General Discussion

MMORPG.com is sorry to announce that our long-time Community Manager Laura Genender has moved on from her post here at the site and has taken over duties in the community department of a development studio.

While we here at the site are sad to see Laura go, we know that she will excel in her new post and we wish her well in all of her future endeavours.

In happier news, we can now also name our new Community Manager. Richard Cox, who worked most recently on the community team over at EA Mythic, is a former Staff Writer and Moderator here at MMORPG.

We know that Richard is a great addition to the MMORPG.com team, and we look forward to working with him now and in the future.

Self Edited my response.... i dont want to be banned after all.

But it is no secret many of us poster didnt really see eye to eye with Laura. I must say i am glad she left.

I dont think she really had knack for this type of job. And her arrival at the steering wheel of mmorpg.com community also marked start of prosecution, banning, post deletion, post moving ... and other form of non-freedom of speech solutions.

On the end it resulted in many regular posters dissapearance - either from being permabanned or annoyed by not being able to post in open manner , and say what they want to say

I hope that new community manager will believe in freedom of speech , and opportunity to express your oppinions in free and open manner. Things that once upon the time made mmorpg.com man destination for mmorpg players

I think Laura did a decent job. What is/was Richard Cox's moderator handle?

Originally posted by Lobotomist

Self Edited my response.... i dont want to be banned after all.

But it is no secret many of us poster didnt really see eye to eye with Laura. I must say i am glad she left.

I dont think she really had knack for this type of job. And her arrival at the steering wheel of mmorpg.com community also marked start of prosecution, banning, post deletion, post moving ... and other form of non-freedom of speech solutions.

On the end it resulted in many regular posters dissapearance - either from being permabanned or annoyed by not being able to post in open manner , and say what they want to say

 

I hope that new community manager will believe in freedom of speech , and opportunity to express your oppinions in free and open manner. Things that once upon the time made mmorpg.com man destination for mmorpg players

Here's the thing,

MMORPG.com has rules. People who don't follow the rules will have their posts deleted and or be warned / get a ban. It's that simple, and it wouldn't change no matter who the community manager is. Posts criticizing a game (for example) are ok, posts that bash a game without backing it up, posts that attack other people and the like simply won't be tolerated and frankly, shouldn't be.

Hey Richard (Rick?  Rich?  Dick? ... got a nickname or just Richard?)

As your first act as the CM for MMORPG.com you should appease the community by unlocking the Mourning Thread.

It should never be forgotten.  It's an infamous thread and a reminder that somebody is out there specifically to ruin our passion...

Thanks

PS: Welcome.  Pull up a chair and start drinking, like all good CMs do ;-)

Greetings all!

I'm very happy to be back on the MMORPG.com team. Some of the old timers might remember me from back in the day, 2003-2005 or so. My handle now is the same as it was back then, though my real name is different. Long story short, I legally changed my last name to take my step-father's. It used to be Richard Duffek.

Some of you might recognize me as the former Community Manager of WAR for EA Mythic, as that's where I went when I left this site in 2005, until this past October when me and Mythic parted ways. I took a couple months off to experience the birth of and welcome my first son into the world.

As far as the above comments about the forum moderation and such. The site has rules, as Stradden said, oddly enough, almost the exact same rules they had back when I worked here before. I backed them then and I back them now. If you break the rules you'll received the appropriate consequences. Me being here instead of Taera isn't going to change that.

As always, if you have any questions about a warning/ban or just about anything in general, please don't hesitate to drop me a PM or email to community@mmorpg.com.

Thanks again for the welcome back, it's going to be a fun ride. :)

Welcome back Richard.

While not wanting to make a mountain out of a mole hill as this is not what this thread is about... but...

While I believe and respect the rules here, imo rules are not always black and white, there can be quite a bit of grey in there. Please try and keep that in mind when making judgments.

I do think it's great that you allow that "open door" policy about shooting you an email or PM.  Shows you care.

Anyway, just my two cents.

---

Originally posted by Kunou
Greetings all!
I'm very happy to be back on the MMORPG.com team. Some of the old timers might remember me from back in the day, 2003-2005 or so. My handle now is the same as it was back then, though my real name is different. Long story short, I legally changed my last name to take my step-father's. It used to be Richard Duffek.
Some of you might recognize me as the former Community Manager of WAR for EA Mythic, as that's where I went when I left this site in 2005, until this past October when me and Mythic parted ways. I took a couple months off to experience the birth of and welcome my first son into the world.
As far as the above comments about the forum moderation and such. The site has rules, as Stradden said, oddly enough, almost the exact same rules they had back when I worked here before. I backed them then and I back them now. If you break the rules you'll received the appropriate consequences. Me being here instead of Taera isn't going to change that.
As always, if you have any questions about a warning/ban or just about anything in general, please don't hesitate to drop me a PM or email to community@mmorpg.com.
Thanks again for the welcome back, it's going to be a fun ride. :)

---

Welcome back and congratulations on the baby.

I will have to agree with Lobotomist though about Laura. Maybe it goes deeper than most of you know who knows but she did a very poor job of management. Many a times I'd find my posts deleted with no word, no warning and absolutely no reason for them to be. It broke absolutely no rules wasn't directed to anyone and wasn't flame bait just was completely gone. During the course of her (reign?) I managed to get a ban for Retaliation, I have never seen such a ridiculous claim in all the years I've been around.

I am glad she is gone and wish her luck on her future ventures but silencing posters for no reason really got under my skin. After countless emails to her that went unanswered I gave up and literally just stop posting in discussion. Laura was the reason I barely viewed the site on a regular basis and now that problem is gone.

I understand there is rules but she went beyond the rules and started deleting, banning, warning at her own whim and I'm not alone when thinking about this.

Any good luck Richard and I hope you set the stone back where it belongs just like the good ol days of mmmorpg.com :)

Originally posted by Stradden

Originally posted by Lobotomist

Self Edited my response.... i dont want to be banned after all.

But it is no secret many of us poster didnt really see eye to eye with Laura. I must say i am glad she left.

I dont think she really had knack for this type of job. And her arrival at the steering wheel of mmorpg.com community also marked start of prosecution, banning, post deletion, post moving ... and other form of non-freedom of speech solutions.

On the end it resulted in many regular posters dissapearance - either from being permabanned or annoyed by not being able to post in open manner , and say what they want to say

 

I hope that new community manager will believe in freedom of speech , and opportunity to express your oppinions in free and open manner. Things that once upon the time made mmorpg.com man destination for mmorpg players

 

Here's the thing,

MMORPG.com has rules. People who don't follow the rules will have their posts deleted and or be warned / get a ban. It's that simple, and it wouldn't change no matter who the community manager is. Posts criticizing a game (for example) are ok, posts that bash a game without backing it up, posts that attack other people and the like simply won't be tolerated and frankly, shouldn't be.

 

 

I am not sure Stradden

Rules are rules. Even when you enforce RADICAL third strike rule.

But how you interpret those rules is in question here.

When saying : "People love Vanguard because they are bored with WOW"

is constituted as : BAN for reason of "Insulting the game"

Or when you get banned for following reason : " You have negative opinion  - and in a way it is trolling"

Or : " You insulted the game "

-

Who can say where is the line , when reason for ban is "Insulting the game" or "Negative opinion"

The decision is completely in hand of community manager - Power to permanently ban poster that was part of community for years. Community manager  judging upon his own personal mood and using blurred unclear rules.

It was clearly a reason most of us do not dare to post anymore. Or do not want to , from fear of being permanently banned from the site ...

For this you can single handed thank Laura ,