Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ...............

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Don't mention the banning.

This thread was kept open as long as people were civil. Sadly this was not the case

People's bans have always been talked about in public.

Over the years it has been one of the most popular topics on these boards, whether it be in the forum in question, the communications forum, the mod squad or fanforce modsquad.

no offense but the new mods in these parts should stop trying to make everyone follow their orders and concentrate on making the place fun. Yes you have to act if people break the rules, but there is a difference between breaking the rules and not doing what you yourself would like.

As you tighten your grip more meets slip away.

Its sad really, I mean I come on here for the first time in ages and I'm reading about the star wars exhibition. My mate set that up, should have been on here a while ago sorting folk out free tickets and a prior tour but I'm not and the reason is that I stopped coming here. The fun had been sucked out. I come back a year or two later to find..... it seems to have been sucked even dryer.
You have groups meeting frequently, many more meets and groups exist off these boards then on. Most would like to have some presence here, and to chat and laugh onlike like they used to but that wont happen if you insist each group have regimented meetings, if you try to push that each group should elect its owwn emporer and boba fett or whjatever.
the fact is that this is Britain. The land of warm beer and pies (and this morning my attrociously bad farts). We just aint going to do that American thing of getting fat and playing out a psuedo political system in some kind of mad paraody of a kids playgroup.
What can happen though is people can chat, laugh, meet up and have fun. Make new friends and partners even.

Anyway, I'm off back to x-realms now. I have a large bbq to organise for the celebration weekend.

I don't know why anyone is surprised.Mods on here have always given me the impression that they have no social life, no sense of humour, bullied in school and found it hard to get a girlfriend/boyfriend unless they meet a drunken/nerdy/hideous person. With the very rare odd exception. (No HALIBUT, you are not one of the exceptions). The kids who were always on the outsdide in the school playground looking in. And then they become MODS and finally take revenge on all those who "wronged" them. Pathetic. Do you really beleive anyone cares that much? Or respects you?

Alphawolf and Jairen were the only English Mods I can rememeber who did not have a chip on thier shoulder.

This is not a flame, this is just telling it how it is. If i'm wrong, point give me a counter arguemnt. or is that not the way it's done now?

That wasn't a flame at all, and it's good that in this thread people are making their points in a non-sarcastic and rational manner, so I'm gonna keep this thread open so that you guys from ME can say what you want to say, but I ask that you keep it civil and on topic please. If those that are banned want to SERIOUSLY contribute then I will see what I can do to get them unbanned so that they can get their say.

toochilled made some valid points there

It's always interesting to see the thoughts of people who left a group and swore never to come back. You didn't leave because of me (as a mod) because I wasn't on here when you lot were. I don't have a chip on my shoulder (though some will claim it - they'll never quite understand me) nor am I the stereotype you so elegantly portray of SW fans. Nor are most of the people I know from here who I have met in real life. They are average decent people who have lives but also have SW as a hobby in their life. Most have partners, some have been or are married. Some have families. So I think your portrayal is odd to say the least.

I can tell you a few things about me however - I give a damn about what Fan Force is and what it is meant to be. It was always meant to provide fans with the basics of forming their own fan group, which could be linked to a wider fan structure which I can't see is a bad thing. I don't see the problem with that. Nor does what happened in the past mean we have to do it your way either.

Yes, it is an American structure and for some that really grates, but for the most part it works to the extent we need it. I really don't get this whole confusion over what the structure is though - you seem to think meets have to be like office meetings where we take minutes, etc. It isn't. The chapter I am in does varied and plenty of stuff, as a social group. There is no "we have to do this here and now, and you will obey" rubbish that you seem to suggest. Members work out what is good to do in the area beforehand then we just stroll along to the stuff at our own pace. The only thing we do do is post pics of meets, but then doesn't everyone like to share pics of stuff they have done with mates - which is what the chapter I am in is all about. A bunch of mates with a shared hobby doing stuff. What is wrong with that?

These boards will never be like ME, and tbh I am glad of that. We cater for all people here, not just a few. The atmosphere is different (stuff like racism is not tolerated here), I really don't need to swear on a message board to feel good about myself, nor feel big. I swear enough in real life. So that side of things is taken out of here, so what? Big deal, I seriously can't understand why people get their knickers in a twist over some words being omitted from these boards. Is your life over? No, so get real.

There were active members of Fan Force Scotland who wanted what other chapters have, an active social group which meets often to do varied things in their region. They are doing what Fan Force was created for. If you just want to come online and chat about politics or whatever, to socialise, etc there are forums that are part of TFN where people do just that. There is also the regional forums which serves a similar purpose. The Fan Force chapter areas were given to the local people for using as a fan group area to organise real life stuff - yes in the American style, and that is how it's always been even if people sat on their butts and did nothing, they were there for that. If you want to have fun threads then go do em, but whining about there being none changes nothing.

But the active members of FF-UK Scotland who want the meets shouldn't be persecuted by people who have no interest in FF for years, nor people who have no interest in meeting them either. They have a right to be here and do what they want towards making a FF chapter, without people ranting about stuff. We were organising a Scotland meet for June, and I have seen ME members come and take the piss out of it. Thanks for that, but if you really want to come back here, and do what you do best, then let the FF-UK Scotland people get on with what they want to do. Because I have met them and they are decent people, Star Wars fans who want something more than just chatting to people on message boards.

so why was there talk of shutting the board down?

leave it as it was, have a CR by all means, but if people don't meet three times a year, so what? Leave the status quo. A board where scottish people and some others posted silly stuff. You're right, i don't post here, because the fun was sucked out. Nobody was allowed to say anything anymore without somebody getting offended. Do you know why people left? how an childish tantrum was the final straw? All because somebody took umbridge that they were not mentioned in a MAKE BELIEVE awards thread of FF-UK posters of the year. A tongue in cheek thread that poked fun at the recipients.

And it doesn't matter if the rules were made by americans, brits, chinese... it's the way that are applied that matters. common sense should always prevail. Tell me, in a football match, or other sports match, how rubbish it for the referee to blow everytime and stop the game? Shouldn't common sense and and the knowledge that no harm is being done prevail?

And to accuse the people who left not to care about fan force is off the mark too. Who do you think came up with and registered the domain FF-UK.org? And designed a banner for it originally? Yes things move on, but being overly officious with the any board takes away the individuality that everyone brought to it. Strike a parallel with any government you can think of?

As for the criticisms of the MODS, i stand corrected if things have changed, but having been on the end of many a warning and a few one day bans in my time, i know what i'm talking about.


Guess what? FF-UK was by far the most posted on and busiest fan force once. People met up, and the very generous invite by the two regular posters was to all who posted on it, whether they were regular or occasional posters.

is someone going to unban dankdonk and the others then? seems rather heavy handed to ban them. or does the making them fill in an unban request form make somebody feel important?

this is my favourite bit. So it's not just one person saying it.... you know the phrase.. there's no smoke without fire...

You mean the thread you created and had two replies, and then Dank posting for what could possibly be another meet, while also promoting his rather good band? I saw no piss take. I took the piss out of Az. Seemed like a genuine attempt to create what could be a good meet up if people was interested.

And is piss allowed? I would be pissing surprised if we could get away with pissing up the walls. Or do the americans not know what piss is? I don't like rolling in piss anyway. Right I have to piss off.

must be allowed. Tim used it in his post.

is someone going to unban dankdonk and the others then? seems rather heavy handed to ban them. or does the making them fill in an unban request form make somebody feel important?

Filling in the unban request guarantees they'll be unbanned

so why was there talk of shutting the board down?

Our hands are tied in this. If Scotland doesn't become active by FF standards, it goes. We have no choice in the matter.

leave it as it was, have a CR by all means, but if people don't meet three times a year, so what? Leave the status quo. A board where scottish people and some others posted silly stuff. You're right, i don't post here, because the fun was sucked out. Nobody was allowed to say anything anymore without somebody getting offended.

I can't really say anything specifically about the three meets a year thing, but let's just say that soon it will be very important for 3 meets a year to occur as chapters. Though, speaking as a Northerner, I can't really say it affects me or my chapter. We have about 3 meets a month on average. I'd like to see Scotland be the same, if they wanted. As Tim has said, meet-ups aren't like office meets with minutes or whatever. Most of the time it's sitting around a table, beer in one hand, pizza in the other. By all means, post on the board with silly stuff, etc, have fun. Just don't hamper the efforts of people in the chapter that want to do the real life thing.

Do you know why people left? how an childish tantrum was the final straw? All because somebody took umbridge that they were not mentioned in a MAKE BELIEVE awards thread of FF-UK posters of the year. A tongue in cheek thread that poked fun at the recipients.

Yes, that is silly.

As for the criticisms of the MODS, i stand corrected if things have changed, but having been on the end of many a warning and a few one day bans in my time, i know what i'm talking about.

I wasn't appointed RSA because I wanted modship. I was appointed because I'm a qualified event organiser and know exactly how to turn a chapter into a busy one, which was what was needed. The mod-side of things is just a necessary part of the job. I ban whoever persists in breaking the rules, because that's what the people upstairs require me to do. Otherwise I'd rather just be one of the crowd, posting randomly, and organising meets so I can have a beer with other FanForcers. Believe me when I say that if I could go throughout my entire stint as RSA without having to ban someone, I'd be happy.

Guess what? FF-UK was by far the most posted on and busiest fan force once. People met up, and the very generous invite by the two regular posters was to all who posted on it, whether they were regular or occasional posters.

That's what we want. A busy FanForce, that is also busy in real life. The thing is, Scotland is still in its infancy, which is why the RSAs are getting involved to try and make you official, and give you a CR. So when you are official, you can organise your own stuff, your own meets, post on the board with whatever you like (within reason), without RSA interference.

You mean the thread you created and had two replies, and then Dank posting for what could possibly be another meet, while also promoting his rather good band? I saw no piss take. I took the piss out of Az. Seemed like a genuine attempt to create what could be a good meet up if people was interested.

I think Tim was referring to the "take pictures" comments, rather than yours and Az's posting, Ramble.

stand up to them Spike.

I agree with Chet

Why shut down?
They have been asked to show some commitment to FF, FF boards were always given on the proviso that groups were active. The UK was more relaxed because the American mods were kind enough to give us time to work at it. When I was RSA I did what I could for Scotland - helped get the first meet in ages going along with the other three. Unfortunately I had other commitments so I couldn't attend any more. You should see elsewhere in FF, lots of boards are being closed down due to inactivity. UK has had it lightly, we aren't hard done to. But there is no point having a chapter board if the chapter doesn't meet more than once in a year. You have regional to chat with fellow fans who don't meet. The only Scottish person unhappy with this is Dank, who had vanished off here for the most part. And all the rest of you protesting are ME posters who only came back 'cos Dank asked you to kick off on here. You forget I am on your boards.

Why you left
I know some yeah (and similar has happened to us all on here), and only because Fatburt badgered you all into telling him. Tbh that was something I wasn't gonna ask you or the others about, it was clear from posts by all the ME posters that you had no further interest in FF-UK, that there was a definite dislike there, and I wasn't interested in bringing it up. There has only been recent contact between the two groups because members from here went to your boards to wind you up to come over here to kick off (and some trying to find out a little about FF-UK drama that happened years ago). I came over because of those members (as I had been told they were slagging me and others off), not because I wanted to dig up the dirt from the past.

And I know full well what one ranting poster can do to the good feeling on a forum.

Not caring about Fan Force
Never questioned what you did in past, and what you put into it then. But that's not now. You all left, for your own reasons (good reasons tbh, I have been in the same spot but decided I have good friends here and so stayed). But you ain't here now making this place carry on. I hear over and over there are no fun threads, my only answer to that is "well go post some" and stop whinging. So that is my point about not caring, I am talking present not past. It is clear from many comments over on ME that most ME feel the same way about FF - you don't like it. We have been called sad geeks with no social lives by the ME posters. Not really saying much about caring is it?

Tbh, having been a mod I can understand the frustration on their side that you are having to tell off supposedly mature adults over things even a kid doesn't do any more. Way too many tantrums. On the other side I always apologised to people I was modding when I knew it was just a simple thing like a banned word or similar. Only never apologised to the people who were trying to manipulate things for their own kicks or ego. I hope I was fair to most. It's a tough job moderating any group, and I am not one who likes limiting people's freedom, but then I also don't see the rules here restricting me too much, so I find it hard not to laugh when people get so upset when modded for basics.

This is one of the few forums that doesn't have automatic banned word filters, I think have the problem is that people are modded after the fact rather than not being able to post certain words because the system won't let them.

Great that FF-UK was prosporous when you were last here, I don't think we have done too badly considering all the changes.

Chips
As you don't know the full details of the situations I am implying about, nor am I interested in going into them here or anywhere, you really have no idea what and why. I'd not assume tbh.

Ramble -
As Sie said, it was sarcastic posts regarding meet details I was commentating on. And the fact none of you will do that meet, so why any of the ME who aren't interested in attending are posting in there is beyond me. It's just chucking dolls out of prams and having a go at people who don't des

You want photographic evidence of a FF-Scotland meet up?

If I knew how to post photos on here I'd post the one of Silmarillion, Nwalme_Jade, toochilled, Mrs DankDonk, MomentofTriumph and DankDonk at the meet that took place last May, ie, mines and Momentoftriumph's wedding blessing in Glasgow!

Poodu, Arun and Jimson (all faces from here) are in the photos too.

So...does that constitute an official meet up then?

I did post the link to this at the time plus the link to the wedding chapel in Vegas so EVERYONE could attend the "meet".

Also, to add...

Here's the link to the first meet up threads:

http://boards.theforce.net/scotland/b10203/3256883/p1/?4

See Minx, the photo evidence is not the be-all to FF, you all make it sound so important and essential when it's just a tiny part. It's just shows the FF admin that something happened (we could all say we went to the pub but didn't do much - what's the point in that? FF is about fans doing a little more), and tbh most of the FF active people like "showing off" what they do.

Posting pics - all you need is them to be stored online somewhere (like Photobucket, and then because they are online they have a URL - you know starts with "http://") , then when you are writing a post just click "image" button above where you write and it opens a pop-up, stick the url in there and click "ok". The image should appear as long as the URL have stuck in is correct.

A FF-UK Scotland meet would have to have three actual Scottish FF members there, else it's a FF-UK general meet. Simple technical thing, again for admin purposes. And I know that'll have some moaning from people, but this place is given by FF and I am not really fussed if they ask for minimal things like that. I'd rather get on with and enjoy meets.

So if you are looking for officialdom in your wedding as a meet, then yeah I'd say so - tho no idea how many scottish posters you have there (Dank and missus is two). Belated congrats btw.

Basic FF rules of an active chapter is a minimum of three meets per year, three local chapter members at each of those meets. That's all, and then it's an official FF meet. If you want a SW fan group without such restrictions, then FF may not be your thing. But like other SW fan groups (like the costuming ones) there is some pride in the fact we take FF seriously to some extent, that it's something important.

Part of the thing tho is openess to all members to real-life meets - there should be no exclusion, anyone who wants to attend can. It's not like a costuming group. Like in any social group, not everyone gets on, we have that in all chapters, and on ocassion it's tough to keep it all together, but I hope we never become a clique where new people are made to feel excluded. Nor old members become elitist. Whether you have been on these boards for donkey's years or just started posting yesterday, as long as you agree to play by the very basic rules of the forum, you are more than welcome. That has always been the unsaid rule of FF-UK.

EDIT: Flaming

EDIT: Flaming