IntroductionIt saddens me to announce one of the greatest changes in ULK history. Recent actions taken by certain members of the gang have completely violated our gang policies and severely tarnished the meaning and reputation of "ULK." What is truly disappointing about all of this is that many of these individuals acted while being fully aware of the potential negative effects that their actions could have on the gang.
Before I continue, on behalf of ULK, I would like to thank everyone in the VC:MP community for their ongoing support. We will continue to try our best to promote fun and fair gameplay in the community and please rest assured that we will do everything we can to ensure that our founding principles and friendship with the community are not compromised in the slightest. Our decision today has not only resolved all remaining internal issues within ULK, but also paved the way for our long term sustainability in the future.
Also, I would like to make it extremely clear that our decision was really a last resort amidst all the internal conflict and struggle within ULK which began almost five years ago. I am sure that many of you have already taken notice of some of our internal problems based on some of the illegitimate (I will explain later on) and rather controversial "public announcements" made by certain members of the gang.
What has happened?To cut to the chase and be as accurate and specific as possible, ULK's membership has been significantly reduced reduced from a little over 50 members to 33. This may sound shocking to you and almost unbelievable, but it is exactly what happened over the past few days; some of our members are no longer a part of this organization.
These individuals (now removed from the member list) have not been kicked or were forced out of ULK. Rather, they have left on their own accord and created their own "gang," the same way some of our members have left in the past and formed the Da gang. The only difference is that their newly established illegitimate entity is also under the name "ULK." Their new website
www.ulkgang.com (hosted on FMJ site
http://fmjclan.co.uk/index.php) has even copied much of the content from our site. Moreover, under their new entity, they have made several outrageous decisions such as demoting myself to TLK or promoting ParadoX to ULK without the approval of most of our members.
Their decisions are not legitimate and will never be recognized by ULK. As such, I implore the community to not give them any recognition whatsoever so that they will hopefully stop with their abusive behavior that is both embarrassing for ULK and confusing for the community.
Now, what has lead to all of this? What role did we, the remaining and majority of members of ULK, play in all of this? Here is the honest truth which can be verified by any of our remaining members and by some individuals outside of the gang who have been consulted throughout the process. We also have plenty of evidence to back up our claims, and in an effort to address our public obligation to the community and to promote transparency within the gang, we will disclose many details which have been kept secret within ULK until now.
The Truth - No more secretsEssentially, a certain group of members with considerable influence within ULK has been constantly undermining and looking down at the rest of the gang. They have not been involved at all in ULK's growth in VC:MP as well as XE's development, and yet they believe that they are entitled to some sort of "superiority" within the gang and in VC:MP. Even though they are relatively inactive, and do not contribute nearly as much to the gang as even our TLKs, they have completely manipulated and taken advantage of ULK's name and affiliations to serve their own interests. Specifically they have used ULK and XE's relative success to fuel their egos and convince themselves that they are better than others.
However, the key issue at hand is that even within ULK, they believe that they are "above" the rest of us. Right from the moment they came from MTA:VC and joined us, they have believed in a "council system," a system where there are supposedly "senior members" in the gang whose opinions and votes are worth much more than the rest of the gang. This is an extremely antediluvian and outdated system that is only necessary when the gang is as big as, for instance, 100 members. Their adamant belief in this system, that they ares "superior" to the rest of the members in the gang, is rude and unfair to everyone in the gang.
We are not supposed to follow strict rules of "council" or any of that bs that they have been trying to impose on us. I have worked my hardest from the first day to ensure that everyone's voice is equal (ULKs and TLKs alike) and that everything is decided based on majority rule. This is something that we can continue to try our best to promote and is the reason why ULK has been able to exist without official leaders and why ULK continues to be one of the strongest gangs in VC:MP. We are a family, a group of friends - we make decisions based on what the majority of members thinks and they keep forgetting that.
Also, what they are deceiving the public about is that ULK was not always the way it is now. Back in around 2007-2008 when I joined VC:MP, ULK was pretty much just one guy - ULK.HeAD. I know some of them may have "checked out" VC:MP, but the truth is only HeAD was actively playing VC:MP. Certain members of the gang like to show off and say that "ULK was founded in 2003" or that "they have been playing for 10 years" but the truth is both are lies. It is only correct to say that ULK was founded 10 years ago, or that some of them played multiplayer Vice City 10 years ago, but it is wrong and inaccurate to say or imply that ULK or they have been alive and pwning since 2003. What I can tell you is that when I joined ULK around 2007-2008,
ULK did not even exist in VC:MP. Did you know what "ULK" was like in 2007-2008? It was essentially just ULK.HeAD playing alone in XE. All the other "MTA ULKs" were simply idling on ulk.servebeer IRC (not even GTANet) and they did not play VC:MP at all. So was ULK even a clan in VC:MP? No. Do you know which clans actually existed? KFJ, DnA, etc. ULK essentially had one member who was playing by himself. A "clan" did not exist in VC:MP; instead, it was just an extremely skilled player who happened to wear the ULK tag in front of his nick. When I joined ULK, I was essentially the second member in VC:MP. HeAD was my first friend in VC:MP; he taught me everything, from fighting knowledge to even how to manage a server. For a while, we were essentially the only two people in ULK who played this game. But then, one day, I asked HeAD. "So you keep telling me all these great stories about what 'ULK' was so where is ULK? What happened to ULK in VC:MP?" The reality was that ULK may have had a great early history and may have pwned in MTA:VC, but at the time, in VC:MP, ULK was nothing. It didn't have members, it didn't have rules, it didn't recruit anyone, it didn't have a website - it didn't have anything.
But I wasn't okay with that. I watched how all these other gangs had 20+ members and how each of them had their individual identities and reputations within VC:MP. I absolutely hated hated the idea that my tag meant absolutely nothing. But no, no, it actually meant everything to me. ULK marked my beginning in VC:MP. ULK was a testament to my friendship with HeAD. ULK was my personal identity and my pride in this world we call VC:MP. I wanted more and I just couldn't accept what it was. So I started recruiting all my friends (some were the best players in VC:MP - i.e. Kong who I had to essentially beg and beg to join). I also set up a website for ULK (this site), hosted a "ULK Public Server" and "Psycho Empire" (they were quite popular actually) to further promote the "ULK name." I had to beg and persuade most of the recruits to join and within about a year, ULK had 30+ members and we were clearly one of the leading gangs in VC:MP. At this point, we essentially made it. We were unified. There was absolutely no drama whatsoever. None of this internal conflict existed.
I actually created the #ULK channel on GTANet and I find it extremely sad and ironic that they have banned me from there. The new channel has been temporarily relocated to #ULK (LUNet) and in the meantime, I will try to get in touch with the IRCops on GTANet. HeAD and I actually begged each of these people to leave their private IRC server and join us on #ULK (GTANet) so again I find it to make no sense that they hate LUNet so much and are so adamant about staying in GTANet. When HeAD told me about all these old players from MTA, I thought it would be a great idea for him to ask them to come back. Even though most of our clan base had no idea who they were, we welcome each and every one of them as they joined with open arms. Little did I know, and soon did I find out that they did not give care at all about any of us - any of us members who did not play MTA but was nevertheless extremely instrumental in building ULK in VC:MP. In fact, back in 2009, they tried to hold private discussions without the rest of the gang (I was the only one who was "invited") and this outrages numerous members of the gang. Everything I worked so hard for, the very essence of unity, of how everyone was equal, THEY tried to eliminate. They were back to claim the fruits of OUR hard work. Even today, they still don't realize that it is the "VC:MP ULKs" or the TLKs who help us dominate in clan rankings, fight in VC:MP events, and represent ULK on a day-to-day basis.
From the first day that they joined, they have tried to oppress the rest of the members, they have tried to impose their old MTA systems and they believed they should control ULK as they see it. They have been doing this knowing that they are clearly in the minority within ULK. The landscape was different, this was VC:MP and HeAD and I always agreed in the system of fair votes for everyone in the gang, not some "council system" where certain members were considered to be "senior" or "elite" members of the gang.
The truth is back then in 2009, we almost had a similar situation to the one we had now. As a result, HeAD and I agreed to propose a new official leadership structure so that every single decision that anyone made had to be accounted for and so that it would promote responsibility within everyone for everything said and done. People like Bishop or Vinny would not be able to ruin ULK's reputation ever again. We essentially had an election to vote for 3 leaders since these members were clearly against equal votes for everyone, and for everything to be decided based on majority. I was clearly leading this poll in terms of votes, but in the end, HeAD and I decided that we had proven enough of a point. Moreover, this system was a complete outcry from the system of equal votes and democracy that was working so well so far. There was even a point when a big fraction of the members were even willing to leave with me and create our own "ULK" but I thought to myself - it makes absolutely no sense to leave. ULK is ours. We are the one who built ULK in VC:MP so why are we leaving? The MTA players are part of our clan's founding history so we have done everything we can to welcome them into our gang. Our priority was UNITY. It made no sense for us to leave our own gang, especially given that we were the majority. We did not need an official leadership structure because after all, we were a group of friends. BUT the keyword is "friends." Many of these MTA ULKs never saw us as "friends" or "equals," but rather, as inferior members of the gang.
