Ravinhood...

[Erik Rutins]

FYI everyone, Ravinhood was perma-banned from the Matrix Forums today after ongoing poor behavior towards other posters, culminating in this sequence:

He posted this to a poster who is suffering from Huntington's Disease: "You aren't fooling anyone and I highly doubt you have any terminal illness. First of all why would you think anyone you don't even know here would even care? The last thing I would do is go to some website crying that I'm dying."

He was banned for two weeks to consider his behavior to other posters, then immediately created a new account and posted this: "Just a final word before I go. Now you will find out who I really am. You made a big bad mistake Erik. You allowed morons and idiots on this forum to attack me while you stood back and did nothing. You put out crap games and that is the message I will send throughout the web now. Be sure and watch for my "reviews". Also, I'll tell you just like I tell the other stupid admins you can only ban the name you can't ban the person. And as you can see I don't need your "permission" to log back in an post lmao. "

That resulted in the perma-ban, which is one of only a few we've ever had to issue.

Now he has started showing up and bad-mouthing Panzer Command on other forums.

Before this point, he was eagerly looking forward to Panzer Command. He does not actually have the game. He is now looking for payback instead of examining his own actions. Just making sure everyone is informed. If any of you see him posting falsehoods or exaggerations about Panzer Command in some other forums, I would appreciate if you'd let folks there know what the real story is.

Regards,

- Erik

[tevans6220]

Erik
 
Not trying to defend Ravinhood. I can certainly understand the banning for the personal attack but is it really wise or professional to announce it to the rest of the Matrix forum community? This seems like a private matter between Matrix and Ravinhood. The rest of us really don't need to hear about it or take sides. The bottom line is that Ravinhood personally attacked someone and you handled it. Whether he does or does not support this game is irrelevent. The whole thing should be handled privately. Ravinhood should definately have been banned for the personal attack but not for his criticism, be it legitimate or unfounded, of the game. Somehow reading your post I think the two are intertwined. Anyway that's just my 2 cents. It's your forum so you can do what you want.

[Marc von Martial]

Ravinhood should definately have been banned for the personal attack but not for his criticism, be it legitimate or unfounded, of the game.

I think you got that wrong. He got banned for the personal attack. Actually for a lot of attacks that have been culminating in the last time. Erik has been extremely patient with him in the whole last year (and longer). It was just enough as he started harrasing admins too.

Matrix Games would never ban somebody for critizing our products. In fact we are one of the very few publishers that actually answers to critics [;)]

but is it really wise or professional to announce it to the rest of the Matrix forum community?

Well, it is there for everybody to see in the "general discussion" forum anyway. That's were he stepped over the line.

[marcusm]

Yes. Making fun about some of the most brutal nerve diseases shows
a complete lack of social competence and empathy. He even went as far as
creating a double account over at wargamer where he questioned the character of the person.

It's rare even for Usenet standards to sink that low.

[FNG]

I don't think bannings are ever easy to carry out to everyone's satisfaction, but I think it is better that they occur 'in the light of day'. In this situation, it is clear that Matrix has not 'silenced' the forum member for criticising the product, but banned them for totally unacceptable conduct.

[tevans6220]

Like I said, Matrix can do whatever it wants. It's your forum. I fully understand that Ravinhood was banned for the personal attack and not for his criticism of the game. So why bring his criticisms up at all? To make him look bad? He did that all on his own. So it's pointless and childish. It makes Matrix look unprofessional and could give the view that Ravinhood was not only banned for his personal attack but also for his criticisms. My point is this whole thing is a private matter between Matrix and Ravinhood. I'm not trying to defend him but don't you think it's a little unfair to ban someone and then talk about them? A personal attack was made and handled rightfully by Matrix. That's as far as it should have gone. We don't know need to know the details or get into it at all. Matrix's dealings with Ravinhood have absolutely nothing to do with us. It should be kept private. It's between Matrix and Ravinhood. Let's keep it that way.

[marcusm]

It probably would have stayed that way but since his immediate reaction was
to go out and bad mouth the products I think they still have the right to defend their product.

If anything Matrixgames are pretty lenient with banning. Had this been Bioware or Paradox forums he would
have been gone long time ago (if this was his standard behaviour).

[Marc von Martial]

Yes, you are right.

Erik just wanted to point out, in all fairness, that he now is pissed and copy and pastes his "critics" on various game forums, he has personally threatend Erik to post false statements about the product on the internet. Funny, since he was looking forward so much to the game [;)]. I think it is just fair of Erik to point this out.

Anyway, there is no reason to talk about the "person" itself anymore. I fully agree on that.

[tevans6220]

ORIGINAL: marcusm

It probably would have stayed that way but since his immediate reaction was
to go out and bad mouth the products I think they still have the right to defend their product.

If anything Matrixgames are pretty lenient with banning. Had this been Bioware or Paradox forums he would
have been gone long time ago (if this was his standard behaviour).

I'm not criticizing Matrix for banning Ravinhood. He should have been banned. The problem I have is with it being made public and Erik bringing up Ravinhood's criticism of the game. It gives the impression that Ravinhood was banned not only for his personal attack but also for his criticisms. This was a private matter between Matrix and Ravinhood. If Ravinhood chose or chooses to go public all over the internet Matrix still should take the high road and kept it all private. That's what a professional organization does. We certainly didn't need to know that Erik permabanned Ravinhood. That was between them not Matrix, Ravinhood and the rest of us. This information that Erik laid upon us is not only here on the Matrix forums but on other forums as well. That's not right no matter what Ravinhood did, does or threatens to do. It's childish, totally unprofessional and there's absolutely no justification for it at any time. Owning over 3 dozen Matrix games I guess it's safe to say that I love their products and I'm a Matrix fan. That doesn't mean that I agree with everything they do. Erik's going public was wrong and regardless of whether Ravinhood is ever allowed to come back to the forums I think Matrix and Erik owe him an apology. The whole matter should have stayed as private as possible on Matrix's end. It didn't and in my eyes it puts Matrix in a bad light.

Personally, I don't know Ravinhood but I think his criticisms are nitpicky at best. I read all of his criticisms and stayed on the fence for about an hour before purchasing. PCK could be improved but you could say that about almost any game. I really like this game and think this system with the promised improvements has a very huge potential.

[marcusm]

Yes the customer is always right but since he didn't buy anything he isn't a customer(pirate maybe?).
Just someone who doesn't know how to behave in a social group.

Normally when you say things like he did you end up with a black eye or worse, not a banning. So a banning is fairly fair .

[Terminus]

He's been given miles and miles of rope, and now he's finally decided to hang himself with it. Nobody's fault except his.

[Tomus]

ORIGINAL: tevans6220

ORIGINAL: marcusm

It probably would have stayed that way but since his immediate reaction was
to go out and bad mouth the products I think they still have the right to defend their product.

If anything Matrixgames are pretty lenient with banning. Had this been Bioware or Paradox forums he would
have been gone long time ago (if this was his standard behaviour).

I'm not criticizing Matrix for banning Ravinhood. He should have been banned. The problem I have is with it being made public and Erik bringing up Ravinhood's criticism of the game. It gives the impression that Ravinhood was banned not only for his personal attack but also for his criticisms. This was a private matter between Matrix and Ravinhood. If Ravinhood chose or chooses to go public all over the internet Matrix still should take the high road and kept it all private. That's what a professional organization does. We certainly didn't need to know that Erik permabanned Ravinhood. That was between them not Matrix, Ravinhood and the rest of us. This information that Erik laid upon us is not only here on the Matrix forums but on other forums as well. That's not right no matter what Ravinhood did, does or threatens to do. It's childish, totally unprofessional and there's absolutely no justification for it at any time. Owning over 3 dozen Matrix games I guess it's safe to say that I love their products and I'm a Matrix fan. That doesn't mean that I agree with everything they do. Erik's going public was wrong and regardless of whether Ravinhood is ever allowed to come back to the forums I think Matrix and Erik owe him an apology. The whole matter should have stayed as private as possible on Matrix's end. It didn't and in my eyes it puts Matrix in a bad light.

Personally, I don't know Ravinhood but I think his criticisms are nitpicky at best. I read all of his criticisms and stayed on the fence for about an hour before purchasing. PCK could be improved but you could say that about almost any game. I really like this game and think this system with the promised improvements has a very huge potential.

IMO messageboard mods/admins are damned if they go public and damned if they don't. You simply can't win in a situation like this. Banning a high profile user without any explanation or public statement causes public demands for explanation, it puts a barrier between the admins and the community as a whole and causes chinese whispers. I think its best to make a statement to explain where said poster has gone.

[Capitaine]

I think when someone is banned for a personal reason, but in retaliation they threaten to attack your products elsewhere on the internet you're well within your rights to alert the community about what went down.  As Erik and Marc have stated, and as anyone can see from the threads on this forum, RH was excited about the game he now plans to trash.  While you can't say everyone who dislikes a game has a personal vendetta against you, when you are explicitly threatened by this kind of behavior it's proper in my opinion to alert people to the threat as a measure of self-protection.

[Grell]

Atually I am the one Ravinhood came after. I have a terminal illness called Huntington's Disease and Ravinhood went on and said I was making up the whole thing. That really hurt me as I am not used to that kind of behaviour, I am a peaceful person but RH made me go crazy when he said that.

I retaliated and called him "el bozo bolero" and I called him evil. He just kept on attacking me and I copied every post he made for proof of his actions.

Nevertheless I think he deserves to be banned and I think Erik is a top quality human being.

I will continue to buy Matrix Games and I pray you do as well because this company has class.

Regards,

Grell

[marcusm]

Agree. Anyone who had said that IRL would have deserved a good spanking in my opinion.

[Terminus]

Or a good nut-stomping...

[76mm]

Good riddance. The guy deserved it.

In general I am impressed with how civil this board is compared to some others I frequent. Even the devs are civil and nice--whoa, what a concept!

[Terminus]

Scary, eh?[:D]

[Erik Rutins]

Ok, perhaps I shouldn't have posted this, I can understand why it was a bad idea now. However, it was also a Catch 22. As you all know, I'm pretty close to this game. I did not want to ban Ravinhood, but really it had nothing to do with the game criticism. If you don't believe me, feel free to read through his 3000+ posts. He has been criticizing virtually all our games in the same way for years, founded or unfounded.

We don't ban people for that.

However, he had recently started getting more and more obnoxious to other users. His activities in the General Discussion forum are what caused this ban. Even so, I felt a two week ban would be enough to reconsider. Instead, he immediately started registering new accounts and issuing threats about how he would get back at us. We then gave him a permanent ban. This is only the second permanent ban I have issued in eight years.

I would have left it at that, but he then popped up at the Wargamer with his first payback post. It was not about me or about Matrix. It was about Panzer Command.

He dragged the game into this and made it his personal method of revenge for the banning. I can't be everywhere on the internet at once, so I felt I should let the community involved in the game know why he disappeared and why he has now changed course from anticipating the game to doing nothing but bashing it. I don't expect that all of you read our General forum and frankly I figured if I didn't spread the word, it would leave it open for Ravinhood to claim in the future that he was banned just for criticizing the game, which is as far as can be from the truth.

With that said, I'll lock this and let it sink out of sight. I know it's unusual for a moderator to do this, perhaps I shouldn't have posted this even in this case. I can see how in some ways it's an invitation to bash Ravinhood. That was not my goal, I just wanted to make sure the truth was getting its pants on, so to speak.

Regards,

- Erik