It's kind of hard to give a formal introduction to what I'm about to say, but it's something that I think is a 50/50 issue in the Empire, and that this should be addressed. The problem at stake is how some members of the community go about the way they inform players of their disregarding of the rules. There are some rules on EMC that are simply an EMC-only rule that aren't "illegal" in our real world, such as posting goodbye threads or having strict auction rules. What bothers me is that there are some players (no names mentioned) that take the initiative to make someone realize that they've done something wrong. For instance, say a new player starts an illegal auction, then they immediately get pounced on by other players who tell them what they did wrong. Some even go as far as to copy and paste the information of what they should have done in place of what they did. I see this as a really rude thing to do, its an informal gesture of slapping someone in the face and then trying to correct it simultaneously. I can find only 3 motives for this happening: -The accusing player wants to become mod. -They've had a rough day (understandable). -They just enjoy creating problems for other people. I know I'll get criticism, just like every other suggestion thread I've posted. But really, there are two EMC's: Those who have a strict mind, and those who have an open mind, and that's just not good as a community. I think that what needs to happen is that players shouldn't be allowed to criticize other players of what they've done unless its a major rule break, we have enough moderators to take care of everything else. These little things have become very annoying in the past, and I just think that EMC is turning into a hostile and unfriendly environment, because new players will make mistakes and are allowed to (unless there's something the majority of us don't know about). I myself have never criticized anyone/informed them of a wrongdoing on a goodbye thread or an auction thread unless the format is really screwed up, because I prefer to listen and then take action, not take action then listen. The mods' job is to take action, not the players'. Please hear this EMC, and respectfully comment your thoughts.
Mods are not always there to correct mistakes and people will never learn the rules if they keep doing things the wrong way.
I do not see this as quite as rude as you may think, as I am sure others do also. When you tell someone they did something wrong in an auction, or any place, you should tell them to look for how to do something the next time. This does not mean it is okay to be rude to someone, but it is their fault also for not taking initiative to figure out how to do something first.
I think there's a difference between rudely telling someone they are wrong, and constructive criticism. You give copying and pasting the rules as an example of being extra rude, but I think that's great that a player is willing to take the extra effort to show the new people how it's supposed to be done. As long as it's just one person correcting per mistake, and it's done politely and helpfully, I think it's a great part of our community that our veteran members care enough to help out the new people. Plus it's a little bit less the mods have to do, which is always helpful.
Personally, I will encourage everyone in the community to be respecful, kind, polite, warming and accepting to everyone else, especially new players. All it requires is a little patience, and you can have a new player on EMC not only for a very long time, but you can also make friends with them. That's why it all comes down to how you approach someone. If it's necessary, and you say something like "Hey man, this isn't the correct way to do something but here's how. Nonetheless, ... ... ..." (In some cases, this could be the "quoting rules" you referred to which I am somewhat okay with) that's fine by me. This only applies when something can be corrected by themselves. For things like goodbye threads, or auctions, you can just report the post, which brings me to the next point. The "That's wrong." you're also referring to I don't believe in, and in some cases is actually worse than what the person you're correcting is doing and I'm fully onboard with you regarding that. As for EMC being split up into 2 groups... I don't necessarily think so. We're still one big friendly community, different approaches, different personalities but overall those that obtain to the sort of outlandish behaviour we're not accustomed to are generally not the kind of people that stay with us, or either correct their mistakes as the people that are warmer shed their warmth.
