NO MORE POLITICS!

[Halaster Blackcloak]

Ok guys, politics these days are more divisive than ever, so from now on anything political gets deleted immediately - pro-this, anti-that, whatever. Whether you think Trump is the greatest president since Washington, or whether you believe he's an evil agent of Putin - DO NOT POST IT HERE!

I had hoped we could avoid losing members, but politics these days is causing even family members to become outcasts, and we've probably already lost a few members over it. So, enough. Politics must now, regretfully, become taboo here.

[Beowulf]

I got you, Hal. Probably a good rule. I regret that I have "gone there" with politics. You're right- let's stick to D&D.

[Beowulf]

BTW, didn't mean to be away so long. It's been a busy summer! I'm in Montana now, just been super busy with work. And when I'm not at work I'm out in the parks and forests engaging in my main non-D&D love...bushcraft!

[Halaster Blackcloak]

Awesome! God, I've heard Montana is beautiful! I'd love to be working outdoors there!

[Beowulf]

I am a chef so I work indoors. But I'm out in the mountains/woods whenever I can.

I'm glad to be back at BiP. Just needed time to cool off, I guess.

[McDeath]

I'm usually outdoors biking oe hiking. Well, my second mountain bike just broke so I have to get it fixed. Pity, as the park closes in october. It couldn't have lasted one more month.

[Tawnos76]

Been a while but I am back on as well. Been working a bit more then usual and fixing up the house so I have not had much time for general gaming but getting back in.

[Halaster Blackcloak]

Glad to see you back! I'm hoping to get some more active discussions going on the site while trying to wrap up the final rooms of Level 8.

[Beowulf]

Nice to see some of the regulars again!

[slade88green]

Im still here. Been checking updates from time to time. Working long hours since starting my own business, but business is good.

[McDeath]

DF fags pissed me off today. Called me a sociopath and i percieved them as mentally fangbanging me. Told em to fuck off and the site. Though i'll still dl shit. Just bullshit topics that have nothing to do with gaming/hobbies/entertainment etc. I saw the thread as political trolling or agenda trolling. So now I'm the uncaring sociopath on DF. Meh... Fucking internet. Guess im not allowed an opinion.

[garhkal]

You are allowed an opinion. ONLY IF IT matches what they want you to think... That's how it often seems like to me.

[McDeath]

Well it was deleted by admin among other cleanup. I avoid making political or lead in politics posts most places.

Comic are fine
Tv fine
Movies fine
Hobbies fine
Gaming fine
Books fine
Etc etc entertainment fine

Coronavirus and its affect. People die. Disease does that. Ya'll know the episode of star trek where it was butt to nut people and no space no disease. Well, disease is good. It culls the weak. As i said there (before i was deleted), we all die, i'm going to die and when dead I won't care because i'm dead.

I know people are all about $$$, legacy, and leaving a mark... well boo fucking hoo. World burns from the sun, asteroid kills all, catastrophic even wipes all out your LEGACIES are fucking gone. How many are erased from the past. On the calculator for say 8 billion population i'd say 99.9999% of the people on the planet does not know nor care for a certain individual on the planet (me for example being an example). And that's still overly generous. What is that 8k. Id be hard pressed on 800 or 80 tbh.

As an individual i really have little to no importance in this world life. My impact is like zilch and will be forgotten. Say i die right now.. most don't give a fuck. Pump that up by 10 years, 100 even less. Now go 1k, 10k... not even a carbon foot print id wager. 100k a million.. nada. A billion or trillion even gods wouldnt remember if they existed.

Afterlife? I doubt any spirit or being would give a crap if they existed either. Human ego inflates their importance when in fact we are just food for time, space, and existential data to consume and recycle to void. NOT IMPORTANT IN THE LONG RUN. As they said on the thread... i must be a sociopath because of lack of empathy for sods across the world in a dictatorship ran by Chink Winnie the Pooh. Well, guess i'm just a weak willed POS. All the toxicity of family abuse and being more submissive destroyed any sense of alpha masculinity in my life. Yeah at times i'm cynical and dark because wolf pack mentality to hunt those believed vulnerable exist in all walks of life. Keyboard warrior? I guess i should open invite to my homeless site when i get back to oregon so they can choose to confront face to face. But at that point i've already declared myself a corpse so... let them come if its that damn important to get another notch on their bravado belt.

[Halaster Blackcloak]

Guys,

DF went to shit a long, long time ago. Steve allowed his butt buddy trolls - EOTB, Rizak, Storm Crow (was that his name, or Raven Crow or Raven Storm or something?) - the biased moderators, the special interest cliques, etc, to run off all the TSR alumni. I mean, seriously - how stupid can a site admin be to allow a gaggle of obnoxious assholes to run off the ENTIRE FREAKING TSR ALUMNI CAST? Steve, in my eyes, is the ultimate loser. He pissed away a solid gold bar studded with diamonds and turned it into shit.

DF long ago degenerated into a sad pathetic farce of what it one was. A decadent, dying remnant of a once great site. Nothing left but favored-status trolls (who are allowed to break the rules with impunity), sycophants who kiss so much moderator ass they must have own stock in the Chapstick company, and cowards who are afraid to speak their mind lest they be ostracized. It's a pathetic joke of a site. And I have news for everyone - it's never going to recover. Its time is over. Everything has its golden age and then falls from glory. So too did DF. It used to be one of the best D&D resources online. Now it's just a shithole. People don't even have decent debates anymore because you have to toe the line and bow to the trolls or they ban you. Unless you're one of the favored "elite", you can't step out of line. But the "elites" can break all the rules daily. That's why so many people, including all the TSR staff, left a long time ago.

I hate to say it, but when Stuart died, Steve should have killed himself as well and left the site to someone who had a brain, because all he did for Stuart's legacy was run the site into the ground. It's as if he wanted the site to fail. No one could be that incompetent.

DF is the Titanic and there are people still working in a futile attempt to prevent it from hitting the bottom of the ocean. It's too late.

Same thing happened with Cole over at PADND. It's virtually a ghost town. Garhkal is about the only factor keeping it alive. Even so, the participation is far, far below what it used to be. Cole doesn't care about having biased moderators or whether or not the site is even alive. He just doesn't care.

And who was the moron running Mortality.net? It's been so long the names blur. Anyway, he was such a shitty site admin he would side with obvious trolls and problem people over the moderators (of which I was one) because all he cared about (admittedly) was getting free shit from 3E sponsors. He ran that site into the ground and when I walked off it crashed and burned. It doesn't even exist anymore.

So that's just how it goes. When you have shitty admins, the sites fail.

[McDeath]

The thread got "cleaned up" and later locked. I'll go back to ghosting instead of posting. Some individuals have idea that aren't part of this newer mob. I don't know who a lot of these posters are tbh. So, those i trade with or glean a map or idea from are fine but i am really don't say on the forum all that much. I mean its not dead but there is little thats new Of interest for me.

I just find it odd i make a comment in passing and it turns me into a "sociopath." And the gang-banging-wagon is par for the course of libtard mentality.

You know, I don't believe any of the pioneers of tsr or other companies visit DF. They had racked up a few but now.... its dying and that could be due to a few factors that isn't mod related.

There is a project in the megadungeon thread i'm following though. Its a big one but the price is something i'll pass on for now.

[Halaster Blackcloak]

"Cleaned up" being a euphemism for "censored". Let's not talk about anything unpleasant on our fantasy-genre Titanic site! God forbid! Those people are such idiots. DF really has sunk to the depths.

And of course you have a whole gaggle of idiots there who think that because they can Google a term or a tidbit of info, they're actually intelligent when in fact they aren't anywhere near as smart as they think they are. I would say that most of the idiots at DF performing their flippant "internet psychologist" diagnoses do not even realize that "sociopath" is not an actual diagnosis, nor would they know the cardinal signs of anti-social personality disorder (the proper definition).

All you have to do is speak an unpopular opinion or unpleasant fact, and the uppity wanna-know-it-alls over there will "diagnose" you.

I've logged into the site a few times over the past year but god almighty is it boring now! All the life is drained out of it. It's become the internet retirement home of grognards who go there to die while spending time with their fellow washed up grognards. The energy there is very depressing.

The reason it's dying is not just the shit poor moderation. It's the fact that there's no life, no excitement there. People like me who would come up with an unending stream of interesting and/or heated threads just don't go there anymore. There's no vibrancy. The moderators pick sides, always siding with the "untouchables" trolls of the site. Steve whines constantly for money and donations, as if an influx of money is going to keep the Titanic afloat when in fact it's already under water. It's sad and pathetic. The man has no integrity and no shame.

All the TSR alumni, one of the biggest draws of the site, are gone and they're never coming back because of how poorly they were treated. Steve didn't care. He let his pet troll lovers bash every TSR member until each one left. A lot of people were very pissed off about that and I recall a lot of people quitting as each alumnist was driven off.

Like I said, just like the commercial for the LifeCall, DF has fallen and it can't get up. Unfortunately for DF, there is no lifeline for Steve to call. It's over.

[garhkal]

I know i've ruffled some feathers over there. There's been twice now i have received a 1 wk ban.

[Halaster Blackcloak]

And yet assholes like EOTB and other trolls who attack even TSR alumni and who break the rules constantly never get so much as a slap on the wrist or a warning. Tells you a lot about how Steve runs his failed website, doesn't it?

[garhkal]

True, but i stick around, as other sites, don't get anywhere near the chatter as DF does.

[Halaster Blackcloak]

True, they are still busier than most sites. It's just a shame it can't be as good as it used to be. Such a far fall! It really is a tragic story. Some people actually think I'm crowing in happiness over the Great Fall of DF because I've been banned...ummm...I lost count over the years. A couple dozen times or so? But actually no. It's just sad, that's the only emotion I can feel about DF. Sadness. It's a real damned shame that Steve was allowed to run it into the ground like he did. The heyday is over. It will always and forever be only dying embers of a once hot fire. It really is a pity.

[Tawnos76]

I have not used DF in years. It always seemde like a tight club with no more room for new ideas.

While smaller I do more input on boardgamegeek.com for putting out ideas then elsewhere.

[McDeath]

I've been to BoardgameGeek quite a bit for Dark Crystal entries.

[Halaster Blackcloak]

I have not used DF in years. It always seemde like a tight club with no more room for new ideas.

While smaller I do more input on boardgamegeek.com for putting out ideas then elsewhere.

Problem is, newcomers at DF have to toe the line and not make waves or argue or get out of line lest they be ostracized. It's become a very intolerant site. Very clique-ish. There's the "in crowd" who can say anything and break the rules with impunity and there's the "out crowd" who are constantly punished for speaking out. It's really very pathetic.

[garhkal]

Would be nice to know, who you think the 'in crowd is'...

[Halaster Blackcloak]

I'd have to go scan to remember all the names. But you know who the "untouchables" are. The ones who can break the rules daily, hurl insults, argue, harass TSR alumni and never get a slap on the wrist.

Rizak
EOTB
Egg of Coot
Matthew
Mock26
T Foster
Rogueattorney
Black Prince of Muncie
Solomoriah
Gnarley Bones
Cias the Noble
Papers and Paychecks

And so on. I forget all the names. It's been awhile. But it was a large group who always hurled insults and argued and trolled and never got so much as a warning.

The thread is still up there, somewhere, where we were discussing the MotP. The original 1E hardcover. Steve had banned me a good half dozen times or so. And when I got back on, he and I exchanged a bunch of PMs. I told him I would PROVE to him that I was not the cause of recent troubles and I told him that I would not fight and flame back at anyone for any reason. He said fine, if anything goes down, do not fight back, just inform the moderators. Ok fine. Deal. I told him watch...the gaggle of Bunker Buddies would gang up on me and start shit.

Sure enough, Black Prince of Muncie started in on me in one reply. Hurling insults, being argumentative, his Bunker Boys backing him. Five on one jumping all over me, doing shit that Steve would be sending me warnings and bans for. So I posted publicly and politely saying that I loved debate, but that if BPoM kept harassing me I would simply have to ignore him and not respond to his post because I assured Steve I would be on my best behavior, so to speak.

Here is the thread for the jury to decide. This is the page where BPoM starts attacking me:

https://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/view ... s&start=30

Now please everyone, read everything I wrote on that thread up until that point. Not even a hint of sarcasm, much less insults or argumentativeness. Just polite debate. Cias the Ignoble started with his attitude towards me but nothing that would have gotten anyone (other than perhaps me) for saying. I was still polite to him. Anyway...

Here's the opening salvo from BPOM:

That's really weak. "Someone doesn't agree with me, therefore they must simply be too ignorant to fully understand my genius." We've all come to expect [edit]stuff[/edit] like that from Halaster, but I'm surprised you're stooping to this level DMPrata. You're obviously very knowledgeable about the AD&D rules and I think it's perfectly clear to anyone with such knowledge the the critiques being offered by me, Papers&Paychecks Gnarley Bones, Cias and others are all founded in the actual BtB rules contained in the MotP. You may not agree with the opinions we have formed from reading those rules, but it's obvious that the opinions are not uninformed.

The original post had the word "crap" in place of "stuff". BPoM edited it, as he admits later. Keep that in mind. My response? Just what Steve asked me to do...

BPoM, refrain from personal attacks if you want to continue discussing this. I'm not hurling insults at you guys. I expect the same respect, despite your personal feelings towards me.

Then Ciassshole the Ignoble jumps in:

h, a circular arguement, how wonderfully clever of you!

"The MotP's depiction of the elemental planes as 'building blocks of the multiverse' is correct because that is what the MotP's says they are . . ."

At that point little soy boy Matthew whines and says we ALL need to cut out the eye rolling. Then he accuses both sides (me included) of "borderline jabs". No Matthew, those were insults that Steve threatened to ban me over if I'd posted them and it wasn't me making them.

Next, BPoM accuses ME of being passive/aggressive and not being respectful. Pot meet kettle!

Passive-aggressive insults are still insults. It might seem clever and subtle to hide a dig behind someone else's words. The reality is it's obvious and just as unacceptable. Saying, "Normally I'd call you a moron but I don't want to derail the discussion." or quoting someone else's dig and adding your agreement is no less a flame and an insult than simply saying "You are a moron.". One is passive, the other is active, they're both inappropriate and have no place in a civil discussion.

Showing respect is very good advice. If you want engage in a civil discussion, Hal, I would suggest you begin practicing what you preach.

No moderator stepped in to warn BPoM. It was only after I wrote this...

In the interests of clarifying reality, I would point out that you were the one who launched the personal attacks with this statement:
We've all come to expect crap like that from Halaster
I have no idea what I said that you consider "passive aggressive insults", but in any case, I made no insults towards anyone. You, however, did - with the statement above.

I know your other "hang-out" is out of commission right now, but that doesn't give you a green light to pop in here and start taking pot shots at people you don't like. The discussion was very friendly until you started hurling insults.

...when that drunker bum looking Scotty G wrote this warning, clearly intended towards me but word crafted to pretend he's not speaking to me directly:

This is the second request to cool off a bit. There won't be another.

Oh no Scotty G! You are so bad ass! Mr. Tough guy who looks like he's hung over. Whatever.

BPoM once more accuses me of being the bad guy here, par for the course:

If the use of the word "crap" in that context is what's bothering you, I'll happily change my choice of words (*the original post has been edited to remove the contentious word*) That doesn't change the fact that you were piggy-backing on DMPrata's dig, which is inappropriate and just as uncalled for as the original comment. Again, if you want the thread to remain respectful, it would be best if you did your best to live up to the tone you expect from others

I clarify to BPOM:

Ah! I think I see where you're coming from there. Let me clarify that. You're talking about where I said to DMPrata "I was going to say that myself, but...you know" or something to that effect?

That wasn't meant as any sort of insult. It was an inside joke. It has to do with the fact that I can get in trouble for sneezing around here. It was a joke for DMPrata about how if I had said "Try reading the book", that "you know what would happen", ie I'd get slapped by the mods. Or Steve.

So I hope you understand, no insult was intended your way or towards anyone else.

At this point ultimate loser Steve steps in and posts:

I have locked this thread.

I do not like people using DF as a extension of feuds that may be happening on other sites. I do not care if you are having an argument with somebody somewhere else, DF is not the place to continue it for any reason, however low-key the attempt is here.

And when mods asks everybody to cool off they should not have to ask twice!

Now come on. That thread was cooler than ice compared to most threads that got locked for argumentativeness (whether I was involved or not).

So then, and I wish I had copies of the PMs, that fool Solomoriah wrote me a nasty ass PM talking shit to me, telling me he was sick of me and I don't belong on the site, that I need to "stop fighting all the time", just utterly insane powertrippy bullshit. I wrote Solomoriah back and politely asked him where precisely I broke any rule. I pointed out that others were insulting me and being "snarky", which at DF is considered a crime far worse than child rape according to the moderators there (well, at least when I was the one supposedly being "snarky"). I told him - Look, if you don't like my responses to the attacks, talk to Steve. I told him I would be polite and not insult others back, etc. I told him, look at who's doing all the name calling and insulting in that thread. It wasn't me.

So Solomoriah went completely fucking unhinged and sent me a novel-sized frothing-at-the-mouth rant about how he could ban me and how I have no rights and how I'm the bad guy and how dare I question him, blah, blah,blah. I swear to god, I thought he was on drugs when he wrote that. Just ranting and raving, the hate pouring out of him. He then issued his "warning" after savagely attacking me and blaming me for everything bad short of the JFK assassination. He screeched and whined about how much he couldn't stand me, how I was the one actually causing trouble on that thread, etc. He actually wrote, literally, that if I responded to his PM, even to apologize (as if I'd done something wrong), if I even replied with one single word, no matter what it was, he would ban me.

So I called his bluff. I didn't reply. I sent copies of his PM to Steve and said look - re-read that thread. Who started the insults? Who was throwing insults and belittling someone? Who was projecting their own bad behavior on me? It wasn't me! Then I told him look at this excessively abusive PM I got from Solomoriah. Just filled with bile and hatred and insults and threats. I told him - see what I told you would happen? And even the moderator jumped on the attack. I said imagine if I'd sent a PM like that - I'd be banned in a heartbeat!

He said he'd have a talk to Solomoriah about this abusive behavior. I was nice. I said thanks Steve. No need for Solomoriah to apologize for anything, just tell him to stop being so nasty and harassing me. Steve said ok, and he admitted that he was happy with how I handled the attacks on the thread and with Solomoriah's nasty PMs. A day or three later I was in the middle of a very pleasant polite discussion on another topic and all of a sudden BAM! I'm banned. Steve wrote me an email saying I was causing too much trouble, being nasty, etc. Insanity.

We all know what was going in. Steve told them it was ok to attack me, he had a moderator send me the single nastiest attack I have EVER seen on DF in all the years I was there (that's saying something!), etc. They wanted to trigger me to hit back so they could justify banning me. No mystery there. So I responded kindly and politely and with a shit ton of sugar coating. And Steve woke up on the wrong side of bed that day and said to himself:

"Fuck! Halaster didn't fall for it! I was sure he wouldn't be able to bite his tongue! Now what?"

And so he just banned me (for the final time for my Halaster account at least). And if I had the desire, I could show you literally DOZENS of threads where the moderators and Steve himself ripped on me and warned me and banned be for "being argumentative" and "not letting things go", when the other people I was debating were going at is just as adamantly as I did. It's such old history. But luckily it's still all there as a public record. I rest my case.

Now I'm not saying I was an angel. That would be absurd! People attack me, I attack back. I've told off judges in real life. I'm not about to bite my tongue on a D&D forum!

And yes, I happily and willingly crawled into the shit pit with others on many occasions and flamed them back with a fireball just like the ones cast at me. I don't mind a fair fight (which I define as 10 or 15 people ganging up on me in debate, or 3 or 4 people physically attacking me - 15 is a bit much for physical altercations! ). But in so many cases, it was the people who were part of the "in" clique, the untouchables, who instigated and propagated the unpleasantries. I could argue that I could have taken the higher ground and simply stopped discussing anything with those people, but I don't endorse a heckler's veto. Likewise, "taking the high ground" never worked there, so I fought back. The shit that so many people threw at me would have gotten me banned repeatedly. Every so often when someone posts a link to DF and I go check it out, I sometimes come across some very heated discussions where people are hurling insults that would have gotten me suspended or banned (and in fact, things far less harsh have gotten me suspended or banned). And it's always that untouchable crowd, many of them Steve's fellow arrogant Brits, and many of them part of the Bunker Buddy Clique (the K&K Alehouse and Gene Weigel's Dungeon fanatical crowd).

So that's one reason the place fell apart. When you allow a group of people to break rules with impunity, when you allow them to attack others without consequence, you get what we saw there. They drove off the TSR alumni crowd and a great number of good members with them. Sucks to be DF!

And I received quite a few PMs from a good number of other members who admitted that Steve and the moderators were harshly biased against me but that they were afraid to speak up for fear of being ostracized. I would tell them not to worry about it. I understood what assholes Steve and his biased moderators were and that I didn't expect anyone to defend me publicly because they would be punished for guilt by association or for speaking the truth. I received emails over the years from no fewer than 3 different people who said they were banned and had gotten emails from Steve or one of the moderators saying they "knew" that person was a "sock puppet" account of mine. People I didn't even know, three of them. Just on the suspicion (because all the mods at DF are genius level profilers ), they got suspended. Because Steve or one of his mods "thought" that person was really me under a different name. Think about that. No, when I created new accounts I always left clues that it was me, mainly giving "myself" (Halaster) praise or saying I was a very close friend who also thought Undermountain was the greatest D&D supplement of all time. Wink. Wink. Duh! I thought I made it completely obvious to even the most clueless. And when they attacked those accounts and I fought back, I'd get banned and the moderators would strut like peacocks saying "Well we can tell by his writing style and things he says - blah blah blah - he's really HALASTER!". You think?



I mean, Jesus H Christ, on one account I put (in tiny size 2 print or something) in my signature saying "I'm Halaster Blackcloak"!

But these Brit geniuses banned at least 3 people that I know of who they suspected of being me. There may have been more that I'm not aware of, who knows? But it shows the insanity there.

Ah the good old days! It's good for a look back and a laugh, always, but it really is a shame that Steve let his privileged trolls drive off the TSR alumni and ruin it for some many good people. But oh well. It ain't my site!