PUK to crack?

...Nah. But judging by what I've seen on a recent topic, things have fixed my mouth in an unusually vindictive smile. On a topic about unusual MSN conversations, Jeroen decided to post a log on his conversation with James, and the latter immediately responded and ordered the log destroyed. The conversation goes on thus (none of this has been edited, check the topic itself):

James: You CANNOT go posting CONFIDENTIAL logs on PUK FORUMS, Jeroen. I'm going to trust you enough to remove this log yourself. Any more of this and we'll have to seriously consider your position. I am NOT happy.

Jeroen: Oh come on! It's just a small log. It's not as if people wouldn't have found out anyway after we made this definite. We're just giving some advance warning!

Besides, it really wouldn't hurt to be a bit more open to people. We're hiding all the stuff we're working on in the end, and don't release half of it. Or have you forgotten that ix banner we had up for half a year?

And besides, it's not as if you do that much anymore these days. I moderate the forums with Mike, Mike posts content, I fix the code, and you just sit back and try to seem important. When was the last time you had an idea for yourself.

And if you're going to remove my admin for this.. Bah, petty. It's just petty. And don't forget who also has FTP and database access here. I can have this whole place in ruins whenever I want to...

James: I can have YOU in ruins! I know where you live! Believe me, I've got enough time on my hands to come over there and kick your ass. Everything is backed up and you know that. I can photoshop you on to Goatse, remember.

Jeroen: And what would you do? Throw your future army at me after you have conquered the world?

Besides, I'll be ready. I'm sure I can get some support for when you get even extremely close. With your fat, it shouldn't be too difficult anyway. And besides, my brother can always beat you up too!!

And if you can photoshop me.. Well, I can always report that. And I can always send fake email in your name to everyone saying what a stupid person you really are!

I'm afraid to say that Jeroen is right — as long as I was a member, James orchestrated moves but never actually performed them, leaving it to Matt and Steffan (who have not spoken at time of writing) to work out the coding, Jeroen to develop the currently defunct Pokégame programme and to lord over the forums, and Mike to gather news and walkthroughs. I realise that James can't do it himself, but if you're the webmaster you need to get in, at the very least, the majority of the action, and I don't mean financing the forum.

On the next page of the topic, Mike pops up and starts his rant on how he feels undermined by James, Jeroen, and even Steffan:

So rather than being treated like a fellow Admin, like you'd expect someone of equal power to be treated, I'm just here to rubberstamp your ideas and let you take credit am I? Telling you what "great" people you are?

I AM SICK TO DEATH of taking a back seat to you two idiots. It's always "James is an admin, he created the site" and "Jeroen is an admin because he runs the forums", even "Iceduck [Steffan] is an admin because we remember him". THIS IS WHY PEOPLE DON'T REMEMBER ME. THIS IS WHY I'M ALWAYS JUST THOUGHT OF AS A MOD AND SHUNTED TO THE BACK. BECAUSE YOU TWO MORONS ALWAYS COOK UP THE IDEAS WITHOUT CONSULTING ME PROPERLY.

We've spent the past year telling worthwhile people we don't need more Admins, and now you want to turn HIM of all people into one?!? It makes no sense! I hated the idea when you made him a Global Mod for April Fools Day, so WHY THE HELL have you already decided to make him an Admin without listening to my thoughts, especially when you already knew I was likely to hate the idea? How the hell is he supposed to remain secret identity if you're going to make him an Admin?!?

Next time you need someone to write a page at a few minutes notice, you can freaking well do it yourself. Neither of you should have a problem with that - more publicity to fill both of your fat egos, well I take a back seat and try to remind people I have the right to a little bit of authority round this smelly little site.

If Mike's morale really was this low, we would have detected a steady decrease in the number of times he's used his wry sense of humour long before this spasm. But I hardly believe that he's going to stand by this word — this topic is merely a disagreement that escalated out of control, just like the post count discussion that I had helped turn into a debate on the role of their Forum Politics forum (which was eventually merged with PKMN.NET). But there have been no strikes that I've heard of before now, so either Mike has done a good job of holding his anger in or James is just cracking a leather whip backstage.

Personally, I like Mike and respect him as an administrator. I testify that he's not merely taking a backseat to the rest of the group — he is the most sociogenic and efficient administrator on the forum and could probably endure the workload allotted to all the other working administrators (notice the venom). If he is able to maintain a post score of over 5000 (which is probably moot to him), write a majority of the videogame content on the site, and get a point across, he's an invaluable asset to PKMN.NET.

Even with his versatility, however, I still think James is pushing his executives too hard. Maybe that's the cause of stress among them. Maybe that explains away the attitude people hate jeroen for. Maybe James is leaning back in the recliner, sipping a martini and pointing that magisterial finger of his toward whomever he wants to do his dirty work. That's my honest opinion, and this is based on what I know from personal dealings with these people.

If you're reading this segment, you lot, and you find it offensive, feel free to click the Flag button on the Blogger bar; I'll be yelled at and forced to remove this article. If not, I'll probably remove it when everyone has calmed down.

EDIT: Turns out the whole thing was predetermined. There had been no fight; the morale was steady; there really was no conflict between them. And there was me thinking they had finally cracked. This is one of their worst jokes yet.