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Posted by: CAR = BIDOOF Jul 20 2009, 12:07 AM

From this point forward, you'll need to have validated your account to use GPXPlus.

Also, exactly one week from today, on July 27th, all unvalidated accounts will be purged.

Posted by: Avegaille Jul 20 2009, 12:13 AM

Purging means deleting right... and if those users already had some eggs/Pokemon in their GPXPlus accounts, would that mean they will all disappear too or do they get sent in the shelter? (if they never bother validating their account that is).

Posted by: CAR = BIDOOF Jul 20 2009, 12:24 AM

They'd end up in the shelter, just as if they were banned, yup.

Posted by: Crystal Shards Jul 20 2009, 07:00 AM

Are you going to announce this on GPX+'s site too? I mean there are probably some users who don't use the forums and I don't think they want their Pokemon up and disappearing...

Posted by: Myou Jul 20 2009, 07:09 AM

So, does this mean that everyone will be bumped back down to validating to take the test again (like what happened in the past), or will it just be a clean sweep of validating users who haven't passed by then (i believe it's the second answer, but i'd rather be sure than log on and freak out when my account suddenly changes)?

and i agree with crystal shards, this should go up in the latest news banner, since some people aren't likely to check here~

Posted by: CAR = BIDOOF Jul 20 2009, 09:03 AM

Well, they'll be greeted with a message saying they have to validate their account to continue, so I think they should be able to figure it out.


No. Only people who haven't yet validated have to do something.

Posted by: Frozen Mistress Jul 20 2009, 09:22 AM

I'm sorry, but I'm a bit confused. How do you validate your account? I clicked the link, but it keeps taking me to a page that says:

"...You look lost
You are trying to access a file or folder that is off limits to you."

That's the part I don't get... Why won't it let me re-validate my account?

Posted by: Protoman Jul 20 2009, 10:20 AM

Because your account is already validated, you don't have to revalidate your account. Only those people that haven't taken the validation test have to do that. Am I right?

Posted by: Troll Jul 20 2009, 11:00 AM

Yeah, if they're in the validating group right now, then only they have to validate.

Posted by: Frozen Mistress Jul 20 2009, 11:05 AM

What I mean is this: Everytime I click on on something int eh GPX+, it just takes me to the validation page. What's up with that?

Posted by: Majalo Jul 20 2009, 11:29 AM

It would be a little easier if it at least told you what questions you got wrong. Since my other friend and I are trying to help a friend do the quiz over voice chat at this very moment, and we're searching for a needle in a haystack to put it lightly. She just said that she changed one question, and it said that she had four wrong. Yet before she changed that she had one wrong too.

Why put this in anyways? At least they had the option to either play on GTX+ or surf around on the forums before, wasn't hurting anyone really.

Posted by: Frozen Mistress Jul 20 2009, 11:40 AM

I didn't have to take the quiz. I already took it when I validated my account. But it won't let me do anything in the GPX+ It just keeps me at the validating page.

Posted by: Protoman Jul 20 2009, 12:24 PM

Did you try logging out and then logging back in?

Posted by: Frozen Mistress Jul 20 2009, 12:27 PM

Yes... twice now.

Posted by: Troll Jul 20 2009, 12:28 PM

... I'd wait for an admin iinstead of suggesting your own stuff.

Posted by: LisaVanity Jul 20 2009, 01:06 PM

Well...I've already taken the validation test and I got all the answers right and what not. I also did the conformation E-Mail thing, but I'm still considered a newbie, and on the forums it says that I haven't posted anything, but on my page it shows that I have. I'm confused, am I missing something else to become a "Member?" And will this update make my account go away?

Edit: After submitting this post, it says "Posts: 1" I'm confused...does it update slowly or am I just not getting credit for posts?

Posted by: Troll Jul 20 2009, 01:11 PM

The GPX forums don't add to your post count.

Posted by: LisaVanity Jul 20 2009, 01:24 PM

Alright. So what's the next step in becoming a member?

Posted by: Frozen Mistress Jul 20 2009, 01:30 PM

I'm still confused. How come it won't let me do anything on it... I've already taken the validation quiz... I think the site is out to get me o.o

Posted by: Zerxer Jul 20 2009, 01:31 PM

We did that before, and people just cheated their way through it by trial and error. And it was done so that we can begin pruning inactive, validating accounts, whereas now we can't because thousands of people don't bother to validate but are still active.


Dunno what your problem is.. Unless you're somehow logged into someone elses account (does a sibling use the site?) and they're not validated.


Ten posts in sections that actually increase post count (GPX+ sections don't because there's so much spam and pointless replies in there, and this forum isn't dedicated to GPX+ only).

Posted by: Frozen Mistress Jul 20 2009, 01:37 PM

Zerxer: No... I'm not. My brother has an account, but I'm not on his... But he rarely gets on anymore... So, does it mean that my account is somehow gonna stay like this until when Bidoof purges the accounts?

Posted by: Zerxer Jul 20 2009, 01:39 PM

No, purging has nothing to do with it, and there's no reason it should be doing that since your mgroup is set to 9 (Members) and the only time it ever marks you as validating is if your mgroup is 1. Let's take this to PMs, or IM me if you have AIM (zerxer, I'm invisible).

Posted by: etoilechetare Jul 20 2009, 09:24 PM

Whoakay! I found out my idiotic problem. Could I get this account disabled or whatever? I'm switching over to my real account, I apologize for my inconvenience. My dumb mistake.

Posted by: SuperVillain Jul 20 2009, 11:46 PM

Forgive me for sounding like such a newb, but this counts towards GPXPlus, correct? (The website.)

If we took the Validation Test on the Forums, do we need to take the test on the website?


Thanks for the support.

Posted by: CAR = BIDOOF Jul 21 2009, 02:02 AM

So that unused, unvalidated accounts can be deleted in the first place.

Otherwise, the people who haven't validated but have used GPXPlus would be taken with them, which is rather undesirable.

Posted by: Crystal Shards Jul 21 2009, 08:20 AM

I'm sorry, but why?

Posted by: CAR = BIDOOF Jul 21 2009, 08:40 AM

Well, I'm not entirely sure how many there are that'll be unvalidated after the week's over, but I think it'll be a sizable amount, and ultimately, what's the point in having however many accounts lying around that aren't even fully registered?

Posted by: Crystal Shards Jul 21 2009, 08:56 AM

But what's the point in deleting them? I mean having them doesn't do any harm, does it?

Posted by: Myou Jul 21 2009, 09:23 AM

idk... maybe it'll ease up on the servers if there aren't so many inactive accounts sitting around taking up space (makes sense to me ). Also, it may free up usernames to people who will actually use them (know this from personal experience, very frustrating )

Posted by: Tropius Jul 21 2009, 09:26 AM

I'm glad mine is. So I don't have to worry about it.

Posted by: Crystal Shards Jul 21 2009, 09:35 AM

Doubtful. Server load depends on the amount of active users.

Posted by: Myou Jul 21 2009, 09:50 AM

well, the information about every user has to be saved somewhere, right? i've seen other sites use this reasoning, so i figured maybe that was it... but i can always be wrong... plus i still have my 'frees up usernames' query...

Posted by: Crystal Shards Jul 21 2009, 09:57 AM

Profiles don't take up that much space, and I'm sure people would survive with picking a different username. I seriously doubt SaS is running out of space, and if he were, that wouldn't be the most effective way of clearing some up.

I'm not saying he SHOULDN'T clear them up, only that it's a pretty pointless move.

Posted by: Zerxer Jul 21 2009, 11:37 AM

Actually, it would hurt performance having so many useless rows of information in the database. Because all the queries here, when fetching certain information, have to filter through them, thus increasing load time.

Anyways, I agree that it is pretty pointless to have so many unused accounts just sitting there.

Posted by: CAR = BIDOOF Jul 21 2009, 11:39 AM

No, but needless accounts = larger database tables = some queries can take a lot longer.

It wouldn't necessarily make a massive difference, but every little bit counts.

Posted by: Crystal Shards Jul 21 2009, 11:54 AM

Then it makes sense. I've been getting a lot of errors lately anyway, so hopefully every little bit does count.

Posted by: Myou Jul 21 2009, 12:38 PM

So i was partially right... ? Well, if this takes care of all those error messages i keep getting (for a while, i thought that i was getting a random event error every time those popped up... now i know i'm just unlucky), then i say go for it, and more power to you~

Posted by: MDFang Jul 21 2009, 12:38 PM

I indeed noticed the enormously large amount of unvalidated members out there

One if them is… him…
He stole my username. Once he's gone, I'll be named Fang, and that's just how it's supposed to be!
Get used to it >:D

but honestly, it's like 40% of the members or so

Posted by: Jam Jul 21 2009, 04:34 PM

Is there any way to make the rules and/or the last questions a bit easier to find as far as answers go? I never validated my account because I could never get the questions to answer right even /after/ I read the rules, searched them and poked around at different options for the questions. Not that I ever had that amount of time [or attention span for that matter] just to stare at the questions and try to figure out which of the ones I got wrong.

At least can there be given a margin of error for the questions as in if you get one or two wrong it'll still validate the account but tell you where you went wrong? This is really the most difficult place to get activation as far as just getting to play a site. I'm not trying to complain, or what have you, I'm just saying some might see the hassle of this as pointless and just want to play with the pixels that are the pokemon rather than bother with posting on the site or anything else for that matter. [As I was happy with just playing with the pixels]

I think I sat here for a good hour or two trying to get the account validated because I couldn't get the last section of four[?] right and the questions seem to have this odd habit of going from saying you have one wrong to having four wrong when the only thing you did was change one answer at a time in the whole thing. So it's math is a bit off too.

I have a vague understanding of why such an 'elaborate' need of validation would be used but at least two out of the four bottom questions seem to have more than one 'logical' answer as far as "where should this post go?" At the very least a rewording of the one [even if it's just the answers] that mentions the trainer shot maker would be helpful to those trying to validate and finding it too frustrating at times because it rejects any answer they give.

~Jam

Posted by: Fugue Jul 21 2009, 08:10 PM

Phew, it really scared me when I saw that you had to validate your account in order to play GTS. I had tried to validate my account prior, but to no avail.

I'm glad the new rule gave me that extra push though, it's gotten me addicted to the forums. Hopefully it'll get other people to start being active on the forums too.

Posted by: Fluruzz Jul 22 2009, 12:52 PM

GPX validation is the same as GTS validation, right?

Posted by: Mistress Victoria Jul 22 2009, 02:24 PM

I would think so. And honestly, people still 'trial and error' even now. When I did the quiz, I felt I got ALL the answers right, yet apparently I still had a wrong question or so. (This was when it never told you how many you got wrong. I don't know if it's changed since then or not.)

So I thought and thought about the questions until I picked something and got it right. I don't even remember what it was.

Posted by: Black Ice Jul 22 2009, 02:41 PM

Yes.

Posted by: Wonderbread Jul 22 2009, 06:33 PM

It needs to tell you which questions you got wrong, it's extremely frustrating to go through.

Posted by: Rossy Jul 23 2009, 10:54 AM

Luckily I took it earlier, otherwise I'd never have a GPX+ account. It took me three weeks to get my account validated here.

Posted by: Magicide Jul 23 2009, 03:02 PM

It was said a few pages back that they did have it up, but people cheated their way through. ):

Posted by: Wonderbread Jul 23 2009, 06:10 PM

So now everyone has to suffer because a few people cheated?

At least make it so you don't have to get e+very question right.

Posted by: Toda Jul 23 2009, 06:34 PM

I just want to double check that I'm fine. I'm sure I am but it's better to be safe than sorry.

NOTE: Your login name is toda - use this when logging in here or on the forums.

It's not caps sensitive is it? Because both my GPX+ and GTS+ usernames are the same with the capital 'T'.

Posted by: Lord Raven Jul 23 2009, 06:37 PM

Yeah... sadly. :/
I'll talk to Nick about seriously changing it because I'm willing to deal with and/or ban the extra people who did cheat.

Posted by: nico111 Jul 23 2009, 09:05 PM

ok I am a little confused. I did a validation quiz for the forums but this topic confused me. is there another validation quiz for GPX+? if so I have never seen it.

Posted by: Lord Raven Jul 23 2009, 09:52 PM

if you can access gpx+ just fine then I reckon you shouldn't worry about it. I don't think there is though.

Posted by: Sky Shaymin Jul 24 2009, 08:39 PM

This accually makes me kinda mad that my two younger siblings won't be allowed to use the GPX+ site just cause they don't use the forums like at all so of course they can't answer the valadation quiz, they are going to get mad at that cause they like to use the GPX+ site but they are too young for the forums (and i'de think this was for all ages >_>) so yeah i'm kinda ticked off that their accounts will be deleted in *checks date* 3 days =_= and they can't do anything about it

Posted by: Avegaille Jul 24 2009, 09:08 PM

^ Well, why don't you ask your parents permission for your younger siblings to at least use the forums... well, if not totally using it, at least, answer the questions for them... so they can still use the site. =x I dunno.

Posted by: Minnie Jul 24 2009, 09:33 PM

Many members are complaining about the validation quiz and this dilemna of cheating their way wouldn't happen if the quiz was a little easy even to know how many mistakes you've made. Still you can't prevent this since they can contact outside the forum for help and it's impossible for any staff to track it down. Usually the validation quiz made me want to nearly gave up, but I was able to re-read the rules and got into the forum even though it's difficult. Anyways will there be an update to the quiz so that any age group could answer it efficiently? Honestly if this is not considered, the likely hood of users in the website will drop down dramatically due to unvalidated users.

Nevermind, I found the answer in the first page.

Posted by: Lord Raven Jul 25 2009, 12:17 AM

they don't have to use the forums, they just have to validate their accounts.

Posted by: IceBlaziken Jul 25 2009, 03:05 AM

then it will be or not?
and when it's activate?

Posted by: Myou Jul 26 2009, 05:26 PM

Well, i can only assume that your status is updated once you have passed the validation quiz (you hacve to be logged into your account on the forum index page to see the redirect link to the quiz)

So if your status on your main profile page says newbie, member, etc... anything besides validating, and you're good to go~

I believe you have to be logged into your account on this forum and the gpxplus at the same time to take effect in both places...

Posted by: KCIIII Jul 27 2009, 08:53 AM

I agree on some things the last four some answers were hard to find it took me some one who has attention deficit disorder or for short ADD hours to finally get it right with out my meds

Posted by: Splitty Jul 27 2009, 03:34 PM

I agree with the fact that the Validation Quiz needs to be changed up. :/ It was really hard to find those last four answers, especially. The first question in the last four questions is what really through me off; it says to look at the provided URL, but really it didn't help at all. XD

Anywho. Wouldn't it be a bit smarter to make GPX+ so heavily relied on by GTS+? Like. Make GPX+ have their own validation quiz. They have their own set of rules; and a lot of people don't actually use the GTS+ forums. Wouldn't it make more sense to have a separate validation quiz for each, seeing as there's a different set of rules for each?

Posted by: CAR = BIDOOF Jul 28 2009, 01:37 AM

I don't really see what's so hard about the last four (or any of them, for that matter). The first three should be common sense if you've ever been on an internet forum (and even if you haven't, if you read the descriptions for the possible answers, it should be rather easy to answer them), and the fourth one, if you, again, poke around the forums briefly, you'd see that the forum is both not dedicated completely to roleplay or GPXPlus, which leaves the only other answer.

Posted by: Wonderbread Jul 28 2009, 01:44 AM

Well, the Trainer Shot question is just ridiculous, the given link doesn't really provide any information on the forums that could help answer the question.

Posted by: CAR = BIDOOF Jul 28 2009, 02:10 AM

And? Look at the forums descriptions in question. Hell, even read the titles of the forums, it's not difficult.

Posted by: Tanya Jul 28 2009, 05:30 AM

So myself and a number of my friends never go to the forums, so we didn't know about the purging, and one of my friends had her account deleted. The thing is, she hadn't been on hers for a while and therefore didn't have her account validated, because she's currently having to share her computer with another friend, her cousin, since her cousin recently moved in with her and they haven't been able to set her own computer up yet.

Is there any possible way to get her account back, or is she going to need to create a new account and start over?

Posted by: DarkLord Guy Jul 28 2009, 05:38 AM

The quiz is nowhere near difficult it's all just common sense, even including the Bidoof one, I finished mine on the first try looking at the rules once. People just need to stop your complaining, the quiz helps to cut down on newbs breaking rules, there might be some still breaking them but at least its not as much as it could be. It's only hard because you haven't read the rules properly.

Posted by: Firechick Jul 28 2009, 08:20 AM

May I ask a question? How long are many pokemon gonna be in the shelter? 2 days? 3 days? A week?

Posted by: Manah Jul 28 2009, 10:41 AM

I think it's a little unfair.

A friend of mine didn't validate her account because she thought this was only for the forums and never planned to post anything here. She has been inactive for an while (no way to access a computer), and lost all her pokémon now. And I only found out about it because of the shelter pokémon. Otherwise I wouldn't even have looked at the forum at all. And it wasn't announced anywhere on the GPX+ page as far as I know.

Posted by: supervulpix Jul 28 2009, 11:07 AM

i'v got a friend in real life, her account got deleted. can she still try to validate?
if she validates, will she be allowed back on gpx with the same account?
if so, will she get her pokemon back?

Posted by: Galahawk Jul 28 2009, 12:16 PM

I doubt anyone whose account has been deleted will get their Pokemon back, seeing as how a lot of them already have new owners now.

Posted by: CAR = BIDOOF Jul 28 2009, 12:20 PM

Nope, she'd have to start over.


Three days, twice the length of eggs.


If a validating member tried to use GPXPlus at all within the past 8 days, it would have told them to validate. I gave a window of over week, for people to validate their accounts, which is plenty of time.


Nope. People unvalidated accounts are gone for good.

Posted by: Axel Jul 28 2009, 12:33 PM

You guys all seriously need to stop complaining about that quiz. It's not hard at all. Just read the rules and most of the answers are right there in front of you, the rest can be solved by a little common sense and some poking about in the forums themselves.
It may seem unfair that some people who couldn't reach their computers got their accounts deleted, but in all fairness, people were given a lot more time than eight days to validate their accounts. The warning on GPX+ was really the final one.

And, at the end of the day, they're only pixels. Not much worth crying over there.

Posted by: Nie Jul 28 2009, 01:34 PM

This is a really really mean thing to do to the members of the site who really enjoyed coming here lmao :/ The test IS hard, I reread the rules over 50 times I swear and still got some wrong, and that was JUST to keep my account, I gave up for a while and wouldnt have even passed if a friend didnt help me. I NEVER post on the forums, Ive never had interest in posting on them, and neither did a lot of people. So I suppose they thought..well why validate for the forums when I can just enjoy the eggs and not deal with the forums? A lot of people I know were not on the computer within the week you 'warned' everybody -it took me 20 minutes to even FIND this post and lost their hard work.

Nice

Posted by: Emi Jul 28 2009, 01:37 PM

Same here. I also had trouble with the quiz :/ And it was frustrating as I've never been much of a poster on forums myself.

And I don't know how a week or so is enough time. It's the Summer, most people will take off a week or two (heck, I know a few people who go on vacation for the full two months) for a vacation. And if the user does not visit the forum, they would never know until that week they may be gone. If this was going to happen, there should've been a month's notice on the actual site, not just a week :/

Posted by: CAR = BIDOOF Jul 28 2009, 01:57 PM

It isn't just validating for the forums. It's validation for the entire site. So forum-goer or otherwise, validation is necessary.

Posted by: Zerxer Jul 28 2009, 01:57 PM

The link does help. The link itself has 'gtsplus.net' in it, NOT 'gpxplus.net', which means it does not go in the Global PokédeX Plus questions section. Make sense?

Posted by: Galahawk Jul 28 2009, 02:41 PM

I pretty much get what's going on, but there's still one question I'd like to ask.
Will anything like this ever be done again in the future?

Posted by: Commander Wymsy Jul 28 2009, 02:47 PM

Since people have to validate now, most likely not. It'll just be the occasional shelter rush that contains the Pokémon of banned members like it was before.

Posted by: supervulpix Jul 28 2009, 03:44 PM

will my friend be allowed to make a new account if hers was deleted?

Posted by: CAR = BIDOOF Jul 28 2009, 04:46 PM

Yup.

Posted by: Crystal Shards Jul 28 2009, 06:35 PM

If that were even remotely true, not only would all forums have validation quizzes, but there no one would really get in trouble. Just because someone reads the rules or even passes a quiz doesn't mean they understand and/or won't break said rules.

Posted by: TelophoneOfDoom Jul 28 2009, 06:51 PM

If they DO break the rules, it's still their fault. They will be punished accordingly, just like all other forums. The quiz pretty much forces users to read the rules, but nothing can be done to make them follow them.

Posted by: Crystal Shards Jul 28 2009, 09:10 PM

They're responsible for their actions whether they take a quiz or not. When you join a forum, you agree to abide by its rules. If you don't read them, you're stupid for doing so. Even if you pass a quiz, that's the truth of the matter.

Posted by: Reyo Jul 28 2009, 10:34 PM

I think the main point of the quiz is that people can't say "well I didn't know!" If you're a member, chances are you've taken the quiz, and passed it. If you took the quiz and passed it, then you can't really use the "I didn't know" excuse.

EXAMPLE:
We had to take a quiz on the school's policy, which included plagerism. This one kid, about a month later, ended up plagerising one of his papers. When he was sent into the Principle's office, he said "Well I didn't know it was plagerism." Right then and there, the Principle found the kids quiz and looked up the set of questions pertaining to plagerism (it's a fairly small school). He got them ALL RIGHT.

I'm thinken that it's less for a cut back on rule breaking and more a liability issue.

Posted by: ChroniclerC Jul 28 2009, 10:43 PM

You seem to be running under the assumption that the quiz is for the sake of the person taking it. It isn't. It's for everyone else. By forcing new users to read the rules and pass a quiz, you (hopefully) cull a large number of annoyances. Would you rather deal with a tough but one-time quiz, or the constant onslaught of stupid or rude kids?

Posted by: Reyo Jul 28 2009, 10:54 PM

I barely understood that, but did you meen "Those kids who would otherwise be trolls and noobs would rathor turn around and bother some other site than take the quiz"?

Posted by: ChroniclerC Jul 28 2009, 11:07 PM

Not exactly my intention, but close. The quiz is intended to keep out those who don't comprehend the rules and, as someone who was around long before the quiz, I can tell you that it works. It's unfortunate that it keeps out more than just those people, but it ain't perfect and it's still being worked on.

Posted by: Vicente Jul 28 2009, 11:11 PM

I was almost pulling my hair out for that quiz. Brutal, I figured when I saw there would be a quiz that you'd only need 80% of the questions and they'd be common sense anyway. I couldn't have been more wrong. I was searching around for over half an hour trying to find the multiple things that weren't in the rules section.

It SHOULD be easier but what do I care now? I already managed to pass.

Posted by: Nie Jul 30 2009, 01:18 AM

Well I found it weird that if it is for the whole site why wasn't it listed anywhere on the site at all,it wasonly in the forums. Perhaps it would have been easier if it were taken when somebody signs up instead of in the forums? Since you could play the game for quite a while without taking the test and for me even acknowledging it for months (Until I wondered why I wasnt getting anything from events, then thought oh..well I probably have to validate for the events!).

But I dont see why theres some huge test about rules when the mods break their own rules ALL the time-CONSTANTLY yet still end up on the stats page? at the tops of the stats page? not a very good example. Also what about the people with barely any english knowledge? I know of a few people who barely knew enough english to warm eggs and use the shelter..but not some long complicated (YES, COMPLICATED) test.

Poor decisions were made in my opinion. maybe on the users side but most definatley on the mods side as well, and that is my honest opinion.

Posted by: Lord Raven Jul 30 2009, 01:20 AM

?

Well perfect your own english before attacking everyone else's, then

Posted by: Nie Jul 30 2009, 01:27 AM

I like how you thought I was attacking them when I was defending them :>

Posted by: Lord Raven Jul 30 2009, 01:32 AM

oh i see now. but the breaking rules part?

Posted by: Nie Jul 30 2009, 01:34 AM

Also on the topic of mods breaking their own rules:

Are car=bidoof and wymsy not the same person? I mean.. car=bidoof has a team of nothing but wymsys! I doubt any other mod is that obsessed with her as she is with herself. that would = TWO ACCOUNTS. against the rules
Secondly "Four of my Dracowymsy don't count towards my shiny count. So my current shiny count is really nine."
In wymsy's profile. which would mean she is generating her own shinys and is still on the stats page, on the top no less.

And dont even get me started on the DONATE button on this site lmao

Posted by: xXseleneXx Jul 30 2009, 01:39 AM

Hmm...I might get ranted at for saying this but I really dont remember the validation quiz being THAT hard....>.>
I dont recall having any problems passing it. I did it the day I signed up for GPX+.
Then again that was back in April. I might not remember any challenges I may have had anymore......

Posted by: Lord Raven Jul 30 2009, 01:40 AM

LOL
they are definitely NOT the same person. Wymsy's a half black half white person who lives... I dunno, and she's an admin. And CAR = BIDOOF is one of our root admins who's simple canadian filth <3

Well yeah. How is that breaking the rules?

Posted by: Zerxer Jul 30 2009, 01:43 AM

Uh no they're not the same person *pokes the spoiler in my sig*

I dunno what to say about the stats, that's not a rule anyways. And yes we admins can give ourselves anything we want, shiny or not. If you notice, I at least set it up so it excludes me in the shiny stats, since I had the most.

Posted by: Nie Jul 30 2009, 01:46 AM

Well then I apologize for what I said if they are not the same person. I was told otherwise by multiple people. It was wrong for me to assume.

Its not really a rule but it isnt really right is it? shes at the top of almost every liston the the stats page above people who actually..play right you know, I dont really care for the stats page, or shinys or legendaries. I am only on here for the pokemon I enjoy but seeing so many people lose their hard work really upset me, and I'm sorry about ranting. Just riled me up.

Posted by: xXseleneXx Jul 30 2009, 01:49 AM

You also have to keep in mind that Wymsy has been here since the beginning of this website.
She's the...3rd member, was it?
And this site is 2 years old.
She's very active on the site, so it really doesnt seem like that much of a stretch that she would be on top of most of the lists....

Posted by: Nie Jul 30 2009, 01:53 AM

the fact she mentions that she only has 9 legit and all is nice and good and I'm sure she is very active but if she can keep herself from being on the list for things that are not legit, why doesnt she? it would be fine if she just kept herself off for what was generated herself. Thats not really a rule or anything, but I know it does upset quite a few people.

Posted by: Lord Raven Jul 30 2009, 01:55 AM

better question
why does this matter?

Posted by: Zerxer Jul 30 2009, 01:58 AM

GTSPlus is 2 years old, GPXPlus is only a few months old, and the stats page has nothing to do with GTSPlus, but you're right that we were here since the beginning (of both).

Anyways, that's enough being off topic. This thread has nothing to do with people on the stats page.

Posted by: Nie Jul 30 2009, 01:59 AM

Doesn't really, just answering and responding to things said to me or asked.
I did apologize for ranting; talking poorly of people however and I apologize for getting off subject of the thread as well.

I originally just came here to mention how upset I was with the purge, deletion whatever.
But I guess I'll have to accept that the one or two people who care within the sea of people who dont care will not make a difference.

Posted by: Galahawk Jul 30 2009, 02:00 AM

... Honestly, I don't see why everyone's getting their panties in a knot over pixels.
Also, Wymsy is an admin, admins get privileges. This is because admins run and maintain the site (needless to say, some of them PAY for it), so why shouldn't they get to reward themselves?

Posted by: xXseleneXx Jul 30 2009, 02:04 AM

That would be something you would have to ask her herself, none of us can answer that for her.

Oh lol my bad. Thanks for the clarification Zerxer.

Posted by: Lord Raven Jul 30 2009, 02:04 AM

because it's a game and it's like auto-gameshark. I hate it when people try to defend the staff, coming from a staff member himself.

the more important point in here is how does it affect you. OH BOY I'M NOT ON THE STATS PAGE I'M GOING TO KILL MYSELF
but at least it's been established that it doesn't matter so...

Posted by: Nie Jul 30 2009, 02:14 AM

I mentioned before I do not care about the stats page myself; so I wouldnt say that I would KILL myself, any goal I had on the site was acomplished with ease. the same goals I could have achieved by saving the sprites from bulbapedia lmao.

Just another thing on the list of things I kind of shake my head at is all.
Anyway, done with being offtopic so if you have anymore questions or wish to talk to me more please do message me :> I'm trying not to curse or be disrespectful or break rules or any of that, so I'll be keeping myself silent from the forums as I do.

Posted by: CAR = BIDOOF Jul 30 2009, 04:06 AM

Well, there were tons of abandoned validating accounts that were doing nothing but take up space, so I was going to delete them all. However, I can't simply delete all the validating account while people with unvalidated accounts are running around using them, now can I, otherwise, those would be deleted as well.

So, those people are forced to validate. And then this differentiates between the abandoned validating accounts and the ones that are actually in use. Useless crap gets deleted, and used accounts live on.

Posted by: KamonPeachFox Jul 30 2009, 04:59 PM

And that means more people that actually click back. I think I wasn't validated myself, but had no clue HOW to validate, so this actually helped me. So, I am thankful for this! I wish everybody would stop complaining...

Posted by: RacieB Jul 30 2009, 05:16 PM

To be quite frank, I think it was a pretty dick move not to mention this in the news bar. A friend of mine travels a week or so at a time, and had a validating account because he doesn't utilize the forums. Oops, there was no way I could alert him that his account was on the chopping block because I was already validated so the warning didn't pop up for me. I only found out about the purge because the shelter explosion made me curious.

Why couldn't you have run a similar script to the event drop ones, that would actually check to see if these accounts were disused or not?

Also, while I'm tossing my two cents in, "it's only pixels" is such a grating excuse. You could apply that line to any game, right? Except that it's not the graphics that people care about, it's the time that they invested in their chosen entertainment media.

Posted by: Lord Raven Jul 30 2009, 05:19 PM

honestly guys? Yeah, you guys are bringing up valid complaints, but there's nothing we can do now. :|

Posted by: NyaoNeko Jul 31 2009, 01:11 PM

I've just come across something weird: this validating account http://gpxplus.net/user/Furretsu lays abandoned since March 10th but it wasn't deleted in the 'great purge'.
So I was wondering if there's a specific reason why this, and maybe other accounts, was 'skipped' or if it was due to a glitch in the deletion process.

Posted by: ChroniclerC Jul 31 2009, 01:43 PM

Because that account has posts. I believe deleting accounts with posts would also delete the posts, which could be problematic.

Posted by: Lord Raven Jul 31 2009, 07:18 PM

No it wouldn't, it would just show them as a Guest while making the post. the post wouldn't be removed but the account would be.

Posted by: CAR = BIDOOF Jul 31 2009, 08:34 PM

I skipped accounts with more than 0 posts, as well as accounts that had been registered in the previous... 30 hours or so.

Posted by: RyouChan Aug 1 2009, 02:06 AM

Great. I take a break from GPX+ while work is being particularly stressful/everyday more than usual and come back to see that my account has been wiped when I didn't do anything wrong, and was not even able to be notified since I wasn't here for a week.

Seriously?

Okay, so what I am hearing from this site is this:

1. If you are not obsessive and here every single day or at least once a week, we don't care about you.
2. Clearing up database space is more important than actually giving a decent amount of notification.
3. We either didn't care or were unable to figure out how to spare accounts who had adopted gpx+ Pokemon. (And don't say this isn't possible, because I know it is.)


So what now? Do I sign up again and do all that work over again?

Probably not.

Instead I will just tell you guys that the majority of users on any given online game do not use the forums. In other words, on Neopets, most people don't go to the boards much. On dragon cave, most people are "non-forumers." And a week is not enough time to give someone before you delete their account and everything they did with it. God, if anything you guys should have made a backup first and restored if it caused too many people to lose legitimate accounts, but because you were, again, either too incompetent or too uncaring to do even that, I'm afraid that I will have to bid you good day.

Posted by: Lord Raven Aug 1 2009, 02:14 AM

Except gpx+ is an extension of gts+ and not the other way around so your argument is invalid with the online games bit. But if you want to leave, that's fine by us.

Posted by: RyouChan Aug 1 2009, 02:15 AM

Obviously they are still attached to the same account, so your counter-argument is invalid.

Also, "I have a forum account" is not the same as "I actively use the forums."


Also also, 35k entries in a user table is.. basically nothing.

Look at other sites who have 100s of thousands or millions, and they still don't do this shit.

Posted by: Lord Raven Aug 1 2009, 02:19 AM

Yeah but in the long-term, we probably care more about the forum than the game considering it was what came first, and what this place started out as (a forum and a trade station actually).

Except our head two admins are in college, more or less. And we only really have two people up top. You expect us to match the higher ups of Neopets?


If you were gone that week, tough shit.
[03:16:08] <~Raven> were validating accounts locked out of gpx+?
[03:17:59] <&Wymsy> from what i know, yeah
[03:18:17] <&Wymsy> and during the week, it said on gpx+ that they had to go validate their accounts and gave a link
[03:21:15] <~Raven> I know server fuckups have been much much less in quantity since like
[03:21:18] <~Raven> the ned of the shelter rush
[03:21:47] <&Wymsy> The main problem was all of those unused accounts sitting there having unused GPX+ crap
[03:22:01] <&Wymsy> It made some scripts take a LOT longer to run and at times they may have even timed out.
[03:22:27] <&Wymsy> Which caused some problems, like Daycare egg batch hiccups and the like.
[03:23:07] <&Wymsy> And then there's how suckish it is to have to deal with the Randomiser for the event digging through all of the crap.
[03:23:49] <&Wymsy> Those tons of accounts DID cause problems, whether people want to see/admit it or not is their problem.
[03:24:20] <&Wymsy> Now, I took no part in the discussion of this whole purging stuff. If I had been doing this? I'd probably have given ~3 weeks.
[03:25:07] <&Wymsy> Then again, with the fact that other sites are hosted on the server.... it having to be done sooner makes some amount of sense.
[03:25:16] <~Raven> FETO
[03:25:19] <&Wymsy> You can paste everything I've said here in reply to that person too if you want.
[03:25:19] <~Raven> FEP
[03:25:22] <~Raven> I dunno what else

Posted by: Valsyra Aug 1 2009, 02:33 AM

I specifically remember something along the lines of "The forums are separate from GPX+ and you don't need one to enjoy the other." way back whenever when I first joined GPX+. A lot of my friends do too. Obviously since they signed up way back then, and the fact that they don't use the forums, they wouldn't have seen this crap about the forums and GPX+ being a package deal now. Especially when they take a break from GPX+.


Question from validation quiz:
Finally, what is the main purpose of the forum anyways?


Well? What the hell are we supposed to make of that when you go and make it a requirement to validate your account ON THE FORUMS to keep your GPX+ account? Obviously I'm not going to post the answer, but I'm certain everyone here knows what it is.

Posted by: Lord Raven Aug 1 2009, 02:45 AM

Read the copypasta up there. We had to have some sort of cut off, right? Our servers aren't nearly as powerful as many of you think they are or should be, and frankly the forums are quite possibly our priority when it comes to what stays or goes anyway. And the people who managed to stay were the ones that got the memo to VALIDATE YOUR ACCOUNT. Those who couldn't be online in that week? Sucks to be you!


In the end, it's just a game right? Start from scratch or leave, those are your two options. Getting pissy over it really doesn't help or make us regret doing it. What's done is done now, and our servers are working efficiently now anyways even though some people got the short end of the stick. And it's pretty noticeable.



I'm perfectly aware this is a repeat of my previous post.

Posted by: Lord Raven Aug 1 2009, 02:53 AM

Unless I ninja'd someone (which is kinda likely), anyone making a post that makes a clear indication that they did not read any of the above posts in this topic will get a 10% warn because I'm sick of hearing it.

Posted by: Rnagp Aug 1 2009, 02:58 AM

wii ive already done it so i guess im safe xD

Posted by: Valsyra Aug 1 2009, 03:05 AM

Yes, in the end, it's just a game. It's also a distraction. Personally, without distractions I'm sure I wouldn't be alive today. Say what you want about that, the reasons are not important.

I know it's not my site, and my opinions don't matter to anyone. But I know from experience on GPX+, that working hard for something, game or not, then have it all taken away, regardless of the reason, will piss you off. Getting pissy about it does help, as long as you don't go too far. It lets people know that you, and generally a lot of other people, are not happy with the way a site is being run. If site owners don't know that the users are unhappy, they can't do anything to improve it. If that even matters to them, and it should.

I wonder if anyone ever thought to send an email to users before doing something so drastic.


Also, telling people tough shit because they weren't online for that week? Very immature. Ever think that some people could have been in the hospital or something during that time? Maybe they had a lot of shit going on then? Yeah, from what I have seen, you don't seem the type to think of all the possibilities.

Posted by: Lord Raven Aug 1 2009, 03:09 AM

And in the end I say "life sucks." Call it what you want (immature, etc), and this may not help your image of us, but it's not our fault. SOMETHING had to be done. What do you expect us to do about it now anyway?
That's why it's annoying when people get pissy; because nothing is going to come out of this situation. Get pissy all you want, but I doubt we will be able to change anything, and I doubt you're gonna be changing anything. Hell I've already apologized in another topic on our behalf, what more do you want?




I'd lock this topic but I'm curious to see where this goes for now. any other gmod/admin can do it though, I won't lose much sleep over it. it's already 4am though, wow.

And btw, I do understand what you mean, even if my previous posts didn't mention that at all.
your opinions matter too, but only when it has a possibility of changing things. The feedback we've gotten is less than happy, but once again, GPX+ isn't even the only "major" thing the server hosts.

Posted by: Valsyra Aug 1 2009, 03:15 AM

I just love how you assume I'm trying to get you to do something about the lost accounts of my friends. I'm merely stating my opinion on the matter. And people voicing their opinions can help in the future, if anyone chooses to consider user's opinions.

I don't care about what you think about me. I doubt we'll ever speak again after this. I never said it was your fault, I never said that you should do something about it now. Did I?

Posted by: Lord Raven Aug 1 2009, 03:20 AM

Well I'm just saying that it's pointless right now, voice your opinion again if this happens in a couple years and you can actually impact this entire thing in some way.

And somehow, you took my statement personally, at least from the tone of your post.

Posted by: Valsyra Aug 1 2009, 03:27 AM

That might be because your post seems to be directed at me, personally. And I'll tell you that the comment "voice your opinion again if this happens in a couple years and you can actually impact this entire thing in some way" I'm also taking personally and I don't quite understand your meaning.

Posted by: Lord Raven Aug 1 2009, 03:41 AM

more like "you seem to be getting offended" as opposed to "I'm addressing you personally."

It's really not worth ranting at all unless this happens again, and you actually have the ability to talk the staff into changing things then.

Posted by: Valsyra Aug 1 2009, 03:50 AM

I see.

I believe my ranting is better done early on, for future reference, rather than for AFTER something similar happens again. Wouldn't it be better for this situation not to repeat itself?

Posted by: Axel Aug 1 2009, 04:06 AM

I honestly don't think it made a difference where people were warned of the purge in that week, because everyone I've met who was, well let's say an unfair victim, for their sake, was away from their entire computer and not just GPX+.
I do actually agree that more time should have been given in warning, but inevitably somebody was going to lose out no matter how much time was given. Like has already been stated either above or elsewhere, some people during the summer go away from their computers for weeks or even months at a time. But the bottom line of the whole situation was that something had to be done, wasn't it?
And I know some people are quite upset about the whole thing, but I for one would prefer for a couple of unfortunate people to lose out so the server can function normally again, as opposed to standing around waiting for them to validate their accounts all summer and have to deal with crappy server lag and the possibility of another server shutdown because there were the odd couple of thousand accounts on GPX+ that were doing absolutely jackshit to help the system.

Just the impression I've gotten from this and my own opinion on the matter.

Posted by: Valsyra Aug 1 2009, 04:22 AM

A majority of my friends that lost their accounts were still online, just taking a break from certain sites, for whatever reason they had. A simple email could have prevented such people from losing their accounts.

What I'm getting from your post is that because there are people that won't be around to receive the email, or do anything about it, that it shouldn't even be done, even if there are people that could have saved their accounts if an email was sent.

And sending an email doesn't imply that you have to wait longer than the time allotted.

Posted by: Axel Aug 1 2009, 04:40 AM

BAS actually said a couple of hours prior to this that there were problems with sending out validation emails to users, so I'm not sure if the emails would have worked even if they had been sent out.

I'm not trying to be stuck up or nasty about any of this, but seriously, it's a couple of regrettably lost accounts for the benefit of the rest of the users. This whole process has had more benefits for the majority than it has had downfalls. Something had to be done about those accounts that were just sitting there doing nothing but dragging the server down, and this was it. If a couple of users who were simply away from the site got caught up in the Purge and lost their accounts, well unfortunately that's just how the ball rolls in life. You win some and you lose some. And that may sound immature, just to say that 'shit happens'. But truth is harder on people than fiction could ever be.

Posted by: Valsyra Aug 1 2009, 04:56 AM

The question is, how hard did they try, after the initial fail, to send out an email?

I never said anything about it NOT being, for the majority, better for the site. I've merely been voicing my opinion, and responding to posts that keep telling me that I shouldn't have posted my opinion in the first place, because it's meaningless. But it's not. I know there's nothing that can be done about it now. That is not why I'm posting. I'm doing so to, hopefully, prevent future incidents.

Posted by: CAR = BIDOOF Aug 1 2009, 05:48 AM

Perhaps other people have deeper pockets than I do, hmm?

Posted by: Jonahman10 Aug 1 2009, 10:11 AM

I personally support what the staff did and, correct me if I'm wrong, this server also contains information from other websites as well. It was getting really slow for awhile there....

Posted by: Zerxer Aug 1 2009, 04:41 PM

You know how much the server was lagging? Do you know how much power and time it'd need to cycle through 35,000 accounts and email all of them? Do you know how many of them had fake email addresses too, which would cause a lot of delivery errors?

People who were on and heard about it could have warned their friends too. That's another good method of saving people's accounts.

Posted by: Alyss Aug 1 2009, 05:38 PM

Frankly, I wish everyone would just give this whole thing a rest. And to all the people blaming the admins for the loss of certain accounts: Get over it, because it isn't their fault. They are just pixels! And it isn't the fault of anyone but the owner of that account. Also, the validation quiz was created because there were problems sending out e-mails. So how the heck would sending thousands of e-mails out, if there was a problem receiving them?

Users say that some people weren't able to access the site because of issues concerning the internet. Whether it was that you weren't able to get online or even on the computer, wouldn't that mean that you wouldn't get an e-mail either?

Posted by: KCIIII Aug 2 2009, 06:48 PM

surprised it is still active wow and I doing 3d designs for computer games see the quiz as a waste of time then again I verified via email when I registered and then my previous anti virus wouldn't let me click or abandon or hatch my own eggs or let alone click ANY eggs stupid thing decided to block all third party cookies

Posted by: CAR = BIDOOF Aug 3 2009, 04:47 PM

Pretty well all of those accounts were abandoned, which is why it didn't really make much of a difference.

Posted by: MakiMaki Sep 16 2009, 03:05 PM

I found the question I kept misisng.

Posted by: supercharmander Sep 23 2009, 02:42 PM

AHA!! that's why my account got deleted!!!!

Posted by: LunaWhiteOkami Mar 3 2010, 08:41 AM

To tell you the truth it was annoying at first but after much consideration even a bot can't enter this web which is probably a good thing I think... Though I did have to make a new account since mine apparently was erased ._.

Posted by: ChroniclerC Mar 3 2010, 11:42 AM

Seriously? Did you just make such an idiotic rules blunder in a thread about the thread about the quiz that you took to prove that you wouldn't make idiotic rules blunders like FOUR MONTH NECROMANCY?

Posted by: Lord Raven Mar 3 2010, 03:05 PM

to be perfectly fair, our rules do state that if there's something of merit to say then you say it. it just happens that this topic needs to die, more or less, so it wouldn't have mattered if she had made that post or not.

EDIT: i agree with chroniclerc's ruling, i disagree with his tone. he could've been much less of a dick about it.