runouw.com

I've been having a hell of a day so far but this is something I should probably address so here goes:

I simply do not want to deal with this right now, on top of everything else currently happening.
I'd love if this could be resolved simply by reading and understanding, without the need for warnings or bans.
Giving warnings and bans is a pretty unpleasant thing to do, even if they are well deserved and a long time in coming.
I do not want to have an obligation as staff to give warnings or bans just to preserve the last bit of enjoyment around the site.
Hell, I didn't (don't?) even want to be staff. What a life, eh?

But all of this happened, and it's pretty heartfelt. It's pretty clear that a lot of you are of one mind when it comes to Shroom, and I'd like to think I'm man enough to admit when I was wrong... it's pretty much just been me here lately, haha. Of course, I'd like to not be wrong more, but we can't have everything. The point is that something's gotta change, or it will come to warnings and bans (probably bans, honestly, since most of the active site population being extremely unhappy and angry and upset would definitely fall under the "extreme circumstances" necessary to skip prerequisite steps such as a full 3 warnings.

Again, I reeeeaaaaaally do not want to deal with this right now, but if it comes to it, I will. To avoid that, here's my two cents:

A good staff is a team which is more hold together by competence than just friendship liasons. A good staff also meets its decision on promotion and demotion by these standards. Friendship is good in general, but not if opinions become too similar. (Keyword: no clique building)

"But not if opinions become too similar". I'd like to generalize that part specifically to any community, or subcommunity, staff included. Diversity is important in a great many ways, and I appreciate that it's been noted here- but it seems like we're being asked to have the exact same opinion more frequently than we'd be allowed to have our own diverse opinions. The entire community wasn't single-mindedly calling for a ban a year ago- there was a huge spectrum. Naturally, some were at extreme ends, but most were not... and over the course of that year, almost everyone has slid to the same extreme end. We used to be a pretty diverse and understanding community concerning these things, to the point of allowing back even permabanned members, so it's definitely taken a lot to wear down everyone to this point. There's a certain sort of irony, here.

A good staff reacts accordingly when some of them become inactive, and try to spread an attitude that prevents the team from losing alternatives. They don't try to be as thin as possible by hook or crook. Especially when someone feels mature to take a position and "campaigns", they don't respond negatively immediately. (Keyword: avoiding bottlenecks)

"reacts accordingly", "spread an attitude that prevents the team from losing alternatives", "feels mature to take a position and 'campaigns', they don't respond negatively immediately". The majority of people in this thread are acting accordingly, as any human being placed in a similar situation would be expected to; and the staff is trying to find a solution that prevents everyone from losing the remainder of the outcomes left to the site. It's a tough job, not made easier by the additional stress of feeling attacked at every opportunity, and as mentioned earlier, maybe I've been the one not reacting accordingly instead. Finally, maturity is something that is hardest to see within yourself- this is why old staff chooses new staff. Because since the dawn of the forums, new staff are chosen based on who is seen as mature not just by themselves, but by the majority. It hasn't always been seamless, god no, but we've been able to refine what qualities we want around the forums and in leadership positions, and which qualities have generally led to disaster. This situation is anything but an immediate response for many people- it's a slow degradation of opinions concerning maturity, tempered over the course of a year.

A good staff doesn't work towards a hostile relation to someone who "monitors" them and "knows better" and has own ideas. If anything, they appreciate having such external input and they guess that this guy could go native with them one day. Generally, a good staff thinks about what is good for EVERYONE here and takes care about the wishes of regular members, and they don't just look for what is comfortable for themselves only. (Keyword: ability to criticism, no egoism)

"appreciate having such external input", "thinks about what is good for EVERYONE". We generally do, and historically have, appreciated external input. To such a great degree that input is still discussed and implemented even if many members would have personal reasons to avoid doing so. We're a smaller community, and therefore it's easier to know every individual member to a degree, so considering the best option for all of us is usually easier than it would be in a much larger community with thousands of members... this thread is what the majority things would be the best move for everyone, and it's been forged in the fires of countless external inputs.

A good staff doesn't punish anybody because of the way they think, and because they're unsatisfied with what the staff does and ask for changes (if the upcoming of this isn't already a sign for the staff being bad in fact). They only consider punishments when rules are explicitely broken and when their counterpart really behaves bullishly without showing signs of controlled language. (Keyword: justice)

"doesn't punish anybody because of the way they think", "consider punishments when rules are explicitely broken and when their counterpart really behaves bullishly". We typically do try to refrain from punishing for thoughts. A lot of subjects discussed here are seen as controversial, etc. and at times distasteful, but they're just thoughts, just theoretical discussion, and it slides almost always. The problem is when people act on those thoughts- "The state has no place in the bedroom of the nation". Whatever goes on in your mind is entirely yours, but when it takes place in a public place (and especially if it also breaks rules) it affects everyone.

Furthermore, a good staff tries to keep calm in situations of drama, and they don't throw swearing words all over the place and they don't badmouth one targeted person only (yeah, mostly me and you know who you are) and adding to the previous point, they don't use threats of punishments with the sole intention to muzzle someone (keyword: constructive supremacy instead of power abuse)

"tries to keep calm in situations of drama", "don't badmouth one targeted person only", "don't use threats of punishments". We were calm to start, mostly at least. But the keyword is "tries". Everyone's tried- all that happened was that some hit their breaking point before others, and after months, that's pretty blameless. A lot of people seem to feel they're the main person being targetted, and I don't think that's a baseless assumption to make for anybody these days. Finally, threats of punishments are only used by staff if there is a very real chance of it actually happening- it's not a threat, just a pseudo-warning before the hammer actually falls.

A good staff also has nothing to hide to others, such as that regular members didn't get an idea to why I was demoted in fact or why Suyo left. A good staff has an attitude of showing regular members that their business often is the members' business as well. (keyword: transparency)

"nothing to hide", "attitude of showing regular members that their business often is the members' business".We've really tried to push for this lately, to the point of almost outlawing all private communication. Like so many of the other points above, this is not just relevant to staff. If it affects the forums, it affects all of us. This thread is testament to "nothing to hide".

Most importantly of all this, a good staff has passion at running the site, and has an attentive eye on the ongoings of the site. If they notice decreasing activity, they try to react. They try to make the place interesting and give new members a good guiding hand on how to integrate themselves. ESPECIALLY they don't continuously pretend like everything's okay the way it is and they don't say "we're only here to do the little and mandatory administrative tasks". If they should be slacking, they don't use the always-same phrases like "we're working behind the scenes". (Keyword: defining the job of the staff)

"passion at running the site", "has an attentive eye on the ongoings of the site", "If they notice decreasing activity, they try to react", "give new members a good guiding hand on how to integrate themselves", "they don't continuously pretend like everything's okay the way it is". This is the reason people left staff- no passion, couldn't deal with it anymore. Everyone who's posted so far has an attentive eye on the site, and is currently trying to react to the decreasing activity (specifically the largest and only mass exodus of staff and members alike). We try to give ALL members a hand fitting in with the rest of the community, but sometimes it doesn't work out. And nobody here is pretending things are okay the way they are- if anyone was doing that... Yo. You're looking at him.

Have you ever thought about that my conduct and my intellect might actually be too good for this community?

Finally, this is a bothersome line. I feel like if you genuinely felt that way, you wouldn't have stuck around so long, but... it's a worrying thing to say regardless. Everyone has their own unique skillsets, and we've been able to manage self-sufficiently because we could determine how to fit together. There's no easy solution to this, but I guess if this is actually 100% what you think... maybe there isn't a solution at all, short of going separate ways.

I wanted to keep this brief (no I didn't, I didn't want to do this at all, I just wanted to play Starbound and not care for a while) but that's gone through the window so... just keep it civil, everyone. I don't want to need to give warnings to anybody, for anything.

I joined just for about 1 year so i don't know your (both runouw community and shroom) history, so my viewpoint maybe too simple, please don't blame me on that.
As far as i know you can make FoA invisible right? If you don't like it, just ask a moderator to remove your access to the FoA. And boom! Problem solved. Same, if you don't like this forum, you can leave just like others who are disappointed to this forum. There's no point to stand in a circle and blame the circle is too small. Moreover, if you are going to stay, you have to both take the bad things and the good things of staying here. I agree things need to change here (Although i don't know what's the problem here, since i've been here for not a long time, but things always needs to change, that's why legislative council exists in democratic countryopps i went too far.) but being modest and respect is important if you want others listen to you.

One of the famous TV Show in my region, said that
Harmonious is not all the people having the same opinion, but all having different opinions, yet respect each other.

EDIT:Also, I thought shroom was a good guy, who makes me disappointed to him. If I was standing as a 100% stranger, and look at how much trouble he made, he deserves a permanent ban. But I really think you're standing for some people, and just a normal person that just speak more than us. Which makes me don't want to ban him(forever). So, maybe you can do more better? I don't know. Since seems like ppl already gave you a 2nd or 3rd chance.

Unbelievable. So, we're stupid and uneducated, is it? As someone who treats much higher Education standards in the USA (and across the freaking globe) as a #1 priority for our world, I'm nothing but dumb, is it?

Everything you've done in the past few days has been the last straw. For someone who titles themselves "our local SM63 Spielberg" without deserving it, I can safely say your ego has gone too far.

Just ♥♥♥♥ off already. You've caused enough harm to several of our members (myself included) and ex-staff, and even the current staff. Never come back.

Alright, so I don't have any stories to tell about any hatred towards to me, because we never got that way I don't think, but:

it's pretty clear to me that you can't get along with enough people here, Shroom. I don't know what you want to do, your goals and aspirations, anything, but whatever it is, spending your time here isn't helping any of that. I only lurked a little and read stuff in this thread, so I have very little context of how things got this bad here.

I'd argue its less constructive to try and repair a sinking boat by hammering the hole as hard as you can than it is to just abandon ship and look for a new boat (for pretty obvious reasons). Most of the people you had problems with had left already and things still got worse between you and the site, so it only makes sense to assume that they weren't the major problem, if a problem at all.

I'm not a part of this site anymore, so I don't care if you're banned or not or if the site closes or whatever, but I think its a lot smarter and less painful for everyone if you just look for a different place like some of us did.


That said, I know that you're going to take what I said with a grain of salt, much like you have with everything I've tried to tell you, so I can only guess that your fate is sealed either way.

This whole issue has been on my mind since it started yesterday, and tonight I felt like actually doing some digging.

And god ♥♥♥♥ damn.

God ♥♥♥♥ damn, Shroom. Dude. You ♥♥♥♥ up. I'm not just throwing this word around like I normally do. I mean it.

You.
♥♥♥♥.
Up.

I can only give you credit where credit is due, and that's how vocal you are as a person, and how determined you are to get ♥♥♥♥ done. But jesus christ man. What the hell were you thinking.

Why the hell did you think this was a good idea, dude. Yes, I know there is a rule about "hunting people off-site", but that's not what this is. That would be if I literally went on a ♥♥♥♥ manhunt to find you and decided it would be great to disgrace you on the SMBX community. I'm not doing that. You did that. You literally had some stick lodged up your ♥♥♥ that you felt it necessary to go off on passive-agressive tangents directed at us, the community you were so intent on helping, simply because we disagreed with you.

Hooooo boy.......we've got bombshells, and I've got a bitter taste in my mouth posting all this. You speak like we're the ones to be ashamed, Shroom.
But at 20, what about this was mature? Taking your petty internet drama to an unrelated community, who had no grudge towards us, who we were members of(and are), and who we cooperated with on occasion in the past?

Are you that intent on retaining your own personal Shangri-La that you will destroy anything in your path to get it?

Did you.....did you seriously not learn a goddamn thing from your own nation's history? When a man trying to use this much power and hate-based rhetoric decimated your region and made it have to dig it's ♥♥♥♥ back out from ashes and rubble?

Because goddamn it dude. That's exactly what you're doing. You're writing a damn manifesto, not to make a change, but to both convince yourself that no one is right but yourself, as well as convince yourself that anyone you hurt is a casualty, a pawn, and that you are the one suffering.

I just....I can't dude. You should be disappointed when you take a look back at all this. And I hope you feel ashamed when you do so. I'm not intending to make this an eternal guilt, but you definitely need your horse kicked out from under you for a second, Napoleon.

I say that with the utmost irony being me. But it's true. You're an egotist and a narcissist. You're not a victim, you just want to be. You're probably used to it, and if that's how you feel worth something, you desperately need some help.

But that will never excuse your actions on here, nor there. I don't intend for there to be a war between communities over you, and I will chew out anyone who goes to SMBX to try and rat on you. But I'm documenting everything I've seen tonight over there.

And I hope you take these words in. From me, one of three who favored you exponentially for your activism here.

I am ashamed for your choices, and disappointed in your denial. The look on my face right now says it all. You've let me down.




I think this post should sum it up enough. As far as it goes on my end, this case is dismissed.

Sidenote: He broke Doram's rule for engaging in arguments or dealing with arguments, which was never, ever take it elsewhere. If one of you wants to make amends with a staff member over there, I could and couldn't care less. I just want this ♥♥♥♥ over so we can actually start making some changes for the better. I'm sick of this ♥♥♥♥ happening....


Edit: I felt like adding one little piece to this.

I won't come back there like Phoenix out of the ashes. I'll just be there to keep talking about SM63 and level designing and participating at Forum Games or such, and as long as the staff there is the same and its attitude doesn't change, I can only wait for it to disappear or for everything to be closed down one day.

But you did, Shroom. You did. You continued to come back and stir the pot. You continued to antagonize. You continued to try to turn people against people. And you continue to play the victim.

I want to make one thing clear here Shroom....the site doesn't run itself soley off you and I. It's a forum. A community. A group of people with similar interests. All you do is post. All you ever can do is post. You held a UR position, and that was simply it, because that's all you proved you could handle. I never thought you were ready to go beyond that, because I always had a sixth sense you would be too corrupted by the power, long before you ever got promoted. I even made that perfectly clear, long ago, when you did consider applying. I told you what it did to me, and warned you about it....but clearly you're far too better than everyone here to take anything into account. Even if it's a 40yo unpragmatic divorced father of one who raises us like his children and encourages us to become the best we can ever be.

This site started without you, and it will surely die without you. It may die without me, it may die without Ven. It's a site. It dies. Even your oh-so-precious SMBX forum you will likely follow the same road on will one day meet it's demise. We're nothing but factors, you and I. We're irrelevant to the bigger picture at hand, which is what the sitemasters themselves ever intend to do with the domain they pay for out of pocket.

And since you obviously don't like Rob as much as you don't like Doram, Oj, MoD, Nin, Nan, SK, and so many others, why don't you go run your own? Tell us how it works out. I'll let you in on a secret from someone who thought he was smart as ♥♥♥♥ and cocky: you are far more theoretical than practical, and that will bite you in the end.

Theories are theories. They are ideas. Unless you can confirm they will work in practice, they will always have a rate of failure. Theories are meant to be contested, which is something you refused to let happen with your ideas. That is your fatal shortcoming, and I inquire you to point out at least one circumstance offline where being this way to others or to your own community has ever benefited them, less so than yourself.

I'm trying not to be a ♥♥♥♥. I'm trying to be open to concept. I'm trying to understand you. But I'm also relating what I've done, how I thought, and what became of those ideas to what you're trying to do.

You "think" more than you "do", and you "know" more than you "see". If society was built off theory and not practicum, which you loathe, would we have a society today?

You've got a lot to learn, Shroom. You're too naive. You're too self-centered. You're stuck in your own world, afraid to admit flaw. I don't know why that is. Maybe that's all you were ever used to as a kid. Maybe that's all you've been used to, being treated like you were a flawed creature. Maybe that's why you perceive us as the enemy.

I don't hate you, Shroom. And I never have. But I uphold disappointment in how you've behaved online, and I devoutly wish you would change your pattern of thought. You're 20. You're not 10. You're not 15. 20. At that age, you are in for a hell of a ride, because if you thought we were a challenge for you, godspeed to the trials you're about to face.

It's time to admit you're imperfect, Shroom. But moreso, it's time to seriously, really, truthfully start acting like you are accountable for every action you've ever made, wrong or right. Your life will be hell if you don't.

Trust me. I know.

I didn't call myself the ♥♥♥♥ devil for nothing. I thought I was a god, I thought I was untouchable, I thought I was better than people in some ways.

And what do you think happened in the end?

Yep. Reality came crashing down around me. Just like it's doing for you. Except it's done it twice for you.

Learn from that, Shroom. Learn from it. You can't change the past, but you've got a future to make.

Don't ♥♥♥♥ it up.

tl;dr: I am sympathetic for you because I am you. I was in your position, I held the power, I abused the power, I hated the world, I felt the world should be mine, and it wasn't. And I had to come to terms with the consequences. I want you to do the same, to learn from my mistakes, and to learn from yours, so you won't ever, ever make them again.

Wonder where he thought of User Reps from.

Ah, in reference to the last image Shad posted that one's hardly an issue. I mean he is right, I absolutely despise SMBX and would never go back there. Don't really mind if he is there, couldn't bother me at all.

It's not that he mentioned you in-post for being there. It's that he did his own witchhunt on you(that seems to be his new favorite word for this actually), by namedropping you in the thread, as well as giving your on-site username.

Shroom, if you're reading this, just stop. Let it go. You can't come back without having to be scolded and damned for your behavior. Everything you're saying we're doing is the exact same ♥♥♥♥ you did mere months, mere days, and mere weeks ago. All you're doing is deflecting and projecting your own guilt on us.

I just want to add, before you go and try to dispute any of our claims, or go begging to any potential sympathizers with your massive victim complex--before you say anything at all, really--answer for us, Can you prove it? Do you have (non-anecdotal) evidence to back up what you're saying?

We have mountains of proof for ourselves in this thread (in the form of links and images; just go back and read it if you're not sure), and none of it is going to go away when you wave your hand and proclaim that none of it is true. Where's your proof that we're making any of our statements up, that this is unjustified hatred and flaming, that this is a witch hunt, that any of your opinions are what's "best for the community", that you aren't being blatantly hypocritical? I don't really personally care if I'm breaking minor rules at this point, I'll take those warnings or bans or whatever, because you've been breaking far more rules for the past year--notice how you've been banned three times already? And why was that, I wonder? Here's a hint: Runouw.com isn't the problem, nor is its community, nor was its former community before you splintered it permanently.