AO

FlinkPloyd wrote:I have asked people to stop, but as a potential Admin with no mute/kick/ban abilities, there's not much I can do beyond that, unfortunately. It would be nice, though, if the admins were more easily identifiable because, other than the list on the site (which seems to be a bit outdated), I have no idea who is an admin while online, or if they're still an admin, or what. This is something I plan to discuss if I become an admin. And, honestly, the only person I have ever really heard enforce the rules on the servers, other than myself, is Fame.

Spicy didn't want the admins to be identifiable because he didn't want them to be "above" anyone else.
An AO Admins group was created on Steam, but never publicized enough...
And I agree, Fame was one of the only admins that enforced the rules.
If Erika and I had still been playing frequently by the time you joined, then you might have seen us enforce the rules.

(I was one of the few that actually muted fellow admins -- like BlackArrow.)

Good to hear. That's what I was trying to get across...what may have been funny to you may have not been funny to him, if you know what I'm saying.

I wish he had approached me directly about it.
My goal was never to make anyone feel bad or hurt anyone's feelings.
Then again, I KNEW he hated confrontation which usually is a sign that a person won't enforce boundaries.
A fuck-up on my part.

And, be sure to read my edit in my previous message.

Shiv: Didn't you used to be a SKC Clan member?

FlinkPloyd wrote:Shiv: Didn't you used to be a SKC Clan member?

nope.


@Envark: this is the final ss. You left before it was over T_T

SUP GUYS.

Yay, Simon's here

HI SIMON. I MISSED YOU

After lurking here and reading that chat transcript Envark posted....

*shakes head*

No way I could ever stomach siding with someone who can't even talk in a civil manner.

Truly, AO is the players, not some server. One, you can use money to get. The other... well, I guess players would come if you paid them, but eff that. One cannot be replaced so easily. He's going to learn that the hard way. Fast.

I have to pee so bad its not even funny. i wanted to inform those in the shoutbox but thats not an option for me right now..

Any group of people - whether it be a business, unit of the military, club, or anything else - lives and dies by leadership.

Those two transcripts were very interesting reads. They reminded me of the one time I had a conversation with Spicy a few months ago. It was supposed to be about balancing the maps out on Smorgasbord and B2B (back when both had similar rosters), but as soon as we connected in chat, Spicy used the first 3-5 minutes to make it clear that AO is his community, he is in charge, and that's all there is to it. This rubbed me the wrong way, but he is the leader of the community, so I figured that he does deserve that much respect.

I haven't been playing lately, so I was not aware of this whole situation regarding the bans, etc. until kayak!? informed me. This is quite saddening news as I was quite pleased with AO and hoped to remain there for a long time to come. However, the majority of the people with whom I enjoyed playing seem to be leaving now. Considering the circumstances, I can understand this though.

EDIT: It appears you have already moved forward with the idea of a new community and appear fairly competent at setting up technical details. Good for you and good luck with that. I do not know what the future plans are for the bunch of you, but I'd be willing to help where I can - I'm an IT Professional by trade. But just as I told Spicy when he asked why I didn't want to be an admin, I don't believe in making commitments in areas where I cannot promise much of my time, and I have been quite occupied lately in my personal life. So that is why I cannot do more than advise on technical matters for the moment, though I may be able to lend a more authoritative role in the future if the rest of you so desire.

Regardless, know that you have my sympathy and friendship.

simonLove wrote:SUP GUYS.

Simon! *hugs*

Berenstain wrote:Any group of people - whether it be a business, unit of the military, club, or anything else - lives and dies by leadership.

Those two transcripts were very interesting reads. They reminded me of the one time I had a conversation with Spicy a few months ago. It was supposed to be about balancing the maps out on Smorgasbord and B2B (back when both had similar rosters), but as soon as we connected in chat, Spicy used the first 3-5 minutes to make it clear that AO is his community, he is in charge, and that's all there is to it. This rubbed me the wrong way, but he is the leader of the community, so I figured that he does deserve that much respect.

I haven't been playing lately, so I was not aware of this whole situation regarding the bans, etc. until kayak!? informed me. This is quite saddening news as I was quite pleased with AO and hoped to remain there for a long time to come. However, the majority of the people with whom I enjoyed playing seem to be leaving now. Considering the circumstances, I can understand this though.

EDIT: It appears you have already moved forward with the idea of a new community and appear fairly competent at setting up technical details. Good for you and good luck with that. I do not know what the future plans are for the bunch of you, but I'd be willing to help where I can - I'm an IT Professional by trade. But just as I told Spicy when he asked why I didn't want to be an admin, I don't believe in making commitments in areas where I cannot promise much of my time, and I have been quite occupied lately in my personal life. So that is why I cannot do more than advise on technical matters for the moment, though I may be able to lend a more authoritative role in the future if the rest of you so desire.

Regardless, know that you have my sympathy and friendship.

So, you aren't going to join us?

Silent wrote:So, you aren't going to join us?

I was just saying that it appears you guys don't need technical help with the server and forum. I'm not going anywhere though. In fact, I should have some time to play tonight.

shiv wrote:

FlinkPloyd wrote:Shiv: Didn't you used to be a SKC Clan member?

nope.


@Envark: this is the final ss. You left before it was over T_T

wow my account still works here. And theres me!

Anyways its pretty sad that after reading shivs conversation I can actually side with shiv on this one. Hehe just kidding, hopefully all that old stuff between us is over with. But in the mean time I will vouch to say that Spicy would constantly mention to me he couldn't stand shiv and wanted to ban him. If there was anyone that should have banned shiv it was me . I would always tell him as long as hes not doing anything wrong there's no reason why he can't play here. Can't be an admin if you let personal issues get involved. Spicy made everything too personal.

If only I had some of my "transcripts" for all you lurkers/potential admins to see, but I think the points have already been made. All the old people who started AO, about 90% of them have quit directly because Spicy, whether its Bellum, Scrawny, Bloodlust, me, silencer, envark, glass, serge, the other potential webmaster who no one really knew except me and spicy, the names continue on and on.

lockitup wrote:

shiv wrote:

FlinkPloyd wrote:Shiv: Didn't you used to be a SKC Clan member?

nope.


@Envark: this is the final ss. You left before it was over T_T

wow my account still works here. And theres me!

Anyways its pretty sad that after reading shivs conversation I can actually side with shiv on this one. Hehe just kidding, hopefully all that old stuff between us is over with. But in the mean time I will vouch to say that Spicy always would mention to me he wanted to ban shiv and couldnt stand him playing with us, for example the one time we were on cranetop. I would always tell him as long as hes not doing anything wrong there's no reason why he can't play here.

Anyways if only I had some of my "transcripts" for all you lurkers/potential admins to see, but I think the points have already been made. All the old people who started AO, about 90% of them have quit directly because Spicy, whether its Bellum, Scrawny, Bloodlust, me, silencer, envark, glass, serge, the other potential webmaster who no one really knew except me and spicy, the names continue on and on.

Is that the person named Seed?
I saw his fingerprints on some of the website files.

yes actually i was thinking thats what his name was. but you just confirmed it.

at the beginning i didnt want to do everything myself, i never really wanted to make the website. but spicy got some 12 year old to make some lousy website, that wasnt going to do justice trying to compete with fug or ffn. and at the very beginning there were a lot of lurkers so we were all competing against each other. it wasn't really about taking members from the other communities, except spicy would prolly think that. my goal was only to present a good place for people to have fun, and they would choose. I always had the impression Spicy's hidden goals were always to capture the members of the other communties. He would always remind me of how the dr community was doing and how we were doing so much better yet no fake player count.

anyways seed offered some help, we didnt want someone to compromise the communtiy and steal anything but spicy said it was up to me. I decided I would let him help me. But then the next day spicy had changed his mind and banned the guy because the guy didnt do anything the first day or something -- because he was actually a bit inexperienced -- but spicy got the impression he wanted the information to steal the website =/. That was the first time I realized I was going to have trouble because at the time I took everything serious and I had to baby the situation trying to make excuses for spicy banning the guy for no reason.

i could go on and on its not necessarily though. already got carried away.

oh, i got a transcript, here you go guys.

www.gsptruth.com/forum/f79/xfactor-refund-issues-1597/+tf2+server+forum+%22is+a+scammer%22&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:W_tdw1hVHIAJ:www.gsptruth.com/forum/f79/xfactor-refund-issues-1597/+tf2+server+forum+%22is+a+scammer%22&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a

www.gsptruth.com/forum/f79/xfactor-refund-issues-1597/index2.html+x+factor+roadmie&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:2zuJy4AtWd0J:www.gsptruth.com/forum/f79/xfactor-refund-issues-1597/index2.html+x+factor+roadmie&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a

www.gsptruth.com/forum/f79/xfactor-refund-issues-1597/index3.html+x+factor+roadmie&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:FpYR_LvPeGIJ:www.gsptruth.com/forum/f79/xfactor-refund-issues-1597/index3.html+x+factor+roadmie&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a

Page 4 missing.

www.gsptruth.com/forum/f79/xfactor-refund-issues-1597/index5.html+xfactor+refund+issues+roadmie&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:IF4kFbKks94J:www.gsptruth.com/forum/f79/xfactor-refund-issues-1597/index5.html+xfactor+refund+issues+roadmie&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a




Spicy = r0admie

I always had the impression Spicy's hidden goals were always to capture the members of the other communties.

heh. Spicy might be a bit pissed when more of the AO people start to wander over to Ref. We are not trying to get them all and if they want to stay with AO that is perfectly fine with us. There is no pressure to join.

Spicy should have thought twice, well about everything, but about banning Envark and me. He must not have seen the influence that we had on the other players and maybe he will see it sooner or later. He should have figured that a new group would arise and with that more people leaving 'his' community to join ours.

Hello, AO boys and girl.
I see a lot of people have their own stories to tell about AO, its past, and its present.
As for its current direction, it seems as though many of us are discussing an 'ideal community' and what rules and regulations, and freedoms it implies. This 'ideal community' is just an idea in each of our heads, and it seems like it few, if any of us, believe AO can become that ideal community. Excuse me if I am putting words in your mouths, though I am hearing 'AO is going down the tubes'. A thought which occurred to me very early on.. Stay a while and listen! (lol Diablo ref.) I have a story to tell..

Does anybody here remember 'Pax' or 'V Wu'? Many people seem to think they are different people.. though that is certainly not the case. V Wu sometimes goes by the name 'Pax' to correspond with mine, 'Bellum'. Anyhow.. V Wu lead me to AO a few months ago, telling me "Some friends from {ROFL} (Bloodlust & Mirage) are starting a new community! Let's go give it some support." so I followed him in!..
The AO server was tiny then, and was approx. 10 days old! It was a 24/7 2fort server that on average, held about 6 people during its 'busy' hours. I was reluctant to socialize and talk at first, though a warm welcome from 2barrels and SpicyTuna broke me out of my shell easily enough.
Other AO people showed up, and shared the same camaraderie 2barrls and SpicyTuna had!
I had nothing else to do then.. so I decided to help AO get on its knees and get started! After some persuasion, I managed to convince SpicyTuna to shift from 24/7 2fort to something more well-rounded and balanced.

http://aotf2.com/forums/index.php?topic=6.msg7#msg7

and soon, B2B was born!
Though I had quickly learned about SpicyTuna's agenda for this server. He wanted AO to be supermassive and powerful, and he wanted it to be his.

http://aotf2.com/forums/index.php?topic=241.msg3022#msg3022

I am surprised I was not censored, though I don't think SpicyTuna was as megalomaniacal then as he is now (AO was so small back then..)

The general focus on massive growth neglected the actual tight-knit community, and threw them into a box of noise.
With more randoms thrown into the mix, the game became noisier, because people had to fight for attention. Conversation was never relaxed, it was either Grand Central Station or a ghost town (so often in the past, people did not know one another..)

I complained and bitched about it on the forums, and SpicyTuna did not take kindly to it. He told V Wu to tell me to stop starting fires. During this time, I was on admin 3 times.. Once I was removed for behavior (I'm kind of a dickhead), and twice because I spoke my mind..

It was then when I decided to stop fighting and 'go with the flow', knowing full well where the river was headed. I could not convince this ship's captain anyhow..

V Wu tends to avoid AO nowadays, since it is constantly a bulletfuck of randoms (with a dozen or so regs. mixed in), and a earfuck of unintelligible nonsense.

I stay, though. AO's community is just too sweet. I figured we were all going to abandon ship sometime, I might as well enjoy my time there.

I am getting mighty drowsy right now, though I felt I should post on this thread.. My childish side has been waiting for the day to cry out "I predicted this shit, and here it is now!"
Though I am not upset at all about AO dying, because friends aren't going to leave friends.
God, now I am sounding sappy.. I am going to bed..

Can't wait 'til the next boat!

Hop on!

http://refugeegaming.com/