Well...

[Dark-Assassin]

So, I am back from my time away again, and I definitely noticed things have changed.

First off, I did find out I have been removed from the staff.
I would like to know the reasons why exactly, shown in this thread, not really discussed over IRC or the forums.
Also especially not too happy as this was during my time away and no-one attempted to make contact with me.

Second, I also realized my themes were deleted without what it seems, no second thought.
I worked really hard on them, and it was appreciated by the community.
But, I am lucky to have taken a recent backup of them, otherwise I would have been devestated that all my work had been deleted...

And Thirdly, I'd like all my plugins I created sent to me. Or just all the .php files in the plugins directory.

I would also like to know what other people think of this.

DA is unfortunately no longer with us and his themes have been removed.

I am also not too happy on how this was said.
I have been told personally that it made it sound like I have died. And I think so as well.

[Zap610]

First off, I did find out I have been removed from the staff.
I would like to know the reasons why exactly, shown in this thread, not really discussed over IRC or the forums.

There are a few reasons you were removed from the staff. The first is you would frequently make changes to the forum without running it by anyone else. This forum is a team effort, and even the lead admins discuss matters like that before changing them. You made polls for issues which were already decided and it basically says "fuck you" to us. For instance, the logo. Infurnus was asked to design it, and you went ahead and designed your own then tried to make it the official logo.

The second reason is that you don't listen to anyone. You disabled the reputation system without talking to anyone else. You were told not to do that (even by Torr) and you ended up doing it a second time (then went so far as to try to make a poll to see what the community thought before being stopped).

And the third reason is just a lack of respect. You gave a user -9999 reputation points for no reason. You make theme after theme without even checking if they should be added. And it just became very hard to trust you.

Also especially not too happy as this was during my time away and no-one attempted to make contact with me.

We were never notified by you that you were leaving. So far, every single person in staff has told us when they need to go away for some time. We had no idea you were gone.

Second, I also realized my themes were deleted without what it seems, no second thought.

Your themes are safe and will be sent to you if you wish.

And Thirdly, I'd like all my plugins I created sent to me. Or just all the .php files in the plugins directory.

You got it.

I would also like to know what other people think of this.

This thread is public so obviously people are allowed to voice their opinions. However, don't expect it to change anything. It's an issue of trust at the administration level.

I am also not too happy on how this was said.
I have been told personally that it made it sound like I have died. And I think so as well.

It was not my intention to make it seem like you died. I thought it was better than just saying "DA was fired". Then someone would ask why, then I would have to list all the reasons I listed above and honestly I wanted to spare you from that.

This wasn't an easy choice at all and none of us wanted it to come to this. But when it got to the point where we had to check logs just to make sure nothing was changed it got to be too much. I'm sorry for this, I really am.

[Qent]

I would like to know the reasons why exactly, shown in this thread, not really discussed over IRC or the forums.

...

I would also like to know what other people think of this.

Well, since you asked...

I think that you have long had a habit of overstepping your bounds and using power in ways never intended, which I requested that you stop at least once. I think that your heart was in the right place and you generally do good things, but you do them without proper authorization.

[Dark-Assassin]

There are a few reasons you were removed from the staff. The first is you would frequently make changes to the forum without running it by anyone else. This forum is a team effort, and even the lead admins discuss matters like that before changing them.

What I mainly done is work on "my" themes. The few settings I would have changed around were mainly behind the scenes stuff aswell trying to optimize, which failed after many attempts and a few misc things here and there. But that's not all exactly.

You made polls for issues which were already decided and it basically says "fuck you" to us. For instance, the logo. Infurnus was asked to design it, and you went ahead and designed your own then tried to make it the official logo.

I don't remember anything saying the logo was "Official" or anything. Plus I sometimes rely on what the community thinks rather than only what the staff thinks.
I am not really selfish like that.

The second reason is that you don't listen to anyone. You disabled the reputation system without talking to anyone else. You were told not to do that (even by Torr) and you ended up doing it a second time (then went so far as to try to make a poll to see what the community thought before being stopped).

I admit, that was the doing as me, and quite a few others of the community think the system was total crap with it's lack of features. Especially with people just reping each other to make themselves look good.
I tried to find a better system, and I did. It would have worked out much better. But of course, it was written for the MySQL syntax and was impossible to fix on my end.
Plus I don't quite remember Torr saying to me to keep it enabled.

And the third reason is just a lack of respect. You gave a user -9999 reputation points for no reason. You make theme after theme without even checking if they should be added. And it just became very hard to trust you.

People can't really handle a joke without being serious about it? I never intended it to be permanent anyway.

We were never notified by you that you were leaving. So far, every single person in staff has told us when they need to go away for some time. We had no idea you were gone.

Sorry if I didn't say so, it was quite sudden and had no time to say.

Your themes are safe and will be sent to you if you wish.

Yea, send them over. I only got the core of my theme, no styles.

This thread is public so obviously people are allowed to voice their opinions. However, don't expect it to change anything. It's an issue of trust at the administration level.

I understand. But I still want opinions.

It was not my intention to make it seem like you died. I thought it was better than just saying "DA was fired". Then someone would ask why, then I would have to list all the reasons I listed above and honestly I wanted to spare you from that.

Instead of saying "No longer with us", something like "No longer with the staff" would have been much better.

This wasn't an easy choice at all and none of us wanted it to come to this. But when it got to the point where we had to check logs just to make sure nothing was changed it got to be too much. I'm sorry for this, I really am.

I know that editing the themes spammed the logs, and if the logs were spammed with me changing settings, I was working quite a bit on making the threads marked read properly.
I was just following stuff on what to do, which didn't end up working anyway.

Well, since you asked...

I think that you have long had a habit of overstepping your bounds and using power in ways never intended, which I requested that you stop at least once. I think that your heart was in the right place and you generally do good things, but you do them without proper authorization.

I understand.


Anyway, I know this won't change the decision made, but I would rather talk about it rather than shrug it off and disappear forever.
I won't be around often anymore as I have found something else to do with my spare time. Plus I stopped playing Skulltag a while ago as it was being the same thing over and over again. Once Zandronum is released, I may make a slight comeback, but only mainly to the game.
I may return to IRC, but a new name could be possible.

Also, just a note. Try to do stuff the community wants, not just yourselves. Things will work out better.
I also randomly found this if you are interested. http://www.awesomestyles.com/mybb-theme ... 4-v2-space.
Sticking with an incomplete theme/template based off one of my older ones may not be the best idea. Just see what the community thinks.

[Guest]

I think everything was lacking was communication between DarkAssassin and the rest of the staff. Although I'm not in so I can't say much since nobody here is sure of what happened.

Ironically, DarkAssassin aparently suffered from the same issue the actual staff suffered...

[katZune]

a shame, DA made many themes and he were nice, p.s. the theme is good too

[Boko]

I'm not gonna take sides over this matter, I would like to voice this opinion of mine.....

You made polls for issues which were already decided and it basically says "fuck you" to us. For instance, the logo. Infurnus was asked to design it, and you went ahead and designed your own then tried to make it the official logo.

The logo wasn't all that bad....

The second reason is that you don't listen to anyone. You disabled the reputation system without talking to anyone else. You were told not to do that (even by Torr) and you ended up doing it a second time (then went so far as to try to make a poll to see what the community thought before being stopped).

The reputation system was horrible to begin with, should have been like a Thanks system or something more creative.

And the third reason is just a lack of respect. You gave a user -9999 reputation points for no reason. You make theme after theme without even checking if they should be added. And it just became very hard to trust you.

Like I said it was horrible, and ended up being a joke rather than something taken serious.

This wasn't an easy choice at all and none of us wanted it to come to this. But when it got to the point where we had to check logs just to make sure nothing was changed it got to be too much. I'm sorry for this, I really am.

Actually TBH, it seems like an easy choice... Fire Dark Assassin who kept the master server running great.


Other than being rough around the edges some, Dark Assassin did his job. When I had a problem, he would help me out. Dam has Zandronum become a OMG you're a staff member now thing where if we don't like what you've done despite all you've accomplished we can get rid of you?

[infurnus]

I'm not gonna take sides over this matter, I would like to voice this opinion of mine.....
[...]
Other than being rough around the edges some, Dark Assassin did his job. When I had a problem, he would help me out. Dam has Zandronum become a OMG you're a staff member now thing where if we don't like what you've done despite all you've accomplished we can get rid of you?

This might not be the place for this. If you legitimately want to critique how the staff operates, why not do so in the staff reform thread?
The decision wasn't supposed to be about whether or not the staff likes or dislikes someone, but staff conduct.

The logo wasn't all that bad....

It was fine, in fact DA's themes had his logo and used them, and the Space Tokyo theme had my logo and the like, and that didn't seem to be causing any problems.
I think the themes got turned off because DA had disappeared right after there was a staff disagreement with something he did. I don't really want to comment on that in particular, again I'll mention that it wasn't really done out of spite or anything to that extent.

The reputation system was horrible to begin with, should have been like a Thanks system or something more creative.
[...]
Like I said it was horrible, and ended up being a joke rather than something taken serious.

The reputation system is built into MyBB if I'm not mistaken, and there were some staff discussions about replacing it with an improved version or the like.
I just want to state publicly that just because a feature is bad doesn't mean that you should, as an administrator, be allowed to abuse it as you see fit. That's all I will say on that matter.

Actually TBH, it seems like an easy choice... Fire Dark Assassin who kept the master server running great.

The master server was already having problems out of everyone's control, the server host basically went down without notifying Dark-Assassin and, I hope this wasn't what ended up happening, but, it might have even kept taking payments even after the service discontinued.
I would like to think that nothing was done to spite DA, staff or ex-staff or otherwise, but to allow them to recoup their losses and not feel obligated to get everything working good as new in such a short period of time. A possibly unrealistic expectation to have of anyone in that position.

I apologize if I got a few things wrong, but I did my best to try and remember how exactly things went down.

This might be a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I kind of want this issue to be done with but at the same time I don't want anyone to feel like they're being silenced.

Everyone is welcome to contribute to and help Zandronum, the forums or game engine or otherwise.

[Captain Ventris]

Regardless of the quality of DA's decisions, one way or the other, the issue at hand was his acting without consulting the staff in a manner they did not appreciate, and in that the case is quite clear. Doesn't make DA a bad guy, that's just how it is.

[UnTrustable]

And the third reason is just a lack of respect. You gave a user -9999 reputation points for no reason. You make theme after theme without even checking if they should be added. And it just became very hard to trust you.

People can't really handle a joke without being serious about it? I never intended it to be permanent anyway.

Aside of everything else, where i can't give you any good advise because i don't know you that well,
nor do i know what good things you have done.....,
but thinking that giving a -9999 reputation is supposed to be HUMOR...
Even though its not a permanent action.....?

In my point of view, the reputation system doesn't work.
It won't grant respect, it kinda forces respect.
But as before in some other topic, its only my voice i guess...
1 against the soo many who Do love the reputation system....

[NizZY']

I didn't even notice the Reputation system so it's kind of dumb that some think him messing with it was a big deal. I don't even know where I'm suppose to be looking to even see the rep to be honest. I think since it was a group decision of the staff to remove a member that it could work out for the best. A decision being based on 1 person would be a problem but when there is a group realizing that someone is not doing well on their part, then they should be removed.

[Dark-Assassin]

Well, the system ended up getting disabled anyway... :\