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*Original post. Click at your own discretion.
I would like more information on why the mods have decided to cancel OT. Quite frankly, the explanation that was given to us was very unsatisfactory. We’ve been accused of posting simply to boost ranks and get to certain page numbers, plus “using hashtags as a badge of pride for spamming a thread”. OT is about 80% of the reason why I and several others come to these forums. Friendships have been made here. Fun discussions have been had that couldn’t happen anywhere else on the forums. Needless to say, this current situation is disappointing.
I’ll address the points that have been made against us:
Hashtags - all I noticed were several joke hashtags about obtaining custom avatars, such as “#StopHuntingTheTruth”, an obvious joke about 343’s #HuntTheTruth campaign. The jokes weren’t even made that frequently to be considered spam.
Spamming for page numbers - I agree that this was a ridiculous thing for some of the community to do, but there were only few notable spammers while others were actually having conversations. Even if this was still a problem, not once did a mod come to give a warning. Even when that particular OT thread was locked and a new one created, no mods mentioned the incident at all.
Spamming for rank - this is hands down the weakest argument that was made. Sure, us OT regulars mention our rank quite often, but we never post spam to obtain it. All we get is a newbie every once in a while who decides to spam. Speaking of which, I usually report such individuals since advising them against the practice doesn’t seem to work, and very rarely is something actually done about it by the mods. Where were you guys when we had almost three pages of someone spamming in Spanish?
What makes this so unfair is the fact that no warnings were given at all; that the entirety of the OT community is being punished. According to the explanation given to us, the mods have been feeling this way for over a year. Why didn’t they say anything about it? Part of me hopes that something more serious has actually happened that will be explained to us, because right now this is looking like an arbitrary decision made by the mods to bully us.