Yesterday I posted a mini-incident that happened to me and threw out a lil digital homage to the artist of a web comic that I’ve read for a long, long while now. One that I’ve so enjoyed that I’ve passed it on to other manga fans, to help support it. I’ve bought stuff from their merchandising site – obviously – because I know that that’s the best way to keep the project going. My jaw dropped when I saw some of his work used by Waldenbooks a while back, not only because it supported his work but because it also was showcased as the poster child for manga at the store; meant all this stuff was going mainstream! When the hardcopy of MegaTokyo Volume 4 hits the shelves this year, I’ll buy a copy even though I’ve already read everything that’s in there, for free.
Yes, I’m a fan.
So after posting my episode on my little corner of the digital world here, I said “huh… lemme go throw this up at the forums to share the story.” I had to have my password reset there; I haven’t posted but two other times before, most recently in Jan, and I posted a blurb and a URL…
That’s when the drama started.
When I popped into the forums, I took a look at the list of forum subsections, and here’s what I saw:
MegaTokyo Central: General discussions about all things. Come on in, get yourself a beer or one of those yuppie coffee drinks, and chill.
Story Discussions: Wanna talk about the story? Got a question? Don’t know what the hell is going on? Wanna affect the future? This is the place.
The Music Forum: This is the place for you to talk about music, musicians, and anything related to the subject. This is NOT the place to link or ask for music files.
Party System: This forum is about PARTIES… no. not the fun ones. Political discussion goes here.
Celluloid Cave: Films, cinema, movies, short films, even Google video and YouTube. Talk
Piro’s Corner: Art and Drawing and Creative Writing
Largo’s Corner: Games mostly
MegaGamers: a whole section anime, manga, and cosplay.
Since my post had nothing to do with any of this I said “lemme put it in MegaTokyo Central”. Today I went to the post and found the thread locked. OK, fine, it had a link to an external blog – that might be a problem in the rules… then I looked at the comments. One was “Oops, this should go to Story Discussions” and the other one was this “Learn to read the rules, faqs, and stickies. ALSO… LEARN HOW TO READ THE DIFFERENT FORUM CATEGORIES”
This raised an eyebrow. I read the forum categories. This didn’t fit under any of the headings. It’s not about the story. It might be about Piro, but it’s got naught to do with Art, Drawing or Creative Writing… nothing else fit. Mind you it says in the post: “3 posts” So I dropped the guy a private message:
Contrary to your opinion, the forum I posted to is:
“General discussions about all things. Come on in, get yourself a beer or one of those yuppie coffee drinks, and chill.”
How does the post not apply? It’s a general discussion. It has NOTHING to do with the story, so it doesn’t belong in SD. Since it has to do with [Piro’s] products showing up in the real world, it doesn’t fit Music Forums. Nor Party System, Celluloid Cave, or Piro’s corner. Life, The Universe, and Everything is the only other thing and I didn’t think this “serious” enough for that.
So… how do you justify locking the post? Or is this something I should send to [Piro] directly?
Polite. To the point. Proclaiming the ignorance that I’m guilty of. New user, and all that crap, right? All friends here? Not quite.
If you’ve read the faq’s and stickies… you’d learn that SD is where all things concerning the comic… and piro… and everything “Megatokyo” belong… but of course you didn’t read the FAQ’s have you?
General is for general chat, meaning nothing specific involving this comic, or it’s production, or ti’s people, nor any of the other categories. Have you even looked inside SD?
OF COURSE NOT… because you think you’re above reading rules and FAQ’s aren’t you?
I think someone should wait for his balls to drop, before posting another word online. I mean, what the hell is this douchebag’s problem? It’s not enough to have read the forum descriptions, then? I have to find the sticky posts in each of the forums, wade through FAQ’s, and then intuit that since this is slightly MegaTokyo related that it belongs in another forum? Mind you that I’ve clicked on the majority of the links at MegaTokyo – a lot of them have “to be finished later” with no content… wasted clicks. Why would I think the forums were any different? Why should it be so difficult to help someone else? And beyond all of that, is this how you’d expect new users to be treated?
Obviously I’ve become annoyed, if only because of the annoyance that carries over by my experience with the Jeep. And as is obvious to anyone that knows me, has read this site, my book, or has ever found an annoying moderator/Sysop in the world, my response would be appropriately edgy.
Well, here’s a thought… instead of having three or five or seven documents on what goes where, why not update the descriptions that follow the forum titles? As for being above reading rules and FAQ’s, I think I’m a NEW member that had only posted 2 times before and would be EXPECTED to be cut a little slack. Especially by someone that is a moderator to the forum and is supposed to be HELPING newbies. ESPECIALLY when I’m attempting to promote Piro and his web comic and his merchandise… maybe I’ll just have to forward this on so he can see how new members to the forums are treated.
Thanks for all the help! You’ve been truly understanding!
Will I forward it to Piro? Probably not. This guy has been on the boards for years and in spite of being a complete tool now I’m sure he was actually helpful at one point. I am kinda concerned as to how many people this guy may have scared off over the years tho – right now I have no desire to buy another thing and that’s kinda sad.
And it doesn’t mean I won’t flame his ass as I see fit on my own blog… this whole thing just ain’t right.
Update, as the dork replied:
WELCOME TO THE FORUMS DIPSHIT…
We are not nice to people just because they think they don’t need to read rules. Why the hell should I be lenient… it says to read the rules and faqs in the member agreement you agree to when you make an account. So you bypass that… I should be lenient.
Much like in life…
“I’m sorry judge, I didn’t know it was illegal” doesn’t cut it. Frankly, I AM being lenient, seeing that I could just have easilly temp banned you for a day… or week if I wanted to, but instead just decided to tell you to stop being an idiot. And what do you do? BITCH BACK even though you’re wrong. Smart move kiddy.
Update, part two – I just got a one week ban, simply for continuing the debate in a private message:
That’s funny, there was an FAQ and stickies when I signed up…
I remember this because I helped write it BEFORE I was a mod in central.
Again, you fail, I suggest you shut up now and realize you’re wrong, unless you want to take a week off. In which time you can read the FAQ’s and stickies since you won’t be able to post.
To which I replied:
Yawn. Such a wonderful experience. Hurrah.
Must have hit a nerve:
See you in a week
Lame. I haven’t met a sysop like this since d-DIAL days. Now I want the perma ban.
Well that’s rich. Now you can’t disagree with a moderator in private? No other flamitory posts and you punt people? Ingenious. Unlike you, I’m not sitting around waiting for my pre-pubic balls to drop, so this is a moot issue. Why would I bother coming back? I mean, for what? More berating if I don’t punctuate my posts properly? Or because I posted a non-Megatokyo post to a non-Megatokyo forum? Further, how does all of this ranting, raving, berating, and intollerance help the new or general user and make the forums a better place?
You could have handled this a number of different ways but you choose to be an intollerant and unhelpful arrogant ass. You didn’t have to admit that you might have been WRONG, since the post is suited for the place it was posted; you could just simply put in the forum “Punted to another forum”. Nope, you had to be an arrogant tosser – your choice of course, but in doing so, you’ve turned away a new member that only came by to HELP promote the very thing the board is about in the first place. And who knows how many other people you’ve turned away…
You’ve lost my business, plain and simple.
And yes, I’ve passed it all onto Fred, as well as other miscelaneous news sources, because he should be aware that he’s LOSING business because of your actions.
Well done! 
I thought technology would make people smarter… guess I was wrong.
Just came across this, via Google. Having been a MTF user for months (right about since the time this was posted), I can guess the mod here is CrackPr0n-EET-. A large number of forum users agree with you, but Cortana (the site admin) has refused to do anything; “Cracky” is a personal friend of his.
His detractors actually include several other mods; including some of the Story Discussion mods. You talk to them (CountAlpicola and Ray Kremer in particular), you’ll have a much better experience. Ray, by the way, has been saying for years that SD needs to be renamed “Story Discussions.”
This individual, the single rudest person I have ever met, is by far the thing I dislike most as a MTF user. And on occasion, he comes into SD and flames the hell out of everyone. And occasionally, he’s obscene too. The problem is being worked on.
Got it in one, and well done. I haven’t posted to the MT forums since, for obvious reasons – just sad that Fred’s name is tied to it. Although, he hasn’t responded to the issue at all either, so I guess he’s OK with it all.
Having said that, it was funny because at work I saw another guy with the BAKA^2 shirt at work… in fact, as he walked by I shouted “baka ni!” which prompted a conversation with the guy – he is a fan, same as me… of course we can’t post about the incident in the “wrong” place in the forums… we’d get banned if we did! :)
Sorry, should’ve said ‘has been saying for years that SD needs to be renamed “COMIC Discussions.”‘ Dumb typo. Anyway, you already know pretty much the only quirk in the “post what where” system, plus you’ll be glad to hear that Cracky no longer mods MTC. Cortana refused to say why. He can still lock/move threads and such in LUE (personal advice), though. Don’t ask me why, of all places, he was granted power over that one.
Oh, and if you ever do decide to give SD a chance…there’s a “Megagear” sticky that your story would fit nicely in. Or you could make a new thread (after your first ten posts…long dumb story) and see what the mods think.