ll_Xethman_ll

I've not been here in a few weeks or so. There is no intended rant on my part, so sorry for that impression from the thread I made that was closed by CnCNet management. Once again though, there seems to have been an attack on the person, rather than the argument. I noticed the topic I started was closed after there was significant discussion about some CnCNet issues brought forth by me and other players. I note that Funky retains the ability to ban people unilaterally. For example, my ban seems to be still in effect, and restrictions on other players, and what they say still seems to be in effect. I also read the comments, including Acid's comments, and those in response to him. To be clear, I am not Acid, and I do not know who he is. I do not know him in any way that I can recall. Yet, he also seemed to be attacked, and accused of things just like me (like him being accused of being me). I will say once again that the player Acid, me, and others like us who have said anything against CnCNet have been sanctioned to varying degrees. Rightly or wrongly is a subjective matter. There was no democracy in it though, and once again I say that truth should not be sanctioned away from the RA community. It also seems that some other RA players have been banned, or otherwise restricted in some way by Funky, EHY, or other CnCNet management (still yet not named despite requests for that). Please see thread started by me on this subject (closed and possibly unavailable now). I expect this thread to also be closed/muffled. I do not play RA anymore. I've not played it seriously in years. I make no money from other people playing, and I have nothing to gain otherwise from the RA community. I'm not "lying" about RA, and how it is capable of running, and how it was played on other servers. One person who replied to the closed thread said that the burden of proof is upon me. I offer in return... Please ask me any question you like and I'll provide what proof that I can for any claim made by me, or otherwise made by another sanctioned player if it is reasonable, and I'll do what I can to provide the most accurate reply that I can, with evidence if available. My name is Adrian and you can reach me at [email protected] Respectfully... Cheers!

Re. Ranting: Please simply answer the two questions at hand. They are not complicated. If CnCNet is controlled by only one, or a few RA players then please just say that. If this is the case then please also let the RA community know exactly which players have control, and the rules that govern the actions of those players who have control. This should not be an unreasonable request. Clarification on this point might be helpful so that the whole RA community is properly informed. It is curious that people who never played at Kali (and possibly never played at the previous servers) are providing "informed" input on this topic. How can these folks argue I'm wrong when they haven't tested my claims for themselves? If any of you would like Kali files, maps, and serials then please let me know. Until you try the other server(s) then one could reasonably argue that you cannot really have an informed opinion on this subject. Who is Nyerguds? Who is Jacko? Why would you RC1985 want to "troll" At0m1? I don't know any of these commenters, or understand what they are contributing to this discussion? Also, why would you want to "troll" At0m1? Do you not understand that when you make a statement like this it strongly invalidates what you say overall? Did you read above about ego/emotionally based arguments? Curiously, At0m1 actually described the exact same CnCNet issues that I have been describing... and he and I never were allies, or even buddies at Kali, or previously. Others have said the same things. Again, other pros have been banned, and I ask once again... please provide a list of banned players. Please let the RA community know why they were banned, the rules governing those decisions, and exactly which CnCNet player did the banning? Re. At0m1 having server privileges: If this player had this power at CnCNet or elsewhere so that your "link was deleted by admin"... please provide evidence for this? I don't know of At0m1 ever having significant privileges at any RA server in the 20 years I have played RA. If he were to abuse any privileges then I would likely be one of the first to call him out on that... though only with evidence. I humbly suggest that you are incorrect in this matter, and that you might instead consider contacting him for tips on old school RA techniques if you are interested in learning RA at a high level, and also perhaps contact him for old school lighter tricks if you are so inclined (he's actually very qualified to teach both). As for The FaceBook RA Hall of Fame page... I created it for Kali players. That is the truth. To be 100% clear... I did not "give it away" to Dizz, nor to anyone else. Furthermore, under my watch it never would have been given to the CnCNet crowd. However, outside of my watch, players who were never meant to have control of it now do have control. I created the site. It was not created for the CnCNet community. Let's be frank... is the CnCNet crowd saying that my site now belongs to the CnCNet community? I humbly suggest that we get some clarity on these kinds of things, and also some understanding if such behavior is considered acceptable, so that the RA community is well informed. I'm also willing to publish any response from FaceBook management on this issue of creation and ownership of my RA Hall of Fame page. So let's all be clear on a few things: 1) I say RA should be a democratic gaming community. I also say that it was democratic at Kali and previous servers that existed before CnCNet I say it is not democratic at CnCNet. I've offered evidence for these statements. My unilateral ban from the CnCNet player Funky being one point of evidence. 2) I say RA has proven to run better for some players on older servers. Scroll rate and jitter issues have proven to be limited at these older servers. I say that how RA runs is at least as important as the skilled players who play it. I've offered evidence for these statements, or guidance in obtaining this evidence. Any person is welcome to contact me if they have any questions. 3) I say the RA community should know who is in control of any server they play on, or pay/donate to, and also what the rules governing those with server privileges are. I say this is not an unreasonable thing to ask. Can you folks simply answer these questions?

EHY's best reply seems to be claims that I am lying, despite the fact that nearly everything I have said is almost easily provable... granted with some effort in some cases. However, that seems to be one of the conditions that EHY imposes, as predictably few players will take the effort required to research for themselves. In any case, please let me know which evidence you would like for anything I have said and I will do what I can to provide it for you, and the RA community. If I'm wrong I will own the mistake for the RA community to see. Furthermore, RA community... I would strongly offer the opinion that EHY should not be "proud" of abusing his server privileges at Kali. He should also not be proud of abusing other sites such as the RA FaceBook page that I created. As previously stated, those sites were made for Kali players... I specifically made the RA Hall of Fame page for Kali players. I did give admin responsibility to Dizz (a fellow MANclan member) while I was away though. Dizz seemingly later passed on admin privileges to EHY. To be clear, I would not have allowed that transfer at any time in the past or present had I known it was being considered. The reasons for this include: EHY's abuse of server privileges at Kali, a historically aggressive attitude towards "new" old school RA players at Kali and GameSpy, elitist management behavior at both Kali and CnCNet, and conflict of interest with EHY being a founding member of CnCNet. These would also be cited as some of the main reasons for EHY likely being worthy of further scrutiny in what really should be an unbiased and democratic RA discussion here. Furthermore... generally, a dictatorship is when a single person has control. In 20 years of playing RA I have never been banned by one all powerful player at ANY RA server I ever played at... except at CnCNet. Please look in the dictionary as to what defines "dictatorship" if you do not understand its meaning. As for EHY's claims of Kali being a dictatorship... RA community, to the best of my knowledge the owner at Kali was a fellow named Jay Cotton. He was not a player of RA, and I never saw him interact with anyone other than as a manager of the site. I never saw Mr. Cotton be anything other than professional in the many years I played there. I saw no evidence of a dictatorship there in any way... and no unilateral bans, or similar behavior. If EHY makes these claims against Mr. Cotton, or anyone else at Kali then please provide them in writing. I will forward them to Mr. Cotton's email, or whoever else has been accused by EHY so that those accused can reply accordingly if they feel the need to do so. SteelDart's best reply seems to be that since I do not know him, I therefore cannot be a pro/experienced player. Does anybody else see any problems with this, or these other kinds of ego/emmotionally based arguments? Once again I ask simple distilled questions about the ability of a single person to ban other players at CnCNet... I ask simple questions about the speed of CnCNet compared to older servers. I ask questions about an equal RA community. As evidence I present the fact that a single person WAS able to ban me. As evidence I present that on Kali, a vote was required. There is simply still no answer from any of these folks about questions regarding a democratic RA community. I also offer as evidence that any player is welcome to set up Kali and compare how the game plays there vs. how it plays at CnCNet. If CnCNet runs adequate for them, then that is ok. If it does not, then there would be further evidence to support my claims... or perhaps as EHY likes to call them my "lies". I welcome anyone to investigate, and if I'm wrong I will own my errors. As previously stated, I'm further happy to provide any player with program files and guidance when possible to install Kali, in addition to the serial codes for permanent registration, so that anyone interested can compare and decide for themselves. Trial subscriptions at Kali still also seem to be free. Re. Contributing to the Server: Please see CnCNet chat logs for further evidence. I previously offered $1000 for my part to anyone willing to help revamp the Kali server and make it more accessible to all players. My conditions are simple... Kali stays democratic as it is with nobody (me, or anyone else who contributes even much more $$$) having any special privileges there in any way shape or form. All votes there would have to be equal to any other, and votes would be required for any significant action like banning a player, and also required for which players get server/moderator privileges. Re. Cheating: Once again, I have played all of the players EHY calls out for cheating here. EHY does have a long standing history of calling out players though... Anyway, even if they cheated, then I can say for fact that it did not help them so much as I have played hundreds of games with the players EHY listed as cheaters and found that they lost almost as much as me, and sometimes more. It seemed to mostly depend on the map, and what specific skills were called into play for any given game. GPS, autoclick, auto shift, auto think... whatever is claimed for cheats, I would argue that any pro/experienced player would find these things mostly insignificant as compared to the effect that direct player skills have on who wins. In addition, I would argue that one person who has dictatorial control over a server, and who has proven to summarily ban multiple pro players, has much more ability to influence the pool of available RA players. Funky currently decides who plays RA now... Funky thus by default sets the bar. Funky's friends (EHY, SteelDart, Basad, and whoever else) and those like them appear to benefit most from this arrangement. Nonetheless, simple questions remain: 1) Why can a single player ban other players on CnCNet? Where is the RA democracy that used to exist for the RA community? 2) Why does RA run better for some old pros on a much older server like Kali (even after following Funky's instructions), as compared to CnCNet? And, why are old players attacked and discredited for making these observations?

Sorry, I don't know you SteelDart and I have played RA online for about 20 years. I'm not sure what you mean by "wannabe". Yet again I state that I'm just a player of RA like nearly everyone else. I use the nickname Xeth... and I've pretty much used the same nickname for about 20 years. Please let us all know who you are, your nicknames, and your relative experience in RA. Please let us know if you have played at Kali or older servers, and what your interests are in this matter. Also, the wording and context of your message seemed to exhibit at least some form of bias/aggression in my humble opinion. If you feel I have said things that are untrue, please consider directing your efforts at correcting me, preferably with evidence so that others may consider both sides fairly. Please also provide proof of me ever referring to myself as a "legend" or anything else that grandiose. Why would you even say such a thing? Regardless, to my knowledge no other players have ever referred to me in such a way. The best I have achieved in RA is making the top 10 in some old players' rankings... that is it. As previously said, I'm just a player like everyone else. I do not understand the apparent need of CnCNet supporters to make personal attacks when they could simply respond with reasonable answers to anything I've said. I am open to being wrong. In any case, your negative comments are unwelcome SteelDart, whoever you are. I'm interested in RA facts only. As for scroll rates, and game speed... apologies if you SteelDart or any others have not experienced how these things influence how RA runs. I humbly suggest that you might better understand these variables and their influence on the game if you play the game at standard game speeds and scroll rates. If it helps, please try playing RA just on your computer at maximum speed, and a fast scroll rate... try a skirmish for example. If you tone down the speed to human levels then what you experience there for speeds and instant scroll rates is probably similar to what I am describing. Kali and older servers ran RA more at speeds and scroll rates more like that, rather than the speeds that some of us experience at CnCNet. FYI... I'm still unilaterally banned by just one player... Funky. Does nobody else see why RA dictatorships are wrong? What happened to democracy in the RA community?

EHY - Please provide evidence for your claims. For example... My "deeply flawed rant" would presumably be full of unverifiable content, and ranting emotion. My message was, and still is about the facts. You seem to prefer dubious statements and personal attacks in your attempt to somehow discredit what I've said. They are unhelpful. Here are some facts that seem to contradict your claims... I never dominated anything on Kali and I was never really a significant host of game rooms there, as I tended to join other rooms. For example... check server logs at CnCNet and you will see the same pattern of me mostly joining other rooms. If I could provide Kali records for the same I would. EHY... you are claiming something quite the opposite, so please provide some proof. If I'm proven wrong on this then read no further as I am incorrect. If however, you are proven wrong then please own that mistake. Also, I never kicked anyone from any room I did make, for not agreeing with me, let alone as some kind of standard MO as you claim. Generally, people who were dishonest, or who tried to cause conflict for no reason but to cause conflict, were booted from my rooms. Very few players were regularly kicked from my rooms.. lemming, mega, and mac are the only stand-outs. I was also just a player at Kali like everyone else. I had no server permissions there, or any special powers. In addition, banning a player on Kali happened by votes from multiple members. I never had any kind of power like that. Furthermore, as previously stated... it was in fact you EHY who had server privileges at Kali. FYI... Funky recently agreed with me that you should not have used your privileges there to post messages directly traffic away from Kali to CnCNet (please review CnCNet chat logs for evidence of that). I don't understand how the "tables have turned". EHY, you had server privileges at Kali... I didn't... you had more power than me there. If I call you and Funky liars... it is partly because of statements you make like this. Funky does seem to try to be genuine in the information he publishes, but you EHY make statements you know are untrue. And, when called to back them up you instead divert attention away to something else. Your comments are all the more bizarre when one considers the fact that you now have control over my FB Red Alert Hall of Fame page. You have now used two sites dedicated to Kali players (one created by Jay Cotton, and one created by me) to direct people AWAY from Kali. And, aren't you also listed as a contributing member for CnCNet? EHY your hypocrisy is truly extraordinary. In truth, your hands are among dirtiest in this matter, so it is not entirely unsurprising that you would be the first to post a hostile comment in my thread. Furthermore, if you have evidence of people cheating on Kali, or otherwise of someone having some ability to ban others there then please provide that evidence EHY, in decades of playing there I saw so little evidence of any significant cheat that I would consider cheating a non-issue in RA. Even if some were cheating... it at least did not seem to help them too much, as I saw no player so dominant that the correct strategy did not beat them. Re. TYBYTE: I knew him. He probably had the skills to cheat, but I don't think he really did that. He got beaten like all of us in so many different pro games that if he was cheating, it didn't matter... under the right circumstances EVERY pro player got owned... sometimes embarrassingly. I've been responsible for my fair share of embarrassing games, and I've seen some of his, and most other pro players' worst days. In any case, I never saw TYBYTE or any other player take any control over Kali. Please provide proof of that if you are going to call him out for doing this or something similar. He did for a limited time use a Windows XP RPC service exploit to annoy players. But, that was many years before even Kali started to wane. FYI, TYBYTE was not a friend of mine, in fact I think he enjoyed beating me. He even used the RPC exploit on me back in the day. I may not have like him all that much, but I won't support dubious claims about him or any other player without proof. By the way... yet again... who does owns CnCNet? It did seem a fair question from my previous message. And, also when will one of you answer the question about a democratic CnCNet site, vs the current dictatorship. You guys understand the difference I hope. I note no reply from Funky regarding this observation of his ability to unilaterally ban at will. If CnCNet is free and equal for everyone, then please let us know how that works. Please let us know how the vote system works. Currently, it seems to be a vote of one. Again, please provide a list of banned players and reasons why. Please provide the server regulations that were used to support those decisions to ban them. This request should not be unreasonable. Funky when you claim to have helped me and I've insulted you... then please also let us get a complete chat log of all that. Last I recall, I studiously did exactly what you said in order to resolve the game play issues I report. I found other players who reported the same experience. CnCNet does not run RA as well as Kali did. If that insults you then sorry. I may be the one currently saying that the loudest, but it seems that at least I'm not the only experienced player to be observing similar CnCNet problems. At0m1 described what seemed to be the exact same issues that I have had. Please let us know who CnCNet Management is so that any further issues can be discussed directly with them.

Dear Great All Powerful Leader Funky, I did what you and what others asked. Don't you remember? Interesting... Anyway, I copied CnCNet into my Kali folder, other folders, made changes to settings, etc, etc. There was no improvement. Just like there was seemingly no change for other pro players who followed similar directions from you. Please note that none of the recommended CnCNet changes were required at any of the older servers like Kali. Btw... I'm still banned unilaterally by you. Re. Ownership of CnCNet and my FB Hall of Fame page: Do I get my page back then? Or does CnCNet get to keep using it? Funky you act as though you didn't know :/ Shame on you for playing it different than that. Regardless, can I have what is mine back? Also, I don't own CnCNet either, but if I get to ban people at will like you then your point is somewhat moot, is it not? I'm still banned unilaterally by you by the way. Re. You helping me... Thank you. Though the things you recommend do not seem to help. The same recommendations appear to have not helped some other pro RA players. Games were seemingly better on older servers for me and perhaps for some other players. If this fact insults you, then apologies for the truth. I note I'm still unilaterally banned by you. How goes the dictatorship? Re. Comments about kids playing on the server... It's quite interesting that you would say such a thing as the CnCNet sycophants have used foul language so often more than any of my replies to them. Maybe check the server logs at CnCNet. I'm still banned unilaterally by you... Can I ban you too if you say something I don't like? Who does own CnCNet? Maybe it would be fair for everyone to know all the names/interests involved, and who is getting paid? I'm still banned unilaterally by you... in case you did not notice the abuse of your server privileges (as a "non-owner" of CnCNet). Please let me know server rules from the owners of CnCNet... also please provide the most recent server chat logs. We'll see how often I violated any rules, and also how often "others" violated rules. Is abuse of server privileges a violation of server rules? You might have to ban yourself if so :/ At Kali, players like you Funky could not ban anyone. You could not accuse people of things, hold others to different standards as your buddies, or do any other similar things you have proven to do. You couldn't exercise any power over anyone... you were just a player like everyone else. However, at CnCNet you can though... yet you do not "own" CnCNet. Curious indeed... If you didn't notice before... I'm still banned unilaterally by you. If I could I'd ban you for abuse of server privileges. At the very least, nobody at Kali would have gotten away with what you do. Have you also banned Br34K? Who else have you banned? The operative word is YOU. YOU seem to get to decide everything now. I'm still banned unilaterally by you... In case you missed that point from before. If you do not get why that is so wrong of you to do, then what else can be said Mr. Dictator? You avoid addressing your abuse of server privileges, in a similar way that you try to direct comments from old players about CnCNet right back against them, like it is their fault. For any CnCNet player you find to attack me, I'll find an old pro to back up what I'm saying. But wait, it seems you ban and filter out at least some old pros, so maybe the vote would be slightly skewed? Funky, whether or not you "liked" playing me, or whether or not I am a "good" player, or any of the other unimportant stuff you say is true... guess what? None of it matters... I'm still banned unilaterally by you. I still am an RA player, I'm still at Kali, and if I have anything say about it... I'll always counter any of the status quo untruths about RA put forth by you, or whoever "owns CnCNet". Any player is welcome to visit Kali, I'll help get them setup. If players want to contribute to the site and make it more open to all players I'll contribute significant $$$ to development, and pay any developer. I won't ask for special server privileges... my vote there would be the same as any other. At least it won't be a dictatorship there. RA Players... I made this same offer about five minutes before Funky banned me, so likely most did not see it. Just FYI.

Dear Red Alert Players, My player name is ll_Xethman_ll and I am a long standing player of RA since its early days. Some of you know me also as Smurf3tt3, Dust2Dust, Xethikium, or just plain old Xeth. Recently I was banned (by unilateral decision of the owner of CnCNet... Funky). Here are some of the reasons why... I have continually said that RA does not run on CnCNet as it should, as compared to even older servers. I still say that. I recently tested (as of late 2015) at the Kali server and RA still runs as it should there, with proper high speeds and scroll rates. To be clear, Kali is an effectively abandoned/dead server, and it takes effort to even get setup there now... but the fact it still runs RA better than CnCNet (for me, and seemingly others) is telling, and part of the point of this message. Fellow RA players, I also asked for return control of the "CnCNet" FaceBook Red Alert Hall of Fame page from Funky/CnCNet management back to me. To be clear, I created that site for Kali players back in ~2012 to help support Kali players. The site was certainly NOT created for CnCNet management, who were already on the Kali site at that time pushing players to CnCNet, using Kali server privileges. I took a break from RA, and later gave control of my site to a friend and Kali/clan player called DIZZYMAN, and somehow control was transferred from him to players who should not have had control (namely EHY and Basad). Curiously , both EHY and Basad were not supporters of Kali, and EHY actually had server privileges at Kali and created server messages/links directing Kali players to CnCNet. In any case, I created the Red Alert Hall of Fame site to support the Kali community during a time when CnCNet management was using Kali server permissions to direct Kali player traffic away from Kali, and towards CnCNet. The use of my site as it is now is truly a perversion of its original intent, as it was meant to support old skool pro RA players, and the kinds of games, skills, speeds they were used to. From my experience, I can say that although pro gamers still currently play at CnCNet... gameplay is inferior at CnCNet due to jitter and scroll issues. I can accept the possibility that there is some anomaly in regards to just my experience at CnCNet. However, I've used multiple computers to test, and other credible older players have said the same as me about how the game runs on CnCNet. For example, At0m1 was discussing his similar experiences with game scroll rates shortly before I was banned. I called Funky out on these things, as I was time and time again made to believe that what I was experiencing for game play on CnCNet was perhaps something just to do with me, my computer, my internet connection, old expectations, w/e... The language used against me was basically that it's just me, and that I don't like CnCNet, or I'm lying in general otherwise... because I don't like CnCNet. In response, I called Funky a liar for not acknowledging these known issues. I feel that if skilled players other than me are saying the same thing, then we are either all liars, or there just may be something to what we are saying. In a democracy those things have a better chance of being worked out... Not so much so when Funky can ban as he wishes on CnCNet. In any case, Funky seemed to be quite upset that I called him a liar (please see server messages/logs for any who have access)... and I was soon banned afterwards. Regardless of any issues I have with how CnCNet runs and currently dominates the RA community, in my humble opinion each player should have a relatively equal voice. That means Funky... you can't ban people just because you can, or because you don't like what they say. Fellow players... at least with Kali, and the older servers no single individual/player had so much control over all others that they could unilaterally ban at will. Most experienced players have played with others that they did not like... However, bans or any other significant action called upon were voted with no one person having dictatorship over any other, regardless of status. My ban is still in effect at CnCNet. I'm at Kali when I can be most days. All RA players are welcome there. I'll help get you get set up if I can. Cheers RA Players! Xethman