Should ppl who don't play the game be leading the community?

[TheRook]

As Wolf said in the post above.

I offered myself for the position of Ascension mod to forum and he contacted me back saying that he was letting me mod it...

No doubt if I had been put up for a public vote on the subject I probably wouldn't have gotten in...

I think its fine the way it is just sometimes mods (me) will get something wrong... at which point other mods will point it out or I'll get belittled by members of the community and either way I learn from it and avoid doing it again...

its the best I can do and generally the best thing you can hope for as a mod that if you do something wrong people will help you solve that issue and carry on... it just seems that when a mod posts something they instantly get from a member of the community of "oh here is another mod doing stupid stuff... why cant they do things properly"

TheRook

[Psi Kiya Trist]

(except maybe the original team from early-mid 05)

That's cause the forums was a place where the number one thing was harmless fun. And the mods functioned as a true Council, with everyone being equal. Rather than the hierarchical system we have and need now due to the growing demands of the community.

~_+Psi Kiya Trist+_~

[semper]

you were also meaner back then. You didnt seem to really care what many people thought of you. You did your jobs and got on with it.

[Acronon]

Okay, I hear what you mean Wolf and I do see your side of it.

But, (you knew it was coming, lol) if the community is going to be lead by people that the community do NOT feel that they can trust, be around and feel secure with then we will watch as more and more people leave this forum.

In the past we have discussed this, the forum fun and activity has declined, it has become more of an issue than ever before.

With guys like you back Wolf I have faith that there are members of the forum team that are working to make the forum a good place to be again and I am just trying to help mate.

[Riposte]

Never, since the start of this forum, have so many players hated the idea of coming onto this forum.

Same people, same sort of topic AGAIN.
No wonder people hate coming to this forum. Every couple of weeks something like this pops up, why are you all exaggerating everything and making it so much more complicated than it needs to be?

So you can't mass the mods when you think they screw up. If they are in vac mode then you've already won.

FSM is a joke. The ones taking it so seriously.... get a grip :/

[Wolf359]

Okay, I hear what you mean Wolf and I do see your side of it.

But, (you knew it was coming, lol) if the community is going to be lead by people that the community do NOT feel that they can trust, be around and feel secure with then we will watch as more and more people leave this forum.

In the past we have discussed this, the forum fun and activity has declined, it has become more of an issue than ever before.

With guys like you back Wolf I have faith that there are members of the forum team that are working to make the forum a good place to be again and I am just trying to help mate.

heh, heh - right back at ya......

Mods do not lead the community, they enforce the rules of the forum. Which is why it doesn't matter if a mod is a long established member, or a new one. It is their potential to carry out the duties of a mod that leads to their selection - not how popular or well known they are.

If there are truly cases at the moment of illegitimate mod actions leading to mistrust, then contact Jack, as the ombudsman (that's what he's there for) or, alternatively, a superior mod or admin. Contact me if you need to - and I think most people who have been around a while know that I am not afraid to topple the apple-cart and upset my fellow mods (no matter who they are) if I believe it is needed! I've done it before, and I certainly have no issues about doing it again.

I do know what you mean about forum fun and activity - but I do not believe this is directly because of any of the current mods. It has been my firm belief (for well over a year) that the reduction in fun/activity has it's roots stemmed in how the game has changed - and not natural evolution, forced changes. Because of certain changes to the game, people can grow at a much faster rate than they used to, their accounts can't be hurt as much as they used to, and when they are attacked they can rebuild faster than they used to. This in turn has led to a damn sight more arrogance, beligerence and wilful rule breaking in the forums. Consequently, mods have more modding to do than they used to - but, because of the ingame changes I have mentioned, some people think they have more power, and that mods can be ignored and/or threatened. I've also in the past seen the attitude of certain individuals change for the worse overnight, strangely coincidental with becoming members of certain alliances - all I can deduce from this is that they feel being a member of such an alliance makes them feel safer, and overly confident about how they conduct themselves on the forum - coincidentally it is usually the same people who keep crying foul when they are subsequently warned/banned for misdeeds.

To cut it short, it is the increased arrogance, beligerance and rule breaking by some of these aforementioned forum members that has led to a decrease in the amount of fun and activity in the forum (I know a lot of people who don't or rarely visit the forum because of this).

Finally, thanks for your words of support to me - they're very much appreciated. I know you are only trying to help - but I'm not certain that everyone that gets involved in these type of discussions has similar unselfish intentions.

[The Xeno]

But, (you knew it was coming, lol) if the community is going to be lead by people that the community do NOT feel that they can trust, be around and feel secure with then we will watch as more and more people leave this forum.

In the past we have discussed this, the forum fun and activity has declined, it has become more of an issue than ever before.

I fear that the mod team and administration are not responsible for any declines - rather, it has always been my impression based on what I saw while I was still active - that the community and game drastically changed from its initial nature in '05, and again in '06, and again in '07, and (probably, I've not been around) will/has changed as we start '08.

We are looking to lay blame on the mod team, for something they have no control over - people change, game mechanics change, life happens.
I remember the tail-end of the 'old' forums, with Ghosty Goo and ETL... I remember a different culture of players which lead to a different community.

Personally, I think the game has changed, the players have thus changed.... of course the community has changed. And if any of those changes over the course of 2 years were negative due to mod team actions, the law of averages must even things out. Again - its been a long time - things have changed... there is enough accumulated anger in the ascension bugs/fix section alone to account for seven times the negative energy bouncing about.

Come on people, we've had good mods, bad mods - but even if we were to overhaul the mod team and somehow manage to even come close to replicating the awesome team we have now... that won't reset the game, it wont change game mechanics, it won't bring back the vibrancy of the old forum.

The game isn't dying... but it's not what it once was.
Don't blame the mods for that - as with most things, its the communities fault... (though I think fault is to harsh, more like natural evolution involving a bunch of egos)

[repli**cator]

i believe being massed for saying something unfit in someone else's opinion would be the biggest reason for lesser people coming to this forum then so-called mod-abuse