Quote from: Ghostmaker on May 13, 2021, 09:36:40 AM

Quote from: Marchand on May 13, 2021, 09:29:17 AM
I've been (thinking about) getting back into tabletop miniatures wargames, and have joined a couple of wargames forums (non-GW/Warhammer, independent sites).

And there is just no politics. At all. (I'm almost reluctant to post this in case I jinx it.)

There's been attempts, but tabletop wargaming has been pretty resistant thus far. There's been some wokeist crap out of GW occasionally ('Warhammer is for everyone!') but the outlay of money, time, and effort helps gatekeep a bit.

Hmm, I wonder if that is part of it - there is a certain minimum level of effort and expense you need to go to to even pretend you are doing tabletop wargaming, whereas with RPGs all you need to do is turn up and eat someone's crisps.

I read knitting (of all things) had got totally fucked over by SJW infighting. Some famous knitting bloggist (if you can have such a thing) pulled off an SJW classic by being all SJW himself and then getting nailed for not being SJW enough over one or another issue in the usual Maoist downward spiral, had to publicly grovel etc.

I suppose knitting and RPGs, in their different ways, might disproportionately attract people who self-identify as "progressive", "liberal", alternative or whatever. I used to associate knitting with grandmothers but these days I think there is a craft/self-sufficiency hippy angle to it as well.

Anyway, I'll enjoy the wargames ride while it lasts, I suppose.

The great thing is, though, that all this is irrelevant to most gamers. Back when we had gaming clubs in Melbourne in 2019, I'd occasionally mention gaming websites or controversies, and essentially none of the gamers had heard of any of them. They were too busy gaming.

And the game groups at the clubs, by the way, basically just reflected the demographics of gamers normally - young uni students, a mix of men, women, asians, whites, etc. I can't speak to anyone's sexuality, self-identified gender or furry status as it just didn't come up. They were too busy gaming.

Yeah, most gamers have no clue what is going on in gaming forums. Unfortunately, that stuff can still affect the games they play (like the deliberate destruction of Vampire 5 because of its association with a persona non grata).

Getting back on topic here, looking at Red Baron's ban:

I love how Funkadelic is referencing Fred Clark. That guy's a loon. Might as well reference Gene Ray in a physics discussion. Sheesh.

I see we have the magic invocation of 'educate yourself'. That's always worth a laugh because in my experience, when someone whips that out, it's usually because they're too lazy or incompetent to buttress their own arguments. Brilliant.

I still can't get over how pointing out that Roe vs Wade is built on legal quicksand was worth a seven day ban.

And, of course, nobody can argue against it (except for Red Baron) because the mods don't accept third party appeals.

Because it's TBP, so know your place, peasant.

Quote from: Ghostmaker on May 19, 2021, 08:15:05 AMMight as well reference Gene Ray in a physics discussion. Sheesh.

How dare you insult the smartest human!

I'd prefer reading Time Cube stuff over most of the threads on RPG.net. You can just tell everyone posts with such a measured analysis of what is "acceptable" that no one is actually able to express any sort of legitimate opinion. It's honestly pathetic.

Quote from: TJS on May 18, 2021, 08:35:53 PM

Quote from: Armchair Gamer on May 18, 2021, 08:23:28 AM
Well.

https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/the-red-baron-receives-a-%F0%9F%9A%AB-seven-day-ban-gross-insensitivity.881536/

   If just conceding that Roe v. Wade might be bad constitutional law gets you a seven day ban, should I assume that opposition to abortion would result in a permaban and probably an attempt to banish folks like myself from the entire hobby?

What really get's me is the whole "No, this is the truth about history" thrown out to a guy who can't answer back.  The Moderators have the "Truth" and they will correct your errors.

It's a fucking religious organisation.

It's not just a "religious" organization, TBP mod culture is a cult. Even during the Reformation the Catholic Church allowed more debate on matters than TBP, though the latter thankfully can't burn people yet. If TBP mods were in charge of the Catholic Church during the Counter Reformation they would have burned Erasmus at the stake, too.

When I used to work for the local minor league baseball team the staff and management used to go to the BBQ area after games and get rip roaring drunk.  After noon games in particular would be shit shows because we'd start at like 4 pm and go until midnight or later.  Often times the home owners in the neighborhood would complain so we'd have to go elsewhere.

Sitting around talking to a bunch of us all getting more or less equally drunk for hours makes it really hard to tell just how drunk you are.  One day we got kicked out at like 9 pm (I think...it was still light out) and people wanted to go to a local bar for some food and more drinks.  I quickly discovered that I was so drunk that when I got to the bar I got lost in the kitchen trying to find the bathroom.

I think this is the perfect analogy for TBP.  They're all sitting around getting drunk together and can't tell how drunk they are because they are all equally drunk.  Every now and then we get one of them coming over here getting lost in the kitchen and being sent back to the ballpark but most of them just stay there getting more drunk.

Quote from: Ghostmaker on April 14, 2021, 11:27:17 AM
Back on track here. Alban cops a thirty-day ban.

https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/alban-receives-a-%F0%9F%9A%AB-thirty-day-ban-dont-pm-a-mod-about-redtext.880033/

This is under what I like to call the 'no backtalk!' rule TBP has. You're not allowed to plead or argue your case directly, instead appealing by sending an email to an account that may get read eventually (the mods say it gets checked in a timely fashion, but considering their behavior and actions I'm unconvinced).

A thirty day for someone who's been there since 2002, and has no infractions listed (at least as far back as February 2012, which is as far back as the current Infractions board goes). Wow. The mandarins really don't like it when the proles argue with them. And people pay money for this site?

Yeah, I'm quoting myself here. Bear with me.

When we last left Alban he'd been handed a 30 day ban for the high crime of questioning his betters PMing a mod. Welp, guess Alban had no more fucks to give over that, because he's out:

https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/alban-receives-a-%F0%9F%92%80-permanent-ban-banned-at-user-request.881613/

Of course, the dirty cynical part of me wonders: did he actually request to be banned? Granted, I have no TBP account so I can't see the Tangency threads. He may have opted out there. But I really do wonder.

I could be wrong. I'm willing to state that. But I do wonder.

EDIT: So I was bored and went through the Infractions forum.

The TBP mods, as of this date (5/19/21) have handed out 35 permanent bans this year. I'm not discussing one day, three day, seven day, or warnings. These are full on 'you're gone' bans.

Of those permabans, they fall under:

Rule 0: 18 (specifically invoked)
Rule 1: 3 (again, specifically invoked)
Politics: 3 (these are bans that may fall under Rule 0 or 1 but are not invoking such, but instead complains about alt-right, etc)
Spam: 1 (obvious spam accounts)
Sockpuppets/Trolls: 4 (again, either ban evaders or troll accounts)
Request: 4 (user specifically requests ban)
Offsite Harassment: 1 (this was Underscore and damned if I know what happened here)
Piracy: 1 (some guy pushing pirate sites)

And in the interests of fairness, there were two permaban reversals.

Each ban is recorded under a section only once. I'm not inflating the numbers. If someone got banned under Rule 0 and Rule 1, they're typically added to the Rule 0 number.

Quote from: Ghostmaker on May 19, 2021, 01:32:37 PM

Quote from: Ghostmaker on April 14, 2021, 11:27:17 AM
Back on track here. Alban cops a thirty-day ban.

https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/alban-receives-a-%F0%9F%9A%AB-thirty-day-ban-dont-pm-a-mod-about-redtext.880033/

This is under what I like to call the 'no backtalk!' rule TBP has. You're not allowed to plead or argue your case directly, instead appealing by sending an email to an account that may get read eventually (the mods say it gets checked in a timely fashion, but considering their behavior and actions I'm unconvinced).

A thirty day for someone who's been there since 2002, and has no infractions listed (at least as far back as February 2012, which is as far back as the current Infractions board goes). Wow. The mandarins really don't like it when the proles argue with them. And people pay money for this site?

Yeah, I'm quoting myself here. Bear with me.

When we last left Alban he'd been handed a 30 day ban for the high crime of questioning his betters PMing a mod. Welp, guess Alban had no more fucks to give over that, because he's out:

https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/alban-receives-a-%F0%9F%92%80-permanent-ban-banned-at-user-request.881613/

Of course, the dirty cynical part of me wonders: did he actually request to be banned? Granted, I have no TBP account so I can't see the Tangency threads. He may have opted out there. But I really do wonder.

I could be wrong. I'm willing to state that. But I do wonder.

Why? It's not like they don't hand out permanent bans to people for "not being a good fit for the site" often enough, why lie about this particular one?

Quote from: Blankman on May 19, 2021, 01:51:53 PM
Why? It's not like they don't hand out permanent bans to people for "not being a good fit for the site" often enough, why lie about this particular one?

That's true. It's not like they care how they look.

I edited my post above to add in my survey for permabans. 35 permas over the course of not even six months seems like a lot, even for a 'heavy traffic' website. That's approximately one permaban every four days.

Yeah, that rule zero thig can mean you won't comport to ONE mods views or bow to his/her/it/WTFs almighty ban hammer, and get banned for refusing to do the newspeak to one mods satisfaction.

So you may well be liked and wanted around by dozens of users, but one mod gets to yeet you in he, as the britts say, "just doesn't like your face".

And the mods don't care. Hell, protest  a user's banning, you're banned. Say the mod was in the wrong, banned.

But the big purple sure doesn't mind asking people for money on a regular basis. So on one hand it's "You have no say in anything and we don't want to hear any of your views on things! We run this place!" On the other it's "We need your money t keep going!"

Honestly, WTF?

At times i wonder if the mods there compete with each other, like for most bans, most egregious ban, most ridiculous ban, greatest example of using a trivial or inoffensive remark as a ban justification, most condescending and belittling tone in giving a ban, etc.

I wish there was a really good hacker here who could get into the mods private discussion backstage and post screencaps. That'd likely make for some interesting reading.

Quote from: The Thing on May 19, 2021, 02:05:16 PM
Yeah, that rule zero thig can mean you won't comport to ONE mods views or bow to his/her/it/WTFs almighty ban hammer, and get banned for refusing to do the newspeak to one mods satisfaction.

So you may well be liked and wanted around by dozens of users, but one mod gets to yeet you in he, as the britts say, "just doesn't like your face".

And the mods don't care. Hell, protest  a user's banning, you're banned. Say the mod was in the wrong, banned.

But the big purple sure doesn't mind asking people for money on a regular basis. So on one hand it's "You have no say in anything and we don't want to hear any of your views on things! We run this place!" On the other it's "We need your money t keep going!"

Honestly, WTF?

At times i wonder if the mods there compete with each other, like for most bans, most egregious ban, most ridiculous ban, greatest example of using a trivial or inoffensive remark as a ban justification, most condescending and belittling tone in giving a ban, etc.

I wish there was a really good hacker here who could get into the mods private discussion backstage and post screencaps. That'd likely make for some interesting reading.

Sigh. First off, hi Matt! You're really obvious, and you're not good at hiding your 'fist'.

Second, yeah, I think at least some of them get their jollies from swinging the banhammer. Or, for that matter, just acting in ways that would most certainly warrant a reprimand elsewhere. Tanka, for example, happily violates rules about snarking and general attacks.

Third, what you need isn't 'hacking' but social engineering.  Project Veritas doesn't 'hack' into private conversations; they use social engineering to show the face their targets want to see. Granted, it's a lot longer for the payoff... but there are ancillary benefits.

Pretty sure hacking into a private server is illegal (I don't live in the US though and am not a lawyer). I wouldn't go around saying I hope someone would do that.

Quote from: Blankman on May 19, 2021, 02:43:45 PM
Pretty sure hacking into a private server is illegal (I don't live in the US though and am not a lawyer). I wouldn't go around saying I hope someone would do that.

Simply hoping something illegal happens is not itself illegal. It's not the same as encouraging or aiding others to do it.

Quote from: HappyDaze on May 19, 2021, 02:46:59 PM

Quote from: Blankman on May 19, 2021, 02:43:45 PM
Pretty sure hacking into a private server is illegal (I don't live in the US though and am not a lawyer). I wouldn't go around saying I hope someone would do that.

Simply hoping something illegal happens is not itself illegal. It's not the same as encouraging or aiding others to do it.

Can still be a stupid thing to hope for. Risk arrest and a felony conviction just to see what the mods at TBP say amongst themselves, when we already know they're crazy secular cultists? Yeah, that'd be stupid.