At the risk of being banned myself, I request some leniency on my lack of knowledge. That being said, could I get some clarifications? I've read every single post in this thread (2 hours basically wasted... I've never actually seen a thread such as this in my life...) and am still confused.
I haven't played in a month, but I started playing around 2010-ish. I have a few hundred hours into Discovery, but haven't logged in often enough to keep my characters. I enjoy the role playing in game, but never really got into the forums. For that I apologize. I don't believe this thread is typical... I've read some RP threads and have been quite impressed. Anyway, on to my questions:
From what I gather, some admins (do we even know their names? Again, please excuse my ignorance) banned 6 players possibly unjustly. At least, without giving them explanations. Correct so far?
The (some?) developers of the mod are striking because they don't feel these bans were justified (because the banned players were not told why they were banned?)
Someone started DDoSing the server? Are we to assume one of the banned players is responsible, or a "white knight" trying to stick up for transparency of admin actions, or someone else? What impact has this DDoS had? How long has it been going on?
Who is/was Karlotta/Ninja? Did he deserve to get banned?
Are perma-bans not actually permanent? Are they "only" 6-month bans? If so, doesn't that mean after 6 months, the player is able to login again, but they won't have any of their ships / cash? (I thought after 3 months of inactivity, the character is deleted?) I guess I should first ask, if a player is banned, does that apply to the forums, game, or both?
What are "admins" anyway? Are they people who administer administrate both the game and the forums? Are there different admins for each?
It's been suggested that the admins (or current admins) are not explicitly needed. I'm not sure what to think of that opinion, but I find it hard to believe. Are all / some of the current admins corrupt, in the majority of players' opinions? If so, can new, just, admins not be appointed?
Has server population dropped since this drama started? (Other than the 6 banned players of course.) I seem to remember a stats page of player activity (years ago). Is that still around?
Has "server activity" dropped dramatically since this started? As in, some players are much more active than others - for example, I have a few characters and don't get around much, while other people I'm sure have tons of characters and poke their noses into all aspects of the game.
Is there anything else I should have asked but didn't? Is there a larger issue here that I'm completely missing?
I just emailed Wizou, the creator of Freelancer Companion, and was extremely excited when he emailed me back saying he updated the source code and fixed a bunch of issues related to Discovery. I made a post on that subject before I read this thread. Needless to say, my excitement level has diminished now that I'm starting to see people's "true selves." My priority is having fun flying ships around... trading, mining, some future combat... not getting involved in this craziness... but I'm really starting to fear for the future of this game.
Lastly, is there anything I can do to help the situation? I'm no developer and frankly, I don't have the time nor the energy to moderate. I assume the answer to this question is therefore "no" but Discovery (the game, not necessarily the forum, no offense, as I said, there have been many great posts) has always been very dear to me. I would like to help if I can. I'm sorry for the extreme length of this noob post and really appreciate any answers given.
Thank you for your time, and thanks for providing me quite a bit of enjoyment.
