Wee Man AMA

[Wee Man 1,345]

13 minutes ago, Adam_ said:

 

What is the juiciest intel you'd ever found cracking into forum accs?

So for the most part it wasn't anything of note. As I said before CWA teams were the easiest to get into and as you can imagine not much goes on there. When you start getting into actual clan forums it's very rare to land on an officials account but even if you did everything that goes on in staff boards tend to be organisational/slave work stuff and anything important or juicy would mostly happen on teamspeak or irc/discord channels. The most common thing that would happen would be I got access to a member account and then either checked in on it for anything upcoming that could be useful or just gave it away for someone to sell if there was any interest for it. I'll be honest the main reason I was into it was because I found cracking passwords very interesting, even did it as a hobby for bit while I was learning how it all worked, getting forum accounts was just a useful by-product.

 

What's the funniest/most interesting thing you'd found that may not necessarily be actual relevant intel?

It was pretty funny to see private recaps of events where I'd consider a clan to have lost but in private they'd just gas each other up or come up with crazy dumb excuses. Private clan boards tend to be pretty boring if I'm honest.

 

Was it ever viewed as problematic for you to be doing this while on staff at Zybez ? 

I didn't exactly make it known at the time and always hid my IP/matched it to the users country if I knew it. If they'd have known or had evidence of me doing stuff like that I'd likely have been removed from staff. I didn't really see it as something all that bad really, the few occasions I did manage to get into admin panels I could have done some serious damage to the users if my goal was to be malicious. Instead I just kept an eye on things, no different from having spies in a clan imo.

 

If for whatever reason you had to join another clan out of those currently open, where you going? 

Nowhere. None of the other clans around interested me at all which is why I hadn't bothered joining anyone after VNG "closed" in 2019.

Edited March 11, 2021 by Wee Man

[≈Vanuckle 2,134]

What did the process of becoming a mod on Zybez look like?

 

Any regrets from Zybez from a personal perspective?

[@True 2k8 3,217]

whats a story you'd like to tell us

[Wee Man 1,345]

39 minutes ago, Vanuckle said:

 

What did the process of becoming a mod on Zybez look like?

For the clan discussion team we had a pinned thread in the CDHQ forum where we'd post suggestions and have a discussion about users that could be considered for a staff position down the line, mostly based on the quality of their posting and their activity. Eventually when it was decided we needed some new blood on the team some of those suggestions would be put forward for promotion to Community Leader which were people who moderated one quiet section to start with, usually one of the recruitment sections, before picking up a few more. This would continue until you had enough experience to moderate the main clan discussion section and the clan fights section which, as you can imagine, were pretty tricky to deal with sometimes. Sometime after this point in time you'd probably get bumped up to Senior Member if you weren't already, assuming your posting and activity was still good.

 

After a while of staying active, continuing to have quality posting and proving you know what you're doing with your staff role you'd usually be considered for a Moderator position which were moderators across the entire site and also had the ability to view & lookup IPs, hand out suspensions/positive rating bumps and post ban requests for the admins. They'd only promote moderators when they felt they needed some. There was usually only around 10 or so at a time during my time on the site. To be considered for an admin role (Senior Moderator) it was just a case of keeping up the good work and earn the respect and trust of those above you and when the time comes that they felt the need for a new admin, the head admins (Kings) would bump up whoever they considered best suited for the role. I'm pretty sure I was the last one, less than a year after my promotion they announced the site was being closed. Guess I was cursed lmao.

 

Here's how I climbed up the ranks:

07/10/2011 - Promoted to CL of the Specialty Recruiting section.
18/06/2012 - Promoted to CL of the 100+ and Clan Video sections.
15/08/2012 - Promoted to CL of the Clan Fights and Clan discussion Sections.
16/10/2012 - Promoted to Senior Member
27/07/2013 - Promoted to Moderator
02/06/2015 - Promoted to Recruitment Leader
24/09/2017 - Promoted to Senior Moderator

 

Any regrets from Zybez from a personal perspective?

None personally, I just kind of wished the users recognised how much of an impossible situation the board staff were in when it came to trying to keep everyone happy. I definitely wish the site was still around.

Edited March 11, 2021 by Wee Man

[Wee Man 1,345]

1 hour ago, true said:

whats a story you'd like to tell us

Going off the back of the last question I'll tell you about the time the guys in Downfall tried to get me kicked off Zybez. So in 2015 Ronin was in a crashwar with Downfall and sadly Downfall had the upper hand in intelligence. They managed to pay off/flip a few different people to spy for them over the course of the crashwar not to mention get into a couple of forum accounts here and there. One of these people was Charlydog4. Once Charly had been exposed as a spy, humiliated by that random H1Z1 girl I mentioned earlier in the AMA and booted from the clan, Downfall decided to leak the rest of what they had on their forums which included screenshots of a Whatsapp conversation between Scott (Robin, Ronin's leader) and Charly. During this conversation, Scott and Charly were discussing DDoSing and how Ronin was in possession of some Downfall IP addresses which could be hit off. Here's one of those screenshots:

 

https://i.imgur.com/g1JpnaZ.png

 

So this one was faked (the rest were legit), it was just edited with Scott's number at the top (which I've hidden for this AMA, on the leak it wasn't censored). If you look closely under that part of the screenshot you can see some black marks where it hasn't been lined up quite right or edited properly or whatever. Anyway once the leak was public and I saw it, I went and messaged Scott, confirmed it was fake and I told him send his entire message history with Charly and explain what had happened to Jaacco who was one of the admins in charge of clan discussion above me so he could confirm that this particular section was faked. Shortly after he got the PM from Scott another admin was contacted by Downfall. Safe to say I was in the clear with the admins and eventually there was a large discussion about it in one of the pinned clan discussion topics (the HUICD thread) where they had my back and defended me. Here's the admin post that Jaacco made about the whole thing which I saw a couple years later when I got access, I've cropped out the PM from robin section, both pictures are Jaacco's words:

 

 

and here are a few of the replies from some of the other CD admins:

 

 

 

It was nice seeing the support from these guys once I eventually got to see it, I hope they don't mind me sharing the screenshots but to be fair they're 6 years old and the site's been dead nearly 3 years lol.

Edited March 11, 2021 by Wee Man

[Adam_ 1,031]

35 minutes ago, Wee Man said:

 

 

Any regrets from Zybez from a personal perspective?

None personally, I just kind of wished the users recognised how much of an impossible situation the board staff were in when it came to trying to keep everyone happy. I definitely wish the site was still around.

If the site were still around, how do you think it'd be in 2021?

It seems like things have only gotten worse with the propaganda and all that, my favorite was when every clan posted a topic in early 2021 about how they won the 45 hour war at revs, and surprisingly enough, not a single one of them had any help from allies! It was wild! This is one of the more ridiculous examples I can think of, but it seems insanely common. It seems like with very few exceptions, almost every clan takes to social media and their own forums claiming they won every fight. It sounds like from previous posts on this AMA that there was some sort of policy to keep people from making topics like that or they'd be closed without sufficient proof, granted it sounds like that was some time ago so i'm not sure if that policy had changed before the website came to its end. 

[Wee Man 1,345]

1 minute ago, Adam_ said:

If the site were still around, how do you think it'd be in 2021?

It seems like things have only gotten worse with the propaganda and all that, my favorite was when every clan posted a topic in early 2021 about how they won the 45 hour war at revs, and surprisingly enough, not a single one of them had any help from allies! It was wild! This is one of the more ridiculous examples I can think of, but it seems insanely common. It seems like with very few exceptions, almost every clan takes to social media and their own forums claiming they won every fight. It sounds like from previous posts on this AMA that there was some sort of policy to keep people from making topics like that or they'd be closed without sufficient proof, granted it sounds like that was some time ago so i'm not sure if that policy had changed before the website came to its end. 

The site was pretty much on it's last legs by the time Curse shut it down so it'd probably be pretty much dead by now. It's a shame Curse sold the domain to Fandom who redirected it to the RS3 wiki so the archive of the site isn't up anymore.

 

Propaganda isn't inherently a bad thing, you can do a lot with it and everyone knows that every clan will try and spin things to look good for them. It's comes with the package for the PvP scene really. Back in the day Zybez operated with on a "only winning clans can post" ruleset which was based on whoever was the last clan standing and who could prove it. This spiralled out of control where clans would fake screenshots or take them out of context and use them as proof of a win, they'd outlast in shit gear etc etc just so they could get the RSC topic. That was one of the most important things after a fight for a lot of clans. Eventually Rot just got incredibly good at using the rules to their advantage and made sure to collect everything they needed so that more often than not their topic would be allowed to stay open. This lead to rival clans to bitch and moan about the rules, the decision making process etc until they finally just boycotted the site entirely. Sad really.

[EoMeri 53]

How come you were always in smaller clans instead of the bigger main clans (before joining true's grandpahouse)? 

[Wee Man 1,345]

21 minutes ago, EoMeri said:

How come you were always in smaller clans instead of the bigger main clans (before joining true's grandpahouse)? 

Always enjoyed growing smaller clans rather than jumping into a big clan from the start.

[MILAD 204]

4 hours ago, EoMeri said:

How come you were always in smaller clans instead of the bigger main clans (before joining true's grandpahouse)? 

RUNKKUPEPPU

 

moi

[L0ng lost 1 3]

Not really a question but glad I got to know you after our scraps in our early days. Not as much of a spaz as previously thought lol

[Adam_ 1,031]

I remember a while ago I said on disc that you should get an AMA and you said you wouldn't have anything interesting enough to say, why did you change your mind? Or did you want to do one if you were asked, but hadn't been asked yet? Seems at 19 pages you're probably actually one of the more popular ones to happen so far lol.

 

Ever try your hand at dmm, single pking or bh/edge style pking over the years or no interest?

[Sector Six 151]

How did you come to find yourself involved in RSC / Zybez initially? What motivated you to get involved in the site to the point of becoming a moderator?

 

 

Overall would you consider your involvement in RSC / Zybez overall a positive or negative years later?

[Wee Man 1,345]

14 hours ago, Adam_ said:

 

I remember a while ago I said on disc that you should get an AMA and you said you wouldn't have anything interesting enough to say, why did you change your mind? Or did you want to do one if you were asked, but hadn't been asked yet? Seems at 19 pages you're probably actually one of the more popular ones to happen so far lol.

It was a joke to begin with, like someone would try and bait me into flaming them or something and I'd reply with just wait for my AMA. A few different people seemed to want it and then True pm'd me asking me to fill the spot of someone who bailed at the last minute. Not sure if it's popular or whether it's just because I'm making sure to answer every question.

 

Ever try your hand at dmm, single pking or bh/edge style pking over the years or no interest?

I played the first time DMM came out and gave up, you had to no life that shit to be able to compete and RS just ain't that entertaining. As for single pking I've only ever tried it in F2P and it's just not for me. Don't find it fun at all.

[Wee Man 1,345]

5 hours ago, Sector Six said:

 

How did you come to find yourself involved in RSC / Zybez initially?

I made my account originally to post a ban appeal for the Ventrilo server which I was active on for a little while. I got active posting wise in 2009/2010 because of my maintenance crew role (we made and updated all the guides on the site) and because that was about the time I started getting involved with clans.

 

What motivated you to get involved in the site to the point of becoming a moderator?

I love discussion and arguments. That just slowly to lead to more and more quality posts because I wanted to get my point across and not get the post removed at the same time (I'd been suspended a few times prior to that for directly flaming people) and from there I just got noticed and slowly worked my way up the ranks due to, what I thought anyway, performing my staff role well.

 

Overall would you consider your involvement in RSC / Zybez overall a positive or negative years later?

Definitely a positive. I met some great people over the years because of that site and even today I'm still passionate about the PvP scene because of Zybez.

Edited March 13, 2021 by Wee Man