I resigned

[MJ4H]

Id like your opinion on the following matter. I have been a user of the Free Internet Chess Server for 4 years now. I became a Service Representative there about 2 years ago. Tonight I resigned that position because the FICS head admin allowed someone's profile to remain as it was, even though it was clearly against server rules. The "finger notes" in question are:

6: If you are interested in objectivism, agnosticism/atheism, humanism or
\ just plain making fun of religious nutcases send me a tell!
7: I have figured out the key to being good at internet chess, only play
\ Americans. They may act like total jerks but at least they don't cheat
\ like the Germans and Norweigans here do.


Do you think I was right to resign over this matter?
The relevant rule is:

Abusive actions are those which interfere with the normal functioning of
the server, the enjoyment of its users, or which attempt to circumvent
acceptable methods of resolving situations. Examples of abuse include,
but are not limited to:

1) Harrassment of users including harrassment because of race, religion
sexual orientation, etc.

Now, I note that German/Norwegian are not REALLY races, but I think the bigotry remains, regardless of whether you call this racism or whatever. So I really would like some opinions on whether or not I was justified.

[JPhillips]

If it bothers you and they won't do anythinf about it then resigning seems perfectly valid. As long as you are comfortable with what you did how can this really be a problem?

[JonInMiddleGA]

Q1 -- Is there a reasonably recognized pattern of cheating on the part of German and/or Norwegian players? I'm not an online chess player, so I have no idea whether this crack is founded or unfounded.

I think that's probably the single most relevant info in cases like this. I don't think the line implies to any reasonable person that every German or Norwegian player cheats, but instead indicates a higher rate of occurence than the norm, something that's been noted as a pattern.

One forum I know of used to have running jokes about AOL users. Unfair on the surface, until you realized that about 90% of all spam and/or flame wars were coming from AOL users. Even the AOLians remarked on the same thing.

Q2 -- If this is only in the user's profile, and it requires some action on the part of other users to see it, I'm not sure how that qualifies as harrasment. Harrasment, to me, usually requires some active effort on the part of the offender.

[Anthony]

if this is what ruffles Matt's feathers - i don't think he'd last a minute with em and my friends.

over chess? yeeeeesh.

[IMetTrentGreen]

there are a lot of reason's to get all upity about bigotry. some harmless profile is just being anal. don't take things like this to seriously

you sure sound like one of those whiny norweigens

[MJ4H]

Fair enough. Thanks for your opinions. I stand by my decision. And to Jon: of course not.

By the way, to be clear, it's not that it ruffles MY feathers, it's that by being a member of the staff, I was tacitly agreeing with the decision to allow this sort of bigotry to remain publicly viewable (on FICS, finger notes are considered public communication). Since I could not in my heart justify agreeing to that, I could not remain as part of the staff. It's not that I go around whining about everything. I don't. Look at my posts on this board. I hardly ever respond to anything that I even find offensive myself. These notes do not personally offend me. It is the principle. Thank you, good day.

[Mega]

This just strikes me as the kind of "trash talking" that surrounds any kind of competitive event. And it is pretty mild trash talking at that. It may even be tounge-in-cheek, especially if this person is Norweigan or German. In any event, unless there is some intense, widespread bigotry against German and Norweigans I am totally unware of, I would say this was just a failed attempt to be "funny" and leave it at that unless further events warrant a different evaluation. As for no. 6, which I personally find slightly more "offensive", that is just proof that he is a smug, obnoxious 12 year old based snuggly in mommy's basement. All you did was give this guy the attention he probably so desperately wanted.

[MJ4H]

I respectfully disagree with all of that. The way it "strikes" you is totally incorrect as he is very public with spouting the kind of bigotry on the server. He did NOT get any attention from it as I did not publicize whose notes they were to keep from doing just that.

[Mega]

First of all, you never mentioned that he "spouts" this all the time, just that it was in his profile. Secondly, while you didn't name names here, I would guess you did make a fuss over there similar to the one you are making here.

[cuervo72]

Originally posted by MattJones4Heisman
7: I have figured out the key to being good at internet chess, only play
\ Americans. They may act like total jerks but at least they don't cheat
\ like the Germans and Norweigans here do.

Matt,

I don't mean to bash Norweigans, but the quote is interesting, because I came across a couple of Norweigans when I played in a tourney on Gameknot a couple of months ago. What was strange was what they were doing as far as their ranks and win/loss patterns were concerned. Well, that and I suspect there may have been some multiple accounts, but who knows how you would find that out for sure.

Anyway, I was in a tournament with a max rank of 1700. I played a user who was just a little below that, but not by much (around 1680). Well, the only reason that user was that low is because he would have stretches where he would loose many, many games by timeout/resignation. For instance he would lose 20 games in a row, but then went on a 40 game win streak. Now I'm not saying he cheated by using a program, but maybe was just very good and tanked all of the other games, just to leave his ranking artificially low (I looked at other members of a "team" he was on, and there were a couple of other cases that might have fit the same pattern).

Anyway, I played him in the first round of the tourney, and he absolutely kicked my ass. Promptly (I was hovering around 1500, haven't played much since). He was easily going to win the round robin bracket, if he didn't go over 1700 and get advanced to the expert division (the ranking system gives/takes 8 points for a win/loss v. an opponent +/- 400 points of your ranking). Well, he started losing non-tourney games here and there, including one game where he made a hideously bad move and was mated (or would have been) a move or two later.

Was this cheating? No, probably not outright, but I do think his manipulation of his ranking was a bit unsportsmanlike.

[cuervo72]

Dola -

Hmm, well, maybe I was wrong about the teams, I can't find a team affiliation any more. But the guy is from Norway, and is now ranked 1761. After his unbeaten streak (44-0-1, the last game of which was his first game against me), he went 2-8-1, the two wins against me, and another opponent in our tourney bracket. Subsequently, he has gone on a 16 match winning streak.

Oh, and in the stretch before his 44-0-1 streak, he was 2-28-0 ?!?!

[MJ4H]

Originally posted by Mega
First of all, you never mentioned that he "spouts" this all the time, just that it was in his profile. Secondly, while you didn't name names here, I would guess you did make a fuss over there similar to the one you are making here.

You're right I did not mention it. Nevertheless, it is true. Your guess is incorrect. I did not make a fuss, nor name names. Also, I don't feel I am making a fuss here. I am simply asking for opinions on what I did. If these appears to be a "fuss" to you, I submit that you are misinterpreting.