So guys, I don't have much to say other than you've probably noticed. . .

The Shadow of Vizzed came back.

I've been proud of that title for as long as I've had it. I also didn't really regret leaving this place. I had my fun here and presumed it would pretty much just get washed away. . . then some major changes happened. All I want to say is that some drastic moves were made, and it's great to see this place cleaned up. David seems to have succeeded in bringing a lot of old members back, and even I'm having fun posting around.

I'll admit. You proved me wrong. I didn't think I'd ever come back. I only popped in to check PMS and planned to do so once a year. . . yet here I am, posting about.

Beyond that. . . there's one loose end I want to tie up. . . and it's something JigSaw : made me aware of.

Remember back when me and other users used to debate around this site a lot? Some discussions got pretty heated. I remember going at it with people like Rcarter2 a lot and a few others. Most of them have moved on, though I still see Zlinqx and Tgags around here. (Glad it's the mature ones who stuck around.)

There was one thing that always bothered me though. Back when me and my brother used to post around on this website, stirring controversy. . . I would get mysteriously banned. I'm not kidding, it happened when Play4fun was one of the global moderators, and it was before User became one. I remember making a lot of threads about the most controversial topics. Creation vs Evolution. . . Homosexuality. You know. . . the really fun topics. But whenever I started to post around, I remember getting mysteriously banned and asking the mods about it. They would constantly claim that nothing had happened, and that I was fine. Things would happen such as posts getting submitted and not appearing. . . things totally disappearing.

Even Rcarter2 was confused since he didn't expect me to randomly back out of a fight. We were both stubborn as hell about those things. I'm surprised he was one of the first people to believe me when I said that I believed I was being hack banned or something. But anyways. . . it gets better.

So, you all know Jigsaw was testing the security of the old Vizzed coding, right? He succeeded in doing a lot of things. Unfortunately, too much time had passed, and it's possible to cover your tracks. . . but out of curiosity, I had Jigsaw check out one of my old threads. What he had found out was very interesting!

Apparently, in my very last debate thread I had made on Vizzed. . . it was very possible that I was hacked! You might remember a wonderful thread I had made about whether homosexuality was positive for society or not. Well, in my last post there, I had originally submitted 4k words, but not a single one would show up! Upon interviewing the post, Jigsaw found that a ton of data was missing. In his own words:

" A mod obviously deleted EVERYTHING in your original post because all I see is "Test edit". Where it says 4000+ words is probably a static field in database as it did not change when the post was edited."

Now. . . I'm not going to link to that thread because I don't care to relive much of what was said in it. This may shock some people, but I hope to be a better representative of my God and not push people away with my abrasiveness so much. I feel like I owe some people an apology. Lately I've been reflecting, and I worry I've been to hard on some people. Unfortunately, I'm not perfect like Jesus, and I can't afford to stick to my guns.

On the other hand, I think for this site's betterment, I should point out that hacking the posts of someone doesn't really make them look worse. Actually, it only makes their resolve stronger, and it definitely gave me an ego boost when I found this out. I'm just glad that I've been humbled enough to help a few other people in life as of late. Part of life story I believe I've mentioned before is as follows:

My mom beat cancer naturally. I followed in her footsteps and healed my teeth, avoiding the need of a root canal by doing a special diet. Thanks to my newfound compassion for other people and my more humble mentality. . . I was able to get a friend with Ankylosing Spondylitis to try a similar diet to my tooth healing one. (This diet is adjusted for his specific condition of course.)

People have even come to me asking for help to change their sexuality and personal lives now.

I imagine in talking to me, you'll find that while I've change some. . . I'm still the same black knight on Vizzed, but I've gotten a lot better at charisma over the years. I'm grateful about that.

So yeah, that's pretty much it. I'm back. . . I've seen a lot of change around here. (It's not a stupid elitist, system anymore. That's awesome.) A lot of people I respect are moderators, and I just want encourage them.

You guys got this, and you can make Vizzed a better place. I have faith in you--in fact you've already done it.

Beyond that, I've been writing. . . trading stocks for my dad now. (Became the company stockholder effectively.) Yeah, I lost a girl recently, but life is still good. It's good--not because of what happens to me, but because of what I do in spite of it. Healing someone Ankylosing Spondylitis is one of the coolest things I've been a part of. I hope to enjoy posting around here a lot more. It's nice to see that controversy is welcome again. I'll do my best to make use of it. So long I have good conversation and people to talk to, I'll probably stick around here.

Now for the part where I summon all my friends. . . except I'm not sure who's actually active here, and who's only active on Discord. . . . I think I'll leave this part out.

JigSaw : will vouch for me. : 3

Welcome back

I remember you showing me that post and it was very strange. The original post was completely erased and the edited version just said "Test Edit" but it had over 4,000 word count attached to the blank original post which is proof you had posted something there. For some reason, the edit never updated word count nor did it display who edited the post. I do know this can be done with database access but if someone were to do it directly on this site it should have updated both word count and the user editing the post. Who really knows what exactly happened there, all we know is someone intentionally removed your post and covered their identity in the process.

JigSaw : It's really strange isn't it?

My original 4k word post, which responded to about six different people would have kept the debate going pretty strong, but someone had to make sure that I wasn't allowed to even have a chance. I don't know if we'll ever find out who did what, but we do know the security was pretty bad. I remembering trying to make posts in the debate forums almost three years ago and getting messages saying "We're sorry, you can't post here." It was later extended to things like the trusted forums, even when I had the minumum TP required. I spoke to mods about it, and they didn't know what I was talking about. . . even when I spoke to moderators who were sympathetic to my political views.

I want to say one thing about this. Even if you hate what I stand for, I blame a good part of this for why Vizzed lost activity.

Conversations are controversial by nature.

The biggest thing we as human beings gain from talking to one another--it's not to reinforce existing information--it's to learn new and useful information. Echo chambers get boring fast. When I speak to people who I agree with--it's never to reinforce our similarities. It's often to understand our differences, and where that logic stems from.

When you kill controversy and censor several people or topics, you kill the life of a community. I hope to never see censorship take full swing in the U.S. in my lifetime, although I'm actively watching it happen.

But thanks. I'm having a good time now that I'm back. People are actually open and talking.

Good to see that you're back man. Hopefully you stay for a while.

That shadow banning stuff is crazy, and pretty infuriating. I'd really like to know who was responsible for that. If it was a moderator, that is a blatant abuse of power. If it wasn't, and it was someone hacking into the site or whatever, that's equally as concerning, for security reasons.

It seems that the new moderator team is relaxing considerably when it comes to rules, and I think it's a really good move for the site. You mentioned that they've already made Vizzed better, and I agree.

tgags123 : I plan too. My allegiance is conditional, and right now, this is a great place to be.

Yeah, it is concerning. The new team is really cool though. Letting down on the rules was a great thing for the community. Conversation flows naturally, and I do like what's been posted on your recent thread on relationships as an example. I feel like I can actually address what needs to be addressed now. It's kindof like how I had to learn recently that truth is worthless without love. If people don't feel like you actually care about them when you explain your own views. . . good luck.

Man, how things have changed.

Sword Legion : Yeah it's crazy how much easier it is to have actual discussions when you're not worried about potentially getting in trouble for "sandwich posting" one time in a thread lol.

*clears throat vigorously*
Heya! Nice to see a staple poster make their way back! I missed the theories and stories and stuff! You had an interesting way of putting your perspective, whether it would be something I agree with or not.
I'm still looking for a good way to apply my own niche I suppose. It would be nice to check up with one another like old times, providing that authentic nerd passionate energy flow again.

I'm glad you're back, dude. And I'm glad to hear that you've grown for the better. It's such a good feeling that there are a lot of returning members, especially since a lot of us have grown and changed through different life experiences. Looking forward to seeing you around the site again.

I'm glad your back. We could use a dark knight willing to get a little controversial.

But really, it's great to see you feel you have changed for the best. As for this mystery diet... are you gonna post about it in the Health forum?

Hey. A bit late, but welcome back.

I know how it goes with learning how to pitch a thought and learning to gauge your crowd. I feel like I've probably made a lot of adjustments in how I approach controversial topics, too. We seem to have similar thought processes. It's not always obvious when I argue a point to the ends of the earth that I'm really just gauging how they react to the argument, and not arguing what I think is right. It's all about trying to understand how they're wired so I can piece things together on my end with a collection of perspectives.