How ridiculous is OGS moderator named Conrad Melvile, I have played in OGS since 2015 until one time this mod ban me for sandbagging while i dont even sandbag with my alt, i use my alt to play during work, so rank is naturally lower, then after i log on to my normal account, I Pm ed hhim for clarification, if i lose a game and my rank dropped, am i gonna get banned, then this powermad mod immedeately ban me.... Any email or any form of communication is ignored and no reply or clarification whatsoever....

My advice is to kick out this powermad mod, and get someone whos willing to listen, coz random ban destroy the server reputation..not sure if anyone has similar experience...

If you want to comment on somebody's actions stating his real name, sign your messages with your own real name or use it as your account name.

Errr... That is his user name on OGS, and how would i know that is his real name or not....

My banned account is HansNa, yes that is abbreviation of my real name, i dont know if that clarify things a bit... And i just PM him only for this dude answer with a ban.

Not a real problem though, currently i simply use vpn if i ever want to play on OGS. Just this mod behavior pissed me off

I see. Nevertheless, you would increase credibility by revealing your full real name.

We are all interested in being treated fairly by go server admins / moderators. Therefore, it is worthwhile to criticise undue actions.

At the same time, you should abstain from angry words (ridiculous, p....d off, dude, powermad, bull...t) so as to avoid undermining your own credibility. Furthermore, your report should be clearer and better structured. If we shall believe you, we must not have to guess remaining parts.

In particular, for those of us not using OGS, is it allowed to have multiple accounts?

I checked in chat and ask some other more mod in PM, and basically it is okay, many people in OGS has alt, and i have to say, im salty about the ban since i dont use bot or do any of the things mentioned......

Full story is like this, my id raphael87 is banned because of sandbagging he said, then i Pm him in email and forum, and he said i sandbag hard, I explained the only reason i got 8d is because there is a darkgo AI bug in OGS back in the day, otherwise i will be 1-2d at max.... Which is totally ignored,

But because most of the time i play at work i cant really focus on game, i just want to have a fun fast game, so i pm him whether i will get ban if i lose a lot of game and drop to 1 or 2k, which is answered by a ban on my main account by this mod, i learnt most of my go skill in this server since 2015, many helpful mods and many friendly people that help me out in my ddk days. And i always recommend people in my go club to play on OGS too, so im very salty about this mod behavior, maybe this is clearer

Things are becoming clearer, thanks! I have two major questions:

What is a darkgo AI bug?

Usually, sandbagging refers to playing far below one's usual strength for the sake of beating much weaker players making fun of them. Does your alleged sandbagging refer to your temporary 8d level, that is, supposedly far above your usual strength?

The moderator saw an "8 dan" who, among the last 8 games, lost 5 against kyu players, so his initial reaction is understandable. However the moderator should have listened to the explanations.

To summarize the bug of darkgo in ogs back then is, basically just play the normal 3-3 joseki then peep the cutting point, then pass, somehow the bot will pass as well, and based on automatic scoring you won the game.

So you could give dark go 4 handicap and just win like that...... But yes that is the case Robert, i dont think 8d is even achievable for me in this lifetime haha

I have always opposed automatic AI scoring on servers:)

So yeah Robert, if the mod at least did check my statement before banning or giving out punishment,
this whole things should not happen, the problem here is: laziness and ignorance by the mod, and Maybe
the mod can argue, we are not getting pay for our time or this is voluntary, but if you want to
take action, you could at least check the facts before doing anything else..... This is why I use
the term "Powermad or drunk with power" mod, which is an "angry" term....

But really I dont know how to describe this situation, a mod who won't even bother checking fact and
ban user for LOL, CONRAD MELVILLE, and if he is in this site and looking at this thread it will be
better, because he keeps running away from my PM and only answer in BAN.....

Now my only path in OGS is make new ID with VPN, and become the sandbagger that the mod wish me to become
for a while until the rank stabilize.

Absolutely. A moderator must perceive facts.

It is good you find a workaround to continue to play there. OGS is a nice place and I have good memory playing there few years ago. Well Go is just a game. Much worse things happen in real life, like the arbitrary ban some rowdy president imposed on Huawei, putting tens of thousands of people's livelihood under threat.

@wingly: based on the way you communicate, I understand some volunteers might not want to spend too much time talking to you. They are not your employees and I know from experience that some volunteers might rather quit than endure harsh and negative comments from the people they're trying to help out.

To be honest, I don't think it's fair to publicly criticize volunteers (or anyone!) with the strong wording that you use. Also, this discussion isn't going anywhere. You started out offending someone who's not part of the discussion and can't defend himself. If you want to have a discussion about OGS moderation, you should try to be more constructive or join the OGS team to help them out and show what you think a good moderator is like.

I think this thread should be closed.

I think you are not making any sense here tbh, i wrote my explanation on email and even made thread in OGS forum, which both ignored and get banned instead.

If you are in my position i dont think you would have any respect toward the said Mod. At least dude can not ban me here and i can talk... And even if its voluntary, it doesnt mean you could do anything you want here, just like in real world, say you volunteer in church activities, its definitely unpaid but you cant say words like " sir you are not welcome here because i dont like your face" or " im got no money from this activities so fuck off" messages is paid or not you are responsible for your action.

And you definitely cant complain if the guy complain to ppl outside claiming that the church volunteer called mr xxx is rude and is mad for power, as far as he knew it or not its entirely different problem. So what im saying is you become a volunteer to help not to be a dick and expecting a thank you. If you dont want to help you could just you know not volunteering in the first place.

Maybe you could erase his name from your posts. Knowing his name serves no purpose for the discussion.

It actually does, because he is the first mod in OGS that behaves like this, I dont want to call out other mod because all of them, except this one, are nice and helpful.

And you are right it serves no purpose for discussion, but i kinda hope the guy can come here and read it one day haha... Or any other mod from OGS could read it and see his behavior, its such a pity that a great server has to suffer from this dude..

If you replace his name by xxx, we will understand that you are only talking about a particular moderator and not about every moderator.

If he reads this thread, he will recognize himself anyway. Making him angrier won't make him change his behavior.

If you want other mods to be aware of the problem, you can write them directly. For instance, "trohde" is a moderator on OGS, a.k.a. "Bonobo" on this forum.

@wingly: first you say:

ridiculing the entire project, along with all of their volunteers. Then you state:

...as if you are caring about OGS and their people. You only made that second statement when you were asked to remove the mods real name from your posts. You seem to be changing your opinion when it suits you; your story is completely incoherent, except for your insults.

What you are saying is that you're going to annoy unknowing players on OGS and, in doing so, undermine the project of the fine folks who are running it. As Robert said, statements like these aren't especially good for your credibility.

If there would be a time for the moderators on this forum to use their super powers, this is it, IMHO. Again, I'm all for discussion, but this isn't going anywhere. I also don't think these forums should be used to blow off steam in such an aggressive manner.

I changed the last part of my original statement... I indeed wrote in my anger so thx for that.

I want to get this right;

You were accused of deflating your rank, and banned
But what really happened was you had inflated your rank, giving the impression later that your rank was deflated?

I think I might need some party balloons to better visualise.

I'd suggest using an anagram of the mod in questions name, but it appears you can't make any funny words out of "melvile" at all. Probably reason enough to not like the guy.

Radcon Vilemel has a pretty sinister sound to it, though? Open to suggestions.