Waar wrote...
I think it might be a good time to give a detailed account of how I became a mod and quality poster on Fakku, too few of you were around that far back and I think it will help the new people to understand what I mean when I berate them for being shit.
I started off as many of you did: overly nice and non-confrontational, my post were polite, I was careful not to offend anyone and I unremarkable. A month in and only 2-3 users even knew who I was. I mostly kept to the Random section because IB didn't even exist.
As time went on I noticed users enjoyed my comments more when I was sarcastic and funny. The reputation system did more to shape my early time on Fakku than any other single user. A rep here, a rep there and I learned what piqued public interest. At this point I still was fairly tame and did nothing to offend others, I wasn't considered popular but some of the popular users knew who I was. I was starting to have fun. This is when I started to spread to other sections of the forum, got into some debates in SD(it was far better than it is today), started giving advice in the Love, Romance & Relationships section(as one of the few who had some experience with the opposite sex). I was learning what it meant to post outside my section, the feel was very different, more serious, I didn't dislike them I just didn't feel like I could have as much fun as I did in Random.
One day I met a user named Ziggy Otaku who immediately struck me as overly emotional, we got into a couple of debates and most of them ended in her getting angry. I was still being pretty non-confrontational and posted more of a grey area rather than the black I turned to soon after. Her birthday came around and as we had a history of hostility I assumed she probably didn't want a birthday message from me but I did notice something that I wanted to ask about. I asked her where her friends were and if she would be spending time with them on her birthday(I even added a disclaimer saying I meant no hostility). I guess it was a sore spot for her because her immediate response was to lash out as if I was attacking. Then TMS decided to don his troll cap and answer my question with "it's because she's fat and ugly and has no friends". That turned into the first major shitstorm that I had been involved with on Fakku. I ended up losing 50 rep in 2 days and I assume it's because they believed that I was the cause of tms's reply.
It also awoke something in me, I found my first true love: arguing with multiple people. I found that it was more fun to find a point I felt I could defend or something I felt I could attack and see how many people I could get to argue with me about it. I didn't like when people came in to support my side(as it happened more and more as I gained notoriety) because I then had to try and argue their points as well even if they said something retarded. I learned that if I kept a clear concise argument and logically broke down the opponents argument I could easily counter it.
It wasn't long after that some of the staff started to really take note of who I was. Jacob and mike would tell me to tone it down but secretly laugh at the people I would destroy. It wasn't all bad, I helped the staff out more than one might expect, I spent a good amount of time in feedback giving and shooting down ideas to help improve the site and gave private council to the staff over skype. The A-Team skype call was alive and kicking at this point so I found my group of friends(many I still consider friends today). I was eventually given a 3 day ban for telling a user named Angelus that "I was put on this earth to mock retards like you". After that ban I decided to reform my ways(because I wanted to be a mod so I would never be banned again). I started busting my ass to make the site better, not to kiss ass and whatnot but simply to tone down my inner troll and work on the betterment of the site.
I spent nearly a year like that with no traction with the staff. I decided trying as hard as I did was pointless, they didn't seem to hire people who were trying to be staff. Eventually I met Jake in real life(as I was fleeing the country, a story for another time). After that something that shook the very foundation of Fakku happened, the Hibia and Tranquility scandal. Jake had to fire them both and that opened up some room for new moderators, something I had given up on months before. Jake asked Tegumi and I to fill the slots as section mods.
Life as a section mod wasn't much better, everything I said was reviewed, every move I made had to be sanctioned by Jake. Until he knew I could be trusted he wanted an account of what changes I made. I would argue with him over how things were done or any time I wanted to do something that I thought was necessary. It became more of a cage than I expected and I started to dislike the position. I knew it might lead to position as global mod but I had to put in the time as a bitch boy for a while. Almost a year later I was made global mod and finally I reached my goal; the ability to do what I want, say what I want without having to worry about anything. I could make threads and argue about anything without having another mod lock it. I could move threads that I didn't think belonged in one section to another(the Ramsus incident). It was awesome.
This parable is meant to inspire those of you who have not found your way yet. IB is not the section to use if you want to discover your style, it's the section where you use your style when it's completed. Post in Random, post in the video games section, learn how to go from ordinary to extraordinary. Then you can come back to IB to earn some respect.
There are many other stories in the parable of waar but I don't want to take up too much of your time. I will probably add chapters such as the "epic of coco-tan" and the "lament of eg's suicide". I'm also willing to take requests if any of you remember something and want me to talk about what I remember about the incident.