Amazing, GOS. Amazing.

I simply don't understand it.

I've seen several forums, not all of them RPG-based, that are very active, have a strong member base, have mostly friendly, cool people - but the administration seems to be taking advice from North Korea when it comes to keeping order. GOS has no qualms against putting members down for breaking the rules (even though it was mostly one or two mods who did this frequently) such as calling them stupid and lazy and not bothering to explain which rule they broke, just linking them to the rule post after a sentence of put downs. There's also a three-strike policy on this site, but it's incredibly easy to get three warnings. They're not temporary warnings either - one you have three, that's it. You're permabanned. And there's nothing you can do about it. I was banned because I broke three rules unintentionally.

There's a forum where you can post a topic up asking where you can download something, and you put up a picture of what you want. Thing is, you have to have searched far and wide for the thing before posting. If what you're looking for is too easily found, you get a warning and called lazy and dumb. This is how I got my warnings and then my ban. Then I got even more flak for it because my charges were increased to 'harassing staff' when I kept coming back to ask why the hell I was banned.

And yet, this site is still so HAPPY. It's like the people who haven't been banned are brainwashed. People post love for this site all the time, and there's only a select few who actually see what I see. They always get shot down by the entire community, of course. As for the mod who likes putting down people, we're supposed to get used to her because it's how she always is, and we're supposed to laugh about it. Chatspeak is outlawed as well; you can so much as just post a 'u' instead of 'you' and you'll get yelled at about literacy and typing ability and given a warning.

But no matter what, there's always the majority. And the majority will hack your Facebook if you speak out against them. Or they'll just hand you a reputation as a whiner, even though you're obviously trying to do SOME good. But no one wants to have a friendly site. Everyone seems to prefer meanness, fighting, and constant PMS from both genders. It doesn't make sense. No, I'm not trying to be a 'special snowflake'. No, I am not saying you have to turn your site into a blinkie-filled, Twilight loving pansyfest. It's not that fucking hard to treat your members like people and not the scourge of the earth.

I just don't understand, really....it makes me depressed. How is this site still active with the meanness it channels? Honest to God, if I met these people in real life, I'd slap them so hard they'll have to rename the Big Bang to the Medium Bang. They know they're hurting people and all they can say is 'deal with it'. You could report them, but who could you report them to that would actually do something about it?

I'm sure there's other sites out there like this...I just don't understand how people could still shower it with praise and love while they're being treated like crap on the site itself.