THE PACK Message Boards

I can't believe you banned Matt Sullivan over some stupid political discussion! Sure, he created discord, but it's not like he never contributed anything. I won't say some of his comments weren't out of line, but it's not like he was the only one dishing out insults. And besides, if it gets out of hand, just lock the topic. Sheesh.

From what I've been told by an Admin, Matt had been warned several times. The moderators and administrators felt it was time to take action. (Maybe even some members felt a ban was in order.)

I won't say any more, since I'm not a part of the moderating team, but maybe this will help you understand.

(It wasn't just the political discussion either. Read around, he hasn't exactly been the most polite person.)

How did you find out anyway?

Actually you haven't directly seen all MattSullivan's offensive posts since they're usually deleted before everyone can read them to prevent something going off-topic and potentially turning into a flame war. Luckily a portion of it wasn't removed as it was quoted in a different member's post (in Howlitzer's post): http://www.thepack.network/thepackboard ... 680#189680

Otherwise we've kept watch of him for quite a while and keep noticing offenses from him and kept telling him to stop, by just saying "stop it already" and doing nothing from there, yet he wouldn't listen. But after warning him several times, the administration finally decided it would be best to do a week-long ban which began on February 20th and ended on February 27th (2 days ago). So he is free to post whenever he wants again ever since Wednesday, but hasn't returned. I also wrote him a message to him that he got a temporary ban at the time his ban begin, then stated what it was for, and when it was going to end.

Yikes that's kind of sudden, but he did have a bad attitude occasionally and got kind of out of control. Still I'm probably going to miss him a little

-Neko

Didn't know that...

Was wondering were he went.

Don't count him out yet...

He may actually be busy having a Life!

Plus, for free: There are standards we have to uphold, because our Hosting people reqiure it! We keep things as loose as possible, but if someone won't even try to be polite, we do have responsibilities to the rest of the people here.
Matt can be nasty, if someone ticks him off. So, for that matter; can all of us, but the rest of us manage to leave that at the sign-in screen, for the most part.
Maybe Matt will decide that it's worth being considerate to stay here; I hope so. He does some really good things.
How many times have you seen someone IRL being "escorted" out of a gathering because they weren't willing to be even basically polite? That's what this is, a gathering; and we have the job of making sure that people can have fun here, not get into fights and flame wars.
That's what KILLS boards: Fighting.
And that, we won't allow, even if we have to say "so long" to people we like. That's our job: keeping this place fun to be in, not a war zone.

Who's this Matt Sullivan fellow? he sounds like a total rabblerouser :p

RedEye wrote: How many times have you seen someone IRL being "escorted" out of a gathering because they weren't willing to be even basically polite? That's what this is, a gathering; and we have the job of making sure that people can have fun here, not get into fights and flame wars.
That's what KILLS boards: Fighting.
And that, we won't allow, even if we have to say "so long" to people we like. That's our job: keeping this place fun to be in, not a war zone.

I totally agree...I mean, over at the WWC there's been problems before between me and a certain member (who shall remain unnamed). The guy's a major part of the place, he contributes a lot ...but he didn't get when to stop joking around, always had to win, and couldn't seem to stand when people "joked" back at him. The thing that stunk was that there was no real "account suspension" effects put in to place... so while he stuck around and did this, the select few who would be his "buddies" to pick on would get fed up and leave when he refused to stop.....and there would be no consequences for his causing this.

For people like me who were stubborn and stuck around to try and do something, it would usually go in cycles of peace, shaky truces, flaming arguments, someone would possibly leave or we'd come to a resolution, and then it would start over again.

It only stopped when 3 members left in quick succession after unleashing the wrath of this guy because they dared to fight back when he joked with them and several more members just disappeared without explanation ... and people got pissed. Pretty much we told the guy to either tone it down a notch and be respectful, leave, or be shunned. Since then it's been much less...well...unstable. And nobody has had to leave.

So yeah, I sincerely it won't be an ongoing thing here....I just can't leave things alone when there's flame wars going on. It worries me for just that reason, it can spread and kill the forum....and dead forums, not fun.

If you're going to go all-out fighting about something, do it over email, IM, or other forms of communication that aren't read by everybody else.

At the very least use common sense when posting. I'm surprised how many people don't. You're not on the phone, and you aren't on instant messenger....so you have much more time to actually THINK about what you're going to say, and even edit it after the fact. If you outright attack or offend a group of people, there's no excuse for that.

Besides, hostile internet arguments are stupid by definition. Face to face arguments are the way to go...having to think up your counter-point on the spot makes it more interesting.

I didn't even know about this. *slaps self*

I didn't even know I was banned, had to get an e-mail to learn about it.

Personally, I think people are too sensitive on this board. But...well...there you go. I can't put it any clearer than that.

I wondered how anyone found out unless they spoke with you or were told, however that would come up in conversation.
I figure people are busy when they have not been around in a few days, and right now there appears to be a few regulars that have not stopped by in a few days. (Or weeks)

The same topics keep being discussed. Frankly, I think ( and have always thought ) this board needs to be condensed ( as has been hotly debated before ) I find myself not wanting to dig through pages and pages of threads on so many different sub-categories.

Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if OTHER pack members thought the same way. i reiterate my suggestion to condense the boards.

MattSullivan wrote:The same topics keep being discussed. Frankly, I think ( and have always thought ) this board needs to be condensed ( as has been hotly debated before ) I find myself not wanting to dig through pages and pages of threads on so many different sub-categories.

Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if OTHER pack members thought the same way. i reiterate my suggestion to condense the boards.

I agree, I do not notice it as much for searching because I click "View posts since last visit" so I do not miss anything, even so, the entire forum may be able to be condensed by half, many are not busy enough to require a a stand alone sub forum, I just looked at one forum where one pages goes back over a year, the first section could be cut down to three or four forums, by this time, there may only need to be one general forum for all Werewolf discussions, The Legend and Lore is not that busy.

I tend to like everything neat and what mostly serves a purpose.

I agree. It's especially bad in the "What should a werewolf be?" section. Stupid newbies never bother to see if their idea is new(which it never is).

From the top, What should a werewolf be?, General Stuff, Werewolf Legends & Lore could even be condensed into one Werewolf discussion topic.

Yeah it is kind of a lot to sort through : p But boy am I glad that Matt guy hasn't shown back up to complain about it. Oh! Hey Matt! Good to see ya buddy

-Neko

Xiroteus wrote:From the top, What should a werewolf be?, General Stuff, Werewolf Legends & Lore could even be condensed into one Werewolf discussion topic.

Absolutely not! General Stuff should always be separate, thats a rule among every forum.

But isn't "General stuff" and "Not-werewolf stuff", king of, the same?

Matt Sullivan has been back for 3 months...

I wondered why this topic was brought back, he was gone for about a week.

John Wolf wrote:This is surprising, I say bring Matt Sullivan back, he's our Coyote Spirit Guide.

please read the date the topic was posted and read the entire topic before you say anything

Yeah. I'm here. *wave* ^-^

Well Matt, welcome back!

(of course, not sure what the subject changed to)