Darn it.
 

I was going to create a sock puppet account and terrorize you guys. But the admin disabled registration.

Good going, G.net. Your beef with Duckman has ruined my fun, you wet blanket!

son of a bitch, you're right.

What a great sock puppet it would have been.

A wonderful sock puppet, a fabulous sock puppet, a zip-zoop-zep-zabulous sock puppet!

And a tiff between Duckman and the Admin caused this? I take a weekend off for a wedding (or was that a weeding ... hmmm) and all hell breaks loose around here?

No one can take a joke these days.

From what I can surmise a few people (myself included) got annoyed about what they felt was an inappropriate Advertisement via that new bondage porn sight that's got ad space on here.

Duckman made some photoshops pushing the admin's buttons, admin pushed back, and temp banned him, Duckman made a new account and admin banned it and disabled the new accounts.

Ah. The almighty dollar wins again. Hell, the ads even annoy me... Who gives a rats ass if it is what we want or what is relevant or what we will tolerate- bring in the paycheck.

Are you fucking kidding me? Is the thread where all of this happened deleted?

The conversation about the ad was fine, for the most part. It was the subsequent unnecessary childish abuse thread that really ruined it. Three hours of photo policy discussion, against our better judgment at this point, and what do we get? Abuse from a troll and their pals just cheering them on. The discussion is still there to see, just not the abuse thread.

I've got ...

Hey G-net. As much as I totally understand where you are coming from regarding duckman, I don't think it's really fair to ban him. Reason being, that we all treat each other like shit... He treats me the worst. But that's okay because we're all here to just mess around, hit each others buttons and act stupid. I actually like the guy. I do realize that you didn't appreciate the downtalking. But I can honestly say that I don't agree with the whole " you can post links to porn but not a pic of poop" deal. Obviously there has to be line draw especially regarding porn. But poop to me (disgusting as it is) is one of those things that everyone sees, knows about, acknowledges. It's not a big deal. The ads that are posted on this site don't personally bother me at all. I'm on a gothic forum...I realize that it's good advertisment to post bondage stuff on a website where the keyword is "gothic" it makes perfect sense. But please don't take it personally in the case of duckman...and close registration :( I appreciate you and whoever else manages this forum btw...I just feel bad that people are getting banned from silly fights.

Isn't it awfully nice to have a penis?

You guys can continue to treat each other terribly. Nobody is really stopping you, obviously. However, here is my conundrum. I could simply not respond to someone like Anarsha or whoever when they ask for policy explanations and you guys would just continue treating each other the same embarrassingly childish way you do, or I could actually discuss the policy, get feedback, attempt to make improvements etc. One of those paths results in more trolling and abuse towards anyone actually trying to deal with any issues, features, problems, etc. I honestly don't even feel like getting involved in whatever you guys are whining about this week much anymore because it's simply not worth it. There is a limit on just how obnoxious community members should be able to get towards moderators and/or administration. I don't mind a debate, even a heated debate. Anarsha was like "FUCK YOU" I don't like your advertiser, and I talked to her about why it was such a big deal. The ad doesn't bother me any more than pretty much any other ad here, but I'm open to hearing other points of view. But, to then decide to respond to that with imbecilic trollish abuse. I just don't see the point of putting up with that. I'm not power tripping, I just don't see them point of letting some clown get their attention from posting shit pics and abusing anyone actually attempting to administrate G.net.

I don't even tell people I work with this site anymore and neither does anyone else who works with it, because people just roll their eyes and talk about what a bunch of unbearable idiots run around here. It's embarrassing.

Not everybody is bad, but a few really do make a terrible impression.

Yeah, the whole corporate office is taking a luxury cruise to Dubai so we can all party with BP and Goldman Sachs executives with that massive pile of cash earned off one vaguely kinky ad spot.

I think I smell a purge coming, every one into the shelters.

See, the problem is, people like Fruitbat decide now is a good time to start posting pictures of piss or whatever. I mean seriously, that's just poor judgment.

Vaguely kinky? The one in question had a naked woman with a gimp mask on, and the other one has a woman being attacked, while Marilyn Manon looks on helplessly: http://juliesimone.com/webmasters/ba..._728x90_05.jpg

I get that some people might get off on pictures of women being beaten or tied up, but do not get surprised when people get offended by it.

That's not the issue anyone got booted for though. You are welcomed to join the discussion of why that particular ad is or is not appropriate. The input would help for future approval considerations.

I think the horror movie ads have much worse activities than that one does.

Honestly, I'd be more embarassed by the sites total lack of decent content, than a few forum trolls.

I mean, you have a story about a dude masturbating with a slice of pizza. Think stuff like that might have something to do with why your userbase isn't sipping brandy and talking about Proust?

I guess people are more put off by you know, realistic violence, or derogatory words like "slut" (that banner I haven't in ages so kudos for that) than demon possession. Dunno how many deeply religious Catholics post here who would take offense to a movie about exorcism.

Fair point.

Different people are bugged by different things, and to be honest, I don't think Gothic culture or style is about being uber-careful not to bug anybody. There is obviously room for disagreement on what exactly is good or bad to bug people with though. Really, if the ad had been seen as too sexual or whatever, it would have probably been bounced. It didn't seem to be that big a deal, but talking about it is fine too. To a point anyway. Once it devolves into childish photochopping and trollery, well, then it's no longer a discussion of the actual subject matter.

Thank you.

Honestly, if you want my opinion, Gnet users are bored. Most of the people around here are either complete newbies, or people (like myself) who have been around for a while and just kinda got stuck in the habit of talking with the community, or trolls who come here to trawl some gawfs.

I mean there's only so long you can talk about the same thing without deciding to give someone a verbal reaming or just deciding to mess with them for your own amusement.

I agree with you. But, there are people here who are very resistant to change of any sort and are also very quick to insult and deride any activity aimed at improvement. Is this site where I would like it to me? Certainly not. Do I like working on it in any way? No, not really. I have better things to do with my time than deal with some fool posting pictures of their shit because they think it's rebellious and cool. And, if the community roundly supports that sort of behavior, well, why bother improving it?

Well, I'd argue that they support that activity because they're bored and it gives them something new to talk about.

I think if you guys ramped up the content, maybe allowed for open submissions and/or actively sought some better stories and articles, you might see the site improve (both in the behavior of the community and in regular hits).

Right now the whole thing has kinda degenerated into people who come here to slander others semi-anonymously, and people who show up simply because of the domain name.

If you and the other people running the site are cool with that, more power to you, it's your site, but I don't think it's entirely fair to blame the "embarrassing" state of the forums entirely on the userbase.

Basically, the Gnet forums are an internet ghetto. You need a public works project to improve it, or things are gonna stay the same.