You may have been under direction to delete threads, but it's hard to believe you were told to deliver entirely false and inflammatory threats. If that were the case, you should have taken it up with those involved instead of posting it in just about every thread on this forum, as you have done.

Be thankful you weren't an employee. You would be out of a job right now, and EA could take legal action against you for defamation if they liked.

Unlike most of you who are preaching quiet dignity, I can understand wanting to voice frustration in a case like this.

When you feel you've been wronged, quietly and privately discussing it with the people by whom you've been wronged usually feels useless and pointless; no matter how rational and reasonable your argument, you usually feel as if their answer won't ever be changed. Even if you've convinced them that they've made a mistake, it seems as if their pride won't allow them to admit it, like they'll lose their authority if they admit to being in the wrong.
...and under circumstances like that, it often seems as if your only chance at getting what you feel is justice is to raise a public stink, to present your side to the public at large, maybe drum up popular support or at least call out those you feel have wronged you. And even if it doesn't work, it HAS to be cathartic.

I can understand how that feels, I can empathize. Heck, anyone who has read my posts here can probably see seeds of that style in what I have to say; I don't exactly hold back when I criticize Spore, Maxis, or EA. Usually, I'm at least half trying to goad them into saying something, anything, so we're not shooting in the dark or complaining to deaf ears.
Quiet dignity? Meh; I quote Laurel Ulrich: "Well-behaved women rarely make history." Maybe I took that too heart a bit too much, but it beats bein' all meek!

Just sayin'...

So whether I agree with mysporepage's essential premise or not, I understand the tactic, the gesture; makes perfect sense to me. I don't expect that to affect anybody but mysporepage, who may feel better knowing someone else gets it...but, you know...maybe some of you will understand and lay off a bit; stranger things have happened.

It's perfectly fine to be upset about losing a position of power.
However, I don't think the majority of us are telling him to "go with dignity".
We're telling him that we think removing his privileges was a perfectly justified action when he made threats that caused even more of a problem than was already present.

Plus, now he's throwing the internet equivalent of a temper tantrum with this topic, and similar posts in other topics.

To MSP, you're just burning the bridge behind you at this point.
If you'd have gone out quietly, they may have reconsidered and let you be a moderator on down the road.
As it is now, I doubt they'd ever think about it.

earthbounder64 wrote:
However, I don't think the majority of us are telling him to "go with dignity".

...

To MSP, you're just burning the bridge behind you at this point.
If you'd have gone out quietly, they may have reconsidered and let you be a moderator on down the road.

Um...you're aware of the contradiction here, yes?

Did I say that EVERYONE told him that?
All I said was, if he did, he might've one day been able to get back his position.

For the record, though, YES. He should have gone out quietly.
But he's just another person trying to stir up controversy for no real reason other than to get attention on this forum.

EDIT:
Also, learn to read.

I don't think the majorityof us are telling him to "go with dignity".

The majority are simply saying that his removal was justified, which I believe it was.

Stinks for him, but coming on here and dramatizing it...like pcguy said. We are not his little army to go against Maxis.

twobit wrote:you lost your support with the comunity when you lied to us.

This.

...and a pint of ale.

earthbounder64 wrote:To MSP, you're just burning the bridge behind you at this point.
If you'd have gone out quietly, they may have reconsidered and let you be a moderator on down the road.
As it is now, I doubt they'd ever think about it.

I'm sure he's devastated. Who wouldn't want to do EA's dirty work for absolutely no pay?
Wow, he'll never be able to find a job like that one again.

Any publicity is good publicity?

The forums are getting under control now, the staff is doing what they can to help, but in the process many many many mistakes have been made. It could all be a root cause of having people who are inexperienced with running a community and damage control.

I deal with this crap every day on my own forums, for the past seven years of web-mastering and running sites I have learned a great deal on how you deal with threads, how you deal with a community, and how you deal with rowdy members.

It all boils down to how you are perceived. Regardless of what a moderator did in the past, the very fact they could be associated with 'scandal' warrants their removal, even if it is intra-site-politiking. You have to consider that in the interest of saving face, some cuts will need to be made.

The random lockings, the deletions, the constant threats in the beginning, THOSE undid the trust of the community, and gave the idea that this was not a democracy, or even a socialist republic - it was a dictatorship.

I've always found its much harder to control a good staff than a good member base. If you're open, and you have an archive forum where all the threads go, and you disable the deleting of topics entirely (and create a private forum for the most vulgar crap that often happens) you can always, always, always count on the community being much happier and feeling much less oppressed.

Certainly, rules must be enforced if they are good rules - however you must enforce them with care.

The attitude of the staffer must be upbeat, but not 'WELCOME TO MY STORE I LOVE YOU!' upbeat. The staffer must remain cool under all circumstances, and be able to explain any action, should it be one that locks or deletes. The members, under no circumstances (but vulgarity and abuse) should be threatened with anything.

Politics plays a major role in larger forums. Many members do not see or understand the politics behind a forum, because usually it is kept in secrecy, over instant messages, PMs and emails. It's almost like the Roman Senate in the 40's B.C.

If Caesar can be killed, I guarantee moderators will try to do it if they're not genuine. The way you make all moderators work together is to have a staff dictatorship - one immobile un-movable un-fireable administrator who is literally God (or Spode) whom no other admin or mod can have removed. If you have this, this person can establish an absolute staff rule, which then restricts the staff, while permitting the community members freedom.

Like any bureaucracy, it grows and corrupts unless you have someone who is above all staffers with a hammer.

Let me make clear, usually there are only one or two instigators, and in some cases none, when you have that 'perfect' staff, there are no problems that cannot be fixed, however understanding human nature, you can always count on there being one in the future.

MaxisLucy (an admin? A dev? I don't know - but I do know that Lucy is doing everything right) is one of the folks I think is doing a great job, along with those I have seen that answer topics and give feedback. I am actually happy with much of the current staff I have seen, they reply, they have opinions, they are humans.

They are not the Grox staff who were deleting topics and locking things and sending threats to my knowledge, and they are the kind you keep.

But, no matter how many levels of staff you have, there must be one single visible icon who controls them all, and has absolute say in all matters on the forums.

With this post, you only cement the fact that the decision to remove you was the correct one. I've seen this happen time and time again, and this is all it does: Justify the position of those who have removed you from autohrity for all too often, the right reasons.

Thanks for putting in the time, but no thanks for the drama you've created.

TormakSaber wrote:With this post, you only cement the fact that the decision to remove you was the correct one. I've seen this happen time and time again, and this is all it does: Justify the position of those who have removed you from autohrity for all too often, the right reasons.

Thanks for putting in the time, but no thanks for the drama you've created.

I've seen it work before.

Even if your claim is true, that you were directed to delete posts about DRM, how does that allow you to state that a user could be banned.

"Please do not continue to post theses thread or you account may be at risk of banning which in some cases would mean you would need to buy a new copy to play Spore. "

How does deleting a Sporum thread = banning, and not only banning but forfeiture of $50 something that brings up all kinds of leg questions that probably only their lawyers could accuratly answer yet as a non-paid forum admin you somehow feel empowered to pass judgement on?

Since you brought this into the public debate you should be ready to at the very least clarifyyour position. From what I see you made a false statement that caused EA/Maxis a ton of headache and got exactly what you deserved.

nextek wrote:this is not professional behavior, if it were my decision i would have also revoked your priviledges.

Agreed. Making this thread ( And spamming the post into unrelated threads ) is only confirming that they made the right decision in giving you the boot.

mysporepage wrote:

orgath11 wrote:which sporemaster are you? I haven't seen sporemasterrob around recently... Are you sporemasterrob?

Yes that was me. Try to do right by doing only what I was told and get thrown out on your !

LYING to people about what would happen if they mentioned DRM is not "trying to do the right thing".

I actually don't see how any of us can make an accurate judgment. I don't know the inner workings of... this forum? BUT I do know that people do starting talking, making books, and doing interviews right after they get released from their occupation (especially in politics, how many politicians retire then write 50 books on "this is why America is in bad shape" books?).

I am actually surprised this thread isn't locked because even those politicians don't start spewing stuff while still in the building.