You know what I find amusing?

The difference between Doctor Steel and 'his' Toy Soldiers. I have had a chance to check out their forums lately, and while at first glance they seem rather benign, all you have to do is look at one of the rules lists. Particularly for the chatroom.

Now, I am of the firm belief that the "doctor" (His name is Ryan Vernon, get over it) is in it because he just wanted to have some fun while making money. The things he talks about are obvious spins on reality for his own amusement. The character talks about opening ones mind, questioning things, freedom of action and overall trying to find happiness. Not a bad thing, honestly.

Then you look at his following, and while I am sure the majority of the soldiers are pretty cool people, it seems that the people running their base of operations are nothing but the absolute opposite of "Doctor Steel" in every possible way. Take Prototype Madelchai for example. He was the one who wrote up the rules for the chatroom, and I didn't even need to hit up the chatroom to see how incredibly hypocritical this tyrant is.

First off, the list of rules for a chatroom is normally no more than two paragraphs. Three at most. This guy wrote an entire essay on what you can and cannot say to whom and when in vast detail:




For your viewing pleasure, it's that time again folks! Since we had multiple threads before that required looking through multiple pages to find all the newest and up to date rules, those have been done away with and I've consolidated everything to this one convenient thread, which I will be able to edit as appropriate, so ideally this first post will be your one stop spot for all the up to date rules regarding use of the chat.

-Language
Try to keep the language respectful. We're not here to crack down on every word you say, but do strive to express yourself as intelligently as possible. Don't use swearing as punctuation. Also, along the lines of expressing yourself intelligently, do try to avoid using single letters as words, i.e. "u" and "r" in place of "you" and "are."

-Civil conversation; No Flaming
There is no need for insults. There will be no slandering based on age, race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or any other matter.

Whenever there's a gathering of people through any medium there's always going too be people who don't get along, or who take things to far.

Luckily, most of the populace here is mature enough to deal with things properly, even if sometimes emotions can run high and tempers flare and otherwise properly behaving people slip up now and then... but for the people who consistently have to intentionally make a nuisance of themselves, it's not going to be tolerated.

-Respect Reasonable Topic Change Requests
If someone makes a reasonable request for a topic change, please honor that request and move on to something else. When a Mod asks for a topic change, we're not really asking. This is to be done immediately, not in a minute, when you've got a few more points across, or anything else that will otherwise drag things out to the point of our annoyance.

-PG-13* by U.S. standards as a general guideline for appropriateness. Mods have the final say in what is and isn't appropriate in any given situation.

We are not censoring your speech. We limit the swearing and content so that more people can enjoy chat. Can you imagine the flack we'd get if parents, while doing their duty, are watching chat and see little Billy or Susie chatting with all kinds of swearing and sex talk? We do not want Dr. Steel or the Army of Toy Soldiers to receive any undue ill will.

-No trolling. Yes, we get it. You're horribly clever and you like to show just how smart you are by getting into semantics and using your incredible mind bullets to get others riled up about the topic at hand and then try to tell us "that's not what I was doing!". We're not morons, and you're boring. Those conversations won't last long, as they're incredibly boring.

-No Threatening Other Members. This is straightforward enough. There are ways to disagree with a person and their ideas and opinions, but this isn't one of them. Any breaches of this rule will be taken rather seriously.

-No Pretending to be Dr. Steel. You're not fooling anyone and it will really just make you look stupid and annoy everyone.

-No Evading Bans. Doing this will only extend your ban, up to and including permanently if you annoy us enough. This includes but not limited to coming back in under a different name, IP, friend's computer, connecting to the internet via voodoo hoojinx, or anything else you might otherwise consider to be "clever."

-No Backseat Moderation/Compaining About the Rules
If you think the rules we have are "lame" and you're not enjoying the chat based on being asked to follow them, then you're free to not be there if you're not having fun. The chatroom is an extension of TSU. The rules are the rules, and they're in place for a reason. They are not up for debate or discussion. Whether you like them or not is irrelevant, you agree to abide by them by clicking the Live Chat link or connecting through your Client of choice. It's that simple.

-For Any Questions About Bans, PM a Moderator. If someone is kicked and/or banned, and it's not you, there's no reason you need to discuss it, be a part in it, or otherwise "investigate" it. Complaining about it, spreading rumors, and general rabblerousing will result in action being taken against you as well. Mind your business and worry about yourself.

-Do be Constructive when at all possible. If there's some serious conversation going on, such as invasion planning or brainstorming about some creative endeavor, don't derail the chat by emoting that you're sliding across the floor naked on a block of cheese. In fact, just don't do that at all, ever.

-Don't spam the chat with nonsense, or if no one's responding decide to carry on with a long series of inanely talking to yourself.

-No Bots, Scripts, Auto-Away Messages. They're just annoying, and sometimes inappropriate. Our resident bot doesn't play well with others, and she was here first.

-No Panhandling in the chat. If there's a cause that you want to try and raise money for, then you're allowed to make a forum post. The Admin can decide if it's appropriate or not, and decide if they want to let it run.

-There is a word list that will auto-kick you from the chat on certain words. These are subject to change from time to time as we see necessary. Do not play with the auto-kick feature by trying to guess at the words, or intentionally saying the words you know are on there just to be able to go "hurr hurr lookit me I'm getting kicked," it's annoying, and quite unconstructive, and will result in non-automated action being taken.

-Do not try to impersonate other members, or try to fool us by coming in under another name or the default "yournick" to try and troll. It's not nearly as clever of a thing to do as you'd like to think. Another instance where you're not fooling anyone.

-Stickam and other third party chat/socialization sites:
Going forward we're not allowing the advertisement of any other chats. When you log onto the TSU chat, you're here for that, and it's supposed to be a place where we're all united, not as a pool to grab members from for another chat somewhere. We will allow one (1) Stickam chat to be linked, that will be moderator created/run, where everyone is allowed to join. The rules there will be the same as the chat/forums. Some people have created seperate chats for friends, and that's fine, but keep it privately to your truest and bluest; I don't want to hear about everyone who comes into the chat getting private messaged with something akin to "hey, come here instead." If I do, there will be problems. This rule is in place for the sake of unity, and to keep the chat a movin' and shakin' place. We're not here to run off into different segregated directions. For Division chats, use your appropriate forum thread for letting interested members know about your room.

-If you have an issue, or something you'd otherwise like to discuss regarding the chat, contact a Moderator. This is the OFFICIAL method to take an issue up with the staff. You must privately contact a Mod to discuss your complaint, do not contact a site Admin because they forward it to us anyway, and they're rarely present so don't know what's going on anyway. Do not ask your friend to talk to a Mod. Contact a chat mod with the issue. If it is about another Mod contact someone different on the Mod staff. Any complaints that are not brought up in this way will not be acknowledged or considered.

-Other specific Subjects Not Allowed in the Chat
Generally speaking these subjects have caused major issue most of the time resulting in an explosion in main chat, and lots of unnecessary work for us, so they're just going to be avoided. Currently these subjects include:
Politics - We're cool with how you voted but avoid pressing your beliefs.
Religion - See Politics minus the voting
Dr Horrible - Not so much anymore, but there is much bad blood. You can discuss whether you legitimately cared for it or not and why, but avoid the controversy surrounding it.
Furry Fandom and related phrases/actions - The main cause of Soldier to Soldier arguing in main chat. There is a sanctioned** room open for any who wish to discuss this topic. This has had at least a few chances, but due to the constant lack of maturity brought on from both sides of this issue, both past and recent, it's staying a banned topic.

-Please try to refrain from turning the chat into Hello Pity Adventure Island.
Everyone has their bad days, and if you need people to talk to about a particuarly exasperating day, we're happy to be here and listen. When every day is just another in the series of never ending bad days and problems in your life, you likely need more help than we can offer, so I ask that you don't unload the contents of your crazy caboose on us daily.

-TSU, and by proxy the chat, is not a dating service. While it's certainly possible to find love on here and find people with quite similar interests, don't let coming on here just to hit on members of the opposite sex be practically your only reason for being here. This will henceforth be refered to as the "No Creeper Rule." We will be encouraging folks who spend most of their time in chat flirting with anyone who comes in to find something more constructive to do with their time.

-Spoilers
It's quite exciting that you've seen the newest latest and greatest movie or read the newest book. However, there are some that well may not have been to that midnight screening or release. Please avoid revealing spoiling plots, twists, and anything else that is better left discovered in by someone first hand. If it's been released in the last 3 months, avoid specific content that isn't general knowledge/can be seen in a trailer. For all else 3+ months old, use common sense. If someone's mentioned they haven't seen something yet but want to, try to avoid spoiling that for them.

-There are designated areas outside to tie your drama llama to prior to entering the chat for your convenience. This is expected protocol.

* PG-13 - Parents Strongly Cautioned
Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13. Films given this rating may contain sexual content, brief or partial nudity, some strong language and innuendo, humor, mature themes, political themes, terror and/or intense action violence. However, bloodshed is rarely present. This is the minimum rating at which drug content is present; with the exception of Austin Powers and Click, marijuana smoking is the only illegal drug use that can be depicted in a PG-13 movie, with the exception of Forrest Gump, in which a brief scene depicts Jenny snorting cocaine. While PG-13 films usually have more profanity than PG films, this is not necessarily the case. A film that is given a PG-13 rating due to profane language and/or racial insults is given this rating because it contains more of these elements than a PG rating would permit, or the film contains uses of stronger profanities than a PG would permit. A film rated PG-13 for "intense violence" is given this rating if blood is present in a violent way. In recent years, this rating has been used for the majority of American films released.
Additions: Sexual content is not allowed. By sexual content we mean overtly talking about it, pictures that are NSFW, or anything that could be considered "R" rated. Fully clothed pictures are ok.

** Sanctioned vs Unsanctioned
The major difference is moderation. In order for a room to be sanctioned, an approved moderator must be present, have agreed to Moderate the room, and be given Operator Status. Sanctioned Chat Rooms are allowed to have TS TSU etc in the name. Keep in mind only the TSUChat main room is approved by the TSU site admins, they cannot and will not be able to help with issues outside that room.




Okay, so this mile high crock of shit I thought was ridiculous. However I actually fell out of my seat laughing when I read this:

"We are not censoring your speech"

LOL! Seriously, I had to reread it a few times to make sure I wasn't hallucinating or something! I got a pretty damned good laugh out of that :D There are a few other pieces that get me all kinds of giggly:

"No Pretending to be Dr. Steel."

"No Backseat Moderation/Compaining About the Rules" (lol mispell)

"Other specific Subjects Not Allowed in the Chat...
-Politics
-Religion
-Dr Horrible (?)
-Furry Fandom and related phrases/actions"

"TSU, and by proxy the chat, is not a dating service."

"Spoilers"

So, apparently furries are too much drama for these guys. I don't blame them. Same with politics and religion. That stuff really gets people heated. Violently so. Yet then this guy goes off on movie/book spoilers, trying to find a little romance, and maybe a joke or two posing as a character that to date has never been in that chatroom once... and as far as I can tell distances himself from the website as much as he possibly can.

I don't blame him. Everything that I have seen in the forums of this group tells a tale of an oppressed people who smile as their masters crack their whips. With a little digging, I find that people who think too much are not only banned but their posts removed. Those who asked questions are excommunicated. People with a different sense of what is amusing that the rest of the herd are weened out.

Censorship and thought control, everything that Ryan talks about when he is in character; the people who are running the largest dedicated fansite to him are doing it in the exact opposite manner. There is no freedom of expression allowed on that site unless it's uber disney-fied and lacking any opinion. It's fake.

The sad thing is I think I understand the entire satire better than most of the fail soldiers. He's parading around pretending to be a doctor who is openly mad and wants to take over the world through spreading joy. Everything that he says in does is an obvious satire of the corporation and government. All the double talk, of saying one thing and meaning another, propaganda to "brainwash" people, and army of "toy soldiers". Everything about this screams that it's a mockery of how the world is currently run. Rather ingenious if I do say so.

But still, there is the overall message behind everything: Think for yourself, question everything, and try to be happy. The fansite fails so hard at such a simple creed that I can't help but giggle at every single toy soldier I see.