2018-11-02 17:49:27 (edited by Ethin 2018-11-02 17:50:42)

@304, lol, me playing the hero? If this situation is black-and-white like you and a few other people are portraying it to be, then I don't fit in either the 'hero' or the 'villain' category, since I don't fit in either black or white. I have already explained why I keep persisting with this; if dark can actually admit he fucked up instead of giving me a politician's response, my respect for him will climb a few notches because its hard to admit your wrong. Yet people do it anyway. Please stop being presumptuous and acting like you know what he will and won't do -- you are not him. It doesn't matter what the other moderators say he will or won't do either since they, too, are not him. Only dark can make that decision. And the only nerves I seem to be nipping at are yours.

"On two occasions I have been asked [by members of Parliament!]: 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out ?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."    — Charles Babbage.
My Github

2018-11-02 18:16:28

SirBadger wrote:

doesn't seem to have been swept anywhere. to me looks like it's been sprayed all over the walls in huge quantities. 2 people have resigned, people's names have been dragged through the dirt again and the community has been all kinds of messed up.
what more do you want? how many more witches do you want to burn? how much more damage do you want to cause!
pathetic behaviour I tend to find in these kinds of places. rabbel rousers and people that follow the people yelling.
what's done is done. what damage has been done is done. let's just move on and get over it all.

simba wrote:

Hi.
@Ethin, although I agree on the point that a person of authority, a politician, moderator, administrator or what ever authority has to stand up and tell everyone that he did something wrong and stick to the truth, but is it really worth it that we force an excuse from Dark about what he did wrong? Yes, he did gracefully avoid putting his cards onto the table and  clearly state what he did wrong and admit his failures, but, we shouldn't forget that he did step down from the position of head moderator, although he said that it was due to personall matters and real life mostly, I think we all know what the straw that broke the cammels back was in the end.
Ithink personally we should really get of his back for a while, there has been enough mud slinging and throwing dirt already, some day it's gotta be enough.

Huh, well would you look at that? Looks like I'm not the only one you're irritating.

Ethin wrote:

And the only nerves I seem to be nipping at are yours.

Huh, looks like I just proved you wrong, funny how that works isn't it?
Also, here's how I know that Dark isn't going to give you the answer you want. Because he's seen this topic long before now, so he would have definitely responded in it if he actually wanted to apologize wholeheartedly and admit his wrong doings. He does not seem to be comfortable doing that, and I wouldn't be either. Just leave it alone and except the fact that you're not gonna get what you want.

Discord: dangero#0750
Steam: dangero2000
TWITCH
YOUTUBE and YOUTUBE DISCORD SERVER

2018-11-02 18:24:46 (edited by Ethin 2018-11-02 18:25:42)

Fine. But just because I stop chattering on about this doesn't mean that this situation is resolved. And I wouldn't really claim that as a victory, either, since there seem to be a lot more people on my 'side" than your "side", if there were even sides to this issue to begin with.

"On two occasions I have been asked [by members of Parliament!]: 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out ?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."    — Charles Babbage.
My Github

2018-11-02 21:25:29

Ok, I believe a bit of an explanation is in order here. I wasn't going to speak about this publicly, but after Aprone's post, which I would give 1000 thumbs up to if I could, I am going to explain where I stand in this situation. No, it won't fix anything, and I'm beyond relieved that Walter has been unbanned, but sometimes, you have to take a few hits for something you've done, if only to clear your own conscience. That, however, is far from the only reason I'm making this post.

I've known Walter for several years now, and there was a time when we were very close. We were in a relationship for just under a year, in fact. I'm not going to go too deeply into this, but during that time, he was not always a nice person, and that's putting it mildly. He knows this, and has made a lot of strides towards being a better person, but I'll get back to that later in the post.

At the end of 2015, he and I had a massive falling-out over all of this, and around the beginning of 2016, he had gotten back in contact with me to try and fix things. I had some serious reservations about this, but I also still cared for him, so I started talking to him sporadically. Meanwhile, Lori and I had also began talking. I'd known her from a mailing list we were both on, but to call us friends would be a stretch. However, she began talking on this mailing list about Walter, and things he had done to make her uncomfortable. At this point, I reached out to her to ask her what was going on, and if there was anything I could do to help. I also didn't really trust him at that point, so maybe I was looking for a bit of ammunition to use against him as well, if I felt I needed it. Yes, that's petty, and I admit that, but it is the truth.

Lori and I became friends and spoke on Skype frequently. We both did a lot of complaining about Walter, and every day she had a new story about him. Now, here's the thing. I wholeheartedly believe that he did, in fact, say something to her that might have made her uncomfortable. Walter is, for lack of a better word, intense, and if you don't know him well, he can sometimes come across as domineering and a bit forward.

But now we get into the heart of the matter. Walter had been trying to tell me that he hadn't done or said half the things that Lori was accusing him of, and at that point, I honestly didn't believe him. I thought I could trust Lori. Then, the incident with the Survive the Wild logs happened. Walter wanted me to speak to Sam, and at first, I was hesitant, thinking, to be blunt, that Sam is just a kid and couldn't possibly understand the ramifications of such a serious situation. Over the course of a couple of days, though, he had shown me that many of the things Lori was claiming couldn't possibly be true. I was there, in a Skype call, when he matched the IP addresses of Lori and her friend, and when he deconstructed the logs. He patiently explained everything to me

There was just one huge problem. I had already gone to Dark and told him about my experiences with Walter. Not because I thought that it had anything to do with the forum, but because I thought I was helping a friend. You see, Lori had already created her post warning people about him, or should I say damning him. I saw a fair bit of hostility towards her in the responses that followed, so, because I figured that two coroborating stories are better than one lone account, I did in fact go to dark. however, I cannot stress this enough, my goal was not to get Walter banned from the forum. Even if I hated his guts, I would never do that to somebody. His actions here had nothing whatsoever to do with what he's done to me, or anyone else for that matter, in the past.

I had screwed up royally, and I knew it. Doubly so when everything came to light about Lori doctoring the logs, and faking her friend's suicide. That was the last straw, but what could I do? I couldn't very well go crawling back to Dark and say that I had been wrong. Dark's decision was final, and I figured that was my cross to bear, and bear it I did, though not well. That's neither here nor there, but the point is that these past two years have been hell for me. The guilt I've carried has been incredible.

Aprone fits into this as well. I was the other person he mentioned in his post, the person he talked to to try and get more information. At the time, I remember asking him for advice about what to do if Walter decided to stalk me, or hack into my computer, things he had threatened to do in the past. Believe me, I am not proud of this either, and I truly apologize to Aprone for involving him in this. It wasn't right of me. There were other things I discussed with Aprone as well, although my memory of that time is somewhat hazy. If he wants to lambast me for things I've said, I would fully deserve it at this point.

After the dust had settled, and things started to go back to what passes for normal when you've been fully responsible for destroying someone's digital life, Walter really did change. Perhaps it took such a drastic event for him to see that something in his life was very wrong, I don't know. I wish there had been a better way for him to come to that conclusion, but I can't go back and change the past, as much as I'd like to. Anyway, we became pretty close again, and, in fact, the reason we aren't as close as we were is simply that life has taken us in different directions, especially over the past year or so. He told me several times during this time that he didn't care about the forum, or whether people believed him, but how could you not? So, I always looked out for oppurtunities to clear his name, which is why, when the post came out on BSG, I contacted Smoke and told him my story, even going so far as to send him the original letter that I had sent to Dark. I'd never spoken to him before in my life, but he listened, and I feel that, although I did many things wrong in this whole situation, I at least tried to make it right in the end.

No, I don't want praise for that, or for posting this, nor do I want sympathy. What I did was an awful thing, and even though everyone makes mistakes, ones like this that could have had potentially earth-shattering consequences aren't things that can really be forgiven. Even though this had the best outcome I could have dreamed of, I still can't forgive myself. It will probably haunt me for the rest of my life, although I've certainly learned not to so easily put my trust in people who present as vulnerable. I've also learned that acting on impulse is almost never a smart idea. had I waited a few days and weighed the whole debacle rationally, I would never have sent that message to Dark, and none of this would have ever happened.

So, I guess that's all I have to say, and, like I've stated previously, it won't change anything, but I could no longer keep silent. I actually had considered posting this earlier in the thread, but I figured that, if the mods wanted to ban me for the role I played, I would have to wait until the right time to do it. I still needed to keep an eye on the thread, and post my input here and there. Now that none of that matters, I felt free enough to let it all out.

The glass is neither half empty nor half full. It's just holding half the amount it can potentially hold.

2018-11-02 22:24:16

I would like to thank you for that post turtlepower17. I do not know of anyone that could sit down and admit to that plus, gives me a bit more understanding what happened. Digging through a topic of people from both sides of this is not really fun. I am thinking that more can learn from what you been through per say.

All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring; Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king.
DropBox Referral

2018-11-02 22:35:16 (edited by Ethin 2018-11-02 22:36:02)

@308, wow... I have no words to say other than 'I'm sorry', which is not what you want to here and I know. smile However, I think I can offer comfort by saying that nun of us can truly know if sending that letter kicked off the following events or not. Perhaps in an alternate universe, you didn't ever do anything of those things, but the events still happened. Who knows? big_smile And thumbs up for telling us your side of the story. smile

"On two occasions I have been asked [by members of Parliament!]: 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out ?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."    — Charles Babbage.
My Github

2018-11-02 23:01:45

Given that aprone pointed out red flags to dark that would have been visible from pluto, and the guy's only response was to keep right on white knighting... I'd be willing to hazard that he'd have screwed Walter over letter or no letter.

Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.

2018-11-03 09:02:54

Wait a second here.
To clear something up, my only intend with the post was just to kindly ask Ethin if it is really worth it to persew Dark with the matter of apologizing for what he has actually done.
I did not, unlike shotgunshell, try to tell everyone that they should just shut up and lay that topic to rest. My post was just aimed at Ethin, noboddy else.

Greetings Moritz.

Hail the unholy church of Satan, go share it's greatness.

2018-11-03 10:02:51 (edited by Aprone 2018-11-03 10:04:02)

Turtlepower, thank you for making that excellent post.  You don't have to worry about any grudges from me.  smile

Even though Jayde "bowed out of this topic" and wants reponses give to him in private, I'm going to publicly respond to some of his rather harsh comments about me.  He posted his criticisms of me publicly, so it seems only fair that I can reply to them publicly.

Jayde wrote:

Given the facts, and given Aprone's obvious stake in this matter, I can do nothing but condemn his actions here as the publicizing of personal dirty laundry.

Would you please explain my "obvious stake in this matter"?  What exactly are you implying?

Jayde wrote:

Aprone is, by some at least, going to be held up as some sort of champion of justice and courage. in my view, at least, and based purely on this thread and on the talks I've been privy to within the moderator team, nothing could be further from the truth.

If you're going to suggest that I have some sort of synister motive, you should be backing that up with something.  How about you share portions of those talks you've been privy to, so everyone can see that you're right.

For someone who has tried to high road me in your earlier posts, you sure are acting like a coward here.  You make these generic attacks on my character, support them with literally nothing, then say you don't want to speak anymore about this publicly... wow.

Jayde wrote:

Aprone risked absolutely nothing to do what he did. He had nothing to lose and only reputation to gain, which he apparently has. The worst that was going to happen is that the team he'd just left was going to disapprove of his actions, which it seems that at least a few of us do. That's something he obviously doesn't seem to care much about. So please, let's not delude ourselves into thinking Aprone was brave or showed balls. Neither is the case. Bravery and guts only matter if you have something that you're likely to lose, or are putting yourself at risk in some way.

If you piss off people on this forum, what happens to you?  Well you might have to deal with some irritating comments from them from time to time, but that's essentially it.  That is true for nearly ever member on this forum, where the worst that can happen are annoying posts.  Please list for me Jayde, the number of members who will lose paying customers if they piss people off.  How many are there, just a few perhaps?  This forum has plenty of people who are big supporters of Dark.  Any drama I get involved in, period, runs the risk of getting people mad at me who will no longer pay to play my games.  I stand to lose all of the same things you could by stirring up drama, plus actual money out of my pocket.

As you said...

Jayde wrote:

Aprone, this forum was just getting back to a point where people were calming down. As you well know, the moderator team had reached a point where we'd agreed this would never happen the same way again. You had to walk in here and remove even more dignity not only from Dark himself but from the rest of us, who ultimately have to clean up this mess and deal with all the fallout, deserved and undeserved alike. I understand that you have a right to your feelings and such, but did you really have to do this?

If I would have just kept my mouth shut, things were calming down and may well have just gone away.  The safest thing for me to do would have been to keep quiet.  Saying anything at all risks people being angry with me, and risks losing customers.

Jayde I know you said you were done posting in this topic, but I know you're going to read this.  I'm not going to defend myself privately just because that's what you want.  You started this here, so continue it here.  If you didn't want to be called out for your comments, you shouldn't have made them.

- Aprone
Please try out my games and programs:
Aprone's software

2018-11-03 12:44:11

I thought my above post would have stopped all the arguing altogether, but I should have known that wouldn't happen. I want to be clear, I had two objectives with my posts. One, to gain victory in this hole Walter/Lory situation by restoring Walter, and two, to make sure all the arguing stopped and this got swept under the rug once Walter's ban was reversed. It seems my first objective was complete, but the second one isn't. At least nobody is arguing directly about Dark anymore, but nevertheless there's still bickering going on. What's worse is that it's coming from a former moderator and a currant moderator, who should both know at this point that civility is a priority here. Have we really sunken this low?

Discord: dangero#0750
Steam: dangero2000
TWITCH
YOUTUBE and YOUTUBE DISCORD SERVER

2018-11-03 13:18:57

well said aprone. if you're going to make comments in public stand by what you say or otherwise keep quiet. why should a person have to respond privately to a public comment? i think the expression coward fits rather well actually.

2018-11-03 15:29:22

@Shotgunshell I'm going to say this, it doesn't matter who's side you're on, or if you are on any side at all for that matter. I totally understand your desire to stop the arguing, wouldn't anyone? But I cannot agree with your stance about sweeping it under the rug. What, so you want this whole thing to risk being repeated, right? That's what your implying by wanting it to be swept under the rug, whether you intend to or not. You realize this is a situation that only got resurfaced to the extent it did thanks to public pressure from things like the blog post and the subsequent topic, right? And you have seen from the posts from people both involved and not involved in the situation, posts from people who have admitted to having a stake in what happened and are clearly owning up to it and trying to write the wrong. And in the middle of this there is moderation reform. I think what the moderators are trying to do is quite obviously put measures in place so that something like this actually never happens again, which is great. But part of that is making sure the community understands what really happens, because the situation was rife with coverups now rightfully exposed. I believe that's why Aprone posted post 273, because he specifically requested that he'd be given the 273rd post and that number took a while to show up on the rotation (sorry about the wait.) Lol! As I was saying, he made his post because he wanted to inform everyone of what really happened, from the situation itself, from talking to Smoke for his blog post, to what happened in the moderation discussions, and everything else in between. Then Jayde took it personally and while I can appreciate his issue from a moderation standpoint, I don't think that kind of response was entirely necessary. This coming from someone who wasn't involved or affected by the Walter situation, hell I wasn't but I'm doing this to put the pieces together for Garrett's sake and for everyone else who probably jumped into the topic late or anything to that effect. At any rate, I can understand the moderators want to have civility while essentially restoring everything and putting measure in place to improve forum moderation. And I can understand how a post like 273 thrown into the mix does take things for a drastic turn. However, we all are aware that the first step in setting everything on course is to fully eradicate the possibility of situations like this, part of that being exposing what happened so that people are made aware of everything. What this could lead to is the whole new view on transparency that was being talked about earlier. So that, is why Aprone made his post, no I do not see anything wrong with it, well maybe the timing can be a concern to some, but let me ask you this: What's better, letting it out now while the situation is still calming down for some, or waiting a while till it isn't what people are concerned about anymore then resurfacing it? Believe me when I say that I'll bet there would've been more "Really, this again?" responses from both users and moderators if he had waited longer. So that's my view on timing, I think it was better exposed now than later.

2018-11-03 17:04:17

Thank you Aprone, that means a lot.

I agree that now is actually the perfect time to bring up such matters. I also want to clarify something. I had said in an earlier post that, after some time has passed, I thought it might be a good idea to close the topic. I think the main reason I said that is because this whole thing is extremely stressful to me on a personal level, as everyone has probably figured out by now. But now that I'm facing it all head on, I can see the other side of the argument, too. Had the topic not resurfaced and taken the turn that it has, I'm not so sure that this wouldn't have been forgotten about. I think that the mods are most likely working on making changes, and I'm glad of that. But right now, the most important thing is trying to expose all that happened from every angle so that everyone, members and mods, can figure out how best to proceed.

The glass is neither half empty nor half full. It's just holding half the amount it can potentially hold.

2018-11-03 17:10:34

Jesus Christ shotgunshell! Let people sort out what they need to sort out. No one has descended to the level of mindless mudslinging and cursing out and name calling... so stop! Every other post on this topic is you interjecting and telling people to quit "bickering"... and it's getting annoying. A, you clearly have nothing more to argue about regarding the topic, so why are you still coming back? Do you some how believe your constant pleas to stop the arguing are actually going to work? B, this is something that is involving two or maybe more people, and you've already stated that your points have been made and you have nothing left to debate. Clearly though, the parties involved do. Hell, I get your frustration if it's directed at anyone personally attacking and endlessly trolling someone who's not defending themselves... but it's not. You're getting in the middle of a clearly unsettled dispute, where your seemingly only objective is to... what? Get this topic away from the top of the list? Worry too much about whether or not a few people hundreds of miles away are having a disagreement? Fuck! There are literally thousands of topics on the forum. If you want to sweep this under the rug, post on some of those and quit coming back to read this and put it fresh in your mind. Simple... as... that! clap clap clap clap.

If you have issues with Scramble, please contact support at the link below. I check here at least once a day, so this is the best avenue for submitting your issues and bug reports.
https://stevend.net/scramble/support

2018-11-03 17:19:00

Steve, do not applaud your own post.
Lol!
Seriously though, he is absolutely right. Garrett @shotgunshell I will point out, again, you weren't involved in this situation (none of us really were except the people who, well, were involved?) so not only is it not really affecting you directly, but you also probably don't understand the severity of this issue unless you've read the whole topic and blog post, which in turn would be all anyone would need to know. Which leads me to the point that this issue goes way beyond the forum and simple disputes, and that should go without saying. Here, both Turtlepower and Aprone have exposed or admitted what happened, and all you have to say is stop the bickering? It doesn't take 20 minutes to know that this goes way beyond typical forum drama. If it's a situation doesn't affect you personally or in a major way, unless you have something to contribute then you might as well move on to another topic. That would go for me as well if I was posting similar things, but the fact of the matter is that I'm not.

2018-11-03 17:40:50

Hi everyone.

Can I just ask everyone to stop for a minute and ask themselves how petty this whole thread makes us as a community look? I honestly think we are at a golden point in audio games, where for the first time ever in the history of audio games the sighted community are beginning to actually take accessibility seriously , we have main stream companies actually adding accessibility to their titles for the first time ever. People wanting to get onboard with adding accessibility or developers wanting to create audio games are all drawn to this forum, and this is the type of shit they see,  it makes us look so bad as a community I would completely understand them just walking away and not bothering  to build accessibility for us. At the end of the day  walters ban has been lifted, dark is no longer a moderator, the remaining moderation team have said they are working on putting processes in place so these kinds of things can never happen again,
let’s give them a chance to do that, rather than constantly hassling them for more or for apologies from dark. It’s done, it’s in the past, no its not forgotten and won’t be but there is a time to just let it go and move on to what is important which is audio games, since that’s what this forum is for. Please can we stop all the argueing, stop dragging this ugly post out, if you want drama go join one of the many face book groups which are all about drama but let’s keep here a place for audio games and audio games discussions, lets show the outside world looking in that we are all a decent bunch of people that just want to play good accessible games, rather than a bunch of people who just want nothing more than to bitch at each other, Come on we’re all much better than that surely?

2018-11-03 17:46:43 (edited by jack 2019-04-01 06:00:38)

@Vimes I would 100% agree, but let's clear up a few things.
1. I think at this point it's simply more to the point a lot of people coming forward and admitting or exposing what happened, which is actually helpful to most of the board as it lets us know what went wrong, and even gives the mods a clear course of action based on all the information.
2. This is in site and forum feedback. I doubt many new folks looking at this board are going to have this be the first thing they see. At this point if there were no hard feelings even after people have come forward and admitted what happened, I would agree that this would be a good time to put this whole thing to rest. At this point it doesn't look like many want to because they're still holding generic grudges.

2018-11-03 18:49:08

Aprone, you are absolutely right in that I can and will stand up and defend the things I say. Of everyone on the forum, yours were the only comments I planned to reply to publicly. I have mailed Ethin about comments that he made, and we have begun civil dialogue in that vein. I have also mailed Turtlepower concerning her admissions, and while she has not yet replied to me and perhaps never will, I am endeavouring to handle things professionally, calmly and rationally. I will attempt to do likewise with you.

First, when discussing your "personal stake" in this matter, I am referring to the way you comported yourself on the mod mailing list. You are clearly upset by what has happened, and I understand that. You pushed, even after Dark voluntarily stepped down, to have us publicly denounce or fire him. When you were essentially outvoted, you tendered your resignation and almost immediately turned around and re-opened the situation. You did not bring anything particularly new to the table. You did not prove any of your own assertions. You merely suggested that Dark deliberately omitted evidence that you or others were providing him. Given that the moderation team is hard at work trying to ensure that a mess like this never happens again, and given Dark's resignation, and further given his apology and his admission of wrongdoing, it is my firm belief that doing as you have done is nothing more or less than an example of you letting your feelings get the better of your good sense. Your personal stake, therefore, was in further promoting your agenda and further smearing Dark, and those who support him. We can ill afford this petty backbiting, especially at a time like this. You seem to feel that your right to speak the "truth", as you see it, trumps everything else, that because you did not get your way regarding Dark being recognized as having been fired, it was then upon you to stand up and keep pushing. What, exactly, did you hope to achieve here? What could you possibly have gained by this, except the reputation you got and the staunch support of those who have demonstrated themselves as allies in this endeavour?

Second, when I speak of you having nothing to lose, I believe there is a bit of selective perception occurring. While it is possible that people who are displeased with you might not become paying customers of yours, it is far, far more likely that you would simply re-ignite a blaze that had begun to sputter. We have demonstrated on this forum that there is an overwhelming tendency to gulp instead of tasting when it comes to this sort of inflammatory rhetoric, and you are by no means a stupid man. I cannot envision a realistic scenario where you are ignorant of the potential consequences of your actions. People are willing to stand up and hail you as brave even though you have not furnished any hard evidence to support your claims. They are willing to denounce Dark alongside you even though you are clearly upset by this and letting your feelings come between you and rational discourse. They are willing to help you fan these flames even though doing so hurts the community far, far more than it could possibly help. And you knew this would happen. What little risk there might be in a few people deciding not to be customers is vastly outmatched by the other side of this debate, so perhaps it is more accurate to say that you had comparatively little to lose. You, after all, are no longer a forum admin, and don't have to clean up the resultant debris when explosions like this rekindle arguments that were fading away. You are very unlikely to face serious blowback, because the tendency to take you at face value without actual proof has been well demonstrated. I find this ironic, in fact, because there are so many nonverifiable claims about Dark's behaviour being flung around that I scarcely believe a rational person could handle them all.

I am by no means a coward, and I am willing to defend what I say, but having done so here, Aprone, I expect that beyond this point, if you have further things to say to me, you will bring them to me privately.

In fact, consider this an unofficial caution, of sorts, not just to Aprone but to all forum members. I want this thread to stop. A previous poster made a point about how bad this might make us look, and while Site Feedback areas are not particularly high-traffic in most instances, the point has some weight. I do not wish to contribute further to the flogging of this particular dead horse, and did so here only because my comments about Aprone's character, aired publicly, merited public defense. Anyone who posts in this thread after this point will receive some sort of punitive action, whether it be further warning or a short ban, dependent upon the severity of the infraction. If I knew how to lock this topic so that no further posts would happen here, I'd do it and call it good. Until or unless that happens, however, this is to be the last public word in this thread. Anyone who has more to say is welcome to contact me privately, however; my door, as they say, is always open.

Please be advised that we are busy comparing evidence and gathering facts on the entirety of the situation, and will be making another post to officially present our stance on the matter. Subsequent to the posting of that official position, we as a team expect that, like it or not, the members of the forum respect that a consensus has been reached, and further respect the harm this topic, and its inability to die a dignified death, is doing to the community as a whole. I spoke in a previous post about damage control, and to a large extent this is what we are hoping to achieve now. This situation is going to require a heavier touch than I am used to, and indeed more firmness and rigidity than I frankly prefer, but when comparing harm vs. good to come of it, we have concluded that a hard-line position must be publicized, maintained and enforced if necessary. Stay tuned for further developments.

Lastly, I would like to apologize, personally, to one and all, for the entirety of this situation. Tempers have flared, aspertions have been cast, things have been said on all sides which, given time to reflect, probably ought not have been said. I maintain my stance, but I recognize that I am not immune from culpability, at least to some extent, although it should be pointed out that I had nothing to do with the Walter and Lori situation. I find it difficult to simply let offensive things stand unchallenged, and have taken a position as a moderator on this forum to help try and bring a little balance back. I like this heavy-handed approach just as little as the rest of you are apt to do, and I would not be insisting upon it - with the support of my fellow staff members, of course - if I did not think it was necessary. It does not indicate a shift in overall forum administration style, but should instead be taken as a response to a particular issue. We are not becoming dictatorial and inflexible on all issues and without reason. Nevertheless, this post, and the things it portends are likely to upset some people, so I apologize for that in advance. And, as stated above, I am sorry for my hand in this entire affair. I am trying my best to be civil and reasonable, but I am not perfect. I would ask that whosoever may read this try to work with us in restoring this forum to its former atmosphere of acceptance, safety and respect. If you feel that you cannot do this, or simply do not wish to, all I can ask is that you stand aside and let us get on with the work we have volunteered our time and resources to perform, rather than attempting to use volume and force to support your chosen platform. It will end badly, I'm afraid.

So, onward and upward, I suppose. Let's get back to the business of making audiogames.net a good place to be again. Help me out here. Send your further feedback on this topic via the appropriate channels, and not through any more threads or further replies on this one. I really do not want to have to punish anyone for failing to follow these directives.

Check out my Manamon text walkthrough at the following link:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/z8ls3rc3f4mkb … n.txt?dl=1

2018-11-04 04:40:54

Due to recent actions believed to be in haste by the community and even by Jayde himself, I am doing something that might be unheard of.
this topic is being reopened... for now. I don't know what the other mods are going to think of me for doing this.
Full transparency: believe it or not the other mods do not know I've done this before me doing it, but I do wonder if they might have seen it coming. For those waking up to it, I'm sorry for that. I feel like though, at the very least, this reopening, needed to happen. I don't know if this has even been done before on here.
So... blackscreen gaming then...In a previous topic (it's still ongoing by the way), someone said about doing a joke for the current topic, or something to ease the nerves. I can't think of a joke, but what about celebrating bsg itself and coming up with a valid question?
Can we join for the purposes of writing about games? Or due to this situation are we restricted from even taking part in that website just because we moderate for this forum? I don't have much against SmokeJay accept to ask, why wasn't I contacted about this blog post in the firstplace, and I actually like the bsg website.
Instead of having it all be about the mods, let's think about both this website, and bsg itself, and some mainstream games. We could compare, we could come up with stuff, but we also have to discuss the issue as well, but I think let's not make this topic all about it. Yes that sounds ridiculous and tricky and whacky and someone even called me quaky and undecided, but here it is, and I found that comment to actually be quite funny to the point where I responded civvily in the other topic. But could bsg and us collaberate, kind of. It's not a war against bsg it's not a war against agnet it's not supposed to be a war against the community and I am sorry to those who think it is.
Then, regarding this forum, what would you like from us in the short term. Baring in mind, it would not be fare to lay over 30 messages from the moderator list bare, in my book. Some of that stuff has to remain private.
I don't exactly know how to ease the tention here. Clearly I do not.

2018-11-04 04:48:43

thanks for reopening the topic, but then I am afraid we will see a lot of non conformist posts yet again, you can't please everyone, and you cannot be pleased by everyone, but some people really have not understood this second part for the first time in their lives, thus preventing this from moving forward as a quote, community.
Regarding bsg, I do have a few of their very helpful articles in my bookmarks and wonder why those haven't also been posted into the articles category of the forum which never gets much love, may be because apparently this is the trending one now.

A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a work station…

2018-11-04 04:56:58

Well, to that end I can offer two things. One, a joking representation of the situation where the community is asking the mods to essentially do two things at once:
Gina of Alto, MI asks: Will you ever release The Weird Al Show on DVD and make me the happiest woman on earth??
I don’t have time to do both. Figure out which one you want and get back to me.
Speaks for itself. Lol!
And as for advice on a solution, well, I think there might be a perfect solution right here.
Lol! And no, for those who missed that bit, that was Exodus's gag in the other topic.

2018-11-04 05:12:41

Jack has the right idea. Last time we had a fun bout of mudslinging with actual Mud...Then someone went and grabbed a Mud client. LOL!!! So, since we're talking about juggling, hey, Aaron, do you do any actual juggling? As far as unrelated issues, it would be good to throw some more articles into the article room. Why not have someone from the moderation team or auxiliary staff put up an article of the month or something. Something that gets people thinking about audiogames and accessibility and all that jazz.

I have a website now.
"C: God's Programming Language
C++: The object-oriented programming language of a pagan deity" -- The Red Book
"There, but for the grace of God go I"

2018-11-04 05:17:48

hahahahha good call on the wipe all of them, quite funny and finally a bit of humor on this whole thing, which is a nice avenue out

A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a work station…

2018-11-04 05:38:41

Oh, Aaron. I sent you a PM.

I have a website now.
"C: God's Programming Language
C++: The object-oriented programming language of a pagan deity" -- The Red Book
"There, but for the grace of God go I"

2018-11-04 06:03:40

Yeah, whatever happened to deploying mud-rammer to finish the job? Lol!