Link: https://www.sylestia.com/forums/?thread=96000&page=3#30 Author: Aelingalathynius Time Posted: 1/24/2021 at 11:18 PM So first, thank you for putting out the reminder - I've had some personal issues in chat, but I agree that there's been an overall increase in rule flouting, particularly regarding spamming, begging and caps. There have also been several incidents where when a player - newer or not - is told they are breaking a rule, they start arguing with those correcting them, or begin throwing what, for lack of a better term, I'm going to call a pity party ("i guess no one wants to talk to me now" "i'll just leave since everyone hates me" etc. etc.). I find myself disagreeing with the idea that people have gotten ruder about these corrections - I usually see fairly polite corrections when rules are broken. And to be fair, the rules for what is acceptable in public chat are posted in SEVERAL places on the site - newer players have plenty of opportunity to view them. Caps is usually the rule that isn't intuitive, but it shouldn't take more than one incident and explanation for that rule to be understood. I personally haven't seen incidents of older players acting like mods, not sure if I've just missed these incidents or if it's a matter of interpretation. It's also bothered me that I've seen multiple instances of players asking for something to be stopped/topic change/discussion dropped/etc., only for others to spring on them and start a new argument about why they're so uncomfortable with something. Region chat is a public chat - someone politely saying they're uncomfortable with something and would prefer if it could be changed shouldn't be an issue for anyone. Yes, there's an option to close chat, and that may be fine if you simply don't like a topic being discussed, or if the topic is appropriate but personally uncomfortable for you, but if someone is doing something genuinely inappropriate or upsetting, not addressing it won't help the problem. Region chat is also incredibly helpful for newer players during fest/when starting the lost grove; during fest it's also a prime place for sales, giveaways, nurture pokes, sculptures helps, etc. It's not really fair for someone to have to exclude themselves from all of that - plus the ability to just be social with other players - if someone ELSE is causing problems in it. This kind of turned into an essay >_< Sorry. Anyway, I'm glad the issues have been addressed - hopefully chat will improve going forward. Thank you for all your work Krin :)

I mean, it's not always an easy thing to control. With so many people shuffling in and out of a single chat box, it's literally impossible for there not to be some sort of disagreement, drama, etc.

So, when it comes to moderating, I am not at all a fan of heavy moderation that you see most other places. There's also a secondary issue with that... as I'm not willing to hire third party unbiased moderators. So the moderators would be actual players. And there literally is a zero chance that won't cause more drama than it will prevent. Even if I attempted to have them be anonymous, I highly doubt that information would stay under wraps for long. Either just it simply getting leaked or someone just figuring out who the moderators are by typing familiarity, timing, etc. And, again, there literally is a zero chance that this wouldn't end up causing more drama than it'd prevent. Furthermore, I'm now asking loyal players to spend less time playing and instead have the stressful role of moderating and enforcing rules. This is also something I do not want to do.

I feel like drama on Sylestia is very, very light compared to what I've seen across many other games. I feel like 98% of all infractions that I deal with are very superficial and the vast majority of the time, it's just because someone did something without really thinking it through or knowing better. And almost every time, the player learns and follows the rules better from then on - which is exactly the best I could hope for. I take no satisfaction in punishing people. I want everyone to enjoy Sylestia and to feel comfortable here. So even the frequent rulebreakers... my goal is to get them to mature and adhere to the rules so that they, too, can be a respectable member of the community. Sometimes though, people don't seem willing to improve or do something so egregious, I have no option but to take serious action.

So, at the end of the day, I think what we do works best. I think people just need to keep in mind that we are a relatively small community and that we are all here for the same purpose. While I greatly appreciate players trying to keep our public chats functioning cleanly and smoothly when I can't always be around, the proper way to handle rule violations is to let me know via a PM.

No matter what other players say, myself and Faiona are the only two on the Site with actual power to tell someone what they can and can't do. While raising awareness and reminding others of rules is appreciated, nobody but myself or Faiona have any moderating powers on Sylestia.

K, I agree to the terms of serves