All Things In Moderation

You can cast 3 votes..... You don't have to fall for the troll trap answers, use your brains.

shit... i accidentally voted for the three troll answers at the bottom because I forgot to scroll up

Mods should have standards for enforcement of the rules and what to do when those rules are violated. Take the emotion and personal opinion out of the process so that favoritism aren't a thing. That way, everyone gets treated the same, there's no getting away with something simply because so-and-so mod isn't online.

I agree, having unbiased mods would be extremely beneficial.

Oh, if we had mods that didn't let personal opinion dictate how they interact with players in an official basis, this game would thrive.

I often refer to 'you' in the following rant.  I am using the general 'you', as in 'those of you who fall into this category', I'm not trying to single anyone out.  Also, my opinions and views do not necessarily reflect those of the other staff members or Vysn.

Passive aggressiveness behavior against mods is a common issue that people completely overlook, because they feel slighted. The truth is, we actually track who we mute and ban and the reasons why. If your only mission in playing this game is to try and force change by verbally assaulting mods because you disagree with them, you're just going to end up perma-muted. Your argument doesn't hold water when you actually break the rules and then just cry fowl every time and ignore warnings. If it were up to me, I'd just get rid of those of you who absolutely don't give a fuck about this game and the people actually trying to ENCOURAGE favoritism by having mods overlook your constant abuse and simultaneously nitpick every single decision we make. But since we have standards and give everyone a fair chance, you get to keep running your mouths off.

However, Vysn has asked that the discussions remain out of main chat (thank god, finally) so that we can actually have a fairer discussion here where we aren't flooding chat with disrespectful statements that are opinion-based and make chat seem unfriendly. I understand that because I'm a mod you may automatically feel that my opinion is completely biased against you, but I'm actually the most lenient mod here. Many of my moderator actions (warnings, mutes and bans) used to be directly related to people complaining to me for action, but now I simply cannot ignore people that break the rules. Yes, things have changed and you can't be a complete douchebag in main chat anymore. Take that shit to limbo chat and keep it there. If you keep pushing the envelope more and more you're just going to end up muted or banned and enter this ridiculous cycle of getting muted, unmuted and spouting anti-mod passive aggressive nonsense in chat that some of you seem so keen on. You also leave us zero options--if we try to defend ourselves you ignore what we say and counter that "it was unfair, it was uncalled for, it's abuse of power" even if we offer you reasons why we did what we did. You egg on the crowd trying to rile people up against us as if we were a government that you could take down.  You even resort to name-calling and taunting us via whispers, knowing full well that if we dare to talk back you will post that shit in chat or post it on the forums as evidence that we are personally attacking you.

Of course what you fail to realize is that this is a text-based videogame.  There is no grand scheme against you, and if you would simply stop the anti-mod behavior and stop ignoring the rules I wouldn't even blink at anything you say or do.  Heck even if you keep on this path, I still don't really care until you turn chat against me simply for existing.  Why would you even think it's okay to freak out about a 10 minute mute?  Speaking of that, it should be noted that 95% of my actions are just 10 minute mutes, because I feel a simple "hey, knock it off and chill for a sec" is more effective than straight banning, but more and more I'm starting to feel that it's just not working out.  If you're mad at me for a 10 minute mute, feel free to tell me I suck at my job, but do it via whispers.  Crying in chat just shows that you have no interest in figuring out what you did wrong--you instead choose to believe you are incapable of doing any wrong and it MUST be that someone is out to get you.  Did you know that simply whispering to a mod and asking what happened can often end up in your mute being reduced or removed?  That's right!  If you explain your behavior or ask us about it, we can actually have a discussion with you and figure out if it was your bad or ours.  We (mods) can see each others actions, so if we actually disagree with a decision we can talk among ourselves and change or remove the punishment.  If your only question is "who muted me?" then I'm not going to help you, because that is a ridiculous question to be asking.  You should be asking WHY you were muted, and allowing us an opportunity to explain.  Sitting silent and then waiting until the mute wears off and immediately crying in chat about it shows that you only want attention, not to actually understand why you were punished.

I have had multiple times now where I had to turn main chat off because I became a target for abuse.  Why do you feel this is acceptable behavior?  I certainly don't enjoy having to run to Vysn to step in and fix this shit, because it says in the rules to respect the mods.  And right now, you are showing a 100% complete and total lack of respect on a nearly daily basis.  If we had it in for you, we would have done something by now.  Don't you think that's pretty telling?  In fact, we've only had to remove one person entirely so far because they were actually harassing someone, which we do NOT tolerate.  Even still, they had MANY warnings and chances, way more than were necessary.

I'm more than willing to listen to your complaints and issues, but if you aren't just as willing to listen then it's a one-way conversation to nowhere.  It has to work both ways or we'll never see eye-to-eye.

I personally guarantee you that I don't mute or ban unless there's a legitimate reason for it.  If you disagree with my reasoning and feel that a rule isn't clear enough, we can go from there.  Work with us, dammit!  You can whisper me in-game or message me here on the forums if there's a private issue that you need resolved, by the way.

Thanks for reading.

What ya'll people don't realize is that I don't do this because I crave attention nor do I do this because I just want to be an asshole. There is always a method to the madness and for the most part it's to incite some kind of change, I am just one of the loudest voices that everybody seems to hate, so I use that voice to bring attention to certain things I believe need a bit of refinement.

Gandor, I appreciate your saying to go ahead and come to mods in whispers and such, very diplomatic approach to the issue, though you fail to acknowledge that it's not just players that do this, staff does as well.... And I can't speak for everybody but I have seen on many occasions that trying to take things to whisper is almost counterproductive due to the 'I'll decide weather to actually discuss this with you or not" philosophy that I have witness staff using on multiple occasions, Admin is wonderful at doing this, at least in my experience.

Yes I am well aware that I am very abrasive and act out, I am an asshole, it's what I do.... That aside, I do shit here because I do enjoy this game and would like to see some changes come (preferably constructive changes).