From the category of "I know I'm late to the party, but I've got two cents just burning a hole in my pocket..."
Although I just read the relevant threads, I've been kinda a vagabond around here lately, so if some of my facts are wrong correct me or beat me with a large stick or something appropriate like that. I'm kinda fuzzy on the order of events, so I may have that wrong, but I'll work on the assumption that I've got it right.
Markos: I understand that you want this site to have a special relationship with Firaxis, which it does seem to enjoy right now. However, this does not mean that you (or the administration around here, including moderators) need to turn yourself into a Firaxis PR guy. To give you your due, although in my opinion you have passed over that line on occasion, you generally just stay in the realm of 'very enthusiastic supporter'...not always, but, usually. This site is obviously yours to do with as you please, but in all honesty, I've always thought that was the wrong tack to take.
Above all else, I think that community sites like this one need to be honest with the developers. Posts like the one Yin did are honest. Yes, I give you credit, you didn't kill it once Yin was no longer a mod. But I fail to see why you had a problem with it when Yin
was a mod. Moderators are supposed to be the leaders of this community...they should be allowed to say whatever they want with regards to Firaxis, at least if it's intended to spark discussion and not just blast the company for no reason whatsoever. Muzzling the moderators and insisting that they stick to a company line just makes no sense at all in a
community. If you want to be a PR firm, then it would make sense...
That doesn't seem to be what this is about, but since it was an issue I just wanted to make mention of it.
From what I gather, this is actually about Yin reposting a topic that had been declared dead. When are such declarations made? Are threads given a time to live and they are supposed to be dropped once that time is up? I honestly am having a hard time wrapping my mind around this one. If somebody wants to continue a discussion, they should be welcome to post about it as much as they want (reasonably, of course)...if the community doesn't want to talk about it any more, they won't reply and it will die a natural death anyways. Whether the poster is a moderator or not should make no difference. I suspect that, had the post been on a different topic, it wouldn't have made a difference...just the combination of the repost and the relatively negative topic came together and Markos had had enough of it. Is that correct? I don't know...that's just the appearance of things from where I sit. If that's not what happened, then the circumstances haven't been accurately portrayed, and should probably be clarified just for the sake of, well, clarity.
To be brutally honest, the signal to noise ratio around here has gotten pretty bad in the last few months (the main reason why I'm not around as much as I used to be)...I think that a post like Yin's should be left around because it will gather a pretty good discussion. Yes, even if it's been done before. People come and go...maybe somebody new will show up and have a new take on things. There's no reason to simply declare a topic dead.
That being said....
When I first saw this topic, the first thought through my head was "Great,
now what did Yin do?" Yin, you seem to be a great person, and you're a tireless worker who really wants stuff to get done and get done right, but the reason I thought that was you do have a bit of a temper...somehow, I'm guessing I'm not the first person to tell you that in your life.
I don't think it was really appropriate for you to post the private message in the forums, for two reasons. First, private messages are meant to be private...I just don't think it's right to make a private message public without asking permission first. And second, there was really no reason to go public with it other than you were looking for the community to support you and turn on Markos. Quite frankly, it was petty...it was designed to say to Markos 'ha ha, everybody thinks I'm right and you're not'. From the other stuff you said after that, you knew that he wouldn't change his mind based on any of the responses in that thread. It was retribution, plain and simple. You thought you'd been screwed over, so you counterattacked.
I've been admin on some boards before, both online communities like this and more formal university and corporate intranets. I would never have pulled your mod privilages for your original posts. But I would have shut you down in a New York minute because of your reaction. I know, it's a catch 22 thing...if your privilages were never pulled, you never would have reacted, appropriately or in-. This is just a review in hindsight. I think Markos was wrong to remove you as a mod, and I think your reaction to him removing you was wrong.
I know, I know, if I've got nothing good to say, why am I wasting bandwidth? My main point here was at the top...Markos, you really need to stop towing the company line and make this site one that is brutally honest. Just for example, look at the relationship between the Quake community and Id. There's not a Quake site on the net that pulls punches with Id, and Id is probably one of the most open game companies out there. The end result has been better products. On the other hand, look at how Apolyton (official Apolyton, not the forums) reacted to CTPII. There have been a few hints of disapproval, but nothing anywhere close to what Activision deserves for the totally irresponsible way that they handled CTPII...and you've treated Firaxis much better than you ever did Activision. Stand up and be heard, Markos...ignoring the new pop-up ads (as if you could.....) this site seems more and more like Firaxis is funding it out of their PR budget. I know it's not the whole reason why Yin's privilages were yanked, but mods should be able to say whatever they want just like anybody else. So should you...
