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MarlonBrando's karma complaint about JFA meets jeers and a lock

In August 2016 MarlonBrando [1337797] said JFA had downvoted their posts and asked what AOW should do. Replies included jokes and criticism, and an officer commented. The thread was locked the next day.

Aug 2016 · published

Involved: MarlonBrando [1337797] , Stretch [1846075] Officer , Dolfwagos [1900418] Committee , Sweeney_Todd [27468] , David [132845] and 2 more

A karma poll in the forums

On 07 Aug 2016 MarlonBrando [1337797] started the thread "[karma] Karma Abuse by JFA". The opening post drew 73 likes and 129 dislikes.[1][2]

TornLife's archive lists 233 replies and 3,095 views. The thread is locked and now sits in the Graveyard board. 6 posts in it were written by Torn staff, officers or moderators.[2]

The complaint and the escalation

MarlonBrando said JFA, as a faction of 99 members, had downvoted all their posts over the last year. They said their karma had gone from over 2,600+ to just under 1,500, a loss of over 1,100. Participant claim[1]

MarlonBrando said AOW had responded with 10,000+ downvotes and that 99% of all downvotes came from JFA. They said staff had reported the matter to the administrators and nothing was being done. Participant claim[1]

The opening post asked readers to vote on whether AOW needed to zero the entire JFA faction. Later that day MarlonBrando wrote "JFA, you are all pathetic losers" and "zeroing you all lifetime it is".[1][3]

David [132845] posted an image of a forum signature and wrote that some people were willing to give 100k per downvote. David called organized cyber-bullying, where people offer to pay for it, the point where they drew the line. Participant claim[4]

MarlonBrando quoted David's post and declared JFA "confirmed cheaters". They wrote that paying for downvotes was against Torn rules, that it had gone on daily for over a year, and called for all of JFA to be banned. Allegation[5]

Replies from players and officers

Remilia [1284087] asked whether JFA might not be the sole reason the posts were downvoted. They added that most of MarlonBrando's posts "are fun, but really, really, really, pointless".[6]

FidelCashflow [1993550] wrote that all they got out of the thread was that MarlonBrando had cried to admins about pointless forum karma. Rich_Kuklinski [1549948] said the poll lacked options for karma not mattering or removing it, and noted that MarlonBrando had disliked their post.[7][8]

Kapten_Klitoris [1873683] posted a mock warning that MarlonBrando was about to use their "strongest weapon, downrating". Joke[9]

A post by udontwanna [1725559] reads: "You sent a Box of Tissues to MarlonBrando with the message: dont cry... dry your eye...".[10]

Dolfwagos [1900418], listed as a Torn officer/committee, wrote that they almost fell off their chair laughing at the thread. They wrote that MarlonBrando was "basically asking for the down votes".[11]

Stretch [1846075], listed as a Torn officer/committee, alleged that MarlonBrando had nonsensically declared on JFA before and had now started "karma silliness", becoming upset when people played back. Allegation[12]

Mat-Senpai [952164] wrote that karma is "pretty shite" and that they would be fine with its removal. ToxicMonkeyMZC [712861] asked who really cared about karma anyway.[13][14]

A lock the next day

On 08 Aug 2016 Dolfwagos wrote that they had not realised the thread was still going. They also wrote that MarlonBrando downvoted their posts although they had not downvoted MarlonBrando's.[15][16]

part_timer [1533745] wrote that they had thought MarlonBrando had achieved the impossible and united the forum.[17]

Sweeney_Todd [27468] wrote "this has gone on long enough" and posted "Locked...". The thread is locked.[2][18]

Timeline

  1. MarlonBrando opens the karma thread about JFA.[1]
  2. After David's post on paid downvotes, MarlonBrando calls JFA confirmed cheaters. Allegation[4][5]
  3. Sweeney_Todd locks the thread.[18]
Original sources 18
How to read a story

Every statement in a Torn Story is checked against the archived posts it cites. Statements without a label are established: the record shows them directly. Everything else is labelled and says who is speaking.

Established
The record shows it directly: a post and its date, staff's own words, a thread's figures or TornLife data.
Participant claim
What someone involved said about their own actions or experience. Their account, not verified.
Allegation
An accusation a player made, attributed to them. Never TornLife's finding.
Joke
Banter or trolling, presented as such.
Generated by TornLife from 18 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.

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Names link to each player's TornLife profile as last observed now, not at the time of the story.