No offense taken.

However, what I've done for the past 5 months has NOT been creating "clutter" or "rants" or anything of the sort. Some of those posts take well over 6-8 hours to write up, organize, find and create images for, and then it's draft after draft after draft.

Again, many people at other sites get paid for half that amount of effort.

Yes. I'm asking for special treatment here. For the first time in over 10 years, I'm asking for professional support. After TEN YEARS. I'll probably wait another 10 years after that. I'm being honest when I say that my end goal is to work at Netherrealm Studios, and forgive my pride in asking a community that loves Mortal Kombat, and my creative work, for help along the way.

Maybe I'll never get that. Maybe I won't get close. But that STILL doesn't mean I don't love Mortal Kombat or its fans just as much as anyone on the staff here, or on the games themselves. And, at the end of the day, what matters to me most is not whether or not I have a credit at the end of the next game, or even GET credit for the posts or articles I've done, it's whether or not I've made the Mortal Kombat community happy, satisfied, and EXCITED to dive into the richest, most compelling fighting game universe in the entire video game market.

I refuse to limit myself or think small here. I have been. Even my KOTW threads were "thinking small" because I lacked the nerve to ask for official support from the staff months ago. I should have and that was my mistake and my uncertainty getting the best of me, and I apologize for that.

And I apologize if I come across as the very thing I was accused of, of "attention mongering", but from a personal and moral perspective, I absolutely cannot do anything half-assed. I can't go 50% of the way. If I'm going to do anything, anything at all, I give it everything within me, because this community DESERVES nothing less than that.

How is a single thought out thread discussing all aspects of a character posted once a week considered flooding? I find this hole thing ridiculous.

In the interest of professionalism, I'm going to defer future comments to what has already been expressed and resume some separation from staff, and users. Please be encouraged to explore the volume of responses I've supplied and focus on the topic of why a series of thematically linked threads have been asked to be included in a single thread. A fact that has, to this point, only been prevented by users.

Ironically, the conversation has very much become a topic of attention seeking, pursuing subjects that aren't public matter. With all due respect, this course does not invite professional consideration.

I'm currently visiting my parents'house, killing time while waiting on a girl to call. I just read through all of the pages that were linked to this thread. Now, as several of you know I'm pretty much a General forum exclusive member. My love for Mortal Kombat still exists; it just isn't what it used to be. This experience has taught me one thing: being a General forum exclusive can leave you pretty ignorant.

When I first opened this thread, I had no idea what the jolly fuck was going on. I thought some of you nuts decided to crack out of your shells and start a random rebellion. However I was wrong. It seems the MK 2011 forum has been more active that I assumed.

Look, I'm not taking sides in this argument, because frankly I can't completely agree with either side.

First off my dear friends and fellow users. You are users for a reason. If you feel the need to be anything more, download Dreamweaver and have a blast. I'm 100% sure your input is twice as valuable to the staff as you feel it is being appreciated. Here's the thing. From what I've heard from people much more informed than the rest of us, for the first time in years, these site "changes" are actually being built, aimed, and prepped for launch. I can't guarantee you'll enjoy these changes. Nobody can, that's subjective. I can, however, say change is actually foreseeable on this site for the first time since the theme updates. Friends, you all picked a helluva time to bitch at the staff, because as dysfunctional as it may seem right now from an outside perspective, they are FINALLY trying to steer this site out of it's hyper conservative slum.

Now to my dear friends in the upper levels. Look guys, we may have different opinions, but on a professional standpoint that doesn't mean much. Mick, I like you, you're a cool dude, but surely as a man in a position of power you have to know the basics of writing a notice of rejection or explaining negative results. When speaking from a point of authority, keep emotion to a minimum and opinions to those who you can trust them with. Openly implying that Garlador was trying to make this site about him was a horrible choice, my man. As you can see, it consequentially pissed off a lot of loyal users. I know the point you were trying to make. Clutter on a site of this format is no bueno. Hopefully we can find a way to resolve this issue with people dropping these ridiculous SOPA/PIPA accusations, or dictatorial site hogging, or eventually Mick being pregnant with the spawn of Satan the way everyone is acting. Joking. I hope.

Here is what I'm getting at, as someone new to this argument, and a user that's been here long enough to have a certain appreciation for what this site was, is, and could be.

EVERYONE CALM THE FUCK DOWN.

Honestly, we can have back and forth catslashes all fucking month, but ultimately it wont solve anything. Why don't we start acting like a community and resolve this issue, to make it into a win-win situation? Might I be so bold as to make a suggestion?

Allow Garlador to open a new thread. A final thread. Garlador, look into tumblr, or another piece of the blog universe. Put the KOTW updates in that dedicated blog. Link each update in the thread. Fellow users, go to that blog, come back here, comment. Like I said, I tend to stay here in the General forums, so I don't quite know the workings of KOTW. However, I think this idea will reduce clutter, give Garlador a place to make frequent and fulfilling updates, and hopefully calm the rage faces a bit.

Now everyone, it wasn't my intention to be disrespectful. I want to stay neutral. I just think opening an entire thread for the purpose of flaming isn't a great way to boost community activity.

Peace and love all, let's hear some solutions rather than problems.

-Dibz.

PS-Tinychat this weekend?

Well I can agree with you on how you're not an attention seeker becuase you're not, you're just someone who writes really funny stuff. I can understand where you're coming from and why you want this, but I just think it would be unfair suddenly because there are people who has that passion as well, they may not show it, some do, but to suddenly make you some mod well, I think it would be unfair towards others.

Of course, that's not how I would feel, but some random user. I don't like to speak out for others, becuase apparently what I'm saying hasn't really been said by a regular user, I'm just saying, in the eyes of someone getting a promotion and such, this kind of way it would seem a bit unfair, though I do know why you want to be a moderator... I don't want to keep sounding like a broken record here, my food is distracting me.

But about this other issue...

I personally feel that the way the community is acting about this is all wrong. Jaded saying something about how the moderators here are with PIPA and SOPA, come on, really? Was that really needed? Is this site going to suddenly turn into the fiasco of when Megababe was a moderator and no one liked it? (Looked up what was so damn bad about the past, oh was it bad). I believe that this is something that Garlador and the moderators should fix together, WITHOUT the entire community claiming that the moderators are a bunch of haters and shit.

No, this isn't "Icebaby's ass kissing post to the moderators," but some of the shit I read in the Sonya thread, now THAT was horrible with the amount of backlash this is getting. There's no need for this thread, if Garlador wants to get this issue fix, it should be between him and the moderators. Not us because the way we're acting is childish, claiming that people don't know what they're talking about. It is a bit foolish to see so many people get overworked when the issue doesn't concern you, it's between who's creating the threads and those who are in charge. We're just adding our two cents in because we happen to be a fan of what Garlador does and not too many people are always with the mods. I'm not, I'm not on anyone's side, I;d always like to be the neutral one.

So, I declare I'M NEUTRAL!!!

I can only reiterate, as I have throughout this thread, that the weight of any reference is not to imply that Garlador is attempting to make the site about himself. Unfortunately, the irony of the present tense is that that is exactly what has eventuated. Obviously, this is not an attractive notion as we are attempting to rebuild and reinvigorate a community for everyone, hardcore and casual, new and old. I can't stop people inventing their own version of what's being communicated, but I can reiterate what has actually been said, and what has strangely enough, become blatant fact.

That.

That is an interesting turn of events. Mick says Garlador wants to be a celebrity on this website (which, honestly he kind of is because he's earned it over his decade of quality posts). And then Garlador asks to be made a columnist for the website. I actually love the columnist idea, but I understand why it would not be feasible. Those are quality posts that I can imagine could draw attention and traffic to the MKO community. However, I still maintain that the best solution is to allow each character thread to remain its own separate thread in the MK2011 discussion board, or even in a character forum in a worst case scenario.

I've got to say however, that IceBaby's post disappoints me. She does not see the difference between Garlador's topics and empty spam topics made by the "noob" users of the community, and the reasons as to why one is the backbone to a productive discussion board and why the other is detrimental to it.

At least now I can see that it's not solely the staff who have this mindset. There are two very different points of views on this topic, and unfortunately for the majority of the community, the minority group in power have an opinion adverse to our own.

I love you Dibula. <3

Welp, I guess this is the end of Mortal Kombat Online. If you treat like members like garbage and don't listen to them, don't expect them to stay around for long...

Probably the worst moderation I've seen of a forum in my life.

I should clarify.

I was a mod once upon a time here myself. I'm asking, not to "be a mod" but to be a mod AGAIN. To have my mod powers restored. To be in a position of influence and responsibility that I once held. I'm not asking for anything I haven't already earned in the PAST.


I've been very careful myself to watch what I say as of late. I've made zero personal attacks against Mick, other than to assert, and continue to assert, that either his actions are wrong or the methods of conveying his intentions are misleading and painfully unclear. I genuinely think he believes he knows what's best, and, to draw some heat off other users, I DID compare the censorship of my creative material on the internet to SOPA.... a bill that would've led to the same eventuality on a large scale. I don't mean to infer that they support internet censorship or encourage restricting and regulating creative freedom... but that's precisely what has occurred. I wouldn't want that for ANYONE and I'd be right there alongside those speaking out regardless of whether or not they were threads I had created.


I think the issue IS bigger than the mods and just me. This affects the entire community. Any user should have the right to express themselves in the way I have been. I encourage it. I support it. You should have that right just as much as I do or anyone else.

And I would like to clarify, I've received MANY messages from other mods in support of my work. This is NOT a universal decision by any means, I can assume, and many mods and staff members have been speaking out against this. Some are for, and some are against. Some are, well, neutral on the matter or think they is a better solution than the ultimatum I've been given.

And that's the key thing; every suggestion I've made has been rejected. Every complaint I've brought up has been ignored. Every question for clarity and transparency between staff plans and my plans has been dismissed. I am willing to compromise, but I've been given no means to do so. All of my suggestions, requests, and creative rights have been denied and rejected.

And that's probably the most frustrating thing of all.

You don't go to many forums, do you?

I actually DO clearly see the differences between a spammed thread and Garlador's threads, but the point that it was addressing was how it was cluttering the forums. I know that Garlador created his threads weeks after the other, but I did noticed that, looking in that forum, I saw a bunch of those threads and only three other topics every now and then.

Making a clear example of what I've seen on that forum, once some random new user makes a lot of threads with his/her creation, we all get nit picky that "hey, you're making way too many freaking threads!" In the same aspects, this is kind of that too.

Sure, Garlador's threads are mostly active, no duh, but I understood the point some mods were trying to get across. Sure, we the users who tend to make his threads active either refuses to accept that it is somewhat true, or just don't want to believe it in general, but in some fashions, yes, that's cluttering the forums and since we LOVE to give those who clutter the forums a good taste of the rules, what's the difference about this? Oh, because these threads are mostly active and they are always getting a response?

Well that's nice, but what about those other topics? Why should I see six KOTW when I want to talk about Cyber Sub-Zero? I push that topic back on top, it gets pushed back down to the second page because more people are talking in the KOTW.

I do enjoy the idea of turning it into one giant forum. And if anyone gets confused on how it works, obviously, what Ninja offered was a good solution. But if we're all going to act like we don't know how to play on this site, well, then tough luck. ninja's idea of using hyperlinks to pages where this character is being talked about was a good idea to do.

Although, I know most would oppose any of this.

Well,it doesn't matter,at least he/she speaks the truth.

Well, if you want to talk about Cyber Sub-Zero, why not post in his KOTW thread? The reason the hyperlink idea will fail is because, as you've noted, the KOTW threads are very active, and they do tend to be at the top of the forum list. Now imagine trying to be in that "all characters in a single" KOTW thread, talking about Cyber Sub-Zero on page 6, but Sonya is page 9, and Jax is page 14, and Mileena is page 31, etc. and the thread is on page 76, and there are 17 different conversations going on about different characters when all you want to discuss is Cyber Sub-Zero in MK 2011. How do you not see how that is a bad idea?

I don't think I joined when you were a mod, so I did not know that you were a mod in the past. My fault.



You are entitled to what you say in this issue, because this is YOUR issue. Though some of the comments I read I felt that the others believed that this was their fight as well, like they were replacing you for them. It's fine to get people on your back, everyone likes to do so in situations that includes people going back and forth about some random issue, but when it comes down to personal attacks, then it shouldn't be necessary, whether you're a user or a moderator. It doesn't make a difference. Since you have not called people names or really said something that made it look very horrible in professionalism or whatever, that's good on your side, because it shows you're handling this situation maturely, which in the other case, if someone were to call you a name or something, it's bad for them.

So, I applaud you for being as sincere and mature about it, even though, I can sense, and I'm sure everyone can, that this is quite a big frustrating issue that seriously needs to come to a solution or find one for both sides of the party to agree with.



Meh, I guess from personal experiences with conflicts that people tried to butt into when it never concerned them played into effect with my last post. But I guess if you also want the community to join in, they should. But, even though I have no saying in how people should be, I do think they should show some sort of maturity and not throw out the ole' "mods are stupid" "this site is going to hell," 'goodbye MKO" when really, there's no point to it other than there's a conflict between you and the mods about your threads and some of the treatment you're getting in return.




Well, that isn't right, because you should have some suggestions they can agree with, they cannot always make the decisions. Those who aren't in charge can come up with good ideas, I know that a lot of these people have a lot of bright ideas. They should hear you out and agree with some of the material you have to come to an agreement with.

They shouldn't always stick to their own guns. That's not right and I do 100% agree with that.

If you both think that this is "the worst modding in your life", then you need to seriously go to other forum boards right now. Go on, go look at others. I'll wait right here and hope to hear from your amazing discovery.

Garlador, I'm not mad about any of this (I couldn't keep up with the KOTW threads to save my life). I just wanna say, what I have read from you I legitimately enjoyed (everything) and you being a Brony is icing on the metaphorical cake. *brohoof* Just don't leave this site? You, Jack, UNdiscovered, Unknown, xB$INx, Jaded-Raven, NoobSaibot5, Murcielago and a few others keep me coming back for humorous shit and other junk.

I haven't seen Mick active on here in a while and I have nothing against him, but reading his responses were giving me a headache. Lighten up, baby. All that suit speak is...less than comprehensible. Keep on trucking at a more leisurely tone and see if you can't unruffle a few feathers in this nest of dedicated users.

*Looked the other forums*...Nope.nothing that changes my mind.Perhaps it is YOU who should do the research.

I am sure that there would be a way to where it could work out. If it has never been given a chance, it should be given a chance. It shouldn't be shunned down immediately because people believe it wouldn't work. If it's not working, I'm sure there will be another way to figure out how to handle the issue.

But if it is not given a chance to see what happens, then why complain about it when we don't know what will happen?

I MIGHT agree... if I felt my KOTW threads were actually creating clutter.

But I counted. You know how many KOTW threads I had on the first page? Three.

Three thread out of over 50. 3/50. Which means that my KOTW threads were only 6% of the entire MK2011 thread's first page news.

That is a painfully SMALL number. I don't believe that is "cluttered" at all. If half the page was my threads, I'd agree, but that isn't the case. See for yourself.

I'm sorry but this has been one of the new forums I've been to. Yes I don't agree with the mods at times but they got the title you don't.

Garlador your posts are amazing I think the columnist thing would be cool. But I'm not sure what the run down is and they are changing the site for better.

Well right now its not, but there were other times where there were a lot of your threads on the front page.

I'm not trying to be against anyone here, I'm neutral, I don't want to be on one's side, I want to try to help on both sides if its okay with everyone who is affected with this issue. Just throwing that out there.

At times, I'm not saying all the time, but at times there were a lot of threads made by you, that was all that I saw on the front page. And, we shouldn't be restricted to talk about a particular character that you created a thread for if we wanted to talk about it, such as the character I threw out as an example. That's kind of not fair if that Cyber Sub-Zero thread and how to do his story differently thread suddenly got closed all because there's a KOTW thread that talks about him.

But, in some aspects, yes it does clutter the forums, but there's a reason why and its because it's an active thread. So, there's pros and there's cons to this issue that I see and I don't mind addressing it. I'm just saying, there are at times where your threads are the main threads I see active, and the others go down the pages faster than Space Mountain.

While some degree of reassessment and malleability will be required of any situation (sites, by nature, are in a constant state of flux), we will not likely be making a habit of granting latitude to individuals until it is no longer convenient. This is a broad directive applicable to everyone with as much consistency as we can hope for. This is a respectful courtesy and a measure of credible, impartial administration, and of some anticipation for the desired effect of improving the volume of community traffic. It is logical and conventional to make this difficult change before that problem will arise.

This is pisses off dearly. Only reason I go to the MK2011 section: Garlador's awesome threads, now look what happens...
Ciao