Veteran Changes

[Jamie 2,319]

This is highly questionable, even more so the reasoning behind it. I've been questioning this community's leadership and decision making for months now but this really raises the red flag.

"As of today we are rolling out a series of changes to the Veteran group to more accurately reflect the intentions for this group".

The INTENTIONS of this group was to indicate who the loyal people to the community are, which was executed perfectly. Of course people are fucking 'proud to be purple' (excuse the cheesy line) as they have been in this community for years. Self-enclosed pocket of the community? What a joke. Yeah, sure some people's behavior has been questionable but to punish the whole group based off of some (who aren't even vets anymore) is pathetic. People are openly welcome to join the channel if they aren't a complete nuisance, so to say we are self-enclosed is rather idiotic. Obviously certain personalities are going to clash lol. I guess that just so happens to be half the mod team.

"These changes are being made to create a more open and fair community. Outbreak prides itself on being an honest and transparent place to be. The veteran group changes reflect much needed desire to form a level and fair playing field that does not unfairly privilege equally active individuals in name."

Piss off. Was this really written? REALLY? Wist has had background admin since before he left for Cambridge, dare say he still does - he even has a white name too. Cheesepuff has server config access. Mintlou is openly slated as a shitlord and aidskid in a public teamspeak channel for simply having an opinion. I am even labelled publicly in a Teamspeak channel by the Owner as being 'really aids' even after everything ive done for the community throughout the years - been an admin on and off, decision making, server setup, donating over £50 to name a few of them. Want to know why I've resorted to being reckless recently? I don't agree with half the decisions being made and the way the management of this community has been treating people and given situations. Like fuck am I wanting to be part of that. Saying I need to swallow my pride and apply? Swallow yours.

"Unintentionally, veterans were tacitly given some degree of protection whilst they were active on the server or forums".

2 ex vets were removed from the group due to rule breaking. Who's been given protection exactly? Or are you referring to the fact that half of your mods are too scared to do anything if shit goes wrong? Im guessing by making these changes you are hoping to boost their confidence against the big bad wolves that are the veterans. This is simply a way to have a cheap shot at loyal serving members just because you dislike a few of us. No matter how much you try to cover it up. Let me reiterate that those who have been a bit cheeky are no longer veterans but are close friends of us. I dislike people, I mute them and no longer wish to integrate with them, I don't go out of my way to publicly humiliate them.

You have bigger problems to deal with in this community, like the quality of your half your moderators. Sure Mintlou likes to have a moan about them, but unlike him, I've seen their modding capabilities on the server. They are lazy, lackluster and just have downright poor judgement. Promoting people because 'there is no one else better atm' is silly. Im not going to be a complete dick and call out who they are, but they exist. As I said, I don't publicly humiliate people.

Disgusting, petty decision just because you dislike us or a few of your mod's hearts have been broken.

[Stiqqy 592]

[Major Chaos 53]

I am sharing, hope you got sweet and not Salty. :mrgreen:

[SonyTwan 1,208]

Was there any discussion with Wist, Unseen or the veterans at all?

I think some of the Veterans are just incompatible with the current staff, and not to slander anyone, the influx of socially awkward children that comes with jailbreak (some of which are mods).

I'm known as the current village shitlord, certainly having misbehaved in the eyes of the current mods, which I agree with, to an extent.

However when I initially joined the community there was a much more relaxed atmosphere, everyone could have a laugh and everyone knew where the mute button was.

Many of the veterans have been here since the start, they're fairly confident in who they'll like from the get go, plus who they won't.

Can't expect them to like everyone who interacts with them, see "socially awkward children".

They've saw people come in and out of this community while they've stuck around through the hard times and the good.

Do they not deserve some kind of recognition for keeping this community going during several tough periods?

"Unintentionally, veterans were tacitly given some degree of protection whilst they were active on the server or forums".

Should be taken up with the mod team, their job is to be neutral and enforce the rules.

Might want to tighten up the application process.

[Fluxy 1,660]

Ok so heres my 2 cents.

I did not want to write this forum post when I first read the news post because I think I might have got myself banned or something. I was pretty fucking angry if im honest.

Now, I am only disappointed, really really disappointing with how this was handled. Quite frankly I think its disgusting.

Im fully expecting this to be shut down by geers of "look there the vets go again, kicking off about something" but honestly, I want to ask WHY. Why was there no consultation with at least ONE vet, no one had heard anything before the news update and that quite frankly is an utter joke.

I have always been told that in this community, if I have a problem I should go and talk to an admin, but what do you do when you feel you cant trust the admins to do anything to help you because you feel the some of the admin team is against you. We, as vets, and please do not think im refering to some stupid purple forum tag or whatever, those people know who they are, even if they were never in the group, appear to be treated with the attitude that we are trouble makers, black sheep. Im always being made to feel like some admins dont see the need in vets.

Well ill tell you what, without that group this community wouldnt even be here. I think some people can't really understand what 3 years of online friendship feels like but we have been through a fucking lot. More owners than you can name, DDoS's, rival communities, drama, everything. Our owner and head admin were there through it all so I dont need to explain to you, so is it really too much to ask that we can have a little identifier for us? Just something we can kind of group round, no one is shoving it in anyone's face. It was that recognition that gave us a sense of pride. New people come in and being viewed as a sort of elder or the community, in a purely passive role, gave me, and I know many others, something.

Something you have now taken away. I come back to my previous point of the first we heard about this was a forum post. The quote Jamie points out is gold

"These changes are being made to create a more open and fair community. Outbreak prides itself on being an honest and transparent place to be."

Transparency is far from what this is. Fairness is far from what this is. What makes me laugh is the assumption that you could do this, without a single piece of discussion, to the best of my knowledge Unseen was not even aware of this, and we wouldnt notice. We wouldnt kick up a fuss. Im so bored of being treated with suspicion and looked down on by those who run this community because of negative attitude associated with a tag. So what, we cause a bit of trouble, we always accept our punishment when we deem it fair, and often we do.

This all could have been avoided had the decision making process been treated maturely, instead this sort of hack job is exactly what has angered me.

I am saying this to Conor specifically. I don't want to be a member, your not giving me some treasured gift by making me a blue name, I dont play jailbreak, i dont interact with a large proportion of this community's playerbase SERVERSIDE as a result, therefore it was nice to have something that pointed me, and others, out as something a little different. I dont like being thought of as someone who joined 2 months ago. I loved my vet tag and most importantly, I appreciated YOU for letting us have that recognition, I was thankful for it.

I honestly cant understand why people think that us, vets, OGs, shitlords whatever you want to call us, are going to magically change personality to fit in with your new "safe space community". We have always been who we are and thats why we are friends. I refuse to accept this bullshit that this is "community improvement" when all I can see is an underhand jibe at us as a group, the exact same feeling I had when the OG channel was deleted without notice.

Sure you probably expected a bit of a reaction but I am telling the whole admin team, I am ANGRY, with this decision and the cowardliness behind it. I would very much like for there to be a meeting between an Admin+ team and all ex or current vets and discuss this. I think we deserve that much. Unwillingness to do so will demonstrate exactly what I suspected, a lack of courage to talk with us an open ground.

I expect a reply to this post from someone behind this decision.

*EDIT* as sony has said about "socially awkward children" do you know how annoying it is when someone joins your channel muted and just starts typing away? Its not like they can contribute to the conversation because the only notice of their presence is that annoying and constant "dinging" sound. can you blame us from secluding ourselves away from these people, just because we want to have a mature discussion? Almost all new intros and new member apps are made by people 15-17 I would say, that is the bulk of this communities player age group. Almost all of the vet group are over 20, do you really expect for their to be no friction between these two groups?

[Jamie 2,319]

@tony

You're correct. Half of us being mid twentys we simply find it awkward socialising with children, which surely can be understood. Im talking socially awkward, annoying, bratty kids who end up getting muted and then go running off crying that we are meanies when we tell them to go away. If you're a normal human being who isn't a moron who shouts kappa down his mic (not a dig at anyone specific) then we welcome you into discussions... Ask major chaos, ask rory.

@hugo

Nailed the communication issue on the head there. Another thing that is lacking.

[Fluxy 1,660]

After a lengthy discussion with conor, I have said all I need to say I am satisfied with the conclusion that we came to with the reinstatement of the OG Channel on teamspeak as a place for mature people to hang out in and chat, it's open to everyone of course and we wont exclude anyone. This has gone some way in making me, and hopefully others, feel better. As well as this the new forum ranks are a really nice touch, I hope in future we can learn from the mistakes in how this was handled and be better.

ty.

[Lewis 1,276]

I haven't been around so can't really comment - no idea about all this catty and bitchy stuff that's going down...

But what's the issue of being made a blue member while you're being active in the community? Presumably if you don't go on the server / rarely contribute on TS/forums like me you'll be given it back, it's not like you've been permed from it?

That's how it was explained to me when Wist made the group.

You're a vet if you're inactive, you can get member back at any point if you become active again.

[The Untainted One 452]

Since I have been around, I've sort of noticed this more child friendly attitude slowly start to creep in as a focus of the community. I don't have anything against the decision. But, it also comes as no surprise the 'vet group' are pissed off at this... It would be nice to see a more mature environment also being offered and in this case it was sort of offered by the veteran group. It's not fun always having to watch what you say in case you upset someone.

I seem to recall the topic of the divide between older and newer members being a hot topic and it still feels like not much has diffused this despite several changes. It just comes down to the schoolyard mentality. The older kids in school always found the younger ones annoying and are very rarely friends with them, mainly due to maturity difference. Until you reach the right maturity, which normally comes with age, it will be very hard to integrate with the older members of the community.

It's nice to see that the OG channel is being brought back :D Feels like the good old teamspeak!

[Smokey 2]

Hope it gets solved out.

Edited March 31, 2016 by Guest

[Jak 1,381]

I prefer the name OG to Veteran anyway. Makes us all look way more hardcore like a football firm or some kind of aggressive, flag wielding political rally group.

[M1nt-l0u 1,235]

For what it's worth,

I don't think the current definition of Veteran really means much to any of its members. If you leave OB, all tags should go. You should not be left dormant in some group clogging up the forums. If you've been a member for 2 years, you are automatically classified as a Veteran, and you cannot go back into the members group unless you prefer to be in there. That is my definition which I feel is a more accurate usage of the group name.

That, to me, makes far more sense than the current hacked idea that the admins have come up with. And you might read this and think that it's only me who feels this way. Well, it isn't. I tried to address this with Conor yesterday and he called me a "Shitkid" and told me that it was "my idea of it" and that I should "change the local page to suit my needs". This was when I was addressing the fact that inappropriate terminology had been used for what the group actually represents in the eyes of the owner(s).

Anyway, putting that aside I'm pleased to see a channel made for us again and we can use that for our business.

Please don't go into faceless HR mode and call that "Changes to vet" post "Transparent". It's all guff and means nothing. The truth is, owners didn't like the group and they wanted to get rid of it as quickly as possible, because it was causing issues for the mods and members to deal with. I get that. I know about that bit and fully accept on behalf of the group that we are known to commit wrongdoings. The sad truth about it is the satisfaction that Conor got, knowing that we weren't happy with the changes. He chuckled to hear that our group-chat was blowing up. Unseen then decided to paraphrase the chat to him. That is sad and malicious and I personally feel violated from the trust I have with Unseen (When making those kinds of comments)...

I am open for talking things through on TS with Conor. I don't want a phony post that someone else has written for him. I want to hear what HE has to say, and then progress to a solution that gets us all on the same page. I appreciate that ground has been made, but this is for the future events that might happen.

Let's talk about things, stop doing backhanded deals which you know will upset people and let's not do the worst thing ever which is make a bullshit post saying that it is "Fair and transparent" because it isn't, scribed by the unlisted minions of Outbreak.

Let us build bonds rather than break them. I want to stick around. The Vets want to remain here too. Communication is the key factor to keep both sides happy.

Get Real. #Nige

[VENGA BUS 2,027]

I imagine will people will click on to see a long message but nah. Rip vets and long live the OGs xoxoxo

Obviously the post in the news section was bs. It was done to get Conor and the mods a laugh. But time goes on and I'm just happy to contribute positively to a non baiting and non shitlording environment within this transparent and fairer and more equal community. :)

[w33zy 1,523]

stop fucking spamming shitty fucking GIFS.. holy shit dude.

it doesnt contribute anything at all in this thread stop shitposting.

Edited March 31, 2016 by Guest

[VENGA BUS 2,027]

Yeah u faggot that's an entitled OG only privilege.