Ex-Pawn Moderator AMA Ask Me Anything

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I joined in 2007, played for a few years, took a hiatus, then came back in 2010. I was a moderator and led the clan managers usergroup.

Here to reveal secrets from the past, 5-10 years ago.
 
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Who do you think would win a fight? Blank101 or Alex?
 
I know the answers to these, but i just need your thoughts. I dont remember if you were even around for the stuff though. The last 15 years have been a giant blur.

1. What was the bigger disappointment, HWV being revealed as a fraud, or Crim moving to Canada?
2. Is IOA in prison now?
3. Why did TF drink milk out of bags?
4. What sub-forum did i create in the old mod forums?
5. Why did Blank never grant me the title of Supreme Overlord that i rightly deserved?
 
I know the answers to these, but i just need your thoughts. I dont remember if you were even around for the stuff though. The last 15 years have been a giant blur.

1. What was the bigger disappointment, HWV being revealed as a fraud, or Crim moving to Canada?
2. Is IOA in prison now?
3. Why did TF drink milk out of bags?
4. What sub-forum did i create in the old mod forums?
5. Why did Blank never grant me the title of Supreme Overlord that i rightly deserved?
I'll save 1 for last because it's more personal.

2. I don't remember who IOA was. Was that the angel guy? I remember an angel person.

3. TF was forced to drink milk out of bags as punishment for giving fire to humans.

4. I honestly don't remember. Probably something to do with guns or Colorado.

5. You came very close. Rumors were floating around the mod community that you would be getting it once Blank returned.

By far HWV being revealed as a fraud. I was honestly very angry about this. I was a young kid, 13 years old at the time, coming from a very rough family. I was looking for role models in my life, and this dude named "HardenedWarVet" who was the administrator of my favorite website, started reaching out to me and being really chill with me. He was giving me reputation, pming me saying my posts were great. He started inviting me to his private Skype calls and I felt like I was in with him and accepted and appreciated. Despite myself being nervous and intimidated I would join in, and he would keep reaching out to me. He was really good with tech stuff, would give me advice, and I ended up entering a career in computer science myself. I work as a software engineer to this day.

I remember he posted photos in the "post your picture thread" of himself. They were personal photos of this badass dude, handsome as hell, big, strong, tough, in his army uniform in the desert. I was inspired and felt so lucky that a dude like this saw so much in me at a young age. He gave me moderator, and then put me in charge of running the clan managers. I loved that role and felt really proud about it all. I busted my ass and wanted to make him proud and the community strong.

Things continued like that for a long time, a few years.

Towards the end things stared falling apart. I saw lots of favoritism from him, and not like an "old boys network" kind of thing, not a looking out for your teammates kind of thing, but really bias favoritism from him. Things where people would get away with things just because they knew him, times I felt like my friends on the website were targeted just because he wasn't familiar with them. I had to stick up for my friends a lot.

Then I remember a Firefox extension came out, a tool to reverse search images.

Out of curiosity I reversed image searched the photos he posted in the post your picture thread. I was surprised to get a result, a link to a website. A blog in honor of a fallen soldiers. He had posted fake pictures, of another man, a dead soldier.

At some point after this someone linked me his Facebook. He looked nothing like the man I imagined him to be, let's put it that way. He worked as a grocery bagger, I don't think he had ever even been in war, and certainly hadn't been "hardened". He looked like a grown man who was still living in his mother's home.

The last time I spoke to him I confronted him. This was after about 3 or 4 years of looking up to this guy. I asked him why he lied, why he posted these fake pictures. All he said was "Why didn't you call me out? I hated living a lie." I was angrier - as though it was my responsibility to reveal his lies?

It took me some time to realize that the man I looked up to never existed. It was stolen valor.
 
How many people did you ban over the span of being a mod?
I'm not sure. I would mainly moderate the forums, not so much the games, because there wasn't a whole lot of bad stuff that happened on the games. As for the forums there was a pretty structured system of what to give infractions for, enough infractions would accumulate into a ban, and a ban could be either temporary or permanent.

I think I only ever permied people who were ban evading, but as for temp bans, those usually just accumulated naturally from someone getting too much infractions.

One time this guy send childhood pictures of me in a PM to everyone in a forum, I think his name was Hitman. That was a time I permied someone.

But in general the community was very solid, and very awesome, so bans were not very common.
 
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I'll save 1 for last because it's more personal.

2. I don't remember who IOA was. Was that the angel guy? I remember an angel person.

3. TF was forced to drink milk out of bags as punishment for giving fire to humans.

4. I honestly don't remember. Probably something to do with guns or Colorado.

5. You came very close. Rumors were floating around the mod community that you would be getting it once Blank returned.

By far HWV being revealed as a fraud. I was honestly very angry about this. I was a young kid, 13 years old at the time, coming from a very rough family. I was looking for role models in my life, and this dude named "HardenedWarVet" who was the administrator of my favorite website, started reaching out to me and being really chill with me. He was giving me reputation, pming me saying my posts were great. He started inviting me to his private Skype calls and I felt like I was in with him and accepted and appreciated. Despite myself being nervous and intimidated I would join in, and he would keep reaching out to me. He was really good with tech stuff, would give me advice, and I ended up entering a career in computer science myself. I work as a software engineer to this day.

I remember he posted photos in the "post your picture thread" of himself. They were personal photos of this badass dude, handsome as hell, big, strong, tough, in his army uniform in the desert. I was inspired and felt so lucky that a dude like this saw so much in me at a young age. He gave me moderator, and then put me in charge of running the clan managers. I loved that role and felt really proud about it all. I busted my ass and wanted to make him proud and the community strong.

Things continued like that for a long time, a few years.

Towards the end things stared falling apart. I saw lots of favoritism from him, and not like an "old boys network" kind of thing, not a looking out for your teammates kind of thing, but really bias favoritism from him. Things where people would get away with things just because they knew him, times I felt like my friends on the website were targeted just because he wasn't familiar with them. I had to stick up for my friends a lot.

Then I remember a Firefox extension came out, a tool to reverse search images.

Out of curiosity I reversed image searched the photos he posted in the post your picture thread. I was surprised to get a result, a link to a website. A blog in honor of a fallen soldiers. He had posted fake pictures, of another man, a dead soldier.

At some point after this someone linked me his Facebook. He looked nothing like the man I imagined him to be, let's put it that way. He worked as a grocery bagger, I don't think he had ever even been in war, and certainly hadn't been "hardened". He looked like a grown man who was still living in his mother's home.

The last time I spoke to him I confronted him. This was after about 3 or 4 years of looking up to this guy. I asked him why he lied, why he posted these fake pictures. All he said was "Why didn't you call me out? I hated living a lie." I was angrier - as though it was my responsibility to reveal his lies?

It took me some time to realize that the man I looked up to never existed. It was stolen valor.
Wow man... this is.. pretty deep
 
what did you think about eiliosdraye's e-lites idea, and do you think elites were a good idea to begin with
 
what did you think about eiliosdraye's e-lites idea, and do you think elites were a good idea to begin with
Eilios was a very good friend of mine, and a leader of sorts. He was a notorious troll, and I was a troll myself, but in private he was very loyal, independent, and unafraid to speak what he thought. There was a lot I respected about him and even looked up to in him. He was always there for me and kept his friends united.

That said I think the "elite" group was a bad idea. I don't remember if it was Eilios that suggested it, ultimately I think HWV implemented it, but it separated the community and made it cliquish. Pawns greatest strength has been and always will be its community - theres more to say about that but implementing the elite group sowed divsion in the community.

I was in the elite group myself. I liked being an elite, just like I liked being a moderator. Who doesn't like feeling part of a special group? But I always wanted to get along with everyone. I saw most everyone as part of the same team, members of the pawn community. That was why I always wore my clan manager colors, and not my elite or moderator colors. That was what I was most proud of.
 
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@greb that’s a name I haven’t heard in a while. IOA was the first to exploit PG starting with create chat room spam as fare as I remember.
 
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