Important member banned

[Abusimplea 141]

No backup, no pity. Always have backups!

[OrbWeaver 448]

you send your map to a beta tester who also has access to the finished map download server they alter your map, you think its finished, you send your finished map the the person who has access to the download server, they think their map improvements are better than yours, they up load their version of your map, you only find out later on after people have been playing your map that they are not playing your version of your map but someone else's version.

 

That's a different scenario. I was asking specifically about the situation described by AluminumHaste, where Bikerdude sends the map back to the original author rather than publishing it himself.

 

Or, you send your version to someone with a specific request for them to do ONE THING, and they send the map back. You thank them, dive in, and do some more work, before discovering that they made all kinds of changes that you didn't want and didn't ask for. You didn't think to look at the entire map, because you never assumed someone would just decide to pave over your own work without permission like that.

 

Well yes, I suppose that makes sense if you're working on a large and complex map, and manually inspecting everything is not easy. Unlike code, there is no real way to "inspect the diff" of changes to a map, even if you are using version control, because the map is not human-readable but has to be loaded into DarkRadiant or the game itself.

 

What I've done to myself also Orbweaver is that I stupidly overwrote the files in the map directory with what I thought were the latest files. Didn't realize until it was too late.

 

Fair enough, we all make mistakes. But this really highlights why you should not rely on just a single copy of the map in your maps directory, but should have regular backups or version control.

 

Perhaps I need to make a tutorial on "Basic version control for mappers" or something, because this is such an easy problem to solve. It makes me sad to think people are losing work and burning out as a result of data loss that could so easily have been prevented.

[Destined 536]

Isn't there a hint like "keep backups" in the A-Z tutorial? If not, I could look for a good place to add it. I don't think that people need a tutorial on how to create backups, but working with SVN may not be too bad.

[Anderson 261]

The devil hides in the details.

[teh_saccade 233]

Perhaps I need to make a tutorial on "Basic version control for mappers" or something, because this is such an easy problem to solve. It makes me sad to think people are losing work and burning out as a result of data loss that could so easily have been prevented.

 

At least, in Windows, there's the option to sync certain folders to online storage and/or some local drive.

I've included the maps, dependent folders and 'wip/subfolder' of the DR/TDM partition to be sync'd to the external usb storage drive, as well as the archive drive, along with other game projects and those massive adobe files and assets.

 

This way, there's no need to manually copy stuff every time - the sync'd folders don't have their content deleted as with dropbox or onedrive sync or whatever.

Rather than mirror, it can be set to contribute so that the files aren't removed from the sync'd folder if they're removed from the source, or altered/removed at the source if they are in the sync.

I'm not sure if it will save duplicates as (copies). Not something I've ever tried due to my convention.

 

Even with Illustrator's crash recovery update last year, using that stuff (especially on windows), I think it's made me a little OCD when it comes to saving stuff regularly and in a numbered sequence.

 

The tool from MS is called SyncToy:

 

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=15155

 

To make backups to more than one location using the sync, it's possible to daisy-chain the first sync'd folder to another.

Once it's set, it's just a case of taking the start-up performance hit and the time for the copy operation.

 

Pretty sure there are going to be many freeware sync things for all platforms.

This one's nice because it's simple.

[duzenko 556]

I just want to add that banning the account also means preventing user from any kind of technical support and feedback on playing new missions

That again does not make any sense and does not have anything to do with his sins as the mod maintainer

[stumpy 234]

they still have email access to people they know on the forum so technical support and feedback could always be done via a 3rd party.

[chakkman 263]

You know, no disrespect towards Bikerdude, but, i can only explain to pray for someone to ban me that it involves a lot of drama queen attitude. Otherwise you could just stop posting, or stop attending to the community. Really, try to imagine the psychology behind it... that's either maximum OCD, or compulsive self-display.

[AluminumHaste 911]

I just want to add that banning the account also means preventing user from any kind of technical support and feedback on playing new missions

That again does not make any sense and does not have anything to do with his sins as the mod maintainer

 

Oh well, that's why you don't do shit that gets you banned.

[Abusimplea 141]

You know, no disrespect towards Bikerdude, but, i can only explain to pray for someone to ban me that it involves a lot of drama queen attitude. Otherwise you could just stop posting, or stop attending to the community. Really, try to imagine the psychology behind it... that's either maximum OCD, or compulsive self-display.

Beeing a drama queen, narcistic, or having OCD are not the worst traits to have. They are bad traits, but: In real life character traits choose you - not the other way around. And i never met a human without any bad traits. Some even have to use a wheel chair or can't see. Others have to constantly throw insults to everyone. And there are uncounted traits that are even far worse than that.

 

Drama queen is one of the traits i would explicitly choose for getting some extra character points to put in feats like darkvision or memory (having a low level in the last one really sucks)...

Whatever bad trait he got - it looks like some of that extra character point are in his great mapping skills...

 

Oh well, that's why you don't do shit that gets you banned.

Surely, forcing him to keep his experience to himself will hurt him the most (instead of the people who lack that experience).

[Obsttorte 1440]

they still have email access to people they know on the forum so technical support and feedback could always be done via a 3rd party.

Indeed. I have him in my steam friends list and we were talking from time to time. In addition, (almost) all team members have TDM associated email addresses, so they are reachable from the outside. Although I am not sure whether those can be found anywhere, and there is the tdm steam group Biker still has access to, so he can be contacted there.

[chakkman 263]

Beeing a drama queen, narcistic, or having OCD are not the worst traits to have. They are bad traits, but: In real life character traits choose you - not the other way around.

 

Orly? Frankly,i don't need to ask to be banned to stop posting, or realize when i'm annoying or straight insulting other people. If you have so little self control, then i have no idea how you get along with anyone, or anything in life.

 

The way i got to know Bikerdude in this forum, never met him in real life, he also seemed like a person who at least knows how far he can go when he's posting here. So, my guess would be rather on the "drama queen" thing. Anyway, as he's not able to reply here, i will leave it at that.

[AluminumHaste 911]

Also, there's absolutely nothing stopping him from creating another account if he really needs to ask something on the forums.

[Springheel 4338]

Also, there's absolutely nothing stopping him from creating another account if he really needs to ask something on the forums.

 

While there are probably ways to do it without drawing attention, getting around a ban by creating a new account isn't officially permitted.

[AluminumHaste 911]

 

While there are probably ways to do it without drawing attention, getting around a ban by creating a new account isn't officially permitted.

 

Yes, circumventing a ban is a bannable offense, pretty standard.

I didn't mean for him to resume his M.O., but just to get some help if he needs it.

[Springheel 4338]

He's already a member of that TTLG/TDM beta-testing forum (I forget the name), so it's not really an issue.

[duzenko 556]

Who are the members of the user ban board? Is there a formal vote? What is the procedure? Who presses the red button?

[RPGista 600]

I guess any moderator can ban an user if he identifies a bannable offense. At least thats how I assume it goes in most forums?

[Destined 536]

Pretty sure that is the case, but from what I have gathered, the admins decide as a collective if someone really should be banned. It is not like any one person will ban someone out of spite. It is a serious step and the admins know that, so it is not decided lightly.

[Abusimplea 141]

I didn't mean for him to resume his M.O., but just to get some help if he needs it.

I think, he will be fine with not beeing able to get help from the forum...

[duzenko 556]

And "the Admins" are ... ?

[AluminumHaste 911]

What are you trying to accomplish here? What's your end game?

[RPGista 600]

The admins are probably the team members, you guys are the ones keeping the lights on after all, plus maybe some regular forum member people saw fit to act as moderator? I havent looked into it (who is a moderator and who isnt). But its pretty widespread that online communities have different rules (depending on what they are for) and that breaking them will get you a warning, or even an outright ban, a lot of times this is done by people with the right to do it, with no need for further discussion (if its a clear case) - something like insulting people, or stealing work, things like that. The process in Bikerdudes case has been vastly covered, by a lot of different people, including himself a few weeks prior to the ban, so I guess theres very little controversy at this point... Though I do agree, if thats what you are wondering, that some cases might be blurry and a democratic way of deciding would be preferable to someone arbitrarily exercising power. But I have never once seen moderator abuse here in the forum. On the contrary. I remember this one guy that kept coming and going, he was always pissed and would eventually insult people, get banned and come back some months later under a new name. I think he did it like 3 or 4 times. I dont think people ever minded him coming back. Untill he would go psycho again. Well, at least I got the impression it was always the same guy.

Edited February 23 by RPGista

[Springheel 4338]

The forum mods are (I was pretty sure this was posted somewhere, but I can't find it atm):

 

Greebo

Grayman

Melan

New Horizon

stgatilov

taaaki (mostly high level maintenance)

and myself

 

A few additional people have mod power in particular forums.

 

I have never once seen moderator abuse here in the forum. On the contrary. I remember this one guy that kept coming and going, he was always pissed and would eventually insult people, get banned and come back some months later under a new name. I think he did it like 3 or 4 times.

 

 

Ah yes, Aidakeeley/Blueskybullet/etc (I forget some of the other aliases he used). One of the few other people we have ever banned.

[Jetrell 34]

The forum mods are (I was pretty sure this was posted somewhere, but I can't find it atm):

I found this but this list looks slightly outdated. The moderating team