Dog Tag Competition thread: "Is it fair?" draws staff replies and a 47-tag offer
In September 2015 a General Discussion thread asked whether the Dog Tag competition was fair. An officer defended it, and developer Chedburn offered to remove an unnamed poster and their 47 tags, an offer Leafeh later described.
Involved: Venomous [1805486] , Chedburn [1] Admin , Penicillin [1517799] Committee , Leafeh [467479] , MadHatter [486416] and 2 more
A complaint that recurs
Venomous [1805486] opened "Is the Dog Tag Competition Fair" in General Discussion on 09 Sep 2015. The opening post called it the most unfair competition in Torn and said the only people who get the tags in the end are those with the highest stats.[1][2]
The thread ran to 28 Sep 2015. At the archive's last fetch it had 490 replies and 9,050 views, with 154 different players posting.[2]
Tolshortte [648554] said the thread pops up every time the competition starts. They claimed that low-stat players say they cannot win and high-stat players lie and say they can. Participant claim[3]
Arguments over stats, tags and opting out
Venomous suggested separate competitions by level band, for example levels 20-40 with their own prize. They also said that in 4 previous competitions they had never seen anyone below lvl 90 take even third place. Participant claim[4][5]
PimpChu [1284243] replied that winners are usually those who are smart and work in a team. xMrPink [221113] told the thread to stop whining and play smart, listing self-hospitalising, jail and flying as ways to avoid big players. Participant claim[6][7]
Mat-Senpai [952164] proposed a cooldown on how often a tag can be mugged. The_Skipper [1876106] asked on 16 Sep 2015 for an option to opt out of the competition.[8][9]
On 16 Sep 2015 Chedburn [1], a Torn developer, wrote: "If you'd like, I can remove you from the competition. That would involve also removing the 47 dog tags you're holding however." The post drew 44 likes and 0 dislikes.[10]
The post does not name its addressee in the excerpt. Leafeh [467479] later described it as an offer to a poster who complained about the competition, and said the poster held 47 tags. Participant claim[11][12]
Officer replies and player views
Penicillin [1517799], listed as Torn officer/committee, wrote on 10 Sep 2015 that the competition was set up better than in previous years. They called the better criticism that it favours the rich, who can use four FHCs per day.[13]
On 12 Sep 2015 Penicillin wrote that the competition was never set up to be "fair", but that any player can get the 50 and 250 tag merits. They told unhappy players to get stronger and try again next year.[14]
On 13 Sep 2015 Penicillin rejected an opt-out mechanism, writing that the market would opt non-participating players out, and ended with "Take a few meds and move on."[15]
MadHatter [486416] wrote on 22 Sep 2015 that the suggestions would destroy the simple foundations of Torn. They said much had already been nerfed in favor of attracting and keeping new players. Participant claim[16]
Late posters were positive. veee [787089] said they thought the competition is fair and reported getting 10 tokens. sullengenie [1946152] said they got 112th on a young account. Participant claim[17][18]
The tone was rough at times. On 10 Sep 2015 Venomous replied to another poster by mocking their post count, and that reply drew 4 dislikes.[19]
Related threads and later references
On 17 Sep 2015 Passie [936578] locked "Dog tag competition sux" and told posters to use the existing thread.[20][21]
Leafeh linked the thread in 2018 and 2020, in later arguments about opting out and about dog tags. In 2020 they wrote that Chedburn had offered to remove the poster from the competition. Participant claim[11][12][22]
Timeline
- 9 Sep 2015 Venomous opens the thread calling the Dog Tag competition unfair.[1]
- 12 Sep 2015 Penicillin writes that the competition was never set up to be fair.[14]
- 16 Sep 2015 Chedburn offers to remove an unnamed poster from the competition along with 47 dog tags.[10]
- 17 Sep 2015 A separate complaint thread is locked and pointed to this one.[20]
- 28 Sep 2015 Last posts in the thread, mostly positive.[17][18]
Original sources 22
- Post by Venomous [1805486] in "Is the Dog Tag Competition Fair" ·
- Thread "Is the Dog Tag Competition Fair" (General Discussion) ·
- Post by Tolshortte [648554] in "Is the Dog Tag Competition Fair" ·
- Post by Venomous [1805486] in "Is the Dog Tag Competition Fair" ·
- Post by Venomous [1805486] in "Is the Dog Tag Competition Fair" ·
- Post by PimpChu [1284243] in "Is the Dog Tag Competition Fair" ·
- Post by xMrPink [221113] in "Is the Dog Tag Competition Fair" ·
- Post by Mat-Senpai [952164] in "Is the Dog Tag Competition Fair" ·
- Post by The_Skipper [1876106] in "Is the Dog Tag Competition Fair" ·
- Post by Chedburn [1] in "Is the Dog Tag Competition Fair" ·
- Post by Leafeh [467479] in "Opt out of attack-based competitions" ·
- Post by Leafeh [467479] in "Feedback on dog tags event from a newer player." ·
- Post by Penicillin [1517799] in "Is the Dog Tag Competition Fair" ·
- Post by Penicillin [1517799] in "Is the Dog Tag Competition Fair" ·
- Post by Penicillin [1517799] in "Is the Dog Tag Competition Fair" ·
- Post by MadHatter [486416] in "Is the Dog Tag Competition Fair" ·
- Post by veee [787089] in "Is the Dog Tag Competition Fair" ·
- Post by sullengenie [1946152] in "Is the Dog Tag Competition Fair" ·
- Post by Venomous [1805486] in "Is the Dog Tag Competition Fair" ·
- Post by Passie [936578] in "Dog tag competition sux" ·
- Thread "Dog tag competition sux" (Graveyard) ·
- Thread "Opt out of attack-based competitions" (General Discussion) ·
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Generated by TornLife from 22 sources · verified · model claude-sonnet-5
Drafted by a language model from the archived posts listed above, then checked three ways before publication: TornLife's validator (every number and citation must match the sources), deterministic statement rules (no unlabelled allegation, no real-world personal details, no claims about why anyone was federally jailed) and a separate critic and fact-checker that read each statement against its sources. It reports what players said; it is not Torn's own statement.