webdiplomacy.net

Magnetic24 has been removed from the moderator team and permanently banned from webDiplomacy for abuse of his moderator powers by excusing his own NMRs, removing his own temporary bans, and recalculating his RR to preserve his rating. We apologize for not catching this sooner but would like to reiterate that nobody on webDiplomacy is above our rules, especially our moderators, and we take abuse of power extremely seriously.

wow.

Így múlik el a világ dicsősége.

... and then they came for the moderators, and by that time there was no one left...

Sorry to hear that. Always a difficult one when it's a trusted friend and fellow member of the team. I don't think anyone will criticise for being a bit slow off the mark in these circumstances. Well done to the rest of you for spotting it and keeping the games of webDip freer from cheating than anywhere else on the web.

It is remarkable though... The amount of stress and effort Magnetic must have gone to in an effort to cover up NMRs and RR must dwarf what it takes to simply be reliable in the first place. Still, that's people for you.

Well then what’s the point of having power if you’re not allowed to abuse it? Hardly even seems worth it.


Drain the swamp! Drain the swamp!

VillageIdiot wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 22, 2019 8:17 am

Well then what’s the point of having power if you’re not allowed to abuse it? Hardly even seems worth it.


Drain the swamp! Drain the swamp!

Did you write, "brain the swamp, brain the swamp?" What does that even mean?

This is a terribly rare pity, medium disappointment, much well done condolences, etc etc

But yes, actual condolences to the current team for the loss in trust, it is never quite a pleasant feeling (unless, of course, one was manipulating for that outcome in which a lesser ally stabs oneself first, for the sake of avoiding solo suspicion in proceeding to counterattack, hah!)


anyways...is it too soon to make empty position/promotion jokes? :p (inb4 #maniac4mod)

Holy shit. I'm surprised that he did this,and he'll be missed in the live games.

I don't even know what to say about this. Damn.

jmo1121109 wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 22, 2019 2:39 am

removing his own temporary bans

Shouldn't a mod being given temp bans in the first place have been a huge red flag? What was he being temp banned for?

Restitution wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 22, 2019 6:07 pm

jmo1121109 wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 22, 2019 2:39 am

removing his own temporary bans

Shouldn't a mod being given temp bans in the first place have been a huge red flag? What was he being temp banned for?

If you NMR enough, you automatically get temporarily banned. I imagine that's what happened. I'm deeply disappointed in him, but at the same time, I don't think I'll be the only one who'll miss him too.

New England Fire Squad wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 22, 2019 6:09 pm

If you NMR enough, you automatically get temporarily banned. I imagine that's what happened. I'm deeply disappointed in him, but at the same time, I don't think I'll be the only one who'll miss him too.

It is a shame, I liked him. Friendly guy.

Hopefully he can be unbanned and just have his mod powers removed. Seems like his problem is more that he can't be trusted with power than that he's an inherently toxic member of the community.

But I can defs see why the leadership would just want him gone, given the huge slap in the face he gave them.

Restitution wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 22, 2019 6:12 pm

New England Fire Squad wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 22, 2019 6:09 pm

If you NMR enough, you automatically get temporarily banned. I imagine that's what happened. I'm deeply disappointed in him, but at the same time, I don't think I'll be the only one who'll miss him too.

It is a shame, I liked him. Friendly guy.

Hopefully he can be unbanned and just have his mod powers removed. Seems like his problem is more that he can't be trusted with power than that he's an inherently toxic member of the community.

But I can defs see why the leadership would just want him gone, given the huge slap in the face he gave them.

This is similar to how I feel. I understand abuse of power is grounds for removal from being a mod, but Mags is a beloved member of the community and I think there's a lot of people out there who would like to see him be able to return, even if in 3-6 months to serve a sentence.

I am sorry to see him gone. Having said that, we do not take abuse of powers lightly. Moderators are chosen after extended observations and screening because they are given a lot of responsibilities and we can't have our mods abuse their powers for personal gains. We do forgive people, so maybe we can talk about having him back as a regular member in a year or two (without multi-ing of course).

Both shocked and disappointed at this news.

Having hung out with the mod team earlier in the year, I can vouch for their commitment both to the site, their responsibilities and their peculiar sense of humour.

To have had a colleague go rogue is a tough thing for them to have to deal with; the temptation to hide this from the webdip community will have been immense.

My respect for the team has gone up even more.

My two cents, for all the people who know Magnetic and enjoy their company, might be good to reach out and let them know you still care about them. Getting banned/losing this community is certainly going to add to their stress and they would probably appreciate it.

To be clear I trust the mod team and their decision, this is probably pretty hard for everyone involved.

From the being the “victim” to his random game additions, he was a very big help in getting me involved in WebDiplomacy. I am deeply shocked by many of these behaviors that are listed above, but will say though that a year ban would be plenty, trust me i’ve made mistakes, nothing nearly as big as some of those mentioned up there, but I leave that decision up to you in the Moderator Department, as I’m just that person who plays the game. Cheers, Cerulean64

Despite having little interaction with Magnetic, I, like many other people, would prefer to see him banned only temporarily. He was an active member of the community (although given the number of NMR's he had, maybe not as active as he should have been), and the live game community in particular is going to take a big hit here.

I understand banning him, but I would like to see him let back eventually.
#FreeMagsy #DargForMod (wait, darg's already a mod) #emcForMod

A couple of clarity points. I like Magnetic, I think they're a decent human, and hope them luck in life. But that's not something we can consider in this instance. Because everyone who represents the site is taking on a trust that we've earned from all of you to keep your games fair and free from cheating. It's literally why we run this site, to let everyone play high quality games of Diplomacy without concern of cheating. Unfortunately, removing temp bans, excusing RR, etc did result in a decent number of people experiencing altered game play. You ended up in a game with someone who didn't have the proper amount of time to devote to it and the game was delayed and experienced lower quality of play then should have been possible. Where a player should have been kicked from a game, giving a more reliable player a chance to take over, that did not happen.

That's in a word, unacceptable. You all deserve better, and you have to know that regardless of how well liked someone is, regardless of how useful they are, or how well respected they may be, anyone who negatively impacts dozens of member's experiences at this scale with moderator abuse can't be a part of the site anymore. Down the road Zultar and Kestas might have a conversation with Magnetic and that might result in him coming back. But they will be overruling me to do it. At a minimum, he'll be gone for a year. Any other decisions will be made via the banned member appealing to an owner, and just like all other appeals, the process will not be discussed in public.

Very thoughtful reply, I completely understand the difficult decision that you and the other moderators have had to go through. I will say from being added to the games by this Moderator, it was in good will, while maybe against the rules, their intention was to never (in my circumstance) to ruin the game for others or for myself. That being said zoltar brought up a reasonable point to consider allowing for them to rejoin, not fast passing them in or anything, no we are not a Disney world sadly, but definitely see why the mod did these acts and see if they can be on some sort of ‘probation’ for a short time. That’s all I can really think of. As always, Cheers - Cerulean64