Friday 12th 2009

Friday 12th 2009 was the day the Casual Member System was replaced with the Trial Member System, amidst controversy.

Concept

Black Squirrel, fed up with many of the attitudes of the forum and the limited effects of the Casual Member system initially modeled the Trial Member system after Sonic Retro, where it had worked amazingly well. The concept was edited and approved by the remainder of forum 12 and implemented on Friday the 12th, 2009. The idea was that all new members would go "on trial", being limited to only 20 posts and after which time their future would be assessed by forum 12. If they passed, they would gain full forum access, but if they failed, they would be suspended for a year until they could try again. The idea was also to send various troublesome or controversial members back to this stage as well.

Result

It took three hours forty-five minutes for Black Squirrel to receive the first complaint. Following this a mass of complaints appeared, demanding his immediate resignation and removal of the system. Neither happened, however eventually all those who were sent back were sent forward.

Guinea was appointed as administrator as Squirrel had lost his way and could no longer keep a level head.

Furthermore an IPB glitch occurred, deleting the account of Mrs. Aforcer unintentionally. This didn't help matters much.

Problems

Though it was far too early to tell if the Trial Member system was flawed, people did not appreciate being sent backwards without warning. Squirrel argued that a warning had been delivered, but this was apparently not acceptable.

Furthermore Black Squirrel got all the blame, despite the fact it would have never been implemented if only he approved of it. His timezone meant that complaints generated overnight and were not stopped. How crushing.

Once again IM convos were leaked and used against Squirrel, which is ironic since he has been accused of not being transparent enough. No positive aspects were noted by the members, and lies were spread quickly without reasonable thought.

MFGGers wanted democracy instead of the top down approach recommended to Squirrel by previous administrator ShadowMan.

Many of the events that occurred were put in place to act on members' concerns. So it was a "can't do right without doing wrong" situation and is further proof that MFGG does not know what it wants.

Discussion was restricted to stop members from moaning about the system before it had had a chance to work its magic. This too did not help matters.

Due to overwhelming amounts of member bias, Squirrel decided to distance himself from the forums until the heat had died down.

Support

The system itself has still gained quite a lot of support, and it has been praised for its lower entry requirements while at the same time being able to stop bad members from taking impact.