One Day Suspension from BGG

Yes that's right. I've been a user since 2006 and have never been suspended before. Here's a letter I sent them protesting it. Click on the links, read the offending posts and then read the rest of the letter to get the gist of it.

The background is that we spent 70 pages documenting a playtest of A Few Acres of Snow where we were collectively trying to come up for a solution to a tactic that apparently breaks the game. (It's referred to as the "Halifax Hammer" or HH).

At first we were trying to disprove the Original Poster's (OP) contention the game was broken because frankly we didn't believe it. But everything we did, only served to confirm it. Anyway a new thread was started at some point and joined by users who started acting like dicks. I let myself be baited and told them what I really thought of them.

Here's my letter disputing the ban:

Just for the record, I don't believe I was either trolling or being unreasonable in the two threads that were brought to your attention:

www.boardgamegeek.com/article/7785697#7785697 and www.boardgamegeek.com/article/7785206#7785206 .

In the first case, the user is arrogant and condescending and he got a reply which in my view was commensurate with his post. This user delivers his opinions as if they were divine enlightenment or the product of a PHD in Gameology. You'll see in his later posts, he flat out states things like "you're wrong."

In the second instance, Bigloo's question was insulting and deliberately meant to provoke and as you'll see led to me announcing my departure from the thread.

I've been a member here in good standing since 2006. I contribute to the forums, I post reviews, I upload files. I just started trading games. A sample of my posts will show you I'm generally helpful and supportive.

Just because some users here are a little cleverer insulting people and I'm a little more honest in my reply does not warrant a sanction.

I know it's only a day and not a big deal, but it's the principle of the thing. I often find BGG users to be thoughtful and helpful. But then there is a subset of arrogant and condescending nitpickers. I've seen Sphere, a veteran user here, respond to those people in much the same fashion as myself.

Anyway, thank you for the form letter. It was polite, restrained and informative. Job well done communicating an unpleasant decision. Still, I would ask you reconsider...and in exchange I'll try to phrase my responses more diplomatically.

Ah, Dearlove...the British version of DDJ. He's one to be avoided engaging with as he comes with a negative modifier on your sanity-check save. By post #4, all your buttons will be pushed and you WILL find yourself typing "you pedantic cunt" without so much as a picosecond's hesitation....

It's been so long since I've even looked at the forums at BGG that I had to stop and think before I remembered who DDJ was. I never hated him, I just thought that he had a limited and almost robotic worldview.

Let it be. Principles don't matter on BGG.

I busted my ass to get a suspension on BGG just to break the howdy-doody image I had developed. That was a year ago.

A couple of weeks back I called Darillian a fool which, you know, is kind of like observing that plants are green and I got one of the auto-generated form letters telling me I needed to be more polite. I think it's the thing you get if enough people click on the X.

I worked damn hard for that first suspension then boing! I call a kettle black in a well-trafficked thread and I'm getting warnings in minutes.

I do agree though -- if you're clever about it you can call someone a jackass to their face. If you use plain language you'll get popped.

In my last article here of F:At I called every damn one of you an idiot and no one cared. Very different audience.

S.

What's the point of your post, Mike. People here already know that bgg moderstors are mindless bullies.

You only got a one day suspension. Even Sag has managed that. It doesn't count.

After your suspension is over, will you run.right back, or do you intend to hang around here?

Come back when your next time in is a month, kid.

Edit: I just tried to follow that thread and I can't without feeling an overwhelming sense of shame.

amateur!


keep going, you'll get there!
See if you can delete your own account and retire, then, in a moment of tenderness as you try to use your wifes account to explain why you left to the nicer people there, you get the admins there frantically deleting your explanation and then "banning you" for life. They have some.. special.. people there, special needs perhaps. I once wasted an entire day trying to talk to hall prefect brian about why it was OK to ask about setting up a BGG online league for Memoir 44 to be told in no uncertain terms that it wasnt the same as the board game, no, it comes on the computer, it should be on VGG. This morning I checked in there to grab a rulebook and what was at the top of the review list, yep, a review of the PC AI version of race for the galaxy.

anyway, don't take any advice from me, that site turns me into the Tourette Hulk. Away from there I like to arrange flowers and do crochet.

The problem is that you are under the mistaken belief that the moderation system is a eurogame. It's not. It's 100% ameritrash - Games Workshop style totally random event table ameritrash.
The 2 posts you got banned for havn't even collapsed, so fuck all people have reported them. My posts colapse all the time, yet I havn't heard so much as "boo" from a moderator. It's illogical.

Deleting my account and disapearing for a while was the best move I ever did since not having a moderator always breathing down my neck has allowed makes posting on there a hell of a lot more enjoyable.

Mike, I know it's not your fault that I decided against my better judgment to browse the thread you linked to, but I'm blaming you anyway. Thanks for the dose of mind-numbing geek pedantry, jerk.

Remember the cardinal rule of BGG: "Don't DIRECTLY attack".

Instead of "Jesus, you're acting like a total cunt", say, "Jesus, I always considered people that act like that to be cunts. But that's just my opinion."

Don't sweat it. A day off of BGG lets you do other things with your time. And that's a good thing.

I've been banned 6 times, I think. Last one was 2 weeks.

Dogmatix wrote: Ah, Dearlove...the British version of DDJ. He's one to be avoided engaging with as he comes with a negative modifier on your sanity-check save. By post #4, all your buttons will be pushed and you WILL find yourself typing "you pedantic cunt" without so much as a picosecond's hesitation....

It is prose like this that makes me love reading dogmatix's posts. I especially like when he gets wound up about something because I can envision him frothing at the mouth ready to tear a new one into the offending party. I've only met him once but phrases like this roll off his tongue without a seconds hesitation. I think it is a gift.

Steve"More Dogma!"Avery

I've never gotten a ban, or even a warning from BGG. I feel like I must not be trying hard enough.

DDJ almost pushed me to really lay into him. He effectively derailed my Dominion review thread a year or two ago. But whatever, I'm not the type who ever feels better after really letting someone have it. I kind of envy those who do.

Kind of.

I got my first warning recently when I gave a snarky reply to fucking Grogtard, the hooplehead who likes to use colored fonts like a 7 year old with a box of new Crayolas. Still working on trying to get an actual banning, but I don't have the energy.

There are absolute useless loud-mouthed passive-aggressive dickweeds wandering BGG every day. Some of the shit they say just blows my mind.

I call 'em out on it when I've seen enough. Sometimes it just slides. Other times I get 1-day suspensions. I'm often labeled a "nice guy" and yet I think I've had 2 or 3 1-day'ers.

Fuck 'em, and fuck BGG's moderation policy too. Frank's right--it's complete and utter random bullshit. People get to be douchebag fuckwads that run more people off the site than someone saying, "hey, you're a douchebag fuckwad" but it's the douchebag fuckwads that get the 'protection'.

Sometimes I get cheerful about BGG again and wander in to participate. Then I get reminded why I don't usually do that anymore.