The JK Community Life Cycle

Hey guys! There has been something going on in the community that a few of you are aware of. It has been on my mind for a little while now, and I need to vent. If you haven't been paying attention to the current "drama" in the chat room, let me fill you in. I will start from the beginning.

For the past year JK has been thriving with a ton of activity and lots of games being played. Lately, we've been seeing a large number of old players come to us out of nowhere! They were greeted by old friends, and we made them feel welcome. We would help them get their routers working, help them get the latest patches, levels, and tools they needed to play whatever they wanted. They have a wonderful bot to use at their disposal to advertise active games being played, and so on. With that, they would feel as if JK was very much still alive after all these years, and they would tell their friends, who in turn would come to the chat room and play some games with us. #jk is becoming more and more popular by the day, reaching user counts as high as 35 active people everyday! That's not too bad for a 12 year old game whose community was washed away when Nar was removed from the Zone. As you can see, JK is finally growing the way we had hoped for after all these years of struggling with such a small community.

I have been operating the #jk chat room for the last 6 years. In that time the channel has had its up and downs. A lot of you may remember how many times we have moved around, and how many battles have been fought for JK Channel Supremacy. Some of you may remember when Scott secretly told everyone behind my back that the JK Community was moving to a different server, and that they should leave #jk to go there. He had almost everyone convinced that I was closing the channel, and that the move to the new server was necessary. The shitty part about that was that we lost roughly 10 people who were annoyed with this pointless battle over channel power, and decided to just leave. And that's all it was... Scotty felt he wanted to be in "control" of the community, and that he deserved some kind of "power" over them. It was due to the fact that I made some bad choices for ops in #jk. I made the mistake of opping my friends who as soon as they realized they had the power to mute, kick, and ban people of their choice, things got out of control. When Scott pulled his sneeky move to the other server, it opened my eyes and made me realize that I had screwed up bad. I pretty much threw in the towel at that point, letting Scott and his friends run the channel on the other server.

The only problem was that he was pretty much doing the same thing that caused this mess in the first place... just with different people. In a short period of time, he came to realize exactly the same thing I did when I started #jk. He felt he was doing a great justice for the community by having it run by different people. The only problem was that this feeling of power for anyone comes with its consequences. Within a month, his ops were abusing their powers just like the ones I had chosen in #jk, and when he removed their powers, it caused a rival. Of course, nobody wants to lose their power over others!

Not even 2 months later, Scott came to me and told me he was sorry for doing what he did, and asked me if I would take them back. I accepted, and we made up for it. We discussed the reasons why all this happened, and came to the conclusion that it's all about the ops. We both made the mistake of giving power to those who didn't deserve it, and it really served no useful purpose. All it did was cause grief between everyone. So I made the choice from then on to treat everyone as an equal, and show no "higher power" over anyone who uses my channel. Ever since that decision, the channel has experienced a ton of growth, and everyone seems to be happy. I would remain the only op in the channel, but I wouldn't make it obvious. I would op myself just to make certain changes to the topic and channel settings.

Now, as some of you may have noticed, Pux, Porky, and Gnarly have created another channel to which they are leeching users from #jk, and telling them they should leave #jk because they will be banned pointlessly, and abused. This is nothing new to me... I was expecting this. This all started about two weeks ago when I banned Gnarl and Porky. Let me tell you why.

Since #jk's recent activity has been extremely active, the chat gets pretty hard to read at times when people are having serious conversations about something... mostly related to a game, players, or the old days of JK, etc. That's nice, and it's good to see people are using it for it's purpose. However, certain things should be left alone. Gnarly get's a kick out of bashing "niggers" daily on the chat room. For months, I just let it slide... thinking (and hoping) that eventually it would just go away. As he kept going on and on about it, it was starting to rub off on a few of our more valuable users. People who never said "nigger" at all before being exposed to Gnarl's ignorance started using it frequently in their text, and it was getting out of hand. Now, I have no problem with saying whatever you want... that was the whole foundation of what made #jk to begin with. But this shit had to stop! It almost seemed as if #jk was turning into a "we hate niggers" chat. Every day I would come into the channel and see at least 20 lines of text with the word "nigger" in it. To me, that's just fucking stupid! I have respect for all types of people, but to frequently use a word that for decades has been a prime example of expressed hatred towards another race just seems petty and soulless.

So one day I came to the chat after having a really crappy day only to see... of course, Gnarly and Porkchop spewing line after line of "We hate niggers because..." bullshit. I came on and said "This conversation is retarded"... because it is. Who the fuck cares? Just because a black person cut you off in traffic means you need to fuck with their entire race because you are an ignorant fucktard with nothing better to do? So I kicked them both! It may have been because I had a shitty day, and I needed to take it out on someone... but I chose wisely. Nobody gives two shits about what Gnarly or Porky has to say about anything at this point, mostly because it is utterly retarded! After I would kick them, they would come back in to flood "NIGGER...NIGGER...NIGGER" hundreds of times, so I eventually had to ban them just to keep the peace. After cooling down about 10 minutes later, I unbanned them. They came back in and both started coming apart on me (not a good idea at this point in time). They went on and on about shit that I don't even remember, but what I do remember was that most of it was just random bullshit without any factual merit. Basically a retardedly feeble attempt to make me feel bad. A perfect example of what happens when idiots try to make a point. At this time, people were trying to talk about a game they had just played. I wasn't in the mood to read all this crap they were spewing, so I banned them again... for longer this time. I would remove the ban later when the chat has settled, and they cooled down a bit.

I could go on and on with the events that took place that night, but I am sure you see the pattern here. I would let them back in, they would flood the channel, then I would ban them again. Even though I felt bad about banning people from the channel, it was necessary. This stupid shit was interfering with regular stuff that was going on, and it was pissing people off. If I am going to be the sole operator of this channel, it is my duty to try to make it a pleasant place for people to be.

Now OF COURSE one could expect Gnarly and Porky to be pissed off about this, and OF COURSE they would make another channel. Like I said, this type of action is not new to me. Any idiot can make a channel, and any idiot can tell people that I am an abusive op... but let the people decide on what is right. Does anyone here think what I did was abusive?

The point behind this thread is to point out that Gnarly, Porky, and Pux made another JK channel on gamesurge with aspirations to make everyone leave #jk. It's pathetic, we know this. It's been done before with little success. They feel that because they were hurt, they have some form of motive to get control over the community. They think that because they were banned for being retards, I am the one to blame because I am the one who has to make the shitty call, and remove them from the room. Trust me when I say this... THEY DO NOT DESERVE YOUR SUPPORT. They are just acting out like little children, and taking it out on the entire JK community. They think they are getting back at me, but it's not me who suffers... it is everybody! By doing what they are doing, they are splitting up the community AGAIN, therefore taking away from the energy!

JK is still growing, and we can keep it going, but there is one thing that stands in the way... and that is these three morons who are trying to kill it. They are going to ask you to leave #jk because they think I am a nazi, and I will abuse my powers. But honestly... do you believe that? Have I ever done anything like that out of spite?

Their chat room has in the topic "A NEW POWER IS RISING". See? That's all that matters to them... power. They want you to come in there so they can control you. They mimic everything #jk has already (game bot, trivia, no visible ops, etc) but there is a difference... the channel is run by RETARDS! Pux, Porky, and Gnarl. Do you really think they are capable of running a JK channel, when 2/3 of them DON'T EVEN PLAY THE GAME?

I am trying to keep JK alive as many of you already know. They think I am in it for the power... but that's just stupid. Those days are long gone now, and all I want is to see is my JK family grow with each other. I know most of the people in the channel so well because we have been together for years. I consider most of you my friends, and I would like to keep it that way. So make the right choice... and don't be a part of their channel. It was made purely to "take over", and they will try anything in their power to convince you to be a part of it.

So here is my final conclusion to this novel I am writing here. JK has had many instances where people get pissed off, and try to take over because of it. All have failed. I am not at all worried about the choices the users in the channel will make, but I am going to ask you to simply not be a part of their cause. It is only hurtful to the prime directive which is to keep JK alive and prosperous. You know that in #jk, you will always have a good place to come chill and talk about whatever you want, and play some games with friends. Like I said before, I consider many of you my e-family. As corny as that sounds, it's true. I've invested a lot of time in my life to keep a nice easy going place for my friends, and I would like to keep it available for more years to come.

Thanks for reading guys, and I am looking forward to any comments you have.

Beefy