PlayStation® General

[Jag_Stilvecchio]

Samokoske,

Thanks for taking the time to write out your post and your experiences. While I can only speak for myself in my reply I hope that your understand that I don't take any sides in the matter. I vaugely know the MVP you reference and only from brief interaction on the forums here. I was never part of the Starhawk forum though I was for a period fairly active in the Warhawk community forum. Please take my comments as soley the opinion of me & not that of anyone else.

That said, I think that there's a break-in period for anyone new who joins an online community. Expectations may be one thing and reality another. Your experience about using the Starhawk forum for example as a means to communicate with friends by continuing threads that have already outlived their stated purpose is an example of something that isn't explicitly stated as against the rules (or at least that I can find) but generally not acceptable. I know this may be counter to what you view as being part of the community. You can socialize and talk about the game/topic at the same time. But highjacking a thread about Starhawk maps and talking about your favorite type of coleslaw with a buddy or what you ate for dinner are two different things. And, imho, should be taken elsewhere - off  topic forums, PMs or offsite. 

With regard to censorship, keep in mind that you're using a forum owned by a corporation with it's own policies and rules. A simple off-color joke to you is an offense to someone else. The main topic of discussion is video game related so this forum does tend to attract kids of all ages. So while you may perceive that you're among friends there are all sorts of folks who can read what you post. 

Okay, the other stuff you posted about someone using an alt-account... well, I think you'd have a hard time proving that but I would encourage you to log the harassment and contact a Mod immediately. Especially, if as you claim, said person is using a picture of you as that is a direct violation of the forum rules as posted here: 

http://community.us.playstation.com/t5/Forum-Information-and-Help/Welcome-to-the-PlayStation-Communi...

All that said, I've been here going on 6 years and this is a really great community. You can make friends here, enjoy talking about gaming and all things PlayStation. You just have to tailor your expectations vs. what the objectives and purpose of the forums are. And although as you can see by my exchange with flenin, I might not always agree with people, I maintain that if you try to be the bigger person you'll have a better time. 

Best of luck. Let me know if there's anyway that I can help you enjoy your time here more.

[Tim81DE]

After reading the first couple of pages of this thread, I can already tell people are going to be butt hurt either way (getting chosen or not). If you're not chosen, why complain about it? Why not keep helping and improving the forums? Maybe your chance will come to be an "MVP", but isn't helping others what matters the most in this scenario?

-Tim

[Da_Almighty_Guy]

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Tim81DE wrote:

After reading the first couple of pages of this thread, I can already tell people are going to be butt hurt either way (getting chosen or not). If you're not chosen, why complain about it? Why not keep helping and improving the forums? Maybe your chance will come to be an "MVP", but isn't helping others what matters the most in this scenario?

-Tim

---

The main idea behind becoming an MVP used to be to help people around the forums and generally be nice and informative to those asking questions. With the new application process, the MVP program does seem to be moving away from that special selection process it used to have.

Still, the questions asked in the application do seem to bring out the helpful side of those applying. Hopefully good people get chosen for the program.

[PhoenixArcher128]

---

Jag_Stilvecchio wrote:

Samokoske,

Thanks for taking the time to write out your post and your experiences. While I can only speak for myself in my reply I hope that your understand that I don't take any sides in the matter. I vaugely know the MVP you reference and only from brief interaction on the forums here. I was never part of the Starhawk forum though I was for a period fairly active in the Warhawk community forum. Please take my comments as soley the opinion of me & not that of anyone else.

That said, I think that there's a break-in period for anyone new who joins an online community. Expectations may be one thing and reality another. Your experience about using the Starhawk forum for example as a means to communicate with friends by continuing threads that have already outlived their stated purpose is an example of something that isn't explicitly stated as against the rules (or at least that I can find) but generally not acceptable. I know this may be counter to what you view as being part of the community. You can socialize and talk about the game/topic at the same time. But highjacking a thread about Starhawk maps and talking about your favorite type of coleslaw with a buddy or what you ate for dinner are two different things. And, imho, should be taken elsewhere - off  topic forums, PMs or offsite. 

With regard to censorship, keep in mind that you're using a forum owned by a corporation with it's own policies and rules. A simple off-color joke to you is an offense to someone else. The main topic of discussion is video game related so this forum does tend to attract kids of all ages. So while you may perceive that you're among friends there are all sorts of folks who can read what you post. 

Okay, the other stuff you posted about someone using an alt-account... well, I think you'd have a hard time proving that but I would encourage you to log the harassment and contact a Mod immediately. Especially, if as you claim, said person is using a picture of you as that is a direct violation of the forum rules as posted here: 

http://community.us.playstation.com/t5/Forum-Information-and-Help/Welcome-to-the-PlayStation-Communi...

All that said, I've been here going on 6 years and this is a really great community. You can make friends here, enjoy talking about gaming and all things PlayStation. You just have to tailor your expectations vs. what the objectives and purpose of the forums are. And although as you can see by my exchange with flenin, I might not always agree with people, I maintain that if you try to be the bigger person you'll have a better time. 

Best of luck. Let me know if there's anyway that I can help you enjoy your time here more.

---

Just for an interesting side-note about the Starhawk forums; after a long argument why OT threads were "good" for a community, the mods made an exception and allowed a thread to be a dedicated Off-Topic thread (before they were moving threads to the OT boards). One thread where anything (within forum rules) goes. However...the people the thread was made for (which eventually includes Samo here) decided one thread wasn't enough, and continued to make OT threads and go OT in many other threads (which caused merges and locks and a lot of crying from them). So there were, and still are, issues with the mods to many of the "community" (also note: most of these people have been hating on the game since before launch and are constantly crying about censorship anytime a mod "purges" the forums of trolling and OT stuff...yeah, not making this up).

Samo has also, I believe, been banned (or was at the very least heavily warned; can't remember but it was around the time of another "fight" with the mods) for some serious trolling (includes attacking other forum members, very off-color "jokes" and comments and some other things against forum rules I can't remember off the top of my head)...most has been deleted or moved to the hidden forums, but yeah...you don't really want to read it. He also has an alt that was used extensively to attack other forum members (and definitely has been banned for it). So, don't exactly take his word at face-value...

[Samokoske]

Exhibit C gentlemen.

This person was not mentioned in my post. She took interest after three days of this thread, and my post. I will not address her claims, nor am I interested in starting another altercation of how and what she views how I use my likeness, names, and alternate accounts in these forums.

For one, I no longer use the handle Samokoske in the Starhawk forums.

Also, she is a non participant in most of the sincere threads that are often made there in regards to the state of Starhawk.

Tell me gentlemen. my creep radar has gone off again. None of the accused have come here since this post was brought to my attention and I am now addressing how I feel about the way people are being treated in these forums. What should I do? How should I respond? Will the mods come to intervene? Are other MVPs looking? According to the rules that she uses to troll others, (that seemed like a trollish post), she is now posting inflammatory comments about me.... What does a report button work for now?

I hear our friend takes his job as MVP very seriously, though.... I actually don't have enough time to feel genuinely invested in this though.

[Jag_Stilvecchio]

---

PhoenixArcher128 wrote:

---

Jag_Stilvecchio wrote:

Samokoske,

Thanks for taking the time to write out your post and your experiences. While I can only speak for myself in my reply I hope that your understand that I don't take any sides in the matter. I vaugely know the MVP you reference and only from brief interaction on the forums here. I was never part of the Starhawk forum though I was for a period fairly active in the Warhawk community forum. Please take my comments as soley the opinion of me & not that of anyone else.

That said, I think that there's a break-in period for anyone new who joins an online community. Expectations may be one thing and reality another. Your experience about using the Starhawk forum for example as a means to communicate with friends by continuing threads that have already outlived their stated purpose is an example of something that isn't explicitly stated as against the rules (or at least that I can find) but generally not acceptable. I know this may be counter to what you view as being part of the community. You can socialize and talk about the game/topic at the same time. But highjacking a thread about Starhawk maps and talking about your favorite type of coleslaw with a buddy or what you ate for dinner are two different things. And, imho, should be taken elsewhere - off  topic forums, PMs or offsite. 

With regard to censorship, keep in mind that you're using a forum owned by a corporation with it's own policies and rules. A simple off-color joke to you is an offense to someone else. The main topic of discussion is video game related so this forum does tend to attract kids of all ages. So while you may perceive that you're among friends there are all sorts of folks who can read what you post. 

Okay, the other stuff you posted about someone using an alt-account... well, I think you'd have a hard time proving that but I would encourage you to log the harassment and contact a Mod immediately. Especially, if as you claim, said person is using a picture of you as that is a direct violation of the forum rules as posted here: 

http://community.us.playstation.com/t5/Forum-Information-and-Help/Welcome-to-the-PlayStation-Communi...

All that said, I've been here going on 6 years and this is a really great community. You can make friends here, enjoy talking about gaming and all things PlayStation. You just have to tailor your expectations vs. what the objectives and purpose of the forums are. And although as you can see by my exchange with flenin, I might not always agree with people, I maintain that if you try to be the bigger person you'll have a better time. 

Best of luck. Let me know if there's anyway that I can help you enjoy your time here more.

---

Just for an interesting side-note about the Starhawk forums; after a long argument why OT threads were "good" for a community, the mods made an exception and allowed a thread to be a dedicated Off-Topic thread (before they were moving threads to the OT boards). One thread where anything (within forum rules) goes. However...the people the thread was made for (which eventually includes Samo here) decided one thread wasn't enough, and continued to make OT threads and go OT in many other threads (which caused merges and locks and a lot of crying from them). So there were, and still are, issues with the mods to many of the "community" (also note: most of these people have been hating on the game since before launch and are constantly crying about censorship anytime a mod "purges" the forums of trolling and OT stuff...yeah, not making this up).

Samo has also, I believe, been banned (or was at the very least heavily warned; can't remember but it was around the time of another "fight" with the mods) for some serious trolling (includes attacking other forum members, very off-color "jokes" and comments and some other things against forum rules I can't remember off the top of my head)...most has been deleted or moved to the hidden forums, but yeah...you don't really want to read it. He also has an alt that was used extensively to attack other forum members (and definitely has been banned for it). So, don't exactly take his word at face-value...

---

Thanks for replying Phoenix. Unfortunately that has generally been my experience on this forum (and others) - those that complain the loudest of mistreatment, unfair practices, trolling, etc. are usually participating in the activity and therefore have no high ground to stand on.

Thanks for the context. I stand by the things I said before, however, it's good to know that this isn't just an innocent user that got bullied by a MVP or others. 

There really is no scandal at all here. Play within the rules - and realize that no, this isn't your board, or your playground - and you'll be fine. There have been some incredibly creative folks here that have managed to get along just fine within the confines of the rules and made this a great community. 

[Samokoske]

---

Jag_Stilvecchio wrote:

---

PhoenixArcher128 wrote:

---

Jag_Stilvecchio wrote:

Samokoske,

Thanks for taking the time to write out your post and your experiences. While I can only speak for myself in my reply I hope that your understand that I don't take any sides in the matter. I vaugely know the MVP you reference and only from brief interaction on the forums here. I was never part of the Starhawk forum though I was for a period fairly active in the Warhawk community forum. Please take my comments as soley the opinion of me & not that of anyone else.

That said, I think that there's a break-in period for anyone new who joins an online community. Expectations may be one thing and reality another. Your experience about using the Starhawk forum for example as a means to communicate with friends by continuing threads that have already outlived their stated purpose is an example of something that isn't explicitly stated as against the rules (or at least that I can find) but generally not acceptable. I know this may be counter to what you view as being part of the community. You can socialize and talk about the game/topic at the same time. But highjacking a thread about Starhawk maps and talking about your favorite type of coleslaw with a buddy or what you ate for dinner are two different things. And, imho, should be taken elsewhere - off  topic forums, PMs or offsite. 

With regard to censorship, keep in mind that you're using a forum owned by a corporation with it's own policies and rules. A simple off-color joke to you is an offense to someone else. The main topic of discussion is video game related so this forum does tend to attract kids of all ages. So while you may perceive that you're among friends there are all sorts of folks who can read what you post. 

Okay, the other stuff you posted about someone using an alt-account... well, I think you'd have a hard time proving that but I would encourage you to log the harassment and contact a Mod immediately. Especially, if as you claim, said person is using a picture of you as that is a direct violation of the forum rules as posted here: 

http://community.us.playstation.com/t5/Forum-Information-and-Help/Welcome-to-the-PlayStation-Communi...

All that said, I've been here going on 6 years and this is a really great community. You can make friends here, enjoy talking about gaming and all things PlayStation. You just have to tailor your expectations vs. what the objectives and purpose of the forums are. And although as you can see by my exchange with flenin, I might not always agree with people, I maintain that if you try to be the bigger person you'll have a better time. 

Best of luck. Let me know if there's anyway that I can help you enjoy your time here more.

---

Just for an interesting side-note about the Starhawk forums; after a long argument why OT threads were "good" for a community, the mods made an exception and allowed a thread to be a dedicated Off-Topic thread (before they were moving threads to the OT boards). One thread where anything (within forum rules) goes. However...the people the thread was made for (which eventually includes Samo here) decided one thread wasn't enough, and continued to make OT threads and go OT in many other threads (which caused merges and locks and a lot of crying from them). So there were, and still are, issues with the mods to many of the "community" (also note: most of these people have been hating on the game since before launch and are constantly crying about censorship anytime a mod "purges" the forums of trolling and OT stuff...yeah, not making this up).

Samo has also, I believe, been banned (or was at the very least heavily warned; can't remember but it was around the time of another "fight" with the mods) for some serious trolling (includes attacking other forum members, very off-color "jokes" and comments and some other things against forum rules I can't remember off the top of my head)...most has been deleted or moved to the hidden forums, but yeah...you don't really want to read it. He also has an alt that was used extensively to attack other forum members (and definitely has been banned for it). So, don't exactly take his word at face-value...

---

Thanks for replying Phoenix. Unfortunately that has generally been my experience on this forum (and others) - those that complain the loudest of mistreatment, unfair practices, trolling, etc. are usually participating in the activity and therefore have no high ground to stand on.

Thanks for the context. I stand by the things I said before, however, it's good to know that this isn't just an innocent user that got bullied by a MVP or others. 

There really is no scandal at all here. Play within the rules - and realize that no, this isn't your board, or your playground - and you'll be fine. There have been some incredibly creative folks here that have managed to get along just fine within the confines of the rules and made this a great community. 

---

Is that how that works? Isn't life about context?

If so, this is contextually false, and has no substance or meaning. I am glad to see your bias has not decided to take just one side of the story, and confer judgement from there.

[PhoenixArcher128]

---

Jag_Stilvecchio wrote:

---

PhoenixArcher128 wrote:

---

Jag_Stilvecchio wrote:

Samokoske,

Thanks for taking the time to write out your post and your experiences. While I can only speak for myself in my reply I hope that your understand that I don't take any sides in the matter. I vaugely know the MVP you reference and only from brief interaction on the forums here. I was never part of the Starhawk forum though I was for a period fairly active in the Warhawk community forum. Please take my comments as soley the opinion of me & not that of anyone else.

That said, I think that there's a break-in period for anyone new who joins an online community. Expectations may be one thing and reality another. Your experience about using the Starhawk forum for example as a means to communicate with friends by continuing threads that have already outlived their stated purpose is an example of something that isn't explicitly stated as against the rules (or at least that I can find) but generally not acceptable. I know this may be counter to what you view as being part of the community. You can socialize and talk about the game/topic at the same time. But highjacking a thread about Starhawk maps and talking about your favorite type of coleslaw with a buddy or what you ate for dinner are two different things. And, imho, should be taken elsewhere - off  topic forums, PMs or offsite. 

With regard to censorship, keep in mind that you're using a forum owned by a corporation with it's own policies and rules. A simple off-color joke to you is an offense to someone else. The main topic of discussion is video game related so this forum does tend to attract kids of all ages. So while you may perceive that you're among friends there are all sorts of folks who can read what you post. 

Okay, the other stuff you posted about someone using an alt-account... well, I think you'd have a hard time proving that but I would encourage you to log the harassment and contact a Mod immediately. Especially, if as you claim, said person is using a picture of you as that is a direct violation of the forum rules as posted here: 

http://community.us.playstation.com/t5/Forum-Information-and-Help/Welcome-to-the-PlayStation-Communi...

All that said, I've been here going on 6 years and this is a really great community. You can make friends here, enjoy talking about gaming and all things PlayStation. You just have to tailor your expectations vs. what the objectives and purpose of the forums are. And although as you can see by my exchange with flenin, I might not always agree with people, I maintain that if you try to be the bigger person you'll have a better time. 

Best of luck. Let me know if there's anyway that I can help you enjoy your time here more.

---

Just for an interesting side-note about the Starhawk forums; after a long argument why OT threads were "good" for a community, the mods made an exception and allowed a thread to be a dedicated Off-Topic thread (before they were moving threads to the OT boards). One thread where anything (within forum rules) goes. However...the people the thread was made for (which eventually includes Samo here) decided one thread wasn't enough, and continued to make OT threads and go OT in many other threads (which caused merges and locks and a lot of crying from them). So there were, and still are, issues with the mods to many of the "community" (also note: most of these people have been hating on the game since before launch and are constantly crying about censorship anytime a mod "purges" the forums of trolling and OT stuff...yeah, not making this up).

Samo has also, I believe, been banned (or was at the very least heavily warned; can't remember but it was around the time of another "fight" with the mods) for some serious trolling (includes attacking other forum members, very off-color "jokes" and comments and some other things against forum rules I can't remember off the top of my head)...most has been deleted or moved to the hidden forums, but yeah...you don't really want to read it. He also has an alt that was used extensively to attack other forum members (and definitely has been banned for it). So, don't exactly take his word at face-value...

---

Thanks for replying Phoenix. Unfortunately that has generally been my experience on this forum (and others) - those that complain the loudest of mistreatment, unfair practices, trolling, etc. are usually participating in the activity and therefore have no high ground to stand on.

Thanks for the context. I stand by the things I said before, however, it's good to know that this isn't just an innocent user that got bullied by a MVP or others. 

There really is no scandal at all here. Play within the rules - and realize that no, this isn't your board, or your playground - and you'll be fine. There have been some incredibly creative folks here that have managed to get along just fine within the confines of the rules and made this a great community. 

---

Unfortunately, many of the people that belong to this group in Starhawk think they own the forums (or did at one point...) and getting the OT thread was proof of it (mods were against it for a good while, but gave in to, well, shut them up), so they continued to push boundaries (until the mods had enough and more bannings were given). Samo is one of those who loved to cry that he's being picked on while, at the same time, using an alt to harass...

Oh, and ask SweetPoison (sorry if I spelled your name wrong) about what he thinks of the Starhawk "community"...he stopped his signature contests there for a reason, and it wasn't bad turn-out...

[Samokoske]

sorry jag, you want me to play the quote game here. and i'm not doing that. i preemtively explained myself before you were to quip, and you have read and made your judgement, but it's not for you to judge, nor is it for me to seek approval.

Also, pheonix, you're another troll. you do it well within the guidelines, and you use the excuse of forums rules as your weapon to supress others' opinions, and it's a highly sophisticated way of trolling. kudos.

[gR3yGh051]

If I were to apply.... I would need to exhibit a MASSIVE amount of restraint from then on...

decisions decisions....