Posts by Alex Watson

It’s honestly pathetic that this is even being debated in the first place...

It’s pretty obvious some people are seriously offended that I still have the right to post on this forum, so I figured I’d open up a dedicated thread where I can vent freely without it being considered off-topic.
Also, since my previous attempt at posting was shut down on a thread that was barely even locked for a second:

''It’s honestly pathetic how the people complaining most about these threads 'diluting the quality' are just using my situation as an excuse to dodge the actual issues at hand.

Regardless, I'll address it.

The insults I wrote—and the ones being thrown around here (even if they aren't accurate)—that I actually regret, were posted months after I had already been permanently banned and stripped of my posting privileges on this site.

I’ve apologized for those comments multiple times, so I honestly don't get why I'm still being accused of not owning up to them.

I sat on the sidelines for a year and a half and paid the price for my mistakes in full.

And by the way, who exactly was responsible for permabanning N'dugu (along with a whole bunch of others, obviously)?

Was it Nick?

Honestly, I have to laugh at these desperate attempts to rehabilitate the reputation of your favorite former admin, who, through his posts both here and in that massive PDF file,
shows exactly who he really is...''

👍

If anyone has more questions, I’m happy to answer them.

On that note, I want to thank the current administration for bringing me back into the fold.
I hope that my behavior and my posts over the last few months have proven that I belong here.

You’ve got the wrong guy.

Out of nowhere, Miror started bringing up godparent stuff...

Joshua Hughes4 said:Lately, the drama on here feels like a cheap daytime soap opera. Everything starts out totally normal, then suddenly it devolves into who’s sleeping with who, who’s best friends with whom, who wants to grab coffee, who won't share pics of their kids, whose dad is tougher, who's better in bed... And to make sure there's a predictable ending—everyone just gets told their complaints are baseless, they're all just trolls, this is pointless, case closed.

How many actual appeals have been resolved lately in favor of the users?
That's if we ignore the moderator complaints and just accept the assumption that they're all invalid because we never get to see the "real story" behind them. 😬
And what about the people who specifically asked to be permabanned just so they wouldn't have to deal with the stress, only to be denied? Not a single explanation for that has ever made any sense.

There have been permabans and threats of partial bans for anyone who thought they were right, especially when admin decided the conversation was over. Same goes for those month-long, highly questionable bans where the discussion just ends because admin decides they've heard enough, regardless of whatever arguments the banned users actually had.

Look, I wasn't the one who started turning this thread into a mess of "who knows who" and weird personal drama; it was the people constantly running to the mods for every little thing!
And then later on, they’ll complain that the topic has been completely diluted.

I will admit, some of the user complaints probably could have been handled a lot better by the staff.

Maybe things will actually improve now that every single individual dispute is going to get its own separate thread.

Sure, whatever, thanks for nothing. 😉

hollowmason64 said:Haha... if you look closely at those "strong points," you can definitely see some trolling from the admin, but honestly? There isn't much in the way of actual, concrete answers to be found there. 😁

We can certainly do that... as long as you're Nica, then you'll be the one answering my questions.

Go ahead and ask Xena what she thinks about that kind of freedom.

Wait, is Xena actually permabanned?

My bad, I had no idea. Honestly, that changes everything... if that's the case, I am officially lodging a formal protest against the admin team.

fadedsailor932 said:If only they had done things this way from the start. But look, when an admin claims to be here "for the users" yet loses their cool at the first sign of actual criticism—even after a bunch of mods (myself included) warned them against it—it just shows this admin team isn't ready to lead a forum like this.

Look, I don't want to get dragged into the specifics of the moderator drama...

fadedsailor932 said:Yeah... sure they were... let the debate run for a couple pages and then just start handing out cards left and right. They definitely watched the thread, though. If that counts as being "careful"...
Look, yeah, warnings for trolling and a permanent ban aren't the same thing... but when everything is based on whatever mood the mods are in and there's zero transparency, what's the difference? It’s the same deal as the bans. One person gets a month and another gets three days for the exact same thing. Someone gets a permaban for using an alt while their main is locked, and someone else suddenly becomes a moderator... you get the idea.
I'm not saying Sash was some saint—not even close—but at least with him, you knew where you stood. Nowadays? You could be a mod in some random corner of the site today, and tomorrow you're stuck managing a thread you haven't even read. All it takes is showing just the right amount of... "understanding"... toward the higher-ups.

Well, if all this bothers you so much, how come it didn't bother you back when the former admin was uselessly banning and permabanning high-quality members over nothing, leading you to, say, step down from your position because of those kinds of actions?

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if the admins lock this thread if people keep posting nonsense like this... and then you just know someone else will start whining about how they're always shutting stuff down.

To get back to what we were actually talking about, I think closing that massive, bloated thread was a smart move. It honestly seems way more efficient to tackle each specific issue in its own separate thread instead of having everything lumped together.

fadedsailor932 said:Yeah... true... bans aren't really the issue anymore. Now it’s all about shady accounts just trolling or posting off-topic crap. Though even that isn't a guarantee if you've got family connections on the site.

That’s just your take on it.
My take is that they were actually being incredibly careful with how they handed them out, and I think they deserve credit for that.

Besides, you can't even put those little "off-topic" or trolling penalties in the same sentence as an actual permanent ban...

fadedsailor932 said:I've always been loud and clear about my views, both here and in the mod chat. And when Sasha was let go, I resigned properly—not because of who I know, but because of how they handled it. It's the same reason I stood up for a fellow mod a few months ago over stuff that had nothing to do with his actual job. Plus, unlike most people around here, I'll say it straight: Nica is a bad admin.

No, it isn't pathetic when someone starts talking about a disastrous former administration even if they joined after that crew left or just a month after signing up. I'm pretty sure no admin ever bans someone just for having a low post count.

I'm certain you're capable of checking registration dates, so I'm honestly surprised you're pushing these inaccuracies.
Can we please stop derailing the discussion with these minor distractions?

fadedsailor932 said:The current admins are totally at fault—their inconsistency and lack of skill give users the right to nitpick every single thing they say. It just proves my point from when I stepped down as a moderator: Nica doesn't grasp how a forum this size actually works, and she honestly lacks the capacity to be an admin. Sure, she might handle being a mod on some tiny subreddit, but an admin role? To exaggerate—it’s like asking a nurse to perform major surgery. Even in movies, that doesn't end well.

I don't know.
I honestly don't even know how a forum this massive works.
Maybe you've got a point.

But the fact that we can even sit here and debate this without worrying about getting banned suggests things are actually looking up compared to how they used to be...

ambermason16 said:Do you honestly think that after barely 185 posts spread over three and a half years under Sasha's administration, you're somehow qualified to compare one thing to another? Or to weigh in on forum politics at all?

Of course you think so. You’re just another carbon copy from that swarm of yellow ants that crawled out during this admin. You all share the exact same flaw: none of you could own a single sentence if someone held a gun to your head. It’s pathetic. This whole "romantic" routine—acting like a lunatic under one handle, playing the saint under another, and then moonlighting as a moderator under a third... it's disgusting. Get an identity and stick to it. Even when you're wrong. Even when you're standing alone against the crowd. Stand on your own. Write what you think, when you think it, and have the guts to sign your name to it.

So, when you run out of actual arguments, you resort to ad hominem, huh?

Under this administration, I haven't opened a single clone account, so your little accusation is completely off base.

I haven't used my original handle—which is actually older than yours—in a very long time, so there's zero point in me reactivating it now.

The only account I use is this one.

Can we please get back to the topic at hand?

fadedsailor932 said:Look, one basic rule for posting on any forum (even a trashy one, I guess) is actually knowing how to read. I explicitly asked for things to be deleted and the thread locked. But wouldn't you know it? Pages upon pages of criticism (from whoever) just get locked instead. And some stuff? Yeah, it definitely got wiped...

There’s really no need to get personal or start throwing insults.
We can have a civil conversation without resorting to that.

Threads usually get locked once they hit a wall of hundreds of identical, repetitive posts, or once a final decision has been made regarding appeals...

fadedsailor932 said:Yeah... so you suffered under the old regime's boot... for how long? Years? Months? Weeks? Days?
Look, I'll admit it—this current crew is fairer. They don't permaban critics; they just delete posts or lock threads. With the old administration, you at least knew where you stood. Now? They just flip-flop on their rules whenever it suits them. It's all just whatever works for them in the moment.

I'm not even talking about myself here.
I earned my status the right way and I paid my dues just like everyone else.

I'm thinking about the dozens of other regular, decent users who got banned because they did exactly what you guys are doing so freely right now: criticizing how the admins run things.

Whether their criticisms were actually valid is a whole different story...

fadedsailor932 said:Yeah... so you suffered under the old regime's boot... for how long? Years? Months? Weeks? Days?
Look, I'll admit it—this current crew is fairer. They don't permaban critics; they just delete posts or lock threads. With the old administration, you at least knew where you stood. Now? They just flip-flop on their rules whenever it suits them. It's all just whatever works for them in the moment.

It’s pretty obvious when you look at the endless pages of scathing reviews posted by hollowmason64 and her little group of allies, which somehow, miraculously, still haven't been scrubbed from the site...

Look, maybe this administration isn't perfect.

But at least they don't go around handing out permanent bans just because they woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Especially when someone actually dares to criticize how they handle things.

If people were treating Nica and Strilet the way they used to treat the former admin... man, they would have been kicked off this site a long time ago.

Brian Edwards78 said:Are you kidding me? I’m definitely going to have to drag myself down to a physical branch just to pay for my online services. What a joke. 😁

Besides, it would all be on a strictly voluntary basis anyway... 🤷

If you aren't even trying, then what's there to lose anyway?

Honestly, if it weren't for people like us who actually step up and get things done...
If I were actually paying for this service, I’d expect a much faster and more stable forum...

Brian Edwards78 said:You were making donations to keep the forum running. This is about paying a membership fee. Either way, both types of payments show which account or card was used. 🤷

The payment was made in cash at a bank teller window.
That’s exactly why—so there’s no paper trail linking it back to a specific account.
If that's an issue, just call it a donation for a new server instead. In exchange, you get Verizon status.

Brian Edwards78 said:I suggested a solution like this over a decade ago. I guess it’s just too much work and too much of a headache for them.

To be honest, as time went on, I started liking the idea less and less. Not because the concept is bad or impossible to pull off—it isn't—but because of the fact that this kind of payment system completely nukes user anonymity. The person responsible for verifying payments and linking them to specific accounts would have to be someone incredibly trustworthy. I don't know about you, but looking at the current management and everyone from the last few years, I personally trust only Axmi. I wouldn't trust any of the others to watch my house, let alone hold onto my personal data.

I suspect it's exactly this data that causes the biggest headaches for forum owners. With the current setup, they can basically ignore backups and security concerns since users aren't leaving anything useful in their profiles, inboxes, or posts anyway. But if we're talking about paid memberships, they actually need to step up regarding security and data storage. And that, of course, requires effort and money. It's much easier to just sit there and shrug whenever a 503 or 504 error pops up. Just pretend everything is fine and hope for the best. 🎉

When I was paying for trkeljanje last year,
I did it anonymously.
I just put in the notes that the payment was for the username Alex Watson.
So, total anonymity was maintained (not to mention I ended up meeting a lawyer in person later on).

I don't see any reason why Reddit couldn't do the same thing.
Anyone who wants to pay for their handle can stay completely anonymous.
If it meant fewer ads and a bigger inbox, I'd happily pay whatever it takes.