Updates: Lost Data, Recent Performance Issues, Rules, A Special Treat (January 29, 2016)

[tjrgg]

Hello fellow community members,

We haven't written up one of these update type announcements in a while, so I figured I would write one up for you guys to give you some updates on what's been happening, why it's been happening and stuff like that. I plan to do these more often for you guys to keep you in the loop about what kinds of stuff that we are doing, as I know we haven't been doing the best job on that.

With that being said, let's hop right into it shall we?


Lost Data
As most of you are aware, MC-Market suffered from data loss on January 25, 2015. On this day, the most important thing that was lost were private conversations between members. This is very unfortunate and we can't apologize enough for the loss of that data. We want to assure you that proper measures have been taken to ensure that doesn't happen again. As part of those measures, our system is now being backed up constantly and consistently to prevent data loss. Again, our most sincere apologizes for the loss.


Recent Performance Issues
You may have noticed that our website was going very slow recently. This was due to faulty hardware on our machine, specifically the CPU. We noticed a number of kernel errors on our machine, but as the performance didn't seem to be affected, we let it be. However, recently, the performance of our website dropped significantly. It was taking a very long time for the website to load and it was even driving me up the walls.

However, due to the hard work that Ajdin has put in over the last week, the performance issues have finally been resolved. Our website has been migrated to a new server and it's configuration was built from scratch. Now that this has been completed, Ajdin is now catching up on some much needed sleep. Thank you for all the hard work that you've done for us, Ajdin.


Rules
Occasionally, we adapt our rules to account for changes in the community, how the community behaves, and in the community's offerings in the marketplace. As such, we've recently modified our rules to include a number of changes. I've made a list of changes that we have made. Keep in mind that this list may not be inclusive.

1. We added a rule explicitly prohibiting the advertising of websites that compete with MC-Market.
2. We added a rule explicitly prohibiting spam in the shoutbox.
3. We added a rule prohibiting a requirement of any social media interaction in order to win a contest or giveaway.
   
4. We added a rule prohibiting any content that contains any movie or TV spoilers.
5. We added a rule prohibiting any content that is misleading in any way, including fake links and titles.
6. We added a rule prohibiting any content that suggests or hints that you want to be a staff member or should be a staff member of MC-Market.
7. We added a rule prohibiting "goodbye" threads and posts.
8. We added a rule prohibiting links that are intended to produce revenue in some fashion, such as referral type links.
9. We added a rule prohibiting the spamming of the chat report system.
10. We added a rule requiring the winner of any contest or giveaway to be announced at the end of the contest or giveaway.
11. We added rules that explicitly prohibit scamming or the intention to scam.
12. We modified a rule to clarify what we mean by the advertising of websites in the shoutbox.
13. We modified a rule to clarify that any item or service being offered in the shoutbox must be accompanied by a thread on the forum.
14. We modified the rule regarding bumping to accommodate the "Up Thread" feature we added recently.

A Special Treat
I know the best of things haven't happened lately and I wanted to give you guys some good news, so I added a small feature to the site that allows you to search through your conversations. The feature is available at http://www.mc-market.org/conversations/conversationsearch and accessible to all members. It's just a little something to thank you all for being patient and understanding with us. Thank you guys for your continued support!


That's all I have for now. Like I said, I'll try to keep you updated as new things are happening. Happy buying and selling!

 

[tjrgg]

My comment was removed, does MCM staff not want to be notified of threats...Or are they covering something up hmmm.

We appreciate warnings, but here was the not the appropriate place for it. http://www.mc-market.org/support/requests/ would be better.

 

[TellingMom]

We allowed them until they became a problem. That's how most of our rules get added. They're added because whatever they are concerning became a problem, one way or another. It only takes one or two members to ruin it for everyone sometimes.

How exactly is a goodbye thread a "problem"? Make a outgoing category for people to post their goodbye threads in. Problem solved. It's also a bit of a slap in the face that an ex-staff can make a goodbye thread, but the regular users can't. Rules are rules, bending them for staff just shows the contempt you have for the userbase.

All these aggressive rules and the general authoritarian tone brings about a bit of irony, considering before Bebonsy used to be the one constantly stirring the pot and crying about rules and lack of transparency, and now that he's in charge, it's suddenly ok to run this shit like Kim Jong-Un runs North Korea. You guys are doing a fabulous job at locking the site down, but a very poor job at building a healthy community that is enjoyable to be part of.

There wouldn't be so many competitor sites cropping up if you guys were doing things right.

 

[Zarvess]

No more bumping?

There's a bump butto

 

[Disobey]

ok

 

[Magnemite]

My comment was removed, does MCM staff not want to be notified of threats...Or are they covering something up hmmm.

PM me what you said.

 

[Ajdin]

My comment was removed, does MCM staff not want to be notified of threats...Or are they covering something up hmmm.

We get threats every day yet nothing happens. It was unrelated to the thread.

 

[tall__kidd]

Hmm. Is this why I lost access to changing my username ? I am supreme rank and can't change it. :/ @staff

 

[tjrgg]

Hmm. Is this why I lost access to changing my username ? I am supreme rank and can't change it. :/ @staff

Can you open a support request for me?