On FTR issues, please read!

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PLEASE READ

Hello, dear readers

there are a couple of issues with FTR I’d like to adress as a reaction of several e-mails I recieved recently. First, this week, I will have an unexpected vacation, so you can expect a bit more content than usual. At least if I will try. On to more serious issues however:

- several readers have reported they cannot access FTR properly. Curiously, they all were Americans and I THINK that it had something to do with Telia. No idea what happened, but it should work now. If you have problems with reading FTR, please let me know in comments

- regarding EnsignExpendable and the comment “shitstorm” under one of the recent articles: EnsignExpendable’s knowledge of Soviet war effort, vehicles and history is extremely impressive and I am really glad I have him writing on FTR occassionally. If you don’t like his articles, please – feel free not to read them. I’d like to ask you however to keep it civil in the comment section: I promised in the beginning I won’t censor the comments – and I don’t censor them, but some of the comments from last month (not necesserily under the EE articles) were over the borders and I got so pissed I actually banned two people. I unbanned them after an hour or so, when I cooled down, but seriously, don’t do that stuff. Thanks.

In the future, I will adress more tank myths, such as the notorious “Shermans burned all the time”,or the “Secrets of American TD doctrine”. Don’t worry, no bias here (funnily enough, I recieved a bunch of e-mails about me being anti-German or whatever, while only a few months back, I did recieve two e-mails that I am in fact a nazi, because I write about Axis tanks and history and my nickname shortcut is SS).

- feel free to whisper me in game, but please, I don’t do platoons. Thanks for all the offers, I very much appreciate them, but I really just prefer to solo, unless I know that person really well. If some you watched the Circon’s stream where I was a guest, you might understand why.

And, last but not least

I understand the ads are possibly annoying and I’d like to thank those of you, who aren’t blocking them. It’s a huge help and much appreciated. I’d also like to specifically ask once again all those, who donated in the past (and those who still intend to, if there are any such folks here) :) I can buy some coffee from that – and I do drink a LOT of coffee, more coffee = more creativity in my case :)

Seriously though, any support, if only a short e-mail, is much appreciated. Thank you.

98 thoughts on “On FTR issues, please read!”

  1. keep it up SS :)

    regarding Ensign Expendable…
    just tell him to stay objective and it will be fine.

    • And to stop calling people names, like “lunatics”, “idiots”, “fascist fanboys”, [and the list goes on] without any reason but people having different view on things.

      And to stop telling people to “get out” (like he owns the place).

      And to respond when he is caught in a lie (and at least acknowledge his mistake if saying sorry is too much for him).

      And to stop bringing his pals from NA server to fuel the “shitstorm”.

      And to stop glorifying communist crimes (please take into account “Declaration on Crimes of Communism”, 25.2.2010. which Czech Republic signed and Council of Europe resolution 1481/2006, 25.1.2006.).

      Thanks.

      • When those “people” call EE a “stalinist brainwashed by Soviet propaganda”, his articles “political essays glorifying communism and spreading lies about Germans”, and then continue with “LOLOLOLOL IF RUZZIANZ WE’RE SO GREET WHY THEM GOTZ 100X HIGHESTER LOSZES?”, calling them idiots and fascist fanboys is entirely adequate reaction.

      • >And to stop glorifying communist crimes (please take into account “Declaration on Crimes of Communism”, 25.2.2010. which Czech Republic signed and Council of Europe resolution 1481/2006, 25.1.2006.).
        No on really give a shit about you eastern Europeans and your obsession with “communist crimes”, anyway I really don’t see how EE glorified them, he simply said that nazis lied, this and that are two completely different matters.

        • Of course you don’t give shit about them when you’ve never been on receiving end. Human empathy not your strong point? Bragging about that is?

          • Instead in East Europe missing the point and brining up this argument in any discussion is probably a regional sport or something.

        • Stalin was pig and deserve hall of shame medal. Ruined all mid and north europe and according my grandparants russian army was worse than animals when they come”liberate” europe they sayed worse than germans. And what do u know about eastern europe? Probably nothing. Do u know even what countries are in eastern europe or u just sticking then together with ols eastern block? Oh do u know what is it?

  2. Regarding the EE Matter.

    I actually do like the Articles, they put some light from other perspectives. Thats fine and intereseting. also i dont doubt his knowledge.
    What pisses me off are his insulting comments about those war criminals and genocidal “wehraboos”
    This is very insulting to all of your german readers, most of them had some beloved relatives fought, died or suffered in captivity on the eastern front.

    But most important, i came here (next to the directly WoT realted stuff) for interesting Articles, not for political discussions.
    As for tanks, im interested and fascinated in their engineering, design, etc.
    This should not be the place to discuss which greater good or doomed evil they were used to.

    maybe u understand my point here.

    Afterall i cannot thank u enough for creating such a great blog, the whole Wot community is in your depts and thats not overestatement.

    And ur a great guy for addressing recent issues and not just silence them to death as WoT Eu like to do

    • I do understand. However, I feel also how very passionate Ensign Expendable is on this matter. It’s a sensitive issue either way, but as I said, I haven’t censored comments in the past and I won’t now. Not in this at least, but so far, noone started to yell “Sieg Heil!”, or any such stuff worth deleting.

    • Actually, EE starts of quite well usually. Its after a while that you see him losing his cool. Cant blame him, even though its not something I like.

    • The “150 SS troops were required to kill 8 Soviets” was just provocation, and provocation shouldn’t be allowed on this site.I like the informative articles about tank prototypes, about WoT, anything else about tanks, the daily Q&A, but the shitstorms came for a reason.EnsignExpendable wanted to piss off people, and he did it very well.

      • How is this a provocation? One party is forbidden and other lost their power long time ago – and both should be defunct.

        • I’m not talking about nazis and communists, but German and Soviet soldiers.Saying that Soviets were 20 times as effective as Germans is as stupid as what he reacted to (300:3 in German favor).

          • He didn’t state that, that whole part was just to demonstrate that they sometimes lied… You can read the whole part again in my reply to your first comment, which is below this one.

          • He stated that in one skirmish, 150 SS troops failed miserably, and that the glorious warmachine of the third Reich wasn’t the pseudo-romanticized version most people have in mind, where a single panzer, a single German soldier could fend off a dozen dirty Soviet peasant soldiers.

            That’s not provocation, that’s just snapping back to reality.
            As for more provocative comments after that, I would be pissed too if I wrote an article with sources, and 50% of the comments were basically: “you suck, your article sucks and your sources make you an idiot”.

      • I’ll probably write this few more times after this, but whatever: Why do you cherry pick? And stupidly at that… “The Germans claim 300 killed to 3 of their men lost, compared to the harsh reality: at a cost of 150 SS troops, only 8 wounded Soviets were killed. Even if you throw in all Soviet soldiers from the entire unit killed or missing in action in that area over two months, that’s still just over 100 people”

        Why did you left out the part with Germans actually lying, hmm? I would understand (partially) your anger if he just stated that Russia stronk, Wehrmacht shit – but he didn’t.

        • In my second comment I stated that both claims are stupid-if the loss ratio had been 5:1 for Germany, they would have defeated the Soviets, and if the Shermans had been 4 times as effective as Panthers (written in another atricle that caused similar “shitstorm”), the Allies would have won much sooner.

          Anyway, we’ll never know the exact loss ratio, and there’s no need to piss off anyone intentionally because of their opinion.

      • He used an example… a simple example where something incredible happened and in no way wanted to say that a soviet soldier is 20 times more effective than a wermacht one. It was in no way meant as such a thing.

    • >> “wehraboos”
      This is very insulting to all of your german readers, most of them had some beloved relatives fought, died or suffered in captivity on the eastern front.

      You had that coming. It’s you who started that !@#$ war.

      • So what kind of logic is that: You once started a war so now you have it all coming. Whow. I guess only the Swiss are left then who don’t “have it coming”.

        This kind of inhumane thinking is what makes this precious blog sometimes really annoying to read. It’s like the scum of the earth gathers to blissfully insult one another in as cheap a way as possible…

        • First off, why all the cowards using anon?

          Second LOL

          wehraboos whining about people being mean to them when they get their Wehraboo tag for being Nazi fanboys.

          No normal people like Nazis, or their fanboys.

          All Nazis were scumbags, their families should be ashamed if they have one in the closet.

  3. About EE’s article…I just saw it and my god, that shitstorm in comments…There are like 100 times more text in comments than in actual story by EE.

    Have you thought about some time limit for comments? Like you cannot post more than 3 comments per hour/10 hours/24 hours? That way you can size down that kind of shitstorms…

    I mean, I just looked at those comments(and the number of them) and some people really need to chill the fuck down(no naming and shaming)

      • As long as using Facebook accounts is part of “registered users”, you have my support.

    • Comments under articles are for you mostly, not for me (I go thru them for feedback mostly). Therefore, I bow in this to the “vox populi” – I have put it to a vote before (several times in fact) and every time, majority (80 percent or so) voted for “keep them without registration”

  5. Half of the comment on EE’s article was “it’s communism, it must be a propaganda” kind of argument, seriously it’s very childish and bias. Not every thing about commie was propaganda and not all the propaganda is commie’s. Grow up, people.

  7. Hey SS, thanks for all the hard work :)

    And about the money issues, have you ever heard of Subbable? It might be of help, I’m not really sure because I have never used it before, but it might be worth it.

    https://subbable.com/

  8. This the only site I’ve visited worth disabling my adblock. Even though I’ve practically stopped playing WoT, I still have to check this atleast once a day.

    Thanks for all the awesome stuff SS and the rest of the authors.

      • :D

        Well this siema used to play this game a lot, but I just can’t stand the complete lack of situational awarness on such a big part of the player base anymore. On top of that WoT’s esport side is so poorly excuted (no interface, esl site is just complete shit (not WG’s fault ofc)), and too heavily influenced by RNG that it way too often comes down to luck who wins the match. If WG worked on these or atleast fixed the MM making such imbalanced games tank-wise, I belive this siema and many other siemas too would consider this game again as a viable way to spend money and time.

  9. You are literally the ONLY website I have my adblocker turned off for :) And really, your adds are very small and unobtrusive.

  10. “I understand the ads are possibly annoying and I’d like to thank those of you, who aren’t blocking them. It’s a huge help and much appreciated.”

    I have my Adblock Plus set to “Disable on ftr.wot-news.com” and I still see the notices about blocking your ads on the site. I know this isn’t much information, but any clue why I don’t see the ads here?

      • You disable ads because on some sites ads are annoying and blocking them simply cleans up the site layout, tho SS is barely using any ads most people using ad block and related software don’t bother on disabling it for just one site.

        • Also there are sites I feel I have to read to be “in the know” but I actually despise them and helping them getting moneyiez feels plain immoral?

          (Not FTR obviously.)

  11. “And, last but not least

    I understand the ads are possibly annoying and I’d like to thank those of you, who aren’t blocking them.”

    Annoying with what? :P
    Since they don’t block the readers doing their activities I find no reason to call them annoying…
    And most of them are, for me, about WoT and other war stuff so it’s really ok.

  13. “I’d like to ask you however to keep it civil in the comment section:” – That would be nice, but it probably won’t happen.

  15. ” I got so pissed I actually banned two people. I unbanned them after an hour or so, when I cooled down, but seriously, don’t do that stuff.”

    dis gon b gud ;__;

  16. On that “cannot access FTR” matter:

    I had issues (few months ago) with accessing regular wot-news from my work office (no, not blocked, I would have to block it myself :D), while I could connect just fine from home.

    I did some testing and there was just no route to wot-news servers. It just could not resolve the hostname, not even direct IP address worked, nothing, nichts, nada :) It eventually fixed itself…

    + some other cases involving completely different source and destination, these things happen from time to time and it can be kinda hard to tell where something failed :)

  17. “If you have problems with reading FTR, please let me know in comments”
    eeehm… that reminds me of something like “your phone does not work? Call the hotline” or “modem can’t connect? Download latest drivers…” ;)

  19. Small suggestion to FTR

    It would be great if only registered users could post comments and in same time if we could block such comments from certain people (there are people here like woras whos comments are just garbage and a waste of screen space). If u make it happen im sure that most people will be very thankful.

    • I was thinking about something along the same line. Make it so that we need a FTR account to post comments to articles (having the website display: Player_Server as it is used on the test server). As it is now I don’t really like the idea of logging in with another account (google, FB, steam, etc) due to security concerns and letting people know my real name and such (hence the anonymous posting).
      Also having some kind of rep system (like/unlike) for posts would be nice.

  20. EE needs to understand this isn’t SA or NA Wot forums and that he should treat the people posting here differently.
    Reading this blog to find new info about WOT and stuff about tanks/armored warfare. Bias flamebait articles do not belong here.

  21. First off, and I’ve said it numerous times already, thanks for your efforts SS. This is where I come for my WoT news. I also enjoy the articles on armor especially.

    Now, onto the EE stuff:
    This individual is a well known suspect on the NA forums, and for not good reasons. It doesn’t matter whatever “knowledge” they exhibit when they exhibit it in the manner that they do. Even here, leading up to that last article, he wrote in one of the prior articles “maybe i’ll write something about German numbers har har”, to that effect. Then the article came out brimming with the typical propaganda RU lovers exhibit, followed by the typical insults in the comments section to stir things up, let alone when they target people. EE brings it upon themselves, and if you want to have them continue on doing pieces for here, then you’re just going to have to accept what’s going to follow. If you try to censor what people write back to them, while letting this individual to take their venomous pot-shots at whichever non-russian race they choose at that moment, then my ad-blocker for this site goes back on, or better yet, I’ll just get the news from the forums where people copy and paste it all the time.

    Sure it’s easy to just not read it, but you can see a chunk of what they write without having to click on it. And it’s disgusting to many that they get a soapbox to spout their usual rubbish. And I’m pretty sure they can not write anything with the intention of not flaming someone.

    Once again, there’s a reason this person on the NA forums is considered a “joke poster”, as in an account that isn’t actually an individual with an opinion. But instead someone who writes up ridiculous material that’s so laughable that it’s has to be “for the lols”, thus a “joke poster”.

  22. Why do you say that you don’t censor comments? You have censored many comments for no reason other than making good points that disagree with you. Well, at least on the old site.

  23. I’m from a country which is not directly involved (in WW 2) with either Germans or Soviets, so I didn’t really care about propaganda. However, I do detect an obvious flamebait in that article, plus a little bit too bias for my taste when I would like to read about history/tank articles.

    In conclusion, please keep the -tone- of the articles to be as neutral as possible. Keep up the good work, SS!

  24. Aw, you guys, an entirely new shitstorm in the comments, just for me? You shouldn’t have :)

    If you are going to call me a “stalinite” (seriously, where did you even get that word) propaganda spewing communist pig, you’re very welcome, I’ve been called worse things by better people. However, if you choose to disagree with my statements, please bring some evidence to the table. “Omg its commies, commies r liars” and “this SS guy wrote it in his diary between executing civilians, so it must be true” is not evidence. Belton Cooper is not evidence. Whatever unsourced dribble you find on the internet is not evidence. If you want to defend your dead nazi buddies, fine by me, but get your hands dirty in the Bundesarchiv or stick to neg-repping me on the forums.

    Toodles~~

    • Ok if thats not just written down for Trolling purposes and trying to ignite some more Flames then i dont know, however Ensign you lost all credibility and for me you are pretty much worth nothing.
      If you want to defend your dead nazi buddies… Seriously SS?
      Yes all of them where nazis just like every guy in the red army was a fucking rapist.

      Sincerly
      Magitech

        • “I am sincerely asking you and people like you to bring actual evidence to the table.”
          @Ensign
          Iam not sure what you mean by people like you? Wehraboo/Nazi Fanboy? You used so many insults so you may need to tell me exactly in which part of it i belong.

          Because i dont need actual evidence to proof you are only trolling for the purpose of starting Flame wars since your posts are full of the evidence you ask for.

          Its nice that SS covers you and i know that you think you are untouchable and able to do what you like but hey maybe this changes.
          And even if not this is my last post to something you said.
          Bad troll. *hush*

          Magitech

    • “If you want to defend your dead nazi buddies, fine by me,”

      This right here. This is an example of what people are talking about you. You being the “author”, the writer of something should not be writing stuff like this…

      SS, please stick to “armor topics”. They’re sensitive as is, let alone when people like this are writing flamebaiting articles and responses in your comments. They should be above it, but this individual is not. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. There’s a reason this person is laughed at and mocked on the official forums. Worst part is he’ll be the first to trash German and US nationalists, calling people neo-nazis, wheraboos, and stuff like that, but gets massively butthurt when called out as being a stalinite.

      Anyways, less intentional flaimbaiting articles (this individual did post prior to the shitstorm article that they were going to put something up to rial up people, and then later flamed whoever he could in the comments.

      Stick to the “armor” stuff, and such articles not written by agenda wielding trolls, please.

      • Oh, so you’re talking about “less flamebaiting”, but yet you come here and slander me? You’re adorable. Like I said, please provide evidence for your ludicrous claims.

        Also what is a “stalinite”? Do explain. That is not a word I am familiar with. Google Chrome wants to correct it to “stateliness”. Are you saying that I am a state machine?

  25. I really appreciate your work here SS. That being said, I turned adblock back on in response to the trollish and bad articles by that Ensign person. I urge you to take a look at the comments made by him. He is a bad troll and ruins what you have build here.

    Giving this fool a soapbox to stand on was a big mistake.

    • Now, now, you don’t have to resort to name calling. Also, since my fanbase is so vocal, I’ve been thinking about upping my contribution to twice a week. What do you say? :)

      • When the adults are talking the children better be quiet, so please shut up. SS, his reply was a perfect example of what I was talking about. He is a troll, and a pretty bad one too!

      • This kind of posts is what is referred to as flamebait. The usual answer: Don’t feed the troll.

        The whole shitstorm was in essence troll-feeding and sad as it is, ‘articles’ like that probably generate a lot of advertizing-money so we might actually get more of that stuff.

        I guess as long as somewhere in some cellar some troll gets a happyface not all is lost?

      • Is that what you call your pieces of agenda driven propaganda and intentional flame baiting drivel. “Don’t resort to name calling” it hurts my feelings, but I’m gonna call you a nazi defending your dead nazi buddies”.

        Let’s talk about the millions of dead civilians due to stalin.

        • I don’t have a problem with that. Start your own blog, prove yourself by writing informative articles, get SS to make you a co-writer, and then you can write whatever you want.

          Until then, it looks like I have a bit more weight around here.

          • Here’s a quick article on how to not write flamebaiting articles that come across as typical low level forum trolling:

            Hi, don’t write rubbish like this:
            http://ftr.wot-news.com/2013/08/03/cheating-at-statistics/

            This includes the subject title, and all the shit comments supplied by the author.

            You have no “weight” to throw around. You write a bunch of propaganda that pisses so many people off that don’t realize you’re just a stalinite troll from the official forums in which everyone laughs at you.

            Hitler, Stalin, and Hussein. All piles of shit, except at least Hitler pulled his nation out of the ashes of recession and gave his people a form of hope. So he’s one notch above them.

            • Apparently comparing reports on various incidents from both sides and saying that they don’t correspond (like claiming to have killed many more soldiers than were stationed there, for example) is ” agenda driven propaganda and intentional flame baiting drivel” and everyone goes totally ballistic…

            • Yes, Hitler, Stalin, and Hussein are well known for publishing articles using primary historical sources.

              What’s wrong with “Cheating at Statistics”? That is exactly what the article talks
              about.

              Maybe I should write an article about actual propaganda, since apparently you guys have never seen any.

    • Typical goon troll posting typical goon crap that is meant do one thing: create a flame war for the poster’s own amusement. Some of us know that all goons are nazi haters. Keep your nazi hate on SA forums where it belongs.
      I sincerely hope SilentStalker realizes the mistake of having someone like you infecting this otherwise great blog and terminates the collaboration with you.
      Good day to you terrible goon sir !!! Sieg Heil !!!

    • I did something on that before. The basic conclusion is that while the overall doctrine had flaws, the ground level troops tweaked the doctrine to make it work.

      The part that didn’t work was the idea of the Tank Destroyer Brigade HQ – which was supposed to gather up TD battalions under one command. In practice there was no time to gather up the battalions to counter armored thrusts (and the TD Brigade wasn’t a combined-arms force anyway that could do well against German armored attacks in the first place).

      Hence, in practice, the TD Brigade HQ either remained unused or became a standard Armored Division Combat command – which could have tanks, TDs, and motorized/mech infantry gathered under one HQ for specific missions. It is why the Combat Command features prominently in every single US tank engagement (and they won pretty much all of their battles)

  28. My guess is the answer will be “no”, but I’ll ask anyway. SS, is there any way you can choose what ads are served on your site? Currently it’s running some game ads that are borderline NSFW, so I’ve actually had to instal adblock just to keep visiting the site.