Alright, now we're getting somewhere! Storytelling time.
Disclaimer? Gunna piss some people off here. But I'm going to be as fair as I can be. And fair meaning I'm going to speak some truth and recognize when it doesn't add up. Good luck.I love this shit. I really really do. I literally have not read a single post on this thread until just now. Why? I already know what's it in it. I already know it's people talking shit, making arguments, refusing to understand the other's point, claims to state facts in the same sentences they say "I think" or "I feel" or even quite frankly "IMO." And honestly this shit gets tiring. It's been the same for the past over 5 years since I've come around this community, certainly the past over 2 years I've been a Staff+. I've learned arguing here is pointless. I can stake my credibility or my reputation and give all the facts in the world but there's always that at least that 1 person who not only doesn't understand, but refuses to understand, and often they don't even realize they are doing it! In my last 2 years I've seen a lot of the shit y'all have talked about. Censorship. Strict Rules. No one cares. Hell I remember some asshole made a thread against us (the Staff) that was just a "lock" thread, where people would post pictures of locks just to mock how much the Staff would lock threads. And honestly that hardly ever changed. Why not? My fault really. It was never that I had agreed with it. But for sure I'm a real stickler for the rules. I'm a real believer that if the rules are put in place, they are there for a reason and they should be followed to the absolute. I've applied this to the forums, teamspeak, servers, you name it. But the thing is I'm always open to changing the rules. We can change them to whatever the hell anyone wants. But if its listed as a rule then it will be followed, even if I or anyone else doesn't like it or agree with it. We can change it. That was my logic, still is really. But now it's a little different, because now I'm the leader, whatever the hell that means. Really that makes you makes you wonder, with that kind of mindset and now this position, why don't I just change all the rules I don't like? I don't know really. The higher I climbed the ladder in this clan the less I ever saw it as my community. Yea I'm the owner, oh and hell there are many cases I'll make sure you know it. But I don't run this place, I don't want to. This is y'alls community.
It's funny to me I mention all of this especially as Gold's post sticks out in my mind, this one here.
Mr.GoldGames wrote:
The retired rank was a thing that was created in my time as a Staff member. At first we were looking for a substitute to the Supporter rank, which in my eyes was a good rank because it showed who gave their time and help to the community (it was just given way too much power, and people whined about not getting it). So we came up with the rank retired in which described people who left the community and didn't want to be apart of the clan.
Though the retired rank was abused and its meaning when it was created was distorted to give the clan an upper hand (this being one of the many reasons I stepped down from Staff). PUBG was very popular during this time, and the rules were if your clan had large numbers, you could get a server to play on for your community. So some higher ups (name calling at this point is dumb, they know who they are) decided to change everyone to retired to make our clan member numbers go up so we look better (and by everyone, i mean even people still here have the retired rank. Go on, check your groups in your profile. You have the rank, and so did all the registered users at the time who were never in the clan to begin with. Thus making people who never quit the clan/never joined, retired). So now you have a clan members number thats fake and also treating retired like shit while still considering them members. Thus making a mockery of the rank, thus making it the worst rank in the community today. The supporter idea would sound like a dream rank compared to the Retired rank.
Retired should be removed, because its intentions are toxic to this community, and it serves as a reminder of when the community would do anything to progress. If you are going to honor the people who left with a rank, make it so that they dont contribute to the success of the community, but as an honor to their service. Dont benefit from someone leaving the community, thats not the right way to think about it. It might be a minor and unnoticeable problem, but its the idea behind all of it and how it was created that bothers the hell of out me. You cant fake numbers, and it makes the community look bad when we say we almost have 700 members and no active servers.
Having 200 members and low activity on the servers will make people say "Oh wow they are unpopulated", but having close to 700 members and low activity on the servers makes people say "Yep, they died".
So yeah, retired rank needs to go or be revamped. Make the damn rank like we talked about, and not off of a hunger to grow our numbers.
I remember this decision so well. And hell I'm surprised Gold didn't mention it, but I fucking hated the idea. Honestly I attribute myself to the main reason we got rid of the Supporter rank in the first place. The Retired rank was a garbage idea, didn't like that either. I still don't. I think it's a pointless, unnecessary rank that gives unwarranted recognition and permissions to people who shouldn't have it. If they wanted anything to do with the clan, they shouldn't have left it. Period. I don't think you can sway me that, no one has ever been able to. And yet here we are we've still got this rank. Why? Shit I don't know. At this point, as much I dislike it, I think removing the rank would do more harm than good. That out of all the shit going down, I think removing the rank is a bad idea. A detractor. I don't really care to explain my argument one way for it or another against it. After all, if it's not clear, I'm not willing to make that decision to remove it. This is something y'all would have to decide, that's the way we promised each other it was going to be. And I'm okay with that.
But damn anyway yea these rules are tough. I've watched and ignored the Staff+ beating themselves up and each other over who the hell to ban on this thread, and it feels like everyday somebody says it should be locked. I don't think anyone did anything because they were waiting for the next guy up. And in the end that basically means me. And boy does that do a number on your ego lemme tell ya. I don't blame anyone for what they've done or said here or what they haven't said or done. Matter of fact I respect it either way. But shit man these rules. Honestly I outta ban half you m'fers fer breakin all me rules. But hell I've learned a lot about being a leader, and not just in this community. These rules are made to be followed by you guys who agree to use EgN's services. But there's just a little something about letting things slide, and it's a little fun. I always thought MFKing on JB was the funniest thing when somebody did it. But imagine what would happen if we never banned anyone who MFK'd. Damn the server would be in chaos. At least until everyone left and didn't play on it anymore. Then people would call for change, people would ask to enforce the rules again. We'd probably debate it a while. Gaining trust again would be tough. Getting those admins back and on board again would be tough. It would start taking some time for people to start coming around again, I think we could agree.
My friends we've allowed MFKing. Metaphorically, of course. We've let it slide, and it's all over this community like a cancer. And everyone's so sick from it they won't go anywhere near it. Whether that's our servers with a shitty Jailbreak, or our Teamspeak with it's cliques. And fuck this sucks, I'll be real. But MFKing is funny. This thread was an MFK from the start, and shit look at that chaos. And it wasn't until what? Page like ELEVEN when finally someone got banned for actually breaking the rules. Woohoo! And really the replies die off from there. Funny isn't it? But then people start being real. People start calling for change once they've all seen the chaos, the cancer. They say "Why can these guys MFK? No one wants to be here!" And shit look at those replies! Actual, constructive posts! Ideas! Suggestions! Fuck yea! Why didn't I reply? Because I love watching people MFK, not doing it myself. Why didn't I read it? Because I knew reading it would kill this place altogether. I don't lead this community, y'all do. And I would've tried to lead.
These are definitely some testing times for this clan. Am I worried? Nah. Concerned? Nah. Haven't lost any sleep over it. I'm aware of what put us here. I had a big role to play in that. But I'm sure as hell we'll make it through. I'm sure as hell we'll grow, we'll get bigger. And that's a fact, and if you don't believe it, get the fuck out of my community because you are standing in our way. Go join GamePunch, I heard they're looking for EgN Members.
Oh shit! Let's talk about that. GamePunch! But before I do that, I'll go into another subplot of this novel. It surely is interesting to see all this call for change. Hurrah! Matt do something! Hurrah! Staff! You suck balls! Hurrah! Matt do something! But hell my inbox looks pretty empty. Steam pretty quiet. Sure I haven't been around to much lately. Can't say I've made it too easy. But like someone said on this thread, when we're right now the Elevated Forum Network, and I know you people can see the "Last Visited" on literally the top person of the list (me) and you see it's never more than 12 hours, I don't really get the excuse. Yea I can make shit happen. I guess. You guys want servers and active staff and whatever the hell else. But nobody wants to build it. Nobody wants to be a staff. Sometimes I don't even know if the Staff want to be staff. I'm always going to respond. Always do, when I can. Sometimes those are day stretches but I will. I apologize if I've left you out at some point, that was never my intent. Cooper was like the last person to message me since like a week and a half ago about indi "stealing" members. GamePunch
You know I made that thread a while back about not tolerating the advertising and all of that. And let me get real here. This stealing members thing is funny because I know they do it. Everyone does. I know they message people in this community and bring em over to their servers (and Yes Terminator that's advertising, and yes I can ban them for that. Actually matter of fact I can ban anybody for any fucking reason I want). But I've done some thinking and really? I don't give two fucks. GamePunch hasn't stolen 1 person from me, from my community. Read that sentence again before you move on. Hard for you to believe I'm sure after what else I've just said and our population is 0 and we've got all those LOAs. But I'm not the one posting this thread on
their forum, now am I? I'm not making an argument over there. I'm actually posting on a thread addressed to GP members who are replying to this thread on my forum, which is kind of funny since I didn't have to message them to get them to do that. I didn't ask anyone for that. Indi'd probably have to do that to get us to have this conversation over there. JB's been fucked long before GP started, you all know it. Indi capitalized like somebody said, props to that. Respect. But it's not fair to EgN or even GamePunch to call them competition. Because unless you can match what I have built, what I continue to build, and what I will build and the degree of passion I have for this community you will
never be on my level. I'm not the one banning people for what they say about my community on
their forum. And I'm actually assuming they have a forum because I've never seen it. Don't care to. I have no quarrel with GP or indi. They just aren't my competitors. You have to be a player to compete with me. And to be a player you have to be on the board. Good luck to GamePunch to pick a piece to start on GO, because I'm already 15, 20, 100 laps around it with a fuck ton of hotels, and you all know it that's why you're posting on this forum.
Sorry about that, I suppose this is now where I pull my arrogant head out of my ass and talk about some shit y'all actually care about.
TTT - Give me someone who wants to actually work on it and we'll have it.
Ranks - Not bad suggestion. Of course I'm open to it. Let's do it, make a happen. Let's get a thread going and brainstorm some ideas. I'm just not going to make that thread. Maybe a Staff+ or maybe one of y'all, we'll see
"Effort" into those leaving - I agree wholeheartedly. I'll be having a conversation with the Staff+
Private channels - I have an idea in the works. You'll see it soon.
Groups - Groups are always going to be a thing. I'm not looking to eliminate those, nor am I willing to explain why not. But I've got to say this stood out. Pretty sure Terminator said this:
Quote:
For example: scrim match, putt it up and make teams yourselves. Count in skill differences and try and putt people together that ussualy aren't together.
Central - wow so unprofessional
btw having a nice little TOS is nice and all and I can define "paying" vs. "donating". But I'm not going to break the bank paying a lawyer to maintain the legality of EgN when some fucker does a $5 chargeback because he "paid."
Friends I'll do whatever I can to keep this place running. I don't think I need to prove that anymore, I think you know it or you would've left a while ago. So I ask you trust in me and we
will endure. But that doesn't mean it isn't going to suck. After all, people are still MFKing.
Feel free to reply. But I'm not going to reply back because you "disagree" with me or how I constructed my post. I'll reply to ideas, and thoughts, or questions.
Monthly meeting coming up. Can't expect things to change or blame anyone for being left in the dark if you aren't there.
Terminator
