Maelstrom Vortex

I rest my case.

Except in the court I might have the benefit of a jury without biases, no?

I can understand that desire, that'd be up to Alex of course, but I could still see a potential for abuse. It'd also make the current ban and remedy in recent moderation action somewhat hypocritical as essentially a service/good as incentive for membership/participation that is alleged to have monetary value was alleged to have been exchanged off-site was the cause of the recent set of bans and moderation actions. That said.. no difference between supposedly providing novels and definitely providing steam keys except the latter is absolutely confirmed to have occurred. I say alleged because I've read the material and there is no concrete evidence the novels were ever provided, please note that I am trying to remain somewhat neutral and simply and observing I have no solid facts on that matter, despite Alex's assertion, he may be convinced, but.. there isn't any real proof. But that's enough for him, I'm just saying how such would look in relation to recent moderation.

Except that the very words were that it was not illegal behavior. So no, they didn't. And this is why the rules change is so essential. If it is stated the only permitted transactions for an in game benefit must occur through the purchasing system of the site.. you can't be any more clear than that. You guys do what you want, I am only here to hang out. I have no real love of my nation here.. it just is. I am only telling you how you can prevent this mistake from recurring and make Alex's job easier. By making sure the rules are in an unquestionable state as to their intent with no loop holes, which is what my suggestion does, everyone's life gets a little easier.. those seeking compliance and rules adjudicators. Or you can let this partisan crap show keep going and make no improvement and likely see repetition from future parties as this slowly fades from the forums.

They did.. someone clearly has not read the logs. It took them a while into the convo, but they did pretty much fess up to all of it as they were pushed and the nature of what the complaint was was clear. See Frawley's and Roq's explanations. They did also explain why they thought he had cleared it.

Yup... they knew they'd get "caught", they thought it was legal. Since you like to spin, not read, and only respond to the points you like.. you get a participation trophy and no further response.

You are such a spinster. 1. Alex did not think deeply enough into what he was allowing passive permission for. He indicated it was a known mechanics problem and probably should/will be nerfed. This happens in games alll the time. And yes, min/maxers exploit those mechanics in the existing rule-set.. legally.. until the dev fixes it. There was no indication the act was illegal by the fact it was said it wasn't a moderation concern/problem. 2. I indicated/showed nothing. That content is already in Alex's logs. 3. You obviously do not read as that is not at all what happened. He did finally get into a group chat with the NPO alliance leadership... months later.. the ones who knew what were happening.. not the people in the alliance who might have had half-a-clue and they made their case and he plowed through it with his own information gathering and made it a point that the activity they participated in, he now interpreted as illegal and subject to moderation since he then knew the full extent of it. There is a lack of general consistency.. I've given the solution for it. I am not saying the NPO is clean in this, they did push to the fringe a mechanic they knew was considered a problem, but again, this does, legally happen in quite a few games until the issue is corrected. The problem is that Alex, probably because he was unaware of the full potential for its deployment, did say the behavior was allowed within moderation standards indicating he would not take action.... However, he has. This is why when you're establishing a game like this you have to really try to get ahead of your players and anticipate. People will push the boundaries.

I did nothing.. and I did say that both parties are in the wrong. Also explicitly NOT a moderation issue. There's a difference in an exploit and something that needs nerfed. This was not an exploit. This was a mechanic allowed to fester, then corrected and people punished for it who rightfully had a reason to believe it was within current acceptable bounds. That is the truth of it to anyone not reading through one lens or the other, setting aside all preconceptions and biases and simply reading for details.

It was pretty much spelled out.. verbatim. From the logs. I see that as a Mechanics.. not a moderation issue...

Your problem.. Sir, is I did nothing. Nice try. You go re-roll.. being a 0 suits you better. Gah.. you got me.. baited into another reply. YOu win this time. Heck I thought you already had me on ignore. I usually can't expect you to be rational.

Sir, you re assentially biased hubris incarnate. That said.. my reply other than this will be accordingly silent other than : "Read the logs and try to pretend you are not aggressively anti-NPO and think OOC, unless your bias extends beyond character in which I have no cure for that." Reiteration: I am thinking as a game administrator would. I am offering you an ounce of prevention to prevent a future world of additional pain from another source. That is all. I will not be responding to future posts in this thread as of this point. As I said, no horse in this race. Improvements will happen.. or.. they won't.. and the same disease may strike again, proving me inerrant-ly.. correct, as I so love to be and oft am.

The rules are not clear. I have given a translation where they are. I have explained why they are not clear in my suggestion.. And if they were clear, I do not see why Alex has a hard time with his on interpretation of them 5 months ago. His own logs, when you actually download that html, put it onto a desktop, open it in a browser in a way that you can read it.. (because the XML formatting will drive you batty in text format) will actually tell the whole story and an unbiased third party looking at it with an open mind will see how they were literally.. Talking right past each other. Alex gave the go ahead, and then changed his stance 5 months later. The thing is this shouldn't be something Alex should be deciding on the fly. This should have been an "already in the rules" matter.. and it wasn't, not clearly.. or again.. why a misinterpretation by its own creator and inaccurate guidance? If the game wants to heal, the hubris needs to die. Stop patronizing me. Start reading and listening and keeping an open mind and consider adaptations that will avoid a repeat by any other future party.. and simplify Alex's own job. You told me yourself, you haven't read the whole log yet. Read the entire transcript. Go as far as I did.. download the files, open the links.. it's self-manifest what happened. Alex made his case, but he needs to realize his role in the whole matter for a genuine correction to occur. Know what I know, that the players accused have never broken rules before when the Administrator's position was entirely clear on the matter and transparent. This is NOT in character for them. Pushing boundaries? Most definitely.. going over them? It yields no reward. I will point out something Roq said, we cannot possibly expect to hide the scope of this. It would be found out. The government KNEW this.. you can read that for yourself. There would be no point to an active and sustained deception that would be known to be inevitably uncovered to dire consequences. This is effectively asking you to think of our leadership as inept.. and short sighted. If that were the case.. and we've waged war with you before and will likely after this unless Alex totally nukes us.. and kept the lot of you at bay.. then what does it say of yourselves? It's totally without any sort of logic to it. This is not a black/white situation. This is a grey. This is a lesson waiting to be learned and by more than one party.

There is no rationalization. I have said there are problems on both ends of this. If hubris on both ends repeats. then this problem will repeat itself, just with another party. You may mark my words on that, and I will look forward, but with the regret of foresight to my prophecy being fulfilled. I submit that Hero has ignored the post from other Pacificans that they did have a conversation with Alex about this very thing. Their understanding passed like ships in the night in a midst of a fog with neither recognizing the other. Take my wisdom.. or don't.. and suffer. The change is simple, and leaves no room for error. Alex can just say, "Look at the rules." No discord chat required. I offer this purely of good will to improve a community based on my understanding on how player/rules, and game interactions work. I gift this based on my experience. If that experience is ignored out of some misguided attempt at propaganda, when I don't genuinely care about the matter, do so at your own peril. I barely play this game. I am here because friends are. I do not have a pony in this circus except to see people have a better time and to have better fights. My nation, exists in a state now, that even if all the worlds end except the real, it would still be.. thus I could care less about these colonies on virtual worlds of text.

Wanted to note I've done my final edit and am finally happy with the verbiage. So feel free to post your thoughts. I won't be changing the OP from this post on. They used a loophole.. wrong on them. The loophole, however, did exist. This closes the loophole so it cannot even be vaguely interpreted in any other way. It makes it so the terminology of the rule more fits the spirit of the rule. Also, Alex, you have my sympathy in policing the piranha.. that's what these communities are, vats full of them. Tearing at each other and anything they can make go boom. If they find a crack they will squeeze through it, a fracture, they will wedge it open. This is true for all of them, despite their propaganda or good intentions, I've seen it repeat in game after game. The worst part is they all have different languages backgrounds and histories. so you get the full gambit of the human response and one language for them all to consider (unless you stretch out into localization). Language is humanity's most fickle of beasts. Mortar must be packed good when it comes to the rules, or they will make a mess. The good news is your other rules do not leave much to ask about. This is the only place where there may be any vagueness and this edit should remove it, hopefully permanently. I personally would not have even thought about using art and translation services (artistically other than writing my talent is .. lackluster) to get folks to join the game and support us.. so this whole fiasco has me surprised as well. Trying to anticipate everything is just about impossible, so best you can do is fix the holes once it's spotted.

It's more on a clarity philosophy. Rules must be clear to be precisely obeyed. I have put a suggestion up for your consideration. What has happened is a clear failure to communicate. This can be corrected by making sure the language leaves no question as to the only means of proper cash/benefit interactions with the site.