PLEASE READ: Personal Address to the RA2 Community

[kill343gs]

It's no secret that during these last few months, some really stupid stuff has been going happening on this website. I see the complaints all   the time, almost on a daily basis: "Posting quality has taken a   downturn," "This community has changed too much," whatever. I've heard   it all. Well guess what? Communities are guarenteed to change with time. That's a given. People leave, people change. It happens. It's a fact of   life and we all have to deal with it. But at the end of the day, this community still has some pretty awesome people in it. People I have tons   of respect for. More on that later.

A lot of you guys have been   around for a while. A few months or a year or two sure can seem like a long time, huh? Well guess what? If you came from the RA2 community that I come from, you guys wouldn't have lasted a week. If you think you all   bash Sparkey or LRA2 hard, you haven't seen anything. We used to run people out of town for some of the stuff I've seen on this forum these past few weeks. There's a few among you that could vouch for that, you just need to know who to ask. And my time (2006) wasn't even that long ago in retrospect, considering the 10th anniversary of the first Robot Arena game is sometime this year.

But times are different now. We're alot more lenient than we used to be, and for good reason. A game that hasn't changed in 8 years is pretty tough to keep a whole community   going around for an extended period of time. Why else do you think HX was so surprised to find us when he came back a week ago? Making people leave is no way to keep a group alive. Yes, that is why Sparkey is still here. And no, that isn't likely to change.

What does need to change is the way a lot of you act. In order for any of us to keep our   sanity in the end, this rubbish that goes on needs to stop right now.   I'm sure most of you can tell what that is, but for those of you who can't I will spell it out for you. I'll start with the biggest issue. Everything else pretty much ties into this:

Attention Seeking. I have seen enough of this in the past year to make my head spin. Yes, I understand it's human nature; but so aren't killing for food and reproduction, and you don't see me stabbing my brother every time I get hungry or having children with every woman who walks down the street.   Here's the deal; You can add to your Wiki page* or change your name and gender all you want, but it is absolutely NOT going to win you any more respect. Respect is something that you earn through your actions.
(*Look   at Clickbeetle or Firebeetle's wiki pages. You could very easily     argue that they are two of the greatest influences on this game of all     time, and their wiki pages are a couple short sentences long. Do you   see   them complaining? NO. )

Baww about it all you want. Make a few more "I'm leaving," "Thinking about leaving," "Should I stay here?" threads. People's opinions of you are not going to change until you change. If you keep posting trash like that all you are doing is digging yourself a bigger hole.

Likewise, spending all of your time on GTM in the Chatterbox or Playground is not helping any. Story time? I've literally never read a page of it, and I don't plan on changing that. If you don't think that you're respected enough or whatever, you're probably spending a bit too much time in there.

Not that building skill is the only thing that determines respect, I'm a   prime example of that. But honestly, be a little bit constructive once   in a while. Read a few showcases. Post a few replies, learn a little bit. The fact that Jonzu's awful thread got 20 pages in one day is   absolutely sickening to me. If you can't see something wrong with that, you must be blind. This is a website about a game, not a low-budget television soap opera.

And age is absolutely no excuse, either. I was 12 when I signed up on this site back in '06. I think Sage was about 13 when he signed up. The BeetleBros weren't that old, either. If you know that what you are doing is enough of a problem to make up an excuse for it, you know well enough to make the effort to work on fixing that problem.

I decided over a year ago that the only reason I still hung around here was for the community. I don't build anymore, not   that I was ever anything better than average. I ran out of ideas a long time ago, and I sure as am not capable of catching back up with   modern building. For some reason I have a hard time leaving places like this that meant so much to me behind. Doing it with my own forum hurt me enough, and it would hurt me a of a lot more than that to come back here someday and find out that this place went downhill. Now instead of coming back to nothing I'm watching it slip away in front of me. DO NOT make me regret that decision.

To sum up, the leniency we have is a good thing for reasons I already explained. If you want us to become more strict, we can do that as well. Either you people start fixing the problem or we will. The ball is in your court.

[Hydro]

Noted.

[Naryar]

AKA: both of you (especially Kuiji) should either leave, either stop spending your time in the off topic section and contribute to the forums.

Build bots, be constructive, enter tournaments, give ideas, etc. It's not hard really.

This also goes for all people that spend their time in the off topic section.

[Clickbeetle]

kill343 asked me to post these guidelines I came up with as well.  I've noticed that most of the type of threads that people complain about and end up growing into 20+ page spam threads before finally being locked, are threads of a purely personal nature.


So here's a simple test you should all remember when you're about to post.  Pass the test and you will be just fine.


Before making a thread, ask yourself:
Who does the topic of this thread involve?


If the answer to that is "myself, and possibly my close relatives", and no one else on the forums, then ask yourself:
Why do other people need to know about this?


If the best answer you can come up with to that is, "because I need to tell them", then don't post.


Finally, ask yourself this for good measure:
"What kind of response do I expect to get from this thread?"


If the answer to that is "sympathetic well-wishes", "shock/horror", "anger/hatred", or any other kind of strong emotion, then don't post.

[ACAMS]

So, to slightly Summarize, this means I should go away, instead of adding spice to the forums?

I personally have little to nothing, other then idle conversation and an entertaining (to most) form of spam, Hydro asked me here so he could witness it himself, and I believe he's put off showing me how to actually play the game.

Having been in a situation much like that with another forum, I fully understand if that's how you feel, and since your obviously a well enough respected member, I could leave if you wish me to.

 
 
That is not what he said......we just want you to keep playground IN PLAYGROUND!!!!
 
We want a "don't ask, don't tell" policy
 
If you want to leave, then leave, don't make a topic
If you are a girl, register as a girl in the first place
If you are gay, be gay.....just don't make a topic about it
 
Or make them in Playground where they belong, or will be INSTANTLY moved to from now on.
 

[ThisDude069]

Dually Noted

I apologize if I've seemed annoying, I'm just having a little fun in the chatterbox before I get some showcases up. I'm still learning the game, I'm anxious to play, I've just been having a little trouble gettin on the ole' PC. But I've got it running now, so, I'll probably be too busy building to be in the forums for a while.

[Naryar]

You can always create a showcase and ask for help. It will not only help your building, but make you more respected, if only for a bit.

[Stagfish]

Likewise, spending all of your time on GTM in the Chatterbox or Playground is not helping any. Story time? I've literally never read a page of it, and I don't plan on changing that. If you don't think that you're respected enough or whatever, you're probably spending a bit too much time in there.

Not that building skill is the only thing that determines respect, I'm a   prime example of that. But honestly, be a little bit constructive once   in a while. Read a few showcases. Post a few replies, learn a little bit. The fact that Jonzu's awful thread got 20 pages in one day is   absolutely sickening to me. If you can't see something wrong with that, you must be blind. This is a website about a game, not a low-budget television soap opera.

I think I said something like this once, but everyone got pissed and said that the chatterbox and playground keeps the forum alive or something like that.

[Naryar]

said that the chatterbox and playground keeps the forum alive or something like that.

Nonsense. We could very well GET ENTIRELY RID OF CHATTERBOX AND PLAYGROUND and the forum would still be active. Less, but still.

[JoeBlo]

there is enough here to keep things alive

BBEANS AI
123 AI
SkAI High
Realism AI
Backlash

are examples of recent mods that are getting people into playing...

I think we should shrink the off topic section and ditch the playground myself

[Kujii]

Chances are, you could.

Sure, some members would prolly completely vanish, but, those members contribute little to nothing any way.

Go for it.

[frezal]

While I agree with the sentiments of Mr. kill343gs's post, I'm still going to spend most of my time in the Chatterbox. I have little to contribute in terms of actual RA2 discussions. I'm a relic of the past; obsolete, if you will. Building bots has gone from simple designs with a heavy focus on a cool paint job to seeing how many spikes can be shoved onto a bot. Oh well.

[Clickbeetle]

While I agree with the sentiments of Mr. kill343gs's post, I'm still going to spend most of my time in the Chatterbox. I have little to contribute in terms of actual RA2 discussions. I'm a relic of the past; obsolete, if you will. Building bots has gone from simple designs with a heavy focus on a cool paint job to seeing how many spikes can be shoved onto a bot. Oh well.

Doesn't mean you can't still be respected for building in the old way... see dragonsteincole.


Anyway, I don't really see a problem with off-topic dwellers as long as they stay on-topic in off-topic... if that makes sense.


Like Sparkey and Jonzu play RA2 and have a showcase and stuff (and in Jonzu's case is respected for his building), but both are much more of a troublemaker than you or even Kujii.


I think the main thing is that people need to learn what kind of stuff is OK to post and what kind of stuff should be kept to themselves.

[Zog]

Building bots has gone from simple designs with a heavy focus on a cool paint job to seeing how many spikes can be shoved onto a bot. Oh well.

Agreed 100%. I try and build in the "old style", as I was around back in those days, only for a brief period of time, though.


Whenever I build in stock, I don't just snapper tons of tris and irons onto a chassis, as it:
A) looks ugly
B) has no real thought to it. Anyone could build one.

Before making a thread, ask yourself:
Who does the topic of this thread involve?


If the answer to that is "myself, and possibly my close relatives", and no one else on the forums, then ask yourself:
Why do other people need to know about this?


If the best answer you can come up with to that is, "because I need to tell them", then don't post.

A definite must read for all people who, on a constant basis, post threads like that.


I've been guily of it once, but my reason was "because I need their advice." And because of that, I solved the problem.


However, I feel that Sparkles, Avalance, FAILTX, TX etc. won't read this, because they basically spend their life in the playground. But, as much as I loathe FAILTX, I still think he has decent bot building skill.

[JoeBlo]

has no real thought to it. Anyone could build one.

ahahahahahaha

*looks through Pwns showcase*

Build one of those right now if its so easy :P

[Naryar]

Yeah I don't think building a correct HW 36HS is so easy. It's mostly annoying, but without knowledge of glitches you cannot do it.

[Jonzu95]

This thread made me thinking is it worth to do something like I did yesterday...

[Enigm@]

M'kay.

[Natef]

I read it, and agreed with the things said.

[Scorpion]

This thread made me thinking is it worth to do something like I did yesterday...

Well duh.
Anyway, I hope people do read this and take note, lots of very good points and info there.