Gasmaske: What's your honest opinion about Spam?
Ming: Spam is all a matter of 'intent'... I enjoy the back and forth banter, the interactions... I do it all the time. A smile as a response is sometimes the only appropriate response. One word answers... the same. It all comes down to intent... I don’t feel that these are spam. Real spam is when somebody posts something just to post something, or to add to their post count, or to disrupt the forums. Under that definition, I hate spam.

Jrabbit: How much time do you spend as Mod vs actually playing Civ?
Ming: For the most part, I have spent FAR more time playing Civ than being a mod. But now, with Civ III... it’s probably just the reverse. While I still play Civ II MP, and some Civ III... I really don’t like Civ III as a SP game.

DetroitDave: Where do you draw the line between free speech and obscenity in the OT?

For instance, I've seen a few posters temp- banned for seemingly "offensive" racist comments, yet flame wars abound.
Ming: When it comes to swear words... the owners don’t like it. So that’s what we enforce. I think we can all chuckle about some of the things that get censored, and what doesn’t. Many people get around the censor by using spaces... stars... other things. Usually, we don’t mind. However, if somebody complains, we then take a hard look. Plus, if somebody is doing it all the time, or it’s a real rant where almost every word should be censored then we take action. Also, if somebody 'flaunts' it by saying things like, gee it’s easy to get around... and takes special glee in getting around it... toast time.

Racist comments are off limits... and we act whenever we see them or they are pointed out to us. Large flame wars are also jumped on the minute we see them. However, we do allow the minor flaming that is natural when you talk about highly emotional topics. When it looks like it is starting to get out of hand, we tell people to chill.

It also has a lot to do with intent. There is 'kidding around' and then there is major hate. Sometimes it is hard to tell the difference... we do the best we can. Also... while mild flaming is allowed, peoples families are TOTALLY off limits. We have 0% tolerance policy on family attacks/insults.

Gasmaske: Why on earth are you giving your life up to moderate a bunch of kids?
Ming: I don’t give up much to moderate. Even before I was a moderator, a spent a majority of my internet time on Apolyton and other gaming sites. I simply do it to help Mark and Dan out.

Solver: Before Apolyton was created, what was your occupation at MarkG's site?
Ming: Poster...

Solver: If Markos got killed by the crowd and DanQ would leave, appointing you as the owner, what would Apolyton be like then?
Ming: It would be terrible... I don’t have the time, resources, or knowledge to maintain the site. If you are asking what rules I would change... they would pretty much stay the same. I like the community feel that the current rules support. However, the auto censor would be gone in a second;)

Solver: Did you ever want to quit doing your duties at Apolyton?
Ming: A few times... but not seriously. Sometimes I get really pissed at something... but it doesn’t last very long. I’ll keep doing it until Apolyton ceases... MarkG or DanQ fire me... or if I get bored with it.

Solver: If you had to either stop civing or stop moderating, which one would you pick?
Ming: I’m a civ addict. That’s what brought me to Apolyton in the first place. (now, if Civ III MP doesn’t answer our needs... )

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