NTF: Bad Omens Prove Right?

Earlier this morning, I logged into the NTF forum and made a reply to this thread. Wishing to be cordial, and great the person fairly, I said something like this:

Nice to meat you, hope to catch you on [SAS] Proving Grounds, and the NTF servers later .

I think he means this Rouge: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postdoctoral_research but I’m not familiar with such.

Being an ex [SAS] member and someone who still plays regularly there, I felt it most respectful of both clans to reference each of their servers equally. Those are the servers where I tend to play (and thus likely to meet anyone), and as I am not in-line for NTF recruitment, so I feel demonstrating that fact by referencing both clans servers, is all the more justified for a man in my position: as opposed to saying nothing at all about wanting to game with the chap! I do however admit that I could have placed the NTF server first, but I feel that the one at the end of the sentence gains the greater impact, and thus should belong to NTF in their own forum.

After waking up from a short nap, I again checked the forum: and noticed I had received a PM. Upon opening it, I was informed by NTF_CPT_Medic that although his clan does not like censorship, he removed my “Promoting” of the SAS PGs. Maybe it’s ‘promoting’ if the other clan has been ten servers to your three?.

For the more astute reader, I will also point out that my routine is to check both public clans forums, and that my SAS account is experiencing technical difficulties, hence my silence on sasclan.org. I try to treat them equally in that regard, so any silence on that forum should not be taken as a reflection my regards for [SAS].

In essence, Medics edit was converting my sentence to a sole reference to NTF. Which I specifically choice not to do for the aforementioned reasons. My personal code of conduct, dictates that I show a certain measure of due respect towards NTF, even more so as a guest when posting in their forums, and much more so that several of my friends now call the place ‘home’. Like wise my personal code of conduct, dictates that I be respectful toward the [SAS], who I have called home for nearly a quarter of my life longer than NTF has existed. People who have known me well for the past 4-6 years, will not be surprised that I feel such a way.

Maybe it is the American in me, coming from a land where we believe that freedom of speech is worth fighting for, or perhaps the old fashioned blood in my veins that says be tactful of both and any clans when posting in such a situation, but I found this moderation to be silly. It would be like allowing a guest to come into your home, and forbade him from acknowledging that any other home exists. Of course, unless this only applies to servers owned by [SAS], which I sincerely doubt, knowing NTFs founders for as long as I have.

This is the assertion that makes me find fault in this behaviour:

If I wanted to create my own clan, and call it the 7th Sabre for example, and walk into the NTF or [SAS] servers as 7S_Spidey01 or something like that, it should be my right to do so unless published server rules prevent the clan tags (or I am banned). The way my forum post on NTF was moderated by NTF_CPT_Medic, would mean that on my way out of their server, saying:

“7S_Spidey01: ggs y’all I’m going to 7th Sabres server, hf”

would constitute the same the same level of ‘promotion’ as my original forum post did, in fact, it would be doubly so, unless NTF instituted a server rule forcing all members of all other clans to remove their tags upon joining the NTF servers. I.e. the 7S_ in my name on it’s very own would be greater advertisement of another clans servers than my forum post was.

In my book, you cannot dis-allow someone saying “Nice to meat you, hope to catch you on XXX clans server, and the NTF servers later ;).” in the forums, and not disallow saying “AnyPlayer: ggs y’all I’m going to XXX clans server, hf” and every similar choice of words, form ever being uttered in your game server. Disallowing one without the other, and not publishing separate rules for each (forum and server) that state those separate rules, in my opinion would be promoting a form of hypocrisy. The difference between those statements would be further distanced, making the second a greater “Promotion” if said by a 7S_Spidey01 rather than AnyPlayer. In which case moderating the forum post and not banning such a statement as I’ve used as an exampled above, would be a demonstration of seriously flawed logic. Like wise to ban those, would obviously imply that just saying what “7S” means would be promoting another clan. Bullshit?

Perhaps being a young clan makes the NATO Task Force more aware of such things, or fearful of unwanted competition, but in my honest opinion, is just down right fool hearty. I know that the documents and chats leading up to NTFs creation suggested that it could trivially become like a military dictatorship with strong safe guards against abuse, but I did not expect it to so quickly demonstrate more draconian views then the SAS 22nd Elite Virtual Regiment! Something that makes me chuckle even more, is that Sniper had a regular tendency to shoot himself in the foot with how his moderator actions appear.

I take no offense at what was done to my post, and I have made no public question of the moderators action in the forum (behind the fact that my signature links to this blogs main page: as do most of my forum signatures on the internet), so I do not expect any oppression over it by their administrators. I’ve never felt entirely welcomed on NTFs servers/forums, so it wouldn’t bother me if I end up on someones private shit list. Anyone worthy of my respect will take this post as impersonal as I have taken being moderated. It’s NTFs forum, their property, so they have a right to moderate posts however their clan policy deems fitting. As a friend pointed out, my journal, my grounds: and the most offensive action that I’ve taken on NTFs forum, was reminding Rouge not to boast without something to boast about, and he wouldn’t be the first person to get that rudeness from me. Here, I speak my mind openly.