Hi crew!
I'm not all that new since I've lurked on-and-off for a while and been playing mordheim in a similar fashion.
I recently re-commenced work on my Mordheim table, hence visiting here once again and finally registering.
But there's something I want to bring up:
I almost didn't register. I know this subject has been done to death but I think it should be known that the way it was handled presented a very bad image for the people that run this site.
I am, of course, talking about Asp's Sisters of Sigmar FAQ and the way it was dealt with by the people at this site.
Let it be known: I do not find rape funny and I do not condone it, and on a personal level I wasn't particularly impressed by the FAQ.
But the issue I found was this - a lot of long-term members felt comfortable enough to initiate and engage in a flame war with Asp even though it was off-topic. Understandably, given the subject matter, it would be hard to keep things from getting heated, but then something interesting happened and Asp was banned.
Asp was banned for defending himself (right or wrong) and to the observer it simply seemed that all parties were as guilty as each other.
It made the moderation team look silly, to be honest. The fair action would simply have been to say "next person to step out of line is banned" but it seemed that Asp was singled out, based on the moderators' personal view on his daft rape jokes.
I don't like casting aspersions but then I came across another thread, made by another member involved in the conflict. The thread was CLEARLY created to house a flame war between members. This member was not banned - "why?" I asked myself, "this seems like a second layer of hypocrisy."
Then something interesting happened, again. Each of the moderators accessed the locked thread to weigh in once again on the matter. The thread was already locked, the initial moderator clearly stating that the subject was not welcome on the site. Fair enough - but then for another couple of moderators to post in the thread and say "I agree that Asp was in the wrong but it's a good idea to lock this thread" - that represents a lot of things to me.
Hypocrisy, double standards, elitism, and unfair conduct.
So you can see why I almost didn't register. Why would I want to get involved in a community that would behave in such a manner?
But then I realised that I really want to get stuck into Mordheim, and I came across a thread about the help DeafNala recieved in a time of need, and I figured it can't ALL be as bad as how the Asp situation was handled.
I know this is a wierd intro thread but I figured that you should all know how bad this place looked from the outside. I look forward to being the contributor that almost never was.
- Nerje
p.s. I'm re-writing Mordheim, which I guess puts me in the majority (hah!) but my end result is becoming less and less like Mordheim and more like my own personal creation which is great. I'll keep y'all updated.
p.p.s. 25/m/Sydney
p.p.p.s. Damn cianty how do you paint such remarkable scenery