The imfamous "team ****" - Fight Forum - MMA - UFC - Boxing - K1

guile · 08-18-2007, 12:45 AM

I know everyone has been waiting for an explanation to the whole "team ****" situation and all the drama surrounding it. I am not going to get into too much detail, but I will voice some of my main concerns.

I first of all want to say that I completely back the FightForum staff and the measures that have been taken to resolve these issues. I want everyone to realize that the staff works together, as a team, behind the scenes to make the tough decisions that we feel will uphold the standards and integrity of this community.

It is easy to point the finger at the people on the front lines who are forced to pull the trigger (or hand out bans), but I assure you that there is always deliberation behind the scenes and I have rarely disagreed with the decisions of the FightForum staff. These guys do a hell of a job and deserve all the respect of this community.

If you disagree with a staff member's decision, rather than starting a rebellion, why not ask me to review the situation? Every complaint I have ever gotten about "staff abusing power" has always been a case where the so called "victim" was breaking the rules. If you don't like the rules, we could just get rid of them altogether and become Sherdog. Wouldn't that be great?

Getting back to my concerns with Team ****, everyone is aware that "I heart LNP" was recently promoted to moderator at FightForum. He always seemed like a cool guy and a good member to have on the staff, which is why we were all pretty shocked by the team **** deal.

It started when I heart LNP created an alternate account (tsgv456) on FightForum which used the email address getridofaika@hotmail.com. We traced the IP address back to I Heart LNP and confronted him about the account. He denied any involvement on multiple occasions. Slightly concerned, we began digging a bit deeper. In the chat logs we uncovered I Heart LNP's admission to the alternate account. We also found a link to the team **** forum and discussion of **** members creating alternate accounts by using proxies to mask their IP.

Curious, I registered on the team **** forum and found some interesting stuff, which I have saved. One of which was a thread listing FightForum members that were "Enemies of Team ****", and talk of targetting atleast 1 of those members on FightForum.

Also on the **** forum, I heart LNP encouraged and offered to vote for any Team **** members that applied for Moderator at FightForum. He shared private information from the FightForum Staff area with **** members along with IP addresses of FightForum members. He forwarded private applications of members who previously voiced interest in being a FF Moderator to members of team **** to give them an advantage over others who were applying for moderator.

Members of **** were all on board with this and actually worked together to give each other "nominations" in the FightForum Moderator 2 thread. If this seems right to you guys, then I am wrong.

FightForum has always worked hard to bring in the most deserving moderators -- members that uphold our own standards. I think we have done a pretty good job with one exception. The fact that members of team **** couldn't send an application of their own explaining why they would make a good mod is reason enough for me to beleive that they would never make it on this staff, or in this community for that matter.

There was some other minor dirt uncovered, but by that point, I had seen enough. I'll let Aika and the others add to this, but I just ask that everyone show some respect for the job that these guys do, and understand that we all work hard to make decisions that are in the best interest of the community.

subgenius · 08-18-2007, 11:43 AM

I think you guys did a bang up, simply smashing job. Not just with this Team **** business. The reason that I post here at the FF, and not on other MMA forums that I have memberships with, is because the Fight Forum has rules that are enforced by admins and moderators. The rules in place provide a level playing ground for discussions. They protect the FF from having MMA promotions like the UFC come here and demand that you remove copyrighted content (as with You Tube and their postings of entire fights from PPVs). And, the rules serve many other roles and purposes as well. Too many to list, I think.

I said it before, I would not want the job of an admin or moderator here at FF. It is a tough, and often thankless job that I doubt you guys get paid for like with a real job out there in the really real world off of the Internet. Being an admin or mod means having to be more in control. I have strong opinions about MMA and combat sports. I would hate to have to limit my opinions. The moderators and admins here have level, cool heads. They often seem to have guarded opinions. I rarely see them argue. That is an excellent standard that they have set.

Maybe it's a maturity thing. I see it in games a lot. I admin a HL2 DoDS server and forums. I see young kids acting like complete idiots all of the time. They run their mouths. They try to cheat in the game. They post at the forums trying to create problems. Most of the time they are just 13 year old kids with little to no maturity. As an admin over there, I have among the highest numbers of bans on the server. I also have the highest number of forum actions (bans, edits, thread merging, etc, etc). That being said, I have seen your admins and moderators show a lot of restraint. I have yet to see any situation where power was abused (except, if you consider what I heart LNP did as abuse of his power).

marnold · 08-18-2007, 11:46 AM

Thanks SubG. We appreciate what you have to say here. Anyone wanting a place held to higher standard can stay here and voice opinions with respesct and intellectual empathy for others.

jm1010 · 08-18-2007, 12:22 PM

I completely agree with Sub. I think the FF staff does an excellent job here. Not only on getting rid of trolls and what not, but with merging, moving, and locking up threads alonf with so much more. As Sub said I have never witnessed a staff member abuse their powers. I would like to thank you all, and just so that your work does not go unnoticed in my book. I really appreciate the jobs you guys do.

On the "Team ****" sitiuation, it is an unfortunate event. It is really sad to see members that I respected a great deal be banned. I never really saw this coming in a million years. When the talk of a "conspiracy" surfaced I thought it was a joke. I never imagined that a silly "team" could be guilty of this. What shocked me more was the members involved. The whole thing is just a bad deal. With that being said, I will accept and back up any decision the staff decides to make. Without you guys, their would be no Fight Forum.

GSPALLTHEWAY · 08-18-2007, 12:43 PM

FF is better today then it was 2 weeks ago, and i predict it will continue to get better and better....

and you all know my predictions have never been wrong yet!

BispingKO · 08-18-2007, 03:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheTitoOrtizofFF

and you all know my predictions have never been wrong yet!

Any tips for UFC 74? Lol

Top job guys. I dont know anything about this whole Team **** rubbish but it seems as though the staff cleaned the mess up excellently.

Lets keep up FF's great reputation and move forwards.

I would say more but the legendary Sub summed it all up (minus the second paragraph!)

Thanks a million and keep up the great work

Greenman · 08-18-2007, 04:49 PM

I noticed a brutal decline in FF's welcoming mature nature several weeks ago and I have basically not posted since. Hopefully this will resolve the situation and get FF back to how it was when I joined way back when.

AikaImmortal · 08-18-2007, 04:51 PM

If it does not, send one of us a PM with your concerns and any specific threads if possible and it will be more than taken care of

MTKrav911 · 08-18-2007, 06:36 PM

Thanks for the rundown Guile. I was totally confused as to all this mess and am glad that it is behind us all.

Now can we all start getting psyched for UFC 74 and 75 and Wanderlei coming into the mix??

Seems we've all been side-tracked with some nonsense and missed some great great MMA news.

"For this I come because I want to ****..Fight Chuck. **** Chuck!" -Wanderlei Silva last year.

twigz · 08-18-2007, 06:41 PM

This is what happens when we get a lack of UFC PPV's lol people got too bored.

I must have been in the same boat Krav was, I was confused as hell about the whole thing.

Members will come and go but FF will always be here.

Dr.Chicago · 08-18-2007, 06:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MTKrav911

Thanks for the rundown Guile. I was totally confused as to all this mess and am glad that it is behind us all.

Yup! Thanx again for all the efforts Guile!

Quote:

Seems we've all been side-tracked with some nonsense and missed some great great MMA news.

Don't worry man! I got your back

Quote:

"For this I come because I want to ****..Fight Chuck. **** Chuck!" -Wanderlei Silva last year.

LOL! This quote is alwayas funny.. esp when you watch it!

Cacti45 · 08-18-2007, 08:19 PM

i agree with Sub G, might vote is for him to replace that one guy who was banned. ( for moderator)

BCguy · 08-18-2007, 08:45 PM

I wanted to keep my mouth shut about the whole **** debacle and did not post in any of the other "****" related threads because they always seemed to turn ugly. I want to send my praise to the mods for a job well done. Im glad things got sorted out and we can get back to what this forum is for .... MMA !

I know in the past month or so ive been a little harsh with a few people and just want to apologize to any one i might have offended or insulted (yes that includes you too goeth

). I seemed to get caught up in the lack of MMA to talk about and focused my attention where it should not have been.

This is by far the best MMA forum on the net , if not the best forum on any topic in general. Im looking forward to the future of FF and hope everyone else is as well.

jm1010 · 08-18-2007, 11:54 PM

I just read basically everything on the ** forum. I do not doubt that LNP made an alternate account. I dont think his intent of the account was all bad though but that is besides the point. I could not find any evidence of ** planning to or actually harrassing any member of FF. I did see the "Enemies of **" thread. However, nothing in there was bad. It was just simply stating the members not allowed into ** and some members that ** wasnt very fond of. I really think it would be a shame if some respected members were permanately banned for a big misunderstanding. That is exactly what I think this is, a very big misunderstanding.

I just hope that the FF staff can really find out the truth and make the proper decisions.

Ring_Raider_07 · 08-19-2007, 12:02 AM

If anyone's against Aika, they're against me!

Damn, FF had it's own little mafia going on.

duke09 · 08-19-2007, 06:44 PM

1) we werent a mafia

2) is it not possible that the reason that ** assembled was to combat the bitterness and bickering that goes on around here.

3) is it also not possible that certain members of FF banded together as they felt that the mods and admin were not getting teh job done and decided to assemble in hopes of salvaging what they could of FF?

... ultimately, we all got along, we all cared about this place to do something when we thought no one else would/was/were going to.

the worst part is that we are being thought of as a sinister group with teh ai of taking over FF, but this simply is not teh case. we have posted links to our site, and it is deleted. members are defending ourselves and inviting people to go to our message board and see for themselves what the fuss was about, but those are getting erased and teh links are deleted. we are not some under cover or behind the scenes group of people who were trying to destroy FF.

we ****in loved this place enough to do what we could to protect its integrity when no one else would and to set a standard that we thought was sufficient and appropriate. we stood in opposition to differential treatment, arbitrary decisions, and to many things that we thought were hurting FF. if that makes us wrong, then we were wrong.

but remember, next time any of you type the words "FF is the premeire forum for mma on teh internets", ask yourself if you would defend it as we did, if you are willing to get banned for standing up for it, and if you really care enough to be called to action when no one else, including those that are supposed to, did. were we wrong? resoundingly no. why not? this place was worth fighting for, and teh patterns we hoped to change and break have proven since all this to in fact exist, and has reared its ugly head in teh arbitrary bannings, the silencing of the members and the inability of many people to explicitly state why or how what we did was wrong.

what we did we did out of love, respect, and concern for OUR fightforum.

war ** and all those who support us and those of you who want this to remain teh ultimate MMA forum on the face of teh internet. for the many kind words myself and ** have gotten, thank you. for those who judge us before knowing us, ignorance really is bliss and life is certainly easier when someone else is directing it for you.

H@mmerM@n · 08-19-2007, 06:48 PM

Job well done guys I've been gone all weekend so i'm still on catch up mode but I'll keep reading but for the most part it sounds like everything was handled well and justified..........Oh btw can I have the banned partys points I sure could use them

GSPALLTHEWAY · 08-19-2007, 08:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by duke09

1) we werent a mafia

2) is it not possible that the reason that ** assembled was to combat the bitterness and bickering that goes on around here.

3) is it also not possible that certain members of FF banded together as they felt that the mods and admin were not getting teh job done and decided to assemble in hopes of salvaging what they could of FF?

... ultimately, we all got along, we all cared about this place to do something when we thought no one else would/was/were going to.

the worst part is that we are being thought of as a sinister group with teh ai of taking over FF, but this simply is not teh case. we have posted links to our site, and it is deleted. members are defending ourselves and inviting people to go to our message board and see for themselves what the fuss was about, but those are getting erased and teh links are deleted. we are not some under cover or behind the scenes group of people who were trying to destroy FF.

we ****in loved this place enough to do what we could to protect its integrity when no one else would and to set a standard that we thought was sufficient and appropriate. we stood in opposition to differential treatment, arbitrary decisions, and to many things that we thought were hurting FF. if that makes us wrong, then we were wrong.

but remember, next time any of you type the words "FF is the premeire forum for mma on teh internets", ask yourself if you would defend it as we did, if you are willing to get banned for standing up for it, and if you really care enough to be called to action when no one else, including those that are supposed to, did. were we wrong? resoundingly no. why not? this place was worth fighting for, and teh patterns we hoped to change and break have proven since all this to in fact exist, and has reared its ugly head in teh arbitrary bannings, the silencing of the members and the inability of many people to explicitly state why or how what we did was wrong.

what we did we did out of love, respect, and concern for OUR fightforum.

war ** and all those who support us and those of you who want this to remain teh ultimate MMA forum on the face of teh internet. for the many kind words myself and ** have gotten, thank you. for those who judge us before knowing us, ignorance really is bliss and life is certainly easier when someone else is directing it for you.

the fact that you keep saying "we" proves the very point of why that needed to be stopped....

so you are backing up the "hit list" to get members including me banned??? for the good of FF right... psssh

Jras0001 · 08-19-2007, 08:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jm1010

I just read basically everything on the ** forum. I do not doubt that LNP made an alternate account. I dont think his intent of the account was all bad though but that is besides the point. I could not find any evidence of ** planning to or actually harrassing any member of FF. I did see the "Enemies of **" thread. However, nothing in there was bad. It was just simply stating the members not allowed into ** and some members that ** wasnt very fond of. I really think it would be a shame if some respected members were permanately banned for a big misunderstanding. That is exactly what I think this is, a very big misunderstanding.

I just hope that the FF staff can really find out the truth and make the proper decisions.

Thats because shortly after they realized they had been found out, he (LnP) removed the most offending threads / posts and then started giving out their URL for the members of the forums to read and to make it look like the mods / admins / staff just made this stuff up.

AikaImmortal · 08-19-2007, 08:33 PM

An example, the thread with many member's IP addresses is now gone.