DGA NEWS

After riding high on the success of DGA #12 (some say the Best Darwin LAN to date).

It has come to my attention, a few people got into the LAN with out paying, this is very disturbing to hear, (I know three of you guys). It also turns out these people have been bragging to their friends, “We went to DGA and it didn’t cost us a cent” well it costs me and the other Admins in the end. We tried our best to bring you a perfect LAN, after Evolution success. Hearing about what you individuals said troubled me, all the effort us Admins go through to organise venues, tables, switches, free tech support etc etc,. All for you, out of our Free time… apparently means nothing to some of you gamers, in the end it will affect you guys. E.g: no more Organised LANs.

The reason most of you enjoyed the LAN, at the Police Centre was a favourite venue and the equipment we had, the Dedicated servers, 10/100 switches, Internet access etc., all was possible with your contributions.

There were plans to hold DGA #13 within 4 weeks, but those plans have been put on
Hold, or until Cthulhu and I decide when we will hold the next LAN event. Sorry to the honest people out there, but this is a serious issue and needs to be addressed.

If and when the next DGA LAN event will be held there will be tight security, no one is to set up unless the Admins are satisfied, or you show a payment receipt. Then you may set-up. The DGA Admins will be discussing this and other issues at our next meeting, if you have any issues you would like us to discuss, please mail me. [email="tn1@darwingamers.com"]tn1@darwingamers.com[/email]

In short, $20 + $5 for roughly 30-35 hours of LANing on a 100mbit network, sitting with your friends, food and drinks delivered. Plus, friendly support from the Admin Guys, ready to help you and advise you..

Is that too much to ask?

Man... Sif cheat money out of DGA!

Terrible news.. Although I do not like these new rules about pay b4 u setup i believe it is necessary.. Sad when such a wonderous thing the we have all built has to be forced into doing such measures :\

Well arent U just so clever..

U have ripped off the DGA for your fee's

The only people who really lose are the gamers, your fee's pay for cables, powerboards, switches etc.

So I hope your happy, whomever U are, U are not only ripping yourself off, which U deserve, U are ripping off your fellow mates and gamers too..

hey, i didn't pay, no bitch hit me over the head with a receipt book.

guess thats why i didn't get pizza [Blocked image]

(moneys available whenever you want it, btw)

Pal,
the admins cant be everywhere. You have been to a few DGA Events u should know the score.. But it is quite clearly necessary to force feed the recipet book down peoples throat.. As it slips there small minds. .

so, next DGA will have bouncers on the door? [Blocked image]

[Image: http://dga.octa4.net.au/images/user_pages/cthulhu.jpg] I am the devil incarnate, sent to strike down those who do not pay for DGA. [Blocked image]

[ 16 April 2002: Message edited by: Monkey ]</p>

argh! what a bloody horrible picture.

that piccy roks

Demon amrmon DrAk Ceassa Cthulhu

Fear his wrath

It is a shame to hear that people did not pay [Blocked image] i was really looking forward to the next DGA [Blocked image]

$240 dollars of mine has gone into the hands of admins of DGA since DGA2 [Blocked image]

I think your problem may lie in late comers (I think). I know it sucks but you may have to be a bit more forceful with the entry fee, etc.
I mean 'personally' as long as I have fun (as I always do) and DGA gets bigger and better (as it always has/will), then whos to complain about a few tougher rules as such.

As for the people who didn't pay then either don't let them back for a while or let em in if they pay for last time. It will certainly make people pay [Blocked image]

I dunno, just thought I'd throw my opinions in. Hope all works out in the long run.

Later

erm, how come its gonna take you that long to figure out a solution?? I wouldnt have thought it would have been that difficult

or is this so that the honest gamers will form angry linch mobs and kill the filthy non-payers for their treachery [Blocked image]

I have a thouhgt
might be crap but for the people that do it
well if you had some one at the door to collect money for the people that come to the DGA lans might be boring for the person or people the do but hey it is just a thought [Blocked image]

Actually Dr3vil, before I went to Evo, thats how I assumed it would be run..

But up until now the current and well used ways of the "Honour System" seems to have worked..

Oh well.

considering there are people appearing from before they start till the next day, that isnt going to work. But making it compulsory to have a receipt taped to your monitor with your name/nick written on it, and having someone do a round every few hours is pretty simple, and I can't see why it wouldnt work.
I dont know how many admins are even staying all night anymore though.
Or even better give people two receipts, one for monitor, one for your wallet so that you can't say someone tore it off.
Combine this with a printout of the registration page, it should be fairly fool proof
it isnt as if the money being collected is insignificant, its got to be worth your time to walk around and check the computers

U have a really good point there Harb..

And I dont think 2 receipts is necessary, with carbon receipt books, U dont get hundreds going, its just a matter of the patrol admin to carry the receipt book..

If a gamer says its been pinched, then the admin just checks. Wouldnt take more than 5 minutes..

And if all gamers know its instant " out the door, your banned sonny " for lying to a admin.

Its a good incentive to play fair.

Good point

I can't see what the fuss is really, It was already like that, just not with the checking up afterwards.
Cmon tn1
LAN LAN
NEED LAN!!!
withdrawls here

Harb,

I speak on my behalf as a Admin.

For starters yeah fare enough there are people like you that want LAN's cause you are the honest people that pay each lan ect ect.

But what it really comes down to is that there is only so much we can do to provide you guys with the perfect LANing experience.

There are only a certain few things we can do at 1 time. SHIT everyone knows that attending the LAN means paying to be there. YOU have all read it on the sign up page but still there are those that want to be dicks and ruin it for the rest of us.

I for 1 only heard of this when tn1 posted it and I am all for this move, I wouldn't have a Lan for about 4months if i was in his shoes.

All this is, is a complete and uter disrespect to DGA as a whole, and well I would ban those that have acted the way they have. but thats me.

Look guys,

as you can see that some of the ppl that didnt pay were people that you do trust and have in your clan.

But the point is that during the whole Lanning Experience the last thing on peoples minds is the money. They want to come in and setup and make sure they find a place where all there friends are.

Now this puts the ownus back onto the Admins, they are responsible for the collection of the money and if they didnt collect it, it is there fault.

Now Im looking at it as an organisor myself and If I dont do the work that I am responsible for then I have to fork out the doe to fix up my mistake.

Ok yes all the gamers know they have to pay, but they forget or think an arrangement has been made that they dont need to. eg helping setup and assisting with the lan.

So, what it comes down to is the Lan is run by the Admins, they have the responsibility to get all the money to pay for the event.

So no disrepect to the Admins, but it is your job to go around and get to money, or get it from them before the event or at the door before the computer is brought onto the premises.

Maybe block all ports as ppl plug in then to get it open they have to come to you to have access.

But apart from all that, the ppl that have paid, thanks. For the ppl that havent get in touch with an admin and fix up the outstanding amount so that DGA #13 can get underway and keep the DGA Experiences coming.

Thanks for you time.

TN1 - Mr DGA - Lets keep them coming.

[ 18 April 2002: Message edited by: Raker ]

[ 18 April 2002: Message edited by: Raker ]</p>

ah ok no problem

I thought that the delay was to figure out a solution

but if its to teach the scammers a lesson then its no problem

I can probly go on some sort of methadone program [Blocked image]

My GOD, as if you'd brag about it, bloody fools, if they didn't intend to pay at all then you dont brag about it, or if they just didn't pay cause they weren't ask and didn't think about it, own up. Personally I believe that the payment is the responsibility of the organisers, fair enough you think the worlds a perfet place and everyone is honest, but who the f*ck you kidding, we all know thats a load s sh*t. Everyone's out there for themselves, and whats all this about venues, tables, switches, free Bech support??? Aint that what the $20 covers??? bugger that having someone sit on the door, man that just sux ass.

There are many solutions, you could let people set up then simply block every IP and as you get payment allow that IP back through the server, or you could stick receipts to their computers and if their is a computer without one ask for the money or tell them to shut down until an arrangement is made. I think just having a receipt displayed on the computer is the best way to have it, if people lose their receipt thats pretty dumb as it's their own responsibility.

I don't know about the rest of you but all I wanna do is go to the LAN, sit down, play games, leech stuff, eat junk food, slump into oblivion and perve on everyone elses gf's (kidding). If an admin comes and asks me for payment, then sure, i'll pay, I know how much it costs, i decided to come to the lan, and you should make it so that if you register for the LAN you pay $20 but if you just rock up it's $25 for the hassle, I guarentee you'll get alot more registrations and people wanting to pay the lower price but you'll still get some fools who'll pay higher.

Internet access? Where? I wasn't told about that.

How did the dishonesty cause the next DGA event to be held at a later date? Because you lost faith in human kind? come on give me a break. Thats a fair bit of toss.

Why not display all the rules for the next DGA on forum post so people know what the go is for next LAN, and if they try to pull a dodgy, then just tell the tossers to boot off. If there was no payments made by some people then it was the fault of the organisers and the dishonesty of the gamers, not the whole community, sheesh!

i highly doubt DGA bought managed switches, so you can't exactly do IP or MAC address blocking anywhere. sure, you may be able to stop them connecting to one or two game servers, but that won't stop the network browsing/leeching, nor connecting to other spontaneously hosted games, etc.

Hows about you guys cut the negative comments, and maybe suggest on ways of improving it?

Maybe if you guys were in the postion of Cth or TN1 and relise that what you are doing is providing a LAN and having people stab you in the back, maybe you might look at things differently.

From what I have noticed, it is the people that pay and do the right thing that have posted here complaining about not having a LAN for 10weeks.

Hows about you start going off at the people that didn't pay and the ones that FUCKED it for the rest of us. Then maybe people might start to listen.

Well I remeber not to long ago, about DGA 8 or there abouts the receipts were given out.
An admin had a book of em with the registered users in it. When they come around they asked for you name/nick, they'd then find you in the book, write out a receipt and you had to put it on you case or monitor. If your name wasn't in there then I guess you had to pay the $25, I don't know.
That was a great way and from what I know DGA had no problems (but what would I know).

It certainly wouldn't be hard to go around the room/s every now and again. Hell I'll do it for you guys =)

Later

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Angel:

It certainly wouldn't be hard to go around the room/s every now and again. <hr></blockquote>

What is the main reason you guys go to a LAN. Of any event be it DGA Landed Lanrights etc etc.

TOO play games. Just like I do, to play games just like TN1, Clackers, Clth, Lataf, Sponge, EOS, Raker, etc etc

We all go there to play games and have a good time in general.

Now I dont know how many times you guys want to hear this but I guess I will have to keep saying it, WE cant be everywhere all the time.

How often do you get caught up in a game and relise ohh shit 2hours have gone past. Its more difficult than what you think.

I dont know how many times I have got up to do something and hear "Unseen come help" to be pulled aside to fix something or look at something, forget what I was doing sit back down, boot up a game and hope it will come back to me.

Hows about you guys stop complaining for once and stop acting like its the end of the world. WE are WORKING on the problem and it will be fixed if it means staping nice big BRIGHT PINK straps on your heads.

Gees Unseen,
As admins, you do a great job setting up the lan as always, but to put it simply doesn't an admin have a job of making eveything run smoothly??

I mean its like a concert, or a footy game or whatever it be. If you have a reponsibility to keep it running smoothly (that includes making sure people pay, can get setup right, etc) then well you have to sacrafise some of your gaming time to help. I see admins come around say hi to everyone, making sure all's fine. Would it be so hard to take a quick look at a monitor or case to see if you got a receipt??? It would take like 2 min at the most to do the whole room.

I'm not trying to have a go at anyone in anyway i'm just trying to state something.

DGA has been run very well right from the begining, You admins have put a lot of hard work into setting up each lan for ALL of us. Each gets better and bigger. It would be a real shame to see that dissapear.

Ill stay out and let you guys sort it out, cos well yous are in charge [Blocked image]

Later

The point I am trying to get across is that everybody gets caught up in things.

Is it too much to ask ppl to come pay?? I mean really? is that too much of a hassle, hows about some people take some time out of their game play?? same thing applys.

I know what your response will be, but its your job. point right there, DGA isn't going to disapear we are just postponing the next dga for 5weeks because of what some ppl did.

Can everbody *CHILL* This has happened on a few occations, happens every LAN. All that the point was is that some ppl r bragging about it. If I or any other ADMIN misses u when there come around 1st 2nd 3rd time, It is our re-sponcerabiliy not the gamers (even though half do come to me and pay). It is up to us ADMIN's to sort out, And we will be doing that at our next meeting. So everbody sit back, relax have a beer or burbon, coke for all the others, and get ready for the next bigger and better DGA #13. I want to fill up the police club. 100+ [Blocked image] (more gamers, more fun)

I have not heard so much HOGSWASH in ages... FFS if people do not have the commom sense to realise that they have to pay to attend an event then they should go back to pre school and learn basic honesty principles, if they want to boast about, dont expect to attend a LAN for a LONG WHILE. For those who say it is the sole responsability of the admins to get the money...SCREW YOU. You want responsability pay at the door and be quized every time you enter, see how that changes the atmosphere. What I am trying to say is the Admins, yes I AM ONE, Do spend a lot of their time ( THEIR OWN TIME ) preparing, running and babysitting you lot. Giving you all a good time. If you cant be honest and that includes the numerous occasions things have been damaged or stolen then basically GO AWAY or better still FUCK OFF......
I am sorry but this annoys the crap out of me and any that know me will realise it takes a lot to Piss the craZy one off.

[ 18 April 2002: Message edited by: craZy C ]</p>

I realize I might spark some aggression here

not paying for the lan which is.. in fact giving money to somebody who did the work

Now isnt this the same as Pirating games and Movies?

Think about it....

Before I dig myself deeper.. i think its fucked you didnt pay for the lan... (this is aimed at those that didnt pay)

And I agree reciepts worked fine for dga 9 and Evo which are the only two Ive been to

Crazy C dude I agree but If your wanting to stop people from not paying then admins are going to have to do something about it. I mean like we have obviously seen there are some non honest people around here and can't expect them to come up to you and pay their fee, even though you'd like them to.

Sorry if I pissed you off Crazy

Later

Angel it wasnt directed at you mate it was more a generalisation at the way it seems to have been turned over to being the admins fault. When you think about the Admins are there to have a good time also so it is only fair to them that they don't have to be running around like little Adolf Hitlers. The Honour system seemed to be the best deterant for that. You go around a couple of times to organise payment from people then basically the gamers do the rest.
We will nut out some solutions to this problem and they will cease to exist. The downside of this is that not only is their going to be an extra burdon on the admins ( and I mean all of US not just Clackers )their will now be a percentage of distrust.................

I have a sollution to the problem at hand.
Not too hard to fix(hopefully) the issue of people/s not paying for "THE LAN EXPERIENCE". This should bhappen after you have payed said nominated fee......

Only three words.......

PINK--WRIST--BANDS [Blocked image]

Sticks out like dogs balls, can't miss it even if you tried.

And to the foolz that are bragging that they got into DGA without paying..........Don't show up next time........There should be no warnings. You know when you come to a LAN that you have to pay so why be a F@G and try to rip off the system. DGA is here so that we can all play games etc. and socialise with each other. Shit like this is fucked up and it pisses alot of people off that people will stoop so low as to do some skanky ass shit like this.

May the heavens part and the wrath of GOD strike you down with great vengence and furious anger as you have stolen from your people and will be judged, and judged you shall be.

only question i have, is enforcement, i mean, are you seriously about to have people physically stopping people from setting up if they dont pay? (not that i can see that ever needing to happen, but still).

the whole issue of admin responsibility blah blah is really moot, yes, ideally the admins should be responsible, but then remember that it is, currently, run by volunteers, i'm pretty sure they don't personally get to spend any of the money on themselves, and as such, they should have some slack cut if they just want to chill and unwind for a bit, and play some games.

anyway, this whole thing strikes me as pointless discussion, they want to hold off on hosting another lan, as 'punishment' or whatever, fine, their perogative. will it make people pay? who knows, but i'd be mildly interested to watch someone try and setup without paying.

in summary:
blah.

i say TN1s comments are good.... for one... have 2 at the door, and basically they cant setup unless they have a stamp imprented on there forheads hehe nah just a paper slip to the appropriate admins to set up where they say.... cuz i have the feelin that all the people in the old room hehe paid and everyone in the kids room well most of them did too but not all... im honest shit i have to be clackers always comes to me first for money =-(

PREPARE TO BE TERMINATED [Blocked image]

Look at it this way, you guys set up the LAN, so it's your responsibility, it's as simple as that, if the admins dont make certain that everyone is paid, it's the dishonesty of the guys that didn't pay, but also the fault of the admins for not making sure that they paid.

If I used any of your arguments as a reason I didn't get paid where I work I'd be out marching on the square for the rest of my life, honestly it's pathetic. If you run it, it's ALL your responsibility, take it how you want but it's the truth.

Monkey your idea has some merit, except how about the amount of people that attend the LAN just to watch, there needs to be something that actually links you to a computer or it wont work.

Ohhh........Then put Yellow wrist bands on the spectators so we can identify who they are. If spectators aren't paying to come to LANs then they should wear something to show that they are not LANers.

And maybe big bright coloured stickers put on the front of machines when the person has paid their fees.

Just a few simple things can make this little problem manageable.

I am just offering some ideas to try and help fix the problem at hand. I do not know everything and I do not claim to know everything, but I do know this..... If we don't set precise rules and regulations now and adheer to them, then it will all turn to shit and theremay be no Admins to organise these LAN events.

I think its mainly the piss-off factor the admins are feeling right now, rightly so as well.

Simple, TN1 / Clackers simply post the names of the people that didn't pay, Darwin is a small community and very likely that someone will know them.

Simply ban them and post these losers names.

Shame is still effective in RL, just not online..