isn't it up to the webmaster to do something about it ? Also I don't think any user has the right to complain if they behave like a dick.
I mean,you visit a website run by the people who founded it, so you should be thankful to hang around there in the first place.
When you visit someone's house you don't piss on the hosts table now do you ?
(poke admits he is tempted to do that...though )
Host's house, host's rules

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When you visit someone's house you don't piss on the hosts table now do you ?

You don't?

Ah, so that's why all those people in the Royal Palace were staring at me.. hmmm..

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This is the MRC, use it if you like it and try to be nice. If the owners think you're not nice, you'll be warned. If you're still not nice, you'll probably be kicked off. (And this is the same for all forums out there, isn't it?)

Just bring is back to that
the MRC (and any other forum/site) ain't no democracy, so

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the MRC (and any other forum/site) ain't no democracy, so

True, its no democracy. But the MRC is not a multinational billion dollar company filled with paranoid lawyers protecting their rights (Microsoft, Apple, Sony and more of those evil legal companies), but I suppose for a hobby and out of love for a worthless old and forgotten computer system. So why they let the lawyers in and did the policies this way, I dont know and dont care anymore, this has been discussed before and they ignore our feelings and arguments.

These are the parts of the policies I find not acceptable at all:

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You also declare to periodically check the policies for changes 1.4 By disagreeing with this agreement/these policies you agree to cease using the MRC and its services immediately. This policy will stay in effect, even if you disagree with the terms of the agreement. Disagreeing with the agreement/these policies does not grant you any rights to violate the rulings of these policies. 2.4 MRC preserves the right not to publish submitted content or to alter the distribution package of the submitted content, before or after publication, without prior consent. 3.2 MRC does not claim any copyrights to user submitted content. In accordance with 2.1 however, MRC may publish submitted content, without limitation, at its own discretion, in any form available

Like in a real democracy we have a choice. I find the policies of the MRC so agressive that I will never post any file or a topic with any value on the MRC. The policies tell me the MRC can do anything they want with my material and they can change the policies without warning (I will have to discover changes myself and I have already agreed to those just by reading it!) to whatever they like. So I stick to reading and an occasional useless topic or pointer to free content, and stay that way within the policies. But they will never get any value from me in good trust, because the policies show they dont trust us.



There are better and applicable policies, like the Creative Commons in one of its variations.

Hanso, the policies are this agressive because MRC has to protect its contents. In the past there have been many attempts (and some were succesful) to corrupt/remove content. Sometimes this was done by the author himself and sometimes this was done by forcing MRC through third parties. MRC would like things to be different too, but unfortunately that seems impossible. But you know all about that by your own experiences aswell, unfortunately.

Oh by the way, I guess the webmasters who put the policies together should be flattered by your "let the lawyers in" remark?

Bart,

I do understand, too well, where all this comes from (and still is coming), and why you did it. Alas, it feels too much like giving in to those threats.

But as I wrote, I only post useless topics here

HansO, maybe you're right. But then again, how can useless posts be right? LOL

The aggressive policies may be necessary for the content written by MRC members, but there's no reason to apply the same aggressiveness to the content written by members. In fact, you can write what you want in the policies, it still won't give you any more rights with the member contributed content than would have without them. I'm pretty sure that most of the stuff in the policies is utterly useless because they are about rights you already have or rights you cannot get that way.

The term ''content'' is very general. There's content only showing the opinion of a member, and there's content like source code or information about programming/description languages, content about products, announcements, advertising, etc. All that should be treaded differently.

@All: Actually, I wrote a big chunk of the policies and there's a reason they were drawn up the way they were: we get to do whatever the h00t we feel like. Basically the policies were written with a few things in mind.

1) If you behave like a wanker we get to ban your ass.
2) If we ban your ass because you're a wanker you don't get to delete your forum posts.
3) If you dislike us because we're a bunch of wankers you don't get to delete your forum posts.
4) If we ban your ass because you're a wanker you don't get to remove anything you submitted from the freeware downloads db.
5) If you dislike us because we're a bunch of wankers you don't get to remove anything you submitted from the freeware downloads db.

Well, basically, once you submit something to MRC it stays on MRC, even if you very much dislike us.

The real reason for this is that MRC should be a portal for MSX users. It should not be a staging area for all kinds of MSX feuds. The fact that you think we're a bunch of idiots does not mean that other people (who may not even know we're idiots) don't want to download your demo/game/song/whathaveyou anymore.

Of course we still get to delete any forum-posts we don't like. How unfair!!!

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... Of course we still get to delete any forum-posts we don't like. How unfair!!!

Funny, the world consists of idiots (the MRC crew) and wankers (the rest of the world) in need of a ban of their ass.
Good to hear the MRC is not a platform for feuds in the MSX scene, cant remember indeed anything like that happening here.


I am happy I am not the only one posting useless messages

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Funny, the world consists of idiots (the MRC crew) and wankers (the rest of the world) in need of a ban of their ass.

I never said there's *just* those people. I'd say more than 90% of our visitors just come here to read up on MSX news and chat on the forums from time to time. People like them need never even bother to read the policies, they're probably smart enough to figure out what's allowed by using their common sense and have no desire to explore all which is not allowed.

And then of course, there's the group of wankers. People who are never happy and think they get to tell us what's wrong with our website and how we need to change. We basically ignore them, or tempt them with the occasional reply when we feel like having some fun...

No, this place is not a democracy. There are no elections, there's the occasional poll or feature-request thread... You don't get to decide what does and does not go on this website, but our dedicated team of volunteers who have spent hundreds of hours of their free time running, designing, maintaining, translating and even paying for this site are the ones who get to decide how we run this site.

nuff said.

All-in, the summary of all comes down to this quote:

I'd say more than 90% of our visitors just come here to read up on MSX news and chat on the forums from time to time. People like them need never even bother to read the policies, they're probably smart enough to figure out what's allowed by using their common sense and have no desire to explore all which is not allowed.

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All-in, the summary of all comes down to this quote: I'd say more than 90% of our visitors just come here to read up on MSX news and chat on the forums from time to time. People like them need never even bother to read the policies, they're probably smart enough to figure out what's allowed by using their common sense and have no desire to explore all which is not allowed.

And so a polite discussion about the liberties the MRC reserves with submitted content has turned into a discussion about wankers and idiots. Hundreds of hours of volunteer work and even paying for that (you are not the only one doing that, there are many sites devoted to MSX requring money and devotion), arguments that have nothing to do with the discussion on policies and do not justify the liberties with rights on the content submitted. On my sites I recognize the rights of myself and content submitters with the Creative Commons license. And that license does not allow what you reserve with the MRC policies.

they're probably smart enough to figure out what's allowed by using their common sense and have no desire to ex
plore all which is not allowed.

Come on guys, this not a way to end a discussion (nuf said ...) by putting those 10% who do read policies and think and ask about it, in the category wankers and people who desire to explore what is not allowed.
When one reads the policies to know what the MRC will do with content submitted, one is checking what one and the MRC is allowed to do, and not by definition to explore the bad things.

Some do, I know. And as usual, the good suffer from the deeds of the bad.
My summary: the policies are for the bad, so the policies are bad

HansO: with policies the good never suffer from the deeds of the bad, as the policies are only there for the bad and not for the good. Policies are merely there in case of conflict. Given that, indeed much against our liking, MRC has often been a staging area for all kinds of MSX feuds which rather frequently ended up in one or more persons trying or hinting to pursue a legal battle in order to damage MRC and its contents. Our policies are an attempt to do something about that, because we care about our contents and the 90% of people who would like to read them. Just make sure you remain part of the "90%" mentioned above and the policies will never bother you.