Disappearing Poly members!

[Maniac]

Does anyone know if anything happened to GeneralTacticus? I found it odd he hardly posted in the AC-Democracy Game forum lately, so I decided to do a little research. And to my surprise he seems to have disappeared. He no longer is listed in the general Members List. He no longer is member of the ACDG UoP civgroup here. And his e-mail addy no longer seems to work, as Drogue fruitlessly tried to send a PBEM turn to him. Does anyone have a clue what could be the problem? His last post a week ago doesn't say he's leaving or something. He simply disappeared off the face of the earth.

Later I discovered the same problem with Googlie.

[Ming]

Both were restricted for not following the rules of the UpLoad feature of this site. They and some others were recently restricted. They will be back

[alva]

Sure they will...

Why are people not able to follow a set of simple rules

[Ming]

Originally posted by alva
Why are people not able to follow a set of simple rules

Maybe it would help if they actually read the rules

[Jamski]

Can you tell us how long they'll be away for... we're kinda waiting for them in the AC demo game.....

Thanks

-Jam

[alva]

Im' sure it won't be long

[johndmuller]

Ming, it might help even more if you told us what the hotbutton here was; the FAQ just has a list of file types (which I presume is enforced by the upload process) and the phrase "NO ILLEGAL FILES". I wouldn't have thought that Googlie was the type to casually flout your rules, so he probably just wasn't on the same page as you (unless this godhood thing just went to his head) {or} (unless the Googster wanted to show us mortals that he was just regular people too by getting banned).

Not knowing whether there was a history here or how obviously inappropriate the offending material might have been and not knowing whether there is some other place where the rules are spelled out better (If so, shouldn't it be at least referenced in the FAQ?), I couldn't say for sure whether a warning might have been more reasonable than a banning, but for the rest of us, perhaps some further explanation, either of this case or of the relevant part of the rules might be in order.

BTW, it seems that I've experienced contradictory behavior when attempting to acquire files that have been uploaded; I haven't meticulously documented this and I'm not sure I remember the exact outcomes, but I am pretty sure that sometimes the link must be right-clicked and sometimes left-clicked in order to get the file downloaded, although both methods look like they are supposed to work. Maybe there are multiple ways to upload things and different approaches lead to different results when downloading, who knows. Maybe there is yet a third way which leads to inappropriate content being substituted for the legitimate material too.

How secure are these files anyway - it appears that anyone can read material given its filename and the paths to all the files follow an obvious pattern, so if you knew the name of a file and whose area it was in, you could access it. That's probably not a problem, but if someone can get a directory listing too, that would be a problem (the security here is good enough to resist my inexpert token attempts). Of course, uploading files in someone else's name would be a problem too (might even get someone banned), but one would expect that to be covered (but since Googlie got banned, maybe not).

[Ming]

Originally posted by johndmuller
Ming, it might help even more if you told us what the hotbutton here was; the FAQ just has a list of file types

See the complete Upload FAQ at

http://apolyton.net/forums/misc.php?s=&action=faq&page=12#188

And its VERY CLEAR when it comes to what kind of files are allowed.

What kind of files are accepted?
Only files related to the games we cover are accepted. NO ILLEGAL FILES will be tolerated. All uploads are logged!

It doesn't say it's ok to post personal photos, or shots from movies... and that's what most people got nailed for.

So... you may only post covered game related material.
I don't know how they can be more clear than that.

[Panag]

Originally posted by Ming


See the complete Upload FAQ at

http://apolyton.net/forums/misc.php?s=&action=faq&page=12#188

And its VERY CLEAR when it comes to what kind of files are allowed.




It doesn't say it's ok to post personal photos, or shots from movies... and that's what most people got nailed for.

So... you may only post covered game related material.
I don't know how they can be more clear than that.

hi ,

Ming a Q , what about personal pics in the AC com picture thread , would this be allowed as an exception or not , .....

BTW it does clearly explain on the upload page that "illegal" files aint allowed , why are some people saying they did not know that , or did not see it , .....

have a nice day

[alva]

Panag, no

[johndmuller]

Originally posted by Ming

And its VERY CLEAR when it comes to what kind of files are allowed.

It doesn't say it's ok to post personal photos, or shots from movies... and that's what most people got nailed for.

So... you may only post covered game related material.
I don't know how they can be more clear than that.

If that FAQ (which was what I was asking for further expanation of in my original post) is "VERY CLEAR", I'd hate to see what just "Clear" was like, let alone "SLIGHTLY VAGUE". Not to give you a hard time, but PLEASE!

Hey, we're in a heavily role-playing game here and the Googster is as heavily if not more so into it than anyone - so what is game related and what isn't is no more clear than the murky rules of what you can and can't post.

[Ming]

Without specifically saying Yes and NO to EVERY specific circumstances... the rules are indeed very clear.

People were restricted for posting PERSONAL pictures.
Please explain how those could POSSIBLY be game related... Seems REALLY CLEAR TO ME.

[DarkCloud]

If that FAQ (which was what I was asking for further expanation of in my original post) is "VERY CLEAR", I'd hate to see what just "Clear" was like, let alone "SLIGHTLY VAGUE". Not to give you a hard time, but PLEASE!

John, I respect your opinion- but I never read the FAQ, and yet when I uploaded files- the first thing I notice each time is that I am only supposed to post 'game-related' material... I think that rules out any confusion in regards to personal photos and movies... and as for other games- I understand your complaint more- but the fact that Apolyton does not have a specific section dedicated to other games should give people a hint that they are not supposed to upload other game information.

Apolyton is not your personal disk-storage space
although it might be nice if it were

[Cedayon]

I uploaded some images for use on the private forums, because we can't use attachments there (which might be a bug).

*promptly removes them all*

Anyway: when I read the FAQ now I see very clearly "only game-related material allowed" ... for some reason that didn't sink in from the first 2 times I read it some time ago... perhaps "if you upload anything not game-related you will be temporarily banned" would have a greater chance at getting through our thick skulls?

Thanks for the clarification, in any event, the rules are much clearer to me now

edit - perhaps, to note the difference between "game-related" and "related to our democracy game" something like "if you upload anything not related to one of the games featured by Apolyton, you will be temporarily banned" would be more effective.

[alva]

True DC (and Ming), but the fact that more members are (a little?) confused, should in itself mean that there is room for improvent regarding the FAQ. (see Panag's first question for example)

If we can prevent these things from happening again, surely you will agree that, that would be a win-win situation for both the owners/mods and for the members (especially those who had no deliberate foul-play in mind).