What a tempest in a teapot this whole thing has become.

To put things in perspective: Posts promoting pirated material are deleted here weekly. It's a long standing policy. Bwind's intital post was deleted because of this. He then had a fit and was given SPECIAL PERMISSION to promote a site that streams pirated material through private messages because he's a long standing member.

His thread was left active long enough for any regular member to get the information if they so desired. It was then closed. As Phalanx has so wisely noted, anyone who wants the info knows where to get it.

Even though Bwind was allowed to post info that is normally deleted, and given time to get his word out, I have been accused of fostering some sort of grudge in this matter. When the mod election was being held, the most cited reason many members gave for voting for me was they thought I would be fair. I think V and I have acted in a fair manner in this matter- I won't say impartial because Bwind was given MORE leiniency than others have been given. I stand by my actions and I know V does stand by his as well.

I have been given nothing but support by the other mods who have contacted me. If anyone else wants this thankless job- which btw entails a minimum of an hour EVERY DAY- and often much more than that- and you honestly think you can find others who will do it- by all means convince the mods there needs to be another election. I'll step down immediately.

nah.
The new mods are good..we voted for them.
Lets just say that because they are doing what mods are supposed to do...
your knickers are getting all twisted.
Lets just hunt down thier addresses and kill thier flowers and pets.

Here is one of those rare occasions that you & I completely agree.

I was basically done with this issue but since you are going to rehash it, let's make sure we're getting the story straight. I certainly didn't "throw a fit", but then again you wouldn't know that because the entire conversation took place via PMs between V & I. Here's what happened...

I posted a thread with a link to a site that streams new release pirated movies. After a couple pages, the thread was locked (not deleted immediately, just locked.) V posted a message stating he locked the thread. I sent him a PM asking why. He informed me that I had insulted NE and that since Posher had agreed with me, there was potential for a gang-up so he locked it. He went on to say that he wasn't sure if HDC could get in trouble for having links to sites that stream pirated movies or not and thought best to play it safe. I replied that if I had insulted neverending, it was the most polite insult I had ever dished out, but I could completely see where he was coming from on the legality issues. I then offered to post a second thread without any link and told him I had no problem whatsoever with him deleting the first one containing the link if he thought we might get in trouble. He said that sounded good and that's what we did.

I posted the second thread without a link, kept everything as cordial as possible and even put in a disclaimer that NE doesn't agree with watching films in this manner. Over the course of the thread, the conversation turned to the differences between streaming and downloading. Then the second thread was abruptly locked without any explanation. That prompted me to start the 'What the Hell?" thread to see if I could figure out what was going on. At that point, NE sent me a PM basically stating that he felt there was nothing more to say on the subject so he locked it. Personally, I don't agree with that decision, I sent him a PM stating so and posted in the 'What the Hell?' thread to let everyone know what happened to the thread. My impression was that it was locked because NE didn't agree with what was being said or promoted, not because it was promoting pirated video. That was the last I spoke of this incident until now.

At no point did I 'throw a fit', flame or intentionally insult anyone via thread or PM. If NE or V has any evidence to the contrary, I'd love to see it, but they don't because it didn't happen.

My opinion is this... The way V handled the first thread was perfect. I have no problems with a thread getting locked as long as there's a reasonable explanation for it.

The way NE handled the second thread was irritating. Basically, I got the sense that he was willing to sit there and discuss it with us for a day or two but as soon as a few people didn't agree with what he was saying and he didn't feel like carrying on a conversation any more, he posted his last word on the topic and then promptly locked it (with no public explanation as to why it was locked or who it was locked by). I had to start a whole new thread just to figure out what was going on.

Does this mean I dislike NE or that I don't trust him to be a fair moderator? Do I think he was intentionally trying to be unfair? Hell no to all of the above. Not at all. It means I feel like that particular situation could have been handled better. Any of you that have been here a while know that I am not one to mince words so when I don't agree with something, I speak my mind. That is all this was. I certinaly didn't mean to cause a big uproar about inadequete moderation around here. I meant to make it known that I didn't agree with a decision that was made, plain and simple.

Probably at the bottom of page 2 by now and page 3 by next week. I think we can all agree that locking a thread is the same as giving it the kiss of death since it'll quickly slip into the abyss, never to be seen again.

Well, I stand by V's and I just think yours could have been improved with an explanation posted at the bottom of the thread. If there had been an explanation, there wouldn't have been a 'What the Hell?' If there was no 'What the Hell?', this thread probably wouldn't have been created and I doubt any of us would still be talking about this at all.

Personally, I still see nothing wrong with the second thread. We talk about illegal stuff here on a regular basis from drugs to murder to pirated films. Without the link (which I can see the potential legal reasons for deleting), I don't see what the problem is. Are we not free to discuss illegal streaming videos at all?

I, for one, don't think there is any need for a new election or different mods. I generally agree with 95% of the moderatory actions around here. In the times I don't agree, I let it be known but there's nothing stating that we all have to agree 100% of the time so I don't really have any problem with this issue at this point. I've resigned myself to the fact that I can't promote a site that streams illegal films here, even if it's without a link and I think there may be others who enjoy it.

In closing, I don't harbor any ill will towards NE over this at all. I do hope in the future, he'll give an explanation when locking threads.

In general, I have a lot of resepct for all of the mods here because like it's been noted, it's a thankless and tedious task they're performing. Spam control alone must be a massive pain in the ass so cheers to you all for the damn fine job you do around here.

It'd be excellent if we could all drop this now. (Or at the very least, leave me out of it.) I'm over it.

I agree. I was urged by several people that I should state my case here, and so I have.

I stand by my post that this has been blown way out of proportion.

As with anything democratic, if you didn't vote, don't complain. If you did vote and don't think things are fair then voice your complaint and do something about it. I would like to see anyone do a better job than the people we have got. Our mods are all hard working, busy people, but they still make the time to sort out all the mess here. I for one think they are doing a great job and are nothing but fair and leniant.

So without any further ado, I think it's time for the official HDC

http://www.northernbrigade.com/files.../group-hug.jpg.

:D

I don't see why anyone is still talking about this or why people were crying about a stupid link anyways. You act like streaming/dl is like killing a baby.
Kind of funny though that it turned into a huge brawl. I have better things to do than argue about something that is out of my hands.
Let's talk about horror or something and quit whining about things that don't matter.

You just whined.

i have a question for the mods :




where do babies come from ... i mean really ?

Girl parts. :)