Our first ban. Soon to be a made for TV movie.

[Neil]

Drama, Drama, Drama. Everyone is freaking out so I'm going to let you know the story.

Let me start by saying that I have nothing personal against Old Ska, I don't hold grudges and I never have. I usually enjoyed his posts like many people did. Sometimes they seemed a little harsh and chock full of attitude and I don't have a problem with that either.

What I did have a problem with was his inability to be disagreed with. If someone disagreed with him, they were attacked, however he always felt that the disagreement was always a personal attack on him, which I don't believe it ever was. I believe this is what the kids call "Can dish it out, but can't take it" syndrome. It's quite rare, I believe you get it from the bite of a mosquito.

At some point he may have had a disagreement with SoccerPrime about something because I noticed he would look for ways to attack him after he posted, not all the time, but often enough that I noticed. I also noticed that he would get backup from several other individuals whenever this happened, so I started paying attention.

Enter, the "Rouge Cavaliers". You've seen the custom titles, and the sigs, and boy do they stick together. Ska was tolerable on his own, but when several people are posting attaboys to make it look like it's the opinion of the general forum populace after each of his posts, it gets old. I like riddles, so I start digging.

We've all read the Rep post in the suggesion area. Ska claims he was trying to be straight to the point about how to up the rep, but it was delivered in typical Ska fashion and I gave him crap about it. It got out of hand and after a day of both of us crying at each other like two kindergarteners that want to play with the blocks, it was dropped. Well, by me anyway.

Now anytime someone mentions rep for the next week one of the "Rouge Cavaliers" has to make a comment about how the thread is going to be closed, or something and they all chime in, effectively destroying the thread. They even try to be cute and spell my name wrong wherever possible even though it is usually in the post above theirs or in the thread somewhere. More kindergarten nonesense.

I received PM's from several people saying that the forums had taken a turn for the worse in the last week and that something had to be done about it. I let Deuce handle the PM's to ask the most troublesome to calm down or politely leave. Deuce said that he would like to kee it private and just make the nonesense go away, and everyone but Ska agreed. Ska took it upon himself to attack Deuce. Not the best idea in this situation. He also decided to tke this public, in a PM to Deuce he said he had PM'd the most active 30 users on the forum and tell them what happened. At this point, Deuce bans him. The personal attacks and general good feeling that these forums have had since day one have been upset enough, and it's time to remove the instigator.

Ska signs up a the new account Old Ska II, and sends Deuce a PM saying that "things could get better or worse " and that he should "reinstate his account quietly" and he could write this off as a misunderstanding. I got news for anyone that thinks about threatening Deuce in any manner, and this is just my own personal opinion, but don't do it. Seriously, he's a big guy, but more importantly, he's a moderator.

This PM also says that Ska has proof that forum mods have been reading users PM's. I'd like to know how, cause that's magic. The only time a moderator or admin of this forum would ever read a PM not intended for them, and I'm being serious now, is if this forum was ever used in some way to contact children inappropriatley and there was a complaint filed about this activity. End of story.

I can see who reps who on these boards, that is in the logs, and is plain to see. So even though Ska claims that he has as much rep as posts, it doesn't really count when your friends rep you 10x in a row everyday.

I have been reading threads and all the signs point to Old Ska or the Cavaliers starting their own forums. They're going to show up, I'll guarantee it.

-Messaging the top 30 posters about how horrific the activities are on these forums.
-Accusing mods of personal attacks.
-Accusing mods of abusing moderator priviledges.

This all creates a bad image for these forums and makes going somewhere else look appealing, especially to new members who may not know what it's ususally like.

Let's face it, these forums have been a great source of friends and information since the team announcement in October, and I don't want that to go away. I don't want Ska to be banned, he chose that path himself. If he will get ahold of me with his even newer account(Odysseus) and explain where this evidence of wrongdoing and attacks on him come from, I'll be happy to reinstate him. However will not be threated or berated into reinstating the account.

In closing "Can't we all just get along."

[Scilaci]

Thanks Neil. Excellent summary. Feel free to close/delete my thread about ... well, I think you know which one. 🙂

[Rover]

Thanks for taking care of the situation. I was beginning to wonder if we could sustain the outstanding board you and the originals had built--a quality forum that was the primary reason I joined in January.

I certainly wish it hadn't come to this, but sometimes these things cannot be avoided.

Appreciate the explanation. You didn't have to, so good on you for keeping the rest of us informed.

[Jose Luis Luviano]

The bottom line is that the moderators here are doing a better job than the Blitzz forum moderator was at USLDiscussions.com

Man, that guy was an idiot.

[bordelais7]

I think the biggest thing we need to remember out of all of this is that I have now moved up to 3rd place in total rep.

Just thought that it should be brought up.

[montgjules]

Originally Posted by bordelais7

I think the biggest thing we need to remember out of all of this is that I have now moved up to 3rd place in total rep.

Just thought that it should be brought up.

That may seem off-topic, but it summarizes the last few days beautifully.

[montgjules]

Oh, and I've decided that I've made enough enemies for the last few hours, so I'll bid you all a temporary farewell and post in a more limited fashion for the next few days. I have enough enemies from other places.. 🙂

[bordelais7]

Hey, Neil...did you turn "spreading reputation" back on recently? Or has it been on for awhile? Not that I care, just wondering.

Everyone else....1...2...3....*group hug*

[Aerick]

Thanks for the summary. Back to happy posting about non controversial topics - except whether or not we should bench Mathis. :D

[Loyal1]

Just one question.

[I have more but this is the most important]

Since I was offline and missed the whole thing,

who will play me in the TV movie?

I'd prefer Ice T but could settle for the guy in The DeadZone.
😎