Forest

I remember when the Tunnel Snakes ruled here at Xeno Gamers

Your basic nostalgia thread.

I'll be taking a stroll down memory lane, anyone care to join me? Let's start off nice and easy:

I remember when our Counter-Strike Division was our most prominent one that contested with the likes of HG :coffee:

Disclaimer: any posts containing 'flammable material' are susceptible to being spam rated. Users are not to "quote" anyone else's post in any shape or form; the only way to interact with another post is by rating it or by 'mentioning' a user. By no means is anyone allowed to instigate a debate/argument/discussion in this thread. This thread is to be taking in a completely satirical way; however, do not make things personal. @Higher-Ups please ensure that this does not happen by deleting any posts that breach this disclaimer in any way.

who the fuck cares if people get offended. Boo hoo

Don't take this the wrong way, but the same could be said regarding those who don't agree with the rules and regulations that we have set in place. I understand that this whole thing can (and most likely is) be frustrating, but to engage in a discussion as monumental as this while retaining a closed-minded perspective is only going to exacerbate your own attitude or behaviour on the topic at hand. In other words, if you want to have a civil discussion, then I would not recommend going down the "but it's a stupid rule anyways" route or to start letting it affect you on a personal level, which seems to be happening based on your responses. Mind you, I'm not saying that you aren't capable of having this sort of discussion so much as I am saying that in order for your own opinion to have any sort of credibility or sway, you need to be able to receive feedback/criticism in a constructive way.

With that said, you need to realize that the enforcement of rules and regulations based on a Staff Member's preference is something that is incredibly difficult to manage. On paper, it is a completely viable way of cutting down on bias; but in practice it is an incredibly difficult thing to do. In all fairness, we only have one or two Division Managers who manage the Staff of their respective Division. There is absolutely no way they can monitor every single Staff Member during every hour of the day.

This is why we rely so heavily on our Players for feedback. If you can provide names and ample evidence to support claims that the Staff in question is/are working outside of our own rules, then our Higher-Ups can address the problem areas directly. Our Players are our eyes and ears on the Servers when our Higher-Ups cannot be. As previously mentioned in your other thread, this is why we have 'Member Protest' and 'Report Abuse' sections of our forums: to address problem areas with Members or Staff.

For the record, I agree 100% that there is definitely a large amount of bias in terms of what Staff say, do, or even enforce in terms of rules. I've seen my fair share of contradictory actions, but it is what it is and there is only so much our Higher-Ups can do.

It's really not all about that, it's secondary to the points I made after and I used it as an example of hypocrisy.

As much as I hate to say it, hypocrisy does run rampant around the Servers. However, it is also something that is nearly impossible to mediate since it's most commonly associated with some sort of bias in the Player/Staff. It will always be present, but that does not mean we expect our Players to sit idly by while it happens. If our Players can actively make a difference by voicing their concerns in the form of a thread (case-in-point this thread), then everyone can grow and learn from it. Regardless of what anyone says, I still implore you that you voice anything and everything, as this is what is needed for positive growth, however frivolous or trivial it may seem to others.

With that said, please keep in mind that our rules and guidelines were not put in place with the intention to oppress race, ethnicity, gender or anything of the sort. Xeno Gamers, as a community, strives to foster a healthy gaming environment that everyone can enjoy. This means trying our best to eliminate any sort of hate speech, derogatory language, or other content that may be offensive. While that may seem like an impossible task [given the amount of bias and hypocrisy] we still make it a point to demonstrate to our Players that we are trying.

If you ever feel that Staff are stepping over-the-line in terms of breaking our own rules, then please do not hesitate to report them to a Higher-Up or post a 'Report Abuse' or 'Member Protest' thread with adequate and supporting evidence.

Improvement starts when we take action on what the community wants; without that we won't go anywhere.

@Forest

We need some words of wisdom from the god of moss and everything green!

Won't lie, I skimmed most of the posts here, but I'm just going to throw this out there: y'all are [probably] over-thinking this entire situation. Back before this was such a huge deal, we had one golden rule that blanketed everything and it was this (ye old fags will remember this one):

if you wouldn't be caught dead viewing whatever it is you're looking at on the servers at a professional level (IE. at work, school, etc), then it most likely isn't PG13 and thus should not be permitted. Or to put this in an even more concise way, if you wouldn't want your teacher/professor/superior seeing you looking at it, odds are it is not PG13.

That is literally the easiest way to go about it without throwing a wrench into the whole thing by asking what "nudity" is defined as (seriously?) or whether a spray is acceptable/unacceptable. With that said, come on people; go to a beach and then go to a 'nudist' beach if you need a clear definition of what constitutes nudity.

As for everything else, use your common sense because for the thousandth time, it does not matter if it's a minor/animal/cartoon in a sexualized position, it's still a freaking 'something' that is emphasizing the whole sexualized aspect. Therefore, it is not allowed on our Servers and should thus be punished accordingly by the rules set-in-place.

I mean for the love of God, it shouldn't be this difficult to determine what is PG13 and what isn't :coffee:

Cheesus crust, there is a reason that our 'Spray' rule is so inexplicably vague; to prevent controversial or otherwise biased bans from taking place such as this.

I'll re-iterate once more: if the spray is not PG13 in any shape or form, then abide by the rules and deal out the appropriate warning/kick/ban. Honestly, it doesn't matter if it's a child's cartoon depicting a sexual act, a dude banging an animal, a minor performing a sexual act in the form of a cartoon, who cares; if it's anything that should not be seen by anyone under the age of 13, then warn them to change it, kick them, ban them for a day, ban them for a week, ban them for a month, and then ban them permanently [for repeated offense].

Don't start dragging morals and ethics into the mix when we honestly [shouldn't or] don't give a flying f*ck what the Player's interests are [in regards to a spray]. As long as they abide by our rules on the Server then they can do whatever the hell they want. This means not enforcing or sanctioning your own beliefs and opinions on a Player, and worse, acting on it by dishing out an extended ban time.

You cannot, and should not, use your position of power to emphasize your stance on a certain topic of debate, however controversial it may be. This is the reason why we do not condone nor allow political debate, religious debate, or anything in between on the Servers. If someone starts talking about it, warn them not to, gag/mute them if needed, kick, ban, whatever. By no means should Staff be jumping the gun based on how "serious" the topic is and dealing an extended ban time.

If this really was justified as per the Higher-Ups, then I honestly do not condone this whatsoever and am worried of the direction we are currently taking towards the enforcement of rules. I won't say it's wrong as it is entirely up to their discretion, but I also do not agree with it in any shape or form.

wel doesn't it mean something that i would admit to it to try to get back on it because i like it so much?

There is nothing wrong with owning up to your mistakes, in fact it's a far better alternative than lying to get out of a ban. With that said, you still did break the rules and a punishment is still in order regardless of whether or not you acknowledge your mistakes. For that, you already receive a lot more respect than you would if you were to lie about it.

A day ban really is the 'minimum' for certain actions on the Server, so anything less would just be an unban, but a Ban Protest is never unjustified. For future reference, if you ever receive a ban of any kind [for over a day] and feel that it was unwarranted, please do not hesitate to submit a Ban Protest.

Just know that the likelihood of getting out of a day ban is incredibly slim to begin with; there are only a handful of reasons that it could get pushed through, such as if it were a mistake made by Staff :coffee:

Do you have proof that he was hacking? (Demo of it)

 

Loli porn is not child porn, it is more akin to a weird anime porn fetish, but not child porn. Porn sprays are not something that is perm banned for, and not even banned for 1 month, they are banned for a day if that and asked to change/not use on the server (increasing amount the more times after as long as they were given a warning and told about it first)

 

 

I highlighted the important parts, and I would quote them from forums instead but the old generic all access easy to read admin handbook post by @serbiansnaga doesn't exist anymore. Porn sprays were a warning and a removal of spray, kick, banned for a few hours - 1 day, and then 1 week, and then 1 month. Not instantly given a 1 month ban.

 

This is my 2 cents as an old M/A/DL who has been around since the early days. Y'all need to chill the fuck out.

Admin Handbook | Xeno Gamers This old thing?

Also, continuing off of what Chrono said, regardless of what constitutes "child pornography", if it depicts any sort of graphic content (nudity, gore, anything not PG13) then it should not be permitted. With that said, Staff should not be making "exceptions" to this rule in regards to ban time based on their own personal beliefs/opinions.Simply put, if it isn't PG13, tell them to change it. End of story.

As for the ban time, I agree 100% with Chrono; the user should not have been outright banned for 1 month, especially provided that the user does not have any bans prior.

Literally all I want to clear up in this thread, y'all can discuss the hacking aspects of it, but by no means should anyone be issuing extended ban times based on their own beliefs/opinions.

:waving:

I could honestly go into super detail about this, but I would rather not. Xeno Gamers can almost be considered a new community since then, and mind you i'm not even that old (I was around near the tail-end of the transition in Xeno Gamers. As previously stated, this is completely up to Silence; the only reason (that I am aware of) we didn't want Duckii Jr around was to avoid any sort of legal action and to eliminate any chances of Xeno Gamers being affiliated with a life-threatening situation with him.

With that said, seeing as how it completely revolved around the behaviour/attitude of the user I can honestly vouch that a change can most certainly take place, especially when comparing an age difference from 13 to 20. But whether or not that constitutes an unban is, again, entirely up to Silence.

Either way, always a sight for sore eyes when an old-fag resurfaces; even given the some-what negative connotations. Glad to hear that you have made some changes and are no longer in that "dark place" friend :coffee:

S'uh dude

Is there really that much to discuss here? While screenshots can provide context, by no means should they alone be substantiated enough to warrant a permanent ban for hacking, especially when the screenshots aren't even that credible provided the following facts:

1. It's common to camp a corner
   
2. Audio cues from behind the wall
   
3. Tendency for a Player to be behind said-wall
   
4. Facing the direction that the user will be shooting
   

I'm sorry, but screenshots of someone facing a wall when it just so happens that someone is behind it does not equate to a permanent ban for wall-hacking. With that said, while not relevant, the accused even has 1,811 hours recorded for TF2 on top of 382/520 achievements which is something to consider; anyone hacking could just as easily create a new Steam account and play TF2 as it is F2P without worrying about their main account facing any sort of ban/suspension.

Now I'm not saying that the Moderator wrongly accused the Player, nor am I saying that the Player 100% did not hack. All I'm saying is that there just is not enough given here to warrant a permanent ban for hacking, which is why I'm going to +1 for an unban.

TL;DR - Players should be treated as innocent until proven guilty; not the other way around. Evidence is not clear enough to warrant a permanent ban for hacking.

Or this can remain buried in the deepest, darkest corners of Xeno Gamers, to never be seen by the light of day and to only traumatize those who actually took the time to read it during its reveal and conception.

Lets be real here, they want to be unbanned; not scarred for life from a graphic fanfic (even though the poor saps have an option to review 'The Buttercream Gang').

Remember guys, we're a "PG13" community!

as I am obliged to remind people :coffee:

Is there any chance that the "Sticky Threads" and "Normal Threads" Headings could be formatted in a different way? It might just be me, but they appear to be too subtle to really notice or distinguish between one or the other. They sort of just blend into the background as they currently are.

@Rhododendron

I believe you are at the wrong site @Titan.aim213 as we are Xeno Gamers, not to be confused with "XenoGamingCommunity" which is another community altogether :coffee:

 

Just to be a bro, I have included the site which you can find by clicking here.

 

@Aegean to request that this thread be closed as it is irrelevant to us and is therefore not applicable. (user appears to be a Member of their Steam Group as well)

And just for good measure, here is the user's ban appearing on their own Ban database.

I believe you are at the wrong site @Titan.aim213 as we are Xeno Gamers, not to be confused with "XenoGamingCommunity" which is another community altogether :coffee:

Just to be a bro, I have included the site which you can find by clicking here.

@Aegean to request that this thread be closed as it is irrelevant to us and is therefore not applicable. (user appears to be a Member of their Steam Group as well)

Post your go-to song that you just cannot stop listening to.

I've been listening to this song since its release and I believe I have a problem. Send help.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3xcybdis1k

Challenge: Infect as many people as you can with some contagious tunes

[attach=full]29968[/attach]

 

The "here" should be another color i.e. blue so it's obvious that people can click it.

Also feel like it shouldn't appear for anyone who has an identity linked to the TS3 Server; though I don't know if that's possible :coffee:

I'm going to give a couple reason on why I am going...

- The community can be toxic, people hardly have anything good to say, either snarky or sarcastic in a non-humorous way.

- People won't stop bringing up the Mahogany situation, which was almost a year ago

- Peers who are apart of this community have repetitively attempted to troll me via steam, it actually gets aggravating.

- Just because I got into not even a fight with one person, some look at me like I'm a bad person or the cancerous kid of the community, just because "I got" him banned for a week for a mistake that he did.

- I haven't been playing that much anyways, only once a month.

- This isn't 4chan and stop trying to act like it is. (If you play on here enough, you'll get what I mean.)

- Random players are getting harassed because the ignorant people, that can't find my profile somehow think that I am them.

- I can't even use my mic on here anymore without someone saying something.

 

That's all, wish you all luck if you choose to stay on here.

If you feel that you are being targeted on our Servers or within our community please do not hesitate to contact a Higher-Up. Unfortunately, they cannot be monitoring everything 24/7 and rely heavily on the community to provide feedback and input.

To put it simply, as a part of the community we all need to do our part in reporting any issues or situations to foster a healthy and friendly environment for our Players. We're the eyes and ears of the Higher-Ups, and without us it is virtually impossible for them to do their job.

That being said, although it's unfortunate that it has come to this, I imagine your feedback is still greatly appreciated :coffee:

[attach=full]29750[/attach]

Ehhhhhhhh..

Not going to spend time digging too deep into it, just going to throw in my 2-cents. Though first and foremost, this is based off of assumptions and is to be treated as a general response to any situation like this so, you know.. Please refrain from biting my head off, kthnx :coffee:

I just want to toss a [very] relevant comment in here that I made in another thread (one that I can't be bothered to find) in that Staff positions should not be treated as some sort of welcome basket to those who have consistently stepped-down. While I'm sure many people may dish out the "we can just demote 'em" defense if things go awry, I'm simply appealing to the integrity of Xeno Gamers as a whole. However, this isn't to say that someone should not be welcomed back with an immediate promotion from Member to Administrator [for example] because, as others have previously mentioned, it is a case-by-case situation. If the user has demonstrated qualities that shine in that position, or if they do not have a bad-track record, then I see no reason not to give them that promotion.

With that said, there are two sides to this coin:

1. There is little to no harm in promoting someone with a high turn-over rate who has an extraordinary track record, aside from having to assign powers once more. Because we run on a system of voluntary Staff, it doesn't [detrimentally] hurt us to allow someone to moderate for xG if we know they will do a stellar job, even if they consistently step down. While this may seem 'unfair' to those who are applying and are denied, keep in mind that Staff are measured by their qualities and work ethics (or at least should be; strongly recommend castrating any Higher-Up who is acting on bias) so it is to be expected that varying Staff will not be on the same level (eg. Someone who already has experience in the position will always receive [or be considered first for] the position before a new-hire).

The only foreseeable problem area here is that if this trend continues, we'll see an influx in Staff who do not feel obligated to perform their duties and therefore feel free to step-down and then re-apply when it is most convenient for them if they are a model Staff Member. In other words, this may only be a problem depending on what the standards are for Staff here in terms of the short or long run. With the way we currently have things set up in terms of activity, we're set up to keep Staff in the long run, and so this should be considered before promoting someone from Member to Administrator (enacting a new policy that those applying from Member to a position that is greater than Moderator be monitored for X amount of days before promotion would also be beneficial). Activity [from at least one week prior to the submission of the application] is the gold-standard here at xG, so before promoting anyone into a position beyond Moderator, it really ought to be considered.

2. Arguably, and structurally less important, is the harm done to the integrity of our Staff. To promote anyone [who has consistently stepped down due to loss of interest, etc] from Member to anything greater than Moderator demonstrates that they don't really have to invest as much time as they can into moderating. And before an argument is made about this, consider that to say otherwise would mean to dismiss any previous notions that the user has stepped down for frivolous reasons that do not include their personal life in some shape or form. Personally and honestly, this would have a sway in my decision on whether someone deserves that position, or if they need to prove themselves by working for it from a Moderator position.

Needless to say that all of this is subjective and varies from person to person. As always, take this with a grain of salt.

TL;DR - Don't hand out promotions from Member to above-Moderator to those who consistently step down (due to lack of interest, etc) unless you want to make a change to how activity works. Otherwise, you're practically creating a new position for inactive Staff.

That or the section should just be deleted as most people post in Drawings anyway.

When I was playing Overwatch like last week, my pc crashed. I restarted it and the internet wasn't working at all, like I could see that I was connected to the internet but no page was working and was always coming up with the network connectivity error - same for spotify, discord (etc)

My pc crashing caused an error called "Media disconnected" where I couldn't see any media whatsoever on my pc if I didn't click on it.

[attach=full]29482[/attach] I have to disable and re-enable every one of these multiple times, sometimes lasting about 30 minutes of just disabling and re-enabling these for my internet to work again every time I turn on my PC.

I have no doubt in my mind that my PC isn't going to let this trick work forever, so has anyone got any fix? This is urgent because I may not be able to get onto the servers soon but I can for now

First and foremost, are you hard-wired or do you use WiFi?

Have you tried re-installing network drivers? Could also be that your network adapter might be shot. Additionally, have you already attempted to run the Windows diagnostic tool to see if it could determine the problem? If so, what are the results?

Annnnd last but not least, open cmd and type in ipconfig/all and screenshot results. Kthnxbye

Banned for having numbers in user name that aren't "420" or "360" :coffee:

Welcome to Xeno Gamers' forums friend :coffee:

For my online activity to work without having to set up a time for them to call me... For their online chat support to let you sit there with it and wait for a CS Rep, instead of timing out after being open and "inactive" for 2 minutes because unlike blizzard where it has the chat window open and prompts you to let them know you are still waiting it is just a loading bar that won't even ask if you are still waiting. For e-mail responses to come back within a few days, not a few weeks. For support to just plain not be shit.

 

pls forest tell your support bitches to work even though you aren't CS

I'll submit a support ticket for you.

Will let you know how it goes 3 months from now :coffee: