I'm doing well.

I just found out that I have been place in Blazinghand's permanent "ban list" years ago. I knew someone wanted me banned years ago for a not so serious game back in 2017 + Show Spoiler +

Original Message From Blazinghand:
if it was for IRL reasons that coulnd't be avoided and came up after game start, i'll remove the ban

Show nested quote +

Not sure when I was added to that ban list. Meh, I've been around before the ban list was a thing. I would have to agree with Coag, that the poor use of the ban list has hurt the community tremendously. We lost a lot of great players over the years.

Blazinghand

United States25558 Posts

January 19 2022 08:26 GMT

#4726

Yeah, the ban list was always a contentious topic.

When I took over it after GMarshal went MIA in 2015, I tried to run it in much the same way he did, keeping policies the same and always making ruling that the community agreed with as a majority. I wonder if, in the long run, we might have had better outcomes from having the ban list be more of a "you're on notice" list or something similar. I do know that many people who ran games had their own personal ban lists on top of it, and of course, the ban list was not used by every host.

It does seem like the decline of this community coincided with the decline of TL's popularity, which makes me think that even if the ban list was a contributing to the decline, it was not the key factor.

I wonder if, when GMarshal went MIA, I should have taken the opportunity to make substantial changes to the way this subforum was run. At the time, I was pretty young and just happy to do what I could to keep things chugging along in the same manner as things had always gone. I also was, at that time, concerned with remaining well-liked and knew that suggesting any changes would result in a lot of pushback. I think a lot of what led people to accepting me taking over the banlist at the time (in the absence of GMarshal coming back from wherever and giving me his endorsement) was my promises to keep things running as usual.

Grackaroni

United States9856 Posts

January 20 2022 04:25 GMT

#4727

I never got banned and I spent most of my games trolling! I don't think the bar was that high. TL just doesn't have nearly the traffic that it did at the release of SC2 so we stopped getting new players.

I'd still play/host a game if people wanted to play a game for 2022.

Chezinu

United States7466 Posts

January 20 2022 07:07 GMT

#4728

On January 20 2022 13:25 Grackaroni wrote:
I never got banned and I spent most of my games trolling! I don't think the bar was that high. TL just doesn't have nearly the traffic that it did at the release of SC2 so we stopped getting new players.

I'd still play/host a game if people wanted to play a game for 2022.

Yay!

PS: I still don't know why I was banned. I played over nine years before someone tried to ban me. The person tried banning me and other players who finished the game (a non-serious game) and never went missing nor went without posting. He wanted us banned for not voting. We finished the game without a warning from host. I found out about this attempt later and sent pm to BH. Now, I still barely ever looked at ban list thread because I never thought of it as a concern. I just happened upon it the other day when searching posts of old players. Then noticed in the thread of a post a "free Chezinu" and I was like huh? Then I learned I was on a perma banlist for years for a reason I know not (this attempt in 2017 was the only one I knew of). Anyways, I have still played at least one game of mafia each year on this forum after playing in the second mafia game hosted here (my brother played the in the first one and it looked fun so I joined the second one.). So, the banlist never stopped me from playing. In fact, hosts would many times invite me to play.

PS2: My rant has more to do with me being on the list than your skill of managing the banlist, BH. Cause you know, it's all about me. Saw Coag's anti ban list post and harped on it cause obv I was on it and can't support it. Hehe

Blazinghand

United States25558 Posts

January 20 2022 07:29 GMT

#4729

I recall you PMed me complaining about the ban, and I offered to lift it since you mentioned you were having IRL issues. You replied that it was unnecessary and you would sit out a game anyway.

I'm guessing that the reason you were never removed is you never posted in the ban list thread saying you sat out a game. It seems like it didn't disrupt your experience though, which is good.