It's been a good ride, but I'm out.

[Falcord]

I wondered for a while if I should write a goodbye message, because I'm not entirely sure of what I might accomplish, but in the end I guess I think it's better to say what I think, with the hope it will be positive.

There's the possibility a moderator will come and delete my thread, but I beg they take this as what it is: constructive criticism. I'm not angry, looking for attention or trying to provoke a reaction. I might as well dissapear without saying anything, but this is a community I actually like and respect so please, don't misunderstand what I'm doing. If you moderators still consider this in any form or shape insulting, or deem it "dangerous" for the community to get involved in a discussion like this, I appeal to your sense of honor and request that, if you're going to close this thread, at least don't delete it: leave it to be seen by everyone so they can have their own opinion.

The reason why I'm leaving is moderation. In my humble opinion this community is moderated too strictly, following abusive and seemingly random guidelines, not always following any specific rules. Because, and it's a good moment to clarify that, I'm the kind of person that reads the rules when joining a forum.

I appreciate that the content in these boards is streamlined and coherently classified. However, it struck me from the very beginning how strict the moderation team was regarding what goes where, to the point of being impolite to posters that where just inches away from writing at the right section.

My first real pet peeve came with the, again in my humble opinion, absolutely unnecessary termination of any thread discussing tiers or comparing the relative effectiveness of any characters from Duodecim. I understand early tier lists are never reliable, and I also understand discussions like those may tend to heat up and become a problem, but why should you close a perfectly normal thread in which people were sharing their opinions and speculation is completely beyond me, specially in a game in which, and sorry if I'm bursting someone's bubble, the competitive scene is minuscule. If you want an example of what I'm talking about, here's one: http://dissidiaforums.com/showthread...ight=tier+list (notice how the thread has a giant "SPECULATION" sign written in it and it gets closed somehow because... because what, again?)

My second issue is hypocrisy. I don't want to be blunt here but the position of the moderation team regarding piracy seems to change a lot depending on who they're dealing with. When the japanese game was leaked, everyone started sharing it like crazy and talking about it, trying to concieve it only barely, and nobody seemed to care much.

Then I got this thread closed: http://dissidiaforums.com/showthread...for-5.00-M33.6

Okay, let's recap. I've heard a gazillion times in this forum (from the moderation team themselves every now and then) that talking about CFW is okay as long as you're not strictly mentioning piracy. Believe me or not, I'm one of those people that got CFW only because of homebrew applications. I admit I tested the japanese leaked version, but right now I have an original european copy of Dissidia in front of me. That's another story however. The other reason why my thread was closed is that "I was asking for the save before the game was out" when I clearly state "as soon as it's available" which implies that I knew it couldn't be out yet.

In conclusion, I was assumed to be a pirate and a hacker and I didn't really like that. But whatever, I didn't even complain, it wasn't that bad.

I staid, and there were some moderation decissions I also didn't agree with (like another tier speculation thread closed) but I could live with it.

The finishing blow came today, in this thread: http://dissidiaforums.com/showthread...ster-the-Chase!

Hello? Do you know what day it is? April 1st.

Even if it weren't April's Fools (anyone that stopped to think a little would've realized that was the entire point of my thread) everyone was having fun in there. It was an innocent joke, Dissidia related, and while it doesn't matter a little bit, with scientific accuracy. It was all fun and games until a moderator had to come and destroy the mood in a way which, in all sincerity, was very disrespectful.

Yes, I honestly don't want to belong to a forum in which an april's fools joke is met like that. I don't want to belong to a forum in which discussions disliked by the moderators are locked, regardless of how constructive and polite they are, and where the gray zone regarding piracy is black for one and white for another.

Again, sorry if anything of this was harsh or disrespectful. If that's the case, I apologize. I took my time to write down and express my opinions coherently, which means I have no intention of discussing them an entering a flame war, so fear not.

On the other hand, it's been a good ride, and I wanted to say thank you and nice to meet you to all the people that deserve it, which honestly is pretty much everyone, including the moderation team. I have no hard feelings towards anyone, I simply think the way this forum is handled should be changed for good. If anyone wants to find me, I'll be at my youtube channel (falcord) as always.

See you!

[Viva L'Empereur]

You're absolutely right. The moderators are completely arbitrary on this forum and the rules are often enforced irregularly or strangely as well. I'm sorry that you're leaving. I almost left because of the same shit, and was likewise nearly involuntarily forced out as well. Everything you said about CFW is true as well, and I'm also kinda one of those people. I usually buy games.

I hope that you just take a break and come back though. It's a shame that moderators and administrators are totally full of themselves and their authority (lol at Beltz closing that chase thread while everybody else just laughed at the joke; somebody's a sour puss), but there's still a pretty good community here.

I can definitely relate to you because I often posted joking remarks and was met with the same kind of dour reaction from seriously rectally pained mods (including the same one). This is a forum for a silly crossover fighting video game, not for the Wall Street Stock Exchange. There is seriously no reason for this "no fun allowed" attitude that prevails among some the higher-ups. I also noticed that the mods seem to have a policy of targeting somebody like snipers once they see them as doing something wrong. After seeing any of your posts about tier speculations they probably were browsing over every single one of your posts to try to discover any kind of wrongdoing that they could get you on.

PROIZVOL!

[Ghurdrich]

I'd like to take this opportunity to point out that instead of letting it build up, there are certain people in the staff who have an open mind and would like very much to hear your criticisms before you do something rash like leave. I dunno. I know I talked to Viva about it. Maybe he can vouch for me, but maybe I didn't do such a good job with it and he can vouch against me. Either way. It's like the court system, there's higher powers for a reason. If you don't like what a moderator does, talk to him. And if you don't like how he took it, talk to someone else. Or talk to a Global like Veysey, or even an admin like Spyder or Mass Zero. Mass may not be the most active, but he still does stuff when he has to. Spyder is more active, and would love your feedback.

Don't get me wrong, I get all your points. I even agree with most of them (The april fools thing was out of line for sure.) I just kind of think it's childish to let it all build up and not tell anybody, and then finally let it all out and leave. I dunno. I guess that's my opinion. But please try and understand that the staff, like the rest of you, are humans. And humans have opinions. And humans do rash things. And they disagree with each other. And most of all they get tired of the same shit time and time again. That tier thread was closed because we have an absolutely abhorrent track record with tier threads in the past. If you had asked, you would have learned that.

Anyways, sorry to see you go, but as a standing lesson to those of us who remain with this problem, Talk to someone.

[Dave880]

Just want to say... each moderator runs things differently so... if there is a problem with one contact the Admins on this site.

[Spyder]

Communication has always been, and will remain, the most important aspect of all societies. It is why we co-exist and form communities. Because of communication. With that said, I do appreciate you coming forth and giving us an opinion on the matter. However, I also think that this criticism was given too late.

All of our moderators are trusted to do the right thing and keep the forums clean. They work very hard and none of them are getting paid to sift through topics and posts to make sure that everything is organized and to keep order in the community. However, there will always be an occasional error on the moderator's part. We are human, after all. Today, especially, with an overabundance of April Fool's jokes, our moderators have to work hard to keep the real information separated from misinformation. A good, harmless joke could accidentally be paired with something that does need to be taken out--like misinformation.

I do not disagree with any of your statements, and I do appreciate you finally voicing this, because it gives everyone a chance to understand the situation better. Without feedback, there's little to improve on for both sides.

At the very least, I'm thrilled you enjoyed conversing with our community. Cheers.

[Luka]

I like how you took your time to type this all out. Of course, any problems, opinion's should be PM-(ed),straight to our MODS or Admin.
First, I thought when you typed out "April Fool's Day" you were gonna stay on the site, of course; you're not. Best wishes to you, and thank you for enjoying your stay.

Goodbye,

[Veysey]

Well written. Thanks for the food for thought and as it's been said before, if you're having problems or have questions, feel free to ask. I know I, personally, am always striving to improve so any and all criticism is good. Others on the staff feel much the same and only want to become better so they can help the community grow.

With tier lists, we've seen trouble in that area before. Things inevitably get heated and members start saying things they ought not to. Also, there is a large gap in understanding and assessing tiers between a lot of the members which further encourages aggression and aggravation (not being able to understand the points someones trying to make because you don't have the experience yet). You add in the fact that in that specific topic, they were basing the information on an incomplete demo, partial character cast, and no PvP - it really was just a bunch of infractions waiting to happen.

Tiers really shouldn't even be discussed at this point since we're all still working around the new meta of DDFF and getting used to the new mechanics. Once players start feeling comfortable, we'll see some really good tier discussions cropping up, I'm sure. Until then, I'd encourage players to spend the idle time learning as much as they can about the mechanics, cast, and other deciding factors. Not to say their shouldn't be tier discussion right now, but most people aren't experienced enough to really contribute at this point (have an informed decision and good backup experience). Remember, the point of a tier list isn't to predict who's top, who's not etc, it's to compare the skills of each character and see who has the tools to best deal with someone else. It's also a snapshot of the current PvP meta at that point in time. In those regards, a lot of consideration, understanding, and hard work go into tier lists - which is why it's so important that people have proper experience before REALLY engaging in a good tier discussion.

As for CFW on PSPs - the problem is, in order to have CFW, you're violating your agreement with Sony to not tamper with their software and hardware. It IS illegal and they COULD pursue legal action against you if they wanted. Of course, they likely wont since you're only one person, but hitting the site as a whole isn't out of the question (attempting to shut down DF). Consider the "no illegal talk" more of a precaution to protect the users, the site, and the administrators. We're not trying to be hardasses in that area and we definitely know most people have access to CFWs BUT it doesn't make it any less illegal.

Finally - and just a side note - I thought the chase topic was enjoyable XD I didn't have time to post this morning when I read it, but I got a good laugh out of it

If there is anything you'd like further clarification on, feel free to ask and we really appreciate the time you took to address your concerns and give us feedback. Thanks a lot! (I really mean this)

[Nevfx]

Just want to say... each moderator runs things differently so... if there is a problem with one contact the Admins on this site.

To be fair though, they shouldnt. It should all be the same, surely?

Otherwise it kinda sends mixed messages, and some people might complain that 'x' mod told them off for this, but when they did it before 'y' mod didnt.

To be honest, im a good boy, and do not get into trouble often, if at all. No that wasnt a dig at anyone, just an observation.

[No78]

I agree! But to be honest, this is one of the best forums I've found in ages. There are way worse ones than this...

I just try not to let it get to me anymore and just try not to take it too seriously...

[Nevfx]

I agree! But to be honest, this is one of the best forums I've found in ages. There are way worse ones than this...

I just try not to let it get to me anymore and just try not to take it too seriously...

Yes, this is one of the better forums out there, but its far from perfect. (Yes, I know you didnt say it was.)

When someone becomes a mod, I dont know HOW it works. Surely they would get a PM with some sort of guideline as how to best go about there new role? I dont think it should, if it is and no im not saying it it, this is just my observation and opinion, be left up to each mod how they run things, it shouldnt be. It should be strict for THEM on how they mod, with the ADmins stepping in if they have been to harsh or to hasty.