I don't know about here, but I'm sure you have a shot over at Vizioneck.  

That sounds more like you didn't read most of the thread title.

There are 59 emails received in the inbox to that e-mail address.

I've considered bringing back the mod thread, but Smeags brought up legitimate reasons when he got rid of it, and I don't have a solution to those issues yet.

If Spurge is 50% then abbath is the other 50.. the rest of us don't exist.

2015 has been an exciting year for gaming news... hold on, I'll start again. 2015 has been a snorefest, featuring barely anything that was memorable. Basically, it was a year like so many others. It's during times like these that the community on VGC runs wild in order to desperately create something interesting to distract from the monotony of recycled topics. Naturally, trolling for hits and replies kind of forces the moderators of this abandoned fine website to do their job and their decisions did not always make sense, but there were also quite a few positive developments. In this thread I will reflect on the things that moved VGC during the past year. I won't grade individual mods' performances because all of them are in this together. So if, for example, the stars of the show (Craft and Ocean) did something exceptional, the whole mod team will get credit for it.

1. Quality of language

Let's begin with a harmless topic. What many people don't know is that VGC has such a rule, or to be more precise, a guideline:

Quality of Language. Make an effort to type in full words and sentences. Put a space after punctuation and capitalise the start of sentences. You're not writing a text message, and you are not in any hurry. It is very easy to tell the difference between a non-native speaker (who is more than welcome here) and somebody who is simply not making any effort to be coherent. You won't be moderated for using text speak, but it certainly won't endear you to other users. Similarly, use paragraphs and line breaks, because nobody wants to read an enormous wall of text.

The thing is that nobody takes it seriously. Is it too much to ask for that at least thread titles form coherent sentences? Even if mods post in a thread where the title is missing words or using too many or wrong verbs, nothing is ever done about it. They just don't care. The reason why is that the enforcement of the above guideline has always been very lax since its introduction. How did this become a habit? Because Kasz216, a mod at the time of introduction, was one of the worst offenders when it came to violating said rule.

2. The end of the mod team thread

VGC used to have a thread where moderations could be discussed and suggestions to improve moderation as a whole could be brought forward. On July 18th the thread got locked for several reasons. Apparently backseat moderating was rampant (it wasn't me), the thread was turned into a glorified soapbox (it wasn't me), some users pushed their agendas (it wasn't me) or tried to perpuate their own spotlight (it wasn't me). I tell ya, I've never felt so black in my entire life.

3. Flaming that is not flaming

It has become a thing to consider any word or phrase flaming if it has negative connotations. Nowadays words like "delusional" and "ignorant" have to be used with caution, because a report can result in moderation. Stating the obvious can be a trap while people who make outrageous claims or continually spread falsities in every thread they enter are not only tolerated by the mod team, but actively protected. Let that sink in for a moment. The people who are in charge of upholding intelligent discussion are torpedoing their own cause. How do you want to have intelligent discussions when there's no incentive for people to educate themselves in order to participate in a constructive manner?

Another thing is banter like this. Someone makes a joke and people think it's funny, including the target of the joke. But at times the mod team thinks that it has to step in regardless, and at worse times, the mod team feels that such a moderation needs to be upheld despite a clear explanation of the situation. "It's because longtime users are supposed to be role models for the newer users", they say. I'll get back to this later, but for now I'll focus on the aftermath of this particular case. So, dear mods, who is looking stupid now?

4. Permanent bans are not permanent

Words have definitions assigned to them because it makes communication easier. Here on VGC, the word "permanent" doesn't mean "everlasting", but rather something along the lines of "extended vacation". In July it was decided that Patrick Star... I mean, super6646 had overstayed his welcome. His moderation history consisted mainly of minor offenses that were rooted in delusion and ignorance, rather than malicious intent. A permaban for that is all the more strange when you take the first paragraph of point 3 into account. Patrick should have been allowed to party until we hit Rock Bottom, but he was shown the way to the door much earlier. But the past is the past and the mod team has decided that he deserved another chance. VGC welcomes Barney Stinson and it's going to be legen- wait for it -dary.

Another case of extended vacation concerns the user angrypoolman a.k.a. RubberWhistleHistle a.k.a. PerturbedKitty. But unlike the aforementioned case where the mod team corrected a wrongdoing, this one feels more like handing a suicide bomber enough explosives to blow up New York City. There comes a point where a user has had more than enough chances. Here's a small selection of that user's accounts.

5. The Bodyguard Project

It happens that the mod team doesn't know what is good for this site. I like to look at them as sheep in need of guidance. Thetbone51 Bodyguard Project came to life in January 2015. Long story short: The mods threatened tbone51 with a permaban, but the community took the issue seriously despite the floating definition of "permanent" on this website (see point 4). Ultimately, the mod team came around to be supportive of the community's wishes, although not all users were on our side. Kudos to the mod team for seeing the light and doing the right thing. We were on the brink of losing a great member, but we prevailed in our cause. Our reward is a new Splatoon thread every other day.

6. The head mod carousel

Being a mod is a demanding job, that goes doubly so for the head mod position. People step down from the position and others come in to fill the void. 2015 has been an especially busy year, with the position changing almost as often as my underwear. TruckOSaurus stepped down, Veknoid_Outcast came on board. Smeags quit, Carl2291 took over. Smeags' duties were pushed onto Veknoid and he soon learned that dealing with Mr. Stoppable can be pretty exhausting. He handed over the reins to Miguel_Zorro. The only constant remains axumblade who doesn't seem to get tired of this site. Many suspect that it is because he is only online for one day of the week (and that's in a good month), but that's another story.

7. Mods love to troll too

I am not talking about the small stuff, but the real deal. The mods' reaction to the thread summed up in one post. Not only did they condone hard trolling, they were also nice enough to clean up the OP. As a law-abiding citizen of VGC, I am not sure how I should feel about this.

Huh? You mean to tell me that I already have over 40 entries in my moderation history? Well then, scratch the last part. Big thumbs up for the mod team!

8. The NX thread debacle

Fighting the perpetual boredom, the community was grasping for any straw it could. Countless NX threads were created, with exactly the same topic being discussed in several concurrent threads each and every day. Eventually the mod team put a stop to it and shoved it all into an official thread. Said thread was handled by theprof00 which made about as much sense as handing spurgeonryan an official game recommendations thread. The restrictions for NX thread creation were lifted recently and now we are looking at the same problem we did last year. Please, mods, have mercy. Come up with a good plan. Save us.

9. Promotions made for the sake of it

It seems like everyone can get promoted, except me. It isn't even uncommon that promotions don't make much sense to begin with. For example, a user who has been gone for two months shows up again and instantly gets handed the title of ambassador. Not too long after, said user flames someone else hard and gets a ban reduction because he is an ambassador. I can't even... I get banned for banter and keep being banned because I am supposed to be a role model (see point 3), yet someone who is a role model in official capacity on this site not only gets to keep his title, but also enjoys a reduced ban length. After the return from his ban, the user proceeds to insult the community and justifies it as a "better Santa than sodomy" approach. I guess this means it's better to hand out more gifts than necessary, rather than ****ing with people. Like you, ReimTime! (Can't say love, because... you know.)

The more perplexing case concerns Misty (read: Miss T.). Misty had an established history of being rude and throwing tantrums, but that didn't stand in the way of a promotion to moderator. This was of course a ticking time bomb and eventually it blew up. After a cooldown of some weeks and a demotion, Misty got promoted to mod status again. Didn't the mod team learn anything? And then, before the year was over, it blew up in their faces once again. Please, for the love of Din, Nayru and Farore, don't make the same mistake again. At that point you might as well make me a mod. Speaking of which...

10. Mods don't know how to troll

April 1st was approaching, so that's a good time to think of a prank. How about a fake permaban reason? The user Kerotan came up with the idea to pose as a FlamingWeazel alt account, but he made the mistake to trust the mods. So what did Smeags come up with? His idea was to briefly make RolStoppable a moderator, have him permaban Kerotan and enjoy the spectacle, but he made the mistake to trust Rol. As much as I wanted (I didn't), I couldn't turn the offer down. But since everything came so sudden, I had no time to think about what I would do in my few minutes as a mod. I told myself, "At least do the right thing." And so I banned Smeags for being an irresponsible idiot who gives mod powers to regular users. That was fun... for two seconds. Then I was banned as well because Smeags actually wasn't that stupid. He had his Watch_Dog Conegamer on standby the entire time.

When we reflected on the events that had transpired, I explained to Smeags that there was no way I could ban Kerotan because that would ruin the joke. And I was right. Since Kerotan was permabanned by an actual mod, to this day we have people who believe that Kerotan was a FlamingWeazel alt account.

Verdict

So what's left to say? 2015 was a year of ups and downs, some of which weren't covered in this post because it is already long as it is. Maybe there will be updates if there's demand. Anyway, the mod team can be brilliant, but the opposite holds true as well. In the end they are human, just like the regular users. But they are also mods, so they can do things to me.

Grade: A-

i give the mod team an A+, we couldn't ask for better mods on this site. rol, you are completely out of line on this one.

I have to admit that gif is mesmerising. What anime is that?

Thank you. Your ban protection will continue.