EMC is a great place to be in all, and its really fun. The moderators are also nice, and helpful, but this is the part that makes me a little frustrated about emc. On the forums, if you post a goodbye thread, or even a thread about if you are leaving for a few days, it gets deleted/locked.(and I get this, but read more.)One of my friends posted one(leaving name unknown), but it had nothing to do with leaving emc forever. It was simply about him saying how stuff had been happening with laptop, and that he would be gone for a few days. But a moderator had deleted and locked the thread, that makes me kinda sad. It was not a intentional goodbye thread. And I would get if it was saying, "oh emc is horrible I am leaving,", but deleted a thread because of problems with laptop sounds a little mean to me. I am not saying emc is bad in anyway. I just want this problem cleared and explained more, because it wasn't even a real goodbye thread. I know admins think that goodbye threads will make guest think we are a bad server, but the thread my friend posted was not about that at all.
The thread my friend posted only lasted 8 minutes, and then it got deleted. And the thread had NOTHING to do about him saying how emc is bad or anything. It was about his computer. No one even argued on the thread.
That's rather not the the point, in response to the arguments, they're not allowed. The staff can't pick favourites and close some goodbye threads whilst leaving others open.
If you and your friend genuinely think it was a thread that shouldn't have been deleted, contact IcecreamCow. They can be un-deleted and moderators make mistakes to. I'm sure you could get it put back if you negotiate a title and wording change.
But why do they not allow them? I can get that guests think we are bad or something, but why is the question? That wasn't even a real goodbye thread. A goodbye thread is pretty much saying, I think emc has taken lots of time away from me, i am done playing it, mods are bad, etc. He said nothing about the server. He said how is computer got a virus. He put on with his iPhone i believe.
Directly from my thread, just my opinion here. So most of us have seen a goodbye thread at one point on the forums, they almost always contain someone who is leaving and why they are leaving (whether it be because they are banned or because they have life issues etc.) I think they should be allowed, now these are my reasons why I think they should be allowed in my opinion; It lets us (the community) know a player has left and the reason why, so it doesn't seem like they have just disappeared out of the blue with no explanation I think every player is entitled to let people know they're leaving EMC, perhaps with a story about all the times they have had on and thanking players/staff and maybe even to give their belongings away (if the player is choosing to leave voluntarily) Now, I know there are some issues with goodbye threads, the obvious one being that it may put off new players that have just joined, they may think 'why are they leaving' and then they may think it must be a bad server because people are leaving (which of course, is not the case). The other problem is with 'flaming' (aka people arguing) the player may not be liked by all and this may cause some issues with other players, they state their opinion which usually results with the OP getting mad. Another issue is with people 'slagging off' EMC, which results in people getting mad and usually a flame war. So I've stated the pro's and con's, here is some ways in my opinion to 'fix the issues'; Anyone who 'slags off' EMC should either have the thread removed (locked like it currently is), or the parts that are 'slagging off' EMC removed. Goodbye threads should be heavily moderated to prevent flaming, the issue with this is that it takes up staff time. Optional: Banned players should not be able to post goodbye threads, only those who leave voluntarily I may add more to this, but this is all I can think of for now.
In my opinion goodbye threads are just attention seeking. A player will say good bye I won't return to Emc but you might see me here & there on the forums. 4 days to a week later the return like nothing has happen. Yes it's sad if someone leaves but most of time those are just look look look at me, I'm leaving better say I can't leave because "X reasons" or like I seen someone did try to profit from leaving and came back 2 days later saying I changed my mind. I could go on about this all day. Emc staff won't change are policy of good bye threads. As for friend saying having computer and get on cause of that. He needs contact staff via convo explaining the situation.
Goodbye threads are not allowed due to previous arguments that come about from them. The most namely of them is why they left. Basically it leads to people badmouthing EMC on our own site where members come to sign up for our wonderful community. We have decided that all goodbye threads are to be deleted due to the overwhelming amount of them that go sour fast along with the fact that many people that were making threads ended up coming back just one week later (because we are awesome). It became a rather large hassle to filter through all of them for rude comments etc and it was a decision made to better the whole of EMC. That being said, you may still message your friends in a private chat to let them know you are leaving and even explain why, but just not on a public forum that all members can see.
There are many avenues you can approach if you wish to say goodbye in someway. Announce it in game. Use your forum status message. No one is saying you can't say goodbye, just not with a thread. Why bother posting a thread about you leaving, if you are in fact leaving? The people who are close to you in EMC will more than likely check your page if you post a status, and those in game you can just tell. Most people think they are deleted/locked because the person leaving will say something bad about EMC, but that's far from the issue. As Dwight has said, most of it is for attention, there are players even now (not mentioning any names) that "leave for good" and come back every week. If we allowed those threads we would be spammed with them, which we were in the past. Not because people were even actually leaving, but because they wanted the attention from.everyone.
What about thread's that have no badmouthing about EMC (and infact, just good things to say), just a story about all the good times they've had and who they would like to thank and perhaps a giveaway of their belongings, I don't see why anyone would argue over a thread like this, no badmouthing, just a thread to sum up their time on EMC but they have to leave due to personal issues. I see no issues with a thread like this, no attention seeking implied, just informing people that they are leaving and have no intention to come back anytime soon.
Okay, so let me dissect your suggestion; The player that is leaving can either send a private message or post on the wall of players that they wish to thank or say goodbye to. There's a work-around for this; givaways/AMA's and story threads. I personally think their spammy, but they're still allowed and therefore can be used somewhat as a goodbye thread. As soon as they started popping up, people kept repeating things along the lines of "emc is going down" - which wasn't true - so it's not only an issue for gaining new players, but keeping confidence within the current ones. People leave everyday, they just don't make threads. To bring me to one of the points I'll mention in a minute - goodbye threads are just an unnecessary trend. The player's leaving usually come back - if they're active enough to make threads, they obviously enjoyed the stay that they had. Exactly, just not worth the trouble. This may indeed be a good solution, and the most probable if they ever were to be allowed again. It is the staff team's job to moderate threads, so that's not the issue; it's just that goodbye threads aren't needed, so there's no point having to moderate them. Too hard to maintain, keep in place IMO. In conclusion, goodbye threads were a trend that got started about a year back and then they grew out of proportion to the point where they were causing too may negatives then positives. They're not needed, people do just fine without them as it is. On a site note, it's really good to see some actual discussion in the Community Discussion.
I don't think they are really unnecessary, however I do in a way agree with some of the other staff's posts, they are overused and some will do it repeatedly to 'attention seek' but not actually leave, I still think they should be allowed, but I have yet to think of a system to get around all the attention seeking ones. Also, nice dissection by the way
Honestly, a direct message to the person's close friends is better and much more effective anyways. Makes it more personal. No way to really make a goodbye thread personal, so it'll always come off as attention seeking.
