Has a spam problem closed the door in people's faces?

[Kellri]

Apparently, not only is Llauranela dead to them but they're also determined to send a message that any resurrection and raise dead shit is not welcome either. Cancer, even fake cancer is a real bitch.

[Falconer]

Wait a second........

Chamberlain Llauranela

Lain Nela

Lan Nla

aaaaaaaaaaHA!

[Jeff]

Haven't been to ODD74 or Ruins of Murkill in awhile

But the whole thing has me on the fence between




and

[Le Noir Faineant]

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.

---

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

[Finarvyn]

Or an automated piece of the system kicked you out.
Fin is a good and reasonable guy. PM him and you’ll be all good.

There are boards out there that were really hurt by spammers and the like and are no longer in existence (Goblinoid Games and Alive and Out of Print come to mind) so everyone deals with it differently. Here at the Alehouse we just harangue you, draw-and-quarter you and then (gasp) deny you alcohol to kick you from the forums.

Let us know what Fin says.

If I was smart I wouldn't reply at all. That's what my Admin team is constantly telling me. However, I hate it when my board gets a bad rep because of a couple of loud complainers.

Chamberlin PM'ed me before he posted here and I suggested that he register at OD&D74 the usual way, which he did. I thought we had a good conversation going but as best as I can tell his profile somehow triggered a flag in my admin team. Next thing I knew he sent another PM saying that he had been banned at my board. I'm not sure why the ban happened off the top of my head, but it's usually posters who appear out of nowhere, have minimal posts on other boards, and/or refuse to provide any proof of identity that causes us problems. On the other hand, I trust my Admin team so if he was banned it probably meant that he seemed suspicious in some way or was unwilling to assist the Admin team when asked for info. And I agree with some other comments that if a ban is improperly done we'll be happy to review it and make things right.

I think that OD&D74 membership is growing at a decent rate for those who are known in the community in some way. Posters who have been around at various other boards (such as here, DF, and so on) tend to get rubber stamped as being okay because my Admin team kind of knows those people. Other posters might have to build a reputation before we just assume that you're not scamming us. I'm sorry that this sort of post is cluttering up the boards at K&K because it's not the kind of thing that should spill over from one board to another, and I apologize for the fact that Chamberlin isn't happy.

[Falconer]

No need to apologize, Finarvyn. It seems very improbable that this guy was posting in good faith. We’ll be on the look out in the future for people making threads here bashing other boards.