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Forsaken Virtues in Community Management

Wow, what a day just passed.

It all started with a video I made on calling out some things I and many others are missing in the game currently. I did it in a satirical way... maybe just like Portalarium did themselves a while ago...



Click here to watch their video.

Of course, one could call to arms and say they don't respect people's opinions and make fun of customers or people having different opinions than their's on the game. Or maybe it is just a funny way for both sides to reflect on things - called "Satire".

So the latest video you can find in my YouTube Channel called "Evil Chris feat. Portalarium - Suck it" is exactly that. I call them out on what I think about the state of the game. It is as valid as any other opinion and can be ridiculed or supported, just like Portalarium did in their video. And if you read the blog before, you know I came to this community as a fan of LB and Starr Long, but became a fan of Chris.

I repeatedly asked the Community Management to name a single rule the video violated, they couldn't name one other than to say it damages the communities integrity. What?

The Community Guideline you can find here state a ton of rules people have to abide.
Other than maybe language ( the word "suck" ) I could not find anything that closely violated that huge list of regulations, with many very questionable but we come to that in a minute...

Clearly deleting a video in which a word is used that might be on the "offensive words" list, should apply to all videos posted. So having people post their favorite songs, is in no way different if it has a political message or any other message contained in explicit lyrics. I did not see a single issue with that thread, so why does the other one get closed and posts deleted?

I got my signature moderated in forums *again*, and my post of the video was deleted. Even people messaged me on discord that they received warnings and they were threated with a week ban if they ever post anything in regard to that video again - not posting screens of that here to abide the rules, but rest assured I have them.

With yesterday's added new rule that does not allow certain postings on Memes and religious stuff, I called them out that their own ingame symbolism doesn't follow their new rules.

The good people from the #1 news site on SotA (NBNN) had a interesting discussion on those rules.

You can find it here. They also showcased my video and talked about it. That is exactly how this is supposed to work in a mature and active community.

What the Community Management in Shroud did, was absolutely terrible. Even the guys on NBNN come to the conclusion, that this rule is simply designed to get specific people banned on the forums.

People like me.

Now everyone could say that is a little far fetched and I kept calling out things in my last post about a community clique... Now what would you say if I have screenshots of a high backer trying to rally people in the forum to get me and my guildmates banned?

I don't know if that violates any Community rules *cough it does cough*, but creating a forum discussion on how to get people banned by trying to get their stuff moderated and reported... that seems like a Community Clique to me, and needless to say it contains ONBE members actively participating in that.

Rest assured we only got the information, because people from within or very close to those guys want to call out this themselves (also ONBE members, which maybe deserve the title more than others) without revealing their identity as openly as I do.

Having seen those screens it really felt like what is happening in some parts of the community is extremely unjust and foul.

So when I called out that the Hospitaller term and symbolism also has its backgrounds and could be offensive to people, the thread was deleted and I was threated with another ban if I comment on it again in the forums. Of course I don't care what happened centuries ago and people offended by it are just crybullies... but the same goes for the swastika which is a religious symbol or the Pepe the Frog Meme.

Banning words or symbols without context is just stupid and unintellectual and I don't want to talk about how this actually empowers the bad side those symbols stood or in case of Pepe might have stood for from someone's far left POV...

It is their forum and they can do whatever they want. Things like that certainly won't help attract any new players or bring back old ones. But no matter what rules you set up, if you start not applying them to everyone, people will call you out on that:

A mate from a friendly guild did just that.

When he read that my signature was reported a while ago, he hunted down 50 people who's signature were also violating the Community Guidelines. It was ONBE members and other people that are quite vocal and maybe not as critical as I am on the game. ;)

Nothing happened. He called Portalarium out on it, his thread (was a very funny post btw) got deleted. After he posted another thread about it and called them out on deleting the post without having violated any of the community guildelines, he was banned.

So what should we do about that?

I already was banned a year ago permanently for the exact same reasons. I accused them on this favoritism and one sided moderation and just for saying they banned people without a true reason, I got banned without a reason given.

Luckily I saved a screenshot of it, and uploaded that to an image-hoster to show it to friends.

I was lucky again, when without really caring about it the post went viral and caused a shitstorm on Portalarium's Steam page.

The support messaged me to delete the picture or else my game access might be shut down too. I still have the emails, and they show how I tried to reach out to Community Management, saying all we want is clear rules that EVERYONE has to abide to, and that less rules and more active moderation between opinions instead of deleting and banning one sided would be better. We agreed I get my full access back and I deleted the image from the site, but other than that my appeal was left uncommented by the Community Management. Shitstorm went over, and for a while I thought maybe things will change.

Now a year later I screenshotted every post I made on that forum. Every warning I received. Every deletion without reason given, every post others made violating the rules and staying unmoderated...

"SO GO UPLOAD IT, AND DESTROY THEIR REP!"

I don't want that. I want that issue resolved within the community as I feel the damage that could be done by that would really destroy the dream we all came here for. And even though I see many people starting to sell their stuff, myself included - there is still a grain of hope that once we can shift into a more laid back moderation style - the game can become the merge of U7 and UO most of us wanted.

The people grouping up to report people's postings even though there is no violation of any rule, need to be stopped. The Community Management cannot give in to those crybullies trying to shut down all other opinions by mass flagging them, and then Portalarium tries to remove those controversial postings because they cause "uproar and damage the community's integrity"...

What is damaging the communities integrity is people successfully shutting others down, because they are unable to make their own case and need a babysitter. Having rules not apply to all users is what destroys the foundation of this community.

We have rules in this community. They should apply to everyone. If a post doesn't violate that rule, no matter how offended some crybullies might be - it should be allowed to be posted.

If a post, signature or video violates the rules... all videos etc. that violate the rule need to be deleted.

They have set up so many rules, a team of 10 Community Managers couldn't moderate the content, as most of the guidelines not only apply to their forum, but also to what you post somewhere else on the internet...

If you love the game soo much and you are fine with it's state... do it like Majoria.
She is always positive about the game, and I and others in my guild respect that because it is her point of view. But what she also does different is not feeling offended when others don't like things and want them changed.

So what happens is a small group of crybullies who is "mass" flagging content by other users they deem offensive gets them moderated, but other violations are never really looked at. One guy reporting 50 signatures that violate the rules, is as valid as 50 guys reporting 1 signature that violates the rules. Your rules are set up badly, because you cannot enforce them equally.

If you cannot agree to that Portalarium, you have a whole different problem.

As for me I will abstain from any discussion in the forums for a while to let things cool down a bit, which means I got more time to rez gank your sorry asses in-game.

;)

So long.










Comments

  1. "The people grouping up to report people's postings even though there is no violation of any rule, need to be stopped. The Community Management cannot give in to those crybullies trying to shut down all other opinions by mass flagging them, and then Portalarium tries to remove those controversial postings because they cause "uproar and damage the community's integrity"...

    They won't be stopped though, because it's been the unofficial policy of certainly Berek, but almost certainly the core Portalarium actors as well to moderate based on whether they feel you are supporting the game or not for years now.

    You are only really noticing it now because it's starting to be turned against you personally; but the real difference between your present experience and all those "hyper salty motherfuckers" on Steam and Reddit (as someone on NMNN put it) is that the community manipulated the reports, and Portalarium pushed those mfs out of the door long ago.

    Nothing has changed since. They've just not managed to pull the trigger on you yet; they're not going to stop trying though, because this IS what the remaining community is now.

    After all, when Berek not only has proof that Jammaplaya was claiming Portalarium were leaking personal information to him in order to harass individuals in real life, but that I've opened up a crime report on something I suspect is also connected to this, it's not like you saying "carebear" or anything else is going to suddenly wake them up to the deliberate hypocrisy... the know all about it, and apparently don't care.

    Likewise, not revealing all your documented evidence isn't persuading them to be better people; Be honest, deep down you know all it's really doing is avoiding giving Portalarium an excuse to pull the trigger early. They're still looking for something to nail you on all the same though.

    Just as when I archived in exhausting depth how they allowed harassment directed at me, and scamming on Steam too; but at no point after publishing every last message have they ever even bothered to come back to me and stated they care about it what it clearly showed them to be doing.

    So you may as well Publish and Be Damned anyway, because as far as they are concerned, you're the Damned already.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I noticed it very early, what happened to some of you and you will probably agree that some of the bans where justified. My problem with the reddit has always been that the bullying wasn't any better there.

      If someone posted sth positive there, he was bullied as well and in the same manner. Moderation IS necessary, but it also needs to be applied equal and there should be no favoritism, especially when proof of that exists.

      I also probably disagree with a lot of opinions on the game, but I respect your and other people's opinion on it. And some of the stuff you point out there, is very valid.
      However the openly accusation of various things like cash crabbing and etc. I find rather putting the credibility in question of valid claims. I'll be posting more on the reddit in the future, and maybe we can discuss those things more in detail.

      I also play the game alot and like some aspects of it. What I don't like is clearly the community management (not the people, I dislike how it is done.) Further I question the road map and the goals they set out for EP1 and the Kickstarter promises about PvP, which now some claim weren't met, because people backed on the site instead of the KS.

      All in all, things will change as the facts are on our side. The official forums, just like UO's will disappear in triviality anyhow if they don't change the way of dealing things there.

      That being said, I see the way people are treated there as damaging for the commercial success for the game.
      As you may have read, I already caused a viral shitstorm against the company defending some of you guys.

      I would love if they give an amnesty to those people, and maybe cut down on the rules. But they will never admit their mistakes, as they see it they got all the people behind them - what clearly is not the case. It might be a majority now, because most people who saw their friends being banned, or were banned or moderated themselves unfairly (in their view or even objectively) have left.

      Delete
    2. Is that my old friend IM(Titler)? Looks like a new rash of disgruntles are festering in the forums. Heard talk that there is a new forum about to spring up. Not sure it'll be like Shroud Unlimited was though. ;) -Blake

      Delete
    3. Titler is not IM, Blake. You might remember him as nemo from SU, though he changed his handle there awhile ago.

      Also, I find it interesting that so many things IM wrote about on his blog, and then many of us discussed later on SU, are finally being seen by the very same people who mocked and belittled us for daring to point out that the emperor has no clothes.

      You and vallo and envy can be as smug as you like, but all of you were wrong about IM and so many of us who were shown the door by port.

      If you care to remember, I was banned from the forums for quoting Orwell's Animal Farm. I only crossed the Rubicon after sitting for weeks without hearing any update on my so called temporary ban.

      So many of you just agreed with port at every turn and always blamed the victim. Now with this namegate shit and them going after vallo for his video, you all finally see what shits Port are.

      Too bad it's about three years too late. IM will always be the og truth speaker when it comes to sota, regardless of the nastiness envy chose to direct his way on countless occasions.

      -k.b.

      Delete
  2. I'm new to the game. I find this very interesting. I can't judge as of now but I like your vids and I like your blog. Very good source of information. Thanks. Oh and I like the game.

    ReplyDelete

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