In response to the forum team...

[Maf 32,300]

He said "we can't restore the topic, sorry" without even giving an explanation.... <_>

Because we literally can't. We don't have power to move topics from the archive section back to the main one.

[werty8763 1,483]

Because we literally can't. We don't have power to move topics from the archive section back to the main one.

Oh? :huh:

I didn't know that; sorry for sounding rude.... ;)

[Mr.Cashier 1,622]

Its still open? o.O

Edited May 13, 2016 by Mr.Cashier

[r_Damn_Slow0 12,476]

Under review

 

We'll post the official statement from the administration as soon as we have one.  Please bear with us during the mean time.  We ask you to please refrain from making yet another topic for the same problem as this will only serve to slow things down for yourself.

 

Topic moved from Off-Topic Discussion.

[r_Damn_Slow0 12,476]

Original post eloquently answered by @GoldRock and thanks to the many others who shared their opinion on all of this and who took time in explaining to our respected tanker @hhgb the many points he raised.
 
Now allow me to respond to each one of them before concluding the issue.
 
1.  If its moved, its not hidden! Here's where you can find them all.  You've been on this forum a good 6 months before me since Oct 2011, it will be disrespectful for me to send you a link on "how to use the search functions of the forum"
 
2.  No you didn't block the name in the picture, but hey thanks for the humour there, loved that one :D
 
3.  Your thinking about what shouldn't be considered as flood in the initial post has been very well explained here courtesy of @DragonOfStorms :

 

Anyway, as a forum user I'd like to throw my opinion out here. About the "hi" topic, I don't want that cluttering up the forum. I don't care that it might 'become something useful', as @hhgb said. By that reasoning, we shouldn't close ANY topics, because they might be useful someday. Please. I have never really had any troubles with the moderation. The one time I was warned for trolling, I deserved it. While my post was intended to be an innocent joke, it is obviously provocative.
 
Oh, and no, I'm not afraid to 'speak my mind'. I'm not afraid of getting 'censored'. I'm also not sucking up to the staff because I want a staff position, or because I have some fanatical loyalty to them. In fact, I will probably never hold a staff position in TO. In TX? Maybe, but it isn't likely. I don't have the time.

Respected @hhgb please understand that we will always be catering for the likes of this ^ forumer who's valuable time can't be spent reading useless flood which you oddly find satisfying.

 
4.  

[Title]: (swearing here with capslock)
: (swearing here with capslock)
{This would also be flooding most of the forum sections}

This is the tankiforum!  Not the other forums you're used to.  We won't be taking in their rules just to satisfy you.  We're a games company servicing players of all ages and backgrounds.  There's also a legal aspect that comes with a license of that type, hence those rules.  And our rules treat swearing as swearing, not flood!  Besides, if anyone wants to contribute to the community or raise an issue, s/he should first learn the skills of writing with a broader vocabulary than very limited foul one offered by urban dictionary.  (of which I'm a big fan of btw, don't think of me as a hater of that service, I relish it)
 
5.  As for the impersonation issue which you raised in this topic : If you truly are from all these forums you say you are, it surprises me that you've never seen normal regular forumers helping the community.  Hold on!  I'M ON SEVERAL DIFFERENT FORUMS :o  and normal regular forumers helping out their community is nothing but THE NORM.  

6.  

I'm not sending this to the team via PM because I want the users of this forum to weigh in if the fear of them being moderated isn't here. We need a normal discussion about how this place is run, 
 
unless discussing rules isn't allowed, but that only happens in Soviet Russia, right? We can't improve without it and this place has been dead the past 4 years for a reason... we all know why.

I'm sorry but by "normal discussion about how this place is run" did you happen to mean something like 
http://en.tankiforum.com/index.php?showtopic=315957
 
About the darker text quoted above, I'd normally post a meme, but that will just render those comments silly and so I'll keep them to myself and not make this response a disrespectful one towards you my very well esteemed tanker.
 
7.  

If you move this topic to the damned "problems & solutions" area again to hide it from players, I'll post it here again after hiding that one.

 
Ooops!  :unsure: 
 
8.  You say you have tons of evidence on how mods act badly, please, you already know how to use the pm system, feel free to send me some of those evidence.  I'd very much love to see them.  Alternately, you can also click on the report function within the post where a moderator has misbehaved.  It would be very helpful for me to ensure they don't misbehave.
 
9.  

The moderation of this forum has improved so much over the past couple years. It's great that most players no longer hold such perceptions of the moderation, and I'd suggest you take another look with an open mind, too.

The previous comment above yours says the forum has gone downhill, and yet you say it has "improved so much over the past couple years."

Here's a little fact you might not know or have already forgotten.  Goldrock has been 1 of the most affected if not the most affected victim of previously unreasonable and overly harsh moderation in this very forum in the past.  So he does know his stuff and what he's talking about when he says there's been huge strides made since those darker days.  And its not some random "tanki/ forum is going downhill" comment that will topple that.

#damnthathillislongbro

 
10.  

One part of a forum moderator's job is to inform players of what rules they've broken. That kid took the job away from whatever team member would have come in. Clearly he wants to be a mod but you all seem to be on his side because he's pro-moderator and you don't want to lose your few supporters, don't you?

Ok we get it, you hate that guy for helping out and between you and me respected tanker @hhgb, how mean of that kid to do that !!!  :angry:

 

11.  

If there was a way for players to safely post their opinion on the forum moderation team you would see what we all think.

Did you mean like here : Is it "allowed" to discuss the game's rules o... ? 
or may be here : Myths and rumours answered ?

oh, or may be in this very topic of yours here : What do you think these forums would be like if just about every topic wasn't locked instantly?

 

:rolleyes: starting to look a tad circular now  :rolleyes: 

 

12.  (... more to come, stay tuned.)

[r_Damn_Slow0 12,476]

12.  I hear you on the Off-topic section containing topics about the game.  Thanks for the feedback on that.  May be in future we might have some changes in how the sectioning is done.  Will look into that.
 
13.  The first Did you read the EULA? topic you made wasn't closed by anyone, it just died on its own and got archived.  The second Did you read the EULA? topic you made 2 whole years later effectively had a mod closing the topic in haste, but the very next day one of the admin of the time had it reopened.  And this is more of a proof of a working administration keeping moderators action in check.  You should be happy about this, not lamenting it.  Also that second topic died and got archived on its own as well.  
 

Just while on the subject, I couldn't help notice that 2 whole years later you still didn't correct it :

http://imgtnk.com/i/eda4c0fc.png - were*
http://imgtnk.com/i/569c309f.png - still were*

 

14.  

I have a post here: http://en.tankiforum.com/index.php?showtopic=305786 with an archive link to the thread (https://web.archive.org/web/20160131171359/http://en.tankiforum.com/index.php?showtopic=305786&p=5302943) before most posts were hidden for discussing moderation. All the players agreed too, this is another part to why we don't talk about how the place is run in fear of your team.

Thank you ever so much for this.  Now we can use this as a perfect example of how trolls try to highjack topics addressing an issue and try to render it useless and how at the same time flamers are so quick at jumping on the hatewagon.  Thanks to the webarchive people can now see and judge for themselves how "helpful" the removed comments were :)
 
15.  

By the way, it would be great for Cedric to ask the community for their opinions on the moderators as their image doesn't seem too nice at the moment. He's done his evaluation on how the place is run I've heard and he doesn't see anything wrong, but that's him and he's a single person who essentially runs the place.
If you're running say, a country, and people have issues about something in the place. Would you know of them? The people experiencing them would, but not always yourself. If the country prevents public speech about issues it wouldn't get known even further and how would anyone then know about it? Exactly what looks like is happening here.

Well Cedric recently held an AMA topic here : Forum Ask-Me-Anything Session with Cedric
Pretty sure you didn't miss out on it.  
 
And sorry to disappoint, but you need to wake up as this is not the super-dictatorial country you're dreaming of.  Its a games forum on which you've been allowed to speak freely and publicly.  Please, no one has to believe me on that.  They can just take a look for themselves as to how many of your own topics were hidden over the past year :
http://imgtnk.com/i/e0cf0713.jpg
http://imgtnk.com/i/3c7be89c.jpg
http://imgtnk.com/i/6d92c6ab.jpg

Yes just 2 of them.  1 was a pointer to a useless shakespearian insults generator, the other one was, well, http://imgtnk.com/i/b3f7bb74.png , I suppose that it was an initial iteration of what would eventually become your last 3 topics  :huh: is it?

---

I post all my topics in Off-Topic because this is where players look, when a topic is moved there no one clicks it because all anyone ever goes there for is for tech support, which your team does an alright job of.  No one would go there to discuss issues about the team because it's not expected to be there. The General section would even be more fitting out of all things. We have barely even found the problem and what's causing all of this among your team, we need to discuss what it is.
 
Screamer videos aren't a part of trolling, they're meant to aggravate people and get others to hate. We usually laugh at trolls, some of the true ones (look back at cheap_plastic_flower and Contaminated) made great topics and forum members got excited to see their topics. The ones you call trolls (mkkmkk999 and latvian_killer) weren't trolls, but only flamers who aggravate players, but them and their alts got multiple bans for 'trolling' despite it not coming close. The true meaning has been bent too much, the word doesn't seem to fit the meaning anymore as it's so vague.
 
When I bring up one issues I take the chance to lay down more rather than make a separate post. I can't stand holding back all my opinions when I've had to put up with all of this so long. I'm only taking advantage of your attention and putting it all in one place, much easier than multiple topics at once.

16.  Para 1 : Thanks for the feedback on the team's doing an alright job.  We appreciate :)  Btw that's the same team that makes sure your topic gets moved to the correct section whether you like it or not.  Your topic addresses problems, and the P&S section is where it belong and where the people who can resolve it or escalate it work.  If you insist on having your "problem awareness" topics in the off-topic section then it will just be useless whining to a bunch of people who can do nothing about it.  And lately, its starting to seem that the latter is more of your goal rather than talking through and resolving the problem  :huh:  Very odd!
 
17.  Para 2 : Much talk from a multi-forumer with 3+ years of experience who still can't distinguish between a joker, a flamer and a troll!
 
18.  Para 3 : Hope you do realize your own choice of words serves others to justify their comments on you lately.  Also right now, you've gotten wayyyyy too much of my attention than you should have ever gotten.  Similar to this dude.  

---

[r_Damn_Slow0 12,476]

The net bill : 

1.  Much personal issues from 1 nostalgic guy who can't grasp that the forum's dark days are long gone and well behind us.  Bringing back those old skeletons from their grave is only doing 2 things, wasting time and resources of a limited crew on dead stuff, and hindering further progress of the community.

 

2.  Multiple futile attempts by 1 guy to spark a flame war and a hate movement against moderators and the administration at a time where said administration and moderation have undergone several changes and are still undergoing more changes to better suit the overall needs of the community.

 

3.  Failure to open eyes on the fact that many of the old generation helpers are gone and that there's now a new administration lead and a new community lead which are way more open to you and your criticism, free speech, and overall push against less censorship across the community than say in 2012.

 

4.  Attempt at derailing the progress and work of helpful forumers, both moderating and non-moderating ones, for own satisfaction and/or carrying on old wars which are no longer necessary.

 

5.  Refusal on many counts to use the proper escalation and complaints pathways indicated by moderators and other members of the community.  (i.e. pm the admin concerned)

 

6.  Waste and pure waste of several hours of cumulated volunteer helpers' time over several non-issues for a single and very minimal gain.  (i.e. the one in point 12. above)

[r_Damn_Slow0 12,476]

This thread is forever locked due to its low yield and its "dragging back" on community progress.  

 

Further topics made to address the same issues will be locked down without prior notice.  

 

We urge you to use the other topics linked in point 11 above if you have any problems with moderation and the administration of the forum instead of making new ones.  This way you can be sure we're here and listening.

 

Also please do respect that the forum is not a bazaar.  It has different section meant to classify different topics for better readability to both forumers as well as the administration.  It also comes with different levels of problem escalation to ensure the right people gets the right problem topic/dossier on their desk in an efficient manner.  And that starts by sending a pm to a moderator who'll then escalate the matter up to the correct place where, when and if necessary.  

 

We ask you to please respect the escalation process so we can better serve you.