arnie2311,

Sir_Chatturgha has sent you a new personal conversation entitled "Thanks for all the fish!".

Sir_Chatturgha said:
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I'll post this on the Thread once I have the required 10 approved posts elsewhere. I wanted to give you a chance to read it first, before it goes on there.

It isn't hate speech, it is the truth. Banning me like you did was low, and I really hope, and I mean, I REALLY, REALLY hope you get over your issues, because everything from Stronghold to your relationship is going to fail, unless you sort that out.

Here it is, in full: Greetings Stronghold Online,

For those that don't know me, my name is Chatturgha and I was, until recently a member of staff for Stronghold. My job a few weeks back was as Lead Web Developer & In-game Developer. I joined Stronghold during a very difficult time, back in Late August / Early September, when the server had suffered a major and rather critical error that meant the map & all that had been on it, had been wiped.

During my very first few days, I had assisted the Staff at the time with relaying information from TeamSpeak into the game, as for that they were very grateful. It took the heat off them, and gave them time to focus on getting things up and running!

Infact, they were so grateful that I was adviced to apply as a member of staff, and was soon accepted.

During my time as a member of staff, I grew from a simple Moderator (Guardian), enforcing the rules and introducing new players, giving them a personal tour of the immediate area where they spawned until I became a lead member of Staff, taking responsibility for its daily running through access from the back-end system, to designing some of the much loved content & ideas you still enjoy today.

One of my most proud moments, was the development of Patch 1.1. This was due to go live just before Christmas and would contain a huge array of improved, new and enhanced content for all players, including:

- PvE Raiding. Defeat weekly bosses that are specific to your faction, including bonus content, and secret mini-events.
- PvP Balance. Slowing down PvP and bridging the gap between the classes making it easier for them all to overcome their obstacles.
- Enhanced Environment. The Environment would go through cycles, with summers giving droughts, winters causing crops to freeze and trees only able to grow in Spring.
- New Class: Apothecary. Adding a 4th class, as the first Area of Effect damage dealer, but also the first healing class.
- New Improved Rules. Making it easier for everyone to understand them and find them.
- Taxation & Economy. Fixing the economy once and for all, and giving incentives and bonuses for those that played their cards right.
- Lore & Roleplay. Improved Lore & Roleplaying immersion, giving you more of a feeling you're really involved in the story.
- Help Points. The Golden ! & ? giving hints, tips & information about the game.
- Faction Statuses. Earn statuses before you're able to advance, from Village to Citadel, depending on your buildings, and internal economy.
- And much, much more.

This was due to be my proudest moment in Stronghold. I was (with other members of staff) building and testing this continuously, always trying to make improvements were possible, including a bonus Christmas Present for all the members of Stronghold.
During this time, I had been putting in 20 hour days, and even during my long and stressful business meetings I have on Skype, I still managed to be online, working somehow on the server.

So when I logged on one day to find that the server had been opened early, with a mere 5 - 10% of the Patch completed you can, for just a moment understand how irritated and annoyed I was that what was months of planning, work and development by a whole team of people, was now thrown out their, incomplete, all the promises of a "new stronghold game for you ALL to enjoy" were now worthless.

The culprit of this was Arnie231, the owner of the server himself. Initially I assumed it was a mistake until I logged into TeamSpeak to find that it was indeed, intended.

At this point, the story turns from me being a helpful, friendly and well-rounded Admin to making a bit, of a bad move. No, I didn't delete the server, the map, destroy anything, block access, write profanity, none of those.

Instead I did what I felt would be the best option, I took down the website & forums. I had hosted these on my Company Servers, for free of charge for a long time. I'd spent a long time building & testing these Forums & Website, making customisations, and along with Pumpkin_Eaters had managed to turn it into a fully custom and purpose built website.

Considering Arnie's lack of desire to bring down the server to continue the patch, I at this point left the server turning my back in a huff of annoyance on what had happened to me. Despite all my work previously, all the times I had sat and listened to Arnie abuse the ideas, concepts & thoughts of others I had worked nothing but tirelessly to ensure that Stronghold has number 1!

A few days ago, I had accidentally clicked onto the the Forums (Via a old Bookmark) and was interested to see that they were back up. Arnie had managed to re-secure some hosting and the domain name, and was now running them himself. I was interested to see how the server was going, so I began to check the reviews of the server, peoples opinions and thoughts.

Initaly the reports were very good. People, despite a mere 10% being completed had liked the Patch 1.1, the new spawn town, new classes, but were somewhat confused as to were Chatturgha & all the promised content had gone.

I decided to pay the server a visit, by logging into TeamSpeak and talking with a few old friends. Things had been going okay, but it appeared that another reset was due in, another map reset and yet again, more promised content, with the high chance of not being completed.

I continued to talk with people for a few days, hearing people talk about what they thought of the server, then something caught my eye, something someone wrote in TeamSpeak. It appeared that Arnie had been spreading a few little lies about my departure, while nothing serious, I just wanted to clear them up:

1. No, I had not asked for any money for my work. On several occasions Arnie had offered to pay me via PayPal for my efforts, and I had refused.

2. No, I had not deleted the website immediately and without warning. I had giving arnie a message over TeamSpeak and in-game that i'd be taking them down within the next 24 hours, and that i'd remove the DNS information to let him find alternative hosting.

3. No, I had not insulted, attacked or abused Arnie, Naomi or anyone in my departure. I simply left without having a go at anyone.

4. No, I had not destroyed anything, ruined anything or deleted some "Secret Amazing Content" that was actually, not, being developed.

So, with those lies now in my mind I thought to myself was this a mistake, that somewhere in my head i'd love to return to Stronghold, even as a player or a staff member, should it be needed? After some thought I realised that although he had lied to cover for his errors, I'm sure that my removal of the website didn't help his case, and so I saw it as nothing for fair play.

I attacked him, he attacked back. We'd now both lost something, so we're even. Despite as previously listed the continuos 20 hour days for months & months.

I began to talk more with people, Arnie himself even managed to have conversations with me, as I offered ideas on how to help the server, by contacting the YogsCast, offering ideas to fix issues with the game and even offering to rebuild the website, to run side-by-side so should one or the other experience issues.

I wasn't taking anything over, I didn't want to be suddenly running anything again. I just wanted, what most people wanted. A clean slate, as I had offered him for his errors.

It wasn't alas, to be it would seem. Further conversations revealed that the majority (not all) people would've liked to see me return as either Staff or a Player. But Arnies stubborn attitude and abusive mind thought it would be best to let me give all my ideas away, tell him & his current staff everything that they needed to know, and then without so much as a reason, a TeamSpeak & Minecraft Ban.

So, that is why I am here.

I'm banned from TeamSpeak, I am banned from talking to my friends, and I am banned from even being able to fight my corner all because Arnie is mad, that his lies are coming out, and that I took down a premium level website I had offered (and had been) hosting for months at no cost to him or the server.

So with all this in mind, I'm not writing to say that Arnie is a total reject with issues, I am here to just simply warn the server, and everyone of the true story. I know some will read this and hate on me, some will read this and hate on Arnie, but the point is here to ensure that everyone knows the entire situation, so they can have their own view, rather then the warped and distorted one arnie is feeding them.

As you can imagine at this point, I am rather annoyed again. I'm unable to get a refund on the Domain I purchased, I'm unable to take back my ideas which, 90% chance are going to be accepted, and I am unable to it seems of even getting a second chance to talk through the situation, with a man who apprently "hates me" for dealing with a situation he created.

I'd honestly like to thank you all, the old & new Staff & players of Stronghold. Without you i'd not have fully enjoyed the last few months of my Minecraft days. Without you i'd not have grown as an Admin & Developer. You are what made me login to Minecraft for.

I do hope that Stronghold continues to grow. Arnie has a fantastic concept here and a good strong following. But at the current rate it'll just continue to circle in a abyss of failure and problems, as Staff join, work tirelessly and are chucked away as a used tissue ones Arnie has had enough.

I'd be more then happy to discuss this, and anything else people think about Stronghold here in the Thread.

- Chatturgha, Former Lead Developer & Website Administrator