Wizardchan Admin FAQ

[Glaive]

Morning CWCki,

I've been putting off making this thread for a while as I thought CWCki users were actually doing a nice job of following a sort of "look but don't touch" approach. In the sense that you were observing Wizardchan threads and activity without intentionally provoking or baiting our userbase in order to 'generate' content for your own discussions and threads. I saw several comments here reinforcing that idea which really put you guys in a decent light.

However as of more recently we've had several blatant outsiders popping up with the sole intention of rumpling jeremies, rattling jeromes, or whatever colloquial meta word you prefer. This has also been accompanied by a hike of CWC references thrown about. "True and honest", "bf-free gf", even directly mentioning our favorite electric hedgehog pokemon connoisseur. So I simply put two and two together with these recent post trends.

Now...it's obviously unfair to point my finger and claim all of CWCki has these kind of malicious intentions. And I do really see some more balanced discussion here about us on your own forums. So I thought maybe a sort of FAQ here might clear up some minor tat. We both have our extremists and I'm willing to bet the loudest voices are sometimes not the most accurate. This is also bound to get crossposted in a matter of time, so this could be a good chance for some of you to speak up about CWCki and fill our users in on yourselves as traffic starts moving between sites.

I've been a huge CWC fan myself and I think it's fair to admit our communities actually have quite a bit of crossover (whether or not either side wants to admit is another story). While Wizardchan might have a very different vibe and dynamic to it, I've found many CWCki users to come from the same sorta roots if you will. Our /wiz/ and /hob/ boards take on a lot of the same culture and discussion you might find here. In contrast /v9k/ probably seems far less relatable which is why I'm going to guess it is picked on the most. /v9k/ is an important part of the site but I want it to be clear it is not what the community was founded for originally let alone the only piece of it. Most users split up there posts fairly well across each board and are able to transition between each.

It's true that at its core Wizardchan holds its global rules tightly and I do not take any infractions or bending of such rules lightly. Even more so than the previous admin. (holding longest admin run now ) They serve a crucial function to maintaining the state of the site and in my mind go beyond merely keeping Wizardchan as Wizarchan, and are actually a key component in preserving chan culture as a whole. I'm not suggesting our userbase are somehow the only ones doing this or that our rules magically translate to achieving this. But in today's expansive collective consciousness online, we are slowly losing our niche communities that I feel promote and preserve a culture that goes beyond the daily dribble we are fed through un-anonymous media and other conversation based sites. People's opinions and content are fed through a filter of hierarchical thinking and becomes ego-driven the second their name is attached to such. Anonymous posting through chans overcome these drawbacks while the growing area of social media feeds and enforces it. So when someone who grows up with their internet presence formed entirely around social media, they carry that mindset and and hierarchical thinking with them when they come upon chan sites. Which of course is where we get discussions of relationships, parties, ect. ect. While discussion of these things isn't inherently 'bad', it's something that we get enough of already and derails like no other. If you want to brag about what you did last weekend with your mates there are PLENTY of other options. This only scrapes the surface of the topic but that's the jist of what I feel answers some of what Wizardchan's purpose is.

If you've noticed, I have not referred to virginity until now. Yet I know while reading this many of you have been hawking in looking for that little word. Is it because that is the "humorous" part of our site to you? If that is the case then I'm sorry to disappoint I wasn't foaming at the mouth calling you all normalfags.
Yes I'm a virgin, no it's not really something I'm worried about, but at the same time I'm not going to obsess over it to the point where it's the only thing I talk about. I have no tolerance for non-virgin posters on Wizardchan, but I'm rather tired of discussing the rules themselves rather than anything substantive. That in itself is something we need to work on...

But I'll try and answer most things despite that. Whatever you want to know about the site itself or the community. Or personal questions if that tickles your pickle suit. /openfloodgates

 

[José Mourinho]

Eh, some boring questions from me:

1. Back then, there were some boards such as one dedicated to Maths. Why were they removed? Is it due to low activity?

2. What causes /pol/-related posts to be deleted in the first place?

 

[BT 075]

I have a noticed that advice from what you people call "normalfags" is generally frowned upon on your site. Girls and non-virgins quickly find themselves banned it seems. There used to be some sort of self-help-ish board that was deleted? Correct me if I'm wrong but... it seems a little unconstructive. I realise the main purpose of the site is to create some sort of safe-haven for socially awkward, reclusive virgins. Thing is, with so many of your userbase being unhappy about their lives, wouldn't it be a good thing if genuinely well-meant advice wasn't seen as a bad thing?

Putting myself in your shoes for a bit I can understand how you don't have a need for ween-trolls and borderline autistic fucks coming to your site to brag about how they're not a virgin and therefore better then you. But would it truly be a bad thing if you allowed a few posters or topics about self-improvement, provided that said posters would remain respectful of your site's rules and the sentiments of a large segment of it's userbase?

Also: the IRC. I've heard a lot of complaints of wizards who claim it to be some sort of "normalfag lounge" of sorts and that several of your former admins lost their virginities to girls they met on their. How much of this is true?

Thanks for your time and thank you for showing me wizards can be chill people btw. You and Obnoxion have opened my eyes a bit on a strange little corner of the internet I used to be very quick to judge about.

 

[Glaive]

Eh, some boring questions from me:

1. Back then, there were some boards such as one dedicated to Maths. Why were they removed? Is it due to low activity?

2. What causes /pol/-related posts to be deleted in the first place?

Not bad questions at all.

1. The board you are referring to was called /stem/, with a focus on science, math, CS, coding, STEM studies, work, and so forth. One of the very first things I did as admin was actually remove the /stem/ board. We are a fairly slow chan site and our already existing /hob/ and /wiz/ boards can easily cover everything that was on /stem/, which meant it was hurting activity on those boards splitting up content. (I also removed the /self/ self-improvement board for same reason.
I think the previous admin implemented /stem/ on a whim and to plug his new LaTeX coding module. That module actually still exists and functions on /hob/ btw. In addition I actually had an open discussion of whether or not to remove the board in a "Wizardchan Speaks" meta thread. I was already leaning towards removing it but wanted to hear some arguments from both sides.

2. Well, anything /pol/-related is fine by me on /b/. I actually get reports still for /pol/ content there...but I've never touched a single one from it. Because it's /b/.

BUT, I think if someone is posting /pol/ content to any other board with the clear intention of derailing or posting it for the sake of getting a reaction or insinuating drama, well that isn't going to work out. If the thread has nothing to do with jews, why make a post only on that? If it's a new thread of the post has other content in it and is /pol/ infused that's fine. It's painfully obvious how forced it is at other times though. Any racist of "/pol/ content" is not against rules, just not slapped in the middle of a /wiz/ thread with NOTHING else. It's like if someone started randomly posting ponies in non-pony threads for the sake of it. It's spam.

TL;DR - See rules 4+6

In addition I don't ban for that, I only remove those obvious derails like those I detailed above.

 

[Null]

Whose job is worse?

 

[Surtur]

Whose job is worse?

Mine.

That being said, I don't care if you are a virgin or not, or whatever. The only thing I care about is what peoples actions are, that is the truest telling of who a person is. You seem like a good guy with a good head on his shoulders, so I have no problem with you or the guys on Wizardchan like you. The ones I do have a problem with are the screaming manchildren who get angry at "da normalfags." Also, if you think someone from here is going over there and starting up a shit storm, let me know and I will see what I can do. I should note that sometimes people will go places and say they are from here to start shit, like they did in a recent Parkourdude91 stream.

 

[GodBearMissionary]

I'm with Satan.

I can maybe, maybe understand a rule about not endorsing loss of virginity (maybe keeping it a neutral topic), but... why does your forum discourage self-improvement? I mean, is it against the wizard code to have a job and an education?

 

[A-Stump]

With Wizardchan being in the spotlight of Internet attention, do you think it will attribute negatively overall to the userbase? Both for the influx of either false users (weens and wannabee twolls) and users with either poor morality decisions (like paedophiles) or just idiots. What do you consider as the ideal member of your website?

 

[Glaive]

I'm with Satan.

I can maybe, maybe understand a rule about not endorsing loss of virginity (maybe keeping it a neutral topic), but... why does your forum discourage self-improvement? I mean, is it against the wizard code to have a job and an education?

I'll try and tackle this as best as I can. First off it is NOT against the rules to have a job or go to school.
It bothers me that some users try and suggest that it is indeed a rule through something I call the "biggest wizard contest". Through this, some users claim that their NEET status or level of depression somehow makes them 'better' wizarchan poster than the others. With the rules preventing people from bragging about social or romantic activities, our form of 1-uping each other has become the reverse. Simply opposing self-improvement is likely to garner a favorable response given that it could be posed as going against what is popular outside the site. It's the entire social hierarchy that I've looked to dismantle through Wizardchan cropping up in a different skin. Same tin of worms with a different label. Erm, there is a better analogy than that but you've heard of similar concepts. It wouldn't surprise me if it was actually the outsiders who are playing this game the most, as they've found a way to feed their precious ego that they need to so badly attend to. In addition for the outsiders, it's their way to have "fun" with the site, and are literally "roleplaying as a wizard". Taking on the attributes that they think go along with our site and just regurgitating that back out for amusement, sometimes exaggerated.

There are still plenty of self-help threads and discussion to be had across the /wiz/ board and I do not mean to suggest that every poster does what I described. That is simply a new trend that has popped up and been gaining steam over the past few months. There are still some forms of self-help that have no place on the site at all and should not be discussed at all. Such as anything regarding relationships or attending social gatherings. That is never permissible.

So without the "biggest wizard contest" in place, we would otherwise have an even greater amount of self-help discussion. Which would be nice. I just have no idea at the moment how to achieve that at our current state. Hopefully that answered what you wanted to know.

 

[Surtur]

There are still plenty of self-help threads and discussion to be had across the /wiz/ board and I do not mean to suggest that every poster does what I described. That is simply a new trend that has popped up and been gaining steam over the past few months. There are still some forms of self-help that have no place on the site at all and should not be discussed at all. Such as anything regarding relationships or attending social gatherings. That is never permissible.

Why? This is normal and healthy. Bragging about your relationships is douchy, but there is nothing wrong with being social.

 

[homerbeoulve]

Glaive:

Why in the hell you describe yourselves as beta males and how are you tolerating that there is no friendship allowed in the board? Do you really intent for the members of the Wizardchan boards to be as stagnant as a rock in terms of self evolution?

 

[exball]

Glaive:
Do you really intent for the members of the Wizardchan boards to be as stagnant as a rock in terms of self evolution?

Be civil.

 

[homerbeoulve]

Be civil.

That question is civil. Don't be oversensitive.

 

[NegaCWC]

Why? This is normal and healthy. Bragging about your relationships is douchy, but there is nothing wrong with being social.

I know that this question is not directed at me, but if I understand Glaive correctly this policy is perfectly reasonable. No poster on Wizardchan should ever try and facilitate a relationship with other posters on that site. People on Wizardchan who aren't parodists are at elevated risk of becoming lolcows. Trying to have contact with another poster through means other than the forum could very well end up in being trolled and/or doxed by Wizardchan parodists.

And just for the record, I'm not defending the overall concept of being a wizard. I think that the overall idea of Wizardchan is a bad one.

 

[Glaive]

Why? This is normal and healthy. Bragging about your relationships is douchy, but there is nothing wrong with being social.

Glaive:

Why in the hell you describe yourselves as beta males and how are you tolerating that there is no friendship allowed in the board? Do you really intent for the members of the Wizardchan boards to be as stagnant as a rock in terms of self evolution?

I can lump these together. First off we only disallow discussion of real life social interactions. We have plenty of threads mentioning online friends and we coordinate multiplayer games and events occasionally. Right now we are even discussing opening a Minecraft server on our /hob/ board and expect it to be well supported.

Socialization between members online is not discouraged. We only ask that they not post contact information directly to the board, in part for the reason that NegaCWC mentioned. However as I stated earlier, friendship between members is perfectly acceptable as long as all users are abiding by site rules.
It is true that some of our users object to ANY form of communication, which then brings me back to the "biggest wizard contest" issue I described above.
The core rule of not allowing discussion of real life social activities is in place to promote other topics and act an equalizer. There are PLENTY of other sites you can go to for social discussion. They are in surplus. I think I'm restating myself at this point. Also we are not "beta males" good sir.

 

[Surtur]

I can lump these together. First off we only disallow discussion of real life social interactions. We have plenty of threads mentioning online friends and we coordinate multiplayer games and events occasionally. Right now we are even discussing opening a Minecraft server on our /hob/ board and expect it to be well supported.

Socialization between members online is not discouraged. We only ask that they not post contact information directly to the board, in part for the reason that NegaCWC mentioned. However as I stated earlier, friendship between members is perfectly acceptable as long as all users are abiding by site rules.
It is true that some of our users object to ANY form of communication, which then brings me back to the "biggest wizard contest" issue I described above.
The core rule of not allowing discussion of real life social activities is in place to promote other topics and act an equalizer. There are PLENTY of other sites you can go to for social discussion. They are in surplus. I think I'm restating myself at this point. Also we are not "beta males" good sir.

Seems fair, personally for me I don't inhabit more than one online community at a time. Before here it was AtariAge, and that's because I really do not have much time. So, I enjoy having a place where I can talk about anything, like here. Sure, the board is about Chris and to a lesser extent other lolcows, but we talk about our days, our relationships, our hobbies and what have you. I am glad you found a place that works well for you.

 

[exball]

Do most of the crazier users stick to /v9k/ or do they go all around the site?

 

[NegaCWC]

How exactly are you actually planning to enforce Wizardchan's rules regarding eligibility to post on the website? There's no way that I can think of in which you could screen out stealth women/people aged less than 18/non-virgins.* Do you just accept the inevitability that people not eligible to participate in Wizardchan's are going to post there regardless?

*The last category is especially difficult to screen out considering that having kissed a girl even once makes one a non-virgin according to Wizardchan.

 

[Glaive]

Do most of the crazier users stick to /v9k/ or do they go all around the site?

Most users bounce between each, although I know some avoid /v9k/ like the plague. Everyone has a shitty day once in a while and/v9k/ can be a great place to vent, so it has it's purpose for sure. Those who only post there however...are missing out on a lot.

How exactly are you actually planning to enforce Wizardchan's rules regarding eligibility to post on the website? There's no way that I can think of in which you could screen out stealth women/people aged less than 18/non-virgins.* Do you just accept the inevitability that people not eligible to participate in Wizardchan's are going to post there regardless?

*The last category is especially difficult to screen out considering that having kissed a girl even once makes one a non-virgin according to Wizardchan.

That would be a bit insane to obsess over preemptive measures like that don't you think? We strictly shape and enforce our rules throughout the site by means of moderation, report functionality, deletion logs, mod logs to keep tabs on mods, range bans, the whole nine yards. We have a great number of tools and procedures.
But to be paranoid to the point of banning based on blind hunches? Or trying to screen users before joining? This is an imageboard not a Tor service off in Onionland.

If someone breaks a rule they will be banned, plain and simple.
In addition we make use of certain gateways to naturally control the type of users we get. A good example might be our IRC channel. IRC acts as a technical gateway to keep out anyone not familiar with it or can't figure out how to connect. IRC is extremely simple, but to your average Facebook pleb it's enough to detract and discourage them from joining. I obviously wouldn't say "girls don't use IRC", that's not true at all. BUT I guarantee you the amount of females is far less in those communities than others.

 

[Pikonic]

Sometimes I read something on v9k, I think they're lying, since lying on the internet is very easy. Do you ever read some stories and think "this is crap, they're just lying for 'biggest wizard points'"?