[Xandax]

Originally Posted by Lost One

E você tem orgulho disso?

translation: And you're proud of this?

I ask this because of the boldness of your statement which seems to suggest you don't mind 'closing the doors to newbies'.

He defines himself as a newbie, which would likely answer you question.

Originally Posted by Lost One

Anyway, this is probably my last post on this. I guess it is only natural for small groups to take hold of small forums (this goes for chat rooms too) for their own use. You see it all the time. Like Thantor mentioned in the beginning of the thread, I do believe it does have something to do with 'feeding individual egos'.

It is natural for people that have history together to have a lot of inside "jokes"/meanings/language and what not. And that has nothing to do with wether or not it is an online community/chat-room/forum. It goes for real life interaction as well. It happens with groups of people at work, school, sports, army and so on....
So basically to me, it seems as if you feel excluded/"bashed on" because somebody here has known each other for almost 3-4 years, and you feel they are "elitist" because they have inside jokes.

Originally Posted by Lost One

This is why in places of online chatting rooms, you have many, many rooms to choose from where you can speak socially...so that you don't come to the same 1 room that is commanded by the same group of people like what can be observed here. It's like I have only one option here, which is to suck up to the people in social groups so I can actually gain respect and feel more free to actually speak my mind. And when threads come along like Luis Antonio's "CM Kingdom" or "Weasel embarks on his mission to lead..." which to my opinion, goes against rule #5 and #8 of the forum, in the sense that it is made for explicit spamming and does not have any useful content...I'm once again reassured that the moderators are lenient towards this because of the elitist groups that have liberty of what they do/say.

As DW has explained - and as the forum rules also state (We are more lenient on spam in the Speak Your Mind forum, but excessive amounts will not be tolerated. ) - then spam is viewed differnetly in SYM.
Spam in SYM is tolerated, because that was why SYM was created in the first place. (A thread called Goody reached many pages in the BG2 forum, and Buck made SYM to keep off-topic out of BG2).
That is why threads like "CM Kingdom" and "Weasel embarks....." are tolerated, as well are "pub-threads". However - as DW also mentions - "Counting with Aegis" is not tolerated, because it was just post-farming.
So there is no protection of "elitist groups", eventhough you claim it.
Also - as I've mentioned in an ealier post in this thread. "Oldies"/Veterans" ... part of the elite as you might say - has infact been banned from these boards for going over the line in various cases.
Which also shows there is no protection of the elite.
Claming that we moderators show favoritisme should be backed up, with more then pointing to 2 "spam" threads in a forum created to support "off-topic"/spam posting.

Originally Posted by Lost One

<snip>
I think it's a shame personally. Anything discussed in a public forum like this one should not exclude other members...but as it does, you'll get what has been happening until now. Small-time posters like me coming up to post things and then being 'intimidated' or just simply put down by the elitist groups. <snip>

Do you claim to be excluded if two (or more) people at school/work talks more to each other, because they also interact in their free time?
Do you claim they are "elitist"?

Originally Posted by Lost One

<snip>
I still have it fresh in my mind the light spam thread by Maharlika, "If Men are NOT from Mars..." where Mah said a certain post of mine was spam, which in fact, it wasn't...and even had it been, it seems the moderators have no problem with veterans about spamming.
<snip>

Because much of the debates that goes on in SYM can be serious and controversial at times, we have always asked that people respect the "No Spam" if written in for instance the thread titel.
Then it means that off-topic in regards of the topic should be kept to a minimum.
That thread Maharlika had posted that he wished for "no spam" in the thread, and he adressed a point where he felt you posted spam.
So you can't claim that we (moderators) run favorites because some threads allow spam and others don't.

Originally Posted by Lost One

<snip>
To put a long story short, this forum is not newbie friendly. I'm outta here now.

It is a lot more newbie friendly then any other forum I've met duing my many years on the Internet.

Because I'm both a moderator and self-censuring, I'll limit the expressing my feelings. But I really feel you are doing injustice to many of us as humans, and leave it at the fact that there is a proverb that states; that if you wish to change things, start with the man in the mirror.