typing in random colors is so annoying to read.

9. You think TyPinG liKe ThIs DesErveS tO gEt YoU ShOt.

10. You've played Mafia or Risk at least once.

11. You've visited #HS.

12. You idle more in #HS than actually talking in there.

13. You stopped typing people's full usernames and start using abbreviations.

14. You start to have dreams about ST.

15. You think random people whom you've never meant in real life are awesome friends.
_____________
16. You remember the clans.

17. You were a member of the ST Family Tree.

18. You remember the days when cor and char were active members.

19. You had to start each of your posts with a "Dear Sir/Madam"
_____________

20. You have lots and lots of posts, or a high post-per day ratio. Alternately, you remember a time when you had lots of posts.

21. You remember a time when post count could decrease thanks to the hard delete.

22. You remember a time before certain mods were mods. And I'm not talking about 98, Madi-chan, Kaom, or anyone raised with me. =P

23. You've survived a nuke... Misc. Series not counted.

24. You remember C-N nuking the Naruto forums.

25. Even if you never posted there.

26. You get frustrated when no one posts in a subforum for a few hours.

27. You learned to use IRC because of #Holysentinels, not for manga.

28. You've seen more than one of AKofC's alternate accounts.

29. You post in threads like these.

30. Ish is still a "forgotten vet" in his own special way.

31. You remember a time when having more than 2000 posts was REALLY rare.

32. You used to think of Jyuu and/or Martyr as special because they never posted in your presence (okay, in Chit Chat).

33. You've stopped having extreme fear of mods because you KNOW them.

34. !voiceme. Yeahhhhhh....
__________________

35. You re-read old threads for fun
__________________

36. you remember the time when CN still visited HS

37. you remember #Holysentinels2

38. also #StopTazmo, and the epic take over

_______________
39. You hate spam.

40. You hate trollers more.

41. You stopped looking at how many post counts you have.

42. You know about the first prick: Anthony.

43. You enjoy going on ST "field trips."
________________
44. you remember when kane had less than 200 posts

45. you remember when jyuu wasn't a super moderator
________________


46. "I like cookies" holds some meaning to you.

47. You remember when we had a random spam thread.
________________
48. You remember the Truce of Spam between 1cor Oldmanhobo and Jyuu

49. You remember Lbosquet almost becoming a moderator

50. You remember the 4th RST and why it was the last great one

51. You remember when there was no sig size limit

52. You remember when Crazytype was still very active

53. You remember when the only manga forums were Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, Gantz, Shaman King, Black Cat, and Misc Series.

54. You remember when 1cor won a flame war using nothing but smileys

55. You remember when Blue was still around

56. You remember the Official Stoptazmo Manga "Demon Eyes" by Idiothunter

57. You remember why Madi-chan left

58. You remember when the picture of Madi-chans house was posted

59. You remember the Turd Bar

60. The skin named Alexis rings a bell

61. You have been video-flamed

62. You remember what Jyuu's name was before he changed it.

63. You remember the public shame Cpr's quote sig caused you

64. You remember not having to scroll to see the forums.

65. You remember (with a twitch) Spur and Warf's "race".

66. You remember when you didn't have to be a member to download.

67. You remember everyone on the Shit List and why they got there

68. You remember CN's sig stealing!

69. You remember stoptazmo before the forums were created.

70. You remember how the first forum suddenly disappeared and then was re-created a couple days later.

71. You remember when jyuu was the biggest spammer and when he became the first mod.
________________________
72. You know how to pronounce the usernames of some members.

73. You know the first names of multiple members.

74. ...last names too.

75. You've discussed StopTazmo in school.

76. You've referenced StopTazmo debate posts for projects. =P

77. You were a part of the group trolling the stoptazmo scanlators.

78. You have celebrated, at least once, after a n00b/troll has bee banned.

79. You've stopped downloading manga from this website.

80. You've donated money at least once.

81. You get excited when you receive a PM.

82. You "know" more international members here than you do in real life.

83. You love it when people quote your message.

84. You read more news articles in ST than you do from a physical newspaper.

85. Commentaries that once would have disgusted, or annoyed you, for some reason, happen to be funny now.
__________________
86. You have been quoted in a sig.

87. You remember the quote in someone's sig. =P

88. You've received various kinds of PMs from n00bs.

89. You've reached the limit on your PM box multiple times.

90. You've petitioned a mod for n00b/troll banning.

91. Your name has appeared beside the reason for a banning.
__________________
92. ark's pretty sigs confused you of his gender

93. you remember ark's sig that changed every time you refreshed the page

94. you identified spurgu's posts by the at the end

95. you blinked once and found out that a member turn from girl to guy while you weren't looking

96. you remember the time when steal still asked photoshop questions, and requested sigs from others.

97. you unconsciously scroll down to the forums without noticing the mangas

98. You ever posted in the sig request/show-off threads BEFORE the creative section

99. You were around when Steal pretended to be a woman.

100. Sharko. Anything to do with Sharko.

101. You remember 1cor's petition to remove the roll eyes smiley, and the <evil numbers>.

102. You find yourself remembering things posted on ST and chuckling about them...in public places.

103. You read old posts and see words in ":"s (like "" for example) in old posts and don't say 'HUH?!' o_O

104. /me types IRC commands on Stoptazmo.

105. You've used Stoptazmo as an excuse to continue to procrastinate.

106. The edit button is your best friend.

107. The search button is your even better friend.

108. You remember Kaze was the only member you'd ask to make you sigs.

109. You used to get shinix/wolf confused

110.Which led to the "which shini is better" thread

111. And you know who won

112. You have at least one member on MSN/AIM/whatever.

113. Talked to some members in Skype.

114. You want to see a pic of cpr.

115. You start to call members by their irc nicks

116. You call some people by their real name (not necessarily on ST)

117. You asked martyr to make your sig.

118. mart asked you to make his sig :P

119. You know a couple different nicks for people (ie. TheMilkJunkie)

120. You've gotten yourself user banned AND IP banned.

121. You've gotten tired of ST, only to come back the next day... or month... or year...

122. You thought cpr was a boy.

123. You know when Hanul put that stupid image about destroying the world into his sig.

124. You remember the Revelation Thread and all the controversy it stirred up.

125. You sit at your desk and think up of more things to add to this list

ST Family Trees!

Original version: (created by me)


version 2: (created by kaom)


version 3: (created by csuti)

The Great Moderators Hall of fame

For moderators who have served their time and then retired.

This post is to honor them.

1. 1cor1313
(Chit Chat Mod active 11.2005? - 2.2006)

2. Idiothunter
(Air Gear Mod active 6.2006 -9.2006)

3. Cold-Nite
(Naruto & Creative Works & Moderator Forum & Fullmetal Alchemist Mod active 12.2005 - 10.2006?)

4. Hellcreator
(Help & Mahou Sensei Negima Mod active 3.2006 - 4.2007)

5. Hisoka
(Shaman King Mod active 1.2006 - 6.2007)

6. Madi-chan
(Shaman King Mod active 1.2007 - 2.2008)

7. Martyr3810
(Downloads Request, Bleach, Misc Series, General Manga/Anime Discussion, Berserk Mod active ? - 5.2008)

8. Volvogga
(Tech Section, One Piece (resigned that earlier though), Bittorrent/IRC Downloads Problems, and Forum Games Mod active 12.2005 - 5.2008)

9. Kaom
(Naruto Mod active 11.2007 - 5.2008)

PART THREE
The changes in Stoptazmo such as the forum's appearance from the phpbb style to vbulletin ultimately affected many people's posting habits on Stoptazmo. The most desired and memorable "complete bar" gained at 1,000 posts was no longer available. The invention of "quick reply" made members feel that replying to messages required too little thought process and that spamming was becoming increasingly uncontrollable. Another odd perk was the new rules in Help Section that allowed only moderators, administrators, and the original thread starter to post in a certain thread. This annoying rule created the desperate need for the promotion of Hellcreator to moderator because he was the most active and best person around giving advice to the newbies in the Help Section. The lack of new skins for vbulletin was horrendous to look at. Because the new system gave moderators more power then before, power struggles and fights erupted causing drama. The sudden changes disgusted members and ultimately led to the disappearance of most legendary vets such as 1cor1313, char siu bao, oldmanhobo, and many others from the forum. A revival in Stoptazmo was probably most credited to Cold-nite's gift abbreviated as TWG to stand for The Werewolf Game. TWG sparked more interaction among members as well as excitement. What started as simply just having wolves, doctors, seers, and townies transformed into a game with endless different types of roles and rules that has continued to be played for months to come. It became so intense to the point of the banishment of members because of their “over excitement” and interest in the game when porn started to get distributed to members alive by sore losers. Around the time of the creation of TWG was the birth of Stoptazmo own DC++ hub at dc.stoptazmo.com which was created with the intentions of being an easier way for people to share mangas. Furthermore, a new cult known as the NITE club emerged as well where users lovingly adored their leader, Cold-nite. Though, as quick as the trend started was it squashed with the feared ban stick. More fads on IRC, such as the script wars, role playing, and joking among peers, started and ended similarly as swiftly with the most memorable situations documented in Best of Holysentinels. Shocks occurred as well, like when the truth about Idiothunter was revealed. Not too long later, the forum started underwent dramatic renovations. Attitudes started to change as well were people began to be sharper to flaming then to helping new members. Yet, as history has shown us, flaming too much will lead to bans as in the case of Blue, Lbosquet, and coolerimmortal. Banishment of coolerimmortal created heated tension and drama due to his connections and power as a scanlation team leader, yet ultimately he was treated with equal punishment. Following the drama was the development of more manga specific forums. With the increasing thread surplus, moderators had to be promoted such as child_of_serenity, Digital_Eon, Jakko, kaom, shautieh, and Tetnubis. As time progressed memorable thread such as the Complete Lounge was formed as an excuse of an elite version of the Random Spam Thread, yet the Complete Lounge does not share the same tradition of being blown up after 100 pages (like RST #4). Stoptazmo continued to grow with more specialization such as having the Creative Works, the TV/Movies section, and ending finally with the Forum Games section. Before the arrival of the Forum Games section were more moderators to the team such as Madi-chan and 98abaile. With the increasing of more subsection included the increase of more manga. With the need for more bandwidth, Kane decided after heavy talks with his moderators about introducing the concept of Donations. Donations lasted periodically for a few months but with paypal freezing Kane’s accounts, it inevitably led to Kane trying to pay for it with his own pockets again. However, when expenses started to reach 4 digits, it was clear that an alternative was necessary. After years of trying to remain free, Stoptazmo introduced the Premium Membership as a way to gain money to afford all the servers keeping Stoptazmo alive. The necessary switch has helped preserve Stoptazmo. Though, the more manga attracted more members and spammers. Spam began to develop and the necessary split of the Misc section occurred as well as the final nuke to date performed by martyr3810. Spammers and trollers have died down considerably and are quickly punished through warnings or banishments. Some are banned and erased in record breaking minutes by moderators to ensure safety of the forum. The tight knit community evolved and trusts each other so much to the point of sharing pictures in the Member Picture Thread, showing how their voices sound in the Karaoke Thread, love blooming between members, and even to the extent of meeting each other in real life—even if that meant flying across continents!

Background information about #Holysentinels:
#Holysentinels is an IRC channel located on irc.rizon.net founded by Cold-nite. At this time period, there were only 4 moderators (martry3810, kazechrono, 1cor1313, and Jyuudaime). The vision of Holysentinels was to be an intermediate between forum members and moderators. Their first client was Hanul, who wanted his thread about milk to be unlocked. Through negotiating talks with the chit chat moderator, 1cor1313, a mutual peace could be found between the two. The channel acted as an easier mode of talking between Stoptazmo regulars as well as with anbuforum members, though through time, anbuforum members gradually stopped coming to the channel. Originally, the channel was owned by Cold-nite where he purposely created a hierarchy of 2 operators, 3 hops, and the rest being voices. Gradually, through a bet, Cold-nite allowed for a 4th half-operator (Idiothunter) and broke his train of 3. After time, more additions were made to the team of half-operators. Though, when Cold-nite retired, the owner of #Holysentinels fell into the hands of coolpuprocks as well as martyr3810 who have decided to add more operators to trust worthy regulars. Holysentinels has evolved to a group of regulars who continuously find endless ways to amuse each other and has somehow become Stoptazmo's unofficial irc channel

.

Pretty fucking long, but if you read it, it may give you some idea about what kind of place this is, and the various stages it has experienced.

PART FOUR
If you are reading this, I am assuming you have been keeping up with the forum politics and reading threads such as kaom’s Site News thread or the Announcements thread. I am assuming you are vaguely interested about ST politics and want to know about what has been going on this week. With that assumption, if you do not fit under the description, this thread is not right for you and is not interesting, thus you should probably bi-pass it.

If you do fall under the assumption, I ask that you read with an open-mind. I do ask that you do not go “BUT SO AND SO TOLD ME THIS AND THAT AND IT DOESN’T MATCH WHAT YOU SAID!!!” Remember, everyone will choose to highlight or casually remove information. It’s probably a good idea I’m taking an awfully long time to respond to this event so I can try to write as objectively as possible.

In advance, I am sorry for divulging any personal information. I know it’s our job as moderators to try and contain as much info as possible. However, like kaom, I feel that when too much shit explodes, people need to know what happened. Right now, to an outsider, it looks like a bunch of random stuff. No logic at all.

There is logic in all of this.

Are you ready to open a can of worms? Well, here we go:
************************************************** *******************

In the world of moderation, there’s a little thing called a Moderation Forum. Jokingly, it’s been called the Mass Orgie forum where we all post massive horny stuff. But, more realistically, it’s where we discuss issues such as keeping tabs on each other like “Hey, there’s an icky pornographic picture in your subsection. I banned the user who did it. Can you delete the thread? Thanks.”

As of March, 2007, a set of rules were given to moderators as shown

Moderator Behavior:

• Moderator discussions and disagreements are to be kept private from the ordinary members.
• Moderators are not to insult/critique/criticize each other in front of regular members. This is not limited to the forum, but any public conversation.
• Neutrality and team spirit are to be feigned in public if not sincerely felt.
• Do not lift other moderators' bans without first consulting them.
• Do not critique other moderators' bans in front of members, even the members in question. Refer them to the moderator who gave the ban or agree to pass the message on instead.
• For convenience, try to give a ban reason as much as possible.
• Don't show favoritism, or at least not to the point where you allow one member to get away with something and ban another member for the same thing.
• Respect each other. All moderators are equal, and it is possible to object and be civil about it. Consider everyone's suggestions fairly.
• Don't let things get too personal, and be reasonable and level-headed about things.

General Moderator rules.

1. All bans must have a valid explanation. Any moderator has the right to overturn a ban if no reason for the ban has been given.

2. If a moderator disagrees with a ban issued by another mod, they should PM the issuing moderator. If an agreement cannot be reached, it should be put to vote, with the majority decision being used, after a one week time period.

3. If a moderator has a problem with a decision of another, it should be resolved by PM or in the mod forum.
If an agreement cannot be reached, it should be put up for vote (spanning one week), with the majority decision being used.

4. Moderators should not moderate another moderator's sub-forum, except when the section's mod has asked them to do so, does not mind, or if it is absolutely necessary (see: exceptions to rule 4). If a moderator feels that there is an issue that has been overlooked in another section, s/he should contact the relevant mod in a respectful manner, detailing his/her concerns.
If a moderator feels that s/he must carry out a mod action in another section, s/he should send a PM to all of the section's moderators, clearly explaining what s/he has done and why.
Any moderator has the right to overturn any decision made by another moderator, within his/her own section, providing that the moderator who made the decision is not also that section's moderator (in such cases, moderators should discuss the decision either over PM or in the moderator’s forum).

Exceptions to rule 4:
Notable exceptions where a mod may and should ban a member in a section not of their own, include:
-- a member who is trolling (i.e. openly and deliberately abusing/accusing another member);
-- a member who threatens or has the intent to threaten the personal privacy/anonymity/safety of another member;
-- a member who openly and deliberately attacks/accuses the site, its staff and/or its members;
-- a member who threatens the security of the site, staff and member accounts;
-- a member advertising/offering products (legal and illegal);
-- a member actively advertising/offering/posting links to warez;
-- a member who is actively creating a disturbance;
-- a member using an alternate account (including ban dodgers).

5. ALL moderator discussions/arguments/conversations must remain private and may not be talked about outside of the mod forum unless PMs or other private message tools (e.g. AIM, email, etc...) are used.

6. All rule changes must be drafted and submitted for approval. For the changes to be allowed, they must receive a majority approval, after a one week time period.

7. Moderator’s may not be de-modded unless a majority vote is made to remove them, or as an admin decision.

8. A member may not be given modship unless a majority decision is made, or as an admin decision.

9. A moderator who wishes to contest a decision by Moderator Vote must notify the maker(s) of that decision 1 day prior to making the thread. The thread can be created 24 hours from sending the message, or upon confirmation that the Letter of Intent was received by the maker(s) of said decision.

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In the past, any moderation actions in Chit Chat specifically have usually been told to the moderators. I’ve gotten many pms or threads in the Moderation Forum that have been addressed to myself, Jyuu, and Kaze about people they have banned.
For example, (taken from 11/27/2007)
“I banned a guy for his ridiculous necroing and the disrespect he was doing in CC, just so the CC mods know, his screenname: mechacooler If you disagree or whatever or just don't like me interfering in your section, you can do whatever but I figure anyone who says that he doesn't care what (ST people and mods) say or think... needs to go :P” -martyr
“okiez. thanks guys.his thread is deleted.”-cpr

No problem
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But recently, like how other regular members, I saw an influx of 3 bans with no real explanation. Granted, it has been difficult this particular week for me to keep on forum politics (I have finals this week) so I was a tad behind (two days behind). Out of curiosity, I started researching them, but couldn’t find a real suitable reason to how Stealthmoose was banned.

When regulars become banned permanently, I take a personal interest as to why they were banned. After all, a regular generally has been able to last long on the fourm because they have been obeying the rules. Majority of regulars can recite, quote, and often are those who are scolding newbies for disobeying the rules. Regulars tend to respect the rules and to respect majority of the moderators. So, why would somebody with that ability have been permanently banned?

Disclaimer:
I have been bashed by people by saying “this is called favoritism!” No, this is extremely logical. Somebody who was here for 7 months has gained 7 months of exposure to rules. Someone who has been here for 1 day has 1 day of exposure to the rules. See the reasoning as to why I think it’s a little odd when regulars get banned since they should know the rules?

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Two days have passed since the ban and there was no note, no explanation, and no notice given to me.

Why the sudden change?

I asked around, and moderators were pointing to this thread.What surprises will you find in your ketchup?This thread regarding the debate of martyr and Stealthmoose is how he got banned.

• By, post #166 & 167 the 4 page debate is basically over with the conclusion to “agree to disagree”
• By post #168-170 Jakko and Stealthmoose are trying to joke it off.
  • Jakko wrote in the moderator forum that he “decided to interrupt before the debate got started up again, and try to turn it into a joke to head things off. I guess it didn't work well, but I should make it clear that I wasn't trying to argue with him, or insulted with him.”
  • Stealthmoose wrote how during the time they were talking “At first I thought you were just light-heartedly dissecting the idiom, which, given its nature, doesn’t take much work.” (post 172)
• By post #171, less then 24 hours later, martyr posts his statement of banning Stealthmoose on the grounds of “trolling” for a time period of 7 days
• Well, Stealthmoose obviously didn’t feel like he was. Logically, he came back and banddodged to voiced his complaint as seen in post #172.
• As consequence, Stealthmoose is permanently banned.

And that’s the core root of the situation.
The opinion of the moderators who participated in the discussion are as follows:

• Martyr & Vol were in agreement. He did troll. He deserved a 7 day and then a banddodged deserved a perm ban.
• DE thought he deserved the original ban, although perhaps maybe it would have been better as a few-day ban instead. She did not think banddodging was appropriate and thus bannable..
• Jakko was completely neutral in the discussion trying to get both sides to communicate more properly.
• Cpr was against the 7 day ban thus noting that if the original circumstances were not worthy, the banddodging is forgivable
• By the time kaom and Jyuu stepped in after pages of debate, both were more or less annoyed at behaviors of mods then the actual Stealthmoose issue.

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So, over in the moderator forum thread we basically have the arguing of Rule 4. Consistantly, the reasoning I keep hearing was “he trolled = 7 ban.” Then, “he bandodged = perm ban.” When asked for source of the trolling, I was given post #167 which was
“Indeed. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.”- Stealthmoose
This is what got 3 moderators agreeing that Stealthmoose was trolling. In the end, every little detail was argued. And, I do mean every such as What is the definition of trolling? Is that really a short ban? Does that really count as a justifiable act to ban?

Sidenote: Around this time, another regular, Atrum, sent me a pm and requested to be banned. He left no explanation. Ask mart and he’ll say Atrum was mad about pulp_chicken and morten being banned. Ask me, and I’ll say Atrum was mad about Stealth getting banned because of the thread that Atrum created.

In closer detail, moderator rules #2,3,4 were argued and twisted to support both parties.

2.If a moderator disagrees with a ban issued by another mod, they should PM the issuing moderator. If an agreement cannot be reached, it should be put to vote, with the majority decision being used, after a one week time period.

3.If a moderator has a problem with a decision of another, it should be resolved by PM or in the mod forum.
If an agreement cannot be reached, it should be put up for vote (spanning one week), with the majority decision being used.

4.Moderators should not moderate another moderator's sub-forum, except when the section's mod has asked them to do so, does not mind, or if it is absolutely necessary (see: exceptions to rule 4). If a moderator feels that there is an issue that has been overlooked in another section, s/he should contact the relevant mod in a respectful manner, detailing his/her concerns.
If a moderator feels that s/he must carry out a mod action in another section, s/he should send a PM to all of the section's moderators, clearly explaining what s/he has done and why.
Any moderator has the right to overturn any decision made by another moderator, within his/her own section, providing that the moderator who made the decision is not also that section's moderator (in such cases, moderators should discuss the decision either over PM or in the moderator’s forum).

Exceptions to rule 4:
Notable exceptions where a mod may and should ban a member in a section not of their own, include:
-- a member who is trolling (i.e. openly and deliberately abusing/accusing another member);
-- a member who threatens or has the intent to threaten the personal privacy/anonymity/safety of another member;

Examples of what we argued about was
Opinion pro-ban: “rule 2 says you should have just pm-ed me instead of making this thread about stealth’s ban! Rule 4 makes it under the exception so I don’t need to pm you cause he was clearly trolling. Plus, he banddodged after that! That’s unforgivable and he deserves punishment.”
Opinion anti-ban: “rule 3 says I can use the mod-forum to state a case. Rule 4 says you’re not supposed to moderate a forum not yours. Besides, that’s hardly trolling or abusing another member! I know he banddodged, but in retrospect if the original ban was inappropriate doesn’t he have a right to come back and say so?”

Tensions elevated, and it is no surprise that Rule 5, was broken by both parties, first being broken by myself and then of the pro-ban. It was broken more on IRC, but also on the forum. Rule 5:ALL moderator discussions/arguments/conversations must remain private and may not be talked about outside of the mod forum unless PMs or other private message tools (e.g. AIM, email, etc...) are used.”

Disclaimer: Why did I openly complain? When hearing that this one sentence was enough grounds to get you to lose a week, I was furious as shown in post #178. I posted that in the hopes to show pulp_chicken that not all mods have a “god complex syndrome.”

Like most threads at ST, this one derailed as well to the point people wanted to appoint more moderators of CC. By then, Jyuu came and locked the thread.
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PART FIVE
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At this point in time, Jyuu and I have a private conversation on IRC. I talked to him because he is also a CC mod so it’s important to know what your co-workers were thinking. We talked about Stealthmoose’s ban as well as other bans performed by martyr in the past. Unfortunately, we saw a general trend of every ban being done after a debate or argument. For example,

1)Martyr debated against Saizou about natural talent in this thread and this is the root cause of Saizou getting permanently banned. He was banned and unbanned, sometimes during the same day. Ultimately he was permabanned with the explanation written something about "might making right" and that "the internet is not a democracy."
2)Maddogmike vs Mart banned from this post
3)Jyuu sited his own misfortune of being banned from martyr on IRC from after having a debate about video games.

Older people [though debatable about justifiability] who experienced the same fate are regulars known as coolerimmortal and blueillusion.
We noticed a general trend of mart trying to silence those against him. Coincidental that regulars were banned after having an argument?
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By then, we knew something had to be done. We wondered if mart deserved “a slap on the hand or a de-modding.” When we remembered that he was de-modded in the past, we were pretty clear of how he may have “stepped over the line.” We did notice the 7th moderator rule that said “Moderator’s may not be de-modded unless a majority vote is made to remove them, or as an admin decision.”Jyuu presented the case to Kane. He is the admin. Let him decide. Were we being too overzealous? Were these bans justifiable?
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Kane saw our complaint, was horrified, and acted accordingly.
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So, how did martyr take it?
Obviously, not too well. Jyuu and martyr did retalk. Differences were not worked out though; only bitterness endured. The problem is, during that private conversation, both parties lost respect for each other. Copies of this log have been distributed and can be seen here.

If you talk to martyr, he will say that “10 pms is all you needed to get a senior kicked out” and that jyuu wanted him to “go through loopholes to get his modship back.” He was frustrated he couldn't get a confirmation of an exact date or time period he'd have to reprove himself as a moderator.

If you talk to jyuu, he will say that he “re-offered the modship position” back to martyr but martyr stubbornly refused to take it. He was willing even after all the name calling and crap in between, to “give martyr the key” and a third chance.

I tried explaining to martyr that basically, all Jyuu and I wanted was martyr to control his temper during a debate. That’s it. If he could do that, no problem. Reinstate. How did martyr feel about that? A no deal.
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By then, this disaster has escalated into two moderators refusing to return as well. Kaom and Volvogga.

Kaom left because she was disappointed in moderators, specifically how they could not follow the rules and that the entire drama could have been resolved if rules were followed.

Unfortunately (besides rule 5: the silencing rule), every rule was actually followed as written and cited above. The rules were all just twisted to support either party. Like most rules, they are not simply “black vs white.” They are more likely to have shades of grey. If every rule was Black and White, then we wouldn’t have lawyers in this world, we wouldn’t have people using the same set of laws to argue they were innocent/guilty. We wouldn’t have drama.

Volvogga also left because he did not agree. He tried finding a successor through his “Yearbook” thread in CC, but that was swiftly deleted. Frustrated and annoyed, Volvogga knew it was time for him to retire as well.
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How did Stealdragon get promoted? As most have realized, no moderator (besides probably Jyuu and Kane) knew of Stealdragon’s promotion. But, like rule 8 says, “8.A member may not be given modship unless a majority decision is made, or as an admin decision.” (People seem to be forgetting the 2nd clause to the rule. The admin can decide. And he did. He gave the modship to SD).

Had the event gone to a poll, it is probable that Stealdragon would have gotten majority. His name has come up in the past before when we talked about promotions and he has gotten support. Even if it is a shock, it does NOT mean that SD is incapable of being a moderator. In fact, some would argue “why wasn’t SD promoted sooner?”
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Alright, is it over yet? Nope. Why was martyr banned?

It is unforgivable to take the password of another person's account and screw around with it. This is why he was banned. And this reason alone.

This is what he did with that password.

As most has realized, martyr has gotten Stealdragon’s account and went on a “joy ride.” Though martyr likes to think it was nothing more then “saying goodbye to the forum leaders and deleting a few bans,” think again. His goodbye speech on the moderator forum was nothing more then anger. When martyr entered the moderation power, he started banning 5 regulars for fun knowingly he was just making a mess for the other moderators to repair. To my knowledge, it could be more. I just remembered unbanning 5 of them. When that wasn’t enough to satisfy him, he started to remove bans.

A rough estimation of how many bans were removed is about 250. Unfortunately, due to slow thinking, there’s no exact record of how many bans were removed. This is no exaggeration—I saved as much data as possible and the record I contained has 216 individual names. Now, mind you, there’s no such thing as “instant ban 200 people by clicking these buttons” or “instant remove 200 bans by clicking these buttons.” Each ban must be installed or removed individually. It’s not a fast process and took 2-3 hours. Depending on who you ask, people will support mart’s good-bye actions as “hilarious” while others deem it “unforgivable” and “immature.”

Disclaimer: It is true that mart has done many amazing things. The Download Request section along with his hundreds of list of links would not have been accomplished without him. We do know that and it is a vital contribution. However, we also do know that there are many regular members who make high contributions to the community as well in their own way. A de-modding does not limit someone from being able to still contribute. Yet, it is mart who chose after his de-modding to attack in such a retaliation way.

Yes, martyr will argue that he wasn’t truly being malicious. After all, he could have done worse by deleting everything and he did essentially give the account back to Stealdragon.

However, it is arguable that he deserved a ban. He could’ve said good-bye by just making an alternative account. He could’ve asked someone to post a good-bye in the moderation thread (Kaom and Vol both were not de-modded yet, so surely they’d do it for him.) And, all other mods who have resigned in the past never once decided to make a mess for future moderators. Not once did they decide to delete 250 bans. Not once did they decide to ban other regulars.

He did not need and should not have taken control of another man's account for any reason whatsovever.
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Where does this leads us?
Change is hard for anyone to cope with. Unfortunately, some do not believe this change is in the positive direction and will act accordingly. They do not believe mart is deserving of being de-mod especially since they have felt other mods in the past also abuses their powers with unfair bans. (ex: the bans against Aikido and Kolox) Probably the biggest complaint given was the lack of mart being able to defend himself and the lack of knowledge of him or the other mods knowing about the demodding before the demodding occurred.

To those feeling that way, I am sorry. I am going to try and be optimistic and say that this incident will lead ST to a better future. Moderators are reviewing past moderation rules as we speak to try and make them more clean cut and clear. Kane is more concerned on how his moderators behave.

Bans are being reviewed… with mart’s being the first one.

Only time will tell if anything accomplished during this time period was worthwhile in anyway.

If you want to comment about this, the announcement thread is where to go. Thank you for reading.