Hi Jenny,

So this means that the apology letter never was distributed to the team, which wasn't your fault(what happened, Michael?).

I simply ask for the future that things are approached from a customer-centric standpoint.  When your customers are upset...there are reasons for it.  Retaliation just isn't the way to do things.  As soon as there's some form of monetary transaction made(along with the mental commitment made with that cash), that's a customer.
Maybe the reason why my comments felt unfair, was because the general "feeling" of the event was intended to be a light-hearted, fun event for fellow UBC students, so in that light...things should be more forgiving.  It's just an event run by young people, not by a professional organization.  And if I was a UBC student(plus a few decades younger), I probably would have looked at it in that fashion as well...kept my expectations low, realize hey, we're just kids, trying to make our way into the world, etc.   If I looked at it that way, I would have said "the event was fine...what was wrong with it?"

But I'm not a UBC student, and never was.  I'm an outsider from the street, looking in.  I didn't expect anything on the level of GSL.  I didn't expect even anything on the level of IPL, the TL hosted tourneys, or anything like that.  UBC is a prestigious university...far more so than say Langara, VCC or Kwantlen...as such I felt hey, this has potential, and it's run by some of the best and brightest kids in this country.  Hopefully you see where some of my disappointments stem from.  I didn't expect anything professional, but I did expect a very structured, scheduled event where everyone would know exactly when and what time they would be playing their matches.  I'm sure that a tighter format would resolve a lot of the issues.

Yes, I left early.  But to be truthful, I was ready to leave a lot earlier.  You may have noticed that I brought a friend with me - he too felt that things were very disorganized.  My exit had nothing to do with the result of the matches and everything to do with the format, and how things were setup.  My original intention was to use my laptop(not a gaming one) only as a last resort, as it had poor performance and was ill-suited to run the game, even on the lowest graphic settings.  A huge sticking point was the fact that there was no organization around the shared PC's.  People just jumped on with no regard as to whether it was even their turn to play.  They effectively hogged the machines and left everyone else just standing around and wondering what was going on(and gave you bad looks if you asked if you could use them).  But that issue would be resolved by some scheduling, co-ordination, and management of shared PC usage.

The big trend that's been happening in the corporate world is "Work from home".  And since the tourney really is run online, it would be tremendous benefit for many players if they could just simply attend the event online(and admittedly...if any player had actually just played from home, would anyone have really noticed?)  Needing to physically travel to any location is rapidly becoming a thing of the past.  I would definitely support an online-run event.  It would just outright solve so many of the issues outlined above.  If things are a little bit disorganized?  No problem...I'm at home anyways.  Shared PC's?  Hey...it's just my gaming PC right here in front of me.  No matches for me for a few hours?  No problem.  I'll do other things while I wait.

So that's my take on it, Thanks for listening.


From: Starcraft UBC [mailto:ubcstarcraft@hotmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, August 17, 2011 2:19 AM
To: d0k0night@gmail.com
Subject: RE: UBC StarCraft is Hiring New Staff!

Dear Denny,

Thank you for your time writing this, and this is my first time reading your apologies.

The TL post that was made under your name was definitely something very unprofessional of us (I was not personally aware until after the post was made). I will personally take privacy issues seriously and deliver your message to both the past and future execs.

In terms of your dissatisfaction, I was told that one of our execs did help you out with setting up the internet connection and got it up working for you, but you left in the middle of the tournament perhaps due to some early losses. Perhaps it would've helped if you talked to us in person before you took the leave. We just felt that there were a lot of unfair things said about us in that post (which isn't the most convenient for us to clarify over the internet, but if you want, you're welcome to attend to our exec meetings to discuss em).

Last thing, I do think you pose to us as a good learning example, as we cannot expect everyone that attend to our event to be completely happy. And learning to deal with those situations and people will help us become better hosts.

Thanks again for your time and we hope to host better events in the future,

Jenny Gao
UBC Starcraft Club
E: ubcstarcraft@hotmail.com
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From: d0k0night@gmail.com
To: ubcstarcraft@hotmail.com
Subject: RE: UBC StarCraft is Hiring New Staff!
Date: Tue, 9 Aug 2011 13:29:55 -0700

I appreciate this invitational. As many of you know, I am the infamous poster on teamliquid who posted the criticizing post with respect to my dissatisfaction with the past event.
I was approached by Michael Medley who asked that, while I was not asked to rescind my views or opinions of the past event, I was however, asked to apologize to UBC Starcraft for my  tone.  I have provided the apology letter, but I had also made some requests to go along with it.  For review:
--
Hi,

Here's my apology letter contained herein. You are free to distribute this towards your team members - I still request that my concern regarding the TL phantom(the person who created 2 blank posts with my real name - be addressed and followed up upon. My real name should not have been revealed on the Internet and my concern still stands.

Dear UBC Starcraft Club,

Regarding my post, I realize that I have provoked some very strong reactions from the community as well many of the UBC Starcraft members who worked hard to make this event possible.

As my post contained many elements of emotion as well as critique and suggestions, I would like to apologize for the negative tones as it was not meant to debase the work of the individuals involved, nor to downplay their efforts.

In many ways the tourney emerged as a success, and with that said, we look towards the future to make the next tourney even bigger and better.

Regards,

DK
--
I did not receive a response from Michael nor did I see any follow-up action with respect to the privacy breach.  I just want to point out that, as a participant of the tourney, I paid the required $15 and did not request a refund, despite my dissatisfaction with the event, and the backlash from the event organizers.  I would like everyone to view this from the perspective of a customer who was also asked to apologize for his feedback.

The event has come and gone - but the issue with privacy remains.  I can think of a number of harmful things which an angry person can do to me by simply googling my name.  Based on this - my confidence is not where it could be.