IQ
Well-Known Member
I've stated I would be making the thread, so here I am. I'm glad the situation has cooled down again, I am thoroughly happy, but I think this a step in the right direction, not yet a solution. It's way harder to write this thread as well, now things have calmed down. But here I am.
I will first and foremost tag @Wes, he is also the only one I'm going to tag on account of not wanting to drag other people in unwillingly. That brings me immediately to my next point as well. This thread is, as the title reads, an open letter. I'm not going to promote myself to judge, jury and executioner, I will not shift blame nor point fingers. I will state facts and facts alone. I've got too much to lose on this site to actually fall out of line. The purpose of this is to offer suggestions, advice and at least constructive critisicm. Not to incite drama, not try to drum up a crowd against the current management and certainly not to garner dislike from anyone. The situation has been defused, but if things don't change, I'm afraid it'll escalate time and time again. And that's the general emotion here for me, in this thread. I'm afraid.
But I can't sit by and just let this site slowly drown in drama either. Everything's calmed down now, but there's a solid chance that when this escalates again, it'll be twice as bad. And increase in severity exponentially.
This being an open letter, anyone and everyone is free to come here and share their thoughts and opinions. Though for the sake of keeping it an open letter, I'd like to ask something of you, reader. If you decide to make a post, any post, do it when you're calm, collected and under control. Please do not respond if you're agitated or frustrated, it'll lead to drama and most likely to a thread lock. I'd be disappointed if this thread has to be locked like the previous one trying to somewhat address the issue. So please, collect yourself, calm down and take a breather before you actually post. Think about what you write, let's make this a shining example of everyone being able to have mature conversation where there is mutual respect.
With that out of the way, I will start this on a positive note;
Hi everyone, I'm IQ. I'm sure people have at least heard of me, have come in contact with me briefly. I'm someone who enjoys writing, plays Airsoft and attempts but miserably fails at drawing. Which is sad, since my biggest dream is to make money by drawing. My favourite colour is purple. Recently, I've been practicing singing and playing guitar, since a friend of mine wants to start a band. I've got one cat, who is recovering from a paw amputation. We've had one regrettable incident since he's not yet used to the kitty litter. He's always been an outside cat. Though he's doing fine.
People that properly know me can attest that I'm a patient, respectful person. And when I'm in the wrong, given a bit of time to cool down at least, I will admit my wrongs and apologize to whomever I offended. I'm not here to make enemies, after all. I also enjoy being pinged on Discord, even if it's just as much as a random DM saying hi. It warms my heart when I realize someone is thinking or has thought of me.
On site, I'm the writer of both the Tsumi and the Drakon units, as well as an coFM to section 6. An amazing faction I can't do anything but support and give props to our leader, Jack.
You might be wondering why I write this introduction. It's to show I'm human, we all are. Every single one of us has dreams, aspirations. Our own hobbies, preferred style of writing. We're all human in the end. Everyone can get mad, frustrated, annoyed, sad and scared, we're all unique. That's the beauty of it, isn't it? The world would be such a dull and uninteresing, uncreative place if everyone liked the same and thought the same. Though that doesn't mean we have to forget about decency and respect. And that is an ideal I hope to see held high throughout this thread.
I love SARP, I absolutely adore it. It's one of the most beautiful sites I've ever been to. I've met many amazing and creative people, I've made great friends and writing buddies. People I thoroughly enjoy interacting with. Complete with a vast wiki that drags you down into the deep with countless items, plots and lore written not only by the people that manage the site, but the players. Which I can't express how happy and giddy it makes me. Despite the infamy of the NTSE, I find it a good system that may need some finetuning, but there's always drama and escalation risked there. I have nothing but admiration for the little people that run the site now. I joined back in march, so that's 9 months I've been a member and ever since, I've only regretted joining once. And this was yesterday.
I've honestly remained up for an hour, constantly smoking, thinking of how to properly bring this thread.Denote, don't smoke. It's a disgusting habit and an addiction to boot, I've fallen into it. It's a waste of money, time and it'll most likely kill you. So whenever someone offers you a cigarette, accept it, throw it on the ground and destroy it under your heel. Finishing up a week's worth of cigarettes, really, don't smoke. I've had 2 hours of sleep total, before heading to the vet to get my cat checked on. No hobby should keep you up at night, but SARP did.
When the entire situation escalated. I will be the first to admit that some things I've said should've been voiced better and could've been presented in a more friendly way. But I'm not the only one at fault here. I will not name names, I will not point fingers or even describe incidents. Those that were present know what happened and have to decide for themselves. But I will give some background here, that caused these deep rooted issues to surface and led to the, in my opinion, regrettable ban of some people. This is not to re-open the issue. As far as I'm concerned, the ruling has been clearly stated. This is purely to offer background.
Where the entire escalation started, I think, was with the M38 submission. Where a lot of criticism and spite spawned, one side stated that Yamatai players, veterans and people with relations to staff caused bias with staff. Claiming that they have to nerf their submissions forcibly, while this individual piece remained untouched. The other side argued against it did not fall under the SADR, on account of it being a variable ammo, energy weapon that was originally designed for PA use, two of the arguments I saw flying around that I find worth mentioning is that the SADR nerfs for other weaponry were voluntary, as well as this was not a Yamataian weapon. But in and of itself, both sides found their own examples in the very same thread, stated by Wes himself, about whether or not the M38 should be nerfed or not.
This leads me to the first issue I wish to adress;
And that is a lack of clear communication. The SADR thread was very unclear, and not a solid ruling had been given. Wes stated he had updated the Drv3 article and reading through it, I see these changes reflected. But still, the SADR thread itself lead to discussions and other statements I can't find backed up on the article. While I'd default to taking wiki over forums, judging from the mess that took place, I don't think I'm the only one actually confused on the ratings. A quick summary, even something as little as a link to the drv3 would've been amazing help and had possibly put this issue to rest before it arose.
Due to this miscommmunication, both sides became more and more agitated. Leading to further escalation and ultimately, the bans mentioned earlier. Though there is something to take away from that. I agree that some people could've been more considerate, less rude. But I still think they made a valid point, the fact that there's no staff around on Discord. Only one moderator to pick up the slack, at his wit's end. I agree that reprimanding was in place. But a ban without warning seemed too harsh for the actual things said and shows one of the things I actually fear. That criticism is immediately seen as negative, derogatory and griefing, as well as causing drama. And that these issues cannot be adressed, as I stated at the start of this thread, I'm afraid, one fear being that I also will be reprimanded for making this thread. Be it a warning or a ban. I'd like to reiterate I'm not making this thread to grief or cause drama, but to attempt to help, point out the flaws and offer suggestions. Yet, the risk of being reprimanded is far outweighed by the risk of seeing the people I love here leave. Seeing the site be harmed as a whole. I invested not only time, but money in this site. Which is scarce on my end.
But that ties perfectly into the next issue I wished to adress. The staff management, both the shortage or even lack thereof, as well as how things are dealt with on the site. Wes, before I even made the thread, though probably when my phone died and I was in the midst of committing murder on my lungs, made a thread that he was looking for staff. This is a step in the right direction, since he himself is often indisposed as a fresh father, which again, congratulations and best of luck. The other staff also seem regrettably absent whenever issues arise on the Discord, or seem dismissive of the presented issues, downplaying them and treating it like a ticketing system in DMs and in general. Where you have to draw your number, wait in line and get dismissed again. I don't know whether it's due to the staff shortages or other reasons, but this seems disrespectful at best. Though at worst, it seems like we don't matter at all. It feels that way too, as much as I regret to say it. While once again, what I see, is that people who closely affiliate with Yamatai have their issues solved, listened to and reasoned with, such as the M38, there was almost immediate staff response.
While I personally haven't been able to recieve such swift responses, sadly enough. I will not impart on why I needed a staff hand on something, I reached out and I've heard nothing of it, no feedback, no response. By now, I've laid the issue to rest personally, it's been a bit ago now, so there's no sense in explaining the details. I'm not going to rip it open again for the sake of keeping this thread as an open letter. Not as a challenge or hateful gesture.
Now, how management actually works. I understand why things are kept to DMs if it's considering people, but it seems very inefficient to actually approach everyone in DMs when a major escalation like yesterday takes place. At that point, there needs to be a public statement. For everyone to see. I've been to several RP sites, been staff on some. And every single one escalated at least once. Though they had a similair way, to solve personal issues on a personal scale. If two people came to rows, they would be told to stop and be approached in DMs. Though I've never once, in all my time as a member as well as a moderator, both seen and personally solved these escalations by singling people out in DMs, without making a public statement. Even something as simple as saying to drop the issue or face consequences would be nice, but there was even nothing of the sort. Which leads to it only escalating further. It's putting out fires with blankets covered in gasoline, it's like me drawing. It just doesn't work if there's no foot being put down.
Staff presence needs to be public. People need to see that staff is solving issues. It's good to say you're taking things to DMs if it's smaller scale issues, between two, maybe three people. But if at least 7 - 8 people suddenly go haywire, even though the rules from what I heard dictate otherwise, there needs to be public staff presence. Public problem solution, in order that people know that there is being listened to the issues and that infact, such an escalation is ill advised. I'm all for reprimanding it and I would understand if I was warned or scolded for my presence in the escalation, but even then, I as a player on the other side of the argument of staff know that at that point, it didn't matter. I was scared and frustrated, consequences be damned, there needed to be staff attention. Such escalations don't happen overnight. They brew for a very long time, like an infected wound. Before they burst open with disgusting pus.
I've seen the quote; "Be the change you wish to see." thrown around a lot. Though I think the original is from Ghandi.
Dragon_god at one point, before all this, stated exactly what I feel at this point. Namely to jump at the position of staff, to make a change and hopefully make the changes needed to solve these deep rooted issues. I will personally DM Wes on site and nominate myself to put both this quote and DG's sentiment into practise. (reading this, it seems like the entire thread is commercial for myself lmao, not my intention x,..,x)
I think that's about it. I'm quite tired personally, so there might be issues I've failed to get across, I mean no offense towards anyone and I don't think I mentioned any names associated with the issues and negative points I brought up. As a parting note, I'd like to once more reiterate that I'm not here to incite drama, start a flamewars or escalate things. I made this to open up discussion on various topics and issues I think are extremely detrimental to the health of the site. Anyone is free to share their thoughts, discuss any possible suggestions, offer open and constructive criticism. But most important, do not post in this thread when you're mad or frustrated at someone. This needs to be a healthy discussion, to make the site at least somewhat more healthy. Don't give staff a reason to lock this thread, be the better man, be the change you wish to see and most important, show that we, as a community, can talk, listen to eachother and reason. That we talk with eachother. Not against eachother.
Thank you for taking your time reading this far. I hope this thread, along with the new staff elects, is a new, fresh page for SARP.
I will first and foremost tag @Wes, he is also the only one I'm going to tag on account of not wanting to drag other people in unwillingly. That brings me immediately to my next point as well. This thread is, as the title reads, an open letter. I'm not going to promote myself to judge, jury and executioner, I will not shift blame nor point fingers. I will state facts and facts alone. I've got too much to lose on this site to actually fall out of line. The purpose of this is to offer suggestions, advice and at least constructive critisicm. Not to incite drama, not try to drum up a crowd against the current management and certainly not to garner dislike from anyone. The situation has been defused, but if things don't change, I'm afraid it'll escalate time and time again. And that's the general emotion here for me, in this thread. I'm afraid.
But I can't sit by and just let this site slowly drown in drama either. Everything's calmed down now, but there's a solid chance that when this escalates again, it'll be twice as bad. And increase in severity exponentially.
This being an open letter, anyone and everyone is free to come here and share their thoughts and opinions. Though for the sake of keeping it an open letter, I'd like to ask something of you, reader. If you decide to make a post, any post, do it when you're calm, collected and under control. Please do not respond if you're agitated or frustrated, it'll lead to drama and most likely to a thread lock. I'd be disappointed if this thread has to be locked like the previous one trying to somewhat address the issue. So please, collect yourself, calm down and take a breather before you actually post. Think about what you write, let's make this a shining example of everyone being able to have mature conversation where there is mutual respect.
With that out of the way, I will start this on a positive note;
Hi everyone, I'm IQ. I'm sure people have at least heard of me, have come in contact with me briefly. I'm someone who enjoys writing, plays Airsoft and attempts but miserably fails at drawing. Which is sad, since my biggest dream is to make money by drawing. My favourite colour is purple. Recently, I've been practicing singing and playing guitar, since a friend of mine wants to start a band. I've got one cat, who is recovering from a paw amputation. We've had one regrettable incident since he's not yet used to the kitty litter. He's always been an outside cat. Though he's doing fine.
People that properly know me can attest that I'm a patient, respectful person. And when I'm in the wrong, given a bit of time to cool down at least, I will admit my wrongs and apologize to whomever I offended. I'm not here to make enemies, after all. I also enjoy being pinged on Discord, even if it's just as much as a random DM saying hi. It warms my heart when I realize someone is thinking or has thought of me.
On site, I'm the writer of both the Tsumi and the Drakon units, as well as an coFM to section 6. An amazing faction I can't do anything but support and give props to our leader, Jack.
You might be wondering why I write this introduction. It's to show I'm human, we all are. Every single one of us has dreams, aspirations. Our own hobbies, preferred style of writing. We're all human in the end. Everyone can get mad, frustrated, annoyed, sad and scared, we're all unique. That's the beauty of it, isn't it? The world would be such a dull and uninteresing, uncreative place if everyone liked the same and thought the same. Though that doesn't mean we have to forget about decency and respect. And that is an ideal I hope to see held high throughout this thread.
I love SARP, I absolutely adore it. It's one of the most beautiful sites I've ever been to. I've met many amazing and creative people, I've made great friends and writing buddies. People I thoroughly enjoy interacting with. Complete with a vast wiki that drags you down into the deep with countless items, plots and lore written not only by the people that manage the site, but the players. Which I can't express how happy and giddy it makes me. Despite the infamy of the NTSE, I find it a good system that may need some finetuning, but there's always drama and escalation risked there. I have nothing but admiration for the little people that run the site now. I joined back in march, so that's 9 months I've been a member and ever since, I've only regretted joining once. And this was yesterday.
I've honestly remained up for an hour, constantly smoking, thinking of how to properly bring this thread.Denote, don't smoke. It's a disgusting habit and an addiction to boot, I've fallen into it. It's a waste of money, time and it'll most likely kill you. So whenever someone offers you a cigarette, accept it, throw it on the ground and destroy it under your heel. Finishing up a week's worth of cigarettes, really, don't smoke. I've had 2 hours of sleep total, before heading to the vet to get my cat checked on. No hobby should keep you up at night, but SARP did.
When the entire situation escalated. I will be the first to admit that some things I've said should've been voiced better and could've been presented in a more friendly way. But I'm not the only one at fault here. I will not name names, I will not point fingers or even describe incidents. Those that were present know what happened and have to decide for themselves. But I will give some background here, that caused these deep rooted issues to surface and led to the, in my opinion, regrettable ban of some people. This is not to re-open the issue. As far as I'm concerned, the ruling has been clearly stated. This is purely to offer background.
Where the entire escalation started, I think, was with the M38 submission. Where a lot of criticism and spite spawned, one side stated that Yamatai players, veterans and people with relations to staff caused bias with staff. Claiming that they have to nerf their submissions forcibly, while this individual piece remained untouched. The other side argued against it did not fall under the SADR, on account of it being a variable ammo, energy weapon that was originally designed for PA use, two of the arguments I saw flying around that I find worth mentioning is that the SADR nerfs for other weaponry were voluntary, as well as this was not a Yamataian weapon. But in and of itself, both sides found their own examples in the very same thread, stated by Wes himself, about whether or not the M38 should be nerfed or not.
This leads me to the first issue I wish to adress;
And that is a lack of clear communication. The SADR thread was very unclear, and not a solid ruling had been given. Wes stated he had updated the Drv3 article and reading through it, I see these changes reflected. But still, the SADR thread itself lead to discussions and other statements I can't find backed up on the article. While I'd default to taking wiki over forums, judging from the mess that took place, I don't think I'm the only one actually confused on the ratings. A quick summary, even something as little as a link to the drv3 would've been amazing help and had possibly put this issue to rest before it arose.
Due to this miscommmunication, both sides became more and more agitated. Leading to further escalation and ultimately, the bans mentioned earlier. Though there is something to take away from that. I agree that some people could've been more considerate, less rude. But I still think they made a valid point, the fact that there's no staff around on Discord. Only one moderator to pick up the slack, at his wit's end. I agree that reprimanding was in place. But a ban without warning seemed too harsh for the actual things said and shows one of the things I actually fear. That criticism is immediately seen as negative, derogatory and griefing, as well as causing drama. And that these issues cannot be adressed, as I stated at the start of this thread, I'm afraid, one fear being that I also will be reprimanded for making this thread. Be it a warning or a ban. I'd like to reiterate I'm not making this thread to grief or cause drama, but to attempt to help, point out the flaws and offer suggestions. Yet, the risk of being reprimanded is far outweighed by the risk of seeing the people I love here leave. Seeing the site be harmed as a whole. I invested not only time, but money in this site. Which is scarce on my end.
But that ties perfectly into the next issue I wished to adress. The staff management, both the shortage or even lack thereof, as well as how things are dealt with on the site. Wes, before I even made the thread, though probably when my phone died and I was in the midst of committing murder on my lungs, made a thread that he was looking for staff. This is a step in the right direction, since he himself is often indisposed as a fresh father, which again, congratulations and best of luck. The other staff also seem regrettably absent whenever issues arise on the Discord, or seem dismissive of the presented issues, downplaying them and treating it like a ticketing system in DMs and in general. Where you have to draw your number, wait in line and get dismissed again. I don't know whether it's due to the staff shortages or other reasons, but this seems disrespectful at best. Though at worst, it seems like we don't matter at all. It feels that way too, as much as I regret to say it. While once again, what I see, is that people who closely affiliate with Yamatai have their issues solved, listened to and reasoned with, such as the M38, there was almost immediate staff response.
While I personally haven't been able to recieve such swift responses, sadly enough. I will not impart on why I needed a staff hand on something, I reached out and I've heard nothing of it, no feedback, no response. By now, I've laid the issue to rest personally, it's been a bit ago now, so there's no sense in explaining the details. I'm not going to rip it open again for the sake of keeping this thread as an open letter. Not as a challenge or hateful gesture.
Now, how management actually works. I understand why things are kept to DMs if it's considering people, but it seems very inefficient to actually approach everyone in DMs when a major escalation like yesterday takes place. At that point, there needs to be a public statement. For everyone to see. I've been to several RP sites, been staff on some. And every single one escalated at least once. Though they had a similair way, to solve personal issues on a personal scale. If two people came to rows, they would be told to stop and be approached in DMs. Though I've never once, in all my time as a member as well as a moderator, both seen and personally solved these escalations by singling people out in DMs, without making a public statement. Even something as simple as saying to drop the issue or face consequences would be nice, but there was even nothing of the sort. Which leads to it only escalating further. It's putting out fires with blankets covered in gasoline, it's like me drawing. It just doesn't work if there's no foot being put down.
Staff presence needs to be public. People need to see that staff is solving issues. It's good to say you're taking things to DMs if it's smaller scale issues, between two, maybe three people. But if at least 7 - 8 people suddenly go haywire, even though the rules from what I heard dictate otherwise, there needs to be public staff presence. Public problem solution, in order that people know that there is being listened to the issues and that infact, such an escalation is ill advised. I'm all for reprimanding it and I would understand if I was warned or scolded for my presence in the escalation, but even then, I as a player on the other side of the argument of staff know that at that point, it didn't matter. I was scared and frustrated, consequences be damned, there needed to be staff attention. Such escalations don't happen overnight. They brew for a very long time, like an infected wound. Before they burst open with disgusting pus.
I've seen the quote; "Be the change you wish to see." thrown around a lot. Though I think the original is from Ghandi.
Dragon_god at one point, before all this, stated exactly what I feel at this point. Namely to jump at the position of staff, to make a change and hopefully make the changes needed to solve these deep rooted issues. I will personally DM Wes on site and nominate myself to put both this quote and DG's sentiment into practise. (reading this, it seems like the entire thread is commercial for myself lmao, not my intention x,..,x)
I think that's about it. I'm quite tired personally, so there might be issues I've failed to get across, I mean no offense towards anyone and I don't think I mentioned any names associated with the issues and negative points I brought up. As a parting note, I'd like to once more reiterate that I'm not here to incite drama, start a flamewars or escalate things. I made this to open up discussion on various topics and issues I think are extremely detrimental to the health of the site. Anyone is free to share their thoughts, discuss any possible suggestions, offer open and constructive criticism. But most important, do not post in this thread when you're mad or frustrated at someone. This needs to be a healthy discussion, to make the site at least somewhat more healthy. Don't give staff a reason to lock this thread, be the better man, be the change you wish to see and most important, show that we, as a community, can talk, listen to eachother and reason. That we talk with eachother. Not against eachother.
Thank you for taking your time reading this far. I hope this thread, along with the new staff elects, is a new, fresh page for SARP.
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