About darkblade

[setishock]

let's try this then...

Ok so if you have a low opinion of a product then preface your post with "In my personal opinion" or "It has been my personal experince".
Not just comming on like gangbusters and cussing and being really negative. Give a valid reason why you don't like the product and/or why you don't reccomend it. Just flat out intel or amd sucks is not what we are after in a responce.
EDIT: I need to pop this up in the other thread I'm working on. Seems to fit in there as well.

 

[catalyst1]

For example, if someone is selling a graphics card in the for sale lounge, saying that (brand) is crap is not allowed as it can affect the users sale of the card and clutter the thread. If someone is asking which card to buy between card A and card B then critisim is allowed.

However, because a personal opinion is not high of a brand does not make them bad. People are asking for mature and accurate advice on these forums and if I was in their position I would like to receive accurate advice before spening alot of money on equipment.

- Is that not reasonable?

Well, if a product gives poor performance, it should be known. Just because someone is selling a poor product doesn't mean it shouldn't be noted that it's not worth it. In fact, it SHOULD be noted to protect people who don't know about a product's poor performance. Now, this is different than blatant company bashing, i.e. Intel is the sucks!!!11!1 Try to at least explain your reasoning, giving the other members a starting place for further research.

 

[Dishdog]

the only rule i dont liek is the flamming of products. thats kinda limiting your opinions isnt it? if your opinion is intel sucks or not you should be allowed to say that

It doesn't bother me when ppl have proof to back it up with. SO! many ppl just say intel sucks and AMD is better when they have no proof. DarkBlade was the only one to really have proof.

Just say what brand you prefer. you don't have to bash the othe companies.

"Didn't your mother ever tell you if you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all",lol.

 

[DarkBlade1]

I usually don't bash products, however, I will continue to do so with PROOF. I have loads of that you know. So if proof is required, so be it. I have never cussed out a product, that is just childish. Calling it non profane names is, in my opinion, ok. If you want proof why Intel is so horrible, refer to my thread in this social lounge. Bah, I am done trying. David has specified the rule to be less harsh then the MODs initial hitlerized totalitarianistic ruling.

 

[Nik00117]

Frankly this fourm is a BIT STRICT. But its a good one. Some times its really hard to control me self.

 

[setishock]

not really...

Things have just gotten out of hand again and we are having to clamp down some. Some think it's great while others just flat out don't like it. I think once we get things back under control we can relax a little. With the new rules posted and enforced things should get back to a quieter state rather quickly.

 

[catalyst1]

I have to agree with Nik. Since I've been here, I've seen quite a bit of abuse of the moderator priviledges. I guess abuse isn't the right word. 'Overuse' is better. It just seems like if someone upsets a mod, a suspension/ban quickly ensues, even if it was explainable or otherwise addressable. I love the forums themselves, but the subjective grip on them kind of leaves you gasping for some breathing room. Where's the line? That depends on which mod sees your post first, I guess.

 

[lurkswithin]

David has mentioned quite a few times that no member has been banned without due cause. You are only seeing half the picture.

Every member that has been banned for any length of time was warned about his behaviour. And that was a three strikes your out issue. On top of that the bannings were discussed in the staff lounge and David has overseen every banning that has taken place.

This is common practice in every forum on the web. The only difference is that you as members are allowed to see that another member had his account closed. I myself have never seen that displayed before in other forums as there is no open communication at any time with the admin as every thing is restricted to email communications. In most cases you as a member would not even be aware of it unless you knew that person personally or had a direct outside contact with them.

Believe me when I tell you that the banning of members goes on in every website and a lot worse than this.

EA games (pogo) normally has anywhere from 2500 to over 5000 members online at any given time. They ban on average 400 players a week which is averaged to about 60 per day or 2.5% of their online players per day.

In the past 2 weeks there has only been 30 members banned in this forum. That averages out to be 2 per day or 1%. Now out of those 30 bannings 24(single post) of those were for spamming I believe and the others were banned for other violations in which half of those have been reinstated as full members to the forums.

But to break it down even further. there was 1 particular member that was banned and kept signing back in with I believe it was 6 different names (verified by IP check) in which case you are very much aware of this. That lowers the averages down by one sixth more. So you can see that the banning that are in this site are well below that of other sites By the way two other forums have told me that they average between 3 and 5%. In which one of them is a forum exactly like this one.

What members see is a name that the account is closed. This same name is posted in almost all the forums and in each case it is an account closed tag that you see. The names become obscure and all you see is this account closed tag.

Now in one instance a long time member had to be permanately banned. He had some 3000 posts and on all those posts that are brought forward is the account closed tag. some of these are in stickied posts and will always be out in the front so to speak. Combine this with the spammers and it is really no wonder that all you see is someone being banned.

You see us moderating because this site was on a down hill slide with all the blatant abuse that was prevelant throughout the forum. It was a mess. we
analyzed the problems and went after it. Plain and simple. Most of it is straightened up and back on track. There are a few troublesome areas that have to be worked out but basically It is a major improvement over what it was.

This was accomplished because the members saw it for what it was and filed reports of abuse and we did what was neccessary. There was never a grudge thing as some would like you to believe. They have a persecution complex because they knew they were in the wrong. This sort of thing is still present. They abuse the system then they get caught and scream foul like little babies because they got caught.
They think it is funny and try to make a game out of it. They purposely test the system for weaknesses so they can exploit them.
These are the type of members that were the cause of all this to begin with and they are slowly beeing seen for what they truely are and weeded out.

No one has to worry about getting banned unless they are abusing the rules. As long as you abide by the rules then you have no worry.
The mods here don't want to ban anyone. Believe it or not. That is your decision. All we want is for the members to abide by the rules. and some common sense. Most in here know what is right or wrong and most are extremely good forum members with good posts and good manners about how they post.

All it takes is for one or two to steam roll a thread into a bashing contests. then someone else sees this and thinks it is ok and continues it.

 

[mighty_chick]

wow lurks sounds like you really thought that through. i think that clarifies it up

 

[Wombät]

I have to agree with Nik. Since I've been here, I've seen quite a bit of abuse of the moderator priviledges. I guess abuse isn't the right word. 'Overuse' is better. It just seems like if someone upsets a mod, a suspension/ban quickly ensues, even if it was explainable or otherwise addressable. I love the forums themselves, but the subjective grip on them kind of leaves you gasping for some breathing room. Where's the line? That depends on which mod sees your post first, I guess.

Well If I abuse my moderator priviledges by banning a user who has multiple accounts (9 NINE). I am quite prepared to post the usernames here, plus the ip addresses to show that there was no mistake in banning said user.

This user had used another user account to PM David Lindon, asking to come back off a permanent banning.

I do not really mind, I will show you what some users will do to circumvent the rules to get there own way. This shows the lack of moral fibre that this person has because he cannot accept the original ban, which escalated into the permanent ban.