It always makes me laugh when people try to argue with the moderators/creator of a forum. I mean why do it? .... They have SO much more power then the simple "common" poster. There is always a GOOD reason why those people have ~become~ moderators. They were not just simply put into that position of power because they have lunch with the creator (or some other off-site friendly function thing)...
Long story of me waffling on with my thoughts
||The moderators are there because they have demonstrated across time and countless examples that they know what they are talking about. They have earned the position in the eyes of the community that visits/uses the forum. The final decision laying in the hands of the creator.
But, sometimes they need to be asked and shaken a bit too! They are just human afterall. If you don't agree with something the moderators/creator/other member has done then you should be asking why that did that, why they said that and thinking about your own responses. Are they being a d*ck to you because you were a big one to them first and didn't even notice?... I'll say now I've done this, here on these forums ((an entire argument with Fracture that they didn't deserve, just because I hated being called a nOOb?... well guess what... I'm a nOOb when it comes to Hammer!))
Also though, it does sometimes bring the question... who moderates the moderators? Who corrects the creator ?
I believe that anyone could really argue against msleeper if they wanted, if they had good reason to and good explanations for and against any statement...but, at the end of day ** it is her site! **, and if you don't like the decisions made then go elsewhere! And let us not forget that the site is an unpaid, voluntary line of work... it takes a lot to run a site of this magnitude and it has become a site of this magnitude because of the people that are running it. Where would we all be without the site, the forums, the links, the d/l database, the help.
For someone to say that this site (and its creator) is "on a leash to Valve" is just so wrong. That person really doesn't get the site at all. The site pays homage and honours to Valve for a great game(s). But is by no means on a leash. If it were then, all the "little mistakes by Valve" that are mentioned wouldn't be here. All the ways to break/change/edit your Portal folders wouldn't be here. All the tweaks and help for doing things Hammer isn't meant to do wouldn't be here. HMW's entire puzzle creator editoritems hak stuff would be removed. (Because the editor/Hammer/Valve would be seen and shown to be perfect as it is!)... etc etc...
You can even bet that msleeper has argued against and possibly banned people FROM Valve on this site. We know that Valve hang out here too. Valve does this because the site is not biased to them, not on a leash, and most of the members show honest feedback. Which is great for Valve too. Helps them make better games and software. Possibly even saves them a ton of cash in aftermarket feedback and follow up too etc etc
Kizzy's status thing is possibly over the top, personally I wouldn't know. I've not had to deal with them. I trust the moderators/creator to know this though from dealing with them. But, if that happened to me I wouldn't be shouting and arguing at the person that did it. I'd be seriously asking myself how I could change my behaviour so it doesn't happen again!||
Long story short we shouldn't be hating each other but trying to resolve differences and learn from past mistakes to become better people and better mappers. If your really not liking how someone is trying to help you, then apologise and leave gracefully before you get banned in shame.