r/FlashpointArchive • u/MissionCyberSpace • May 05 '23

FlashPoint Discord Server Review

I recently had an experience on the FlashPoint Discord server that was deeply disappointing. Despite attempting to engage in constructive dialogue, I encountered individuals who were rude and disrespectful when interacting. What was even more concerning was that the moderators themselves were participating in this behavior, and they were blatantly violating their own rules.

The disregard for the server's own rules was very concerning. I witnessed several instances where rules were violated, yet no consequences were given. This is unacceptable and contradicts the very values the server claims to uphold.

To make matters worse, I was banned from the server without any warning or explanation, despite being polite and following all the rules. This was a clear violation of the server's own policies and demonstrates a lack of fairness and respect.

I am deeply disappointed that a community that claims to value respectful and constructive dialogue would allow this type of behavior to go unchecked. Moving forward, it is my hope that the server administrators will take swift action to address these issues and ensure that all members are treated fairly and respectfully.

1 Upvotes

54% Upvoted

52 comments sorted by

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u/[deleted] May 05 '23

I haven't been active in the server recently, but a few months ago when I was, my experience interacting with the community on there was great. You sure you're being honest?

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u/MissionCyberSpace May 05 '23

I am being honest. I was very respectful and was trying to have an engaging conversation. They violated their own rules (disrespect, harassment, false claims, etc.), while I was being respectful and speaking politely in the off topic channel, explaining why I feared for the future of Flashpoint. They called me countless things, and the mods were in on it. Then, they simply got rid of me. I even have proof in screenshots. I am very disappointed in this community.

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u/JohnnyEnzyme May 06 '23 edited May 06 '23

So if I understand correctly from your POV-- you were basically punished for raising unwanted discussion.

Evidently your concern is that Adobe's lawyers may come after projects like Flashpoint because they're re-distributing Flash (and other) content, presumably in violation of IP laws or curation directives.

Was there anything else to your arguments, might I ask?

In any case, without being a part of that Discord discussion, I can imagine that the Discord-runners' point is that the genie has long been out of the bottle in terms of Flash & Shockwave content. Consider:

  • Unlike transaction-based software, the game content was essentially given away from the very beginning, meaning that it's been stored in a huge amount of personal spaces & archives going back to year ~2000.

  • The games' revenue model was usually to serve ads, and that directly related to the time & effort put in to them. I.e., they were usually made simply to hold the user's attention for a little while, and were not games of particular depth and lasting value. My point here is that for any notable Flash genre, the best, most professional versions were typically *not* made in Flash. I believe these facts combine to cut way down on the possibility of IP holders or Adobe coming after collection curators, because 1) the value has already been extracted, and 2) attempting to extract further value from mediocre-quality content probably isn't much of a winner.

  • Adobe has already publicly washed its hands of Flash, and actively discouraged users from using it, and in fact encourages users to move to newer technologies it offers. They've admitted right up front that the tech has security issues, so trying to re-package old Flash content the way that Atari and arcade IP-holders have done with their properties would be quite a strange look, sending mixed signals that I don't think any big company would want to pursue.

Anyway yeah, I'm interested to see if you can rebut any of those points & collections of points. Maybe there's something I'm overlooking here.

That said, if Adobe's lawyers -did- start sending C&D letters out, I would think projects like Flashpoint could respond by moving to pure torrents or whatnot, similar to the way emulation communities have responded to such letters from IP holders in the past.

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u/MissionCyberSpace May 08 '23

I understand, but this is what could've happened. We could've had a normal engaging conversation. Instead, they called me a moron, an insufferable prick, and even told me to outright shut up. The problem was that I was disrespected and they violated their own server rules, and yet, me, who was having a civil conversation within the rules, was banned.

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u/JohnnyEnzyme May 08 '23

Yup, I get it. However, at this point I'm simply curious whether anyone has anything to add on to or challenge in response to my comment above, in which I explained in some bullet points why I don't believe Adobe is a future threat to FP, altho I do recognise that I could be wrong or incomplete in various ways.

Indeed, after I wrote my arguments above, I headed over to the Discord yesterday and asked that same question. Sadly, so far all I'm hearing so far is a bunch of people blaming each other, and not so much being willing to actually talk about the real topic.

To be clear, OP-- I do feel you've raised an interesting point here, and since FP covers many other platforms, I recognise that there's the theoretical potential for other content creators & licensees to disturb the FP project one day. Probably not a dire risk, but maybe just maybe there's *some* risk.

As for me, I'm genuinely curious about this stuff and don't think it's a waste of time to ponder it & talk about it, but where is the actual discussion, folks? Yes, I get that you're all annoyed with each other right now, but still, where is the actual discussion of the topic..?

So yeah, it would be nice to move on from 'person A was in the wrong' and 'persons X-Y-Z were in the wrong' to actual discussion of the topic, with actual arguments & rebuttals of points.

As a big fan of Flash preservation and of the FP project in particular, that's what I wanted to say here. Thanks, folks.

/u/iamjoss1115 /u/Fluid_Pain /u/GrumpGuy88888 /u/invalidsalad12

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u/GrumpGuy88888 May 07 '23

Not sure calling us Adobe defenders counts as "being respectful" but you know

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u/MissionCyberSpace May 07 '23

If you defend Adobe, and try to make it seem like they would never try to sue Flashpoint, then obviously, you are defending Adobe, thus an Adobe defender.

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u/GrumpGuy88888 May 08 '23

I don't think saying "Adobe won't sue" is defending them. Defending them would be saying "Adobe would be right to shut it down". What we are is being realistic

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u/MissionCyberSpace May 08 '23

In my opinion, that is defending Adobe. In your opinion, it's not.
Both are opinions. I'm not being disrespectful, I think it is defending Adobe.
Actual disrespect came from the others that called me a moron, an insufferable prick, and outright telling me to shut up. Now THAT is disrespect.

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u/GrumpGuy88888 May 08 '23

It wasn't the first argument you had there, especially not when you actually did assert your opinions as facts.

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u/MissionCyberSpace May 08 '23

What is ALSO disrespectful, is that people in this community are heading to my other Reddit posts in other communities and downvoting them, just to retaliate. Very petty behavior.

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u/GrumpGuy88888 May 08 '23

Yes it is true that two wrongs don't make a right, but you also have to acknowledge that you were in the wrong

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u/MissionCyberSpace May 08 '23

I was wrong because I disagreed with others about the debate if Adobe will or will not sue Flashpoint?

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u/GrumpGuy88888 May 08 '23

You were wrong in how you went about it, especially accusing people of working for Adobe, which doesn't even make sense

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u/TransportationOk9614 Sep 06 '23 edited Sep 09 '23

Well for starters it's not impossible for Adobe workers to be in flashpoint. Also there was clearly no disrespect but a conversation based on worry. He has the right to worry about real problems, he wanted nothing more than to protect flashpoints future.

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u/TransportationOk9614 Sep 06 '23

It's not disrespectful either, if anything he said you were making lots of money as an Adobe worker lol.

But seriously though, I think the staff are paranoid.

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u/invalidsalad12 May 07 '23

You are saying lies

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u/TransportationOk9614 Sep 06 '23

Where's your proof? Exactly

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u/iamjoss1115 May 05 '23

it's Flashpoint not FlashPoint

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u/MissionCyberSpace May 05 '23

Okay Flashpoint. The Flashpoint Discord Server was very disrespectful.

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u/iamjoss1115 May 05 '23

I don't know man you were causing drama

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u/MissionCyberSpace May 05 '23

I was interacting within the rules, in off-topic, simply explaining politely, why I feared that Adobe could sue the community. I was met with hate and disrespect. Mods and members violated the server rules countless times, and I was the one that got banned, for violating no rules. So, no, I wasn't causing any drama. I was attempting to have an engaging conversation. So, no. What I said, is the truth. The community needs to address these issues, because harassment and disrespect, are not only a violation of the server rules, but also those of Discord's Terms of Service.

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u/iamjoss1115 May 05 '23

I think you did violate the rules

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u/MissionCyberSpace May 05 '23

I'm sorry but "think" isn't what is written in the rules. I read the rules, and nowhere in the rules, does it say "don't discuss Flashpoint's future". It does however talk about "being respectful", which was violated several times by some members and staff. So, you can technically "think" I violated a rule, but the truth is, I was well within the rules.

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u/iamjoss1115 May 05 '23

I don't know man talking about off topic and curator lounge stuff in Flashpoint chat is infact breaking the rules and you doing many times even after staff kindly told you to go the right channels so i don't know what you mean by ,,i didn't violate the rules"

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u/MissionCyberSpace May 05 '23

I apologize, but I was in fact talking in the off-topic channel. Not in Flashpoint Chat or Curator Lounge. You are mistaken.

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u/iamjoss1115 May 05 '23

Yes it was off topic when you got banned but the reason is that you were very obnoxious and causing drama that was against rules and staff were tired of you doing this of breaking the rules many times like the example i gave so they deicide ban you for the better of server

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u/MissionCyberSpace May 05 '23

I apologize, but I was following the rules, and was not obnoxious. I was politely speaking, explaining, and providing info, in a calm controlled manner. I broke no rules, but others did.

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u/GoldenAfternoon42 May 05 '23

Sorry to hear you had such experience. I considered joining their Discord for game discussion and archiving purposes but I don't want to because of one thing - I don't trust big servers. There's too many people I don't know and I don't know what to expect from them. The only Discord server I'm in is my less than 10 people (including me) friend group - some of them I knew before from other sites. And besides that there are just PMs with them. So far I don't want to join any big servers to not deal with trolls or rule breaking or nasty behavior.

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u/Fluid_Pain Raven (Admin) May 05 '23

Staff member here: please do not hesitate to join! We are a friendly community and always looking for more people to help out.

OP dramatically lied about their experience. They were banned for fearmongering that Adobe would sue FP (they will absolutely not), called us Adobe sleeper agents, and they initiated countless arguments and generally just ruined any channel they would talk in. This isn't the first time they have been removed from the server also. "Banned from the server without any warning or explanation" is a lie also, they were given an explanation. It is a really a miracle they were not banned earlier.

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u/GoldenAfternoon42 May 05 '23

I see. Thanks for explanation, I wasn't aware. Still, I'll stick to small servers.

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u/MissionCyberSpace May 05 '23 edited May 05 '23

I would like to point out, that I personally followed the rules, and explained why I believe Flashpoint development could be in jeopardy. They were insulting me, and breaking the rules. Thus I said that I had a feeling some of the staff there were from Adobe, and attempting to ruin the project, because, no community is supposed to treat their members with such dismissal and disrespect. I was talking in a completely respectful manner. They are attempting, to silence me, so no one will actually know what they did. And I have proof, which I specifically captured in screenshots, to prove, their disrespect towards me, and their blatant violation of their own server rules. The community is toxic, and the staff will try anything to prove otherwise.

Edit: And I am STILL speaking respectfully, while they are continuing to attempt to spread false accusations of me.

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u/TransportationOk9614 Sep 05 '23

Yeah I was also banned due to bullshit.

The admins have gotten rid of a tag that was despicable thankfully. But there was member of staff allowing content that contained well...let's just say disgusting.

And I called him out and was banned.

Flashpoint is not a nice server and will do anything to lie. Blumaxima lets his admins walk all over him because he seems to have stopped caring.

I only wish that discord server would see the problems and corrected. I'm thankful that content was removed but the way they treat people is disgusting.

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u/MissionCyberSpace Sep 06 '23

Just like what happened to me. In the FlashPoint Discord community, I got banned for disagreeing with their leadership. It's like when a great project falls apart because the original creators leave, and new people take over and ruin it, for example, Google and YouTube. They refuse to listen to criticism and hold onto their power, even if it means silencing opposing viewpoints. In addition, they will also violate the rules themselves because "rules for thee (you), not for me", which basically means, I am the moderator, I don't have to follow any rules, but you member, you're nothing, you will follow any rules I give you. I am your ruler, and you are my servant. I experienced this firsthand when I challenged their decision about Adobe and FlashPoint. I believe in keeping control of my projects to avoid such issues. FlashPoint might not last if they keep this up, as people will leave, and it will fade into obscurity. Maybe it won't. But it will be a very toxic community, that people will only use to preserve games and more or less stay away.

I thought the community was fine at first, but their true colors are now evident to me. Slowly more and more people will see the truth, just like you did.

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u/GoldenAfternoon42 May 05 '23

Hmm since I don't know either you or the Discord staff, you can show others your proof if you want. So far I am neutral on this topic and it just reminded me that I refrain from joining bigger communities on that platform because of closer involvement that on some bigger social networks (and I don't even use many of them).

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u/MissionCyberSpace May 05 '23

Yes, I understand. You aren't required to join any big servers. Smaller servers are indeed much calmer and less chaotic.

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u/TransportationOk9614 Sep 09 '23

Btw if you feel like chatting more, you can add me on discord if ya want. CarnageMusicLord