The State of the Community: An opinion by Psi

[Juliette]

They attacked me anyway. They then demanded "their rules" in a war that I never wanted to fight. I was told to "surrender or be sat on." for being an "innocent bystander". Hardly fair, is it? If you want new people to join, you must be welcoming. This forum is not.

I got sabbed in April 05 for the first post I ever made - it was a pro-repli post, a goa'uld sabbed me. Then Jaxin and RepliJake sabbed him, and everything kicked off. It actually got me interested in the game and the forum - without it, I would probably have quit within a few weeks.

The forum was at its height with the pookie/jaxin and Esker debates, with neb impersonating etl, with ero'sore's images, etc - when characters were larger than life. This isn't some rose-tinted nostalgia, I fully realise there were problems with it, but now the forum is a limp thing compared to what it used to be.

Are the admins/mods responsible? I don't really think so: but the increasingly held modship/adminship by people who only marginally play the game, or have even quit, has led to the forum becoming separated from the game.

The forum needs controversy to thrive on. Get too little and people lose interest and just go spam. Get too much and people take things too personally. Get the right balance and we'll have a fun active forum again

As per the usual, right on the money. *loves*

[Jim]

It appears im out of touch with the forum mood.

I have seen much less complains, much fewer cries of bias, a much warmer atmosphere and a lot fewer dramas compared to a year or so ago. When I was Oms there would be a number of issues a week sometimes. The mod team seems fairly well structured, open, composed and competent and the users are usually very civil and intelligent. I dont see whats wrong with the forums atm. Your all crazy.

@Rene: You think I should be fired too? I forgive you.

[Juliette]

Brilliant. I love your sarcasm, Jim. Reminds me of someone I know.

:smt017 It appears im out of touch with the forum mood.

I have seen much less complains, much fewer cries of bias, a much warmer atmosphere and a lot fewer dramas compared to a year or so ago. When I was Oms there would be a number of issues a week sometimes. The mod team seems fairly well structured, open, composed and competent and the users are usually very civil and intelligent. I dont see whats wrong with the forums atm. Your all crazy.

[Cole]

They attacked me anyway. They then demanded "their rules" in a war that I never wanted to fight. I was told to "surrender or be sat on." for being an "innocent bystander". Hardly fair, is it? If you want new people to join, you must be welcoming. This forum is not.

I got sabbed in April 05 for the first post I ever made - it was a pro-repli post, a goa'uld sabbed me. Then Jaxin and RepliJake sabbed him, and everything kicked off. It actually got me interested in the game and the forum - without it, I would probably have quit within a few weeks.

The forum was at its height with the pookie/jaxin and Esker debates, with neb impersonating etl, with ero'sore's images, etc - when characters were larger than life. This isn't some rose-tinted nostalgia, I fully realise there were problems with it, but now the forum is a limp thing compared to what it used to be.

Are the admins/mods responsible? I don't really think so: but the increasingly held modship/adminship by people who only marginally play the game, or have even quit, has led to the forum becoming separated from the game.

The forum needs controversy to thrive on. Get too little and people lose interest and just go spam. Get too much and people take things too personally. Get the right balance and we'll have a fun active forum again

Problem is, back then the ones taking it personally/being rude were marginalized and were a minority. Then things changed slowly but surely around 2007-2008 and people started to take it personally, started to hate players and personal insults replaced stargate role play.

[renegadze]

:smt017 It appears im out of touch with the forum mood.

I have seen much less complains, much fewer cries of bias, a much warmer atmosphere and a lot fewer dramas compared to a year or so ago. When I was Oms there would be a number of issues a week sometimes. The mod team seems fairly well structured, open, composed and competent and the users are usually very civil and intelligent. I dont see whats wrong with the forums atm. Your all crazy.

@Rene: You think I should be fired too? I forgive you.

as I said mate, some mods do a stirling job, but I didn't actually want to get into a finger pointing excercise so thought a clean slate would actually be healthier

[Psi Kiya Trist]

:smt017 It appears im out of touch with the forum mood.

I have seen much less complains, much fewer cries of bias, a much warmer atmosphere and a lot fewer dramas compared to a year or so ago. When I was Oms there would be a number of issues a week sometimes. The mod team seems fairly well structured, open, composed and competent and the users are usually very civil and intelligent. I dont see whats wrong with the forums atm. Your all crazy.

@Rene: You think I should be fired too? I forgive you.

as I said mate, some mods do a stirling job, but I didn't actually want to get into a finger pointing excercise so thought a clean slate would actually be healthier

That was also tried once. Those doing the good job were just as insulted as those who were not.

[SSG EnterTheLion]

Frankly the forum is missing it's version of Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and so on. It needs dynamic leadership because currently it's team is the equivalent of the UN. lmao

[MajorLeeHurts]

The forum is separated from the game unless you count the rulers of the biggest empires running and acting as Admin ruling the game from and making updates to suit the needs of the biggest empires.

The noobs dont know any better , but the rest are disgusted and or quit.

want excitement ...

New Admin
New Mods

Enough Chicago politics!

[Atomos]

Well its what happens when you dont have new people coming in to replace those that have left. Player base is shrinking, not enough people on forums etc etc the state of the community is just a reflection of the state of the game. Fix the game, you'll fix the community.

And by fix the game I mean get more players coming in and remove half the ascension levels so that they have a reason to stay (2 years to reach the final ascension level? That's seriously boring...)

And also, I dont get the bit about the mods... they're doing ok. Personally I'd like to see them be a little more ok with flaming in the GC but what can you do lol

[Cole]

The forum is separated from the game unless you count the rulers of the biggest empires running and acting as Admin ruling the game from and making updates to suit the needs of the biggest empires.

The noobs dont know any better , but the rest are disgusted and or quit.

want excitement ...

New Admin
New Mods

Enough Chicago politics!

As a member since almost the beginning (February 2005) I have to say few things about that statement, firstly nothing new with empires politics having importance within forums, was the case already back in 2007, and even before.
Secondly, I'm not "disgusted" nor want to quit with the current set up, because, seriously, forums have had worse issues/ambiance than what we see now. Not to mention a smaller amount of whining/flaming/insulting nowadays. Well it's still there unfortunately, but I doubt it will ever go. But at least it's on smaller scale than back in late 2008 to early 2010, worse moments in my opinion. It's obviously not perfect, but this forum has never been perfect so far.

Finally, new Admins/new Mods, well those would still be seen as biased and corrupt because people always think they are unfairly treated because of in game politics and their interpretation of moderating compared to interpretation of rights/rules by users, respective alliances stuff and such. The only way to have a perfect team would be to have bots as mods, but they would still be blamed as accused to "lack humanity" in their judging lol.

[Mordack]

They attacked me anyway. They then demanded "their rules" in a war that I never wanted to fight. I was told to "surrender or be sat on." for being an "innocent bystander". Hardly fair, is it? If you want new people to join, you must be welcoming. This forum is not.

I got sabbed in April 05 for the first post I ever made - it was a pro-repli post, a goa'uld sabbed me. Then Jaxin and RepliJake sabbed him, and everything kicked off. It actually got me interested in the game and the forum - without it, I would probably have quit within a few weeks.

The forum was at its height with the pookie/jaxin and Esker debates, with neb impersonating etl, with ero'sore's images, etc - when characters were larger than life. This isn't some rose-tinted nostalgia, I fully realise there were problems with it, but now the forum is a limp thing compared to what it used to be.

Are the admins/mods responsible? I don't really think so: but the increasingly held modship/adminship by people who only marginally play the game, or have even quit, has led to the forum becoming separated from the game.

The forum needs controversy to thrive on. Get too little and people lose interest and just go spam. Get too much and people take things too personally. Get the right balance and we'll have a fun active forum again

As per the usual, right on the money. *loves*

Absolutely. I alluded to the high drama of characters, etc, but as usual RepliMagni put it far more eloquently than I could. Would that we had a hundred of him.

[Cole]

Personally I think the factor of mods/admins playing marginally game or even having quit it isn't that bad, at least that partially solves the long known issue of users massing mods ingame for doing their work on forums (properly or not properly isn't really the question there, as again it's rather subjective), which has for example led to the separate moderating accounts with unknown identity which didn't work at all. It's also more likely these mods won't be much biased towards a group or another as they are sort of out of game politics due to being away from game partially or completely. Of course if the majority of mods/admins was to be like this, there would be like a wall of misunderstanding between active players and the staff. Therefore a balance of active/retired mods/admins is in my opinion best to have.

[Noobert]

Absolutely. I alluded to the high drama of characters, etc, but as usual RepliMagni put it far more eloquently than I could. Would that we had a hundred of him.

You are but one man, Mordack.

Magni cheats. He's multiplied himself by the thousands.

[BMMJ13]

Complain about the mods, BAN!

I like this idea.

[Magni]

Magni cheats. He's multiplied himself by the thousands.

LIES AND SLANDER!