The problems of Krysyy, Aikar and how EMC is run.

'You have broken the number one rule of staff and have violated my trust'.

Violation of trust and breaching confidentiality is no minor issue. It's why it's ginormous and in dark orange text as one of the first things you see in the staff guide.

By definition sharing something that was meant for staff alone with a non-staff member.

The only person that requested a lock on this thread was the OP as a temporary hold while they were on a plane. That request was denied because staff do not feel locking this thread is an appropriate course of action and the OP will simply need to read more posts when they get around to responding.

I am tired.

Some of you seem to be under the impression that everyone who stands with the staff team is a mindless follower with no opinion of their own. Do you think we all agree on everything? Do you think I believe every action we have ever taken is the right one? Of course not. That’s the reason the staff have discussions to begin with.

I am here because I love this server. I grew up here, and we are a community. For those of you claiming this is “respectful discussion” or “just talking,” you also call the staff team a “circus,” you paint the management as blind to the issues at hand. If that is your definition of “respectful discussion,” then I fully and respectfully disagree with your definition of respect.

Respect is not passively sitting by and smirkingly smiling at the new gossip in short posts and status messages. Discussion is not actively passing around petitions and calling for a new community manager. These things are no more than enjoying the crackling of a fire that you see as cozy but is little more than arson.

If you don’t like an institution, you repair it; you add an annex here, tear down a wing there. Maybe you raze the whole thing and build it anew. But burning it, without thought or care? Filling the air with your grievances until we all choke on the smoke, yourselves included?

Members of our community are lashing out without even knowing whom they strike at. Burki, for instance, it was me who brought up the Share Your Scares event for a reboot because I thought it was a fun thing to do. Krysyy and I discussed it, she posted, players submitted. My apologies for our alleged lack of ambition. You cannot attack just the head without attacking the whole body.

For those of you not on the staff team, we work through things in just that way: as a team. There is an immense amount of discussion that goes on behind the scenes, and a lot of thought goes into not just the big things that you all see, but also the minute details. Many seem to have chosen Krysyy and Aikar to be your scapegoats, but at the end of the day, no amount of “I hold no ill will against the others” changes that we are all in this together. If you are going to throw stones, be honest about who you’re aiming for.

SS work with Krysyy to select staff and, by default, vet Developers. Don’t just slap lack of Devs on the Admins; it was far more than that.

SS and often the entire Mod team debate potential changes to policy that could affect the community as a whole. These were not unilateral decisions.

And, above all, the way we choose to carry out these decisions and the factors that we have in mind in making them are all based on what we feel is best for the community. Our interactions with you all/with each other and hearing what you want have direct impacts in even the most basic decisions—e.g., how we punish new players flying.

EMC has problems. It always has, and always will. However, so little of this thread has focused on the concrete things people actually feel are wrong (and more importantly the steps you would take to improve them) and more so on some vague concept of an error in the culture of EMC, one which you believe your admins to be the sole source of. This is simply impossible. We all share a part in this community, and we are all responsible for the good and the bad, non-staff members included. Whether you realize it or not, your opinions do alter the course of things here on EMC. If you genuinely believe that a staff member’s discussion of their personal life behind closed doors is the sole cause for uproar, you have strayed somewhere in your line of reasoning. Discussions about potential staff members, team members, and how to deal with interpersonal issues between players are held professionally in order to come to some outcome, whether that’s the denial of a staff position or a staff member interceding properly ingame. Contrary to what has been painted in this thread, staff chat is not a mindless mess of player-bashing, and some of those speaking out in this thread would do well to consider why the perspectives of their sources are the way we are. As for the speaking about personal, non-EMC-related issues, I have gone to so many players here on EMC when I needed help or just a listening ear in my personal life; I would never deny any person from doing the same, and that is simply a necessity of the human existence that in no way impacts our work here beyond bringing us closer together.

We as a staff team work very, very hard to do our best for this community, and we are always reevaluating ourselves. If you see EMC as having a culture problem, please recognize that regardless of whether that is true, that is a two-way street that applies as much to you as it does to staff. For instance, some have expressed frustration with staff being treated “above” other players; this is something that we as a team continually try to beat out of our staff members, emphasizing that we ARE just players like you guys. We are doing our best to rectify that issue from our end; if the issue exists, recognize the part of the relationship that falls on your shoulders. We all want the same thing.

I am sorry I have not been more active. Life is hard, and I am sure that I have come up short. It is something for me to work on. I love you all, and dealing with this this morning has been many hours of pain for me. I grew up here, after all, and I and many others, staff and non-staff alike, have spent countless hours just trying to do our best for this place.

I know that you are speaking like this because you feel the same, and just want to right the wrongs, speak out against the issues, and cause a change for the better. I know, I do. But this sort of piecemeal tearing apart of specific people and relishing the drama created leads to nothing more than division.

You all have a right to a voice. If we want to make a change, let’s make it... But not like this.