Zorba the Geek and his many other forum accounts

[Chthugha]

Created for the sake of transparancy.
I will copy his post below.
The original post was made in this thread:

 

On 3-5-2018 at 4:41 AM, Zorba the Geek said:

I was given two warnings by Chthugha: one about having multiple accounts, and therefore an identity crisis, and another about swearing on the forum.  To the first comment: a number of players have multiple accounts and don't seem to get a warning.  To the second comment: if I ever use bad language it is at the very lower end compared with some other posts I have read and that continue to be posted.  Many have far exceeded the profanity over which I was warned.  I tried hard to be respectful and courteous to other members at all times.

Chthugha, you've won!  You've managed to get rid of me, something I suspect you've always wanted to do ever since you became a so-called moderator with a strongly authoritarian bent (Mr Policeman, if you like).  We certainly didn't see eye to eye and I radically disagreed with your perspective on most issues, as you no doubt disagreed on mine, but this was no reason for taking the stand you did, even if couched in reason.

Just so everyone knows (Chthugha already worked it out - same IP address), the accounts I have used are: Peregrine Took, Adrian'smole, Zorba the Geek and (very occasionally) Peckerbird.  I hope this is clear to everybody and I hope others using multiple accounts are prepared to disclose the same.

This is my last post (on all my accounts).  I refuse to be humiliated and singled out in the way I was.  I wish everyone the best (even Chthugha who is only doing his job, even if authoritarian in the way he goes about things).  I wish you all every enjoyment in the game and I enjoyed communicating with you all, even if you had trouble working out who you were talking to!  There were some very intelligent and thoughtful comments made by nearly everybody in this forum and it is a good community I enjoyed being a part of.  I'll miss you all, even Chthugha!!  If I am allowed to, I shall continue to read what others have posted because it helps me keep abreast with what is happening in what is a very complicated and fascinating game.

No doubt Chthugha will be castigating me for posting this in the wrong thread and, therefore, off-topic but what the heck.  So be it.  If he takes it down that would be a pretty strong indication of who he really is.

 

[Chthugha]

So, now to respond to this post made by Zorba the Geek, who also used the accounts Peckerbird, Peregrine Took and Adrian'smole to post on the forum.

12 hours ago, Zorba the Geek said:

I was given two warnings by Chthugha: one about having multiple accounts, and therefore an identity crisis, and another about swearing on the forum.  To the first comment: a number of players have multiple accounts and don't seem to get a warning.  To the second comment: if I ever use bad language it is at the very lower end compared with some other posts I have read and that continue to be posted.  Many have far exceeded the profanity over which I was warned.  I tried hard to be respectful and courteous to other members at all times.

He was not warned for having multiple accounts. What he is warned for is using multiple accounts to post on the forum.
Shortly after I became moderator, I asked him politely to stop using multiple accounts to post on the forum, because it's confusing for anybody who doesn't know he does that.
It can lead to a misconception of what the forum playerbase actually thinks.
He completely ignored that request and continued to post with the four accounts on the forum.
So I asked Jessie to find out if I might have been mistaken about it, and they said that Peregrine Took and Adrian'smole indeed have the same IP-address.
The devs completely agree that posting on the forum with multiple accounts should not be allowed, and we came to the conclusion that we should ban one of them from posting on the forum (in this case Adrian'smole) to see if he would stop using more than one account on the forum. That's where this post from Zorba kicks in.

With regards to the second thing: he called the devs assholes, and I happened to see that post, so I warned him for it. That was the account I later banned.
I cannot judge posts that are from before my moderatorship. That's the past. If any of you see profanity, you should report it, and I'll give that person a warning.
However, profanity is one thing, calling the devs assholes is a completely new level. And I cannot accept that.

12 hours ago, Zorba the Geek said:

Chthugha, you've won!  You've managed to get rid of me, something I suspect you've always wanted to do ever since you became a so-called moderator with a strongly authoritarian bent (Mr Policeman, if you like).  We certainly didn't see eye to eye and I radically disagreed with your perspective on most issues, as you no doubt disagreed on mine, but this was no reason for taking the stand you did, even if couched in reason.

I wanted to get rid of 3 of those accounts on the forum. Don't care about you though. I don't care for the rest.
I, and the devs as well, don't want the confusion created by one person using multiple accounts to comment on the forum.
What I can say is that you are one of the worst kind of people for a forum.
Not only are you using more than one account to post on the forum, but you are also a spammer, and you often spam unrelated things.
You could've been banned for that as well, but the fact is that I don't want to ban the players, no matter how obnoxious they are.

12 hours ago, Zorba the Geek said:

This is my last post (on all my accounts).  I refuse to be humiliated and singled out in the way I was.  I wish everyone the best (even Chthugha who is only doing his job, even if authoritarian in the way he goes about things).  I wish you all every enjoyment in the game and I enjoyed communicating with you all, even if you had trouble working out who you were talking to!  There were some very intelligent and thoughtful comments made by nearly everybody in this forum and it is a good community I enjoyed being a part of.  I'll miss you all, even Chthugha!!  If I am allowed to, I shall continue to read what others have posted because it helps me keep abreast with what is happening in what is a very complicated and fascinating game.

No doubt Chthugha will be castigating me for posting this in the wrong thread and, therefore, off-topic but what the heck.  So be it.  If he takes it down that would be a pretty strong indication of who he really is.

Goodbye.

[Ady66]

GJ on upholding the peace!

[natstar]

It really is confusing when someone posts on more than one account so if anyone else here has more than one account just post on your main account.
People using more than one account ruin forum polls as well.

[shepwgu]

And nothing of value was lost. Thanks C!

[Habi]

17 minutes ago, shepwgu said:

And nothing of value was lost. Thanks C!

that's very mean. while i rarely read his posts because they were just too long i don't think he deserves being called without value.

i feel wistful for him leaving us for good. i don't want to defend his deficiencies but there seems to be a lot of misunderstanding between him and the doc.

[Chthugha]

2 minutes ago, Habi said:

that's very mean. while i rarely read his posts because they were just too long i don't think he deserves being called without value.

i feel wistful for him leaving us for good. i don't want to defend his deficiencies but there seems to be a lot of misunderstanding between him and the doc.

I cannot help it that he was constantly posting unrelated things in threads, meaning that I needed to warn him over and over.
To be honest, I've been quite lenient towards him.

Regarding the misunderstanding... that's completely from his side.
This is the message in the warning I sent him:

I clearly say we ant him to stop using multiple accounts to post messages.
He translated that into his head to being punished for having multiple accounts.

[Chthugha]

28 minutes ago, shepwgu said:

And nothing of value was lost. Thanks C!

I do agree with Habi that this was unnecessarily harsh.
Everybody's feedback is valuable feedback.

[Masters]

Who cares how many accounts players post from? If someone has the time and energy to have multiple accounts much less post with each of them, I say, power to them.

I mean, nobody knows all the accounts *I* post with… if I do…

Edited May 3, 2018 by Masters

[Hollo]

8 hours ago, Masters said:

Who cares how many accounts players post from? If someone has the time and energy to have multiple accounts much less post with each of them, I say, power to them.

If it's purely for entertainment, I don't mind. But if the same person is posting multiple opinions about the direction of the game, the responsiveness of the developers, etc., then it gives the impression that more players are dissatisfied (or hypothetically, satisfied) with the game or devteam than is actually the case. This is outright misrepresentation, whether or not it is willful. If several players had been on the fence about becoming patrons, and this swayed them, then that's cost Kinkoid actual money they didn't deserve to lose.

Zorba / Peregrine / Mole then had the temerity to announce his resignation from the forum, claim that Chthugha ran him off in "authoritarian" style, and that despite his victimization he will miss him. My instant response was: no, you're not the victim, you were at the least unknowingly deceitful, and later we find you had been explicitly warned, so it was either willful, or a lack of reading comprehension dire enough to warrant banning you anyway. You were only open about this when the hammer was about to come down. Go away, and until you learn how wrong this is, good riddance.

Right out of the gate, I now have a much lower confidence in the idea that there is widespread dissatisfaction with the game, since I remember all three of these handles expressing opinions on several occasions.

Edited May 3, 2018 by Hollo
extra space was bugging me

[trunks2585]

Sadly I had a feeling this was coming after I saw your request for him to stop using multiple accounts and....well he didn't.  It's a shame, I found his reports about drop rates across his multiple accounts very useful, he helped support theories that some accounts are more inclined to getting particular girls faster than others and a few other things.  Not to say I always agreed with him, but the research he provided was interesting and valuable.  I don't know why he felt he was being persecuted.

[Hollo]

Yeah - by contrast, if he was using, say, 10 accounts, saying so, and only ever posting on one name, I would have been nothing but admiring. If he posted under another and then came back later and said something like "whoops, this is me, btw" under his main name, I would likewise have cut slack (multiple accounts is typically a real chore and demands constant vigilance).

[Alkazord]

I was very confusing to read his posts and I put all of his accounts on ignore for that very reason.

Not to be an armchair psychologist, but I think he was/is slightly autistic (I guess we all remember the constant reminders about several of his accounts belonging to females of the household or how he broke his elbow by jumping out of the chair when Salem dropped).

I also think that he coud have been a valuable member of the community, if he played by the rules the Mod set for him. The ball is in Zorba's court.

[saberbholt]

7 hours ago, Chthugha said:

He was not warned for having multiple accounts. What he is warned for is using multiple accounts to post on the forum.
Shortly after I became moderator, I asked him politely to stop using multiple accounts to post on the forum, because it's confusing for anybody who doesn't know he does that.

Imagine that we put aside this case in particular, there is no one in mind that you could have only 1 IP and several people with different accounts, so users who do not want multiple accounts in an IP imply that my brother and I or my sister played we would have the same public IP being 3 people and 3 accounts.
If they are going to orbid multiple accounts in forum posts that think that this is not only possible but that it happens in many games. Which would imply denying the post entry for a non-committed fault (being the same person).

Leaving this technical question on the side of the future face and the rules, I agree that this is justified in this case the notices.

Edited May 3, 2018 by saberbholt

[jelom]

Well, as a frequent reader and not so frequent poster, I must say that I enjoy reading posts from everyone and if Zorba (or anyone) quits from posting will be a loss for the forum and I expect him to reconsider it later. The forum is part of the game experience, and it allows us to share our views and thoughs about it.

It is true that using more than one account to comment could lead to confussion and is not fair to the rest of the people, so the warning was correct.

In any case, don't take things too seriously. Life is more than this game.

[Ol Sheriff Joe]

Whatever happened, i will miss Zorba's/Adrian's posts... He was quite talkative, and that's what makes a forum lives... 

[GarfEild]

I didn't realize that was the same person posting under multiple accounts, so count me among the confused. I don't understand the desire for so many accounts for playing, and certainly not for playing and posting. Particularly since he was complaining about aspects of the game and insisting he would contribute no money to it the last time I spoke to him.

I can understand how posting under multiple accounts gives the wrong impression.  Likewise, I don't understand why he felt the need to do that. That's a lot of time spent playing and commenting on a game he was supposedly so unhappy playing.

I'm sure this won't be a popular opinion, but if people are going to abuse multiple accounts in this way, perhaps tighter rules on having multiple accounts at all are needed. I don't really know common an issue people with multiple accounts is, though, but it seems like it could relatively easily lead to abuse.

[DHarry]

I knew most of his accounts because he wasn't exactly secretive about it. I can't bring myself to do more than 1 account and even that's tedious for me. But what I do know and think should be mentioned is that if you click forum in the game menu, it automafically logs you in for that account. I like that. But if you're managing 4 accounts, it's not easy to always do that on the same account name. 

 

His posts were a wide range of anything between amusing, confusing, interesting, odd, misplaced and mostly, very long. I don't think he needed to go, but ultimately that was his choice. 

 

[Jack_HH]

1 hour ago, DHarry said:

I knew most of his accounts because he wasn't exactly secretive about it. I can't bring myself to do more than 1 account and even that's tedious for me. But what I do know and think should be mentioned is that if you click forum in the game menu, it automafically logs you in for that account. I like that. But if you're managing 4 accounts, it's not easy to always do that on the same account name. 

I don't have several accounts, but if I did, I would use different explorers for each one, that way I could manage all of them at the same time.

I consider myself an active forum user, and I didn't know all those accounts were the same person. It is confusing to discuss a topic with someone using several different names, specially when that someone analyses each topic in depth as he did.

Banning all his accounts but one was the reasonable way to force him to use a single account, while allowing him to keep being active at the forums, so it's weird that he would take it that personal.

And in defense of Chthugha, I also consider myself somewhat of a problematic player, a complete topic started by me was erased since it started a flame war, but he has always been reasonable and transparent with me, so I don't understand where the whole authoritarian accusation comes from.

I did like Peregrine Took, though, and he will be missed. 

[Ron K]

It's hard enough to handle one account, let alone multiple accounts, and keep a sane mind in the process. Having wandered thru the threads, sooner or later

anybody could figure out some one was posting thru multiple player names, thru his/her posting style. (To be fair, I am a mod on a family friendly forum in the US)

Both the Admins and Chthugha  figured it out and asked nicely to shut down the other forum accounts and use only one account, Zorba instead bailed out.

I have had my share of "clean ups" and the unhappy job of banning members, it's not an easy thing to do. They did what was needed to be done, let this story end here and now!

[Yamamura]

I'm just wondering if this is going to be pinned for a short while, or forever? Making this "victory" topic is one thing, but having it pinned just feels like you are kicking him while he's down. I can care less about whatever this is about. I just don't want some drama topic staying with the important stuff.

[Habi]

1 hour ago, Yamamura said:

I'm just wondering if this is going to be pinned for a short while, or forever? Making this "victory" topic is one thing, but having it pinned just feels like you are kicking him while he's down. I can care less about whatever this is about. I just don't want some drama topic staying with the important stuff.

exactly my thinking. chthugha being transparent should tell us why it has been pinned. or jessie if she did it.

[Cantrix]

Then again why should someone receiving his well deserved punishment be a thing at all?

While i have nothing against Zorba and sometimes shared his opinion, i am against the use of multiple accounts too. I don't think a ban of an acc or two should be made such big of a deal. It's bad for the person at fault as well for the mod who wielded the hammer of justice. Just saying, that future bans should go unnanounced. Even if there was a dispute between Zorba and you Chtugha i think resolving it via personal messages without all of this publicity would have been better. As for the things he was accusing you of, it is unnecessary to defend against those statements as i am sure everyone here sees all the hard work and you are putting in your work as a mod. And the strive for fairness and transperrancy. Nice acc name btw, i've always wondered if it was linked to Hayore! Nyaruko-san's Cthuko? 

Sorry to see Zobra go, it's always sad to see players go, but the rules are here for a reason.

[Masters]

3 minutes ago, Cantrix said:

but the rules are here for a reason

Where? Where are the rules which govern the use of multiple accounts?

[trunks2585]

3 minutes ago, Cantrix said:

Then again why should someone receiving his well deserved punishment be a thing at all?

While i have nothing against Zorba and sometimes shared his opinion, i am against the use of multiple accounts too. I don't think a ban of an acc or two should be made such big of a deal. It's bad for the person at fault as well for the mod who wielded the hammer of justice. Just saying, that future bans should go unnanounced. Even if there was a dispute between Zorba and you Chtugha i think resolving it via personal messages without all of this publicity would have been better. As for the things he was accusing you of, it is unnecessary to defend against those statements as i am sure everyone here sees all the hard work and you are putting in your work as a mod. And the strive for fairness and transperrancy. Nice acc name btw, i've always wondered if it was linked to Hayore! Nyaruko-san's Cthuko? 

Sorry to see Zobra go, it's always sad to see players go, but the rules are here for a reason.

See that's the thing, they did try to quietly and peacefully deal with this.  Zorba made an of topic post in one of the hot threads at the time so the most people possible would read it.  Chthugha tried not to draw attention to this and this whole thread was honestly for the purpose of transparancy.  The fact it's not locked is also so it's not coming off as a 'warning' or anything but allowing the community to give their 2 cents and not feel threatened by all this.  I will agree I'm not sure it needed to be pinned and I"m sure after a day or two that will go away and this thread will fade into the archives.