Gumball Gumption posted:

It's crazy because there is so much you could mock CSPAM for. I don't think I've ever seen a group of people more primed to join a cult. We are all just waiting for the right one

Gumball Gumption posted:

It's crazy because there is so much you could mock CSPAM for. I don't think I've ever seen a group of people more primed to join a cult. We are all just waiting for the right one

Ghost Leviathan posted:

I would not join any cult that would have me as a member

Gumball Gumption posted:

It's crazy because there is so much you could mock CSPAM for. I don't think I've ever seen a group of people more primed to join a cult. We are all just waiting for the right one

Al! posted:

yeah that would be crazy if that happened

Maed posted:

i'm not feeling very flamed tbqh

Al! posted:

would this work?

Al! posted:

would this work?

Second Hand Meat Mouth posted:

hell yeah let's do the epilepsy thing again

smarxist posted:

i hate when the internet gives me a grand mal seizure several times a year

thehandtruck posted:

tun off your monitor

i fly airplanes posted:

i would like 2 apply for asylum

Ohtori Akio posted:

Al-Saqr posted:

not you. you get thrown into the sea.

Ohtori Akio posted:

please at least use the thread for its dedicated purpose - flaming us...

Homeless Friend posted:

its gotta be findable in the search, think exmarx always whipped it out

wampa lord posted:

Hello, posters of C-SPAM!

Based on all the recent events, I am stepping down as IK.

Before I do, I would like to make one effort post about my thoughts about the whole situation. I apologize in advance if this all seems long winded and hyperbolic, but also I know I have earned a lot of goodwill from many posters here and would like to address the community with the best and fullest explanation I can muster.

I tried as hard as I possibly could to fight for this community and make the mods/admins see sense. And while I deeply regret that so many posters have lost faith in the forums (and I 100% understand why they have) I at least feel like I can walk away with my head held high, knowing I went out swinging for the fences.

The PPJ saga or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Mods

I think something that has been lost in the time since all of this occurred is the loving scope and stupidity of this entire situation and loving poorly it was managed all around. PPJ throwing himself on the sword and getting permabanned before he could fully explain the situation or actually, you know, apologize, also poured gasoline on this fire. The re-opening of QCS was also a mistake as it allowed many posters with clear grudges against C-SPAM and the people who post there to poo poo up the discussion surrounding all of this. While the discussion was confined to C-SPAM, I was at least able to probate people who were clearly intent on disrupting necessary discussion.

The most shocking aspect of all of this to me, is how so much of it could have been avoided with the simple and effective trick of communicating with your user base. I realize the mods are unpaid volunteers, but the role is in essence a customer service job and as someone who has worked many customer service jobs, the kind of response the mods have given here would get you fired from literally all of them.

Personally I consider the initial powder keg moment to be the “Happy Holidays Dickeye” month probe. Very shortly after it happened, a thread was created in D&D appealing the decision, since QCS was closed. Many posters from both D&D and C-SPAM questioned the obvious unfairness of the probation, and rather than say “I’m sorry” and undoing the month, PPJ decided to dig his heels in and completely ignore the requests of the posters of his subforum while insultingly reducing it to 14 days as a “compromise.”

If an apology and a full lifting of the probe (or even just making it the standard 3 day probation that the D&D primary thread was known for) had happened right then and there, there is an extremely high chance literally none of this forums drama would have happened. PPJ would have gone on happily playing Rust with his Nazi buddies while secretly moonlighting as Discord Tailor Soldier Spy and no one would have been the wiser.

There appears to be this giant misconceived fear from the mods that if they apologize for or even acknowledge a bad decision, the baying crowd of crazy C-SPAM posters will call for their blood. In reality, we have found exactly the opposite to be the case. When LK came in and actually apologized and tried his best to explain what happened and engage in a dialogue with the community, he was treated extremely fairly and helped calm tensions at a point when they were incredibly high. I don’t understand this reluctance to tell a community that was wronged that you’re sorry for what happened, even if you weren’t directly involved.

I would like to quote a part of PPJ’s now-infamous OP to hammer home how incredibly loving stupid PPJ was in the hopes that nothing ever happens like this again:

quote:
Finally another goon and I got tired of this. We messaged Lowtax and said, "hey can you like, uh, just delete the gaming garbage discord and remake it if you're going to use it going forward for streams or patreon or anything going forward. as it is it's complete dogshit full of posts and posters you really would not be associated with any sort of donation drive (the only people posting comments on it are people who were permabanned from SA as it is)"

He said, wait, what the gently caress? Point me to them and I'll punt their asses off the server.

I said that was too much work and you wouldn't be able to get everybody. So bring GDN in. GDN is, if you don't know, the Goon Discord Network

Without wanting to come across as defending Lowtax and all of his recent actions, Lowtax’s initial impulse here (ban all the Nazis) was 100% the correct decision and PPJ told Lowtax “no, don’t do that” and proposed the solution that led to user personal information being compromised as well as all of the resulting fallout.

What in the absolute gently caress is the thinking behind this kind of decision? I honestly can’t comprehend it.

I’d like to say I’m extremely disappointed with logikv9 for just kind of letting all of this happen and never communicating with me when I was going all hands on deck to try to manage the chaos. I had a rough loving week dealing with all of this poo poo and getting absolutely 0 backup from anyone with mod/admin power made it all that much harder. I don’t think I should have had to PM him or anything for him to realize that I was working overtime and probably could have used assistance.

At least Captain_Maclaine reached out to me afterwards to apologize and explain that he was away when all of this went down, and he also had the decency to resign once he realized what exactly had happened. Silence has been damning throughout this whole process and I never had a problem with logik at all before this went down but unfortunately it seems like he’s another example of how not to mod a community.

The political lessons I am taking away and my thoughts about C-SPAM and the forums

We often joke a lot here about politics, and memes like “don’t trust the liberals, they will always betray you” have become part of the forums culture and consensus. Well, folks, those memes aren’t just jokes.

Take all of this as an incredibly abject lesson in how political power plays out. Yes, of course I realize that I’m talking about posts on an internet forum and not “real life” politics but this whole thing is such a perfect microcosm of what’s going on in the world politically these days that I can’t help but find it all extremely educational.

My hope is that President Bernie Sanders is the first small step we take towards possibly unfucking our country and society. I am and always will be an optimist at heart; I know that flies in the face of the inherent cynicism of Something Awful, but that time has passed. The mentality of “lol why do you care?” when applied to something that has life or death stakes is a poisonous one, but I can see why it’s practically impossible to separate it from this forum at this point. Many posters seem to cling to the forums status quo as comfort and think that changing the forums too much will invite disaster. I think that the community should grow and adapt with the times.

I keep coming back to that word. Community. Because that’s exactly what we are and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Digital spaces are quickly becoming just as important as real ones, and this subforum has led countless posters into the world of real life political activism. poo poo this subforum has a decent chance of being fundamental to the election of a loving Senator (Go Jess! Keep up the work Nichael!)

Never let anyone tell you that you don’t matter or that it’s pointless to fight for a cause or care about politics. Let the passions of your hearts burn strong.

Solidarity forever, goons.