What is going on? [originally posted in moderator forum]

[scottishranger]

What the heck is going on, now I relize I am the newest Trib. but I would why and for what reasons is most of staff calling for Archers removal? What is your Cassus Beli for removal?
Also now it seems Justinian will be leaving if Archer goes and so will Bel. Now this is not good for the site as far as I know as this would leave us devoid of our leadership in such a crucail moment as this with MTW2 close at hand.

So what the heck is goin on?....

[Justinian]

I applaud you for realising what's good for the site and not a little group of friends. Look a few topics down.

[scottishranger]

Now I find out that we have already lost Lusted and Faboulos.

Please people..... why?

[HorseArcher]

scottish - with us or against us

[scottishranger]

I reserve my judgement. I do not want to accuse anyone, anyone without evidence, as foolish it may sound.

I wait for details.

[HorseArcher]

I reserve my judgement. I do not want to accuse anyone, anyone without evidence, as foolish it may sound.

I wait for details.

I know as much as details as you do. Now, I will post this entirely useless document I have recevied and sent to Ogre, just to play power games in the staff forum.

Game is over. Martial law is in effect. These guys just ruined their little game the last time. Curia is suspended indefinetely. We are a pure gaming site for now with some off topic discussions in the off topic sections. Reputation is suspended until further notice.

I get back my network admin badge until further notice.

Belisarius Justinian and Spartan is in charge beside me. If they don't like something current events, they will inform me.

Let me show you this fabrication, which really does not reflect the reality or at most it is blown out of proportion.
it serves as a propaganda material for stupid forum politics and power games.


Oh, by the way, I did not receive this letter, despite it was addressed to me (the first part), i guess a bunch of chicken boys weren't sure how would I react to such accusations.

My quoted message from the hexagon forum, was clearly a sarcastic comment made for tacticalwithdrawals' accusations of me not being able to control this site.

Letter to Archer



Dear Archer,

We, the undersigned, have finally lost confidence in your ability to lead this site by yourself. We would like to respectfully request that you remove your superadmin access and give it to Mimirswell instead. All of Hex can then discuss the future of the site's leadership.

There is nothing personal about it. We all believe you are a nice guy who truly means well, but are just not suitable for your post. We believe you can help this site from any other post and we welcome you to assist us.

We are sorry for the manner of this action but you made any other alternative unavailable to us because of your dictatorial style of leadership that you yourself admit is unchangable.

We trust you will understand the need for the above and you will not force us to follow this action in front of ON.

Thank you for your understanding,

Signed...

2.Letter to Ogre

V1.5(formatted for VB)

Dear Ogre,

We the undersigned have decided to address you in order to express our concerns for the state of affairs at TWC at present. As you can see we are all part of the moderating team of the site and both relatively new and very old members.

Over the past months the relations between the site’s administrator and its staff (both junior and senior) have deteriorated to such a degree that both the functionality and the performance of this site are in danger.

Here are a list of our concerns:

[list=1]
· Administrative Accountability

TWC is an almost unique forum. It’s success is due to a strong mixture of standard discussion of politics/history; a sound modding community base; and a form of self governance, embodied in the Curia and Symposium. Archer has helped trigger two sets of destabilizing reforms that a lot of energy had to be expended upon the bringing to fruition of. He has also directly interfered with the Syntagma in terms of keeping its law; first, Archer (without reason) abrogated the Syntagama (constitution) in Easter by essentialy removing all accountability and alienating the Curia and secondly he gave one of our most notorious posters (Ferrets54) a pass to the Curia and later a fake Senior Moderator badge, which caused an overspill of resentment and anger as well as chaos during the relevant period. He does not see the problems that such ‘playing around’ does to the site and its members; furthermore, he does not pick up the pieces, and leaves the other Staff to do it instead, in the best fashion they can, clearing up the mess Archer left us.
· Discussion of Issues in Hex

Discussion within Hex has declined over time. Indeed, if you examine the number of threads started by Archer, it is not especially high. Senior Moderators bring issues but seldom are the global moderators asked for any input into policy or other actions. Even when asked for their opinion, the decision is rarely related to the discussion and often contradictory to the consensus reached in such discussions as do occur. While this is his prerogative, on some issues, he should be deferring to this group, especially when it concerns overturning suspensions and the functioning of the moderators as a whole or individually, or matters of policy which the group must enforce and act upon, wherein group consultation is paramount.

The Senior Staff try to act as intermediaries between Archer and the Junior Moderators. A classic example, recently, was when Gabarsardar was promoted – there was zero discussion about this. Not even any indication that it was on the cards. Surely the appointment of a Senior moderator should be thought through and consultation with junior and senior staff launched, to get a consensus on the best candidate?

A further example, were one neccessary, is the revocation of the permanent ban on the member Ferrets54. He has always been highly aggressive to junior moderators; he trolls constantly and after asking Hex, Archer simply reinstated him despite having previously delegated Ferrets54's case to Lusted (who chose to keep him permabanned). Hex universally did not think it was a good idea, save one who ‘missed him'; therefore the action not only was unanimously opposed in senior staff, after the fact the majority of junior staff (especially those who had encountered him) also launched complaints.

Archer has complained about the time needed to reach decisions; discussion often refines ideas and hones them, and while this can consume time, the discussion is often dead and it is Archer who delays the decision. His impulsive decisions are undiscussed and therefore unhoned and may actually be damaging to the site while decisions he disagrees with are left to die as quietly as possible. In this Archer is like Nero; he leaves a trail of wailing and gnashing of teeth as he makes rash statement after rash statement in crucial times.

When discussing the development of the site, Archer created Area 51. All Hex members were included, save one. Some of the Staff were also included. It almost wrecked Hex's cohesion. Hex was having some problems and rather than resolve it, he was content to ignore them. This is reflected in his dealings with Staff members where he has consistently failed to follow Hex's advice on Staff disciplinary matters; too often people are given second chances rather than dealt with, if it seems easier to him to put the problem off than to deal with it, again to the detriment of the site.

By his own admission, Archer is not a team player -
Citation :

[Fabolous]

scottish - with us or against us

This is an interesting question Archer. I won't lie, and will be blunt. You're not my favorite leader. I have been bothered by choices you have made, and have question the manner in which you make them.

On the other hand, I do not support the method used to by the group that I will simply refer to as "the conspiracy" refering to the members who put forth their name to the document asking for your removal. I think there were a variety of ways to better handle the situation and think that they could gone after, and think that there were other options that should have been imployed before your removal was the target.


So Archer, if with us or against us is refering to thoughts of you as Imperator, than no doubt, I should be removed. However, if with us or against us is a more general question referring to whether I support their attempt to have you removed in the manner in which they attempted it, than I think it is clear that I am squarely in your corner.


On a side note, on MSN many of them have been talking to me, and when the question of my rank was brought up, I made it clear to them that I was not going to remove my rank before it was for the best of the site, and the site is too low on moderators for me to even think of leaving right now (whether I would leave if that wasn't a concern is a whole other question, where I would intend to stay). Some of them seem to have been struck by this commitment and have returned to moderating as their rights have yet to be removed, I would be interested to see the thoughts on this.

[Richard the Lionheart]

I know as much as details as you do. Now, I will post this entirely useless document I have recevied and sent to Ogre, just to play power games in the staff forum.

Game is over. Martial law is in effect. These guys just ruined their little game the last time. Curia is suspended indefinetely. We are a pure gaming site for now with some off topic discussions in the off topic sections. Reputation is suspended until further notice.

I get back my network admin badge until further notice.

Belisarius Justinian and Spartan is in charge beside me. If they don't like something current events, they will inform me.

Let me show you this fabrication, which really does not reflect the reality or at most it is blown out of proportion.
it serves as a propaganda material for stupid forum politics and power games.


Oh, by the way, I did not receive this letter, despite it was addressed to me (the first part), i guess a bunch of chicken boys weren't sure how would I react to such accusations.

My quoted message from the hexagon forum, was clearly a sarcastic comment made for tacticalwithdrawals' accusations of me not being able to control this site.

They finally pushed it too far with their silly make-believe political games.

And that letter they sent is flat out hypocrisy. In reality, the letter is an accurate description of themselves, not you.

[HorseArcher]

if you read over the lines, notice the Ferrets case with his special permission. I mean, give me a break. The guy had to say something to a discussion for which he was not permitted to do for some silly "priviledges" so i gave him a few hours to post in the special forum.
REgardless the fact, that it was favored by Asterix and some others. Now they are contradicting themselves.

Archer has helped trigger two sets of destabilizing reforms that a lot of energy had to be expended upon the bringing to fruition of. He has also directly interfered with the Syntagma in terms of keeping its law; first, Archer (without reason) abrogated the Syntagama (constitution) in Easter by essentialy removing all accountability and alienating the Curia and secondly he gave one of our most notorious posters (Ferrets54) a pass to the Curia and later a fake Senior Moderator badge, which caused an overspill of resentment and anger as well as chaos during the relevant period

Like this really matters and puts the site in "danger". Syntagma derived from a member and built around the Terms of Service, which is the real law, everything else is beside the point.
Now ask a question. Are these guys taking this a little too seriously?

Discussion within Hex has declined over time. Indeed, if you examine the number of threads started by Archer, it is not especially high.

This must be very "dangerous" as well. If there is nothing to discuss, why should I start a topic?

Senior Moderators bring issues but seldom are the global moderators asked for any input into policy or other actions. Even when asked for their opinion, the decision is rarely related to the discussion and often contradictory to the consensus reached in such discussions as do occur. While this is his prerogative, on some issues, he should be deferring to this group, especially when it concerns overturning suspensions and the functioning of the moderators as a whole or individually, or matters of policy which the group must enforce and act upon, wherein group consultation is paramount.

Sounds like a "mimirswell"-like paragraph. I make decisions based on previous mistakes. Like banning Ferrets over nothing.
He might be a past-flamer and forum abuser, but people change. And his banning was biased, based on personal feelings and emotions, which should never be practiced.

The Senior Staff try to act as intermediaries between Archer and the Junior Moderators. A classic example, recently, was when Gabarsardar was promoted – there was zero discussion about this.

...Right, since there was ZERO moderators online, while we had over 400 members online and I was leaving for the day. I needed someone to look over the forums.

A further example, were one neccessary, is the revocation of the permanent ban on the member Ferrets54. He has always been highly aggressive to junior moderators; he trolls constantly and after asking Hex, Archer simply reinstated him despite having previously delegated Ferrets54's case to Lusted (who chose to keep him permabanned).

Ferrets again? How many times will they refer to ferrets for christ sake? Someone has a bad taste for him, i guess.

Archer has complained about the time needed to reach decisions; discussion often refines ideas and hones them, and while this can consume time, the discussion is often dead and it is Archer who delays the decision.

Now that's a serious BS. Last time they were complaining about me being too fast with decisions and now I'm too slow?

When discussing the development of the site, Archer created Area 51. All Hex members were included, save one. Some of the Staff were also included. It almost wrecked Hex's cohesion.

Jesus Christ, save me. We were there with Mithras. And it was Belisarius who was excluded and he was later let in.

This is reflected in his dealings with Staff members where he has consistently failed to follow Hex's advice on Staff disciplinary matters; too often people are given second chances rather than dealt with, if it seems easier to him to put the problem off than to deal with it, again to the detriment of the site.

By his own admission, Archer is not a team player -

Am I suppose to bow to people who I selected and approved for moderation? I pay attention, but only for crucial problems, not stupid forum politics. I advised many times to leave me out of it.

"Detriment to the site" Like what? Not caring about what the CdeC says? I never cared, but neither interfered.


These guys not made one single accusation which would put this site into the "danger". It puts them in danger, by loosing their big mouth.
Such as deleting sub forums or wreaking havoc in the total war community. That would be serious. Or planting a virus into the forum software? Show me one of those.

A complete propaganda for nothing.

[Belisarius]

When discussing the development of the site, Archer created Area 51. All Hex members were included, save one. Some of the Staff were also included. It almost wrecked Hex's cohesion.

The one was me, it was my fault, I was acting like them.

[Richard the Lionheart]

All of it is just b.s and flat out backstabbing and hypocrisy.

[Hader]

Damn, I wish this all didnt go down while i wasnt here. I am a bit lost and dont have much time to catch up, but I do not like the approach and actions of said conspirators. Ill try to catch up more tomorrow.