Hey,
I am Rafe, the senior moderator at OD&D'74. What has been written and insinuated here is indeed the case: For a couple of years, the work of the mod team at our place has mainly consisted in fending off constant and pretty vile attacks by a troll named "Dave" - aka "The Perilous Dreamer", aka your own old acquaintance "Llauranela".
That individual uses a VPN, and has created 150+ fake accounts on OD&D'74 and on G+ alone THAT WE KNOW OF. So, this has forced up to put our shields up as high as possible, and the pre-registration process is complex, and admittedly a bit unfriendly.
We are fully aware that errors and mistakes can happen - anyone who has ever had to work with the usual forum engines knows that precise work is almost impossible there. However, given that all members of our team are fairly accessible through the different pages that I like to call "The DF Family", when such an error happens, contacting us via PM is easy. In fact, Fin, our admin, explicitly invites newly registrees to do so.
As to the situation involving the OP, well, first of all, I can only echo what Zenopus has said - why do you complain here, instead of a forum where you're actually a regular? Also, why didn't you simply send Fin another PM, then? In general, like with everything in life -
demanding something won't get you as far as
asking for it in a friendly way. Our
Announcements section is full of posts detailing the troll problem in an extensive fashion. Reading up before complaining elsewhere would not have hurt, either.
In an equally general fashion, another advice: When you register at a forum - post something. Appearing out of the blue, and everywhere, and - if at all, with posts like these, would make you seem suspicious even if the overall community didn't have the present "Llauranela" problems.
If you're still interested in joining OD&D'74, recommend you follow the procedure we have put in place there. If you're not, then don't bother. You're a not a special little flower, we won't change things just because you stomp your foot on the ground.
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For everyone else, no worries: Especially if you register under a name that you already use elsewhere in our corner of the web, there usually won't be any problems. - And if there are, please understand that this is nothing against you individually, but a present necessity.
Personally, I'd like to stress one point, though: Despite some trying very hard to state the contrary, we're all friends, here - especially the people that put in the work to actually maintain the different online communities. Anyone who thinks that there is no talk behind the scenes, and that, say, "DF doesn't know what Piazza does", is deluded. So, if somebody is ostracized from the community, as happened to "Dave" and his minions, it is done so through overall consensus, and not, whatever, because one of the admins had spontaneously snapped.
- Rafe
