darkSpyro

DarkSpyro.net. A big Skylanders/Spyro the Dragon website that is steadily growing by the day.

While the forum does have some neat information on Skylanders and old Spyro the Dragon games, what members don't know is that there is more than just fancy walkthrough pages and galleries. There is the communication and the enjoyment fans gain by talking with others about the Skylanders and Spyro games. Or it can be about topics related to silliness and standard real world discussions. There is also the forum moderation. It can help make your time on the forum fun, or it can make your time there difficult.

Most of you may know me from the forums, and I have been around since 2008. Back then, the darkSpyro forums was just about Spyro games, solely operated by dark52.

Besides posting walkthroughs, managing and creating news posts on the Spyro games, dark52 was mostly on top of rule-breakers and trolls and would ban them from the forums as soon as they ignore their first few warnings. Sometimes though, trolls would come on when the admin was asleep, and it would take hours later until he would come online to clean up the mess. But other than that, darkSpyro was a pleasant place to talk and chat with other Spyro fans.

Until the time came when dark52 decided to follow Skylanders and made the site a part Spyro part Skylanders division. As time went on, more and more members joined due to the audience of Skylanders, and it became too much for the admin.

Some of us suggested to dark that he should appoint moderators so he wouldn't feel so overwhelmed. But dark refused to accept help and believed that he could handle the forum on his own like he always had.

Big mistake.

At one point, a troll posted inappropriate images on the forum that lasted for 6 hours until dark52 finally woke up and deleted them all. I can't even imagine how many kids late at night or in the morning were possibly scarred by those pictures all because of dark's stubbornness. Even after all of that, he was still convinced that he didn't need any moderators. Completely ignorant to the fact that he doesn't do anything when something obviously bad is happening. Can you believe it??

Sometime after the horrible incident, the admin allowed trolls to get away with harassing users. They broke the forum rules on multiple occassions, drove away older members, and the trolls even had the nerve to start speaking on the admin's behalf just to belittle others. In a nutshell, dark52 basically just sat back and watched the rule breaking scenario all happen. And this lasted about... a few years and it could've lasted a LOT longer.

I was one of the main victims of the trolling, and I can tell you, it was the worst experience I've ever endured on any forum. Imagine being harassed and trolled on for months, being the target of an upcoming war started by a troll who was in the process of tricking an entire forum section of children to be against you. And the admin knowing fully well what's going on but refused to do anything about it. All just to update forum news and making posts about Skylanders. Like the concerns of his userbase don't matter to him at all.

It can drive you extremely fustrated, crazy even. Honestly it drove me insane that I wondered WHY I was still on that forum.

After some time during all of the chaos, dark52 FINALLY gave in and went on to appoint moderators after 8 long years of solo moderation. At least he admitted that he neglected his duties. Although he never did apologize to the users, including myself, who were harassed constantly by the trolls thanks to him. But even with mods, dark didn't do much moderation himself sometime afterwards, besides removing the occasional spambot or inappropriate picture troll.

Nowadays, there is a 10% chance you will get a private message response from the admin, regardless of your question, request or in need of intervention. The other 90% is him updating the forum polls, getting news on Skylanders, and making the site look prettier. He rarely communicates with the forum members and his fellow moderators, keeping most rule changes and decisions to himself until he feels like revealing them at the last minute. You will very likely see him talk about Skylanders, than forum issues that aren't worth his time to talk about.

In addition, dark has shown some severe signs of neglecting his admin duties. Such as causing an harassment war to nearly happen, allowing a kid to post his private information more than three times (and we're talking about family names, home address, email that kind of private information that should be kept your self), and allowing scenarios to escalate out of porportion until he feels like dealing with it.

If you have a logical issue about dark52 and his way of moderation, he will simply disregard your topic subject at hand altogether and will respond to an-off topic comment on popup ads instead.
As a longtime member of the forum, I would not recommend darkSpyro.net unless you are used to a user who doesn't take his job as admin and site owner very seriously. You might become stressed or unwanted, a victim of trolling caused by returning rule-breakers and egomaniacs. All of this happening to you, with dark52 not doing anything about it. And normally he would leave the moderators to do most of the work for him.

An admin should learn from his or her mistakes. But dark52 is one admin who apparently never learn from his. And even if dark changes his ways now or after this video is made, chances are he will go right back to being a recluse and sit quietly while watching rule-breakers run amok until he FEELS like stepping in.

I've been on darkSpyro for ages, and it's hard to leave a place where I grew up going to after a day's work. But with the way things are on the forum, and the admin STILL showing no signs of improvement on his moderation, I may as well just move on.

So I ask you, viewers. Would you want to join a nice looking forum like darkSpyro.net, but with a reclusive and ignorant admin like dark52? I wouldn't. But in the end it's your choice. You may like the forum just because of how fancy it looks or it's the only popular place to see new Spyro or Skylanders info. But remember that in the end, it is run by a user, a user whose actions can either make your time on darkSpyro fun or outright miserable and unenjoyable.

Thanks for tuning in, everyone, see you next time.

Also just want to remind you that this is a forum about skylanders. Of all things to get dramatized about you're talking and ranting about skylanders drama.

Tbh I think Dark may be losing interest in the site.

I mean, he may have lost interest in the series, but feels bad and doesn't want to shut the site down because of all the happy members.

It's costly and hard to own the site, and monitoring it ALL the time is a hard job.

I bet he has another job other than this site, because you cannot control this kind of site and make real money to support yourself with.

It's most likely something he does for fun, in his past time, he'll skim it, and get back to work.

Also just want to remind you that this is a forum about skylanders. Of all things to get dramatized about you're talking and ranting about skylanders drama.

I was fully aware of the video and personally I agree with it.

[...]ignorant admin like dark52

Quote: undefined

I was fully aware of the video and personally I agree with it.

Quote: The Video

[...]ignorant admin like dark52

Nice to see the moderation team respecting the site admin.

Never said you could not have an opinion. No need to be sorry - please, continue bashing the site you moderate on. I think it says a lot.

Never said you could not have an opinion. No need to be sorry - please, continue bashing the site you moderate on. I think it says a lot.

[...]someone who claims to be of older and more mature status[...]

We aren't "bashing".

Quote: Pixilism

[...]someone who claims to be of older and more mature status[...]

Source, please?


Quote: parisruelz12

We aren't "bashing".

I'm not sure in what world calling someone "ignorant" isn't considered bashing. Are you, a moderator of dS, saying that you are perfectly fine with calling people ignorant? Is this a statement of forum policy? Is it okay to go around calling other members of the site "ignorant" since it's not bashing?

Quote: undefined

I was fully aware of the video and personally I agree with it.

Quote: The Video

[...]ignorant admin like dark52

Nice to see the moderation team respecting the site admin.

Good reply. In a thread started by an article written about lack of response by an individual in a position of authority, you, an individual in a position of authority, dodge a direct question posed to you based off your forum statement.

Guess that makes you ignorant too, eh?

I'm not sure in what world calling someone "ignorant" isn't considered bashing. Are you, a moderator of dS, saying that you are perfectly fine with calling people ignorant? Is this a statement of forum policy? Is it okay to go around calling other members of the site "ignorant" since it's not bashing?

Being on the mod team doesn't bar any of us from speaking about how the admin[...]

Ignorance in on itself isn't an insult depending on the context. There's so much worse that you can be called that are higher priority here than "ignorant" and really "ignorant" is really just a claim to not being aware of a situation in many cases.

And have you not called people such yourself in the past? Memory is fuzzy.

you'd rather throw the mods (who weren't involved to begin with) under the bus

So we stay in this bad situation.

That still doesn't adress the complaints from people above, though, even if it answers mine.

2) A "moderation log" that shows deleted posts and topics (and who deleted them and the reason why), which topics were moved (and who moved them), who locked a topic, and edited posts, who edited them (and when), and the ability to view the original post. Right now, all they get is seeing who suspended someone and for how long.

(with a few exceptions, naturally ).

For the record I do care and I have not lost interest in the site or the games (although I suppose SuperChargers has not had the longevity for me that the other Skylanders games have had but I am still looking forward to seeing whatever comes next). I enjoy running the site and love the community that has built up on it over the years (with a few exceptions, naturally ). If there is a perceived notion that I am quiet that is simply because I am, that is just my personality. If somebody has already said what I'd have said then I usually don't get that itch to jump on in and just reiterate something.


On a side note if I haven't replied to a PM that you thought required a response feel free to send me a friendly reminder PM after a couple of days, I get a lot of PMs and while I do read each and every one and reply to as many as I can, a few do slip my mind to reply to if I am unable to provide an immediate answer for whatever reason.

Quote: dark52

(with a few exceptions, naturally >_>).

SORRY DARK SENPAI