barneygale

I will come! :D

Thanks very much Cyotie! I will build a hot-tub on survival as a matter of priority :]

I hope this doesn't come off as unapologetic. I've kept my behaviour pretty decent over the past few months, and I have lots of plans for giving back to mcpublic - including a noob clan on survival, community radio show, special events, etc. I really feel I'm ready to come back, and feeling as though it's "just round the corner" all the time is wearing me down. I'd like to know one way or the other whether I've got another long wait on my hands or not.

Hi, I appealed my forum+subreddit+mumble+irc bans on november 7th after a number of positive conversations with the head admins. We all agreed that we should take baby steps and that it was an evaluation period to see if I won't just get banned again. After my appeal succeeded, I talked to a head admin who felt "a few weeks" would be a good length of time to wait before appealing my in-game ban. I appealed privately around Christmas. It was denied, but I left with the impression that the appeal was only slightly premature. Since then I've learned that an important staff member (who I will not name) has threatened to leave if I am unbanned. The staffer leaving would have a fairly serious effect on the servers and negative impact on ordinary players, thus the head admins' hands are tied. My understanding is that at least three head admins are in favour of my unban, and that number might be as high as four of the five. While I find this situation somewhat absurd, I have chosen not to fight it. In the grand scheme of things me playing on survival is not more important than everyone else having working servers. However, there is a question of doubt over the threat this staffer supposedly made is still true. My understanding is that it was made several months ago, and as more of a off-hand remark than a solemn declaration. Over the past month or so I have requested that head admins talk to this staff member - not to talk him round, merely to ask whether this threat was real and current. One head admin tried but was ignored; another tried, was ignored, and repeatedly asked the third head admin to do it. The third head admin described my request as a "low priority", despite it only being a favour that would take 2 minutes. I have also personally approached the staff member in question on multiple occasions and been totally ignored. I am putting this appeal out there in the hope it will apply a small amount of pressure on the head admins to /actually ask/ the staffer whether he'd quit. If he says he would, I'm not going to fight it - I'll wait for him to retire or go inactive or get kicked off for trying this stunt on something more important than a ban. If, however he doesn't feel as strongly on the issue as he once did, perhaps we can take one more baby step. Thanks very much for your consideration!

FWIW, http://www.reddit.com/r/mcpublicgaming was created ~30 months ago for this, but it didn't get very far for reasons that are best forgotten

idk I still think this is a textbook case of "use subforums". It makes the forums easier for read for those of us who don't care about all 3 servers, and it's at worst a minor inconvenience for those who play all three. not that I really care, just a slight preference toward using subforums for what they're designed to do. ed: shitty analogy: if you ran a sports forum, you wouldn't lump together rugby and football just because a minority of your readers are interested in both

yeah idk about this. it would work but we'd no longer be able to claim we're unranked.

Bumping to encourage others to submit icons, and give me feedback on improving mine. Is there a deadline?

WCS explained the central spawn idea on IRC. The idea is that it's to make the building more challenging / focused, as build competitions that are too open-ended can discourage people from building. That's a perfectly fine rationale to me, though I think requiring a specific spawn point is a very blunt instrument to achieve this.

Can you just tell me why your personal preference is for it to be in the middle? This is like the 4th time I've asked now. You don't need to hate staff to ask perfectly reasonable questions.

Yeah but it's not answering the question. Why not drop the requirement for a central spawnpoint if there's no reason for it other than a tech admin's unexplained personal preference? It restricts the possible builds, as roastnewt has already brought up... The argument could be made that changing the rules now would disadvantage players who've already had to compromise their designs in order to have a central spawnpoint, and I'd be equally satisfied if slide said "oh I thought it would give us some kind of lag/fairness/whatever advantage but apparently I was wrong", but seriously how the hell can you defend this decision without bringing up a single factor that contributed to it? I don't even care if you guys made some kind of miscalculation or tired/drunk decision but at least don't try and defend it by saying "well, slide runs the contest so he can make whatever rules he likes without explanation!"

I don't mean to sound rude slide, but it's a very simple question and I have no idea why you can't give a simple answer.

I have no issues with slide setting up the contest or setting the rules. I'm simply curious as to *why* the rule is there.

He asked for the reason for the decision, not the person responsible for the decision.

Is the sponsored link going to go to nerd.nu? Or r/mcpublic? Or a self-post sponsored link? (think I've seen those) I would think r/mcpublic would be the best option (people are on reddit anyway!) but if you do decide on nerd.nu, could I give some recommendations on how to improve the landing page to make the servers more attractive to new players?

Another:

If you want to avoid the ceremony, just keep a thread in mod chat called "returning mods", add a post when it happens.

Syn's solution seems pretty watertight am i rite?

Ignoring the idea of re-nomination for a second, does everyone agree a "welcome back" post should be made on the subreddit once their powers are restored (through whatever process)?

New one:

Oh right. Then I probably put too much text on mine!

Both the mods I alluded above were forcedly demodded, iirc.

I didn't mean it as a witch hunt. I know there have been a couple of semi-contentious re-moddings done recently, but personally I have no problem with either person being mod. I just wonder if sooner or later, someone like me or carver will come back and say "mod pls!" and then get upset when we get rejected. Equally a former mod in good standing might come back and be denied by the head admins. I also think that being nominated once before, in MCPublic's 5-year history, is not necessarily a sign that they'd be suitable under current guidelines. When I was first modded it was quite common for mods to receive no training, no talk of responsibilities, and minimal supervision. Most of the people who voted yes/no to my nomination aren't here anymore. The head admins then had different priorities to what they do now. Crucially, the server communities have evolved too! I don't think many americans would be happy if Bush was re-instated as president in 2016, simply because he was approved once before. While I'm not suggesting that all mods should be subject to periodic elections/review (it would be waaaaaay too much hassle!) it seems to me that we already have a good process for deciding whether past mods can come back, and that is just a regular ol' mod nomination.

Yo, It would be nice if there was a clear policy on moderators having their privileges re-instated. The admins have been doing a fantastic job at making the mod nomination process faster, more inclusive, and more open. However, it doesn't seem right to me that mods who've had their privileges removed for many months can be re-instated without a vote or even an announcement. Players usually have to play for months before they are considered for moderator, and once that happens we have a clear process for appointing mods that allows every staff member to vote. Ordinary players are also informed of potential new moderators, and feedback from players on whether someone would make a mod is always welcomed by the head admins. I appreciate that moderators who have left for only a few weeks/months shouldn't be voted on - we shouldn't discourage mods from taking breaks by threatening them with bureaucracy - but for extended periods of absence it's in the servers' best interest to consider past moderators as if they had never been mod. I would suggest a cut-off point of 4-6 months. Thoughts/ideas?

I might as well get the ball rolling...