Account Sales / Private Server Sections Removal (Explained)

I'm aware many of you have heard of the most recent change, and that is the removal of these two sections. And upon notification, I wish to shed some light on the reasons behind this decision. It may seem cut and dry, but please take the time to read this.

Twinkinfo is a remarkable place. Not only for its community, but for the everlasting dedication that has kept this site, as well as particular parts of wow alive. For something that doesn't typically associate itself with endgame content, we have had drastic impact in multiple brackets of the game. And this very year has sparked light among us. The shear willingness, generosity, cooperation, and attentiveness lately has done something priceless. And that something has opened the doors to new opportunities for players seeking something different in Wow.

But for as long as we have been a community, we have been shrouded and labeled. And the few things that hold us back from potentially larger amounts of traffic are the very things that are deemed unfavorable and cross the lines drawn out for us.

And these very things led to the removal of the Account Sales and Private Server sections. The staff has come to agreement that this has significantly weighed down the progression of this site, in terms of accountability and spotlight. We understand that there have have been many trusted and renowned users on this site that have stuck to their word, and caused no harm. But there is a shadier side to that business that compromises the legitimacy of the site. And a large loss in real life currency and/or the suspension of an in-game account can never be accounted for with the punishment we are limited to on this site (and that is at most, a ban). As for private servers, that simply falls under legal matters that Blizzard has entrusted us with.

To all of those effected by these actions, please note that this site was not your only means of voice, and if you wish to further pursue your previous routine, you must now do so elsewhere.

TwinkInfo was been built upon the passion of our unique in-game communities, and serves to represent itself as a hub for twinks alike, providing information and insight for gearing, etc. We truly hope you understand this decision, and see our goal with a broader scope.

Roboartist said:

But for as long as we have been a community, we have been shrouded and labeled. And the few things that hold us back from potentially larger amounts of traffic are the very things that are deemed unfavorable and cross the lines drawn out for us.

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Citation? I've heard this a couple times but haven't myself encountered an instance of someone saying something along the lines of "oh don't go to twinkinfo, it's a scary place". Those who find the idea of twinking laughable don't do it because of any clandestine activity, it's just not their cup of tea. Apart from that I have no idea what you could possibly be talking about.

Roboartist said:

The staff has come to agreement that this has significantly weighed down the progression of this site

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You say significantly, so what kind of improvements can we expect as a result of this action?

Roboartist said:

As for private servers, that simply falls under legal matters that Blizzard has entrusted us with.

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Where have you been entrusted with this, and to what end? What are the legal matters with private server listing?

Roboartist said:

please note that this site was not your only means of voice

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Yes it was, I should know.

Roboartist said:

TwinkInfo was been built upon the passion of our unique in-game communities

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Including the private server community, whom you are now unceremoniously throwing out the door on the basis of naive, wishful thinking. Private servers are not some malicious boogeyman holding back TI from whatever true potential you have in mind. The mod team has never really had representation from the private server community and it seems like you view us as a joke the same way the greater WoW community sees twinking as a whole.

And these very things led to the removal of the Account Sales and Private Server sections. The staff has come to agreement that this has significantly weighed down the progression of this site, in terms of accountability and spotlight.

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How much spotlight do you want? Twinkinfo has been the best place to go for pretty much as long as it's been up for anything Twink related. I'm not sure how being more legitimate would result in bringing more people to the community as the vast majority come here anyway regardless of any perceived "shadiness".

Also I'd wager that the Private Server section brought more people to the community than it drove away and also held the interest of a lot of players during times when retail wasn't much fun.

I hope Blizzard get in touch soon anyway and send you a poster of Thrall or something for your continued endeavors

[MENTION=199]Hamcake[/MENTION], I'm not really in the mood for a multi-quote battle, and I'm on mobile. So I'll answer casually.

* I never said it was scary, and I get that many don't find an interest in twinking. I am referring to the fact that these matters have prevented any mention or nudge from Blizzard, seeing how they have outlawed these things. I'm pretty sure they would refrain from doing so if it provokes breaking their guidelines.

* Maybe you didn't see it, but this year's July update at battle(net) had mentioned the upcoming tournament, but linked to a site that had no signs of this sort of activity. And I know for a fact that many employers there know of Twinkinfo. I had taken a course with a former tech support agent. I could name a couple other scenarios, but I trust you to take what I say into thought.

* Ok I would assume you are arguing to argue. So I'll be brief. Remember those rules you agreed upon way back when, and had created your first WoW account? Entrusted, being that little "accept" button.

* Well I am pleased to tell you there are. The internet is a vast frontier.

* I am not going to get into this with you. I can state far too many ways you are blowing this out of proportion. And when you think these things of us, and make us out to be some maniacal villains, it really gives us a chuckle, because we personally know how ridiculous and untrue that is. We fully respect any effort to build upon a private server. But that is not what this site was intended for. And if it had been excluded from the beginning, there wouldn't be any naysaying.

Edit: I left this open so you guys could give your side of things, don't get the idea I don't want you to.

Private servers are against the Blizzard Terms of Service, and if our site promotes activities that are against the Terms of Service then we will always lack legitimacy in Blizzard's eyes. Where that has practical effect for us is in Blizzard allowing links and cross promotion of our site on their official forums. With the upcoming Twink Cup and the ongoing GG 19s project, these have become very real obstacles to our progression.

At this point there are two options on how to react to this change. To complain about it, or to accept it. Well the complaints have been made and acknowledged at this point, and the decision is not changing. So now it's up to you to accept it or not. I'm certain there are other websites that deal with private servers, and I'm sure a dedicated person could make the effort to find one or make one. There's nothing more to discuss on this topic: You want your complaints to be heard and they have been heard. There will be no reason to repeat them.

This is a good change (yes I am one who prefers to play by the rules) but wouldn't surprise me that this is happening cause blizz is removing links to twinkinfo.com on their own forums. Linking to sites with exploits, pvt servers, gold and account sales is not allowed. Glad that Twinkinfo is taking a new course and is getting a bit more mature. You are doing the right thing!

You are trading a REAL part of the community for a feeling of moral superiority (which I can tell from your posts is highly important to you) and a potential for slightly increased traffic stats. The benefits of "legitimacy in Blizzard's eyes" are highly overstated. Twinking is a niche playstyle which is objectively a complete mess with very little mass appeal. Mass exposure is the wrong way to go about growing the community, especially with this much of a tradeoff. Of course, you've made it clear that you are totally clueless about private servers (it's ridiculous to suggest to move discussion of twink private servers to a site 'about private servers' - do you realize the sheer amount of types of private servers?) so it would be a waste of energy to talk about the demonstrated potential private servers have to enhance and retain the community.

Hamcake said:

You are trading a REAL part of the community for a feeling of moral superiority (which I can tell from your posts is highly important to you) and a potential for slightly increased traffic stats. The benefits of "legitimacy in Blizzard's eyes" are highly overstated. Twinking is a niche playstyle which is objectively a complete mess with very little mass appeal. Mass exposure is the wrong way to go about growing the community, especially with this much of a tradeoff. Of course, you've made it clear that you are totally clueless about private servers (it's ridiculous to suggest to move discussion of twink private servers to a site 'about private servers' - do you realize the sheer amount of types of private servers?) so it would be a waste of energy to talk about the demonstrated potential private servers have to enhance and retain the community.

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I agree with Hamcake, for the most part.
However, the potential 'Blizzard legitimacy' issue /is real/, whether it`ll lead to something significant, if anything at all, well, that remains to be seen. I kinda doubt that, tbh.

If it wasn't for the AH/private server section Twinkinfo would have very likely been linked here Upcoming WoW eSports Events - July 2015 - Forums - World of Warcraft

Not having that is a loss for the entire community.

I understand the decision, but it's a shame to disallow the discussion of private servers.

leotseddap said:

This is a good change (yes I am one who prefers to play by the rules) but wouldn't surprise me that this is happening cause blizz is removing links to twinkinfo.com on their own forums. Linking to sites with exploits, pvt servers, gold and account sales is not allowed. Glad that Twinkinfo is taking a new course and is getting a bit more mature. You are doing the right thing!

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I said the exact same thing.. but ye... my post got deleted.. what a surprise.

[MENTION=199]Hamcake[/MENTION] had it pretty spot on with his post. It's blatantly obvious what was actually the catalyst for this erroneous decision, and I'm a little peeved the admins and mods won't come out and say exactly what happened.

Blizzard's news post about what's going on in the community this month mentioned the Twink Cup - an event pretty much created and organized nearly exclusively on Twink Info. However, Blizzard did not link to TI, and instead opted to link a completely unrelated site that has a separate thread for the event.

This led to Shane realizing the ToS-breaking section of the site is bad for getting the word out about TI as far as Blizzard goes, so he pulled all the ToS-breaking stuff, hoping that next time around Blizz will directly make mention of TI instead of some no-name page.

However, I think it's pretty silly. At first I thought Shane was genuinely doing what was good for the site (and still do in terms of community reach), but I realized that he's probably only doing it so he can profit off the ad revenue from the influx of new users and add to his bottom line. Anyone who knows a single thing about twinking will already know about TI and frequents it, and anyone who doesn't won't care. What a link from Blizzard will do is bring a ton of Ad Revenue.

In the process of doing this, he's alienated a huge chunk of the community that enjoys partaking in the "grey area" of WoW Twinking, which includes selling/trading accounts (which he does so himself and had ads for on this site - so it's in no way an ethical concern), Private Servers (which many of us like to partake in to both enjoy custom content created by our own community, and to enjoy different eras of twinking).

While TI will always be my home no matter how long I spend away from WoW, this change made me genuinely sad. If someone can correct me and point to a direct reason (sans politics) other than the above for this change, I'd love to hear it ( Shane ).

iaccidentallytwink said:

Hamcake had it pretty spot on with his post. It's blatantly obvious what was actually the catalyst for this erroneous decision, and I'm a little peeved the admins and mods won't come out and say exactly what happened.

Blizzard's news post about what's going on in the community this month mentioned the Twink Cup - an event pretty much created and organized nearly exclusively on Twink Info. However, Blizzard did not link to TI, and instead opted to link a completely unrelated site that has a separate thread for the event.

This led to Shane realizing the ToS-breaking section of the site is bad for getting the word out about TI as far as Blizzard goes, so he pulled all the ToS-breaking stuff, hoping that next time around Blizz will directly make mention of TI instead of some no-name page.

However, I think it's pretty silly. At first I thought Shane was genuinely doing what was good for the site (and still do in terms of community reach), but I realized that he's probably only doing it so he can profit off the ad revenue from the influx of new users and add to his bottom line. Anyone who knows a single thing about twinking will already know about TI and frequents it, and anyone who doesn't won't care. What a link from Blizzard will do is bring a ton of Ad Revenue.

In the process of doing this, he's alienated a huge chunk of the community that enjoys partaking in the "grey area" of WoW Twinking, which includes selling/trading accounts (which he does so himself and had ads for on this site - so it's in no way an ethical concern), Private Servers (which many of us like to partake in to both enjoy custom content created by our own community, and to enjoy different eras of twinking).

While TI will always be my home no matter how long I spend away from WoW, this change made me genuinely sad. If someone can correct me and point to a direct reason (sans politics) other than the above for this change, I'd love to hear it ( Shane ).

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Be careful with speaking the truth.. my post got deleted for saying it as it was.. Twinkinfo being butthurt over Bisnation being mentioned and not em self.