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When I was little, some of the earliest things from my life I remember are celebrations of the 4th of July. I remember eating hot dogs and hamburgers, watching the fireworks, and marveling at what a wonderful and luscious country I lived in. I loved America, and watched, through the eyes of a child, as it graced me with a family, a home, an education, and so many other incredible gifts of which I have taken advantage. I knew nothing of the socio-political scene, and I was okay with that. I was proud to be an American simply because I was, indeed, an American.
As I grew older, and as I learned about American history, I had my first crisis of conscience that I can remember. I remember, one day, lying in bed at midnight, reflecting on all the horrific things my country had done. I thought about indentured servitude, about manifest destiny, the civil war, the bombings of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Dresden; I thought about the Japanese internment camps, and I remember, clearly, the muscles in my body tensed, my fingers went numb, my mind filled with unease: for the first time in my life, I was ashamed to be an American.
And, as I grew older, I became more and more disillusioned with America as I learned about the problems with the American Political System, about the socio-economic crises in America-- about the international debaucheries that gave my country scorn on the world stage. On September 11th, I realized how vulnerable my nation was, and, even more, as I commiserated with my country after the attacks, I felt the most disenfranchised with my country, than ever I had before.
:~:
I am a newbie; I only ever played StarCraft: Brood War once or twice on a console system (and that was so long ago that I don't even remember which one), and when I picked up the StarCraft II Beta in early Summer, 2010, I found Team Liquid after a couple of weeks. I lurked there for a few months, and finally registered an account in November of 2010. When I registered my account, I was met with the 10 Commandments of Team Liquid; I carefully read these judicial restraints, and joined TeamLiquid.net.
Eventually, I learned that the Team Liquid Moderators had a reputation for being incredibly strict. I didn't have a problem with that, though. In fact, I was happy to be on a heavily moderated website for once-- it keeps out people with the unfortunate combination of being wrong, mean, and stupid all at once. Sure, I've toed my way across the line a couple of times, I've still been grateful that the people who run this site really care about the quality of its content. Whenever I would talk to my friends about Teamliquid.net, I would assure them that it's different from cesspools like /b/, assuring them that Teamliquid's forums were classy, clean, and intelligent.
I started this blog post after reading Rekrul's latest revelation to Team Liquid. Thanks to a PM I sent to EGalex after the TSL-PuMa-EG debacle, I already knew that TSL had been formed by poaching Cool and TesteR from oGs. I didn't know about the camera, and I didn't know about the conversation between Spunky and Lee (all alleged, though I'm inclined to believe Rekrul on this one). Maybe this was the reason I finished OP with far less respect for Rekrul than I had before.
Before this thread, I had immense respect for Rekrul's talent as a writer and his experience as a Progamer. The TSL OP was the first thread of Rekrul's I read wherein I wasn't astonished at his subtle, yet powerful, style of writing; in fact, I didn't like it at all. His quiet and wizened demeanor had become aggressive and rude, and he managed to insult my favorite game in the entire world and everyone on TL.net who didn't register before 2009. I read a post somewhere in the thread that Rekrul jokes in italics, but it was only one post that said so, and it didn't come off like a joke to me.
The point is, after reading the OP, I decided to look back at the old pages of the Automated Ban List, and I felt like I was learning American History all over again. I found that one of my favorite personalities in the scene banned for a pretty disgusting flame war. Just as disturbing, in that thread, I saw the author of one of my favorite blogs on Team Liquid posting one of the most aggressive one-liners I've ever seen on TL.net. Later on, I found more intra-site [http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=52848#11]flaming[/url], and the quality of posting from everybody was just awful.
The evil within us brings out, with time and grace, the good. Children grow, and as they grow, they learn to function in a civilized society. Everything that grows learns, and everything either grows or dies in stagnation. The United States of America and Teamliquid.net have grown since their brave conception, their bold step into social experiment, their journey-- they have both grown. In their growth there has been darkness, and there has been needless suffering, but from that needless suffering has come a better product, a better nation, a better website.
Thank you, Teamliquid.net, for growing, for learning, and for being. Thank you.
EDIT: Removed link to closed thread-- didn't realize it was closed.
EDIT 2: Fixed double link with what I meant to put there
  
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Just because you registered after 2009 doesn't mean you can't watch and play BW! It's not too late!
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TL was more fun in the past, but now it can't be because of the volume of users. Your second to last paragraph really sucks, grow a sack, this is the internet. Why would you remove a link to a closed thread?
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The thread isn't closed, it's gone. You can no longer access it. That's why I removed the link.
You're also pretty rude.
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The slur against SC2 in rekruls post annoyed me quite a bit too actually.
I don't care who you are, you wouldn't go into a latin bar and start swearing at mexicans. Just like how you wouldn't go to a SC2 general forum and just throw the one liner out there.
I thought the TSL scandal was a very interesting one, however, and I like the way Rekrul writes. Even if it is just the second time I have read a topic of his.
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On January 20 2012 15:02 Thaniri wrote:
The slur against SC2 in rekruls post annoyed me quite a bit too actually.
I don't care who you are, you wouldn't go into a latin bar and start swearing at mexicans. Just like how you wouldn't go to a SC2 general forum and just throw the one liner out there.
I thought the TSL scandal was a very interesting one, however, and I like the way Rekrul writes. Even if it is just the second time I have read a topic of his.
I found it most amusing that he said there is always drama in the sc2 section then proceeded to post drama that wasn't all factual.
Pot meet kettle.
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There was a lot of obnoxious behaviour by (now) famous people and public clashes between them - even among those you could now never imagine being in such a situation. Like the Ret vs Sheth drama over one of them picking random in a clan war. It was kind of a normal environment for a small community, where even the best foreign players were community members as well.
I've never found moderation to be that strict to be honest. Reading the 10 commandments might seem very impressive or intimidating at first, but it doesn't take long to notice that many of those principles are only scarcely enforced at best. Especially during the last year and the growth of SC2.
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On January 20 2012 15:19 Talin wrote:
There was a lot of obnoxious behaviour by (now) famous people and public clashes between them - even among those you could now never imagine being in such a situation. Like the Ret vs Sheth drama over one of them picking random in a clan war. It was kind of a normal environment for a small community, where even the best foreign players were community members as well.
I've never found moderation to be that strict to be honest. Reading the 10 commandments might seem very impressive or intimidating at first, but it doesn't take long to notice that many of those principles are only scarcely enforced at best. Especially during the last year and the growth of SC2.
QFT on the commandments. I haven't read the commandments in years and have never been banned (I think?). It's mostly just common sense and not being a total asshole.
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But if you do decide to be an asshole you can always put "but that's just my opinion" at the end and you can avoid it. lol TL really is a great site, I haven't been around all that long but I only recently got my first warning, I ended up PM'ing the guy I was rude too anyways after the fact realizing I was being a dick. Also I think many things just don't get reported and are overlooked, probably would be more bans/warnings and all that more often if we all thew more people under the bus. 
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Russian Federation142 Posts
mbr2321, my first thought before entering this thread was:
Shit! I have to troll this retard OP here who is obviously puzzled by being lied to by a person he confided in. (rekrul)
It took serious effort to not get trolled by your idiot apologetic attitude towards US history. (obviously unsettled by reading posts of hypocritical euros who like to usbash. Warning: They use their Caryl Chessman like writing abilities to convince you that they aren't complete and utter trash.) Then it took all restraint I could muster, which I picked up over countless seasons of trolling internet forums, to click on your link titled "banned." The content of that link I assumed to be a ban message of idra, the lord and savior of all unbearable troglodytes that frequent some of these boards. Boy, was I surprised.
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5 stars. In good taste.
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I've been here longer than most, if not all, of you.. TL moderation has gotten way stricter ever since the release of SC2 Beta. That being said, it doesn't affect me. However, I still don't necessarily like it or hate it. Sometimes I do think TL mods went overboard, sometimes I think they're justified... However I'm not here to socialize or to be interested in the online community, so I don't really care how they moderate. I'm here because I enjoy following the progaming scene, and TL provides plenty of news and coverage.
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Ahaha some of those old threads are golden. (Although sad to say the Incontrol bashing does not seem to subside -_-)
WARNING: CROTCHMASTER by FakeSteve autoplays, so careful with that
I think a lot of people in not Brood War still need to figure out when and what is humour and what is not and take it easy. I read both BW and SC2 (and others) and BW just seems like a place where people gather around to hype up their favourite team/players and also aww and ooh and ahh and lol over the news, whereas in SC2 everyone is a Larry King or trying to get a Pulitzers. (Or just whining and bashing but thanks to moderators they get stopped quite quickly)
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Epic blog post. I loved your strategic linkage.
As for your concerns, I'm just happy that for the far majority of us, all the drama is purely online and doesn't affect us. We can bear witness, be entertained or participate in the drama happily in the knowledge that at the end of the day we will still be able to tune into gsl and watch alive get pwnd in his ro16 group .
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EPT
