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What happened to Unmod?

DarkOmenDKA

By DarkOmenDKA,
in Site Issues & Feedback

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The Coop Enthusiast

The Coop

Posted
Posted

Wow. This thread really grew, didn't it?

@ Coop: Just as zircon may have made some generalizations, others made automatic generalizations about the staff as well. I remember when I took up the mod job was not too long before the whole shebang happened, and people were generalizing about the staff as well. These people tended to use divisive language constantly, and were affirmed for it. I felt very out of place during some of it because people piled on this hate profusely when all I had done beforehand was just lock a few threads and spent long hours deleting spambots' posts. In general, I got the impression that a lot of people, at least those who rapidfired lots of pointed questions in my direction, wanted a double standard - holding the staff to high standards while holding little to none to themselves. Thankfully for myself, I have done similar duties and more for a famous organization and with a userbase of far larger proportions (which has been the constant attention of press releases of the RIAA and been the attention of Congress & the general media at some points), but a lot of the undue remarks & commentary coming from some of the so-called prominent members back then are pretty hard for most people in the staff position to deal with while remaining rational and while maintaining a strong positive presence.

Well, that's why I said both sides made a lot of generalizations silly :lol:

And really, there's no double standard. Everyone here is expected to act responsibly, and not be (much of) a dick towards folks. That means site staff and posters alike. I'm assuming we've all grown up being told, "Just because one person acts like a jerk, doesn't mean it's an excuse for you to act like one", which means saying "He called me a name, so I called him one too!" doesn't fly. As such, I don't see blaming (or partially blaming) the posters on this site as viable excuse for a staff member or poster to start flinging insults. If text from strangers gets you that angry, go do something else for a while. Play some Serious Sam, and let the soothing thump of the double-barreled shotgun whisk your troubles away.

As for the retroactive banning, I can't speak for (some have been reversed for those who promised good behavior), but banning for actions after the deletion are just. But as for the deletion of Unmod, the situation was that there were some undesirables that populated the forum who went out of their way to cause trouble, and some who were there largely to support them. In general, there was a perception that the forum should've been completely hands off, although that was never really the case. People justified this attitude with the name of "Unmod". How would you have suggested to change the nature of the community, which insisted being separate from the rest of the site? The forum restructuring was aimed at clarifying classifications, and the name of 'Unmod' needed to be changed too. However, just changing the name of the forum (to which there were some against as well) garnered opposition. That, and other comments made during that period, was indicative that merely changing the name of the forum wouldn't have solved the problem with the dynamics of OCR. Even on the staff, there was a vigorous argument/discussion on what to do to address the problem of two separate communities, one with nothing to do with OCR itself, but the only plausible solution that came up was a deletion.

Frankly, I question that last sentence. I find it difficult to believe that the actions taken were all you guys could come up with that would work. Here's what I would have suggested if asked, considering many in UnMod knew the change was coming...

- Set up the new rules and guidelines amongst yourselves. Decide clearly what could and couldn't be done in the new forum structure.

- Put a locked sticky at the top of the forum. This thread would warn posters that the change is coming on date x, and that if they have any thread subject matter they wish to save, do so. This thread would also list the new guidelines.

- When the date arrives, lock the threads that violate the new rules, and officially change the name to "Off Topic".

- Enforce the new rules. Warn those who break them, and ban them if they continue to break them (as has been done since the change).

I personally think that would have gone noticeably better. There would have been issues with some posters who were determined to push buttons, but the drama and chaos wouldn't have exploded like it did.

Also about the sudden deletion, a sudden deletion was planned, although when was up in the air. The staff was worried about whether people would prepare in advance a big planned concentrated backlash.

You mean like what happened with the course that was chosen? :razz:

As I said earlier in here, I feel the only reason you guys got the reaction you did, was because of how you went about it. It was abrupt, it came off as "fuck them" at first, some people were already irked over the repeated retrobans and MAGfest photo drama... it was the worst way to go about at that time it in my view.

Sometimes I've wondered whether a lot of the stress put on the staff was so that they'd crack under pressure and make a poor remark so that the hungry wolves could pounce.

Alright. Who ratted us out? ;-)

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Jillian Aversa Newbie

Jillian Aversa

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If it will make you feel better to think that OCR took some sort of damage when certain people left the site, suit yourself Coop. Unfortunately, it won't change reality. The forums are cleaner, more constructive, and more geared towards the kinds of things that bring this community together. Victimizing yourselves will do no good. :/

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Effef Newbie

Effef

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Unfortunately, it won't change reality. The forums are cleaner, more constructive, and more geared towards the kinds of things that bring this community together.

And nearly empty. Have you seen the lack of content in GenDisc lately?

Victimizing yourselves will do no good. :/

hahaha lol right

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Darklink42 Newbie

Darklink42

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Because people still think that Internet = Serious Business. -_-;

Yep, that's too true

After reading the unmod quirks thing on the coop's site, I got the impression that the war had cooled down to a mild battle. Guess not. It's like watching a little slice of history being re-hashed.

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The Coop Enthusiast

The Coop

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If it will make you feel better to think that OCR took some sort of damage when certain people left the site, suit yourself Coop. Unfortunately, it won't change reality. The forums are cleaner, more constructive, and more geared towards the kinds of things that bring this community together. Victimizing yourselves will do no good. :/

I don't believe I insinuated that I was victimized in any of this. I'm not sure where you got that from, pixie, as there's no "woe is me" taking place here. I know you and I talked about these things in the previous thread, so I'm not sure how you're coming away with the notion you brought up. What is going on however, is that I'm addressing my thoughts on what was done, what I saw leading up to it, and how it was done. In a sense, continuing the dialogue that was taking place before the last thread got badly sidetracked.

As I used to say all the time, "UnMod is as UnMod does". It was a place filled with stupidity, humor, flames, helpfulness, and a host of things in-between. I've never once claimed it was anything more or less than that. But when people point out only its negatives, I like to bring up its positives. I realize that may make me look like a sentimental fool, but rest assured, there are no rose colored glasses on my face. I saw the forum for what it was... a mixing pot filled with good and bad. It was never just one or the other, it was always both... and that's what brought people back to it. UnMod was kind of like Howard Stern's early appeal in a way... people just wanted to see what was going to happen next (some might say UnMod then continued following Howard Stern's appeal, and got dull when people eventually saw all its tricks). It was fun and aggravation all rolled up into code :lol:

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zircon Newbie

zircon

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Dude I PMmed you on irc yesterday and you never responded. at the same time you were talking in #ocremix.

Really? What name was it? I probably closed it by accident, since whether it's AIM or IRC I get a buttload of messages all the time and close most of them as soon as I'm done talking.. probably closed yours thinking I had already spoken to you.

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José the Bronx Rican Newbie

José the Bronx Rican

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Some folks here are building their entire argument on their singular perception of what's exciting and what's boring. Not a good idea. The frequency of my posting and lurking doesn't seem to have changed. And unless someone else wants to streamline some rules before I do, I intend to bring back the caption thread.

Now we all love Coop here, but this microanalysis of previous replies and periodic examples of "how things should've been done" when the points were well taken long ago... maybe there's a more accurate word than "bitter," but I can't think of it.

People get mad, get loud and get malicious simply because that's the only thing they can do when they're faced with something they don't like and can't reverse. Whether they were let down easy or dropped, I also believe the amount of backlash wouldn't have changed, especially when they don't pay attention to the details. As far as posts being creative before... It's been my experience that people get more creative when there are limitations. If they don't, then they can't. When they can't, they leave. Do we really believe that the kind of things that aren't allowed anymore were the height of creativity? And everything else being equal, what's the problem? I can only imagine the people who refuse to return are either too ignorant to realize things haven't changed too much, have too much of an unreasonable grudge against the site and staff, or really only were interested in trolling, spamming, and porn-ing because that's all they were capable of. Lowest-common-denominator internet entertainment really can be found anywhere, especially for those with no interest in this site or its content.

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Prasa_U. Newbie

Prasa_U.

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It looks like I've finally managed to travel back in time.

What I don't understand is what the difference is between Unmod being here or on that new site, or on a free forumer account, or whatever. It didn't have anything to do with OCRemix (except posting deranged fanfics) so what was the point of it? If this site is going to be a "semi-serious" thing than it's better to get rid of it, which made it seem amateur, and like I said before, juvenile. I think the Off-topic section is good as it is now, not too serious, but not completely mental.

P.S. I expect a funny image to be posted as a reply to this post, don't disappoint.

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