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Showing content with the highest reputation since 10/20/17 in all areas

  1. 20 points
    Kypari

    Make TF2 Great Again

    Lately, me and the other TF2 higherups have noticed an uproar in people who are not satisfied with the current state of the TF2 division of our community in terms of how we present ourselves and some of the rules that they feel are far too strict. We have discussed many topics and talked with a lot of staff over the past few days for the betterment of not only their staff ability, but for the community and to feel welcomed and respected as they should be in hopes that they will continue to support and play on our servers. I would like to do a Staff PSA in this post in hopes that everyone will see that we want to make a change to make everyone as satisfied as possible. Of course, there are times where you may not necessarily agree with the rules or such and you may not be superbly happy about the division, but we have to try to make everyone as happy as they can be to a realistic and fair degree. Many staff members have been talked to individually about one or more of these topics already, but I would like to make it publicly known so that our current staff can find a way to improve to the upmost degree if they feel like they should be working on one of the things mentioned. Even if you feel you don't need to work on anything, please read this and try to improve on them to the upmost degree regardless in hopes that you can be as good of a staff member and role-model for the community as possible. Learning is a great way to climb positions! Staff members should not try to interpret rules wildly from their original intent. Recently, some people have felt as if they have been wrongly punished because staff members are being far too broad with the rules and end up punishing people for reasons that stray too far from the actual !motd. I would like to remind staff that it is completely OK to ask questions and talk to a staff member in a higher position (whether that be admin or one of the higherups) whether something is disallowed or not in hopes that this will happen less, and that I would also like to see staff try to enforce rules directly towards what they are related to. Staff members should try to recognize the situation appropriately and take everything in context. We have felt as if staff sometimes may not appropriately address the situation because they aren't reading the context whatsoever and jump to conclusions regarding rules such as disrespect but towards their friends and other such examples. I would like to remind staff that it is OK if someone says that it's a joke and you go back on your warning or mute/gag and to understand the situation appropriately before handing out a punishment. Staff members should be a role-model to other people and act maturely, specifically when handing out punishments. Just a reminder that staff should recognize that they are a role-model towards the server and many people will look up to you if they care about the community and the servers. We would like to see staff act more maturely overall and specifically when handing out punishments. This is not to say that you can't have fun and be yourself at all, but try to act more responsible and like a role-model to ensure that everyone gets a good impression of the server and so that new members and such will take into account your responsibility and maturity! If someone disagrees about their punishment, allow them to calmly tell you why they disagree, and supportively direct them to the forums. I cannot stress enough how important it is that you do not shut someone down and tell them "go make a ban protest lol" if they get in trouble on the servers and they disagree with their punishment. If someone disagrees, talk calmly and respectfully about why they were punished and if things escalate on the servers or if they still disagree, supportively and respectively direct them to the forums and inform them that they should make a ban protest if they feel it is necessary or contact one of the higherups to discuss their punishment. Do not shut people down disrespectfully as it often ensures that they won't come back to the server. Of course, if people continuously argue about the issue, then warn and gag/mute as normal or whatever punishment is appropriate, but always assist them first. No talking over other people is not only for staff but for other players + regarding when to enforce the rule. The idea of this rule is so that we don't create extreme chaos with people speaking over each other constantly and so that people don't randomly interrupt people consistently. The rule does not only apply to staff, but also to people on the server. It also does not mean to silence every person who speaks at the same time as you because you are staff. To enforce this rule correctly, pay attention to when they started speaking and if they interrupted someone blatantly rather than if two people accidentally speak around the same time and both don't stop speaking (to a fair and realistic degree). If someone's mic isn't very good or isn't working, inform them of what isn't working and give advice instead of saying "fix your mic". Staff should always try to help people if someone on the server's mic has a lot of background noise and assist them in how to fix it rather than just simply stating "fix your mic". For example, if you can hear their in-game audio, tell them to plug in some headphones to prevent the in-game audio from coming through their mic. If they do not comply, then follow the extended mute system up to a day (warn -> mute -> day mute -> hour ban etc). Staff should always remain unbiased as possible. In order to prevent unfair punishments and arguments, try to remain as unbiased as possible and put yourself in someone else's shoes before handing out a punishment just in case you feel that you may be being rash. It is impossible to be entirely unbiased and there's no way to prevent that, but try to be as unbiased as possible to a realistic degree to ensure that most people feel that the punishment handed out was just and fair. Staff members should always be respectful to not only players, but other staff too. Remember that you are a role-model and that treating others with a lack of respect will not only encourage them to break rules, but also feel unwelcome to the server and community as a whole. Regardless of the situation and whether they are a rule-breaker or not, treat everyone with the same degree of respect. This also heavily applies to staff members. If you don't like a staff member, remember that you are working with them and not against them, and that they are also a member of the community as well and should not be treated any less than such. There has been a lot of drama recently regarding a few staff members and we would like to see no more of that and for everyone to treat each other respectfully. Try to be less strict regarding the immature voices rule We are hoping to see staff hold back a bit more regarding the immature voices rule as we feel that staff are jumping to stop people from harmless fun on the mic far too quickly. For example, if someone does an impression of myself having fun on the server, let them but not to a consistent level and as long as people aren't getting annoyed by it. However, do not forget that this is still a rule and is still not allowed, but let people feel a bit more free regarding the rule. @mrnutty12@Caleb956@Kypari@Natsu@Segal@DiaperHyperWolf@Krampus@Arnude@SegFault@Precious@BonfireCentipede@FrostyBoiGrim@Nozomi@VinylScratch@bagggel@Deko@Owlknight_@Tekage
  2. 16 points
    nuen

    HELP NEEDED : LOWEST REP POSSIBLE

    I want to have the lowest rep of any xeno gamer. Downvote, negatively react, do whatever. Here, I'll help you out, "there so cool". Now you can rate this bad spelling. Please I need this.
  3. 16 points
    Caleb956

    The Awakening

    What is below this paragraph states how I personally feel about the state of the servers and the TF2 division as a whole right now. No other person had any part in this, so if anyone is to be questioned then that person is me. I don’t mean this thread to attack anyone, but its important it gets out there one way or another. I may be being completely irrational with this post, but this is several years worth of frustrations summed up into a single thread, so I apologize in advance. If you are new here, I'm a previous Division Leader, I've been staff several times, and am currently an admin of the Team Fortress 2 servers. Take this thread as you will. Drama Between several servers, different discords, groups, there has been on common theme between all of them. That theme, is the absolute inability of people to get along with other people that have opposing views, creating drama. There are times that a simple discussion turns into an absolute shitfest for no reason at all, and fuel must be added to the fire no matter what in order to fit each person's own narrative. There are also times when people are constantly mocked on the servers for one reason or another, and when they ask the person who is doing it to the stop the response is usually “get over it” or “just local mute them”. How is that a solution we should be enforcing at all? If people are mocking someone just to annoy them, or get a reaction, or whatever other reason, it is harassment, and should be handled as such. When things are agreed upon and finished, it doesn’t come lightly, it comes when one person steps in and says let's get this done with, almost as if the two opposing parties are unable to even communicate without being at each others throats, let alone negotiate, unless a third party steps in. It’s time to brighten up and get along with each other. You may be asking, “why is this a problem?” Or you may be rolling your eyes at this point, well I'm directing this at everyone. With the rate of how things are going, these servers we love to play on could very well be dead sooner than any of us think if something doesn’t change. If that doesn’t concern you can you really call yourself a community member? It's all of our jobs to not only maintain the servers, and not only to play on the servers, but the most important job of all of us, is to have fun playing on the servers, not only for ourselves but for others. We all represent xG, even if you aren’t a part of the clan, when you are playing on the servers, talking on the forums, or in the discord, you are representing xG and who we are as a clan. Do we really want drama to be the thing that defines us when people look at the clan? Do we really want people to walk away because of it? I know I don't, and I sure hope you don’t either. It doesn’t matter if “it's just online”, everyone here is a real person, with feelings of their own, we aren't built the same, and we weren't built to handle emotions the same as the next person. If someone has a problem with how you act towards them, or how you treat them, then it's time to lighten up and be considerate for other people's feelings. As is such with the Castroy situation, he is repeatedly mocked with a phrase that is very well known to hurt him, but it is continued anyways because those doing it like seeing the reaction, or seeing that it annoys him. This can be solved with one word. Respect. Another issue I'd like to bring up, is how things are handled in the division. On several occasions I've seen people say “well not many people are complaining about it so it's not that big of a problem”. I firmly believe that having that kind of mindset will drag the division down, we should not be waiting for people to complain to get things fixed, or removed, or added, etc. Our priority should be looking at the issue that is at hand, even if it was mentioned by a single person, and seeing what we can do about it. Fix the issue before it becomes a problem, don't wait until the boat has already sank. On the surf server, there is a well known issue with the checkpoint saver plugin, where it resets your saved position with no warning. I tried several times as a DL to get it fixed to no avail. That being said, I saw someone say that their checkpoint got reset, I didn’t see their name but a few times beforehand but I could see they were genuinely disappointed. The only solution that was offered was to “jiggle your mouse around a bit and test before you walk away”, which is all fine and dandy, except for the fact that simply, they shouldn't HAVE to. We do things to make the experience more enjoyable for all players, if a new player joined and saw that their progress was reset for no reason they'd probably think otherwise and not feel too good about the server at that point. After I saw that, I took it upon myself to finally sit down and fix the plugin once and for all, I didn't do it for myself, or for the higher ups, I did it for HIM, the one who brought it up. That's where the issue of “waiting until it becomes a problem” comes into play. Nobody else thought it was a problem, even the higherup I sent it to( @SegFault ) so he could add it to the server, but when it's affecting our players, at that point it IS A PROBLEM, whether it is widespread or not. I believe this can be attributed to one word: Motivation. Something I feel several of our higher ups are lacking, or at least a good portion of the time, especially when it comes to working on the servers. As a DL your job is the same as everyone else, but you have the responsibility to actually add to the servers and fix what's wrong. I'm not saying @mrnutty12 and @SegFault don’t do anything, but it feels like when they can't figure something out they just give up and wait until someone else( @Lithium ) figures it out. In my eyes this shows a complete and utter lack of motivation, and unwillingness to work. You don't have to be working on the servers at all times, but if you are unwilling to dedicate time to it then why are you in such a position? An example of this is with @mrnutty12. I won’t lie and say I don't get frustrated with you when it comes to server work, because I do. And I won't lie and say I'm always nice when I bring it up to you, because I'm not. But when you threaten to step down everytime I DO bring it up to you what does that say? It shows me personally you're unwilling to take criticism for your actions. You have told me yourself that people think you're lazy, and you think you're useless, but you don't try to change. How can you sit there and guilt yourself when there's no attempt being made. I don’t do it to try and hurt you, or push you away, I tell you how it is because it should be a red flag that clearly something is wrong, and that it should change. Another example: Population events quickly went from several times a week to sometimes not even happening once a week, whether that be from lack of players, or those who set them up just not wanting to do them. This issue is not only directed at the higher ups, it could be directed at the division as a whole. To me it feels like many people just don't care what happens anymore, as long as x server has players on then they’re happy, those servers normally being surf or tgh. It's almost as if some people would rather see the server they like completely filled and the other server completely dead, that doesn't sound like a healthy community or playerbase if you ask me. Management Management wise, I don't think anyone could ask for a better staff team, but like all teams, we have our faults. Disagreements on rule matter Many times I have seen staff enforce a rule in wildly different ways than the next staff, which if it gets the job done is fine, but not when its creating a false idea of what they can and can not do. There have also been times that I've seen rules enforced that I've never even seen or heard of. Obviously we will never all enforce things exactly the same, but there should be more efforts to try. This comes down to one thing, consistency. Arguing in the servers, or discord Disagreeing with each other is a given, it's not that big of a deal, but how it is handled is absolutely a problem. A good example of this would be of what I saw last night. I won't give any names in order to provide anonymity but basically, there were two sides. One side said he or she did this on the server and then put the blame on someone else because of x reason, and the other side disagreed and said the person that was blamed was the one who actually stated the issue on the server. Keep in mind, there were witnesses on both sides that had different stories, and there was no solid evidence of either stories. Both sides were at each others neck for over half an hour, over something that couldn’t lead anywhere, and then it was attributed to them “trolling” or being “passive aggressive”. These weren't just people that had just joined the server either, these were including staff members, higher ups as well. Quite frankly it's sad to see it happening. Rules It's no secret many people think we are too strict on rules. While I think rules are important to have, at a certain point it needs to come down to staff discretion. In order to do that though we'd need something I mentioned earlier, consistency. As it is right now, I think all of our rules are fair, and they make sense, BUT the matter is, is that we have too many. I understand the want for rules to be specific, and I also understand the rules to be generalize, it should be somewhere in between. Have some trust in our staff and give the players some freedom. We can still enforce the rules, but we don't need to have a 2 page long list of rules, either. Conclusion I won’t sit here and put the blame for what's happening on one person, because what's happening is all of our faults, and that means the only way things will change is if everyone works together. We are all told that the servers losing players can be attributed to “the game dying”, that’s not a good reason. If anything, that tells me we need to push harder than before to get our servers back to where they should be. There are rumors that are thrown around on the daily of “they said this” or “they did that”, and there are constant disagreements within our own staff team, and times when staff are at each other's throats while on the servers. There are times when the entire server is riled up because of situations like this. How many people have to leave before something changes? I didn't plan on coming back so soon originally even considering the irl information I learned, but I also didn’t plan on never coming back. I came back because I saw what was happening, and I care for this clan more than damn near anything, and I'm not willing to let this continue without at least trying to get it fixed, it's time for people to take off this mask as if everything is fine in the community and buckle up and get this figured out. If you disagree with me, then feel free, if you agree with me then feel free; but no matter who you are, it's time for things to change around here. We are supposed to be a community, a community traditionally is a group of people who share common interests, and goals. What kind of community are we when we aren’t acting like one. Edit: How the bulletpoints are SUPPOSED to look..
  4. 16 points
    Jacklyn

    The xG Chronicles: Bunker Wars

    Based on a true story
  5. 15 points
    Kypari

    SEEE YAAAAAAA

    After talking to various people, family and friends, I have decided that I am actually going to stay as a Division Manager. This community means far too much to me and I know I can work all of this out with the right help, I just have to get back on track again. Truth be told, I actually started declining really bad all the way back in early October when I stopped going to counseling and I haven't had an appointment since. Instead of stepping down, I am going to schedule my counseling again, visit the doctors and perhaps a nutritionist. If I get put on anti-depressants I may have to take a break for a few weeks so I can get used to them but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Thank you for all of the support guys, I genuinely love you all so much
  6. 15 points
    YeEternalTuna

    Genesis

    I don't know where to start with this apology. It'll probably be all over the place because I'm not so good with conveying my emotions/thoughts. I guess I'll start with saying I'm sorry for what Lemonvolt said in the thread. He didn't mean to group everyone (who isn't in my friend group) in this ''furry'' group. He did the worst thing possible (which is something everyone agreed with) especially since there was tension before that. He did it out of frustration and I can understand but I still didn't think it was okay for him to do that. I'm sorry to @Caribou to being a hypocrite towards him (and anyone else that found me to be a hypocrite). I reflected on what I had said and what I've done and I thought it was pretty retarded of me to say that people were picking on me for my past when I was doing the very same thing. I'm sorry to @Kypari (and anyone that can apply themselves to this or however you want to phrase it) for arguing with you in the past (and if I've argued with you recently which I dont think I've done, correct me if I'm wrong). I'm sorry to @bagggel and anyone else I've been passive aggressive towards. I should've thought before I sent that message. I should've went to a higher up instead of trying to stir up drama and I fully admit that I was completely in the wrong there. (Sorry for the repetition but) I'm sorry for all of the passive aggressive comments n' such. I don't know how to explain my actions there other than wanting to cause drama or something. (Was usually done due to having anger and frustrations that I couldn't do anything about). I'm sorry for anything my friends have said and done that upset anyone. I'm sorry for all the drama that's been caused due to my idiocy and immaturity. I would like to have a clean slate with everyone and try to do better this time. I ask for forgiveness for the dumb stuff I've done and if you don't want to forgive, I'm fine with that. I just hope I can get along with everyone from now on and to keep any snarky poop to myself and to improve myself on my behavior n such. I'm deeply sorry.
  7. 14 points
    This stems from the 2 disputes that happened last week from the TF2 community but is still a good piece of discussion even by itself. First of all, our servers are meant to be a place for everyone in our community and people who visit our servers to have fun. I'm going to try to break down what we used to do and what I feel is sometimes not reflected in our community anymore. Whenever we were on CSS, CS:GO or TF2, (even before I was Co-leader) issues obviously occurred. Sometimes we had a free-killer on the server, or a guard + prisoner arguing etc. The role of the staff should be right away to fix the problem WHILE keeping the servers interests in mind. If someone got freekilled, we would also message them after slaying; if we know it was a freekill (either via voice, all chat, or pm) "Hey man, you got slayed cuz you freekilled X during this game. If you get too close to them, they are allowed to knife since you are baiting, so you freekilled. You're not getting banned, just wanted to let you know to be careful and read the rules" This lets you not only resolve the problem and let the server know you are doing right by punishing them, but the person who broke the rules understands exactly what happens, and lets them have another go at our server without feeling alienated. There are PLENTY of situations that you (as staff) are not there for, but still need to resolve to help out the server. You should always be willing to communicate with BOTH parties, and get a good compromise or to punish them fairly if you don't feel there's anything more you can do to resolve this in an easy manner. Ask them one at a time what the issue is, gag/mute one of them if they aren't letting the other talk, after hearing both their stories, ask witnesses or look at chat logs and see what's going on. The whole point of us punishing a person in our servers (Not perm punishments) is for the SOLE reason that we want to reform them. We don't week ban people first offense, just so they never come back again. That's not the point of our mutes,gags,bans. It's to teach people that their (repeated) offenses aren't okay here, and that we want everyone to enjoy their time here. TL;DR for people who want a simple explanation, staff are not ban-bots programmed to ban anyone and everyone out of line, it's to fix any issues that people are having, and even if someone has previous offenses, if you can resolve a problem without banning, and the server is happy, then you are doing the right thing. You are there to ensure people (including you) have fun in our servers, and that no one is trying to ruin it for others.
  8. 13 points
    johnGait42

    johnGait42 - Counter-Strike

    In-Game Name johnGalt42 Primary Division Counter-Strike Previous Member No Profile steam42 Age 13 Previously Banned No Time Active on Servers xG sever Reason for Joining i play xg i like jb i play xg all i play with Danny and brady and lithium and jadow and darrth and
  9. 13 points
    virr

    May I get more hate plz?

    Meme or not, this isnt funny in the slighest. Please use your brain next time. I should ban you. ~closed
  10. 13 points
    Caleb956

    PROMODEMO #216 Sand Editionxxx

    Promotions General @Caleb956 from Member to God @virr from Community Manager to Paid non-Member @Skeletal from Member to Moderator Demotions @SegFault from Division Leader to Jew @Kypari from Division Manager to Lad Congratulations to those who were promoted this Promo/Demo! This is a reminder to those who have newly gained access as a Moderator to leave your STEAM IDs posted below in the comment section below to ensure the distribution of powers as soon as possible. Discord is also now a requirement to staff, make sure you're in it! We would also like to congratulate the following people as new members of xG! @Rhododendron @mrnutty12 @Aegean @Tekk @Lithium thisisamemeorisit
  11. 13 points
    realBelloWaldi

    Sylux - Team Fortress 2

    Well said. My thoughts, quick and compressed: Was the ban justified? Not really. Where do I start? If I recall correctly, we do a day -> a week -> a month. Were these steps followed? I don't think so. All bans that I am seeing are from about about a year ago (let's not take the ones for calladmin abuse into consideration, as that's a whole different topic). So we have one ban from 10-30-15 for disrespect. There is also the one from early this year which seems to be due to disrespect and calladmin abuse as well, though I don't know what exactly got him banned at the end. Only @Shadower may now. While I would rather give Sylux the benefit of the doubt, let's just assume it was for the same exact reason as yesterday - unless you want to take REALLY old bans into consideration, then there is no way a one month ban would be justified, as there was no recent week ban. If you want to justify a month ban, then in my personal opinion using a week ban from 08-21-15 is a little weak, as people change during two whole years. If you think that he should have gotten a week earlier, that is fine but matter of fact, he hasn't and Sylux himself definitely cannot be held accountable for that. I'm also curious as to why Zac "only" got muted while Sylux was banned. Zac does not seem to be banned, however. Why is Sylux getting a ban and Zac just an extended mute? As far as I can tell, both are a part of the problem. Is Sylux in the right here? Definitely not. The fact that he made binds to specifically annoy that Zac guy is wrong and should not be condoned either. Comments like "zack if you pay me 20 keys i can teach you basic death match" are not helping Sylux's case either. I agree that Zac is definitely not in the right either, but it's just unnecessary on both sides. Someone should have tried to defuse the situation. What should be done? First things first I want to make it very clear that I am not speaking on behalf of anyone else. This is my own opinion and you can disagree with me all you want, but don't blame it on others if you do. I think Sylux's ban should be reduced. I am curently not sure whether we should make it a day (or just unban him by the time this thread is closed) or a week. Looking at his past history, I can understand how some people want a longer ban, but I am not sure if a ban from 11 months ago that was not merely for disrespect is much of a reason to make it a week. This is something that higher ups need to discuss privately before coming to a conclusion. However, a month is in my opinion too long. Zac on the other hand should either receive a day ban or a very clear warning. And I want to shoutout @ThunderLimes for making quite useful posts. Good job (y).
  12. 12 points
    Tekk

    In Regards To TF2's Future

    As of recent, as you all know, the TF2 Divison has been struggling a lot recently. It is as a result of multiple reasons, one being a lack of motivation from us which has resulted in the game feeling stale, even on xG. However, Seg's demotion has been a massive wake-up call to Caleb and I who are now going to be working harder than ever before in order to return TF2 to its former glory. We have been discussing things recently and have decided that we are going to do a rework of the rules, coming up with ideas for plugins to keep the game fresh and hope to make our servers better than ever before. We will try to keep you all updated as much as possible as a result of there being previous complaints about lack of communication between the TF2 Higherups and the Community. If anyone has any suggestions whatsoever, please let us know here. Please don't go anywhere; there's much more to come and lots of fun to be had! Let's bring TF2 back. Edit of 7/18: Thank you to everyone for your feedback and encouragement. You've been a lot of help. Any further suggestions you might have, redirect to here.
  13. 12 points
    Aegean

    Rabid

    @discord mods I know you guys are just trying to keep the peace on discord, but try to not antagonize people who are clearly just trolling. You guys are just feeding fuel to a fire. Also be a little more hesitant on muting someone. @Steven @Rabid Grow up, and stop being so condescending. These guys are legit trying to keep our members from being annoyed on discord, and you guys are intentionally being rude or annoying. You both should also practice what you preach and learn to not take things so seriously. I Nothing to be done from this report, both sides can improve from today forward. If issues persist in the future, we can discuss it in another thread. If anyone needs any clarification, feel free to message me as well.
  14. 12 points
    Promotions TF2 @SegFault from Administrator to Division Manager @Tekage from Moderator to Administrator @cook from Member to Moderator @-Diphikult from Member to Moderator Demotions @bagggel from Moderator to Member (Stepped Down) @Arnude from Administrator to Member (Inactivity) @Nozomi from Moderator to Member (Unfit for position) Congratulations to those who were promoted this Promo/Demo! This is a reminder to those who have newly gained access as a Moderator to leave your STEAM IDs posted below in the comment section below to ensure the distribution of powers as soon as possible. We would also like to congratulate the following people as new members of xG! @racerx1036 @Coin @BossStrafes @CarbonThePanda @justis @Kn1ght @Skriller @Hg2CI2 @CatTrix @DepressedNeonNepp @submedius @PichuBoi @Topaz @KevOnStage @Julian @Aidyzap
  15. 12 points
    Greetings members and guests. You may be wondering what in the high heavens has been going on lately. Threads are a mess of toxicity and hate. It's very difficult to pinpoint the actual claims of many a thread, oh dear oh dear. It is because of this that in this thread I will be trying to explain how to actually engage in constructive dialogue with your fellow xenogamers members.. Part 1. Make sure any claims you make in any thread are substantiated by verifiable evidence. For instance, were I to make a thread called "Virr is an incredibly toxic individual who bullies and harasses me daily please demote" it would probably help to have multiple things. Maybe witness testimony that, yes indeed, Virr does do these things. Maybe a screencap of the abuse Virr definitely really sends me on the daily. However the strongest form of evidence I could provide would be unedited records of the events that had occured in full context. It is very very easy to clip a sentence or two out of context to try and assassinate someone's character Even if doing this somewhat incriminates me, it is better to provide evidence of the occurrence in context. It adds towards the credibility of my claim, as I am obviously not trying to hide any bad acting on my part this way. While this is the strongest form of evidence, that does not mean that Anecdotal evidence is inherently bad. It is especially useful in cases such as abuse through voice. Abuses or violations through voice are especially difficult to gather evidence against, as demos must start being recorded before the event transpires, and it's unreasonable to expect anyone making an abuse report to have been running demos at all times or for them to have enabled some kind of third party recording software. In this situation, you can see how merely the testimony of multiple unrelated individuals might be sufficient evidence worthy of creating a thread about. What isn't strong evidence though is "I feel like virr is being toxic because they vaguely don't like me and don't want to communicate with me outside of the platform of xenogamers when necessary". Which brings us to step two. Part 2: Realize that opinions are not really worth discussing if you are not willing to try and back them up. We've all got opinions. 'They're like armpits' or some other bottom-of-the-barrel-dad-joke. But generally it's not worth making a thread about an opinion if the most reasoning you have for an opinion is "idk i just feel that way I guess". That's not to say you don't have a right to that opinion, but the point of the forums is to provide some outlet for discussion. If I wanted to make a vote to remove clocktown because I think it's a bad garbage map, but I cannot elaborate on why I think that, it's pointless to even try to discuss it. That's why the vote exists, to just be able to give your input without having to defend it. It would be pointless and unproductive to just constantly parrot "Idk man I want it removed because I think it's bad" (which usually just devolves into a sh¡tstorm). Just create the vote, vote, and be done with it. You'd make just as much progress arguing over whether blue is a better color than green. Part 3: Please don't needlessly attack other folks' character, thanks. This one kind of speaks for itself. Kinda a "love the sinner, hate the sin" kind of deal. Generally you should take issue with what people are saying and not who's saying it. If virr said something as absolutely stupid as... it would still not be acceptable or intelligent to attack virr directly for his opinion on things. Attack his argument, that's fine, but the end goal of discussion is not mindless name-calling. There's a big difference between saying "hey man, I think your opinion is poorly thought through and inconsistent because xyz" and "lol ur dumb nerd". Part 4: Do not, under any circumstances, posit that you know what anyone's thoughts are unless they've already explicitly stated it. This is the big one that really annoys me the most. Like okay Sherlock, we get it, you think so highly of your genius self that you think you've conquered what philosophers worldwide have grappled with for decades, the impenetrable prison of the human mind. Here's the reality; you likely do not know what that other person is thinking. Even if they were to explicitly tell you what they are thinking, there's always something lost in the transition from thoughts to words. You can directly quote someone's opinion on a matter, you can try to theorize what their feelings on a matter may be through some amount of evidence, but to approach the matter without delicacy and just assume that you've got an individuals stance or views nailed down with no supporting evidence makes you look like an arrogant idiot who's so strapped for any modicum of support for their claims that you literally have to build a straw-man and burn it to have any impact. Part 5: Every single person on this planet has a set of biases. Everyone has a set of actions, opinions, or choices that they are predisposed to. This brings back the point about being humble. You are not above this. You may think you have no active bias against anyone or even anything, but previous experience and interaction always paints an individual's worldview a certain way. Some biases we can be conscious of, while others we can't. There isn't anything wrong with anyone for having an internal blind bias, it's completely normal, but my hope is that the more people who know about this, the less people will think that someone's bias exists solely to harm them. Just please be kind; as much as you're thinking the other person on the opposite end of the argument is a biased garbage bin, they're probably thinking the exact same about you, and it doesn't help anyone to grow sore over it. So there it is, my not-so-brief outline on issues with a couple of recent trends in threads. I hope it was at least somewhat coherent and I hope you have a wonderful day. Adios
  16. 12 points
    Brian

    Favoritism and Nepotism

    Can we have a serious discussion about the nepotism going on in this clan? It's absolutely absurd. Take this thread for instance... It's about an admin using a suggestive furry porn spray. I personally believe that this shouldn't be happening, especially by someone who represents power in the organization. One person, @NitNat offers this suggestion: He made a simple statement, and within five minutes, he got four replies and the thread was closed by the very same people he's referring to. It's the community right now. A lot of them don't want to admit it, but the best way to get moderator isn't to show that you're hard-working, constantly on the servers and reminding others of the rules, but instead get real close to the current administration until you've got a spot in their private discord, at which you're pretty much a shoo-in all the way to administrator. Nobody wants to admit it though, because if they did, the facade would crumble, and they would have to take responsibility for their actions. If you looked at XenoGamers in the past, the best way to get staff positions was to be hardworking. Now all you have to do is talk up admins, and if you're a furry, it helps. I'm really sad to see the dying division head down this path, but there's not much you can do besides look at them and laugh. Take what happened to me for instance. I changed my name to "tired of the tf2 badmins" and had the same group of people defending that it was justified, and not the clear overreaction it was. Was anybody punished for not obeying the handbook? Nope. I got my sentenced reduced to a day, even after the leader told them it was ridiculous. There's a reason I take breaks for months, and come back for a few weeks at a time. I enjoy playing TF2, but the community here has gone to poop with all the favoritism and staff taking things way to personally. I really hope yall can get on track with this. I'm tired of having to walk on eggshells, but if you can't handle some banter or even some lite playful trolling, then what the fudge are you doing being a mod in the first place. I refuse to acknowledge anyone that gets seriously angry about what a person says about them on the internet, especially if they have some semblance of power. Grow a thicker skin, or step down. I tried to put this as civilly as possible, and if the thread gets closed, then so be it. This is pretty much the last post I'll ever make on these forums anyway. Maybe a goodbye thread.
  17. 11 points
    Because of context. I don't call people faggots and neither do I call people niggers, but let me try to give my opinion on this subject. I'm also going to refer to the "n-word" as "nigger", since that is the word we're talking about and we're having a reasonable discussion where I'm not using it as an insult. As far as I know, it's not like the word "faggot" is allowed no matter what. The word is allowed in a certain context in which you are not harassing someone. For instance, if someone were to call QueenofHeart [or any queer person] a faggot because of the fact that she is transgender, that would be punishable. However, in my opinion the meaning of the word faggot has kind of changed. I'm definitely not denying that awful people are still using it to be homophobic, however, there is a certain episode of South Park that illustrates this situation. To briefly summarize the episode, a ton of bikers start annoying the city and people eventually start calling them fags to the point where everyone just refers to them as fags. At some point people got concerned because of the apparent homophobia that someone did a TV report showing a child a picture of a gay person and a biker, asking whom of the both they think is a "fag". The child pointed to the biker and completely ignored the actually gay person. In other words, in this and in many other instances the word "faggot" is not being used in a homophobic context. If someone on a tf2 server is like "shut up, faggot", in 95% of the cases he doesnt use the term "faggot" to insult gay people, but instead to insult an annoying person. Does that make it better? Kind of, I think. While I'd agree that nobody should say it, people always will and I don't think we, as a gaming community, have the power to stop people from doing that. Our regular players, yes, probably, but literally anyone who ever joins the servers? I don't think so. People have already started to describe generally annoying people as "faggots", way before this community was even established, I believe. However, the meaning of the term "nigger" has not changed. People still mostly use it to be intentionally racist. There is basically no context where it would make sense to call someone a "nigger" simply because they are annoying. People haven't started doing that and still aren't. Again, I'm not condoning the usage of either of these words, I'm just trying to explain why there is a difference in my opinion. Not to mention the argument @Elcark made last time, that we'd have to basically start banning everything from here: List of disability-related terms with negative connotations - Wikipedia EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG If people intentionally use the word "faggot" to discriminate against gay people, then that should be a no go, but using it in a relatively "harmless" context which doesn't relate to discriminating against gay people is something different. Also, you should watch the episode of south park I was talking about if you have time, it's called "The F-Word".
  18. 11 points
    Vexx

    Sylux - Team Fortress 2

    Unfortunately, I only remember being told about that whole "alternate account racism" thing but don't exactly remember what happened or if it was even really his alt. The last ban you got for disrespect or "trolling" was last year, and that was only a day. Don't exactly understand the jump to a month ban, even if he had older bans for longer. As for Zack, I do know he's quite the toxic guy when he is on the server. I am honestly surprised in you guys only giving him a gag instead of a ban as well. From what I read there was a warning and it stopped there, so I don't exactly know why you guys did jump to a ban as quickly as you did without even kicking him beforehand. I do feel as though there is some unfairness in how the situation was handled, even if Sylux has a "history", Zack should be punished exactly the same. +1 to drop the ban to at least a week, if not completely. +1 to punish Zack with the same length, they're both in the wrong and should be treated with the same punishment for fairness.
  19. 10 points
    DepressedNeonNepp

    Explaining myself

    In this post im going to be explaining why I used to be such a scumbag on this community, though none of what I say excuses what I did, I think what happened was all on me. Ok, first time. The first time i left was out of rage because I spammed the forums, and was facing deserved backlash that I thought I didn't deserve. Second time. I honestly don't even remember. Third time. I left because me and my friends at the time (I still don't really know my relationship with them at this point) had a fallout because I was being a cancerous piece of shitand I became extremely angry and left for no reason. Thats about all the ones i even remember, remember i'm truly sorry for the asshole iv'e been to all of you. I really want to be a better person, online and in real life. Iv'e been trying (and hopefully succeeding) at being a better person on here. Thats about all I have to say, Goodbye.
  20. 10 points
    @thunderlimes bad now upvote
  21. 10 points
    Aegean

    My thoughts moving forward

    Hey friends, I've been reading the posts that you all have been writing recently, whether it was people stepping down, planning events, making statements on xG in its current form etc. so I wanted to just give a few thoughts. Staff Stepping Down There are never enough to say about staff who took the time to volunteer so many hours to help out xG. It is a thankless job that helps keep xG as populated as it is, due to the efforts from all our staff, whether it is new mods, all the way to the community managers. People get stressed doing this, and stepping down makes total sense as people have their own lives to worry about. School, work, mental health, and anything in between is more important than xG, so if people need to step down for those reasons, we encourage it and we will always welcome back those people with open arms if they decide they can and want to help out again. Toxicity and Harassment As xG is a gaming community and the fact that we are not a private community, many different types of personalities with varying age ranges are all going to come and go. Disputes, problems, cliques, they are all bound to happen. It is also not only on staff but also members to hold each other accountable for how others are getting treated. Remember, we are all people in front of that screen at the end of the day, so please know that your words have weight behind them. If there are any issues that you don't feel comfortable discussing on the forums or with other members, you can always message me on discord privately and I'll always respond within 24 hours. Sometimes problems are just misunderstandings, but regardless I'm happy to take time out to resolve whatever problem you might have. People who intentionally try to get a rise out of others get little sympathy from me, but at the same time if you truly wish to improve or need a wake up call, I'm always here for that too. Planning Events You do NOT need to be a higher-up or even staff to organize an event. I just want to say thank you to everyone who tries to figure out fun things we can do as a community by posting threads and being active on discord. Aside from CS:GO 10 mans, it's been a lot of fun playing golf-it, skribble.io, and other games with the rest of ya and I can see that a lot of you have been enjoying it too. Respect to everyone honoring the golf-it shoe pics btw on discord. If you need any help organizing an event, feel free to reach out to me or any of the other higher-ups! Looking forward to all the new things we organize as a community. Moving Forward I'll be posting a thread soon about recapping what's been going on recently, and thoughts we have for 2019 in terms of divisions. It will also include getting your thoughts on what we should do, so we learn from the people who make our community so great, what they think we should implement. Thanks for reading everyone! Happy gaming, ~Aegean
  22. 10 points
    Lithium

    johnGait42 - Counter-Strike

    xeno gammers congralatons you been excepted and or now a ranch of xeno gammers you add [xg] to name be follow rules below or i ban !admin you want admin i watch you look in the my discord you 1v1 me go play sever look sever here need admin here go read rule [team forrt] [csgo soure] [garry mod] [minecaft] [nuclar dan] is good play
  23. 10 points
    maf427

    Selfie Sunday

    chair.
  24. 10 points
    Yadingo was just recently banned+demoted for cheating on minecraft and now he has his staff position back? That doesn't really make sense and deserves further justification. @Arthman @Aegean
  25. 10 points
    Tekk

    xG Charity Fundraiser

    A massive thank you to everyone who was involved! We've done a fantastic thing here and every donation, no matter big or small, is going to do great things. We have raised an amazing £328, or $417 that has gone straight to the ME Association! Everyone who donated will receive the M.E Charity Fundraiser role in the xG Discord (if you haven't already please let me know). Once again, thank you all! We couldn't have done this without each and every one of you. @SegFault @virr @Caribou @Dannypicacho @james8470 @Sylux @Aegean @MineCrack @Thorax_ @hongkongatron @shwash @BonfireCentipede @bagggel @Matteomax @plowcord625 Thank you all. As I stated before, your donations, no matter how big or small, have made all the difference.
  26. 10 points
    Tekk

    xG Charity Fundraiser

    Hey everyone! @Aegean and I are hosting a charity raffle for a chronic illness called Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (M.E); a life changing disability that turns simple everyday tasks into a marathon. M.E leaves a person constantly fatigued and in devastating pain. Some days, you'll be lying in bed all day, barely able to move, limbs feeling like they're twisting in ways they shouldn't. On a good day, you can walk to the kitchen and back, but that will be all you can do for the day. Unfortunately, my girlfriend suffers with this illness quite severely and is wheelchair bound, can barely attend social events and struggles to make her way to school. There is currently no cure. Despite all of this, she always has the brightest smile on her face and always stays positive, no matter how difficult coping with this horrible illness can be. She has a passive passion for art and is a fantastic musician that will bring tears to the eyes of even the manliest. As a bunch of people who donated do not wish to take a part in the raffle, we will donate the raffle prize amounts to the charity as well, and invest in more giveaways in xG throughout 2019! *Edited by Aegean* The charity in question is called the M.E Association, which aids people suffering with this chronic illness by providing support, raising awareness and researching into one day finding a cure. ME Association WWW.MEASSOCIATION.ORG.UK If you would like to donate, please click on the link above and donate. After donating please message me with a screenshot or post the receipt in this thread so we can figure out the total amount of money raised! Thank you everyone!
  27. 10 points
    Dannypicacho

    xG Christmas 2018

    ‘Twas the morning 'fore Christmas, promo demo was here. Where all members gathered, to see who they should fear. On this day, Lithium had drank too much booze. And there wasn't a single good DM to choose. So he let out a burp, and said “fuck all of them”. And he chose Jaydow and Bonk, and made each a DM. But the story doesn't end here, as I have a lot to add in. For the CS division had three new admins. Duke and Darrth, while more info got unloaded. Even Genocide for some reason was promoted. But what about Danny? Said noone ever. Me as DM would be worse than all this together. And so my good people, this is quite the day. Now we move on to the one division most gay. A new DM arrives, that's right… another. Surprise surprise, it's the other DM's brother. They even got a mod, one of our spies. Semper the 10manner, in a gay-ass disguise. Poor little diphi had to step down from power. The gay must've gotten to him, he was almost devoured. Nutty remains the one DL, all alone. It is not time for him to be overthrown. So we move on to Minecraft, made by one of the brightest. But the drama wasn't so great, not in the slightest. We got plenty of staff, some good and some not. But at least things went well for the little boy Scott. None of this mattered to the great Julian, most high. He made so much money it made the Cozy Boys cry. Then there was dingo, who could not stay. Maybe he shouldn't have been using X-Ray. Now lest we forget, do not cry, do not grieve. Because Brady's fat ass made CT_Slay3R leave. All of this happening, with opinions so varied. All while our great leader was off getting married. With all the DMs, from Bonk to SegFault. Hope was being lost for the mighty JohnGalt. Hidden from the furries, who bark and they purr. I wrote this poem to destroy the one made by virr. These decisions couldn't have been made by one single swede. So remember to protest to Aegean and Bleed. It's probably time that I stop complaining. At least we can all move to Gay Bonfire Gaming. Things may not look look great, but they might turn out swell. Because at least we have Grape as our overwatch DL.
  28. 10 points
    Aegean

    Goldfish/lottamos

    This is becoming extremely petty, regardless of what you think of Goldfish, being annoying isn't enough of a contributing factor to remove his membership. I also have been in discord multiple times where you all egg on Goldfish and when he says something back in frustration, you all gang up on him. @Lottamos I'm telling you right now, you seriously also need to improve your attitude. I know you're young but you should seriously consider improving your attitude and not trying to make everything into an argument. Unless Lithium thinks this has any validity, I'm closing this thread for now.
  29. 10 points
    shwash

    An expression of gratitude

    As a lot of you know, it was my 22nd birthday today. It feels kind of douchey to write a note in the General section of the forums, but I really need to say this, and I have no idea where else to leave a message like this. I cannot begin to express how thankful I am about joining this clan. When I first joined Nintendo Sixty-Fortress 5 years ago, I could have never guessed the amount of genuine, authentic friendships I would develop within this time. I apologize if this whole post sounds a bit weird, but I just want to thank everyone for making xG what it is for all of these years. Here's to many more!
  30. 10 points
    Elcark

    Staff PSA/Rules refinement

    Two minor changes to take note of Due to the previous issues that have occurred and strong disagreement in when bans should and should not be disregarded, an actual "decay" is going to be implemented for server bans. Any bans that occurred one year prior should be considered out dated and not effective on the length of new bans issued to players (Unless the ban itself was of a greater length of time). This also doesn't change that staff should highly consider the reasons for previous bans and not base current action off just a time frame. Another small change is for the wording of the rule on custom images. This is to make part of it less vague and more clear where the line is held. Sprays, avatars and items that are able to be customized cannot contain the following: explicit nudity/genitalia, racism, hate symbols, gore, derogatory content and images of sexualized minors (this includes drawn images). So hopefully these serve to make things more defined both for staff members as well as new comers.
  31. 9 points
    SegFault

    SegFault

    Division Team Fortress 2 In-Game Name BigDickCowboy OwO<3 Identity STEAM_0:0:55604505 Ban Type Not Listed Information Y'all know what I did, I abused power and fucked up real bad, so ill keep it short and sweet. Y'all know I love xG and ive been around for many years. I'm just trying to come hang with my friends again and stay with the community
  32. 9 points
    Just a heads up, to people who both regularly attend or just occasionally hop into community nights that the next one is Saturday of 2/16 and will be GMOD. After this, we will start having community nights every other Saturday with the one after being 3/9/19. If you have any questions or thoughts, etc. leave them here so we can create an even better experience. Be sure to add me on steam so that you can join off me or someone else when we play. Gamemodes we’ll run will be TTT, PropHunt, SledBuild, and potentially more. TL;DR (again): The next community night is the Saturday after this one (2/16) and the one after that will be 3/9, with a CN happening every other week or so. Here’s my steam.
  33. 9 points
    Tatost

    Rising epidemic of harassment

    Although harassment is not something unknown to the community prior to this post, I thought I would reflect on the state of the problem as it currently stands. This thread will make me seem even more like a high school counselor, which I really couldn't care less about. Harassment generally goes hand-in-hand with drama, which @Caleb956 explained perfectly in his recent thread. (See below) Quite recently I've seen certain players/members being harassed over complete bullshit. As someone who was previously kicked out of the community entirely, I find it infuriating that staff members haven't been cracking down on the people who do it on the daily. Some specific examples of harassment going on in both CS and TF2 would be the situations surrounding @DepressedNeonNepp and @Lottamos. People constantly throw their names around as insults or attempt to troll them to the point where they will get angry, leave the server/community for x amount of time. I won't call out specific names, but I've seen plenty of members and staff partaking in these sorts of activities. As I said previously, we're a gaming community, not an exclusive club. Make people feel welcome. Please stop trying to push people out of the community. You can never really get to know a person if you constantly harass them. For example, when people pick on Nep they portray him as this toxic little asshole when he really isn't. I've seen him a few times on the CS surf server (albeit he was under an alias at the time) and he was a genuinely enjoyable person. Now, I know school shooters are kind of a touchy subject on here, but I'd like to use a TEDx Talk to illustrate my point that being kind to someone can keep them from making bad decisions. If I cross some sort of line linking the video, I can understand and invite any forum staff to go ahead and cut out this section of my rant. Although I highly encourage everyone to both read the entirety of my post and watch the entire video, I'll insert a TL;DR. TL;DR - This community is plagued with members, staff and random players that can't seem to control themselves when it comes to harassing another person online. The argument that this is the internet and you shouldn't take anything seriously is complete horseshit, stop using it. Please be kind to other players instead of antagonizing them over nothing. Staff members need to start cracking down on this sort of behavior, be a part of the solution, not part of the problem.
  34. 9 points
    virr

    Im quitting for now!!!

    This does not have to be on forums and should be resolved in direct messages or in private ~closed
  35. 9 points
    Tekk

    Worked on myself alot

    I admire your determination to be here. A fresh start is always nice, but here's a few helpful tips, just so old mistakes aren't repeated: 1) Don't Spam Forum Posts This was instantly a red flag to us all and became very irritating very quickly. Think about what you post before you post it, think: - Is it necessary? - Is it a post that people would enjoy or could discuss about? - Am I better off just making a discord post about this? Always think about those three questions before posting a thread. Which leads onto my next suggestion... 2) Think Before You Say Something Sometimes, what people say can really cause a negative impact. If someone says something negative towards you, contact a higherup and tell them that you don't like what they're doing. THEY WILL ACT ON IT. If someone is being rude, it's always a better option to alert a higher member of staff. If you insist on saying something, make sure you think about whether it will further cause a negative reaction or not. The main thing trolls want from you is a reaction. Always remember that. 3) Doing Controversial Actions Doing controversial actions may lead to huge backlash. One of which is when you left with a storm to become admin on a different server, then come back a week later and expect us all to open with welcome arms. Stuff like this is what will give you a bad name in the community and sometimes they can be extremely difficult to escape. But lest we forget that there have been people who have made it very far here despite being previously permenantly banned. TL;DR: Welcome back, nice to see a fresh start, helpful advice is to think before you act because actions can result in serious backlash.
  36. 9 points
    xG should fire all Non-American staff. We need to create more jobs for AMERICANS and these foreign people take them all the time. #MAKEXGGREATAGAIN!!!. #OpenYourThirdEye.
  37. 9 points
    EDNight

    Hi Guys

    I stepped away from a lot of things towards the end of June because of the personal issues. I've reached a point where I feel like I've fixed those problems, so I'm going to try to work on my activity again. Soooo for those of you that know me, hi! I missed talking to a lot of you, and I'm glad to be back around. For those of you that don't know me, hi as well! Maybe I'll get to know some new people in the process of getting active on the server again. Either way, I hope to see a lot of you around in the future!
  38. 9 points
    Reiki

    Reiki (My customized Lucario)

    I drew this a while ago, but I'm quite curious to know what you guys think about my art style. Software used: Paint Tool SAI ((This is from 2017 and it was made by me))
  39. 9 points
    Tatost

    wowie he's turning over a new leaf

    So, over the last year or so I've been growing steadily bitter, which quite a few people have already pointed out to me. I've been starting to show my face a lot more on the servers and such after a few months of almost never playing. I've had a few conversations with people I was friends with for a while and was disappointed, to say the least when they called me things such as "a bloodsucking demon," or "an absolute dick." I can't disagree with these statements since my behavior both on and off the xG servers has essentially deteriorated from what it was back in 2016 when I started playing, but no one wants to be remembered by their friends as some savage. Recently, I've been trying to clean up my act, but it's still kind of hard since a lot of people still look upon with obvious disdain. I'll use this thread as a general apology to the entire community while also apologizing to specific individuals. So, to the entire community, I'm sorry. Over the last year and a half or so, I've constantly been poopposting, most recently the "I'm so sorry" joke that kind of led me to leave the xG discord for about a month or so (wasn't really keeping count). I've caused quite a bit of trouble for @virr with my poop posting, so for that, I'm incredibly sorry. @BonfireCentiped I know I had already apologized for going off on you especially hard in discord, but I thought I would apologize again. At the time I was incredibly stressed out for personal reasons and vented my frustrations out on you. So I don't really know anyone else who I should apologize to specifically. So, if you feel like you actually deserve an apology or there is something you need to talk to me about, you can message me on discord, since I'd rather not have people add me on steam.
  40. 9 points
    Elcark

    BonfireCentiped

    -1, to both aspects. I'll start with admin, as there are very few situations where i'd be ok with promoting someone straight to a higher position like that. Namely the only case I could think of would be if someone had to step down due to not being capable of being active enough and return not too long afterwards. This is neither of those cases as you stepped down, regardless of reason, of your own choosing and have refrained from being staff for a substantial amount of time. It is entirely unfair to other staff members who have had to consistently work and put in effort to reach a position for someone else to come up from nowhere to receive it based on merit and not on actual effort put forward. Staff positions are not something that should be treated as a welcome basket for people to receive as they come and go at their pleasing. The concept of someone leaving their position whenever they just don't feel like being active again and returning back into it whenever they change their mind is ridiculous (Not to say that is the case, but it's a matter of upholding the principle). Now if someone is suitable for a position, then really there is no reason that person shouldn't be able to rise to that spot in short order. If they aren't capable of doing that, then that should be telling of if they were actually suitable still. Not only is this the most direct way to actually show this, but it's also the most direct way for you to show that you're wanting staff because you're putting the servers first, not because you want a position. I hold it in high regard that not only upcoming or returning ones but all staff members should be more then willing to do their work regardless of what position and powers they hold, because the first and foremost thing on their concern should be helping the server which can be done just as equally regardless of rank. Now when it comes to you getting staff, this is the much less hard -1. The first thing I usually tell most people who come to me and ask about getting staff is to try and act like staff when on, and you haven't been. The most you usually do in regards to this is calling out people of breaking rules frankly somewhat rudely most the time, which anyone can do. The goal is not to police the server, but to moderate them so they can be as enjoyable of a place for everyone. When punishing people for something going wrong it's also about helping them to understand exactly how things should be, and just in general being a helpful person to everyone on the server and someone that is viewed as reliable, friendly, and people can come to with their issues if need be. Now I really probably didn't need to tell you much on that but honestly i'm making this all more of an address to about the whole concept. When it comes to you personally, a big thing is that you are plenty talkative with your friends, but not nearly as much to the rest of the server. That's definitely a direct thing that could be worked on that would be toned to the whole concept. To put it all a bit shorter, you were a good staff in the past, but the past doesn't tell us about now, it only allows us to make assumptions on what could be. I'm concerned about the here and now and what is. Show me that you can do well now, and everything will be great.
  41. 9 points
    Elcark

    The situation as I see it

    So i'm not exactly happy with our higher ups right now. That's not to say it is relative to just this point in time either as it has accumulated to this over quite awhile. I'll start out by saying when I first received the position I'm in, I was expecting to discover a plethora of behind the scenes work being done to maintain the community and servers and although my expectations weren't ridiculously high, the lack of running into hardly anything was sorely disappointing at the time. Now sure there are going to be periods of time where nothing is happening or needs to be done, but in contrast then when there is work to be done then it can be knocked out efficiently and quickly, right? Hardly. Now as a disclaimer I do consider myself as part of the higher ups when I refer to us as such, and am just as responsible in my eyes for all of this that I have a problem with. I don't want this to seem like i'm trying to put blame on an individual or individuals, regardless of how "much" responsible anyone may be. Additionally though there are issues with our community higher ups having similar problems to what i'm going on about, this is really only addressed at our tf2 division. The rate of discussing subject matters and handling them in a timely fashion among higher ups is just horrendous. Some things do get worked out such as the improved rtv to the servers that was implemented, but to say that was done in a timely fashion isn't quite the case (it was over a month). More so, this is an example of one single thing actually getting done when there is a (STILL) growing plethora of other matters that have been mentioned. All of which have either been discussed so briefly they didn't go anywhere or were just flat out ignored entirely. A good example would be I recently tried to address a solution to maybe not getting promo/demo out on time, but to at least have it ready on time. What I suggested implied more effort from us higher ups not only to be more vigilant to have more to talk about when the time comes, but to actually do so in a timely fashion for a more mutual progress alongside virr. Not only was there zero response or even acknowledgement of what I had said, but the proceeding promo/demo was probably the sloppiest I have ever seen. I have made it pretty clear to others that I'm not exactly happy with how awful discussion has progressed, but when it becomes normal for me to wait weeks for no response at all it begins to feel just slightly like a one sided conversation in there. Sometimes people are just too busy, and that's fine. If someone is on vacation for a week, it's understandable they can't help out much. If they have too many real life issues at the moment and can't reply to an issue for a few days, that's fine. When this has been going on for many months now (at least three off the top of my head), perhaps the entire time I've been around, that shouldn't be the rate at which we progress. If someone is in a position they just can't partake in discussion and it is that extensive, then as far as i'm concerned that person is just wasting a slot for someone else to potentially actively help out our servers and work on them far more actively. You could possibly pass it all up to just being laziness, and even though that has something to do with it I really don't see it as the whole problem. Our higher ups can really be productive and implement or fix things when they need to. I think the root of things being so slow though can be attributed to taking initiative to actually try to work these subjects out, again in a timely and efficient manner. I've tried to take the initiative to at least start discussion on many things, but as pointed out already haven't really been meet with much in return. Higher ups just seem to lack drive to go about these things, and I can't instill drive into them. The way this reflects to me as I told them myself is that the overall attitude seems to be to let the servers float on their own until they sink, and not actually build on the servers to keep them afloat. I really want to make clear I do NOT want to step down. I've loved this so much. I'm so thankful of so many people, both for the good that has happened and the bad, for making my time here what it has been. I don't even know how I would proceed no longer being staff or how I would cope with having to not act as such on the servers (might be a relief, might be painfully limiting). Not only my time as staff has been enjoyable, but my time as a higher up has helped me to see everything and everyone around here so much better. I'll say now to you Vexx since I don't talk to you directly much that I am very happy for the respect I've been able to have for you in my time as a higher up. I think you maintain yourself as very much a straight and trustworthy person to be in charge, and though you may be lacking in some regards, you certainly aren't there. Where you do lack though may have given you less then a favorable reputation with some, but I'm very glad I've been able to see around that and probably wouldn't have without being a DM. My greatest issue with making this post here like I have is that I don't want to make this to be an ultimatum, but if the issue of discussion being effectively none existent were to be fixed then I would have no intention of stepping down. On the other hand, with it being like it is I just can't proceed to be in this position without it seeming like i'm going about in a charade pretending everything is ok. I really do want to do what I can to help this place out, the stress I get in wanting things to get done isn't exactly worthwhile when i'm rewarded with silence. I've given quite some time for this to get better before I came to writing this out. To put it in other words, even though this is technically a stepping down thread it doesn't guarantee that I am stepping down. A better way to look at it is if my name does show up on promo/demo, this is explaining why. As a side note, @virr appreciation for what you do can't be overstated. I don't want to see a single thing about how you might be responsible for this issue in the slightest, regardless of how much or little you may be. I couldn't be more thankful for you having been here (thanks for taking my bitching lately, and just in general) and your helpfulness probably gets taken advantage of. In the end though it is ridiculous how much you have to babysit our division.
  42. 9 points
    Ms.Spooks

    Shittalking in TGH.

    I feel like this is something that needs to be said because it's happening way too often. A joke is only funny if everyone is laughing. There is a lot of times when people are being quite rude or intentionally trying to make certain people angry. Unfortunately the jokes have gone from the occasional playful teasing to outright making fun of certain players. Now I'm not going to tell you that you can't shit talk each other all together. Sometimes it's in good intent as long as both parties are content about it. It's been getting out of hand recently though. It's gotten to the point where multiple people start bandwagoning against one person even though they don't like it. So to get to the point, I want to write this reminder that disrespect is NOT allowed on the servers. When someone asks you to stop or is clearly getting upset please do not continue to heckle them. I'm sure I'm not the only one who wants a friendly environment for everyone. I would like it if you all would consider how you effect everyone else on the server so noone feels alienated. I'm not trying to say you need to be on good terms with everyone. All I ask is that the playful shittalking is consensual or at least acceptable. I hope we all can keep enjoying the server!
  43. 8 points
    I've been delaying writing this thread for almost as much as I've been wanting to write it, which has been for over a month now, so I apologize for its lateness after having mentioned it several times. Regardless, I'll be addressing Community Nights as a whole and the evolution of both myself and them, as well as the changing role "we" also serve in the community. I'll also talk briefly on my own feelings of all of this, which as a person who is very deeply closed off to others in that regard, is a rare sight to see from me. A """""Short""""" History I'll begin the short history of the Community Nights etc., starting off with when I started hosting events. In a similar likeness to how the guy who made Netflix made it because he had a $40 late fee from Blockbuster, I hosted what I'm going to call the first community night of the "new generation of xG" due to my pestering Lithium and Virr, who were both busy, so I took it upon myself. From the unexpectedly wild success of that, which I only planned to be a one time thing that I would then remain satisfied with having done it, I decided to continue hosting events, as I was experiencing a personal and subconscious change in how I should give back to the community who has put up with me for several years. This then evolved into becoming an "event host" of sorts, which both the community and I passively accepted. Sometime after this hypothetical prospect of being an event host, I announced the GMod Community Night, which erupted with success and enjoyment despite its makeshift workings of finding empty community servers. It was also around this time that @Aegean posted a thread summarizing one of the beliefs, which before the thread, I had previously attempted to make the spearhead of events; anyone can host events. Having the co-leader say this brought much more impact with it, which proved to be very helpful. I began to think about hosting more seriously. Change in Feelings As I said, I would touch on my own feelings, so here's one of the rare occasions where I share them: I was starting to realize, more so than any point in my few years of having been here, that not only trying to create the best experience possible from nothing for events was stressful, but also that I really needed to have a self-analysis. Looking at one's own actions is such a difficult thing to do with full honesty towards yourself and others, but also extremely important. I was realizing that in trying to solve my own issues and step up to something larger than myself, I was seeing both the problem in us as a community's lack of self-assessment (and subsequent toxicity) and the answer to this in bringing others together with events. To expand on the statement of toxicity, I've talked about it only once before in public in the past, but it's so incredibly easy to become toxic, to be the one who thinks they're in the right and the other person is undeniably wrong. Having been surrounded, and formerly being a part of, hate for the other "friend groups" within the community, I also began to look at the past through a different lens. I was seeing my own faults as a person, and needed to fix them. Part of being able to fix this was, as mentioned, becoming a part of something bigger than my personal gain, which was the gain of others. I sought this through becoming a discord moderator, which became Community Host through my actions and improvement after advice from multiple friends, like @virr and Aegean. I'll tie this chunk of text up in my closing statement, but for now here's some insight on my still-changing past, present, and future expectations and, very importantly, my beliefs for hosting events. Thoughts and Core Beliefs As the second-to-last chunk of text, I'm starting this exposition off by extrapolating on my endings in the previous two. These were just two of many ideals I hope to achieve in creating the environments that I do. First and foremost, one of the most important values that I uphold above all others is that I host events purely for people to have fun. That has always been, and always will be the primary goal of both this clan as a whole and its events. Secondly, after having been affected by my own toxicity and reformation, I hope to restore the "purest version" of this community, for people to shed all predispositions, like the stigmas and dramas of the divisions or friend groups they belong to, and exist simply as people playing games with each other. We get wrapped up in our own small scope of things that we forget how to have fun. The third principle (more-so a goal than anything) is to inspire the people who play my events to give back to the community in some way, not just through hosting. As a quick F.Y.I., the first MC CN, despite the unfortunate incident of the host server going offline, also served an important purpose. I hosted it to see two things: one being if the community was ready to play a singular game for an extended period of time, rather than a lobby of minigames for the same amount of time, and the other, if higherups were prepared to cooperate with me in order to enhance the experience. Both of these things were proven true to me, so regardless of the mixed feedback, I was overjoyed in that regard. To sum up all three of these core values, I hope to use events to revive what xG used to regard as its most important goal, which is to have fun. Closing This Up TL;DR - The history of CNs have evolved from something I hosted because nobody else would to something I host with a purpose and meaning behind it. It has matured me, also, by creating a gap of something bigger than myself that I needed to step up to fill the responsibility of, which at first was going for discord moderator, and turned into being a Community Organizer. I will always continue hosting events so long as the interest and time is there, and my policies of making the experience as fun as possible (and suiting the greatest number of peoples needs to fulfill that as well, i.e. changing the times of events so more people show up), trying to make it an entirely separate part of xG with more of a pure sense of a common experience, and lastly to inspire others, as I was inspired myself, whether it be assessing their own words and actions, hosting, or even just showing up to events once in a while. I'd lastly like to thank everyone who has given continued support and advice on how to improve myself as a person and the events I host. Thank you both @virr and @Aegean for both having given me invaluable guidance and help, as well as the higherups collaborating with me, and finally, an amazingly large number of other people who all give me the resolve and incentive to keep on doing what I do. I'm glad to continue representing the community as a whole and being able to play with so many fantastic individuals on a regular basis.
  44. 8 points
    Red

    On a Scale 1-10

    fucking crackhead
  45. 8 points
    virr

    Regarding Map Votes

    Hey everyone! Quick update regarding adding and removing maps through votes here on forums. Map votes will in the future be decided based on multiple factors including yes to no ratio, issues with the actual map in question and from stats on mapstats.xenogamers.com. The map being removed or not is ultimately decided by the higher-ups with input from you guys, so it is important that you leave valuable and contructive feedback in the thread. This is different from before where we only counted poll votes into the decision. The goal for this change is to lessen the effect of "troll-voting" and get more valuable feedback from active players on our servers. We understand that this might be seen like a power move for the higher-ups to have more control over the map pool on servers, but i will personally make sure that it won't and that the discussion is kept as unbiased as possible. If there is any questions feel free to reply to this thread or private message us if that feels more comfortable ? Thank you for reading
  46. 8 points
    Rhododendron

    ...

    Your profile reputation is horrible. You have more negative reps than posts.
  47. 8 points
    #Teens: Do you #agree that our country is #bae? — Best #America Ever !!!
  48. 8 points
    I agree 100% with @Elcark and @Kypari. It has never been an issue in the past, faggot should NOT be considered on equal terms as the N word, or Sp*c, or other racially offensive terms. This is a video gaming community, if someone says to their friend "shut up faggot", I am not interested in punishing him as he does not deserve a punishment. If he is being disrespectful, follow the guide on that. We are not a SJW clan, and we are not a safe space. We have rules for a reason, but we also understand that we are in an online gaming community, we want people to have fun, and we don't want to find trouble where it doesn't need to be found. If you honestly think someone saying faggot could ruin our servers, then we have other issues in my honest opinion. I'm telling you right now, unless I see overwhelming support from our community, I refuse to make our servers a safe space as it is more trouble than it is worth.
  49. 8 points
    Chrono

    Goodbye xG.

    Everyone knows I love putting in my post on controversial threads! I'm not quoting anything because then I will have a cancerous time editing down the pieces I want to respond to for everyone. Since clearly @Ms.Spooks will not be responding and or reading, I don't feel like this is directed at her more so at others who are saying "this is 100% true! omg xg sucks!" A piece of advice I was given was "Keep your supervisors accountable, especially when it comes to potential promotions to a position of leadership. But do not pester them with constant nagging about said promotions" Basically saying every once in a while (2 or more promotion cycles in the case of xg and being on the internet, longer in the case of real life), ask a few questions about it and see what kind of constructive feedback can be garnered. but if you are asking about it every other day or even 1 a week, the thoughts behind your application/request will gradually (or quickly) go from "this person wants to be promoted/do more" to "this person is needy/demanding/needs to get over themself. Don't be discouraged when you are not promoted as quickly as you think you should, there are a lot of factors that come into the minds of those responsible for the promotions, be it an internet community, or a workplace. [*]Staff are volunteers not lackeys, yes this is true, but as staff even on a volunteer basis, you are expected to do the job that you agreed to do. I can volunteer to rebuild my brother/sisters master bedroom shower for them, and they will expect that I complete the task of rebuilding their shower, and that it is completed correctly, all the pipes connected, all the water working, and that on the outside there is no discernible error that looks completely awful. they also would expect that on the inside I haven't done anything that will break under normal wear and tear conditions in a less than average timespan, as well as not do anything that makes a hassle for repair during special circumstances. If I were to not complete the rebuild, or do a pretty shitty job at rebuilding it, then they would be rightfully pissed. likewise, if I am asking them for food/beer/to dog-sit while I do it, they would rightfully expect that my standard is of a better job. (this sounds confusing but the point behind it is that if you volunteer to do something, expect to be held accountable to it, and if you want to be given a title for it, expect to be expected to do more.) [*]Transparency is necessary, however there are some limits. Promotions were something I used to think "oh why dont they just tell me what i need to do to be promoted" but that is a very backwards ideology, something I learned is that if you want the position of leadership then show some leadership, take the initiative to mentor newer mods or explain why something is against rules/what they are to newer players. for those that I would promote back in the day, I based it off of a few things: are they active (dont have to be the most active person, but not have noticeable gaps of inactivity), do they have any bans on record for major violations (banned a couple hours for spam is no big deal, contrary to the popular belief that staff have to be perfect and can never break a single rule, shit happens), does the community respect them more detail on that last one: Does the community respect you? I did not necessarily want staff the community liked, I wanted someone they respected. If the person is a people pleaser and sort of a push over, how can I trust them to maintain the servers/rules with integrity if they just want everyone to like them? People typically dont like being banned and they dont like the people who ban them. I wanted people who the community could trust and respect their word, that the community knew that this person knew what he was talking about when it came to the rules, and upkeep of the server. [*]Witnesses do matter, and a staff witness does also matter. but there are some issues with that which I have said previously. If the staff are witnessing something, why are they not dealing out the appropriate form of punishment for it? Witnesses come in and they can +1 or -1 all they want for ban req/protest etc. and that matters, they see this person doing x all the time. but unless there is evidence, it is a case of he said she said. again, the "staff witness" should have dealt with the issue at hand as it happened. (exception: staff witness observed x freekill, and appropriately slayed and warned. observed it again, teamswapped. nothing else happens. player again is caught doing this, and a ban request with proof is made by a non-staff player and they throw out their experience, typically this would lead to a more severe form of punishment than a slap on the wrist/1 day ban from that post. but remember this "staff witness" has followed the proper procedure of actually taking action on what they have seen as per their role, and it is documented in our bans) [*]Staff shouldn't be jumping over the other to show their e-penis. if someone is clearly handling it, let them handle it and go on and enjoy your time on the server or do some other staff tasks (like watching other things going on in the server). This is also an issue of staff communication, back in the old days, we were all on TS because that was expected that if staff were on server we were to be on a voice channel. (it didnt have to be the TF2 JB1 channel on TS, but some available channel of sorts) and we all talked to eachother, we typed in admin chat all the time (there were some days depending on who was on that you couldn't press Y and not see some form of admin chat). we let each other know "hey I'll take care of X" or "I'm giving X a ban for this" and nobody else jumped over them because they were informed of what was happening. nowadays, I haven't seen really any of the staff on Discord except for the DM/DLs (and this has been a problem for years now, especially in regards to the tf2 division unfortunately. no offense, but you guys dont make active efforts to communicate outside of the forums and your friends) [*]As for the +1 0 -1 and it means you dont get promoted, like @Aegean said, there are times where the response is "i'm not for this, but if you are all down with it, then go ahead." having a single negative remark doesn't mean that it immediately is trashed. it just means that the person has concerns for X Y Z and they want them to be known before a final choice is made. There are also times where there are several negative remarks but only 1 positive and that positive is very huge (and the negatives are over petty/misguided reasons) [example: Someone was previously promoted on my final decision as a DL, where my DMs had given reasons not to but after having a chat with them they came to the realization that their reasonings were driven by their own personal issues with something that was said/done previously and were willing to give it a shot, even though they both still did not think person x should be promoted they respected my thoughts, and gave it a chance.] [*]Nobody is entitled to a higher position because they have been here longer. There is no clear path to mod/admin/dm/dl other than be active and a positive role model. There will always be less and less positions the higher you go. and whether you have been there for 7 years, or 7 months, both people have equal opportunity at a position based on their skill, integrity, knowledge, and ability to communicate. Thanks for the sick read friendos. There is never going to be a TL;DR on anything like this. Take the time to read it and let it sink in, there is no short version of it.
  50. 8 points
    Bone

    Goodbye xG.

    Hey look, it's another reply you probably won't read, but I feel it's necessary. But it isn't some "mystical, magical, special role". If anything it's basically "Veteran Moderator". Someone who's more than trusted enough to handle the extra responsibilities as well as being a trusted source of information for not only players but for Moderators who may not feel as confident in their authoritative abilities. Plus, becoming Admin is basically stepping down the importance ladder. Let me explain, the ladder goes like so: Randoms/regulars/members > Mods > Admins > DM > DLs. Why? Because members/randoms/regulars are the most important part of the servers. They make up like 95% of our population. Without them servers would be barren. Next are Mods, these guys basically work for the former. They make sure they enforce rules to keep the servers enjoyable for everyone and keeping the non-staff player base happy. Admins help out Mods and Players by enforcing rules, but by also teaching and helping newer Mods (and maybe even old) to be better at their job. DMs are next, these guys help to choose who gets promoted, basically who they think would be the best choice to keep the player base happy and on the servers, as well as the aforementioned duties. Finally, there's DLs. They do all of the above, but also make sure the servers have the maps, plugins, and settings the community wants to keep people on the servers. TLDR: The "higher" you get on the ladder, the more you have to humble yourself because you basically get more bosses and more people who depend on you. I'm gonna stop you there. No, it isn't. It's to make sure the candidate is able to handle the job, not only in a responsibility way, but in various personal ways. For example: I've been a Mod 3 times, Admin once, and DM once, if I reapplied for staff right now I'd probably get Probationary Mod for the sole reason that my work requires a weird schedule so activity is tough for me. Would I care? No, because even I know that's something I'd have to work on and improve. While I agree this is an issue, and staff should be versed in all servers, some may feel like they're not as experienced with a certain server's rules to enforce them (or they don't like the gamemode). It was like that with me and Jailbreak. I didn't feel like I knew the rules as well, so I'd ask someone who was more knowledgeable in that area to take care of it, you know, to do the job correctly. Also, I don't feel it's just server based, but more uhh, clique based. There are cliques within the TF2 div, I know, shocking right? Point is, these people may not be groups who regular one server but stick with just their buddies. Anything their friends do is totally fine, but if someone outside of their group does the same thing, then oh boy, here comes the member protest/abuse report. This goes hand in hand with the previous topic. While I feel, yes, witnesses are important, especially since Staff can't see everything, just someone saying they saw something happen doesn't make it true. Allow me to give a ridiculous exaggeration to prove my point. A group of buddies in the TF2 div don't like a player. He's a big meanie and they don't like that kind of thing. 5 come forward and say "Admin ____ abused! 5 of us saw it!" and bam, guy gets in trouble and buddy group removes their nemesis from the ranks. Though that's a far reach, this could happen by "just taking their word for it" Another thing is, you're telling me, that 15 people saw this happen, and none of them took a screenshot or could type "record demo" in console? Ehhh... To be honest, letting people condemn someone without evidence promotes sucky, bandwagony mentality... Agreed. We're all humans here (as far as we know..), so treat each other like one. Again, agreed. But this whole thread was made due to you not getting your much anticipated promotion. Was the promotion anticipated because you wanted to serve the community more, or because you wanted a higher rank? If you enjoy serving your community, you'd be content with Mod, since you still get to enforce rules and (try to be) somewhat of a role model for others. This is coming from someone who's been Mod 3 times, and all 3 times was happy to make the servers I could call my TF2 home a little bit of a better place with what little I could. For the most part, I agreed with you until I read this: It was then I decided to go back, read everything again, and make a response here. You've said like 8 times that this is a volunteer job, which it is, so how thankful of a job did you think this would be? Whether you like it or not, this is a volunteer job which requires a lot of work, energy, and dedication (well, at least if you want to do it right). Plus the fact you said you wouldn't try to justify anything you said or even "bother" responding, and that's an awful mentality to have. "You proved me wrong, but I'm still right and I don't have to prove it, I'm right!", which sounds pretty immature... If you truly felt there was a huge amount of bias against you then, you know... Talk to the Higher ups, find out why they may not feel you're ready for promotion or why you aren't promoted yet, and if the reason is "Ehh, I just don't like you". Then work to change their mind and prove them wrong. If you felt it was more extreme than that, then contact someone even higher than them, tell them you feel biased against by DL ___ or DM ____. And final note: You coulda posted all of this without stepping down, or by talking to the higher ups to bring these points to their attention. They'll listen, they aren't gonna bite. Worded the way it is, your post sounds more like the ramblings of a disgruntled employee rather than a concerned community member, but do whatever you feel is necessary. If you ever decide to come back, you're always welcome.
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