CodeWalrus

Hi,

I am the founder of Omnimaga (2001) and CodeWalrus (2014) and author of various past calculator programs (mostly RPGs). I stepped down from my Omnimaga admin position in 2011 and remained active as news editor until around a few months ago. In the meantime, I was also active on Cemetech on and off, as well as CodeWalrus afterward.

Unfortunately, after recommendations from friends due to issues mentionned in this post last march (this version is a cross-post, but modified), I was forced to announce my goodbye from SAX (#Cemetech IRC channel) and the entire Omnimaga website. I am afraid that it's now Telegram's turn. I originally left WalrusIRC and IRC as well a few days ago, but I figured out a way to set users on /ignore, thanks to Streetwalrus. As a result, from now on, all my activity will be only on CodeWalrus forums, WalrusIRC and to a lesser extent some other forums like Cemetech/TI-Planet/Revsoft. But no more real-time chat mediums. UPDATE: IRC has an ignore feature as well, but it's not the most ideal place for me to chat, due to high risks of unwanted private messages and being unable to temporarily ignore specific WalrusIRC users during hard times. Telegram... well... it doesn't even have a banning feature for staff and people can invite others to random groups at will without their permission, so I'll only use it to chat with certain people privately now. To ignore people on WalrusIRC, Streetwalrus directed me to Stylish extension after he edited the CSS of the shoutbox.


My issues to communicate properly have plagued my experience and the experience of others in the community when I was around, with misunderstandings and disputes. While a few were intentionally caused by some community members, I have troubles with working out people's intention that I never got able to overcome, thanks in part to several bad experiences in the past (a lot in real life). Unfortunately, those issues are not related to text being a poor communication medium nor language barrier, because I have the same problem when communicating in my native language via voice mediums, so it caused me problems in real life too in the past.

This, along with many other things I noticed about myself over the years, led to the conclusion that I have asperger syndrome. It is not officially diagnosticed but many people that I know have it and I have every single symptom to a certain degree). I also always had serious problems adapting to changes (an example being switching from BASIC to Axe/ASM/C) and why, 8 years after moving to my own appartment, I am barely able to adapt to the extra life duties that come with it.


It was wrong from me and the others people to continuously tell admins of other sites to run things the way we want, because they are not our sites. Normally we either deal with it, go elsewhere or start our own place. Unfortunately, I was unable to adapt to Cemetech nor the change in direction that Omnimaga took in recent years, and since it was the case of other people as well, the last option was chosen. It was not intended as an attack towards other sites, but rather to make the community more diverse (all 3 sites had different mentalities, good sides and negative sides). But no matter what, I am sorry to have bothered Omni, Cemetech and other site admins non-stop in the past to have things ran differently.


My problems do not limit themselves to my communication and changes issues, however, unless the rest is caused by those two issues. I started becoming into a somewhat depressive mood starting in early October or so, which worsened ever since. In addition to that, my sensitivity is another thing I have never been able to overcome, and seeing a psy in 2010 didn't help, as he pretty much told me the exact same things that close friends at the time told me. Also, when a bad incident affects me, sometimes, I will keep bad memories of it forever, even if later I become in good terms with the people involved. If I see them again later, those bad memories come back and I start feeling down. So the solution was to avoid being around those people (which can be a problem in real life but so far it hasn't happened with immediate acquintances there).


I am not sure how we will stay in touch after this post, although since I am remaining active on the forums, that could be an alternative. That said, I alienated many people in the past, if not recently, with my behavior, and you did not deserve any backlash from my part (ok, some people did, but not everyone have bad intentions). This made it next to impossible for me to keep a friendship intact. So my departure might be for the best. Sorry for those I have hurt and maybe, one day, I can come back. I'll be on the forums only, now. (On Cemetech, I use Adblock to disable SAX, while on CW, I joined the No-shoutbox usergroup to disable WalrusIRC)


-Kevin Ouellet, alias DJ Omnimaga

I understand your reasons. There isnt realy anything I can say, other then that I find it sad you are distancing your self from the community, even for such reasons. Furthermore it is sad that not all people can understand/be made aware of your condition, forcing you to do this :-| I haven't really got to know you well, but i hope I do :)

DJ, I do know you well, and I know you're aware of your condition and do everything to help, you're a really nice guy because, as @c4ooo pointed out, not everyone can do that, otherwise I'm not sure everyone would like you as we do. Well I do hope you stay around on any medium you find the most convenient.

And remember the last line DJ said on IRC:

Quote[10:23:38] <DJ Omnimaga> :walrii:

I'm sad to hear that you won't be on IRC anymore, but it's good that you are aware of you issue and are trying to fix it and take measures to help others not be hurt.

Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on September 12, 2015, 04:54:59 PM
On Cemetech, I use Adblock to disable SAX

Kerm said that he was going to add an option to disable SAX, so you won't need to use Adblock I guess.

Quote from: Ivoah on September 12, 2015, 05:41:54 PM
you are aware of you issue and are trying to fix it and take measures to help others not be hurt.

I would rather prefer fixing them through normal means, such as not taking things the wrong way, but by 2010 it became clear this was ill-fated (and yes, I saw specialists about the issue), so I had to rely on what some people would call crutches, such as my solution above or using /ignore, in order to at least enjoy a minimum of life without harming others. IRL the solution was to avoid specific people.

It should not be a big problem on CW forums, since people generally are more careful and it's easier to avoid specific discussions, unlike on IRC/Telegram, plus we have more control on it in worst case scenarios. Plus unlike WalrusIRC and Telegram, forums have an /ignore feature anyway.

Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on September 12, 2015, 04:54:59 PM
the only friendships I think I managed to keep 100% intact are with tr1p1ea and juju

Unfortunately yes, this time something broke between us. I've tried to get back to you but you're now unreachable and that won't help us with anything. I still like you but I just can't handle your outbursts all the time.

That said, I hope we can keep being friendly here on the forums even if I'm not very active. Good luck.

Actually that part of my post about tr1p1ea and juju was unedited from March and it mentions 100% so anything else could be 90-99% (or friendships that are too recent to judge) but I am sorry if it is the case. I removed that part of the post now in case it causes misunderstandings. There is always private IRC convos that could work, but as long as it's not in a channel. I don't really trust Telegram because it auto-joins groups you're invited in and anyone can invite us at will. I don't feel safe there.

I respected your decision to leave the group when you did and did not add you back unless you asked for it. I didn't want to make you feel wrong because of it.

Well I was re-invited back to the Let's show aeTIos some metal group anyway >.< I thought it was you and not aeTIos that invited me since I didn't talk with aeTIos privately in a long while when this happened. I am sorry for that.

If I can trust that you won't invite me to any group in the future I can always recreate a new Telegram account, but I'll prbly use a different nickname or other anonymity features so people can't find me.

Woah... Well, DJ, it was always great to have you on irc to ask questions... Hopefully you can come to terms with your issue.
Will you not be as active on CW as you are now?

You have just been a great supporter and help to me in all of my xlibc related projects as well.  You are VERY helpful.

I'll remain active on CW forums (well except this weekend since I am attending three different events, including a Metallica concert). Just not on IRC. And thanks.

Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on September 12, 2015, 07:35:28 PM
I'll remain active on CW forums.

Ah, ok, I was worried that you would stop posting on CW as much. It will still be a loss not to have you on irc

Golly, i must have missed something...
I really don't understand what really happended because you are such a nice person to talk to.
I hate to say this but if your friends are telling you to shoot yourself, will you do it ?
I hope not.

Anyways, i guess i will see on the forums then.

Nah I won't do such thing, but what I explained in my post is true. My friends were right by recommending me that I quit specific sites or chats in march. Reading certain things there under my mental condition only caused me harm, which then affected my mood and activities everywhere else.

It was for the best, although I wish it didn't extend to CW IRC chat because I really loved chatting with people there.

There is always the solution of using IRC, which has /ignore, but then that means anyone can pm me x.x

Otherwise juju could add an /ignore feature to WalrusIRC, like what OmnomIRC had.

Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on September 13, 2015, 06:32:35 AM
Nah I won't do such thing, but what I explained in my post is true. My friends were right by recommending me that I quit specific sites or chats in march. Reading certain things there under my mental condition only caused me harm, which then affected my mood and activities everywhere else.

It was for the best, although I wish it didn't extend to CW IRC chat because I really loved chatting with people there.

There is always the solution of using IRC, which has /ignore, but then that means anyone can pm me x.x

Otherwise juju could add an /ignore feature to WalrusIRC, like what OmnomIRC had.

But what happened?
I never really saw you arguing on WalrusIRC. As I can see what everybody's writing and as I haven't blocked anyone, I never saw any offences towards you.
Well at the end its your choice.
Were fun times with you on WalrusIRC, hope you come back one day.

DJ tends to be more sensible than other people to some things and can easily take offense for things that other people wouldn't, especially when his mood is down. The last incident happened half on IRC, half on Telegram, I won't disclose what happened (I was involved though and I'm sad that it happened), but I think that if he judges it to be best for him, then it is. I don't want another december 2012 to happen.

Er actually it was 2012, not 2010. Also the issue is not so much about sensitivity as it is about being unable to figure out people's intentions when they say stuff, literally misinterpreting them or even not understanding them at all. Eg when somebody explains me something and it takes them several tries before I finally understand, due to having to explain things in a different manner to me.

Regarding working out people's intention, it's made much worse online by the fact text medium doesn't transmit them as easily as voice medium.

Regarding 2010, just before that year began, it is when it became clear that I would never be able to get rid of my issues, so I pretty much gave up and simply tried to avoid potential issues afterward, except that this failure severely ruined my self-esteem at the time, which almost led to stuff I won't disclose outside the safe-haven board or private messages. By 2012 I had mostly recovered, but in late 2014, after repeated issues with specific people elsewhere I was all back to the start case. The problem is when I feel down or am in a bad mood I am actually worse than normally, so that only exacerbates the problem. Nowadays I try to not complain publicly about incidents unless a forum member is really breaking the rules, so this is why sometimes you won't see anything wrong, but it still happens privately.

I am sorry to be late on this and I am sorry DJ for you having to leave the IRC :( but if it helps you I understand, I just really hope it does not come to you having to leave the CW forums O.O

Nah I doubt it will happen.

Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on September 13, 2015, 07:33:17 PM
Nah I doubt it will happen.

I am glad you stay on the forums :)

UPDATE: The main reason why I left WalrusIRC is that it lacks an /ignore feature that OmnomIRC had. I don't want to permanently ignore anyone here, but during hard times it can be handy to be able to do it on a temporary basis (it won't prevent everything wrong but at least it can help sticking around). While IRC has an ignore feature, there are always high risks of unwanted PMs there and I can't ignore specific WIRC users from IRC. As for Telegram, /ignore only works for private messages and CW staff can't even ban anyone in the group (only juju can, since he created it).

To ignore people on WalrusIRC, Streetwalrus directed me to Stylish extension after he edited the CSS of the shoutbox and I used the following code:

.message.<nick> { display:none; } (for example, .message.walrified { display:none; } would hide all new posts notifications)


Anyway, basically this means that I can now return to WalrusIRC :D. I just won't use IRC directly unless in special cases such as when WalrusIRC is down or not relaying messages.


I would like if people PMed me on the forums before contacting me on Telegram and if people didn't invite me to any group on Telegram. Anyway now I guess I can :walrii: again unless things somehow gets worse (but I think if we ever get any trolling problem on IRC then the bansticks would not be far away anyway)


EDIT: I also find it rather ironic that Telegram advertises itself as a secure chat medium, yet it won't even let group creators add admins to ban people and it won't even let people remove their phone numbers from other people's account .

Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on September 15, 2015, 09:02:11 PM
.message.<nick> { display:none; } (for example, .message.walrified { display:none; } would hide all new posts notifications)

Careful, it's case-sensitive. Well, I think. :P

Doesn't seem like so, but it's sure picky about http vs https, because it took us minutes to fix it >.<

Oh, that's a nice way to do it. Might use that trick when we'll actually code the actual command, thanks @Streetwalrus!

By the way, I dunno what you're doing, but in some cases instead of http:// or https:// you just do // so it automatically picks up the right one.

Stylish compares the beginning of the url so it won't work. Also not that this causes some issues (scrolling gets triggered and alternating line colors are broken) but otherwise it works pretty well I guess. When you implement the actual feature you can just compare the nickname to a list in a cookie and skip adding the message altogether.

Will it cause WIRC to stop working entirely if I enable an ignore on someone who posts?

No it won't.

Ah ok good. I was worried that ignoring people or bots would prevent good functioning of WIRC >.<