I don't expect you to care about this story: it's long and not very thrilling. This thread is just a reference for all the people who are continually confused by which ranks I technically hold and have held in the past.

The Story of my Ranks

Beginning

The story starts on July 1, 2015, when I was OPaSed by Mark. The *PaS ( Picks a Super) system allowed higher-ranked admins to appoint Super Admins without an application. I did create an application, but Mark used his anyway. I was added for the first time the next day by Obi, a very old Senior.

I went through the ranks to get Telnet, Telnet Clan, and eventually Senior. If you don't know, Telnet Clan gave you access to ClanForge, the control panel we were using when Mark owned the server. The next change came when Mark opened up applications for a position as Assistant Security Officer. This was not very common: executives were usually directly appointed by Mark, and assistants by the main executive. The main Security Officer at that time was Windows. I applied and was accepted together with Mike, also a Senior at that time. As assistants, we did not have any extra permissions.

Then, the unthinkable happened: Mark stepped down and appointed Windows as the new Owner. I was quietly moved into the main Security Officer position, with Mike continuing to be my assistant. That didn't mean I now got extra permissions: that was not part of the rank.

Forum Mod

At the time, the Security Officer was responsible for dealing with small security incidents, which there were quite a lot of when we were cracked. Mark was still active and sometimes PMed me to watch out for certain things on the forum. I replied every time that I couldn't because I didn't have any more permissions on the forum than a regular Senior. Eventually, he was annoyed by this enough to create a thread in the Forum Mod lounge requesting my promotion to Forum Mod, which Windows approved.

Back then, the Forum Admin rank was called "Forum Administrator", while the Forum Mod rank was called "Forum Administrators", with an S at the end. They also had the same rank badge and color. I never figured out why we tried to hide the difference. However, there was a flaw in the setup: because of the way ProBoards works, any Forum Mod could simply go the forum's Admin Control Panel and promote themselves to Forum Admin. When I brought this up, Finest removed the Forum Mod rank, essentially promoting everyone who was a Forum Mod at that moment to Forum Admin. We eventually reintroduced Forum Mod (still with the same flaw), and as time passed and people went inactive, I was the only one left who was promoted to Forum Admin that way. In the meantime, Windows had suddenly disappeared and was replaced by Seth, and Mike had gone inactive as well, leaving me as the only Security Officer.

Then, I went inactive ingame but continued to be very active on the forum, something that no one had done before. I was eventually removed for inactivity, but only after quite a while, because ingame activity was previously not a requirement to retain your rank. However, when I was removed, it was not just my Senior Admin rank, but also my Security Officer and Forum Admin ranks. Seth explained that the Security Officer position was being removed entirely because he thought it was redundant. In response, I created a thread where I explained why I went inactive, but also that I would have been happy to continue as a Forum Admin. This caused Wilee, known for his advocacy, to create a thread arguing that the ingame status should be separate from the forum status. Seth gave in, and I was now a "naked" Forum Admin. The Executive Policy was retroactively changed to include an independent Forum Admin position similar to Forum Mod. Although it was written to be generic, it has never been applied to anyone else.

Permban requests

When Mark stepped down, he continued to process permban requests for quite a while, calling it one of his last remaining duties. When he eventually stopped, it was taken over by a variety of people, including Video and the members of smartnt. This was not considered an executive position, just something they did as a side job. After a while, I noticed that the speed of permban requests being processed was dropping dramatically, so I privately offered Seth to take over and was given access to the permban list.

My task of handling permban requests was later turned into a "title", a new type of non-executive position. I handled permban requests under this title for a while, until Admin Officer Zaid decided that it was necessary for the position to become executive again. He called the new position Security Officer, even though the name didn't fit because it was only responsible for permban requests and nothing else. An application was held for it, but I was the only applicant. I was officially confirmed after a public vote, making me an executive once again.

Then, another unthinkable thing happened: Seth had enough of the community and deleted everything, from the forum to the Discord server. The immediate restoration process was led by Admin Officer Fionn. When he created the new Discord server, he gave all executives Discord Admin, since there obviously was no Owner to decide who should have it. When things settled down and Wild was confirmed as the new Owner, the rank was removed from everyone except Fionn and me.

The final change to my ranks came when Wild agreed that the name Security Officer didn't fit what the position was about and renamed it to Ban Manager. He also changed the scope from just indefinite bans to all bans. That is the position I am in today, but I would be very surprised if the story doesn't become even longer in the future.

Mentioned People

• Finest (Finest95): the Owner of the ProBoards forum and a former Senior.
• Fionn (fionn123, FionnTheGuy, DarkPug108, FionnThePug, PugByron, PugTheWug, Pelgrimp, MopsDenWug, 0xFionnx0, Fionnn, Fionnnco, YoureASociopath, Fionnn_lol, UYScutix, discordmods, squeadiv, RealFionn, safent, Catholic_Luigi, dewonye1000, fionnn, ZeroEpoch1969, fiogga, PhotoGameSmash12, fionnsx, spox): a former Admin Officer and Senior.
• Mark (markbyron): the Founder and a former Owner of TotalFreedom.
• Mike (TheCool1Mike): a former Senior.
• Obi (Obi2kanobi, _Obi): a former Senior.
• Seth (CreeperSethT, CreeperSeth, PurpleGirl12500, ZeroEpoch1969, Catholic_Mario, Demonic_Mario, scripthead): a former Owner of TotalFreedom.
• smartnt: a group of high-ranked admins which held a significant amount of power in TotalFreedom while Seth was the Owner.
• Video (VideoGameSmash12, VideoSmash512, PhantomOediv215, VideoSmash215, TheSuspense76, TheVideo, _Video, xXWilee999Xx, CreeperStalin, ban_robin, PolarisSeltzeris, videogamesm12): the current Admin Officer and a Developer and Senior.
• Wild (wild1145, Wild1145): the current Owner of TotalFreedom.
• Wilee (xXWilee999Xx): a former Lead Developer and Senior.
• Windows (Windows_i7_920, ChargedCreeper, Root_User, _Windows, criticsquid, TheMinecraft): a former Owner of TotalFreedom.
• Zaid (Tigermca, Nablus, RealZaid): a former Admin Officer and Senior.

Frequently Asked Questions

What ranks do you currently hold?

• Ban Manager, by application.
• Forum Admin, by appointment (independent of executive position).
• Discord Admin, by appointment (dependent on executive position).

I currently do not hold the Senior Admin rank.

What ranks have you held in the past?

• Super Admin, by application.
• Telnet Admin, by application.
• Telnet Clan Admin, by application.
• Senior Admin, by application.
• Assistant Security Officer (old), by application.
• Security Officer (old), by appointment.
• Forum Mod, by appointment.
• Permban Manager (title), by appointment.

Are you an OP?

If you define an OP as anyone who is not Admin or Senior Admin, then yes. If you include Forum Admin and Discord Admin, then no, because my Forum Admin rank is technically separate from my executive position. In any case, I personally think it's not very useful to see me as an OP.

The bug is not that /blockedit doesn't block WorldEdit because it never has, the bug is that the command is confusingly named for something that doesn't block all forms of editing.

↩  Tizz 4 cores of an Intel Xeon E-2236 and 18GB RAM.

I don't think removing the plugin entirely should be up for discussion here: it's just a single feature that can be fixed, disabled, or left alone.

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↩ @'Ryan' It angers me that someone un did the uuid work around player data... We solved the issue ages ago.

The old implementation was not usable: every single time a player joined, the UUID-related code caused a lag spike that was a literal second in length.

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↩  videogamesm12 Player data in TFM.

Sorry, I should have been more clear. What exactly does a player lose if their data is not migrated?

What data exactly are we talking about? I know for example that homes and plots are already stored under UUIDs, and there is no reason to convert existing entries in the punishment log because the file is never read by machines.

↩  Shdwo There once was an idea to create an admin-only spoiler. Typing something like [admin]127.0.0.1[admin] would make the text inside only visible to admins, while the rest of the post was visible to everyone normally. Ryan doesn't want to develop plugins for Flarum, but if we ever move somewhere else, I think it would be very useful for things like this.

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↩  Shdwo If I remember correctly, there have been many threads on this exact issue in the past. The conclusion was that it's just not an important enough issue to be cared for. If this ever did become such a big deal, you'd have to make the decision to privatise the IBR's, no-one wants that.

That is not entirely correct. We ended up removing IPs from ingame ban messages because it was causing tons of threads just like this one. Permban requests were originally admin-only, they've only been public for the last few years.

Crosspost from the other thread:

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↩  StevenNL2000 There is this perception that Spam and Drama has historically always welcomed threads that don't even contain a single coherent sentence. That is absolutely not true: those threads were simply deleted as soon as a Forum Mod came across them.

I actually think that going back to that and being more strict about what can stay, without banhammering everyone, will be enough to solve the problem, because I have the idea that people only feel free to make these threads when they see others doing it too.

There is this perception that Spam and Drama has historically always welcomed threads that don't even contain a single coherent sentence. That is absolutely not true: those threads were simply deleted as soon as a Forum Mod came across them.

I actually think that going back to that and being more strict about what can stay, without banhammering everyone, will be enough to solve the problem, because I have the idea that people only feel free to make these threads when they see others doing it too.

↩  kyle The accounts on ProBoards and this forum are not linked. We probably would have set that up if it was possible, but ProBoards does not give access to those things.

I should note that this forum ban is not actually indefinite, but for 3 weeks, which I also told him before posting.

1. Minecraft name: jquare

2. Discord username and discriminator (username#discriminator) (if any): square#1255

3. Approximate date of the indefinite forum ban: 21/08/21

4. Reason for your indefinite forum ban (it should be stated when you try to join the server, do not lie, we can check; if one is not stated, state why you think you were banned)
   so uh ron posted a food review (which isn't shit posting and was actually genuine) in the general discussion board but got banned for like 14 days for it which we both found was strange so i posted a #freeron thread which was kind of shitpost-esque but still we were confused on the situation
   i would say i'm sorry for the entire thing, etc, etc but it wouldn't be genuine because ron was banned for a dumb ass reason and i was banned for making a thread about it where apparently we can't have jokes because two guys spammed shit threads
   i am sorry however for not providing actual basis to the thread
   i kind of need the forum for feedback and shit for upsilon so that's why i'm appealing, if it gets locked or whatever i don't really give a shit

5. Do you agree to follow our server rules, the rules in place on the forum, and all the conditions stated above?
   yeah i don't have any reason not to

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↩  simplynick Yesterday, I have been working for hours on grub via Linux to install Windows 8.1 on an external HDD, unlike windows, I cant use etcher or rufus since etcher is shit when comes to Linux, so is Rufus as they were made for windows.

Have you ever tried UNetbootin?

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↩  simplynick I'm not really an expert on Win8.1 at all, I noticed that some of the Win10 programs such as the spinning tool isn't present which I used on a daily for screenshots in 10 without depending on a third party or screenshotting the whole screen and using paint to edit the area I wanted to show.

There are two programs: the classic Snipping Tool and the newer Snip & Sketch. They have pretty much the same functionality, and the classic one is there on Windows 8.

↩  characterslimits Do you think that there should be no threshold whatsoever for a thread to exist in Spam and Drama?

Putting aside whether you bypassed your ban or not, there are no vouches in this thread, so the appeal is unfortunately denied. You may appeal again in 30 days.

It has indeed been more than 90 days, but that number is not important at all: it is about whether your attitude has changed, and that does not seem to be the case. I will set the earliest date for the next appeal to January 1, 2022, which is pretty generous considering this is your fifth one.

Before this thread fades into obscurity, I want to say something I've said on every suggestion for a new gamemode: it is fine if you want to add something, but it absolutely has to be unique. Nobody is waiting for us to start a Pixelmon server that is the same as the 8191 already existing Pixelmon servers. Freedom or anarchy Pixelmon, on the other hand, is something that could actually be interesting if executed properly.

This is just an example, but in general, I think creating an experience that players can only get here has much more potential than trying to compete with generic gamemodes that other servers have been doing way better than we ever could for years.

↩  characterslimits We used to have SkinsRestorer, but it was removed because it was causing server lag.