The Full Truth.. Almost.

[AJ]

This is about as close to the full truth as you're going to be seeing.

http://www.blizzforums.com/showthread.php?t=35668

[Demon_Child]

You will probably have to sum it up for those who have been permabanned from BF, AJ.

[AJ]

Right, one second.
The following is PirateFaces's work and thoughts.

---

This thread is a full explanation of what just happened this morning at around 3 to 4 am. For the record before I start the long process of explaining what just happened from all sides from all the key guys involved, this is just from what I’ve read, and understand from each of the guys who are involved. I’ve talked with a few ppl through the board and through Ims on ICQ. This is not 100% accurate but at least I’m trying to shine as much light as possible on this situation, so this is as accurate as it can be since this is from a 3rd person point of view who’s looking in from the outside cause I’m also as puzzled by this sudden incident that a lot of you are confused by, as I too was asleep at the time this happened.

Note: This thread is also not to pick out anyone person or a group or ppl and put blame onto one person or side, this is just a detailed explanation of what had happened today. This is as neutral as it can be, I’m not holding any hatred to anyone or towards ORG for leaving or anything and nor should you the members of BF or to the ppl who left BF to join the *********.

For starters, I’m an admin here at Blizzforums.com, I’ve seen this community through even before it was born, I was originally from the LHQ boards, and had taken over Warcraft Legacy and was one of the few people who knew of the merger of the LHQ and ORG forums to form Blizzforums.com. I feel that it’s my duty and job to create this thread to inform everyone who is and or was apart of our community here at Blizzforums.com on what had happened. I feel the urge to do this because I feel I’m the right guy to explain everything without being biased towards any one side or towards certain people.

So without a due (sorry for the long intro) here goes:
People you should know:

Note 2: BTW the words in ***** is W-A-R-B-O-A-R-D-S (take out the dashes), dunno why it's still censored.

LHQ = Legacy Headquaters (Legacy sites)
Enforcerman = Owner of all the Legacy sites (sclegacy, wclegacy and Blizzforums.com)
Redcloak = One of the originals of the Legacy Networks, had worked with sclegacy and wclegacy and remains as one of the senior admin. for Legacy related things
XG3 = Head webmaster for sclegacy and is also one of the originals for the Legacy networks, he’s also and senior admin

ORG = the .ORG sites ie. Warcraft and starcraft.org
Edgewize: Owner of the ORG networks, had one time owned and paid for Blizzforums.com
AJ = Blizzforums.com forum programmer, he’s also asscioated with the ORG sites
Mystikal = Associated with the ORG sites as their programmer he’s also written IXIUS which powers Warcraft Legacy, he also BF’s programmer before AJ took over when Mystikal left.
Dunchy = Associated with the ORG sites, was an admin here at BF.
Demonchild = Associated with the ORG sites, she was also a respected senior moderated here at Blizzforums.com

PirateFace (Me) = Head webmaster of Warcraft Legacy, original fan of the LHQ sites, whose now contributing back to the community as a webmaster, I’m also an admin here at BF.

1. The ORG sites had felt the need to separate from Blizzforums.com. This is not to give a major blow to our community; it was something they needed to do to help out their network of sites (SC.ORG and WC.ORG). This is because they didn’t want to do something on their sites and have it affect Blizzforums.com and or to the Legacy sites. They felt that Blizzforums.com held them back from total control of their own sites, which I can understand, because you can’t just do something on your sites and effect Blizzforums.com and have it effect the Legacy sites. So yea the ORG sites needed full control of what they wanted to do, and it not a stab towards us.

2. Edgewize said this in his speech about ORG leaving:
Hi, guys.

I know I don't post very much; I've always been a lurker, even for the years that I was hosting and administering this site. But I think that most of you have at least some idea of who AJ, Mystikal, and I are.

All three of us, along with the rest of the Warcraft.org and Starcraft.org staff, have decided to pull .ORG out of BlizzForums.

Please don't go spouting off about how this is the end of BlizzForums, or how we're traitors, or how Eman and XG3 are tyrants or something. This isn't a fight, we're not pulling out "to make a statement". We don't want changes to be made at BlizzForums.

BlizzForums is a wonderful site, but it isn't our site. As .ORG staff, we want to turn the .ORG network back into leading fansites. To do that, we need to have direct control, to be able to do what's best for our members and for our own interests. As long as we stay part of BlizzForums, we can't have that kind of control. To effective relaunch our own community, we need a place where we can call the shots.

AJ, Mystikal, and I have all de-admin'd ourselves here at BlizzForums to avoid any conflict of interest. I hope that the remaining staff will treat us with courtesy and let our accounts remain at BlizzForums, so that we can still interact with the thousands of Blizzard fans who call this their home.


Best regards,

Edgewize from *********.org


Everything holds true in that explanation by Edgewize. But one more little detail. This is from an IM off ICQ from AJ who I still think of as a friend who wrote:

i deadmin'd myself in the beginning.. and then after they'd fooled around i had to take advantage of my knowledge of vB to write a script to have my useraccount change back into an admin usergroupid via the DB and then i deleted their accounts. and yes, after realizing what in fact i was doing, i removed all of my access again and walked away.

(AJ had apologized for his drastic actions of going out with a bang since then. This is uncharacteristic of AJ as someone who has known him over the past months/years) This is backed up by XG3 who wrote this in his thread who said:
…. I know that Edgewize said that AJ "de-admined" himself. This is only half the truth.

Yesterday afternoon, Redcloak discovered that AJ was doing some weird things on the admin panel. Redcloak saw that AJ had messed with one user (his friend's) account, so he investigated, and sure enough, AJ had given that user access to the Admin Forum. Redcloak confronted AJ, and AJ tried to give some half assed lie but of course nobody believed him for a second.

AJ, knowing he was caught, deleted his part of the admin log (a list of every action an admin or moderator takes) to cover his tracks. This made it 100% obvious that he was lying. We informed Enforcerman, who then talked to AJ about it. So it was then that he decided to make his "grand exit."

Edgewize made a post about how the ORG Network is leaving BlizzForums and that this had been planned for a while. He also said that he along with Mystikal and AJ were "de-admining" themselves to "avoid a conflict in interest." However, this explains why AJ gave his friend access to the Admin Forum...so he could spy on us. In fact, he had spent much of Saturday "preparing" for the big leave by changing certain things so he could spy on us without being part of the staff"

After all of this was done, AJ and a few people, whom have since been banned, decided to mess with BlizzForums. In fact, AJ has access to the site's FTP, so he reset himself as a super administrator and did a couple of things:

a) He deleted me and Redcloak's accounts completely.
b) He changed an announcement spamming his new boards.
c) They registered new accounts with the new board's name in the title.
……


This is when Redcloak wrote a new thread in the Staff forum, which you aren’t able to view who wrote this, after he had both XG3 and Redcloak had recreated their accounts and Redcloak restoring his post count to 5stars ;):

….
First, AJ, Mystikal, and Edgewize are creating a new forum for the Org Network so they can have the total control they lacked here.

Second, AJ, Demon Child, dunchy, MacG, and T-Dawg have been banned. AJ did a whole laundry list of inappropriate things, and it's safe to say that's permanent. DC inappropriately used the Announcement feature to promote their new forums, and so she is looking at a possible permanent ban. Her subsequent creation of an additional account to advertise further will play a part in that decision. MacG was banned for advertising, and T-Dawg was banned as a precaution where AJ had been giving him special permissions, which we fear he may have chosen to exploit.

We are not allowing them to promote the board. It's a logical move, as we enforce a no advertising policy for all sites unless otherwise approved.
…

What I don’t get is why Demon Child and dunchy who are highly respected members of BF and who are forum favorites are now banned. However I think Demon Child got banned because she was promoting ********* (ORGs new forum name) in her announcement made on Blizzforums which I didn’t see, so I have no recollection or an exact quote on how it read, but Redcloak stated that it was clear an announcement promoting ********* (ie. Getting BF guys to move over to *********) this is the reason she’s banned from Blizzforums.com. The mods MacG and T-Dawg had been explained in Redcloak’s above quote. However this doesn’t account for dunchy.

But later in the thread XG3 created in GD, Redcloak wrote:
dunchy was involved, inactive, and his behavior in the staff forum had been warranting reprimand for some time.

I can assure you, from a manpower and technical standpoint, BlizzForums has no problems. I think you will see that as things are back to normal over the next couple weeks, and we'll hopefully impress you with some things that are being worked on.

I DON’T find that solid enough grounds to ban dunchy.

Demonchild had written a thread at warboard which reads:
As you all have known about the event that had happened at Blizzforums.com last night. I would like to take the time to inform you of what was going on during the wole incident took place. As I was looking over the forum indes of Blizzofrums I noticed that Mystikal was online and that he was demoted from Admin to a regular member. Therefore, I decided to announce it in the staff forum pointing out what I had saw. Then a little while later, I noticed that Edgewize and AJ had also been demoted to regular member. This is when I wanted some answers, and I wanted them NOW.

Redcloak makes a rather blunt and pointless statement that he is the boss of Blizzofrums and all, so I told him to cut the I own you bullshit attitude, before I decide to buy Blizzforums from Eman and put him in his place because I was growing tired of it.

At that same time I was getting PM's from AJ stating that I shouldn't buy the forums, because there was a surprise in store. Since I never liked surprises in the first place, I was kinda apprehensive about it at first. However, my curoisity had gotten the better of me and I wanted to find out what this surprise was. During this same time I was having an IM convo with dunchy about what is occuring so he joins me up with a group of other Blizzofrumers unhappy with the way the staff are handling thngs.
During the convo AJ was planning on getting back at the staff at BF, that I will admit was infact, true, and I am guilty of not stopping him from doing something of that nature.

Once I have finally gotten to see what this surprise was from AJ, I then went into the Mod Control Panel and create an annuncement that stated my resignition from the BF staff due to "unreconcilable differences" along with a link to *********.org. My announcement wasn't even up for a minute before it had been physically removed (by Redcloak or XG3) and my account beeing banned.

I never had "egged" AJ on to do anything at Blizzforums and nor do I condone his actions at Blizzforums either. However the Staff at Blizzofrums (Mainly Redcloak and XG3) are also in the wrong in this matter because they performed witchhunts, withough making the full investigations. I mean, where is this evidence that I supposedly "egged" AJ on according to XG3, can anyone tell me? Anyone at all? I didn't think so.

I thank you all for not buying into the bullshit that the corrupted staff members of Blizzforums have been selling to you and for that I owe you all the deepest debt of gratitude that I could ever offer to you.


Later in that thread at ********* AJ wrote for both forum members of Blizzforums.com and ********* to be nice to eachother and not to spam eachother’s boards or be jackasses towards eachother cause of this small seperation, it reads this:

I'd like to remind you all that, while I can't condone my own actions from last night, I do request that you all act on your best behavior at Blizzforums. While I may not be on the best terms with that site now, I believe I speak for all of the staff here when I say that any actions at BF that may be viewed as.. improper, will warrant punishment here as well.

thanks guys.



Mystikal later wrote in XG3’s thread:
Hey guys,

I don't know much about anything that AJ did, so I won't comment, but at least I can say I was not really involved in that. However, I've been basically doing nothing for the past few months, and it was about time I got out finally for good anyway.

It's been great working here. I've made a few mistakes in the past, but who doesn't? I never even thought creating a site like this was possible, but obviosly the crew showed the community that it was very possible

It's just time to move on I guess. I'm damn busy with school, and hopefully we can try to get ORG going again, but who knows =) I am sure that the Legacy sites will continue to do very well, we shall see.

But, I also do not think that this site is going downhill as others said. I think that us leaving is probably a good thing we're leaving. It will give Legacy an oppertunit to run the site exactly the way they wanted to in the first place, and in all honesty, I'm very interested in seeing how this will play out.

Good luck guys, I'll be around, probably still posting here occasionally, certainly lurking.

[edit]
Pirate, there was a conflict of interest between the staffers. We're certainly still friends, and I'm certainly going to still be here, ready to fix WCL whenever

Redcloak wrote in Demon Child’s thread at ********* under the name of Achelus:
Here's all my posts from the thread, I don't mind DC posting her point of view, but I have no clue where it's coming from, so here's the posts, make your own judgement.

Originally Posted by Post 1

Edgewize has been gone since we changed servers. I was mistaken here, I thought this was accurate at the time....About AJ, not pertinent to you...That's inevitable, you're free to believe what you will, but I can only present what really happened.


Originally Posted by Post 2

BF is its own site operated indepedently of the Org and Legacy networks.Edit: I just wanted to give you a heads up on what happened, I'm going back to gunbound. I'll answer any other questions before I go to bed.


Originally Posted by Post 3Which means nothing. We run this site with its own interests in mind. That's why I'm involved almost totally hear, and only marginally elsewhere.Cut the bitchy attitude DC.
Yeah, it was late, and I was in a hurry, so I put hear instead of here.

That's all the posts, where exactly I stated that I owned the forums, or anything to that extent is beyond me. Enjoy all.


AJ later wrote in the same thread:
RC, you might as well have used your actual name.

In case you were curious, unless your actions warrant it, i've asked the staff here not to touch you or anyone else from BF's accounts. I'd like this to be the closest you can get to a full view of things.

Regarding Edge, Myst and I removing our own powers, that is quite true. When I removed mine, which Eman can attest to, Edge and Myst were still admins. I then asked Myst to remove his own, and then Edge to remove his.


Demonchild then wrote in response to Redcloak in her thread at *********:
*yawn* Hey RC, you still haven't shown any evidence about me "egging" AJ on have you? Maybe you have forgotten this little excerpt between Geno and XG3 concerning my stance on the matter.


Geno:Hey, I just realized a few things. About 5 or 6 names, other than AJ have disappeared from the mod list... Including DC! Omg! What happened there? Demon_Child was the shiz! ---------XG3:DC was one of the people "egging on" AJ to do the things he did. Only a few minor people were banned, DC being one of them.

The forumers aren't going to follow blindly behind the staff forver.


AJ wrote:

For the rest of you, DC's listed reasoning for being banned in her User thread on BF was that she misused the announcement system..

And while she is a moderator here, her announcement solely mentioned ORG leaving BF and a link to Edge's thread.


Demon Child wrote:

I did make a 2nd accound when I found out that my account had been banned w/o viable reason, that I'll admit.

However, the manner in which they handled my so-called "Announcement missuse." is rather questionable since the way I created the announcement was far from missuse as to what my User File is stating. I stated my resignigtion and posted the link like I have mentioned on page 1.


Redcloak’s response to this at ********* was:



RC, you might as well have used your actual name.

It was already taken, and I just needed a quick post.

DC's post invited everyone to go join *********, which is hardly an appropriate Announcement for BlizzForums. It was removed, as was she while I could look into it further. She made another account, and that she tried advertising with it too, so that pretty much shored things up. Regardless, I believe that DC expected it to happen, she's not stupid, and it's a moot point anyway.

As for the information about you egging AJ on, it is my understanding that XG3 received that from a person who is an administrator here. I wasn't a party to the exact conversation.

The forumers aren't going to follow blindly behind the staff forver.

We're really not out to lead anyway, we're just trying to create an enviroment where the posters can enjoy themselves. The rules and actions we implement are meant to facilitate that job, and only time can tell whether the job we're doing is proper.




Final Summarization:
1. ORG has left Blizzforums.com
2. There shall be no future conflicts amongst ORG/********* and LHQ/Blizzforums members ie. I don’t want to see Blizzforums/LHQ members spamming or flaming or advertising BF at ********* or vice versa, that will not be tolerated.
3. ORG’s new forums is called *********.
4. LHQ sites will remain using Blizzforums as our forum.
5. I expect a few ppl who was banned today to be unbanned in the very near future.
6. All ORG guys who has left BF have had their mod/admin status removed from Blizzforums.com to keep this seperation between our sites.
7. It’s over, Blizzforums.com will move on with every change we’ve endure over the years. I wish everyone happy foruming and I’d love to stay in contact with everyone, as I’ll be a frequent at both boards, and I hope to be the guy that bridges the gaps between ********* and blizzforums.
8. Blizzforums.com can do fine on our own now that AJ has left, Enforcerman can do everything AJ can do. I mean this in the nicest of way, not to bash AJ as I consider him still a friend, I'm just stating that Eman is our main forum programmer now that AJ has left.

Your Blizzforums’ Administrator
- PirateFace

---

you're welcome, you horrible people who were banned and needed me to post it for you.. (sorry, that include me too! damn!) :rolleyes:

[Demon_Child]

I expect a few ppl who was banned today to be unbanned in the very near future.

With myself not being one of them, but I wouldn't want to even go back to that place again, ever.

[Twitt]

Um DC, It doesnt show you as being banned from BF -.-

[AJ]

She's "Temp Banned"

[Demon_Child]

My IP was banned, but I don't even intend to lurk there even If I am unbanned, Blizzforums is dead to me. This is my home, now, and you all are my family. :)

[UndeadBastard]

Have my demon babies.

[Infested_Al]

so if we still want to be friends and stuff, why do we need two sepertate forums. :(

[UndeadBastard]

As previously stated ORG wanted to be back in competing with LHQ for #1 fan sites.The ORG networks wanted to be dominant to the legacy sites, but they didnt have the power in BF to do that, so they decided to break off.

If i'm right. :p

[Dark_Soul74]

Redcloak seems to have overreacted greatly, though having your account deleted isn't exactly heat-warming, though it isn't like anything really happened to it.

[Infested_Al]

so this is almost a contest of who has the bigger e penis?
^_^

[Demon_Child]

No, we just got tired of being pushed around by the Legacy staff members, so we finally decided to stand together against them.

[Mordecai2k]

yay pirateface he did a gj with that ^^

My IP was banned, but I don't even intend to lurk there even If I am unbanned, Blizzforums is dead to me. This is my home, now, and you all are my family. :)

haha. yeah.

[Twitt]

DC <3 Twitt
Twitt <3 DC

[cole]

so this is almost a contest of who has the bigger e penis?
^_^

Everyone knows i do chobo. ;)

[Mordecai2k]

so this is almost a contest of who has the bigger e penis?
^_^

lol!!1 omg you're here! <3 xoxoxox

[Infested_Al]

well to be honest, i kind of like this board, the skin is nice, the people are friendly and its like the warcraft boards + staff forum in one place.

:)

[PirateFace]

sup guys, just hoped my msg gotten through. I was gonna post it here, but for some reason it won't allow me to post it up as my IE will just crash everytime I try to post it up here.

anyways just keeping the peace between warboards and BF, I'll be around here too.
had to upload AJ the .txt file of what I wrote at BF.

[UndeadBastard]

Yay! We at WB never cease to satisfy ourselves...O_o

That doesnt sound right.

[Demon_Child]

Woah, this must be the kinder, gentler, PirateFace or I am drunk again. :)

[UndeadBastard]

He's always been like that, he just gets too much of his comp drugs. :p

[Mordecai2k]

Woah, this must be the kinder, gentler, PirateFace or I am drunk again. :)

Hehee, you and your mudslides :)

I <333 PF ^^
I <3 al too tho and Wildbob.. omg.. xoxoxoxox ^^

[Infested_Al]

lol

lots of love around here :)

[Demon_Child]

What can I say, the stuff tastes great. :)

[Dark_Soul74]

That's it! No more vodka for you!

[Fenguin]

I'll take all your extra vodka! My vodka supply needs replenishing ;)

[Mordecai2k]

i don't drink alcohol

[T-Dawg]

Lol, i love how I am banned. I wonder who is going to moderate their diablo forums.. now that MacG resigned. I never did. Hmm.. hehe. This is interesting.

[Demon_Child]

Lol, i love how I am banned. I wonder who is going to moderate their diablo forums.. now that MacG resigned. I never did. Hmm.. hehe. This is interesting.


Well I guess that means the Senior Mods will have to do that, and since I am not a Senior Mod there, hehehe. :)

[Fenguin]

I think they'll be able to find a way. They always seem to be able to. :D
And plus, how much moddage do those forums need? Unless something's going on there that I don't know of... :D

[Demon_Child]

They had like 8 or 9 admins, 4 Senior Mods and I can't remember the number of regular mods prior to everyone leaving.

[Fenguin]

Wow, that's a lot of staff. But compared to like the 9000 users, it seems so very little. :D

[Demon_Child]

Close to 6200 active members, actually. And ironically the Admins though we had too many staff members there. *shrugs*

[BSTRhino]

'moddage' - cool word.

"Come on guys, let's do some moddage!"

"Ah no, we need more moddage!"

Oh well, I'm off do go moddagate.

[Fenguin]

Oh well, I'm off do go moddagate.

Potential quote candidate ;)

I STAKE MY CLAIM!!!!111

[T-Dawg]

Yay for moddage. Umm.. yeah so..there is a certain person on the way to being my least favorite person at BF. He closed a thread talking about who will moderate the diablo forums. god.. that was so not necessary.

[Demon_Child]

At least I didn't have to moderate the fuck out of RedCloak because he is not even worth my attention. :)

[Mordecai2k]

Yay for moddage. Umm.. yeah so..there is a certain person on the way to being my least favorite person at BF. He closed a thread talking about who will moderate the diablo forums. god.. that was so not necessary.

who would this person be?


and hi T-dawg. I've seen your name in the Diablo forums but i never got the chance to e-meet you

[Fenguin]

who would this person be?


and hi T-dawg. I've seen your name in the Diablo forums but i never got the chance to e-meet you

Hehe... that gives me an idea! ;) What if we set up an IRC server for WB? :D

[mcflurry_1982]

i don't drink alcohol
yeah you have like 6 or 7 years before you can legally do that.

pass the vodka my way!

[Demon_Child]

We tried that at BF, it didn't work out all that well. :/

[T-Dawg]

i was actually talking with AJ about setting up an IRC client. but it was early in the morning.. and i dont think the idea was really conveyed.

Nice to meet you Mord. Yes I have seen you around as well.

[PirateFace]

I would like a custom title here such as:
BlizzForums Ambassador

SO I can just keep the peace and love :D

[Twitt]

You can change your title PF, just like at BF. It's in your user CP, note mine. =D

[Fenguin]

I think you can set your own custom title, unless AJ or Edge disabled it. Go to user cp - edit profile and there should be a liddle box there. :D

Edit: hehe, Twitt beat me to it ;)

[Demon_Child]

We do operate under vBulletin so the setup should be about the same.

[T-Dawg]

All give a cheer for PirateFace! YAY!

Mind checking forum issues at BF for me?

[dunchy]

I'd still like to know just why I was banned. After all, if you look closly, I didn't say warboards.org an any thread of mine. The last question I posed was wondering how good 2 administrators programming skills were, is that warrent enough for a permanent ban i ask?

There is much more on this, but folks, that's the closest story easily so far that we've gotten.

[Demon_Child]

They did it just to make themselves feel better because deep down inside they overreacted and are too proud to admit that they, too made a mistake.

[OboeGuru]

Are you suggesting that Admins are actually human beings? Heretic! ;)

[MacG]

tRiX (http://www.blizzforums.com/member.php?u=5371) vbmenu_register("postmenu_831890", true);
orange http://www.blizzforums.com/images/stars/star3.gif

http://www.blizzforums.com/images/icons/icon1.gif Re: The Full Explanation of what happened today...
macg and t-dawg are still here but not mods anymore.
I didn't like macg much anyways... he kept warning me not to swear after I had just lost 5 mules full of godly equipment.

but yeah, that was a great post and cleared up a lot of questions i had
So sad. =(

I tried to put it as nicely as possible. I even said he isn't in trouble, nor was I giving him any warnings. I didn't post any User Files at the staff forum, nor did I post any for other incidents with other users. I tried to keep the forum free minded, but oh well. I hope I can talk to him and clear it up. I don't want anyone thinking I hate the person.

[KidTass]

I still have no idea what went on and why everyone got banned

[Luther-Stark]

...User Files. Did i have any user Files>?? :worship:

[Edgewize]

After discussing things with the BF admins, I believe that all of their bannings and censorship is perfectly reasonable. Given the information that they had to work with, and the situation that certain people put them in, they did NOT overreact.

To repeat my earlier warning: do NOT advertise our site on BlizzForums. Do not spam that site, do not harass its members, do not disturb its operations. I don't like playing the mean boss, but I will come down on you like a sledgehammer if you cause trouble. Your actions at other sites represent WarBoards.org, and I will not let you tanish our reputation.

This is no longer open for discussion. I don't want to see any more threads whining about XG3 or Eman or any other BF staffer. If you don't like them, don't talk about them. This is not WhineAboutBlizzForums.org. We're our own site now, and we're moving on!

Topic Closed.