I'm done posting on the monster thread in General... I really should've stuck to my original impulse, which was not to reply to it at all. It's, in a word, GARBAGE, and it's certainly nothing that hasn't been said before. Two groups of people with a private fight that has nothing to do with anyone but themselves, and they drag it into the General BYOND forum... taking up space that's supposed to be used for the betterment of BYOND. It's disgusting and disgraceful.

Just to set the record straight, for anyone who's wondering:

1) ANYONE WHO CLAIMS TO BE CO-OWNER OF BYOND IS LYING. Unless their key is Dan, Tom, or Dantom. Their keys are unique and easily identifiable, for a reason. Someone named Dan123 or SSJTom or Dantom2002 is obviously a pretender... why would the maintainers of the Hub need to add numbers to their names? Do you think -they- forgot their passwords?

2) ANYONE WHO CLAIMS TO BE A "SUPER GM" FOR ALL OF BYOND IS LIKEWISE LYING. Whatever a player can do in a BYOND game is only what the designer of the game has allowed them to do... a poorly designed game, one with no macro protection or which allows player files to be stored on the client side, may inadvertently allow players to do far more than the creator of the game expected... but these are flaws in an individual game, they don't reflect any status within BYOND as a whole.

3) IF SOMEONE IS DISRUPTING YOUR SERVER... deal with them. Dealing with them doesn't mean presenting the forum with allegations that you can't prove... and if you can prove them, what do you expect to be done about it? BYOND makes you the administrator of your own server... that puts the power and the responsibility in your hands. Tip: if you ban someone on your pager, they can't connect to any game you host.

4) IF SOMEONE IS CHEATING IN YOUR GAME... take a look at your code! This person has found a bug or unintended side effect that you left in your game. The only way to stop them is plug up the hole. Added bonuses: your coding skills will improve and your game will be better for it.

5) IF YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH SOMEONE... resolve it in game, if appropriate (if they keep killing you in a battle game... learn to fight back!), or avoid them otherwise. If you don't like the way someone runs their server... go play in another server... or better yet... run your own! That's what BYOND is about. Don't try to turn it into a popularity concept or game of "he or she says, he or she says."*

6) "TRANSCRIPTS" OF CONVERSATIONS PROVE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Look at this transcript of my conversation with SSJGOHANKU96 from my game the other day:

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SSJGOHANKU96: lexy, i love u. renounce women and marry me!
Lesbian Assassin: No.
SSJGOHANKU96: then i'm willing to have a sex change to make myself attractive to you.
Lesbian Assassin: Gosh, this is creepy. Please control yourself. Although I find your attention flattering, that last part was highly disrespectful to people who seek sexual reassignment surgery for legitimate medical reasons.

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Actually, this conversation never happened... but gosh, it looks real, doesn't it? And no, putting it in a PRE or italic tag doesn't make it more authentic, just harder to read.

*Dear God or Goddess, am I anal about inclusive pronouns, or what?