When I started this general conversation in the other thread it wasn't a personal attack, nor could it have been since there is no trail accountability of administrators. I'm not sure who does the most locking or control of the forums, but Bix seems to think it's Knack. He's been around a lot longer than me and I trust he has some decent reason to believe this. At the end of the day it's a confrontation to the moderators in general, and if Knack is the head admin then it seems logical he be held accountable.
I think a lot of these issues could be resolved or alleviated simply by providing some individual accountability. I was just banned for what I thought were incredibly appropriate post's. I couldn't stop laughing when I tried to come to the forums and received the message ~"sorry mewa, you have been banned from these forums. please see the post." Pretty simple solutions, when a mod locks a post or bans a player;
a.) The admin makes a reply in the thread stating the whys and possibly some insights into their thought process. you may not be able to convince someone of the validity of your action, but you might be able to allow them to understand how you got to that point.
b.) The admin sends the player an email copy (if there's one provided in their profile) of the last posting in the thread, which explains reasoning.
I'm almost certain this could releave a lot of the animosity felt by many people here towards the admins. Without this type of information the player is just left to the wheel of fortune the admins seem to spin. It doesn't give people a whole lot of hope to see a discussion they are actively posting in, or just very interested in, put on hold forever.
I think most of us realize that this game requires a degree of volunteerism to remain active, and those who can help out, do. But just because you give your time doesn't mean you're right. They're shouldn't be any free passes around here, but there seems to be quite a few. Seniority can count, but there needs to be some place to draw the line. These blanket statements saying essentially "anyone who I haven't known for 5yrs+ has excrement for brains and nothing to contribute to this game, let alone the forum" are pretty absurd and elitists. If you really thought this thread was hogwash you wouldn't be wasting your precious time refuting some insignificant opinions.
Zorchenheimer - I'm sorry, but this is a god awful idea. Are you suggesting that the admins lock a thread which discusses they're locking too many threads simply because they can, or don't want to hear this type of talk? Is this community so Stalinist that it can't handle a civil conversation about its authority figures? That would be a sad day and reeks of weakness.
Sure these servers are all privately paid and no one has absolute right to them except the money holder, but don't forget that this game is public. When you go into a store or a bar (pub) you are entering a private establishment, who can do w/e it is they please. If they don't want you in there, you will be excused. But few places are dumb enough to toss a sizable portion of its regular customers just because of a difference in opinion. The bartender might not like the drunks always complaining about the lack of music, but he's not giving them the boot for it either. Chances are he'd go buy a small jukebox to shut them up and keep them in his pub.
All this talk of drinkin, it's time I went to meet my friend Fleischman's and stopped thinking.