Dark has been waiting patiently for the rest of us to decide what to do (there are already differences of opinion in the mod team) and has gone away for the weekend. Plus, honestly, do you blame him?

*makes handsigns and summons a waterdragon.*
PS.
Not sure what to say here.
If possible I hope what damage that's bin caused to Walter can be undone.

Well, hopefully we can get this resolved soon. It's too important to leave on the back burner, but this kind of thing is very unpleasant. Of course, if we want this to resolve well, I guess we shouldn't rush it either.

Before I make my next point, I need to remind people that I'm not on Dark's side in this argument. With that out of the way, here's my next point. If I were the chief moderator of this forum and I did things that were wrong and you all started talking about me, I would get to you eventually, but I would take my time about it and yes, I would take the weekend off. Being on the forum all the time checking each room to make sure everything's in tiptop shape would tire me out, and I would deserve a break. Hell, I'd ask one of the mods to step up for a bit while I take a much needed vacation to the Bahamas and say screw everything, I'm just going to worry about myself for the next few weeks. I've been moderating this forum for over 10 years, I can take off 3 weeks.

I feel like pretty much everything worth saying has already been said, but there is one thing.  This thread is the last place I want to see Dark post.  I'm sure plenty of people read the blog post that aren't necessarily following this thread.  This thing is massive.

NOW!
I am sick of you lowlifes fflinging mud all over the place.  As a result, I have decided to incorporate a new two-pronged pole-arm... I mean, strategy to deal with you all.
1. My Mud client is about to open a few ports, from which streams of mud will emerge and bury you all in bits of mud.
2. My gnome inventor, Gnomercy, recently invented a neat gadget called the tel-net.  Basically, you say "tel," and a net is released in front of you to magically collect all of the garbage that's flung at you.  That mud is then channeled into my mud client to make its blasts even stronger.
What are you going to do now, suckers!  I mean, other than roll in mud?
If you even try to resist my power, I will release the thousands of cattle I have stored in my pocket, and they will cause your eardrums to blow with their loud MOOOOOOO!  Your entire body will vibrate so violently
from the sonic attack that it will turn into MUSH.
Cheerio!

@217: If there's any alcoholic beverage you should be having with your burritos, it's a margerita. Not sure where you got that other idea. Gross man.

Haha, completely agreed with 218, your stomach will probably thank you if you take that advice.

Although I do agree that this is not the place for Dark to make an official statement. When he does, I expect it to be in its own separate topic, not only so that it isn't enmeshed in all the controversy of this one, thus providing a clean slate, but also because whatever decision is made will most likely be monumental in changing the direction of the forum going forward. That sort of change should never be attached to the baggage of any existing thread.

One thing that absolutely, positively , with out any question needs to be done is reforms on cracking banns.
I just saw a topic where someone was warned twice for asking or suggesting cracked softwre, and they were not banned? Asking/suggesting/offering cracks should be immediately bannable. There are a set of rules, people agree to them, and that is that.
It takes a couple of minutes to read forum rules and ignorance of the rules is no excuse. This is goign to sound harsh, but I'm sorry. Allowing people multiple chances when they have asked/offered cracks sends a message that the administration does not care about developers or their lively hood. In my case, LWorks helps put bread onthe table, and I find it completely disrespectful that someone who says. Here's where you can download illegal games is allowed to remain on this forum. And I apologize Sebby, but I'm kind of aiming this at you as I know you are the one who gave this one guy a second chance and told him he had one strike left. But What needs to happen is a hard and fast rule laid out. I vote for 0 tolerance when it comes to the illegal distribution or discussion of any software.

And on top of that in some parts of the world cracking is more accepted so it may not be as huge an offense for them as it would be to many people here. And the language thing also makes it hard. I'm not taking up for people who post such stuff, but I think there are legitimate problems on this forum that need to be sorted out which directly involve how we punish people for these types of offenses. Since cracking is rarely ever a personal attack made out of malice and defamation, I think a warning can be afforded before a ban. We all make mistakes especially when we're in a culture we're not familiar with, which speaks an unfamiliar language. Fair is fair though, so we have to give the same punishments to everyone. We can't be too strict on people who meant nothing first time, nor too lenient on people who are very familiar with it and just don't care.

But we could make excuses all day. We could take up for those excuses which I think the mods have been doing a little too much. I don't think it's necessarily their fault; this stuff isn't laid out strait so there's not much in the way of procedures to enforce. If the rules are written very clearly, even for people who don't know English, then we have taken reasonable measures to ensure that even they understand as well as any of us.

As an example of a clear rule regarding cracks, it could look like this:

It is never acceptable to post registration keys, and other files that let anyone unlock the demo of a game without paying for it, unless the developer has given permission. If they haven't given permission, it is not allowed. Posting these files or keys is against the law. Developers work hard to make their games, and many of them rely on the money they get from customers. If you post these types of things, you are taking a lot of money away from them, because many people will be able to play the game without paying for it. Anyone who is caught posting these will be given a severe warning. If you do it again you will be banned ((blocked from the forum) for two weeks. If you continue to post them, you will permanently be banned from the forum. This is something we take very seriously!

Granted, that may be a little too scary/formal-looking, and that was sort of the point. we need something more formal than what we have. And anyway I am not the rule writer, the example above was just showing how clear I think we should be making our new rules. I don't know how I could have said it any clearer. Someone has to start the administrative ball rolling though, and until then, I don't know how productive it is for us to throw our own proposed rules around. I suspect the mods and admins are deliberating over rule changes at this very moment, and have been for a long while.

Edit: clarified fake rules a bit more

thing is though even if it was would he even come back? something else that has just struck me, i haven't seen or heard anything from Lauri on any thread. or on the gamers list. her silents on this whole thing the blog included is rather interesting. although i haven't checked the bsg blog for additional comments so she may have commented on there but i don't know.

As for the cracking issue, side-note, but would anyone have any devs have confidence in deploying a bitcoin wallet for international folks? I have a feeling a big issue is Paypal, from an international point of view, not being as big a standard as they think they are. I will say that's pretty stupid, as a financial institution you'd think they'd diligently be hard at work getting regulated in a lot more countries, but what do I know. But if developers were able to openly accept Bitcoins, could there possibly be a chance that people who actually want to buy the games may be able to have a chance? ON the other hand there are some people that will say it isn't worth the time which is just a dumb excuse, although to be fair Bitcoin, from what I have heard and used of it has varying degrees of accessibility depending on what you use.
Alright, there's my take on that, now back on topic. I do agree that there needs to be a more hard-fast punishment for game cracks especially. I think part of the issue is the differing actions of the mods; some are only too happy to hit the ban button while others aren't that quick to which they've admitted to. There's been less of that lately, in part due to this thread I'm sure, but the mods still act differently at times. Which is all the more reason that there should be an actually laid out suspension/banning system for dealing with cracks.