I Hate (a few things that some of) You All (do)[]
But that's okay. I also love (a lot) of you, and as the collective community matures we all come to better deal with those few things we hate in ways that make less conflict. I know I have. Of course I still have my moments but this has been the first community I've actually been in. Others I only observed and poked at a bit. Being in this community has gave me some good lessons on how to deal with people on the Internet and go from there. I'm still learning. We are all still learning.
But you know what? I and other members feel that even if the collective amount of conflict is less these days (maybe because of the population of the community but that's another matter), that doesn't mean conflict is managed as good as it could be. It also certainly means that we could use more conflict prevention. Not all conflicts are with harsh words and harsh actions in game influenced by harsh feelings. Some conflicts are avoiding other people, groups, concepts, and ideas. The very notion of the word "avoid" is an affront to the concept of community and ergo a conflict. A problem. There is weak community when we spend our time locked away in our castles and houses and towers for fear of our toes being stepped on, and ourselves stepping on other toes. That is conflict avoidance, not conflict prevention.
A Community Discussion[]
This is a thread made by one of our administrators, Lorelei. A few suggestions were thought of in how we can all be better community members. Because I am lazy I am going to just copypasta what I said in there.
Would anyone endorse a sort of clean-slate initiative? An initiative where one's prior actions are not forgotten...but an intiative where it is a communal agreement to let everyone prove if they've changed from past actions without actively (or passively) trying to dismantle each other along the way?
Because honestly, I have had it up to my neck with the community's selective memory. Someone told me, "roleplayers don't forget". I think it's more true that "roleplayers choose to forget".
And in the same conversation I understood and admitted something. That I am guilty of the same thing in regards to certain people. Maybe a lot of people. It made me feel like a bit of hypocrite, because not everyone is entirely bad or even mostly bad but once you see something bad in someone and a wall is made between you and them - it's difficult to climb over that wall. I've done it with a few. I've failed with others. It's not easy.
And you know what? That's Human nature to be that way. It is a vestigal instinct that evolution hasn't quite phased out yet. Back before society as we know it to be, it was much more intuitive to avoid and keep in memory the bad things for our own survival. Bad things could do more bad than good things could do good. Good things wouldn't kill ancient man, but bad things would.
So all of what I just said could be water under the bridge. If it was a consensus decision to just start a clean slate where everything is forgiven (but not forgotten because what could we compare someone's new behavior to?), then I would most certainly walk right up to the people I've wanted to hate the most and do my best to make something fun with them.
And I think that'd be really cool. Not just because fun things are fun, but because we'll also be able to discern who refuses to learn and change for the benefit of everyone else and be able to do something about it because the "score" would be easy to understand and be clear-cut.
Some of you may think this is a good idea. Some of you may not. There is, however, more. Pre-requisites must be decided upon before we can even think of the above idea. Not a lot of us are on the same page about things in general, and not just aspects of roleplay. Aspects of life. Everyone's culture bleeds into the community to an extent and that's just how life is. Don't mistake these words though. Being a unique and authentic individual is good. Dropping the mask OOC'ly is admirable. But? Punching someone's unprotected face when they take that mask off isn't good.
As Mr. Kaeso pointed out;
4) Know what's offensive, and what's not allowed,
5) Know how to proactively prevent offensive material that doesn't necessarily break rules.
We need to know 4, and know how to observe 5.
Step One: What We Like[]
Let's not focus on the negatives first. Let's focus on the positives of the community. What does the community do that you like? What part of RP Town makes you put the RP worlds on your lobby hotlist and click it immediately? Why does that part make you do it? Hey, you can even name and praise individuals if you want to. You can even post anonymously. Use a danged proxy for all I care. It would be sad if anyone would fear the ramifications of sharing what they think is good, but the world in general can be an odd place and can have illogical results.
Participate[]
Community has the letter U in it and our community is weaker without U.
Rounded up, our average unique users per day is around 600 non-authenticated or anonymous users, and 100 authenticated users. Of course, not all of you or even most of you make edits in a day but I anticipate a couple hundred people will see this blog, and it would be very good if there are more than a dozen comments. There is, in fact, absolutely no reason why there should be only a handful of comments.