Something I Hadn't Heard Before!

[*Mr_Otyugh]

There were indeed issues in the recent past, but those have been mended. Obviously player population numbers are an issue, but nothing unfixable. As i even mentioned before, it's a sum of many things, so it'd be unfair to lob it on just one arbitrary reason. We're at an early summer which annually changes scheduals, numbers attract numbers, people will log in by player numbers which creates a self-justifying vicious circle, then there is always differences in views, but it's the two first doing the bulk of the job. This is an annual thing, you can go back in forums to see it. Summer is the general low time of SCoD.

Just requires different attitude in the gaming, a bit more organised and open view while fixating in the positives.

[*Artifice]

If this is related to my comments in discord the other day, well I don't think any of the contents of this thread has helped. I wanted to give myself twenty four hours of thought before replying so I did.

The author of the thread's last comment that I saw on the forums appeared (to me, an outside observer) to be a snarky, dismissive response to a long-time player saying that they were leaving the server. I don't have the perspective of their past interactions to go over, but that's not relevant to how the community appears at a glance.

Over the last couple of days I've witnessed homophobic jokes and racist commentary on the server discord, which whilst not officially run is composed of the same people who I assume play this server. I don't know many of you well enough to be able to correlate discord and forum names with characters.

On top of this, the last few times I've posted on the forums I've been met with cynicism, at best, and semi-offensive dismissal of my opinions at worst. The last time I posted on the forums, I tried to point out that insulting people who like the forgotten realms is not constructive. I was asked why I was so insecure.

I don't have any problems with the in character contents of SCOD. I do think there are problematic parts of the community, and looking at the contents of this thread I see implications that people are not making engaging enough characters, or that the fault lies in the interpretation of specific, past arguments that are now resolved. I think that is a mistake.

I think we can do better. I don't think everyone is a problem, but I do think it has made me uncomfortable enough recently that I have consciously chosen not to play and have done something else instead.

Can we do better please? I include myself with that hopeful request, because I'm not always the nicest, most cheerful person.

[*DaftyXIII]

open view while fixating in the positives.

That's what I'm trying too do

also placing my two-cents worth in, I don't feel the environment is hostile, we all say sh*t when we get upset. but do we want to hurt each other IRL or mean all we say in that moment. . . unlikely.

Realizing I'm just as human as the next is what helped me move along and get back to the fun.

[*Mr_Otyugh]

And I appreciate you taking time to comment here, Artifice!

I'm sorry to hear if I sound disingenuous to you, based on my perceived forum activity. I can see why you'd think that, and I'll take a moment to better martial my views. I downplay dramatic components to prevent wider spread effects of feel of impending doom, de-escalate so to speak. During already low player numbers, publicly that may make me seem dismissive, but it is also very much the reality. Drama is just as effective as you allow it to be, and during times of suboptimality it is important to focus on the future goals.

In the case of Untaramars departure, I provided an acknowledgement of it. However it has been my longtime policy to do nothing to affect the free will of players to stay or leave. Partly to give a clear public display that I am unmoved, so it's not going to be much of a negotiation technique on me (and yes, some people still occasionally try). So they will get generally a neutral response out of me. On the bright side, this is why most players have their own friends to fill the vacuum of positive feedback. And it's not infrequent that players come back anyway, and I don't think farewells are the big selling point to do that. So I'd much rather focus into the remaining and returning players, and attracting more while not letting leaving players demoralise those that we still have, hence a token response and then move onto the other matters. It's an online server, players keep changing all the time.

As for matters of discord. There's two sides to the matters. There are issues with censorship as well, you can paint any picture you want with it. This is an approach a lot of places have. But preventing people from talking about their beliefs doesn't make those opinions go away. So should people whom harbor such thoughts be banned or penalised? I mean that is an option, and if someone does have too radical opinions they probably will. But where does the tresshold for that exist? That's a bit less simple. Part of me also believes that a lot of the modern issues stems from everyone getting locked into echo chambers of their own beliefs, rather than have a platform to exchange thoughts with people outside of them. Do I agree with some of the views represented in there? Absolutely not, then again I'm a general oppositionist so that doesn't necessarily mean much, but I think it's good for both sides to be able to talk. It can however be rather testing endeavor and I don't blame people at all for disagreeing with the idea.

Forum behavior... well, hence the topic. :lol:

[*Artifice]

Thanks for your reply.

And... Well, I mean... Maybe reread what you have written? If you're consciously aware of all this, how can you not have been aware that people both within and without your community can see it as a hostile, sometimes unwelcoming place?

Edited to add: Also it took me a second to reread this and realise what exactly you were saying. So you've suggested that taking punitive measures towards people who make homophobic, racist or religiously aggravated comments would be censorship?

Well, in the country I live in, such comments would be illegal, whether its said in person or online.



What do you expect me to make of reading that sort of content, multiple times over the past few months?

[*Darkrob]

What do you expect me to make of reading that sort of content, multiple times over the past few months?

The following is my opinion simply as a player.

My suggestion would be to do as I do... stay away from the medium that allows such talk. I don't go near Discord. While I support the players willing to use it, I don't support it myself. It's pretty much privately controlled so SCoD has little control over it. If it's a hostile medium, that's not the fault of SCoD... that's the fault of the moderators controlling it. Please don't use it as a part of the 'hostile community' thought process.

[*Artifice]

I appreciate your suggestion, but I have seen it and it has already formed part of my impression. Looking at the numbers a high proportion of the SCOD community both players and staff also seem to use it, with DMs and EMs having some level of moderator control? Future events are advertised there, not on the forums, and it is pushed as 'the more expedient' place to get answers on lore or builds or general server questions.

Though I will be honest; I dislike using discord at the best of times and I absolutely regret having joined the SCOD discord precisely because of how its made me feel about playing here. I see your point entirely.

[*Mr_Otyugh]

Well it'd by definition be censorship, yes. Don't get me wrong, I'm not someone who takes censorship as a negative connotation, but it is by definition "To "censor" is to review something and to choose to remove or hide parts of it that are considered unacceptable. Censorship is the name for the process or idea of keeping things like obscene word or graphic images from an audience. There is also such a thing as self-censorship, which is when you refrain from saying certain things — or possibly re-wording them — depending on who is listening."https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/censorship And no, I'm not a supporter of what I call radicalised opinions. And neither am I saying that all should be allowed, but I do believe that you can't make the issue disappear by telling people to stop it entirely either, they are deeply seated political or philosophical views. Nor am I part of discord staff so it's not like I have much say in the matter :P

Also with punitive actions, I was less referring to censorship and more toward bans and timeouts to put a fullstop rather than just removing content found unacceptable.

If the recent waves of populism has taught me one thing, it's that better communication is required to prevent people from dividing further into two camps that absolutely abhor each other. And I don't think we're quite there yet in finding a common ground, but I'd say that given enough time it's going to be easier if we do share thoughts with each other.

As for should that be considered hostile in and of itself? I'm going to leave that as a subjective individual judgement. To me it's also part of consideration that SCoD generally has advertised itself as a server aimed toward mature audience. With maturity does kind of come dealing with a broader range of opinions. On my opinion having looked at a lot of comment sections in the internet, the difference in SCoD tends to be that there can be actually a discussion rather than simply an insult fest, which, to me, speaks volumes. Especially considering how difficult the subject matter is.

[*Scintilla]

I appreciate your suggestion, but I have seen it and it has already formed part of my impression. Looking at the numbers a high proportion of the SCOD community both players and staff also seem to use it, with DMs and EMs having some level of moderator control? Future events are advertised there, not on the forums, and it is pushed as 'the more expedient' place to get answers on lore or builds or general server questions.

Though I will be honest; I dislike using discord at the best of times and I absolutely regret having joined the SCOD discord precisely because of how its made me feel about playing here. I see your point entirely.

Discord isn't, and shouldn't be, compulsory.
Like Rob, I don't have any intention of joining the SCoD channel for a myriad of reasons.

That said, the forum rules are expected to apply to the chat so if you believe yourself on the receiving end of a rule-of-three violation (needless: profanity, spamming, harassment), it's best you take it up with one of the Admin. Screenshots are helpful.

[*edmaster44]

As one of the many Mods in the discord, we do try our best to moderate and mediate the chats as mixh as possible, too make it a place where one can chill and chit chat, i do agree sometimes it does get heated over things like builds and discussions so get heated on when it comes to lore and general talks. In a span of minutes i read theough 500 messages in one chat room, the speed of conversations are in rapid speed, so its a bit different than moderation a forum, where things are slower, a hell of a lot slower. With the staff on board the Discord, i and many other work towards making it a chill place. I will admit it does get hectic, i have thicker skin and if some one has a different opinion, it is best to sometimes agree to disagree, i will say it has gotten a lot better than it was before and the speed of the chats might put people off, 500 messages and sometimes more. If you got some concern or if you feel some one is distruptive, please feel free to shoot me a pm on the discord or on the forums, i want the discord to be a place where one can sit relax and chit chat without having cold sweats. A hostile place is not what we want at all.