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This site had so much potential....notice I said "had".

Shall we begin? Where do we start? Well I will get us started;

I joined this site a few months ago. I was google searching for hacks/cracks for various games and software, etc. I noticed this site was in vBulletin, which appealed to me. In my time in forums I noticed that ones using paid software such as; vBulletin, IPBoard, etc. tend to last longer, and keep their maintenance up to date. Upon joining and making my first few posts I noticed quickly how unprofessional staff are here. I was told that my posts were too short and I was "warned" not to post like that again. This action is common on forums, each forum has it's own set of rules and standards, no biggie right? Wrong. That notification I received was posted on my visitor wall for all guests to see. Anyone who has staffed anywhere knows you never approach someone in public unless there is an immediate threat to the security of the site. The back and forth continued with that staff member for a few posts until we reached an understanding.

I later posted a thread which contained a compilation of the works of some coders here on in the threads. It involved a phisher that I would custom code, the way the code worked though is that you would have to setup a fake gmail account so I could code it to connect to the gmail smtp server. The alternative to that was, I would tell you how to install vb express from microsoft and explain to you how to build the program yourself. This thread was removed because staff accused me of phishing for gmails. Now here is the funny part, first they say I must include a virus scan, now when I finally get them to understand that the program does not exist, it's on my pc, they then accuse it of being a phisher. Well they were right, to some degree, the program does phish for youtube and paypal accounts, as advertised, but they were saying I was phishing for gmails. Now people why would I ask you to setup a fake gmail account and then phish it from you? Why would I offer the code and explain to you how to create the software yourself? Again we are dealing with people moderating sections of the forum that they have no knowledge in.

I had a post removed where I was offering some databases for sale, that was removed because I was and am still under the 100 post count. This is fine with me, and I can respect that.

I later had another post removed involving windows 7 secret modes, I was accused this time of posting a dupe. I then had to explain to the staff the the original poster only included 1 hidden mode for windows 7, where as my thread was complete and contained all 14 (I believe it was 14) modes. That thread was later re-instated. The staff member that handled that was mature and cordial. Although this matter was yet again handled publicly for all to see on my wall and his alike.

There a few premium members that like to jump on threads and accuse the poster of stealing threads from else where, or saying that because the new guy only has 20 posts then his program must contain a virus. Staff needs to investigate these allegations and if they prove to be false, the accuser needs to be labeled appropriately. It's discouraging for a new person that actually knows what he is doing to be accused of making a program containing a virus when they have spent hours or even days creating something unique to share with the community. Not all premium members do this, and some help out more than mods do, but there are a lot that choose to spam threads instead of contributing something constructing to share with everyone else.

I mod and admin 3 other sites. They are successful sites, we have donators, they become vips. If the vips do not follow the rules as outlined, they are canned, and their money is refunded. The reason for this is, we encourage everyone to help out where they can. This is the only way a forum survives. Without new members becoming vips, then the site server fees suffer, as only the chosen few in essence end up running the site over the mods and admins, because staff is more concerned about turning a profit than the community itself.

I have taken the time to make this thread. I know staff will remove it, which again is unprofessional, all criticism should be welcome, and this is posted in the General Discussion section of the forum, so there is no reason this thread should be removed. If the staff do not take the time to start listening to it's members then people are going to start to realize that there is a little site out there called google that can provide them with 100's of other communities that may better suit their needs.

I have been in the torrenting / warez / hacking / coding community for years. I am a member of a well known group of HD-Encoders, and I may be a jerk if provoked, all in all I'm a nice person. I have a lot to contribute to the community, but that's only if staff will let me. A side note, my thread where I gave out free invites to private tracker sites was never messed with by staff...lol.

If the staff / admins here would like some more information about this topic, feel free to contact me, via PM. It's very unprofessional to ask people to carry a conversation, while listening to rap music on mod 'x' profile and I refuse to do it any further.

Because it belongs nowhere else.

He's obviously complaining about something so I assume he has a proposal of some sort.

1. As Dopey said, warnings etc are given in public for insurance and proof. Once a dispute is started, I leave a visitors message on the accused user's wall. Unprofessional maybe, but once everyone can see it. He have no excuse not to reply to the dispute. If I sent a PM he might just delete the PM and claim he never got it. Once it's posted as a visitors message it cannot be fully deleted without staff being able to see it. I have witnessed many scammers that deleted the VM and thought they was off the hook. So maybe it is uncomfortable and unprofessional to have it posted it in public. But that way, nobody can say we didn't do anything. Also it is the best way to get users to respond. It works, and that is what's important.

2. I must have done around 6 or 7 pages with solved disputes now. And I have probably banned more premium users for scamming then non premium users. When it comes to moderating, I treat all the users equally. I honestly couldn't care less if the user was premium, vBookie or non premium. The reason I closed that win7 god mod thread of yours was due to the fact that a thread with almost an identical name was posted 2 months before yours. It was reported as "Already posted". We sorted that out, and I appreciated your maturity. Many users might had their threads unfairly closed. But instead of giving a good and mature explanation like you did, they just tell us how we suck and how we are abusing our powers. And often when the thread was closed for good reasons the user isn't mature enough to see that it was right, and they still give us a lesson about how we suck.

3. Maybe it seems like staff is rude and harsh sometimes. But that is the communities fault. I almost doesn't bother to go in the shoutbox anymore. Cause every time I am there, there are users trying to push the line of acceptable behavior. They bend and manipulate the rules. It puts us staff in a very difficult situation. And we have to make a choice, and whatever that choice is. There will be users complaining and saying shit about us. I don't dedicate hours every day to be told how shit I am at moderating in the shoutbox.
My point is. These days some users do their best to make the staff look bad, putting us in tough spots. And in disputes users just want to make is as hard as possible for us to solve it to buy them more time etc. That is the reason why we have to act the way we do. And for you ex-staff that was moderators long time ago, the times have changed. It's not the new staff that's incompitent. It's the few users who do their best to make us look bad. I'm not saying users like that didn't exist back in the time, but they have grown in numbers since then and they have gotten smarter. It's more then innocent trolling, it is a direct attempt to make us look bad.
We have to act harsh and sometimes seem rude since some of the users on this community always push our buttons. I am proud of my self actually for have handled so much shit as I have the mature way. But the only way we can deal with these users is to have stricter rules and be in general more harsh.

If you had read it instead of skimmed it, you would know that he is actually displeased with the way staff deal with things, making situations public for everyone to see. I'm not saying I agree with him or disagree, so don't groan me or anything, I'm just letting you know that he isn't pleased, he is displeased.

Well personally I think it belongs in GD because he has no proposition as of yet. But my opinion doesn't really matter, you're the moderator, not me.

I've had my fair share of forums that I've joined and by far this site, in my opinion, is probably the best setup. Although there are issues, and these issues are human error, which every forum gets, you just have to get passed it.

To the Phisher you made, I've made many of them, Gmail, YouTube, Runescape, Facebook... even PSN.

If you are having problems with mods saying you are trying to phish their Gmail accounts just add in the thread, "If you wish to have it I can either give you the source or you can give me your Gmail info for me to add and build on. Include, if you don't feel comfortable, just give me a brand new gmail account to add.

Arrogance:
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The feedback received on this thread for the most part has been very constructive. The sides are split by people that have witnessed or experienced the situations I have, and those who have either been the cause of these situations or just don't care about how users feel here. I know some that don't agree with this thread are not trouble makers, and they legitimately don't witness these things happening, hopefully now they see how some areas of the forum are treated. The reason I posted this was to bring attention to something that has been mentioned by other users time and time again, in hopes that this thread would remain and staff would be mature enough to handle actual user feedback, without just censoring the thread creator. In my personal opinion it should have been left in General Discussion as it's an off topic subject. I could offer many site suggestions, but that's just a way for staff to deny them, and close the thread, and move it even further into the dumpster on the forums..where as in "GD" it would have remained public for all to see, and reply to.

This was not a staff bashing post, or me ranting and raving, it was only pointing out personal experiences I have had on this site. I know every site has it's issues, but you can clearly see the trend here on this site. I am not the first, nor will I be the last to post about these things. I have gone to countless mods walls and seen plenty of users asking "why was i banned from shout", "why was my thread deleted"...among other things. Now you want to post insults that are masked as warnings 9/10 of the time in public, why not post why you removed the users thread, or banned him from shout. I am not ignorant enough to troll in shout as I can see the ban hammer in action just by lurking for a minute in there. Letting people just randomly post stuff in there is asking for trouble, that's why most sites with a shout keep it PG and on a General Topic. Staff maybe, just maybe should not be interacting so much in chat, that way there is no bias attitude in there. I see the buddy system at it's worse, and people get teamed up on in there and banned in a heartbeat. Couple that with all the cussing that goes on in there and spam from people trying to sell things, and you can see why a lot of users ignore the shout feature all together.

I have been asked "Why don't you just leave if you have such a problem here". That is a legitimate question. The reason I don't just leave is because there are some good threads, and believe it or not I have met some cool people here. To leave because of some bad apples is not the answer right now. I have seen some people leave and I don't blame them, but I'm hoping that with this thread maybe just maybe the staff will have a meeting to discuss forum etiquette and double check staff rules not just forum rules. The staff know they don't have to ban me, and if asked I would leave quietly, but again, I hope they at least take a look around before they bring out the hammer.

I'm not ignorant enough to make an official suggestion, as it will only move this thread again, and eventually seal this threads fate. I would like to ask whomever moved it to move it back to where it belongs, as it's a General Discussion thread, if staff would like some personal suggestions they can PM me and I would be happy to share my thoughts on where I think the site could improve i.e. a treasury so it does not appear like the site is trying to sell memberships and label them as "donations" lol. That was not an official suggestion so don't take it that way.

Am i wrong? i +repped ralphierocks because i agree with his post and i think the rep has been removed, maybe its "staff" ...

So you're asking me to decide whether I believe the mods' word on that or the OP's who supposedly violated the rules? That isn't proof for me, because I don't like assuming anyone is right one way or another, and neither should you or anyone else here, whether their bias is for or against the site's mods.



I understand you meant well, however with the site being how it has been lately it's just inviting immature users to flame. IMO.