Guide to The Doom Community

Let's preface what this post is and who I am. I am Mobius and a lot of you may not know me, but I was a prominent member of the multiplayer Doom port known as Zandronum. I am one of the founders and current leaders of the port's most premium native clans Cube or informally known as A3. I'm an exceptionally mixed figure/entity having a sordid history that details controversy, subterfuge, entertainment, and stimulation... or a "troll" to the uninitiated (really doesn't depict an accurate picture if you want to be objective). I have been many things to many different people, but to sum up this resume -- I am known. I have been in many different mods at many different subsets of the community. I even touch ground on Doomworld and got immediately quarantined when I argued that the United States was NOT waging some new christian crusade against muslims (that was literally an argument they had). So I know a bit of the characters you guys may or may not interact with and I know a lot more about doom politics from the aggressive side of staff policies, and trust me a lot of you have much to learn. Allow me to guide you on how to properly immerse yourself and equip you with the tools (mental) necessary to wade through this endless sea of bullshit and simplify what it takes to make the most out of Doom.

 

This thread, and what I am going to write, is going to be a little lengthy with a tangent and examples sprinkled in so please humor me. I also want whoever has contact with Endless to pass this to him from me after having read what's been happening lately.

"YOU need to read this."

Those of you who are not new may want to refresh a bit on what I will explain. I will not withhold anything back and will declassify/disclose all manner of operations that has happened in Zandronum (at least all the ones I know or know A3 was apart of). Doomworld isn't any different except that there is no active outlet of aggression to direct anger at. The multiplayer ports, at some time, use to settle matters through duels when applicable (basic shit talk about skill or whatever); however, this wasn't enough as our issues became much more political, nuanced, and tiresome. Take it from me: almost every political issue I had with this community was a battle for my existence. I was levied with masterban/irc/forum threats yearly with such great regularity I became desensitized to them. Now let's define some terminologies to keep you interested.

Political: Activity attributed to non-physical confrontation or resolution usually accompanying multiple parties and interest to achieve mutual goals and often geared to or against an objective or target.

Tertiary: Users who engage in an activity or hobby outside of bounds of the source of a community tailored to it. Those on the absolute periphery of a "scene" with no affiliation or presence/representation. An Example: General players who download wads from doom archive or archive.org and don't really have an account on a forum or interact with much of anyone. They are only a statistic for downloads on a website for a file and their only representation is an administrator mentioning a number of hits a month for a link whether from the site or mirrored. The problem with a tertiary is their incredibly naivety to any structure imaginable, but that's also perpetuated by The Big Lie and thus why comments from Endless such as "having more moderators is good" is seen by more experienced people as an unfortunate misguided but well meaning sentiment shattered once he's surprised what the implications meant when the bannings and censorship followed.

Secondary: Resting on the edge of our community inner rings are secondaries. These people are a bit more involved in the community and its influences though their very own influences are incredibly limited to scope proportionate to their following or impact. This is where a tertiary begins to enter the scene through forum posts and acquires a bit of a name for those at a primary level, but are not in the favor of a primary and are generally ignored unless a specific point is addressed favoring a specific point of interest. Skulltag/Zandronum history is laden with tertiary and secondary ass kissery in the hopes of being noticed by their favorite sempai.

Primary: These are the community's premier representatives whether it's an official, officiated, modder, or a user. Primaries not only carry heavy amounts of weight and implications, but have access to exclusive content and able to "play" or "maneuver" in the system. It isn't about post count but trends. The popularity of a topic. The lasting impression an act has or the impact of their past acts. Primaries come in two flavors: shadowy-dark(introverted) or overt-apparent(extrovert) but the most skillful of them interchange on context. The former are people you've barely or never ever heard in the ears of those you do know (people who are friends with staff) and the latter is anyone with a huge following or impact on trends or ideas.

Status Quo: What is and present of the hierarchy. The reality is that hierarchies change over time due to politics, but you'll find that many at any part of a pecking order will fight to sustain their status for an eternity. Do not think this doesn't happen in a 27 year old game like Doom. It can happen at an office it can happen here and has. The status quo will work as an entire operation if necessary to remove usurpers or any perceived dissidence regardless of merit.

Narrative: The story told by a specific person framed in an exact order to depict an event and character in some light. My wording on that description alone should ask a plethora of questions: What frame? What light? What order? Specific person, who? Essentially a story created for the purpose to illustrate or caricaturize a person for the sole intent to frame them, the event, and its meaning in a manner that benefits its story teller. Doom is inundated with narratives. This whole entire era is a post-truth machination of narratives. I got banned for striking out against the idea of narratives. The narrative was a "security risk/dox" but the real reason tells a different story. Doomerboards is a racist, islamaphobic, homophobic, transphobic, kenophobic, phobosphobic, sexist, misogynistic, misandrist, atavistic, anti-vax, trans-vax, exo-vax, hate board. Narratives are specifically weaponized by members of any staff since their official ranking goes unchallenged by tertiaries who don't know any better since they are so far removed they don't think/want drama enough to investigate it.

Maneuver:An intentional act to create or provoke a desired response or outcome politically. This can be seen as talking to the right guy at the right time and say the right things to get what you want. It can be seen as getting someone demodded or deadmin by them playing their hand too frequently, or simply a 3rd party group masquerading as a raid party into a specific discord to fuel animosity between two parties that already have tension to bring them over to a desired side. A maneuver can be a subtle as a well timed implication.

Usurper: Any "actor" with the intent to sow discord for the purpose of changing the status quo, especially in favor of acquiring status for themselves. Lone wolf types do not apply for they are just passive members of the status quo and are as useless as a specter. Those who are troubled by bullying/harassment from the status quo will end up eventually becoming a usurper only by virtue of putting up any fight that'd disrupt the status quo's harmony even at your expense; hence, you either kiss the ring or the feet and if you deny the ring then you'll get the hand but if you deny the foot you get the kick. You cannot do little and remain sedentary in doom. The problems only escalates until the opposer and opposed remove one another. There is no other option. I wish there was.

Note:
Staff members are officiated and thus are within primary territory, but each of these only describe a gradient of a person's actual status. A staff member, who should be considered a primary, may find himself being supplanted by an ordained person at the behest of unforeseen discussion or politics and thus may be evaluated at secondary; however, no amount of administration or narrative can stop a primary who does not require anointment and thus you'll see a lot of tension between an influence of that magnitude and the staff.

So now you are definitions. You are better equipped now than you probably ever were. I would link my own cointelpro thread from Zandronum detailing the characteristics of spotting a troll, but sadly it was archived somewhere by a moderator who didn't like the idea I was exposing the element of sockpuppet concern-trolling that was taking place during -- what we affectionately call -- Jenobyl. Now if someone could find that we'd be in business to disseminate more information and trust me there's a lot to work with.

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Now what?

Let me explain to you a bit about the dynamics of what goes on in forum politics in Doom, but I won't touch on Doomworld specifically as that's outside of my purview and I am only privy to cursory knowledge at best; albeit, I've had my fair share of the left leaning dewww's taqiyya akin pilpul for a week to determine the insane cognitive brain damage that they engage in. Everything boils down to ring kissing. I am not even joking. The moment you earn any stride or attention, even if it can be shared, is taking away from someone else. You can make a mod people love and you will then fundamentally be resented by someone somewhere and god forbid they are a secondary with pull or a primary. You think I'm joking but I'm not. You think that with an overlap of players that it didn't matter who played what, but that's something a tertiary will say. A tertiary has no interest in the politics of the primary community and thus limits his understanding on human nature. You can't even trust game journalist not to lie to you, but therein lies the entire problem with that belief. Profesionals are paid to have a credible opinion measured at the competency of a top gamer.. the reality is these are college D students who got into gaming journalism because they couldn't cut it being an actual paid clickbait shill for some tech subsidiary.

Tertiary are so enamored with the idea of peace and tranquility that they trust people of authority to tell them the truth or have their interest at heart, but you aren't even on the forums to represent yourself to know for certain what type of untested characters these people are. Almost every forum admin/moderator have the same social afflictions and personality types akin to an abusive cop. These guys don't become moderators or administrators to contribute to the community, because by nature you have modders/sprite artist/musicians who add almost timeless amounts of resources to said community. What can someone who basically babysits possibly do as or even better than them? The answer is nothing and a tertiary will never know this because authority = status = official. A seal of approval over a narrative. Secondaries and Primaries are not as gelded.

When you accomplish something you must take attention from someone else, and if you do so then a tithe or penance is in order. Your fee will eventually come up and in this day and age of Doom a lot of you will be needing to practice your kissing because some hands right now are looking pretty lonely. The moment you do not pay what is owed you become an outcast. Don't think so? Ghouls Vs Humans was one of the most impactful mods of the entire history of Doom. There is no argument to the overall influence it had on multiplayer modders. Everyone either played it or made their own class wad. It was an explosion of activity lasting for 4 years before Cutmanmike abrogated his project in pursuit of MM8BDM. He got a caco for it and everything, but that's not all he got. Ridicule was a small tithe for the likes of Firewolf and other secondaries campaigned against him and anyone who involved themselves with it, because no other mod got any attention for a very long time. It was a seriously petty endeavor to see "SkullRant" exist almost solely to blast a popular wad, but yet it happened and was lasting. It isn't the only one and believe me when I say in Zandronum if you played unapproved content by the "elite" unplayers or "pvp" ghost-ship sailing on mud-water you were sub-human and treated as such. Why? You took attention away from their game. From them. It is all one big charade of control over what you do. You'll find Doomworld's old Boom Format vs Anything days isn't any different. I just lack the context to conceptualize it here.

Now what? Well it's simple. Here is what you do. The first step to this guide laid out here. The map begins at this point. The x says you are here; if you are a tertiary this is for you. Ready? I hope so. I'm not.

DO NOT GET INVOLVED

DO NOT involve yourself in primary doom and any of its ports in any capacity. The only exception is for PVP in multiplayer then I recommend Odamex for your experience. This is not a troll. I am not an odamex shill trust me there are guys here who would vouch for my credibility. I only recommend Odamex for PVP because I know Ralphis enough that he won't entertain battyman fuckery even if his best friend ghosted in the WDL. I may have said some crazy shit but I respect the guy as a league owner and promoter that he'll ensure your experience is game only, and their crowd of old-heads have seen enough to have had enough.

That's said..

DO NOT BECOME A PRIMARY. I made that mistake myself and regret some of it. I learned from my experience and grew to evaluate myself intro/retrospectively, but it was not worth any of it. Nothing you do matters. People make narratives not because they want to lie about you, but because they need it to be true. Endless, you're reading this? This is for you. You should have never have come here. Tertiaries love no drama and want to contribute. Stay where you are, make content from where you are, and never ever participate in Doomworld, Zandronum, Zdaemon, ZDoom, Vavroom, Chocolate Doom, or any major outlet where huge swaths of players congregate. Gaming communities are suffered with the worst type of sociopaths imaginable. DO NOT COME HERE. Administrators/Moderators throughout doom have initiated a "centralization" where they wish to focus everything into one place for the sole control of it. You speak up? You get blacklisted. Staff members of big communities have far too much overreach now to be trusted with any level of responsibility and we have quite a bit of fringed ass kissery to make the difference. It isn't worth it. You gain nothing. You are better off downloading wads from an archive.. now for the next step.

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Guide to the Doom community

This is where our journey begins. You understand now being a primary in the source of a gaming community is explicitly unhealthy. You do not have time for any of their drama or politics so why be there to begin with? Now that you know better here's things you can do to keep you safe

1. Build your own brand -

Find friends, make friends, keep friends. Make group, build on group, keep group. Doom is filled to the brim with cliques. There's cliques in cliques in cliques. I am not trying to be cute. I'm the leader of A3 and it, in itself, has cliques in it with cliques in them. Why? Who the fuck knows at this point. I think it's stupid, but if you want to not be adsorbed into the disgusting amalgam called a singularity this is your best bet. Discord is extremely helpful.

2. Gate Keep THE FUCK out of everything

This is a harsh lesson as a millennial growing up in this time to be alive long enough to realize one of my biggest mistakes was how open I was to allow new blood into anything, to allow unnecessary change for its own sake. I thought that new dudes will revitalize. I thought new perspectives broaden my horizons and I can open the 3rd eye to unlock all 66 of my chakras.. what a fat fucking lie. Protect your community. Protect what is yours and what you are passionate about. Do not ever minimize your passion, yourself, what you believe in, nor disparage it, de-appreciate it, and never capitulate. There exist some extremely insidious characters in Doom who would do anything for a leg up over you including social manipulation, extortion, coercion, intimidation, raiding, doxing, ddosing, log leaking (always assume all logs are leaked), impersonations, and all manners of psychological warfare. I am not joking. That is not a joke. This is a doom game and these things HAVE HAPPENED IN THE PAST TO ME AND OTHERS and I have been involved in my fair share of some incredibly bad OPERATIONS myself. Destroy all infiltrators. Destroy all subversion. Destroy any deception.

3. DO NOT GET INVOLVED

I can't really stress the fuck out of this. Do not be anything but tertiary. Keep your ears to the floor but your back to the wall. Do not get involved. Do not say anything. Do not acknowledge anyone you do not immediately trust. Download your wads and go back to your corner. It's for your own good. Doom is a great game but it's community is so primitive that it's a cesspool. I contributed to the cesspit so I know better than anyone to keep the fuck out. You will thank me later under your breath when it's all flames.

4. Always Be Suspicious

This is where my tutorial gets interesting. I am actually looking forward to disclosing a lot of these things to you because I will share from here on the tactics used to ruin communities. Why? You think it hasn't happened in Doom? You're a fool if you think otherwise. I want you to use this knowledge for your own protection as a tertiary because being alone in this community means you're food to someone. Someone will whisper some shit in your ear and poison a well about someone else. Do not be a fucking puppet.

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Gatekeeping

Bless you. You are here. You took my advice to heart and want to just play games with friends. Good. Now we are at the road where we keep friends and keep them out of trouble. It is your responsibility as a contributor of your friend-group whether leader or player to maintain order and gatekeep the fuck out of all undesirables. You think that's wrong then what did being inclusive get you? Doomworld. You wouldn't be here if it got you anything. All it taught you was that they will gatekeep you once they have the means to do so and have. How is that fair? Well if you had gatekept maybe that wouldn't happen, but that's fine I'm here. I'll help you.

1. Infiltration -

Infiltration comes in two forms: Overt or Covert. It has many flavors from subterfuge, sleepesrs, saboteurs, instigators, subverters, poaching. They are there for the purpose of getting within the confines of your safe space and fucking shit up. These characters are not there to be your friend. They are not redeemable. Their aims is to sow chaos. What are the two primary types?

Overt - Usually apologetic actors or advocates for "enemy" groups who do not waste any time signaling to you their allegiance. These are usually extremely amateur and easily detectable, but that's also the incredibly ingeniously sedition you would not expect. Charismatic personalities, in particular, are fond of overt operations because their intention is to offer an alternative to your narrative or culture that is tempting enough for your followers/friends to consider. When enough time passes they can mature their ideation to create doubt in your community and beliefs and banning them without any actual provocation only "gaslights" your position into become an fringed crazy for acting out of turn. It's imperative that you must first identify this actor and terminate them immediately. You can throw lures to bait them and coordinate conversations that will "out" a specific operative. A good example: Say you are talking about hmod (best mod btw). The converation goes:

Friend 1: Hmod is a good mod, but I wish they were a bit more ambitious with their sex scenes
Friend 2: Yeah I saw a review of that on [your opposing group] and they said x, y, and z

Right here is a lure from Friend 2 is looking to elicit a reaction out of you in a casual conversation; typically, such a person may just be a covert op or some friend of yours who doesn't know any better and you're unsure. This scenario assumes Friend 2 is not identified by you yet. At this point you can either fall for the bait and confront the issue, or allow it to pass.. the problem is now your rivals had got a mention which may stir or lead to another conversation in that direction. You do not want this so how do you counter? Get in a dm with the most active guy you can trust and steer the conversation back to the topic without having to confront at all. Here's how I'd go about it publicly:

Friend 1: Hmod is a good mod, but I wish they were a bit more ambitious with their sex scenes
Friend 2: Yeah I saw a review of that on [your opposing group] and they said x, y, and z
Friend 1: You know who else played Hmod? Friend 3 what is your take?
Friend 3: I hated the damn thing it was ugly as sin.

Jokes aside Friend 3 laser focused on the topic. Now if Friend 2 joins with his own take then everything is clear, but if Friend 2 returns with "I think someone in [your opposing group] said the same thing" you immediately have an operative. You can choose to engage but I would try one more attempt and see if they bite. Just make the conversation organic enough to make Friend 2 look inorganic by comparison. This will signal to everyone around you that something suspicious is happening from Friend 2 which allows you the opportunity to strike. Overt ops do not do this so fragrantly and will straight argue a point or even provide stuff from your competitor. You can either ban them, confront, or warn but do not keep that person there for any length of time to establish a rapport with anyone.

Covert - Novice ops dealing in covert infiltration will come immediately into a community and eventually shill whatever it is you are opposing. They might as well be overt, but the more subtle approach to covert operations is to engage in sleeper activity. Sleeper is essentially any actor sitting in a group of interest for a length of time. They can be gathering intel, talking to your members, contributing, but above all else they are there purely for sedition and will activate their allegiance to strike at critical targets of opportunity. Some of the best covert ops will be helpful, apologetic, and even do as they are told; however, they will also seep misinfo at times, arrange for weird events, log leak, double talk, and even poach when enough time is given. You don't want to be a paranoid misfit attempting to decrypt every action someone takes, but a level of scrutiny is required to check a covert op. The best strategy is never giving them the keys to anything and bore them out. Allow them to part-take but give them nothing in return. You don't gossip a single thing. You don't tell them anything. The less dedicated will eventually start drifting but they will always linger in idle so keep in mind what you are doing.

2. Subversion -

I have had many experiences with subversion behavior. I can actually give you a good example of one but let's define it first. Subversion is any act looking to dissuade or undercut the status quo usually through indirect tactics. Infiltration basically comes equipped with an auto-subversion feature, but subversion tactics don't necessarily come from infiltration.. at least not in the typical way. I guess now it's the time to write up a thing:

When I was first running A3 in 2010 I was a young arrogant-green as moss secondary. I had a huge amount of buzz and was coming in red hot because I was just beginning to amass some popularity. I was affiliated with Tenchu in spak teamspeak who was a event administrator at the time (hosting SICL for Skulltag). I was naive in believing the big lie so I wanted to prove myself at any instance and do tournaments to get my name up thinking that meant something. Well Tenchu would eventually join A3 and one of the first instances of subversion was the idea of our members "tiering" each other. Tenchu profiled me very well since he knew I'd rank myself decently mid-high and my abilities to play versus the others was just marginally better to give me that accreditation, but that's where the problems lie. See Anna also felt that way and rated me a way I felt a way about. Way.. We bickered like crazy but that was the point. Tenchu, in a long series of subversive tactics, was attempting to wedge players against each other in A3 because that's what clans did in Skulltag circa 2007 to 2010. Spak and PRO made sport of engaging in this very behavior from catphishing to poaching and I fell for this because my ego didn't allow me to see reason. The end result was nothing though as we moved on to wrestle with more threatening matters via PRO and thus our petty little nonsense was overlooked. Tenchu would poach members from A3 during his coupe but it wasn't Anna who switched sides so I suppose that was one of his many failures.

The point I am making here is that even something as innocuous as that carries big implications depending on who is targeted and who is receiving. I was fortunate to have some great friends and a sharp mind that'd eventually learn from this mistake, but it's worth noting I had to make the mistake to learn from it in the first place. You'd be surprised at what a subverter will do and the problem is if it's extremely well tailored you have no idea if it's meant for you or that it's a thing. That's how "gaslighting" works as a tool to subvert because it forces you to question your sanity. Here are some other forms of subversion:

This is very easy but here's a definition anyway: any activity or behavior that leads the target to question their own sanity. Bonus points if your kafkaesque trappings make others question your sanity. Triple high score if it breaks up friendships because it has and will. Gas Lighting is a very interesting deployment by any and all operatives/actors engaging in forum warfare. Yeah.. you're in a war if you didn't notice. You will see people say all sorts of manner of shit to you that will rile you up emotionally, but the main problem is some people are just genuinely brain-dead; however, I am a known aficionado in praxeology to the very point my girlfriend has to watch every word she says less I am suspicious of her. I believe in coincidences. Coincidences happen every day. I don't trust coincidences.

Gaslighting is a form of psychological warfare that intentionally fishes out a mark/target to act erratically usually as a high piece and live performance for your enemy to laugh at backlogs with later. The subtler the better. Every word analyzed is enough to drive someone mental because if they had so much tossed a piece of meat you will salivate for the next opportunity to finally drive it in, and the worst part is all that was needed was that one piece. The best tactics of gaslighting is to do so little of it as possible to invoke paranoia in authority that others around them become uneasy. Your best bet is to ignore it, dismiss it, and if it continues then confront/ban. The idea is to spin your wheels not to discuss civilly. The idea is to make you see a troll in anyone who remotely questions you. Do you know what water does when a mountain has no traps? It slides off.

Moti, formally known as TerminusEST (I think? I know there's another Terminus), was deployed to catphish myself according to Zakken in 2011 under the alias as Nari. What ended up happening was that I wasn't in A3 at the time and Zakken needs to COOM RIGHT NOW!!!!!!! So he ended up taking the bullet instead. I was informed about this after. Wanna know what else is funny? Moti ended up being in PRO, leaking his disgusting shit to Bojan, and everyone made fun of Zakken again for being catphished. Moti wasn't even punished for it. He was recruited. That's basically a promotion for him at the time. You see how fucked up this community is? Cyber(leader of pro) and Metal(leader of pro) were administrators of Skulltag at the time. Let that sink in.

Not your garden variety trouble making forum user, but a very sophisticated antagonizer intentionally placed/installed/infiltrated in any targeted group to achieve a plethora of mishaps. A very good plant will disguise themselves as normal users typically "sleeper" operatives or impersonate legitimate users through cross-board migrations. The plant will then "typify the ridiculous" in the words of Dr. Phil. This means that a plant is intentionally ludicrous or behaves absurdly to misrepresent the community it "claims" to be apart of. Coordinated plant operations are to justify extreme view points/policies or drown out/derail a discussion to a derisive and contention point to not reach any meaningful conclusions.

In Cointelpro strategies the idea is that no group or movement has a leader. The leader's position is delegated to "movers" those who can push or gear people to conclusions and objectives set by the group or even the movers in one. A plant is active just enough to be noticed by design and garner much more attention then its actual users. The "enemy camp" will laser-focuse on the plant's activities since it will later be described to share the ideologies of the group it represents and ergo misrepresent that group or argument. That ploy is to artificially create a mover through a plant and this will and has lead to members of a group being disparaged, misrepresented, false-flag, or even removed since a plant's activity is to encourage actions that would jeopardize a community's stability or standing in a larger forum.

A plant's nature of infiltration, gullibility of others, and general subversion is especially dangerous if not controlled immediately. You would want to remove the plant ASAP even if the reasons were that you do not "support" that kind of behavior which is a far more organic determination than a straight-call or confrontation(careful this doesn't lead to atomization). Plants are only seeded into a community to sabotage it or any chance it has to connect with others and will foster hostility through appalling actions to draw "heat" in parlance of professional wrestling. What did I mean by coordinated plant operations? Let's say a new policy for a government came out that's EXTREMELY contentious with questionable moral implications by virtue alone in a discussion. Usually an organic discussion will attempt open and neutral talks of the implication of said policy, but these implications shed an extremely bad light on the government as an actor.

Now if I was in power I do not want my citizens picking bananas over apples vs oranges so I need them to remaining fighting with a very limited frame of reference so I arrange a fake argument with a plant. The plant's job is to incite hostilities by taking the focus out of the real issue by attacking a red herring or radicalizing sides with the apple or orange without any clear motivations or objective especially away from the banana or grape choices. The plant will never bring those up. The plant will fight with members of the apple or orange party to elicit semantics or emotional responses by representing "freedom to be a jerk" through vitriolic discussion and proving the point that one of the 2 fruits is necessary. This is because tertiaries don't like coloring outside the lines and will double-down if offended by an "enemy" or a member of the imagined "enemy camp" so they'll gladly argue within the limited frame of choice. I'm trying really hard not to reference something recent here but you should get the idea. I wonder to this day if Kirboy was a plant or retard who deliberately coaxed members of A3 to posting in his "aimbot hoax" that allowed the staff to take disciplinary action on off-site behavior because a barely noticeable piece of malware was introduced and Spak just happened upon that through chance. This is what happens when I sleep.. literally sleeping that afternoon.

A decent plant will take on causes or arguments to either gish gallop, concern troll, and often times misrepresent or even fabricate what someone has said to them. I recently just got into a little trade-off with someone on another board where I presented a case for a thing whereas the plant not only misinterpret me but made a claim about something I didn't even say just because the word showed up in a sentence. My immediately response was to call them a plant and told them they aren't native to that board. The plant said they were bored and fizzled away once I stopped replying to go egg on other users (this was on an anonymous image board). My guess is because they wanted to licit a deeper emotional response they'd goad me into a line of rhetoric I didn't originally proposed. Always stay on topic. The best course of action when dealing with them is either confront, bait, or ignore. When dealing with an important issue like DDOSING users in Doom Rustking and I coordinated on keeping our lines of thought clear and ignore all irrelevancies. The people we argue aren't plants but the idea is that you do not give up any ground attacking points of contention that could potentially derail your position into a fight you don't wish to die on. You just ignore it outright and focus on the actual issue in front of you.

To isolate a targeted individual(s) by creating a disconnect between them. This is a nefarious and often overlooked psychological tactic and one I have employed the most in video games involving teams. How I accomplish this in game is by isolating the usefulness of a competent player by attacking the lesser players more relentlessly which frustrates the competent player by feeling the need to play positions and roles not delegated to his original function, and works insanely well if the isolated player is ill tempered, psychologically unstable, or easily depressed/demotivated. The angry player who is competent will attack his teammates in a voice chat or text that could demotivate or even cause infighting. You're probably wondering why I am bringing up a gaming strategy in pvp for essentially online forum/community subterfuge but you'd be astounded to find similar strategies invoked every day for community politics. A single complement has the power to build resentment among your own friends if the timing is right and the right language is used. This is a strategy used by Doom quite a bit from the most toxic of players: pvp and zandronum/skulltag. You'll find most forms of gaslighting is to atomize targets for "poaching", "turn", "covert", or "recruit".

For Atomization to work you'll need to profile a primary target and the collateral. You can use any term really but I prefer collateral because there's no actual way to deduce how little or how much damage you'll afflict and turning one person is the intended goal whereas ushering in a slow domino affect is a bonus. The profile of your intended target(s) must be meticulously crafted for you must predict reactions to specific stimuli you intend on introducing. The idea is to elicit responses to a target that will force tension between multiple people in a community. You recall how I brought up Tenchu's "tier list" idea in my Subversion section? The premise was to elicit my ego to reply by inflating my worth only if by a hair knowing others in the group might devalue my worth. I will then respond by questioning my member to which make me act inappropriately to what is essentially an opinion piece. I, being a retarded fool at the time, will alienate myself from anyone who feels I am becoming too stuffy in my battle with Anna over rank. This isn't the only example.

When I was hosting TZDL2017 in a website called RPGguild we finally made it to the finals. The two finalist are somewhat known to a subset of players who actively didn't want to compete, but felt bitter by being shoved as irrelevant for I do not promote people who do not play. There was one finalist who has history with these people and thus he was targeted for attacks; however, the attacks were thinly veiled complements aimed at the other finalist in contrast. They would often say "At least X is in the finalist fighting y so this tournament is less shitty," to intentionally invoke y to reply or x to soak the half hearted praise. Complements in this situation are nothing but props and should never be taken seriously "you are alright unlike x". Y knew better though X wasn't as hip to the language ended up semi-embarassing himself if nothing else; fortunately, nothing else came from it since I was on the phone with x enough to tell him such praise is hollow to build division. I've seen quite often pvp doom players call people shitty or whole clans shitty but isolate one talent from the rest not just because they stood out. Spak would recruit or turn people using this method almost flawlessly which is how clan hopping became a phenomenon for North American clans in the first place circa 2009ish to 2011 and then 2012. How come? When a strong set of players give complements to an impressionable player looking to raise their value they will feel encouraged to do whatever it is that gave them attention, and when the contrast of "You are a good player unlike x or y" is invoked is when division is sowed to the up-comer. I've seen guys who weren't even that good get led astray just so certain social groups have LESS players to collapse them and build resentment.

The recent arguments Dewww has had with Avernus calling him a "Mobius operated mouth" or even the recent harassment policy oozes with potential atomization. The former predicates that Avernus does not really operate under his own volition and that I somehow manipulate/guide him. I've been accused of being a mastermind before so this is nothing new; however, it also signals to Avernus that his opposition to anything Dewww says will always be discriminated against because of his associations with me. I know people in this community right now who could no longer handle the immense stress of feeling alienated over as something simple as association let alone constantly "living under his shadow" for any little thing they do. The latter is the typical over-reach to bully tertiaries into full disclosure and compliance under the threat of social isolation (we all know bans aren't enough); ironically, I know some community leaders who will full out give Doomworld the middle finger should it come time so at least I am hopeful should they decide to false flag or plant to push their luck. "Think for yourself" is another typical saying to atomize because it denotes you didn't draw those conclusions yourself somehow someone else must be guiding you. It also means those very same people can't understand anyone who chooses to do something on their own so it's an actual subtle cry of projection.