arriah wrote:91 wrote:iNcog wrote:I think it's better that people say why they leave actually, that way we know where things stand.
I know that several people have left ESOC out of frustration and this to me is at least somewhat alarming. I feel like there are some people which are very well at home at ESOC, but that we also alienate other groups of people. I very well wish to have heart-to-heart talks with those people and try to come to an understanding.
Just look at Blackstar_OP. I've also heard rumors of veni not liking how things are done at ESOC. Musketjr? Stanley_winston? Metis used to post very actively and now just pops up to tell people about trolls.
Problem with ESOC is that we've often felt that we were doing things right without a shade of doubt, when in reality I think that some people have had pent-up frustration build up in themselves.
Most of the forum users don't particularly like dragon (personally I do like him, even though I disagree with a lot of his idea), so unfortunately this to me is ESOC alienating yet another person, yet no one is going to care because "well, no one likes that guy anyway" or "well, the off topic section is a trash section anyway so who cares that people who only post there leave". This to me is not very inclusive and it goes against one of the core values of ESOC, which is being an inclusive community hub for anyone to pop in.
Now, just to be fair, I really think that most of what ESOC does is done very well.
I'm not a moderator, just a site developer, but I did help out as a mod before. I got moderators, admins, and regular users on my side before taking some decisions to lock threads/delete posts with harsh content, and I thought it was a really obvious decision to do so. But the amount hate in PMs, and flames I have received for so few actions made me quit that path. I really admire the mods here how much shit they can take, and we should all value that if you ask me.
Of course we must be able to joke around, but usually the more quite ones like stricter rules, and the spammers (I don't mean this word as negative) like a bit more open attitude. I see reports coming in, and everyone has to realize that people have different thresholds for what is considered crossing the line on a forum. The elite posters are probably also (usually) more used to flame, and they can take more. But the fresh ones don't realy enjoy it and might take it a bit more personal.
Sad that people are leaving, but in order to run tournaments and other events I don't think flaming should be part of it, but rather keep it at civil discussions and useful content for readers (not just posters). I hope that you can also see the perspective from the eyes of the moderators, with the difficult task of keeping everyone with different opinions happy. The ones complaining about flaming usually don't do so openly, because they will get flamed obviously.
See ya, but maybe you will check in again later on. Who knows, maybe the policies are different and more to your liking later on.
THANK YOU
none of my friends want to touch this forum because a lot of really disgusting things fly, but everyone is to scared to moderate it because then people will get angry about "them filthy es-jay-double-yews" and "PC police" (because they think that people who are not appreciating descriptions of and jokes about rape, racist memes, homophobic slurs, and anti semitic comments are just too sensitive and "INFRINGING UPON MY FREEZE PEACH GOSH DARN IT!")
I realize that it is alarming to see some of the people who are really intolerant up and leaving, especially since the number of posters on this site is small, but if you make it ACTUALLY inclusive, you may gain way more users than you expect..
I think it was a good direction to create the moderation thread, and I was close to leaving as well, because this place has been pretty toxic, but knowing that Divine Fire and H20 do take our criticisms seriously and have a plan to improve in this aspect, I feel a bit more welcome.
I personally agree. When this forum was started there was a lot of positive energy because there finally was a community place again. There was apperantly not much need for rules to keep people calm. Over the course of a year people have gone into full rito mode and I am convinced these people are scaring others off. The forum is filled with negativity, spam, flame and hate. It's really hard for me to get something out of it anymore since everywhere you look theres hate and negativity. That's saying something because I really like forums and aoeforums in particular. Ive been posting much less lately as things were rapidly turning shittier and shittier making esoc a pure place of negativity.
That's, I believe, why the rules were changed. Because ESOC had turned into something that ESOC wasn't supposed to be. This should be a positive community place. Surely there's arguing, there are people you might not like and sometimes you just wanna spam, but the degree to which that is happening right now is simply destructive. If people can't take the new, still very lenient rules, and consider this place too "nazi" (honestly, this might be the least strict forum out there for such a large community forum) and feel like it forces them to leave, then we might be gaining something out of it.
People have been turning this place into a hellhole. I remember when I was younger I never dared to even make a post on RTS sanctuary because the people were so aggressive and unpleasant on that forum.. I feel like ESOC is almost exactly the same right now. People are surely being scared off by the behaviour of some forum members. If those forum members are unwilling to change up their behaviour then it might be time to leave (although I would honestly regret that, but there's no other way). The members that leave will eventually be compensated by new members, positive and constructive members, lower ranked players with questions or whatever, joining the forum. In the end, new people are the basis of a forums. They are the ones that keep coming up with questions and give us a reason to even make posts. Without those people the forum is nowhere. We might seem to be taking a step backwards here but I hope that'll result in two steps forward.
Note: This post was made as a community member, not as an esoc representative.
