OK. Nobody wants to read reviews full of subjectivity: straight to the meat. This is about Cerberus, a top-tier administrator on Sindome. You will be occupying the same space as him, should you choose to play.

_____ [OOC-Chat] Staff Cerberus: Just like to make another appeal to the community. If you're not aware, we've received some negative reviews on TMC from banned players and in the absence of positive reviews , they stand out a lot. So if you've had a positive experience with SD and the Staff, please feel free to post a review on TMC so we can avoid losing potential new immigrants to the exaggerated claims of a few toxic people. http://www.mudconnect.com/cgi-bin/prev/submit.cgi?mud=Sindome

[OOC-Chat] Staff Cerberus: We appreciate any time people take to write the reviews. It's unfortunate that the voting doesn't speak for itself, but we need to protect ourselves and our new players from the toxicity of banned players.

+++ What this man is doing is called 'poisoning the well.' You insult someone before they get a chance to make a statement in order to persuade people's opinions of them negatively. It works wonders. Unfortunately for him, it's not an argument, thus has no rational, keyword rational, persuasive merit. It would be like if I referred to him as Cranky Cerb throughout the rest of this review in Trump style of bestowing a funny nickname onto your opponent. But it shouldn't affect your judgement. But it does.

By attaching negative adjectives to the writers of these reviews ('banned, toxic'), Cranky Cerb is able to gain the persuasive upper hand on people who are less likely know about these kind of tricks. And you don't want to be tricked, do you?

_____ (From): http://www.sindome.org/bgbb/open-discussion/anything-really/cerberus-and-you-707/

''I will make an attempt to return to being polite and understanding, but I will do so with a zero tolerance rule.

If I hear you out, and respond, and you decide that you didn't like my response and resume arguing your point.

You will have earned a time out in the void for 30 minutes as per our current rules.

Respect is a two way street and I will respect you if you can respect the fact that I am putting an effort into being nice and polite and understanding to your concerns.''

+++ Respect is a two way street, except when Cranky Cerb doesn't like your response. There cannot be an 'understanding' conversation when you have threats hovering over your head like this. You just can't. You will stifle yourself in hopes of avoiding any kind of conflict and may even convince yourself that you indeed like this person and their opinions to better cope with the situation. It is similar to, but not exactly, Stockholm syndrome.

_____ (From): http://www.sindome.org/bgbb/open-discussion/anything-really/cerberus-and-you-707/

Xenode: So GMs have not defended an action, ever, that wasn't cool by player or GM standards? Cerberus: I don't understand the question.

Xenode: You're phrasing things in an 'us vs. them' style, as if GMs are saints, and players are the only ones who ever do anything wrong. This is the same kind of mentality that has people angry at the police in many parts of the US. Yes most GMs are good and well intentioned, like most police are, but when you start talking like the players are the only ones causing any trouble or doing anything wrong, you're forcing that kind of reaction. Cerberus: I am not sure how to answer the question Xenode when you take the position that admin are abusive like police but I'll try.

+++ This is called strawmanning. You twist your opponent's words into something easier to beat and kill it before anyone notices what you did. The discerning reader will note Xenode never said that Sindome admins are abusive like police. It makes it much easier for Cranky Cerb to completely dodge around concerns such as these by painting them a different colour.

_____ Cerberus OOCly shouts, 'It is NOT appropriate to clear your description in a shroud. What the heck.'

+++ There's also the problem of whimsical judgement. He has a tendency to influence players with the use of the global Out Of Character announcement system, making up laws on the fly which only affect the players that are around at the time to notice them. You get a set of players abiding by this set of laws, that set of laws, eventually there's secret mystery laws that nobody knows about. You can see where this goes. If something isn't written down explicitly, it's not a real standard.

_____ Cerberus OOCly shouts, 'Ignore that description and HOW THE fart DO YOU COME TO THAT CONCLUSION' Cerberus OOCly shouts, 'I SAID IGNORE IT'

...Moments later... Cerberus OOCly shouts, 'Johnny is saying that if you forget to remove specific details out of your description when you put on your shroud then its your fault and people get to be meta against you. So good luck. '

+++ Then you have kneejerk reactionery bipolarism like this. Cranky Cerb rapidly takes one emotional stance then quickly takes the more favorable stance of listening to his superior.

_____ [OOC-Chat] Staff Cerberus: I get a list of everyone's bank accounts at the push of a button. [OOC-Chat] Staff Cerberus: Last time the mix got too rich, I had to kill people daily until they spent their bank accounts on resupplying.

Cerberus OOCly shouts, 'STOP annoying ME OFF.' +++ And then there's that. _____ Did my usage of Cranky Cerb alter your perception or judgement in any way? It shouldn't.

Overall Sindome is a unique roleplaying experience that while it has a clunky interface at times can provide the potential for fun if you find the right chums and avoid the bad hombres. You just have to be know who's in the kennel.

[ Profanity has been scrubbed from the logs below to concur with TMCs ruleset. Full version available here: https://pastebin.com/raw/2R1kVUVk ]