Serious Problem

So I've been inquiring on DDO about why people aren't debating here more and giving it a chance etc. I'm trying to only debate here, or that's what I proposed. But I've heard now from 3 separate users, 2 prominent and 1 new, who all said they left Edeb8 and wouldn't come back because they were driven away by DDO's former member jifpop. I don't know who he is on here but 3 separate people told me in 3 separate conversations that this is what happened. Words used to describe his behavior were:
overbearing
heated
harassing

Your tiny community is being kept so because of a bad user. One who was banned from DDO for a reason. Until this is resolved people won't come and I'm feeling inclined to leave (which saddens me).

AND on top of it. They all said Larz told them not to mention it or talk about it.

This is bad business. Terrible business actually. I'm no longer surprised the only people here are the admins.

TowerOfBabel: Wait wait wait. I never said that. I judge people for how they act on edeb8. I don't judge people for how they might have acted on DDO. But I would never say not to mention or talk about it, so long as they weren't being harassing about it. "Jifpop" is "Sovi", and unless people come to me with specific complaints against him, I can't really react. I'm definitely not in league with any member of the site.

There's only ONE admin on this site and it's me. There are no "admins". Incidentally Sovi has been kinda warned about that - if he told you he's an admin then that would be super serious for him. Most probably a ban though I'd give him a chance to explain himself. That's my normal process.

Here's what gets me. Do they seriously think nobody is overbearing, heated or harassing on DDO? Heck, that's the key reason I left DDO - I was being bullied like hell. Every day on the DDO forum it seems like a prominent member says goodbye for much this reason.

Edeb8 has a non-harassment policy - harassment that's reported to me leads to bans. Unlike DDO, I might add. RationalMadman was banned from here for harassment (and when I warned him about it he tried to hack and troll the site which didn't help his case). Sovi's been warned twice, once for pretending on DDO that he ran the forum, and once for the aggressive behavior you mentioned towards one particular member (the reason that wasn't a ban was because the other member had to be warned as well).

I hope that you will stay, but please do know that I take all allegations of harassment very seriously. Please actually report stuff.

One final thing. If a member is not happy with the actions of one other member, it would be best to simply "block" that member on the site. That's the reason why the block function exists. Then you won't have to deal with them and they won't have to deal with you (another thing DDO lacks). I can see in the database, practically no members who leave actually have tried this. I just want to spread awareness that it exists so that people can take advantage of it. If there's anything else feature-wise that would help, let me know.

admin: This is just what people told me when inquiring about why no one hangs out here. Don't shoot the messenger.

admin: They told me that they got a lot of "heat on the site" which forced them to leave. And I said that was odd and asked who was giving you heat and they replied that, and I quote, "Larz told me not to talk about it."

Not sure why they'd lie. Or who they were getting heat from.

Community standards are A+ here. Admin has been pressured into banning members several times before. I've been on this site for what seems like a year now, and only have had two warnings. I am one of the more active members on this site, and I treat everyone with respect. Debating is heated. The key difference between heated discussions here and on DDO, is the simple fact that we don't progress into menial insults whenever a debate escalates.

Everyone comes here and complains about our membership. You are one of dozens to make the vein threat of leaving. We are a small community, and not a business, so we wouldn't betray community members in hopes of making "business" better.

Blackflag: Just saying what people told me. You can have the smallest community in the world for all I care. I was just alarmed that 3 separate members complained about being driven from the site by a single user is all.

If I am right about the people you talked to, I would be telling the truth when I say these are the very people that I do not want to see around here to begin with. Let's focus on the people our site is built for. Not the people who left in the first place, long before I arrived. The site wasn't good enough for them then, and it still isn't good enough for them now.

Blackflag: Aight.

Well peace out y'all. Not the kind of community for me.

TowerOfBabel: How much do you know of these people? I've known all the prominent DDO members for a couple years now. Whenever you have a large presence on a community site, people are going to develop strong opinions. In actuality, I've referred more members to the site than anyone here.

TowerOfBabel: Well peace out y'all. Not the kind of community for me.
I'm sorry that you were driven away based on what other people think.

Blackflag: That's not it. I've been here a few days. No one is debating. No one posts in the forums except for you and Larz. There are no debates to judge. No one to debate me. And to cap it all off when I asked some of my friends and fellow members to try out the secret debate function here they said that they were mistreated here. It's a stagnant and dead community. I don't care about the forums but I had two debate challenges expire because no one will accept them. I don't want to debate you and Larz over and over again and no one else debates.

I'm quite capable of judging something for myself and this community is dead and not getting any livelier. When people tell me they refuse to debate here because of a single user that's an issue. When it happens three separate and distinct times, its a big problem. Perhaps I'll check back in the future but for now there is nothing for me here.

TowerOfBabel: I'm quite capable of judging something for myself and this community is dead and not getting any livelier. When people tell me they refuse to debate here because of a single user that's an issue. When it happens three separate and distinct times, its a big problem. Perhaps I'll check back in the future but for now there is nothing for me here.
Goodbye then.

TowerOfBabel: I don't want to debate you and Larz over and over again and no one else debates.
Just to share my take on this. I've had about 61 debates on edeb8, of which I believe 3 were against Sovi. It's not a foregone conclusion.

Could the site do more to bring more visibility to about-to-expire challenges maybe?

When people tell me they refuse to debate here because of a single user that's an issue. When it happens three separate and distinct times, its a big problem.
True. But then you have to balance that against banning people based on a majority vote. Being the mod for a community like this isn't always straightforward, and I hope you can appreciate that. As always, suggestions to fix issues are welcome.

TowerOfBabel: Hey mate, look this is pretty simple. Edeb8, and any site for that matter, is not for everyone.
If, upon reflection, you decide that you don't want to participate here, then that's fine.
I for one will be sorry to see you go, but I will understand.

The number of members had been discussed many MANY times. I would like to see our membership grow as well, but I'm content to wait. I think this site is a far superior product in terms of debate than any alternative. Given enough time, people will drift in and stay.
I like the fact that the site only seems to hold those who value debate over the social aspect.

(Accidental early post)
In regards to what DDO users say about this site? I've never been one to take one persons opinion over my own on this sort of thing. You've been here, you've talked to the users here, what do you think?

I will say this, Edeb8 is not very popular with DDO in general. I think you should examine the reasons why and investigate them yourself. See if there's any truth in them. Don't take someone else's word for it.

But at the end of the day, it was nice having you stop by!