Fuck yeah! The cat is leaving town so the mice can squeak up a storm!!!!!!!

ooh what does "silence user" do

oh man, you guys thought save and ready were next to each other
silence user and +1 are even closer
lmao

So when did the mods stop nuking dooty

Making dooty

I think jumbo is the main problem, he can't stop himself :-)

kudos to PE for dragging some of the slime (errrr....me...) to mafia and cleaning up the forum...

To echo krellin's comment, the forum has certainly got a lot more pleasant now he's stopped posting on it in so many topics.

Patience. My return is immenent...

As long as we keep one or two mafia threads going it generally shuts everyone up.

I mute those fucking threads as soon as I see them crop up.

Draug you shold really join one.

omg

but draugnar, you were the banhammer-in-chief in Mafia I

Yes, the cut-scenes with Draugnar were *most* excellent! lol

My opinion: This may be a mistake. I think abgemacht has done a great job as forum ombudsman, and I think partly his presence in that role may have been having a deterrent effect. Withdrawing the Ombsudmod may somewhat remove that deterrent. This remains to be seen, of course, but I think since things have been improving, why remove the Ombudsman now?

My theory is that abge doesn't enjoy spending 20 hours a day on the site. Just a theory though.

jamie, the "deterrent" is only what you make it. Since the forum issues at the end of last year when abge was officially brought on board, he hasn't had to do much of anything outside of a few mutes for talking about ongoing games and violating tournament rules. Every user here knows the behavior expectations of using the forum so there is no need for it to be monitored by one dedicated public servant. Instead of one abge, now every mod is abge.

I'd just like to say the forum was better under you and I do not approve of this change.

@Jamiet

I appreciate you think I've done a good job. To be clear, I'm not leaving, I'm just delegating. If there is a big issue, I'll still be around, but as 2nd correctly points out, there's really no reason why I need to be solely responsible for the day-to-day operation of the Forum.

EEeep, I cannot be seen to agree with SYnapse....

*flip flop*

I am glad that abgemacht's reign as forum ombudsman is over. It was a terrible idea all along. Good riddance, abgemacht!

"I'd just like to say the forum was better under you and I do not approve of this change."

I announced this change only an hour or so ago. Probably a bit early to decide if it's better or worse.

Really gone downhill in the last two hours.

I think he meant compared to *before* the start of your reign. Time will tell what will happen with you taking an executive approach rather than a hands on approach to forum issues, but you have my support and I will strive to not be one of the assholes who takes advantage or pushes the limits when you are hands off, abge.

Listen guys, let's not make this bigger than it is. This is a tiny website in some corner of the web dedicated to a niche hobby. We are all pathetic, obsessive and petty geeks who love some obscure boardgame, and are even willing to serious spend time on that. We all love diplomacy. We all love this community, cause if not, we'd be gone.

Some of the idiots in the community are more idiotic than most, since they have volunteered to make sure that the forums arent used for cheating, and are kept usable. There is no big handing over. There is no 'reign', there is no coup. There is no phasing out for abge (even if he deludes himself). Abge remains part of the community as he has done, and he will re-assert himself if he feels the need. I have no doubt of his capability to do that.

Shall we just recognise that each of us receive glares from our significant others that we spend too much time on here? Shall we recognise that we love this game, with all its stabbing splendour and bullshit negotiation? We're much more alike than this weird comedy cube seems to imply - I'd almost rather it was gone with all the presuppositions it seems to carry.

I love being part of the community, I love working hard to keep it cheater free, and if that means I need to remove a cheating accusation from the forum now and again I'll gladly do that too. And if you don't like the way I do it, I'm sure you can find abge *right there on the forum* to have a talk with me. He's just as geeky as the rest of us, and I'm sure his addiction to this website will be just as high.

Just so you guys know, the one time that I had a complaint about the way a staff member handled an issue, I was immediately put in touch with senior staff and my complaint was *upheld*.

They guy I had a problem with, pretty quickly contacted me to help me understand that he didn't take it personally. He and I are now friends.

I can't promise that the rest of you will have similarly good experiences with the staff, but in my minimal experience, they have been very patient and fair to me.

My advice - if you have a problem with the staff, be patient in explaining it to them. I can almost promise they will be patient in listening to you.

+1 to Al

The mods do a great and thankless job, and i salute them

@TMOW
One of the best posts I've read on here. I couldn't agree more. +1000

+1 this thread if you appreciate the staff.

TMW - spoken like a true serial killer...or is it mafia man???

Nice locker room speech TM.

"We all love this community"

Debateable

Hey guys,hey listen, I've got a navel.
I could sit here and gaze at it for hours.
Hey why don't you all try gazing at yours, fascinating isn't it.
Who needs a world view ??

SYnapse - you are fre to shut your virtual pie-hole.

TMOW set the standard way too high for me to meet, so Imma just do my thing instead.

Hey guys. You know where I stand. I strongly prefer free and open forums, and I think the best way to improve forum discourse is through social incentives rather than imposition from above. I will be taking a more active approach toward the self-moderation aspect of our site by setting the standard for my own posting higher than I have been, and by encouraging others to do the same. I'm not and never have been a busybody type, and I don't intend to use my moderator powers unless I need to, but if I see a forum flareup or that you're being a jerk, I'm gonna check up on ya in a PM. I care about y'all and about continuing to keep this a great place to discuss philosophy and politics, play forum games and yes, even occasionally discuss Diplomacy.

I think the past couple of months have seen probably close to a record low as far as bickering and in-fighting goes. Not entirely sure what's changed, but this place is more tranquil and amicable than I can ever remember it being, and I'm happy for that. Let's keep it that way. What do ya say?

This is Sparta.

" I don't intend to use my moderator powers unless I need to, but if I see a forum flareup or that you're being a jerk, I'm gonna check up on ya in a PM."

I suggest you adjust your tone. There is no rule against being a jerk. If there were, you and 2WL would be silenced already.

When did PE become a mod?

I mean as a fellow forum member, not as a mod. Sorry for not being clear there.

And I do mean "check up on you," in the sense of seeing that you're doing okay personally, not "send a polite warning to stop being a jerk before you get silenced."

"I suggest you adjust your tone. There is no rule against being a jerk. If there were, you and 2WL would be silenced already."

All mods are forum members first, if they want to pm people being jerks and ask them to refrain from it they are more then welcome too. Way to pick up on the important part of his post though ;)

Eat PE

About two months ago, Sandgoose

Just eat them all

Eate the modes

@JMO - It sounded lke an official threat. He has since clarified and I approve of *that* approach. I just don't want to see "being a jerk" eliminated under threat of silencing. Sometimes we all need to vent and an anonymous forum is a great place to do just that.

You know... The comedy cubes look a lot like a big square bowl of grapes.

I don't know why yebellz and abge were spending so much time trying to make a chessboard when we have several perfectly comedy cubes already.