So you are going to ban me for making "That's cool" posts?

I work as a remote duty paramedic in third world shitholes for most of the year. I don't get to spend a lot of time with family or friends. I get on these sites to have conversations with people that enjoy the same things I do. It's the closest thing I have to chatting with my buddies and it helps to pass the time when I am not seeing patients.

If someone posts that they scored the figure that they have been looking for for quite a while, I am happy for them and will post a "That's cool" to say congrats, glad to hear it, because that would be part of my normal conversation.

And now you're threatening to ban me because of that? I am not trying up my post count and I couldn't give a shit about achievements, I just want to chat with guys while I count down the days until I get out of this sewer.

It's stuff like this that makes me not go to sites like Joecustoms anymore. But hey, it's your site. I'm sorry you can't scroll past my "That's cool".

Did you get a personal PM threatening to ban you or did you get the same warning message that everyone got? (curious)

I got some banner on top of the site this morning when I came in.

So did everyone else. It wasn't directed at you personally so you shouldn't take it as a personal attack on you.

Oh, I'm not taking it as a personal attack on myself. I am using an example to voice my...displeasure...

It was a message sent out to discourage people from attempting to spam the forums in an attempt to win the prizes. People we see blatantly spamming will be dealt with. We are not banning people for simply posting on the site.

Ah. gottcha.

Sorry if I seemed...snippy.

Working conditions in the jungles of Sierra Leone are....sub par...as you might imagine. It's been a real shitty six weeks. Looking forward to flying out of here on Sunday.

Good luck to those trying for the prize.

No worries. I understood where you were coming from. Be safe.

I gotta say the whole 25 character limit is tiresome,so if you wanna say "cool costum" you now have to put in a bunch of jibberish *sigh* isnt the spam warning enough?

His complaint, coppled with a few of mine and some other simular ones I've seen voiced is why I suggest making a way for us to be able to opt out of the contest. Shut it off on our own control panels or something.
Preventing us from earning XP or these achievement awards, prevents us from seeing those on other posters. Since this information wouldn't show up on our avatars for, it would be a sure way for the mods to tell we're not just upping our post count and XP just to win a prize whenever we reply with "I'm happy for you!" or "Thank you."

Very tiresome. It's already gotten me three times today.

This is a great idea, I second it! No prizes, no hassles. ToyArk Lite, if you will.

Yep. it would also save the prizes for people who really wanted them.
It's annoying to desparately want something, work hard to compete for it, and then come in second or third to a guy who wasn't even playing/didn't even want it in the first place.
I understand that feeling when I hear about multimillionares winning the lottery. (Granted, it isn't on the same scale. But it makes me ill when people who already have $50 million win a $10 million lotto, when other players are trying to figure out how to pay next week's light bill).

I don't want an MU Sentinel. My TRU has five of them. I'd already own it if I wanted it. On that note, I don't want to take this one away from someone who was trying hard to win it. (Not that I'd ever win, anyway.)

But then different things motivate me than other people. Very rarely is there a toy that could be offered that I'd want to win. Because anything I want, I usually already go after somehow.
Maybe if they were able to offer a comission from some top artists, that would get my attention far more. That's something that's far more unique, and personal.

There is no "opt out" setting. It's an everyone or no one kind of thing.

If you are the award winner on Oct 1st, I believe there is a "return award" option. That would make the guy below you take your spot, and bump everyone up accordingly.

So, if anyone doesn't want the prizes, you can give them away, and be eligible for the next round. Repeat forever if desired.

Except some people, myself included, do not want to compete at all. Yet still are being forced to follow the game rules for posting (Such as the threat our posts may get deleted if a mod feels we're trying to skew the game in our favor).

I wouldn't worry about it, guys. Just post as you normally do and it should be fine. Just pretend the contest isn't going on. I'm sure the moderators aren't heartless and they'll catch onto any patterns that deviate from the norm. I was initially concerned about the pressure a contest puts on people, but now I'm just not letting it bother me and 25 characters, well that's not a lot anyway. I can live with it. :)

We will look at each "low characters" situation in relation to your other posts. If you are a Toyark regular, and don't do it every post, or every other post, then it won't be addressed. If you jump on the scene and post 20 times in a row with "That's Cool" and do nothing else, then it will be addressed.

If you see someone who you think is specifically spam bombing for points, just use the report posts button http://www.toyark.com/images/toyark-...ons/report.gif and we will look at it, prune their posts if needed.

I've also bumped the character limit down to 10. It was at 5 originally, and 25 for 1.5 days.

We will continue to adjust fluidly as this progresses, trying to get a benefit from the system, and not making things a pain in the ass for you guys.

Oh - and - if you don't want to compete, you do not have to. Just ignore the stats, and do as normal. :).

Okay then. I'm happy now. :cool:

this is some nice thing to do, havent seen this on any other forum ;) good luck to all!

I've decided that the Level, XP, and Recent Activity bars next to our avatars makes me feel like I'm a pokemon.
I don't know how I feel about that, lol!

LOL!!! I haven't evolved yet :(

Some Pokemon done ever evolve :p

Crap, I hope I'm not one of "those pokemon" lol. Damn it, need to go play pokemon now...or take pictures of Gi Joes...what to do what to do..

I say play Pokemon!!!

Gotta catch them all!

The points I mean, otherwise I won't be able to "win" the Toyark experience.