Last Friday, an unprecedented event occurred on the Zone. I shall not
mention specific names because they should be obvious to any of the Zoner's
and also for a second, more sad reason, which will become obvious soon
enough.
Sometime early on Friday, about 42 players had their ratings reset to
1500 without any explanation or notice. In addition, two of these players
ratings were restored, just as mysteriously, within a short time after
they were discovered by the players.
Despite many plaintive emails to both ZRatings and ZMaster, almost no
one got an explanation as to why their ratings were reset. The ones that
did receive a reply saying they had "violated the zone rules"
and should consult the rules for an explanation.
HUH?
So the day wore on into the evening.
Many legitimate players who had never cheated had their long-earned ratings
dropped in a bucket and tossed aside. To make matters worst, responses
to queries sent to the Sysops varied from "there is no reason for
this, I am going to find out what in the world is going on" to "you
must direct your questions to ZRatings and ZMaster" to laughing at
the player's misfortunes.
In the Zone's typical magnaminous fairness, several players were banned
for posting on the main chat "ZRatings, can you tell me why my ratings
were reset?"
At 8:00 pm, still no response from anyone in charge, including ZRatings.
After an extended period of "hooping and hollering" as my grandpappy
used to say, ZRatings responded by showing up in RR1. He proceeded to
tell everyone that there was no recourse, they had all violated the zone
rules and that was that.
Oh, and also they better listen to him, because they "had no idea
how much power (he) had...".
Eventually, cooler heads prevailed and through extended discussion with
Zrating and a number of the reset players, some players' ratings were
restored.
Unfortunately, ZRatings put the players in an untenable position. He refused
to respond to their questions until they started raising the roof. He
then stated he would NOT restore any player's ratings because they had
"raised the roof". He even wrote on the main RR1 board that
he didn't have to do anything, and that he would only talk to those people
who would apologize to HIM first.
Well, much time has gone by, and still a number of legitimate players
have NOT had their ratings restored. ZRatings is once again ignoring everyone's
complaints and things are quieting down.
Well, in short, the zone has a lot of problems, all fixable except one.
The head of the zone - Zratings appears to be a completely out of control
manager who can only address problems by attacking and silencing the critics.
In fact, he has either come out and said, or implied, that anyone that
questions him would be "punished".
