WNS Community Methodology

The Site Comments

I get comments here and there, some of the things we do may be confusing to some users but I think it's fair to provide some background for why some of the things on WNS are the way they are currently. We've had a long road of rough users. This is indicative of a comment system like we have that allows you to be Anonymous in your chatting. Over the years we'd had a severe rash, to put it mildly. Lots of people cropped up with racist, sexist, specifically rule breaking behaviour and manage to try to put the good part of the community down.

These behaviours have caused entire ISP areas to be shut down. People abuse mobile phones, bottom line. They ruin it for others but my literal job as a moderator is to protect the users who are trying to discuss pro wrestling in peace and we give a LOT of leeway to what is otherwise considered jerks of the IWC. I don't wipe people from the site without consideration for how much sheer abuse an area has put into WNS. I've been at war with plenty of people and cornered them into finally leaving after programming in numerous mechanisms that have made their rampage of abuse MUCH harder.

My best recommendation, if you ARE a mobile user experiencing a ban and you feel you did nothing wrong, or literally, did nothing wrong try connecting to WNS using your home's broadband connection instead or an alternative wireless hotspot and you're likely to have success in joining in the conversation. I do apologize for any legit users having dealt with this inconvenience but please understand it's been REALLY bad and the battle has put more code that PROTECTS the users than actual code that adds the comments to the site.

WNS changes words that are potentially "abusive", i.e. racist, discriminatory language. We cannot determine the context of the message so we've allowed it to be sent in "changed form". Repeated abusive text is blocked entirely. It's impossible for me to know HOW something is said abusively versus how it was meant to be said so this method is how it's gonna have to work currently. The wordlist of blocked terms is relatively short so it shouldn't be a problem for you. I realize we post items that allows the discussion of certain controversial topics but we'll have to get slightly more creative in how we discuss them as a community because over the years I've seen what some consider "toned down" words be repeatedly used to abuse the system, it's members and targeted at wrestlers. What you consider "toned down" by another may not and we're just gonna put our foot down on it.

The Voting of Comments

This one also confuses people, typically in two ways. First, one hits a brick wall after they downvoted "too much". I feel like it's not too much to ask that people contribute a positive vote to the good comments. The Internet has become largely a world that focuses on the negativity of one's words and actions and the good guys get left in the dust, which to me is a shame. We need to change how we deal with these things as a community. The MAJOR reason this was added was "downvote abuse". People who don't read the comments, but just click down down down down down, the whole way, leaving things left unlimited allowed for people to give a less than honest impression of what one's comments were valued as. It's a double edged knife, I know. The comment voting is also a tool for a self-moderating community. If a comment is downvoted enough, it's hidden (with the ability to show it by clicking). I want to give the community as much power as I reasonably can give without allowing blatant abuse of the system so this was how I decided to do it. You get your first 5 votes free, from there you must maintain a 2/1 ratio and upvoting is limitless. You can bank your downvotes this way.

This is the actual formula used:
if(($your_downvotes>=$half_upvotes)&&(($your_upvotes+$your_downvotes)>5))

Also I get asked "Why can't we downvote admin/mod comments?". As simple as I can say, if you can't see how a troll could hurt what is truly a message that a member needs to see, then I have difficulty explaining it much more. I never discuss wrestling on my admin account. I get downvoted as you do, I get upvoted and I have a score like the rest of you. If I downvote too much, I get the message about downvoting too much. Nobody on this site has special powers in being a moderator other than deleting messages, and banning people when needed. Special privileges on comments and votes is NOT how this place works.

I discourage other admins and mods speaking wrestling on their accounts for the very reason that the comments are unable to be voted on. We have to take the good with the bad on some things and the methodology on WNS will stay the way it is unless I see a path that is a better way out or around it. I only want to protect the community and allow the best to shine. They DESERVE that and I am grateful for them coming here and offering their insight about the past and today's wrestling scene. I am here for them, not the abusers. I will show them the door, the good users DESERVE this. I am highly leinent and don't simply ban people for being "wrestling opinion jerks". You gotta break our core rules to be shown the door. I hope that explains the intention here.

Behavioral Handling

I'll put this as clear and blunt as possible. If somebody is a problem on this site, I take it like you walked into my home and told my friends and family to go screw themselves. Now, putting that in perspective, removing people from the site like you would your home for disrespecting you and yours is exactly how things are handled. You welcome them in, they treat you like crap, you escort them to the door or help them through that door. We're not here to cater to bad apples and these types of people aren't going to be treated as kindly as those who manage to have respect while in my house.

I'm also not twisting your arm to come to my house, so if you're not interested in the party, don't come. The articles posted might not 100% interest you and that's fine with us. If you need to only see what you like, treat it like a party you're invited to, but you don't have to come. You're not gonna hurt my feelings, I totally understand. However it's unacceptable to show up and be a jerk to everybody because the events aren't planned exactly how you wanted. Be good, have fun, discuss wrestling. We all have this in common. It can't be too hard to figure out how to properly discuss something we all love.

Alternative Connections

If you use a connection other than direct to WNS it is likely blocked from our site comments. While we recognize that not everybody using a proxy or VPN is trying to abuse the site it's largely become a tool for those types of people. We've managed to block "bad IPs" using several DNSBL databases, which includes TOR, SOCKS5, Open Proxies, Drones and spam flagged IPs. We also block known VPN connections. WNS does not use your direct connection to sell any sort of information to corporations. Your IP is encrypted when you add a comment. The "WNS-" host you see on your comment is the byproduct. It's not able to be reversed back into your IP or host as it's become garbage after different cycles of encryption until it's finally dumped into a tidy hexidecimal representation. We also do not GeoIP block anything. If you're not going to participate in the comments these connections are fine.

WNS Customizing & Your Info

With the exception of our XMPP service (Register for @wrestlr.me XMPP address) using WNS doesn't need an account to provide it's experience. Everything you store is saved on your own computer or device via a "cookie" (not a tracking cookie). If you "email your settings" (an option on the panel) we do not save this email address. It's a purely raw code that sends via email a link that stores your cookie in the URL parameters. It's base64 encoded, and when clicked will restore your color settings, key, and everything else. XMPP password is also encrypted in those details when provided (you don't have to).

We don't save your cookie either so keep that WNS restorative message inboxed, don't delete it! You can use this link on any device and using the community key feature will allow you to tie in your "community score" to all of those devices. The community key stores nothing important about you, it's random letters and numbers. The panel settings for XMPP are only for using features with it on WNS. If you provide XMPP details it will show your address in message to share with other people on WNS comments, and you can enable messages from non-friends if you like (or not). If you still would like to use WNS XMPP and not use any site features involving it, you can, just download an XMPP supported client. Google "XMPP Client" or try these suggestions below:
Clients: Pidgin | Gajim | Conversations (Android) | Monal (iOS)

Simply enter "wrestlr.me" as the server (or may be labeled "domain") and your username and password. Add friends manually by adding them like an email address (but it's not an email address) such as: user@wrestlr.me
This will direct your XMPP client to know which "user" on "wrestlr.me" to request as a friend.