Ask an Admin

[sage]

There seems to be a feeling of lack of communication between some members and the staff (the Admin in particular), so I'm creating and sticky-ing this thread in the hopes of remedying that problem.

If there are any things troubling you about the state of the website, this is your chance to talk to an Admin about them. I can't promise to know the answers to all of your questions (especially the technical ones), but I will answer them to the best of my ability.

Remember to keep it civil.

 

[Mysiath]

I spent two minutes deciding what rating to give this. Hard life is hard.

I myself have a question regarding... I suppose donation. Honestly. I feel like it's... I don't know what it feels like now. Well what I'm essentially asking is will there be more for the members who donate. One thing I'm really not liking is the forced color change of the name. I don't even like yellow that much and I would very much love an option to change the color.

Why does the Ad-Free option exist? Should that not essentially be removed and added to the other two donate options? Just curious...

 

[sage]

Well what I'm essentially asking is will there be more for the members who donate. One thing I'm really not liking is the forced color change of the name. I don't even like yellow that much and I would very much love an option to change the color.

At the moment, I'm not aware of anything new in the works for VIP members.

Allowing VIPs to change their color wouldn't be difficult to do, but it would have to all be done by hand and could be tedious. Each member would have to be assigned their own user group.

However, we could have a predetermined range of colors for VIPs. We wouldn't want a VIP to pick something too similar to staff colors so we can't stray from the yellow too much. We also want it to be easy for people to tell different member types apart.

For example, if there were orange, yellow, and lime VIP colors, we would only have to put VIPs into one of the three different color groups instead of making a whole new one for that member. Is that something you would like?

Why does the Ad-Free option exist? Should that not essentially be removed and added to the other two donate options? Just curious...

@Xyphien has his own reasoning for the price (and separation) based on the monthly ad revenue the site earns. He explained it to me once, but we were in the middle of something else, and I don't remember it.
I don't have anything to do with the money going in or out of the site.


Edit: Fixed some wording.

 

[Cunechan]

I'm gonna talk all open about this and many are interested in knowing. I know there has been a lot of trolling lately but why are you censoring posts about important parts concerning the forum? It just doesn't make sense to me why these things keep being censored, some of them really try to help. We should really be able to talk about this normally

EDIT: Sorry for asking so directly, but I am really tired of this issue being ignored or forgotten.

 

[Mysiath]

At the moment, I'm not aware of anything new in the works for VIP members.

Allowing VIPs to change their color wouldn't be difficult to do, but it would have to all be done by hand and could be tedious. Each member would have to be assigned their own user group.

However, we could have a predetermined range of colors for VIPs. We wouldn't want a VIP to pick something too similar to staff colors so we can't stray from the yellow too much. We also want it to be easy for people to tell different member types apart.

For example, if there were orange, yellow, and lime VIP colors, we would only have to put VIPs into one of the three different color groups instead of making a whole new one for that member. Is that something you would like?

Thank you for explaining some of this to me. I suppose I'm really used to forums that involved something of a shop that used post-related points that allowed forum users to buy different things. Color change/title change/add some sparkle to the name/ etc.

But I don't know much about forums and how making something like that for a forum would work. I agree with the point that the color shouldn't be similar to staff colors.

And that is indeed something that I would like.

Thank you, once again, and I'll ask more if more questions invade my mind.

 

[sage]

I'm gonna talk all open about this and many are interested in knowing. I know there has been a lot of trolling lately but why are you censoring posts about important parts concerning the forum? It just doesn't make sense to me why these things keep being censored, some of them really try to help. We should really be able to talk about this normally

This is an issue I don't really understand. I'm not sure what's being censored because I haven't been keeping a close eye on all of the day-to-day threads.

What I think is happening is something we have that is a "Spam Ban." We use this to remove spammers, such as the bots that post hundreds of threads advertising something, very easily. All it once, it bans the user, IP bans them, and removes all of their posts.
We also use it to remove second accounts of people who are banned (second accounts have been occurring quite a bit recently), because those are against the rules. This deletes all of their messages, because they should not have been posted in the first place. They were banned, so they shouldn't be allowed to post anymore.

We also deleted several posts of users who were arguing with each other in the Donation thread. However, I noticed people talking about more deleted posts earlier in the thread, and I can't explain why they were removed. I didn't log on until after that happened. I don't know what the posts were, who removed them, or why they were removed.


[doublepost=1475315619,1475315384][/doublepost]

But I don't know much about forums and how making something like that for a forum would work. I agree with the point that the color shouldn't be similar to staff colors.

Everything basically revolves around creating groups. You make a user group type, and set their powers/priveleges. Then, you customize their title, posting color, and stuff like that. Making ones for each member would be tedious, especially after giving all VIPs the option because they'd want to all change their color at once.

Making a small number of user groups would be much easier though, as we would only have to sort VIPs into whichever one they want. Once the three (I'm arbitrarily choosing three here) are set up, it wouldn't be any harder than changing a regular member into a VIP.

 

[Lore]

However, we could have a predetermined range of colors for VIPs. We wouldn't want a VIP to pick something too similar to staff colors so we can't stray from the yellow too much. We also want it to be easy for people to tell different member types apart.

Just touching briefly on the colour issue, I too would love to see a selection of colours we could use instead of the standard yellow/gold for sponsors/partners. But of course it would depend on what the ease of implementing such a feature would be.

I'm gonna talk all open about this and many are interested in knowing. I know there has been a lot of trolling lately but why are you censoring posts about important parts concerning the forum? It just doesn't make sense to me why these things keep being censored, some of them really try to help. We should really be able to talk about this normally

EDIT: Sorry for asking so directly, but I am really tired of this issue being ignored or forgotten.

@sage I think what @Cunechan is asking here isn't so much about the posts being deleted, but the content of said posts that were deleted. While I understand about things like the second accounts being against the rules, I think this stems from the core issue the posts were trying to address, which, based on my understanding, stems from an incident that happened months ago.

That also being said, I personally believe that the method with which those person responsible for the shitposting that was going on over the last few days was appropriate. While I understand that they were angry about [a situation], the way they went about dealing with it was not on. To be perfectly honest, it was making them sound like a 10 year old who got told they couldn't have ice cream for dessert. They may have been angry/upset, but there were better ways to deal with the issue. This is a public forum, and realistically, such behaviour isn't tolerated. It should have been dealt with elsewhere, such as via PM, email, Discord, etc., whatever is the preferred medium.

To be fair however, while I personally don't care about it, it is obvious that there are number of members who do care about the reason this occurred. Perhaps there is a way to satisfy those who want to know this information without it impacting those people who don't care. I don't know.

To sum this up, I should probably ask a question, so I'll ask this: I NEED MOAR BADGE POINTS!!! :D

 

[Xyphien]

Just touching briefly on the colour issue, I too would love to see a selection of colours we could use instead of the standard yellow/gold for sponsors/partners. But of course it would depend on what the ease of implementing such a feature would be.

We don't have it currently not because it is hard to implement, but because finding a color that 1. goes with the site without looking weird/blending in, etc. 2. That we are not currently using/Won't use in the future. Is quite hard. Currently The colors that are in use are Red = Admin, Blue = Site Programmer/Coder, Purple = Moderator, Green = Resource Team, and then Yellow/Orange = Donators. This leaves us with very little room for change in colors without it potentially making a donator look like a ranked color. We really cannot change the brightness of a color, because then people might get mistaken anyway.

I'm gonna talk all open about this and many are interested in knowing. I know there has been a lot of trolling lately but why are you censoring posts about important parts concerning the forum? It just doesn't make sense to me why these things keep being censored, some of them really try to help. We should really be able to talk about this normally

EDIT: Sorry for asking so directly, but I am really tired of this issue being ignored or forgotten.

To be perfectly honest, it was making them sound like a 10 year old who got told they couldn't have ice cream for dessert. They may have been angry/upset, but there were better ways to deal with the issue. This is a public forum, and realistically, such behaviour isn't tolerated. It should have been dealt with elsewhere, such as via PM, email, Discord, etc., whatever is the preferred medium.

 

[Amysaurus]

The thing that bothers me about the post deletion is that a lot of times the posts being deleted are, while generally disagreeing with the main topic/suggestion at hand, not otherwise breaking any rules. It's almost always this awkward cycle of: Post 1. Main post Post 2. Someone disagrees Post 3. Someone agrees *Post 2 magically disappears*.

I understand not wanting them there - it sucks to not have people immediately hop on board with what you have to say. The problem is that it makes us question whether you guys really care about what we have to say or not.


Anyway, i just realized none of that was a question lmao.

Hmm... any chance that seasonal themes are going to make a comeback?

 

[Cunechan]

...and? I don't understand your non existant comment to this, sorry. Not all of the posts have been offensive or badly worded or something. There were some real and well-meant ideas amid them. The reason why it was people who left back then is because nothing changed (when you look at the TOS for example). Yes, it was partly off-topic, some were bashingly and some were shitposts but it truly seemed like the members were judged because of how they were back then, they are still members and have the right to be treated like any other member. They have the rights to free speech.

That also being said, I personally believe that the method with which those person responsible for the shitposting that was going on over the last few days was appropriate. While I understand that they were angry about [a situation], the way they went about dealing with it was not on. To be perfectly honest, it was making them sound like a 10 year old who got told they couldn't have ice cream for dessert. They may have been angry/upset, but there were better ways to deal with the issue. This is a public forum, and realistically, such behaviour isn't tolerated. It should have been dealt with elsewhere, such as via PM, email, Discord, etc., whatever is the preferred medium.

Yes, there were attacks in the last days. But the situation has been going on for really long now. Some did not deal correctly with the situation but some did. And some still really care about this place and tried to suggest improvements or pointed out problems and their posts got deleted. To be exact it was a post of Chibievil and @Amysaurus that got deleted that had NOTHING wrong on them, they were just criticism and suggestions. I just don't understand why these two posts that were one of the first responses in the donation thread got deleted. This is my problem with the censorship here, ofc shitposting and aggressive behavior is being dealt with differently but Chibi and Amy didn't do anything wrong in my opinion.

 

[Lore]

To be exact it was a post of Chibievil and @Amysaurus that got deleted that had NOTHING wrong on them, they were just criticism and suggestions. I just don't understand why these two posts that were one of the first responses in the donation thread got deleted. This is my problem with the censorship here, ofc shitposting and aggressive behavior is being dealt with differently but Chibi and Amy didn't do anything wrong in my opinion.

I didn't actually see their posts, so I don't know what happened there. So I can't say either way. I don't know why they were deleted. That would be an issue to be brought up with Xy (or whoever deleted them), probably in PM.

The thing that bothers me about the post deletion is that a lot of times the posts being deleted are, while generally disagreeing with the main topic/suggestion at hand, not otherwise breaking any rules. It's almost always this awkward cycle of: Post 1. Main post Post 2. Someone disagrees Post 3. Someone agrees *Post 2 magically disappears*.

I understand not wanting them there - it sucks to not have people immediately hop on board with what you have to say. The problem is that it makes us question whether you guys really care about what we have to say or not.

I agree with that awkward cycle. And I certainly agree with the last part. Perhaps, in situations like this, it might be advisable that, if a post is removed, the person who posted it be notified as to why it was removed, if it seems that the post was deleted for a reason like above. Just a suggestion, because one thing I've noticed is that people have mentioned communication as an issue.

That being said, if a post is outright and downright abusive or otherwise malicious, then I believe that the post should be removed. If the person believes that the post should not have been removed, it can be brought up with admins in PM. Posts like that should never be allowed on a public forum, unless the forum is specifically for that purpose.

 

[sage]

The thing that bothers me about the post deletion is that a lot of times the posts being deleted are, while generally disagreeing with the main topic/suggestion at hand, not otherwise breaking any rules.

@sage I think what @Cunechan is asking here isn't so much about the posts being deleted, but the content of said posts that were deleted. While I understand about things like the second accounts being against the rules, I think this stems from the core issue the posts were trying to address, which, based on my understanding, stems from an incident that happened months ago.

Even if the intentions of the "second accounters" are good, the posts are going to be removed. If they disagree, they are still going to be removed. No matter what they're saying, we can't let people that have been banned keep posting.

To be exact it was a post of Chibievil and @Amysaurus that got deleted that had NOTHING wrong on them, they were just criticism and suggestions.

I don't know anything about this, unfortunately. The posts have been erased, so I can't even see them.

My only guess for their deletion is that they were interpreted inappropriate for the time/topic. I just don't know because I didn't get to read them and I wasn't the one to delete them.

Do those two posts encompass the entirety of the censorship problem, or are there more instances of it (besides the obvious second accounters)?

Perhaps, in situations like this, it might be advisable that, if a post is removed, the person who posted it be notified as to why it was removed, if it seems that the post was deleted for a reason like above.

This depends on the staff member who deletes it. I've seen some give reasons, and some not. Encouraging the staff to type a reason in would be a good idea though.

Hmm... any chance that seasonal themes are going to make a comeback?

I'm not sure about Seasonal themes, but we will be having new Holiday ones.

 

[Jodis]

I like the default it is easy for me to see. Lots of contrast.

 

[Cunechan]

Even if the intentions of the "second accounters" are good, the posts are going to be removed. If they disagree, they are still going to be removed. No matter what they're saying, we can't let people that have been banned keep posting.

I know you could not see the posts but the first ones removed were by chibs and Amy, as far as I know they've never been banned. (only biz was banned, wasn't he? Was Shin banned too? Was Chibi banned before this started?)

Do those two posts encompass the entirety of the censorship problem, or are there more instances of it (besides the obvious second accounters)?

I am not sure to be honest, there were other posts being deleted but I do not remember them anymore. What was obvious though was they criticized the first post/thread and disagreed, gave suggestions for improvements and were worded civil and nicely. And after I came back to the thread, the posts were gone. It really gave me the impression that they were just removed because they were criticizing. It's okay, but at least explain why they were removed or comment/say that it was misunderstood. It is okay to disagree, is it not?

Holiday

Yay new themes~ I'm totally looking forward to them ouo

 

[sage]

(only biz was banned, wasn't he? Was Shin banned too? Was Chibi banned before this started?)

Biz has been banned for months.
I don't know who Shin is.
I don't know and I don't think I can check the exact time of the ban to find out.
[doublepost=1475338091,1475337981][/doublepost]

It's okay, but at least explain why they were removed or comment/say that it was misunderstood. It is okay to disagree, is it not?

Definitely. It leads to discussion.
I am notifying the staff and encouraging them to fill in the "Why" box when posts are deleted.

 

[Cunechan]

I don't know who Shin is.

https://rpgmakermv.co/members/shinshitposter.96/ that guy.

Definitely. It leads to discussion.
I am notifying the staff and encouraging them to fill in the "Why" box when posts are deleted.

Thanks.

 

[LTN Games]

Okay I originally had a lot to say but everyone is starting to cover in the gaps so I'll start with this little bit.

I know you could not see the posts but the first ones removed were by chibs and Amy, as far as I know they've never been banned. (only biz was banned, wasn't he? Was Shin banned too? Was Chibi banned before this started?)

Chibi was banned for other reasons in a PM to @Xyphien MadPumpkin was banned for Screenshots of a Biz Monkeys second account postings as well as a clear vendetta towards the forum, though the second reason is not 100% legitimate the first one is and should never be done. Shin was temp banned, I increased warning points after his Pineapple spamming posts which I'm pretty sure put him on a temp ban, which can be changed at anytime.

I am not sure to be honest, there were other posts being deleted but I do not remember them anymore. What was obvious though was they criticized the first post/thread and disagreed, gave suggestions for improvements and were worded civil and nicely. And after I came back to the thread, the posts were gone. It really gave me the impression that they were just removed because they were criticizing. It's okay, but at least explain why they were removed or comment/say that it was misunderstood. It is okay to disagree, is it not?

This is what I'm curious about, I only heard of censorship in the last 3 days, I have never deleted a post because I disagree with it nor have I seen other staff members do this as well. I am all open to hearing about these topics but I have no recall of any of them. Almost all issues have been brought up publicly and dealt with that way. If posts have been censored then why have they never been brought up to the staff in a PM. Which brings me to this, if any of the memebers here feel as if they are being mistreated and censored let me know by PM and I'll help you figure out whats wrong, don't keep things bottled up and bring it all up in a topic that was not meant for it.

 

[sage]

https://rpgmakermv.co/members/shinshitposter.96/ that guy.

Nope. If their name isn't crossed out, then they aren't banned.
All of the banning methods (temporary, permanent, and spam) cross out the user's name.

Edit: Ah, I see why you were asking now. @LTN Games cleared it up in the post above.

 

[Lore]

How about explosions!? Surely explosions will clear everything up!

Can I maybe has explosions nao plz? kthx :D XD

 

[sage]

How about explosions!? Surely explosions will clear everything up!

Can I maybe has explosions nao plz? kthx :D XD

I don't think that's the kind of clearing up everyone wants. Sorry.