Have an issue? Let's Talk :)

Here goes nothing,

I know you started a thread and have been a bit concerned with a group I have started. I want you to know that we never were trying to hurt anyone or cause any sort of EMC drama. We were planning to all find causes, write them down, sum everything up in an essay, then leave the rest be. The signature was a tribute to nick5013 but the rest was everyone else treating this situation stupidly. The person who posted on rainbowchin's profile, i forced them to apologize and anyone with a status that insulted him. We never wanted to hurt anyone, just get a point across.

It was completely meant as peaceful protest and to cause harm to no one. Concerning the new mods, I personally convinced the group to leave rainbowchin out of this. He is a great person and nick was mad for personal reasons only. The point of the group was to never cause drama or harm to anyone, but then there were a few idiots in the group i wish nick did not include. They truly made us seem like we were out to harm EMC and cause drama (which we were not). The absolute WORST thing we planned to do was to strike on the server for a bit.

I apologize if anyone made your life harder or your job. The actions which some took were actions i wish I could have controlled. I think you and others saw us as the equivalent of radicals and that we wanted to bring down EMC. This is anything but true. The group that I was in all has the same general concerns over the politics of EMC. In the current state of growth and other events going on, new problems have arisen which we think need to be addressed properly. I felt like an in game PM was definitely not the best way to get out what i was trying to say. I had some points that I left out that will be a lot easier to say in the environment of a private site message. This is why nick and I started our group, just to get a message to you with the opinions of several very active community members.

Some saw this the way it should be but then few saw us as a way we weren't. The profile pictures were mostly tribute to nick and so was the signature. I know from your talk with a player (he did not tell me of the conversation, someone else did) that you did see us as a threat of something that could hurt EMC. It was nothing but our plan to pm you with our complaints/concerns. Everyone in the group was very happy to see the thread you made about the problems. Thank you to being open to the situation and addressing concern.
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Concern One: Your political opinions.

We both know (and everyone else on EMC) you have VERY strong political beliefs. When it comes to any sort of thread involving american politics, you voice your opinion in a very loud manner. Politics can be a very heavy subject where it is easy to offend people, and in a political argument, no one comes out happy. In my one year EMC lifetime, i have NEVER seen anyone with such strong political opinions. I think that EMC should be seen as a family server, and you (specifically you) should keep politics out of it.

There are 106000 people who have logged into EMC before, and over 70000 registered forum members. You are practically seem as the king of the empire and ruler of all. You are funny, one of the longest playing members on the server, and you are made of ice'd cream. People look up to you as a role model and when you are a kid, opinions can be easily changed. The way you talk about Obama and the democratic party is not acceptable. From your portrayal, Obama appears to be the anti-christ and hater of all things good. It is truly an unhealthy hatred which should be left out of EMC. What made me love EMC is the amount of fun

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Concern Two: OBAM-Gaming

Pretty much every active EMC member knows about OBAM Gaming, your hilarious youtube channel which is starting to transform into a large server. The majority of people on obam are ALL from empire minecraft. It takes away member focus from this server which is not a good thing. I respect your server and support it with my money but you should change that aspect. Please try to keep obam as a completely separate affair, since now people are open in chat to talk about obam as if it is part of the empire.

I would recommend not using your youtube channel (or make your own youtube channel) for any youtube video's that concern the empire, and keep them separate from OBAM-Gaming. People see your video's made for special events or recordings of events from the youtube channel. This is how almost everyone gets the OBAM gaming IP. Almost everyone on obam is from Empire, and some have left the empire just for OBAM gaming. It is taking player count away from EMC.

This was a top concern in the group. I (and everyone who changed their picture and signature) were mainly concerned about OBAM-Gaming's outreach. It is negatively affecting EMC in our eyes.

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I left out some things due to tensions. I have other matters which i plan to bring up later.
EDIT: whether you like it or not, i am re-adding the part about obam gaming. I disagree with you entirely. it is taking more members away than it is bringing to us. Give me a sincere reply, then you can remove it

http://empireminecraft.com/wiki/dragon-tombs-items/
I forgot to put it on the Custom Items page, I admit, but it was on the sidebar

Agreed, ENTIRELY.

Thank you for listening.
I'm sorry, but I won't send you a pm about this. To be honest, I don't feel so good about you going through my chat history too and I don't think any staff member should be held accountable/investigated, because Square is (partly) faulty by design. I hope you understand. I know the staff members don't have any malicious intent and I respect them a lot.

If more people than Kephras and I had similar experiences, I hope they will tell you about it. Maybe even staff will tell you how they feel about this topic.

On a sidenote (I forgot to ask this earlier ): Is there a reason why private conversations on the forums can't be deleted? Or the posts within them?

I removed your section about the youtube channel, as it's actually doing more in advertising it than what you think is being done. I will say if you want to discuss it in private you may do so with me, but please don't mention the server in public, as it's ironically, advertising when it doesn't need to be. The funny thing is, the channel not only helps me grow in my video editing skills and fun with friends, it's brought a handful of players to EMC over the past couple years. It's been growing by the day, and that's more people I can bring to EMC. We allow other players to share their let's plays, EMC or not on the forums as well, regardless of what other servers they advertise on their channel.

Any advertising is good advertising for EMC. Trust me on this.

As for the political stand point, I have never been a fan of censorship on conversations as long as it's kept reasonable and non-attacking to other players which I not only do myself, but make sure others follow as well. People are more than welcome to be Republican, Democrat, or neither, and talk about it as long as you're not disrespecting other players.

I understand if you don't want to share the information. However, as harsh as this may sound, it's hard for us to listen to the complaints seriously without it. I'm not saying I don't believe you. I entirely do...but without any kind of information, it's simply an empty complaint. I'm sure you understand what I mean.

The posts got too long, I give up.

I'll be brief, because even though the sentiment expressed in the OP is great, there's only so much one can say before someone else takes umbrage to my words. Not necessarily Jeremy, but someone.

A while ago, I was a staff member. Now I'm not, but that's not what I want to talk about. When I was a staff member, I didn't really like Aikar. When I was active on EMC, Justin was still around real often. It was a bit troubling to me to see Aikar pop in and start taking over when Justin became an absentee leader.

I probably disagreed with him more than was necessary because I resented him. He had different ideas for EMC, and I wasn't really interested in the idea of Justin being replaced. Eventually, after losing any personal investment in EMC, I found that I liked Aikar more. I didn't and don't always agree with the things he does, how he does them, or anything like that. Even still, he really seems to be trying his best. I respect that.

He was dealt a losing hand—EMC was, in the bluntest possible way—on a one-way trip to its end. The causes and cures for this are not my place, and I don't claim to know anyone's business. Aikar could have, and probably should have gotten out while he didn't have any major responsibilities. He's got a family, after all, and coding for a game doesn't take priority over making a living. I'm sure the only reason he was able to code anything for EMC was under the guise of compiling code. He didn't have to do anything for EMC, but he continued to code for this server for what I believe is a strong sense of responsibility.

..this isn't shaping up to sound like an issue. huh.

YES^^. I don't understand why we need a "Updates *Date here*" and a "Misc. Changes *Date*" thread when they can both be put in the same thread.

Also, when staff have events, announcements in chat would be nice. I think a couple weeks ago Dwight and Death had their Mob Arena on a Friday night, I didn't even know until Sonic came up and was like "Lulz I went to da arena and almost won" or whatever. Come to find out Death was just logging onto the server, advertising it in town chat (I was in the wild) and I didn't even know until AFTER it happened.

I have still not been able to attend a Fire-Floor event, because it is never announced/the thread bumped. Found out today after it was over from Sonic because he won a round.

I know I could just go to the EVENT category and read the threads, but what if it's like the old Mob Arena where we used to get ready, go wait for 4 hours THEN get told it's not gonna happen? We could all be ready for Dwight and Death's MA at the 7CST time they say, but things could come up and it would be nice to know beforehand.

You can hardly ever see the threads for important things because Recent is flooded with [Auction] Threads. Is there a way you can filter the threads so we can see them all?

I'm not sure. I've always had issues with how it works too, lol. I think you can 'leave the convo' which is sorta the same as deleting it on your end.

I appreciate the gesture, whether genuine or not, but I may max out the character limit. So, I'll allow the rest of he community to voice their concerns.

I, for one, already feel this way towards our staff. I'm always glad to see them log in, even though I know they're always watching from the shadows.

You are a part of that community, sir. You have words. You may speak them. So speak.

I sent you a pm in private first. Left out one section on this thread for it.

Yep. If people have issues or want to rant, this is the time and place to do it.

I want to post somethings here if you dont mind.

I have never seen Jeremy post anything outside of political threads, which, is always going to have toes stepped on. But.. adults should always be able to share ideas without walking away enemies. Politically, I disagree with about 90% of what Jeremy has to say. I have seen arguments, I have been involved with them. But we are still friends. Saying he is not allowed to share his political beliefs, no matter how loud they may be, in my opinion, is silly. If anything, that is Jeremy letting down a wall, letting himself go, so the community can see more of his personal life. There was once a religious thread thing that happened a few months (years) back that I can relate perfectly to this. Threads are made sure to be appropriately titled. If you see a thread that is on a touchy subject (i.e. Politics) and you feel like your personal might be hurt in viewing it, it might be a good idea to just not view it. I dont read every thread here. I read the threads that the titles interest me (plus the reported ones). So I do not see why his political beliefs should be sniffled, just because he feels strongly about them.

I know that right now you'd have to believe me on my word. But if I provided you with proof, what would you do next?

Oh, I definitely have opinions. My opinions are too widespread, particular and lengthy to present on the forums... It would result in a 3 or 4 page post. The unfortunate part of it all is that I harbor a lot of unhealthy negative attitudes toward certain individuals in the community and I express them immediately instead of playing them like pawns and acting as if everything is fine... so I don't believe my expression of what is wrong with EMC at the moment would be productive.

My want and passion has always been that EMC would get BETTER... my post would not help EMC get better, it would cause a lot of bitterness and resentment. For that, and for the hope that EMC does in fact improve itself internally, I will refrain from posting the way I feel about this community in its current condition... but rest assured, I will certainly respond to some posts if I feel it would help get a point across.

I'm too lazy to go to the site and look at event category ∩( ・ω・)∩ i never know when anything happens i just build things.....

I understand, but kilmannan is right. If there is anything at all that you would like to flag up to make EMC a better place, this is your chance.

Look into it, and take action on the situation to make sure it gets resolved and doesn't happen again.