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Registered: Nov 2010
Posts: 32 |
Staff response to The Shadows complaint about CSDb in VN #68
Staff response to The Shadow's complaint about CSDb in VN #68
This answer would have been published in VN #68 in response to The Shadow's accusations, but we never got a request to answer, and as some people might believe The Shadow's accusations we can't wait another year to get an answer published.
While CSDb indeed might be "the central hub of the Commodore 64 Scene", it is not the scene; it is a database and a forum, thus moderated just like any other online forum. The criticism from The Shadow is mainly aimed at "the corrupt Moderator Team, currently governing the CSDb", being CreaMD, Zyron, Dishy, The Communist, hedning, Moloch, E$G, Count Zero, Bugjam, and Ian Coog. The Shadow/Avatar's view seems to be that there have been a change in the moderation of CSDb since "the installation of the new team". This is an obsessive idea he has been spreading since around the time he was banned. What he means by that is obviously the introduction of hedning, E$G, Moloch and Count Zero 2014-09-27. At the same time Groepaz retired as moderator. The main reason for The Shadow's complaint seems to be to gain access to CSDb again by getting sympathy by fellow sceners, trying to convince people he was unfairly banned by corrupt moderators that do not like him.
While it is tempting to just ignore The Shadow's complaint, as he has been frequently trying to get back to CSDb since his ban, and the issue should be (and have been) discussed privately between CSDb and The Shadow, we will try to put all facts on the table now, as The Shadow obviously wants this discussion in public.
1. For a ban the staff needs to vote about it. There is no single moderator that alone can ban a user more than 24 hours (panic ban). The Shadow correctly states that the main reason for his ban was that he posted pictures all over the database. While he counted them to about 10, and called them "silly" and "artful", we can conclude that there were over 15, and consisted of genitals and more or less disturbing pics, amongst a lot of nonsense pics. By some reason Kabuto got his entry pic changed to female genitalia, which made us react and investigate further. A lot of random text was also changed and added by The Shadow, non-scene related stuff that resembles naming and shaming, with info about heavy drug abuse, prison etc. If anyone wants to see the pictures we can gladly(?) supply them. This is however not the only reason he was banned for, as he also aggressively fought fellow sceners in the forums with pretty ugly and unnecessary accusations at different occasions. You can all search the CSDb forums for "Scene Cloak and Dagger Exposed!" (2013) where The Shadow accuses Sixx/GP for "killing" a scener and forcing people off the scene. He was however not banned for creating hysteric dramas on CSDb (there wouldn't be many users left then, would there?).
2. There is no such thing as a perma-ban, and life-long ban. The moderators always warn people before banning. The only exception is when people mess with the database (we can't let that happen, as the time and energy put in by the preservers are insanely huge, and most important for the database. It also takes a lot of time cleaning up). If people want to get back in they can communicate with the moderators in a civilised manner, and after some time they might be allowed to return. In The Shadow's case it should be pretty obvious for anyone that he is not trying to get in by being very calm and humble, understanding what he did was wrong. Instead of trying to understand what he did, he keeps attacking CSDb mods, calling some of us unintelligent, corrupt and "unqualified fools" that hides information from the site owner Perff (which of course is completely false. Perff has complete overview of all internal forums and discussions, and fully trust the staff.)
3. The Shadow also criticize the staff for connecting his fake handle "Bugs Bunny" he once used to his main handle. This is common practice when there is proof that two handles belongs to the same scener. Just check CSDb and see for yourself.
4. As Wile Coyote, JSL and Darth Plagueis did not sign The Shadow's complaint, we will not spread private info about the reasons they were banned. Without details, however, JSL threatened fellow sceners to the point where he officially hoped that someone got cancer, and got warned many times before being banned. Darth Plagueis didn't just have an "argument with a moderator" - he harassed a moderator for years. In Wile Coyote's case he was warned many times after manipulating the database. He was banned after mass deleting entries - nota bene: this was before "the installation of the new team". In addition JSL and Wile Coyote both officially, for example on Lemon and IRC, kept on attacking the Staff after being banned, calling us a lot of mean stuff, and in JSL's case also made hate pictures etc, which proves that they are not ready to be let in again as they do not seem to understand why they were banned in the first place. It seems that being a querulant after being banned is easier than being humble and try to understand why they were banned.
It is not a human right to have an account on CSDb, and we moderators will collectively keep on trying our best to make CSDb a friendly and constructive database and forum for the active C64 scene. If some people refuse to act according to the forum rules, we will ban them - not because we enjoy it, but because that is part of our job.
/The CSDb moderators |
