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You know, when I saw that "Dont complain about lag or you will get banned or kicked..something to that effect, My friends and I kind of got all quiet. Nothing was said in forums, when whispering others to see if they had lag too and it wasnt on my end alone, they also were afraid to voice an opinion about the lag. It finally got to the point where I didn't care whether I got banned or not, but tried not to, and wrote a mod in semi anger/frustration, then cleaned it up. After words I sent the original version, I copied and then modded, to them to convey what I felt and what I saw others feel. After that I was told they would restart the servers and fix stuff over the weekend.

Needless to say its fixed. Even so, threats to ban people for complaining is a bit much. I can understand spamming as a reason to ban somebody, and a flood of the same one problem being mentioned being an issue, But ALL THAT can be avoided by addressing the problem and letting the people know that YOU DO in fact know the problem at hand every so often, ESPECIALLY when it lasts as a long as that lag issue did. It would put hearts at ease and it would help loosen people up so as to not have to sneak around or constantly use /tell to vent a bit about issues at hand.

Just saying. I was happy at the way they responded to my frustrated thoughts and that the problem was addressed.

Personally, on an issue like this, I would advise you collecting evidence, like conversations with other people that it is not isolated. And send them to a staff member via PM. Its not always a good idea to reset the servers every time someone says lag. However, if it is an ISSUE we will do everything in our power to correct it. When a staff member says a blanketed statement like the one above (though I would hope they did not say 'banned') it is an attempt to calm masses. If there is a lag spike, or a few players in one area getting network lag, and everyone in the chat says... and I quote

PlayerLag: LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

that is hardly helpful, and is far from helping the staff address anything. What a staff member in that particular situation should have done is say "We are aware there are some lag issues, please refrain from spamming or over reporting the issue. Chat lines breaking the rules, even for lag, will still be moderated" Or something to that degree.

Staff do have a command that helps us check for lag issues. But all it can really tell us, is that the server is fine. There are many avenues that a lag spike can occur, whether it be our Network side, your ISP, or even your own computer, we try our best to give an answer as to where it might be coming from.

I would agree that your particular situation seems a bit rough, but if you ever feel like you have had an important idea or claim stiffled, we have 30 staff members, all happy to get a PM from you. Your aggravated posts will never stop us from seeing there is a problem. Sometimes, if you are the staff member on a server when a 'lag event' happens, you are spending much more time on crowd control, and much less time on problem correction. We have our ways of staying in contact with one another, but it is far from 100% instant all the time.

When people do this, it irks me so badly. Everyone else is lagging, you're not the only one.

It's like standing in a public restroom shouting PEEEEEEEE! Everyone else has to pee, you're not the only one.

As I said, when we saw the blanket statement, people tended to just not say anything out of fear. I also stated that I am aware of people spamming and flooding you all with the same one problem can be annoying. I can understand and agree that people just complaining when it could very well be an issue on their side is not enough to restart the server, but as I said in the conversation I had with the mod, it was multiple people and they agreed that there was much lag with the servers as well.
The thing I was addressing was the harsh blanket statement that made people afraid to say anything about the lag in the first place. I agree with what you said that the staff member Should have said. That statement it more reassuring and by no means threatening. To boil the entire thing down, what I was trying to say is, that if a known issue like: lag, nonstop spawning, losing all your stuff randomly, dieing randomly, some major bug issue that is effecting everyone, or whatever issues that have, have not, might but not really, come around, a statement such as the example you gave at least once during the busy hours of The Empire should be conveyed and the population will do the rest to convey.

I will make sure this exact statement is in the Guide somewhere.. best way i have ever heard it put.

Gosh darn it. I cannot stop laughing and I am going to wake everyone in my household up. This is one of the best things I have ever heard.

I could also imagine it working for the following:

• lines: WAITING!!!!
• waiting for food at restaurants FOOOOOOOODDDDD!!!!
• waiting for your phone to turn on: LLOOOOOOAAAAADDDD....
• getting mad at flappy birds: DON'T CRASHHHH!!!!

Thanks for making my day ^.^

I'm pretty sure that makes you guys better moderators, and still no less professional. Being a pro doesn't mean being a robot. It means knowing where your boundaries are and keeping up with your duties. Having opinions means you are thinking about those things. Defending them means you feel they are truthful. What makes it awesome is that you guys are willing to listen and also willing to admit mistakes.
I know that because I have seen it. Its one of the reasons I stick around.

After posting it, it hit me and I told Brit on Skype I looked so stupid.


I'm glad it didn't come out as stupid as I thought. lol

Do you mean when the staff said not to make any threads about the downtime? There is a thread now for this use, to post your problems with for example server lag.

I feel this thread has died down enough now to where we can lock it up. A lot of fantastic things came from here though, including a good 4-5 updates that will positively change some things here at EMC by a lot. Most of you handled yourself with great integrity. There were a few bad eggs that for some reason feel the need to trash my name or the names of others, but that's okay. If they want to spend their time in a world of negativity, there's not much we can do to help them out of that. They'll simply spread their lies/slander and karma will get them in the end. For the rest of you who made it about true conversation and growth, I very much enjoyed this long debate with everyone.

I'll make a new, more general thread regarding this topic which will represent a 24/7 open door policy to contact me from here on out with anything one may need to talk about, WITHOUT fear of a negative backlash from it. Expect that soon.

Until then, stay classy EMC.