At first, I thought it might have been moved, but I cannot find it in any forum. Did it get deleted? If so, why?

At least my post is still preserved in Word:


_____________________________________________________________
Why do people protect their maps? Two words: Recognition preservation. To elaborate, I’ll break down an impromptu "Phases of a Creator."

Phase 1: Newbie. Must rely on others to improve, such as through tutorials, inspecting and tinkering with the work of others, and interacting with a community of other creators.

Phase 2: Initiate. Familiarizes self with the necessary tools. Produces experiments, simple playables, and tests with friends, solo, or releases to said community for feedback. Desires advice and acceptance.

Phase 3a: Dreamer. Contemplates an elaborate, epic project that far exceeds current abilities or available free time. When overwhelmed and realizing the folly, project is suspended.

Phase 3b: Pragmatist. Expands on experiments, taking care to gradually build upon complexity with each project in parallel with skill development and familiarity.

Phase 3: The Dreamer will desire crafting one large project composed of many facets, hoping to learn each facet as the project commences without understanding how difficult or time-consuming each will be beforehand or how all parts should properly integrate together. The Pragmatist will build each facet individually as its own project, facilitating more in-depth learning that can be applied toward grander projects down the road.

Phase 4a: Creator. Completes and releases fully playable projects. Although the main motivation often stated is "for fun", the sheer amount of work that goes into a detailed project always tends to generates an innate yearning for recognition. Many want to make a name for themselves in said community, as a social reward for completing their rite of passage (phases 1-3).

Phase 4b: Innovator. Breaks the status quo by pioneering new techniques and approaches. May release work as isolated experiments like an advanced Pragmatist, or incorporate them into a comprehensive project like a Creator. Naturally desires recognition for accomplishments and paradigm shifts.

Phase 4: Both Creator and Innovator have an understandable fear of plagiarism from lower phases, as such copying hurts the uniqueness and integrity of their projects, and can distort or outright obfuscate their due recognition. They may cope in one of two ways:

Phase 5a: Squirrel. If you don’t hide your nuts, someone will take your nuts. Granted, they can still dig them up, but at least they’ll have to work to get them. Squirrels seek to alleviate their anxiety through protection, which although not foolproof, it will at least confuse the youngest phases and prevent the most n00bish of plagiarism.

Phase 5b: Teacher. As the concern for social standing subsides, both with the immediate community and one’s overall legacy, either because it has been earned to a satisfactory level or the need is satiated in another manner, the Teacher finds themselves comfortable giving their work to all for the betterment of the community as a whole. Or, they may realize recognition is also achievable through this avenue of open source. They may furthermore appreciate that if it were not for other Teachers they wouldn’t be where they are now, and are thus paying it forward.

Phase 5: As with all phases, a person can fit into more than one category. It is possible to be a Squirrel-Teacher by releasing tutorial maps but still protecting personal projects.

Phase 6: Guru. Every list needs an ultimate rank. This is the de facto person to ask virtually anything in their related field. They are masters of their craft, like an Innovator-Teacher whose sum is greater than its parts. Everyone knows their name, and like titans their movements shake the very foundation of the community. Spooky.

=oD

Idk, I'm looking for it too.

It was deleted. There are a number of reasons. Most importantly, there is nothing new to say on the subject and mature discussion on this forum is impossible.

That's what locking is for, though. The outright deletion strikes me more as an accident.

And yes, it was deleted. I had a notice from that thread, but didn't know how to get my notices without having one active (I now notice the link in the control menu). Because this thread was moved, I found my Notice section and tried following the link from my previous notice, and the topic is indeed deleted. So then my question stands: Why?

It was deleted. There are a number of reasons. Most importantly, there is nothing new to say on the subject and mature discussion on this forum is impossible.
It was deleted. There are a number of reasons. Most importantly, there is nothing new to say on the subject and mature discussion on this forum is impossible.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jun 25 2008, 3:46 am by Mini Moose 2707. Reason: Less copy/paste.

First off, did you delete it? Because that is who my question is directed at. If not, leave the spam antics out of it. Your post is essentially an insult based on the false assumption that I did not read what you had originally written. Instead, you grossly misunderstand what I asked.

As far as I know, you are not a moderator, therefore lending no authority to your explanation. Secondly, the reason you give still does not answer why the thread was deleted rather than locked. That was my question, and you responded by pasting your previous message 25 times.

It's ironic that you say mature discussion is impossible on this forum, and then stoop to such a juvenile indignity.

I deleted it. I am a moderator.

The number of people who claim to have posted in that topic is a subject of much amazement to me. Let me explain the events that took place from my perspective. Someone linked me to the topic in question. I took a look at the topic. I thought briefly for a period of less than 30 seconds. I deleted the topic. Why specifically did I delete it? Because no one had posted in it yet, so there was no point in locking it since no discussion had yet taken place. From what I understand we have now three people who apparently posted elaborate responses in the few brief seconds I took deciding what to do with the topic. This is even more astounding due to the fact that when I first opened the page to view the topic, the site told me that there were only three other people viewing the topic at the time, and none of them crafting a response. Not one of the people who claim to have posted in response to that topic were among the three other persons reading the topic.

Your ability to communicate poorly and then cry about it when you are misunderstood is something I find very amusing.

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Jun 24 2008, 9:21 am by Esponeo.

Oh my... I'm sorry, but are you seriously telling me that the reason you deleted the thread was because you thought no one had posted in it? You do realize that on this forum you moderate, you cannot see replies in a poll thread until you vote? The thread had 6 pages of responses.


And your ability to put me down is not amusing. The problem is not the fact that a misunderstanding took place, it is how you, as a moderator representing what is to be appropriate behavior on this forum, handled the situation, and continue to do so.

Was the topic in question a poll? I do not seem to recall such a thing, but judging by the craziness of this I am beginning to doubt my own senses.

I really don't know what to say. I'd like to say "Oh that's bullshit, the topic I deleted didn't have a single reply in it" but I can't do that... because I deleted all evidence. I don't think I'm going to be deleting topics again.

As an addendum, I could not recall whether or not the current version of SEN actually deleted topics or simply hid them, which is what it did in the past. Without a response from Moose or IP on the subject I simply went ahead and deleted it, hoping to find my answer that way. Deleting a topic without any replies seemed like a good topic for experimentation.

I disagree.

I've been typing a much longer message, but it's much too late and I should really get some sleep. However, I'll answer your immediate question in the meantime: Yes, the topic was a poll (I'll forego pasting what I said before 25 times). =oP It had two options, one for and against map protection.

It was a poll I had posted in it too

After your previous statement:

Apparently both guests and moderators are completely capable of seeing replies to polls before voting. Regular members on the other hand cannot. This means that even if I were not logged in when I viewed the topic, and then subsequently logged in to delete the the topic, I would have seen the replies at either time. I should also point out that all options for moderating a topic are at the bottom of the page. There is no possible way for me to have scrolled through a full page of 20 replies without noticing a single one of them. The very idea is absurd. Even if we were to assume that my mind is a complete and epic failure, incapable of noticing an enormous object placed right before my very eyes, things still do not add up. Several statements made Moose and others indicated that there was nothing out of the ordinary about deleting the topic at hand.

I would really like to know what is going on here.

There were no replies in that topic. Esponeo is right. He's a gmod and you're just a member who doesn't have any proof besides a post which you claim was posted in the topic but could have easily been written after.

There is a "Force Votes" option when creating a poll.

There were also at least 50 posts in that topic.
EDIT: 113, at time of deletion, to be exact.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jun 24 2008, 7:43 pm by Mini Moose 2707.

Moose you need to get on AIM as you have some explaining to do.

Okay now your meaningless posts are now archived. Your posts are preserved and the discussion has been locked. Everyone should be happy now.

Well, I still could have posted my reply... What are the chances that the topic gets deleted before you hit the "post"???

Anyways Esponeo, if you deleted the topic because there were no posts in it, you must not know how to read. Pleas don't take offense to this, but I'm pretty sure that it says something along the lines of "Must vote before you can reply" right underneath the polling selections...

I'm going to ignore the obvious insults and intended flames and not even warn you. Fact is, of course I didn't see it. It's a single line of text in normal size font below a bunch of other crap. It certainly doesn't stand out in any way. Fact is, the existence of an obscure option to force voting which I have never seen used before is something of a surprise. Fact is, now that I'm aware of such a thing it almost certainly will never happen again.

Good. I knew the topic was going to get deleted/locked but not because of something as silly as not seeing the "you must vote..." area. I think that some good must come from this. It should be contained in a red box, or something to stick out.


EX:


YOU MUST VOTE BEFORE YOU CAN REPLY!

Theres no free speech here, sorry. If a moderator disagrees with your argument/post they can do whatever they want.