Cloudy's Cafe- a conversation zone, 11-24-02

[Calaethis Dragonsbane]

Originally posted by WillowIX: Very nice avatar CD. It´s clearly meant to be a paradox!

NOOO! somethings wrong! Eldar orbs, me?! bah, just coz I post more then most of you others.. I get cursed with ELDAR ORBS! Tis wrong!

[Legolas]

Keep it up cous, you'll be a luvverly beholder in no time now [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[Cerek the Barbaric]

Is anybody else having trouble getting into the chatroom? When I click on the icon at the top, I keep getting the dreaded Server Not Found page. How can I get in there?

BTW, Heartless Butterscotch, I have also run the washing machine with no laundry in it before. I always turn it on and put the soap in first...then start adding clothes. I did that one day, then the phone rang while I was still sorting the clothes. By the time I got off the phone, I forgot all about the clothes and started doing something else. [img]graemlins/blush.gif[/img]

[Memnoch]

Originally posted by Sigmar: Leakin' lubricant! You know everyone I originally knew here has now been banned or left. Earthdog,Talthyr Malkaviel, Loumistro, Lioness, Caleb, Neb, Azure (sure azure and caleb keep popping in but they hardly post), Moni, Lord Shield and more. They're all gone, and whats more HADB is also now gone Sure I know other folks but I can't help but wonder, how could so many people leave. Not to stir the pot or anything folks but someones words speak the truth, someone is who no longer with us... There has to be another explanation but for the life of me I can't imagine what it is. Sure some of the chose to leave on their own accored but others... Assistance would be appriciated.

Sigmar, I'm not here as a mod but as a friend. We had this very same conversation at your very own HADB forums a year and a half ago - you guys are not very good at emailing, are you. Much better to gossip about it, eh.

a simple email to myself would answer all your questions. Part of the problem is that you guys are only seeing one side of the coin here. Of all those people you've mentioned only one was banned, Lord Shield and unfortunately he did deserve it (I considered him a mate but he went too far). None of the others were banned and I'd hate for people to start spreading that. This is how rumors start. Maybe they have exams? Maybe they don't enjoy the topics here anymore? Maybe they're on holidays. Have you tried emailing them?

People come and go - that's a fact of life in forums, unfortunately, as in life. Sometimes this is temporary, sometimes permanent. But just because someone's not here doesn't mean they've been banned. You were saying the exact same thing a year and a half ago when Azure and Link got suspended, it was all doom and gloom, the end of the world. It's not the end of the world.

I like to think I'm approachable, and anyone who emails me in a reasonable way (ie not foaming at the mouth ) will get a fair reply. I spent 45 mins typing out a reply to Neb earlier today that I did NOT have to do, but wanted to - to help him understand where I - WE - are coming from.

Email me or PM me with your questions and I will do my best to answer them. That goes for anyone else who has any concerns. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Anyway, back to Clody's regular programming. Try not to let her break the place - she needs careful supervision.

[ 11-25-2002, 08:59 AM: Message edited by: Memnoch ]

[Melusine]

Originally posted by Sigmar: Leakin' lubricant! You know everyone I originally knew here has now been banned or left. Earthdog,Talthyr Malkaviel, Loumistro, Lioness, Caleb, Neb, Azure (sure azure and caleb keep popping in but they hardly post), Moni, Lord Shield and more. They're all gone, and whats more HADB is also now gone Sure I know other folks but I can't help but wonder, how could so many people leave. Not to stir the pot or anything folks but someones words speak the truth, someone is who no longer with us... There has to be another explanation but for the life of me I can't imagine what it is. Sure some of the chose to leave on their own accored but others... Assistance would be appriciated.

Well, I can at least give it a try [img]smile.gif[/img]

First of all, I don't want to start on an accusatory note, but don't you think saying "EVERYBODY I originally knew left or was banned" is a slight exaggeration? Like you said yourself, you do know other people here, so why exaggerate? To make a point? I don't think there is one, really, Sig.

"There has to be another explanation but for the life of me I can't imagine what it is." Well... how's this: REAL LIFE! Yes, amazing though it sounds, some people actually have stuff to do other than hang around on forums! It's the reason why a lot of IW members have been absent for a shorter or longer period of time. Seems like a pretty logical explanation to me - more logical in any case than assuming they have been silenced and locked away by the effing gestapo or something (I mean, come ON!).
Look Sigmar, a forum is ALWAYS fluctuating. Surely you don't expect 10,000+ members to stick around the whole time? I hope you see what a ridiculous notion that is. On a membership of over 10000 people, I think the 9 people you mentioned are a pretty tiny particle. Also, you name banned members in one breath with people who are simply in a busy period of their lives, like Lioness, or people who have REQUESTED to be deleted, such as Moni.
On a forum as large as this, there will always be members who just can't get along, and if people feel they can no longer participate because of it (take Arledrian or Moni), maybe we should respect their decision rather than make wild speculations about how they were "silenced".
I myself have taken countless breaks from Ironworks, in which I didn't post here at all. Simply because real life got in the way, or I had slight run-ins with people, or I simply couldn't be bothered to post.
We have an absolutely huge forum! There will always be people leaving because of school, work, family, girlfriends (hi Rikard! [img]smile.gif[/img] ) and what not. There will always be people throwing hissyfits and leaving because they want attention (and no, I don't mean anyone specific here, I am talking demographics). There will always be arguments between members causing one or both of them to leave. That's sad, but we will ALSO always have fun people on the forum, friendly ones, interesting ones, caring ones....

I have been around here since the "blue board", and most of the lesser known members from that period aren't around anymore either. Even some of the people that I really enjoyed talking to, like Stealthy/Suul Yinn or even Rikard have been absent or drop by only sporadically. But I've met new people that I enjoy to talk to just as much. If you feel alone here, feel like everybody you liked to talk to has left, then it's up to you. You can try to make new friends from the huge membership you can choose from. You can also decide that this place isn't fun anymore without those nine people and leave. Personally I hope you will pick the first option, because I have always enjoyed having you around and seeing you post. Who else could quote about wet copper armour, thunderstorms and Gods being bastards?
But whichever you choose, I think it's hardly fair to make wild assumptions about people being silenced here. That is not the reason why people leave. It's a free choice for most of us - and for the ones for whom it wasn't a free choice, you can be pretty sure they deserved it - write an email to a mod if you disgaree with that [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Cloudbringer]

Originally posted by Sigmar: Leakin' lubricant! You know everyone I originally knew here has now been banned or left. Earthdog,Talthyr Malkaviel, Loumistro, Lioness, Caleb, Neb, Azure (sure azure and caleb keep popping in but they hardly post), Moni, Lord Shield and more. They're all gone, and whats more HADB is also now gone Sure I know other folks but I can't help but wonder, how could so many people leave. Not to stir the pot or anything folks but someones words speak the truth, someone is who no longer with us... There has to be another explanation but for the life of me I can't imagine what it is. Sure some of the chose to leave on their own accored but others... Assistance would be appriciated.

Sigmar! You surprise me. Much of this is hearsay and gossip and not true in any way and some is way off base. Sigh.. I'm at work, hon, but here is my reply.

Earthdog is not banned - he does however have a real life and as I understood it his wife was ill for a while. Lioness is having serious real life school and other issues to attend to and I talk to her on msn now and then. Moni was feeling stressed and decided to take a break. She even posted that she had some serious school work to deal with because she's working on her degree. Lord Shield was banned for flipping off a mod who asked him to stop posting in a spam thread that isn't allowed. Not once, but twice.

I don't know enough to say about the others but if you are here long enough, you will see that MANY people come and go. It's the way life is, it's the way message boards are. I post less than I used to now because I have a fiance here with me and we need to spend time together. Some people have new babies, some have lots of personal issues, some have a new job or a job that demands more time and effort....the list goes on. I very much missed Armisael when he left to get married. But you know, I learned to like posting with new people here and even though I miss Armie now and then, I enjoy what time I do have on the board with all of you!

And now, because I respect you, Sig, I'm gonna be pretty blunt - not something that comes easy for me, I assure you!

The plain truth is that in the forum world sometimes there are malcontents or people who never really liked the no-flaming or spamming rules and might finally have decided that they really weren't a match for IW in the first place.
They usually just leave and find a place they DO feel comfortable in and that's that. But once in a while a disillusioned or unhappy member feels the need to spoil the waters for everyone else. That's the part that really bothers me. I can understand being unhappy and not liking a place, but why make it miserable for others just because you didn't like the rules? That's like deciding you don't like hot spicy sauces so you pour mud in them to keep everyone else from trying them or enjoying them or you hurt your knee on a jump in basketball so you slash all the balls to keep the team from playing. It's mean and definitely not good sportsmanship.

I have been to other forums where it's ok to cuss, call someone a filfthy name or imply they are idiots and wastes of space. I've seen how quickly the good folk leave those places and I know that I have yet to find another that is like IW. There may be things I don't like or others don't like but in the BIG picture it's the best choice around, IMO. Sometimes we all have to pitch in and help and sometimes we have to accept a few small things we don't like in order to have the larger ones that we DO like. I like a place with no flames where trolls get booted quickly. I wish my sig could be bigger, but if it means a place with no flames and few trolls.. well I can live with the smaller sig! I can live with not backtalking to moderators who ask me not to spam or to make one thread from 5 that I started with the same thing in them. I can live with those things because I find them reasonable compared to the chaos that used to be on BGDungeon when they let members flame everyone. They got shut down by their owner because he couldn't be bothered to keep the flaming, obscenity and blatant trolls out and it got out of hand. IW won't come to that, I'm sure. Because people here CARE about the atmosphere they post in.

Cloudy

[ 11-25-2002, 09:16 AM: Message edited by: Cloudbringer ]

[Cloudbringer]

Ok, I haven't read alot of what's before this, am at work and got delayed in hitting 'send'. I'll catch up as soon as I can. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Melusine]

Ack, damn Mods posting all over me... [img]graemlins/kiss.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]
Ah well

[Calaethis Dragonsbane]

Can we change the convo please? pleeease? its quite depressing to see CCs filled up with this, even if are right to do so. Havent there been enough threads on it already?

[Memnoch]

You wanted an answer, Sigmar, you got three. And people say we don't listen!

This was NOT planned by the way... [img]graemlins/nono.gif[/img]

Hope this helps, and we don't mean to invade Cloudy's Cafe (I've never posted here, funnily enough - too spammy for my taste. [img]tongue.gif[/img] (j/k)

Anyway, if you have more questions you're more than welcome to email me. [img]smile.gif[/img]