Staff deleting/hiding threads.

Discussion in 'Community Discussion' started by Rex1o, Feb 15, 2016.

  1. I'm not going to attack anyone in this post. To be quite honest, I am so confused after reading so many of these replies I couldn't hope to offer anything of worth. All I wanted to say here is that I haven't directly talked to you much, FlareonInAction, but I have seen you on a lot. In fact, as I'm writing this, I seem to have only narrowly missed you on smp8! I just want to say that some of the others here have made a good point; perhaps a break is in order. I have honestly admired you a little, gathering from context and town chat that you are a well-known and respected member. I respect you greatly and am a little upset at myself for not trying to talk to you before all of this started happening.

    I just want to say that if you do need to rant, feel free to do so privately to me; publicly in a thread like this isn't going to better anything and it just stirs up drama and dissent towards everyone involved. I know the general issue here and this applies to anyone: I'm willing to listen to rants and things if it means it gets out of forum circulation. This is all getting out of hand and personally, I don't even know where this issue started. Also, if anyone wants to PM me and give me the rundown of what exactly is going on so I'm not quite so confused, that'd be great XD I know the basic issue but not the origins of it.

    Empire Minecraft was the first Minecraft server I ever joined. I have since found others to play on but I always return here, be it for the friendly staff or the amazing community. I don't know what has gotten into everyone lately, whether it be personal problems or a small spider someone made out to be a tarantula; but, I will say that I have not noticed threads being deleted for no reason. I will say that Aikar seemed slightly egotistical in that thread, but honestly, what do you think you would do when 90% of your server seems to suddenly be attacking you? I admire the way Aikar stood up for himself. I had not seen or talked or had any interaction with this person before The Big Dig only days before reading these posts. Personally, it has made a strong impression on me: at the Big Dig he was kind and was showing around a new staff member to my knowledge, and was patient with a member who kept trying to say the Unbreaking enchantment was not working right (he didn't understand that it uses a random number system to determine whether the tool takes damage or not). In that thread, he was incredibly patient as well. In fact, I've come to admire all the staff for their bitten tongues and holding back their anger. I can freaking feel the rage/annoyance/frustration radiating off their posts at this point.

    All of this just needs to stop. EMC is going to change, that's what happens. The server is still 5000x more vanilla than most servers I play on that aren't tiny and meant for 50 people. The play your way motto is still very accurate. You can change your player settings as you see fit. The only point in the last thread was that you should not get xp from mobs you did not kill yourself. He did not say anything against a farm such as Pigmentus, where you smack at the feet of pigmen until they die (although sometimes when the anti-afk machine kicks in and water pushes them back, they are able to hit you for a second or two). He mentioned that he was against afk-based mechanisms, as well as farms that produce items by the dc load in short seconds. I agree with this as well. And I honestly don't think it's huge. If you really feel that annoyed by it, then perhaps you should just go play singleplayer with flat vanilla mechanics and show off what you've made once you're done. The only thing I even have a minor qualm about is the fact that dogs may not give xp from mobs they kill. Even so, I can see where he came from, where one player mentioned some people afk at a skeleton grinders and let their dogs do all the work.

    ...Okay, I honestly forgot what the point of this post was. I'm thinking it was to get across all of my opinions on everything. So, to sum up:

    TL;DR: FlareonInAction, I really do admire you a bit and as slightly creepy as that sounds, I don't want to see you blow a gasket and quit out of pure anger but rather perhaps take a break or just lay silent for a while to cool off. After all, Fire Pokemon can get pretty fiesty sometimes. XD Secondly, I don't think I've seen threads closed/deleted without cause. Thirdly, I agree on the no xp for afk'ing. Fourthly.... can this just stop now? This is the first real venom I've seen come out of the community the entire time I've been on emc (which honestly isn't that long - give or take 209 days) but still. I hope we can all move past this. :)
    Acemox2k, 607, fBuilderS and 6 others like this.
  2. I dont remember what it was called but when it disappeared it was like it never existed...
  3. Could this be the game? 1 WORD Story Game! If it is you might have missed it as it is not in 'forum games' forum but 'miscellaneous' forum.
    HannahEB likes this.
  4. No, its not this one, I was thinking of another forum game. Everytime I look for it nothing shows up even in my post history...
  5. A few months ago, I decided that I didn't like the way the whole EMC experience was making me feel. I would log onto the forums and see threads like this, and I would see players in-game being rude to each other, and arguing rules when they are a week old. I had a bad experience with a moderator, which broke my faith in the mods who I dont know on a personal level.

    To summarize: Every aspect of the game was off-putting for me. I had an old quote pop up in my head, though. I'll censor it a bit, because I think the way I remember it would be breaking some rules.

    "If you wake up and the first person you meet is a jerk, then they're just a jerk. But, if EVERYONE you meet is a jerk, then it's you. You're the jerk"

    Everyone I talked to was making me feel more separated from the first online community I have liked in minecraft. I realized that it very well might have been me who was the problem. I tried not talking to people, but then the new players walked all over my friends and ignored rules, and I got tired of picking up the pieces. I tried a zero tolerance policy, reporting instead of arguing with these people, and I was told off for making mod's lives harder (which I was. They haul ass non stop to keep up with us).

    I decided that the best course of action was a break.

    I put up a message on my page, indicating that I was done for a while. I answered PMs explaining that I was taking a break, and I gave my skype information to the handful of people I still wanted to talk to. I did not throw an immature temper tantrum on the forums, kicking and screaming on the proverbial Walmart floor because some kid took my candy. I did not threaten to leave, holding my very friendship hostage with those who might have wanted me to stay, and forcing them to bend to my will lest they lose such a valuable resource known as xXBuffa1oXx. This would only have exacerbated the issue, not resolved it.

    If you don't like something, speak up. If you don't like the answer, leave. It's so simple, even a buffalo can do it.
    AyanamiKun, 607, FoxyRavenger and 8 others like this.
  6. Lets ge this thread back to topic!!!!!!!!!!!


    Every thread is accesible to the public unless is deleted. The is not frequent(it happens when it was a "test" thread or a misleading thread. the examples you posted are closed threads not deleted. That means that the thread already completed its purpose and was requested or forced to be closed, but can still be viewed.

    Closed threads do to EMC-Sociopolitical(like aikar changes, eula, and all that stuff) topics happen when people are hating on each other and can't stop. That is to prevent hurting someone filling. Notice that staff always make a last stement saying that the thread already completed its purpose was getting off topic. In a 24 hour period, the EMC community can be very creative(to not say another word) and make dozens, if not hundreds od post in a revenant thread. like the aikar one. Staff closed it because everything that needed to be said was said.

    Now the question is: do staff see the comments on closed threads and TRY to fix the issues, or at least explain them?
    the answer is YES

    Basically they stop/close for:
    • Preventing people getting hurt verbally/emotionally
    • everything that was needed to be said and heard was said(not necessarily heard)( so thread completed its purpose)
    • upon request
    • OR the thread is not getting a final product.( the topic s so abstract and general that people start complaining about stuff and stuff, but don't get to a solution)(i believe that this thread is going to be this one, but not necessarily closed)
  7. No matter how obvious it is that people not overall satisfied with the server will look for an alternative,
    it is violence and it is quite rude to say "find a new server" or "just leave".

    The art of communication from the people who are criticizing was often not kind and diplomatic, and neither was the art of communication from EMC staff.
    From jokes around punishments, to threats with punishments and up to closing or hiding threads - which are acts of violence.

    Please, do everything you can to reduce the violence, as this will surely improve the social life here for everyone - staff and non-staff.

    How to communicate without violence?

    1) Describe as far as possible exactly what happened - only obvious / provable facts.
    Example: "The thread X is not accessible any more."

    2) Describe how you feel about that.
    Example: "I feel treated unfair and violated. I miss access to that thread to re-read the discussion, especially the postings I've written. I also miss it as a reference to what happened."

    3) Express what you / people around you need - concentrate on basic, obvious needs.
    Example: "I / we need freedom in communication."

    4) Politely request change
    Example: "Please do what is possible to make thread X accessible again."

    How to achieve that?
    • Think about what is going inside yourself, about what exactly happened and your feelings and needs.
    • Try to see something good in the other side and try to connect empathically. If you can't then better stop the communication if possible.
    • Try to express yourself (observations, feelings, needs, requests) as honestly as possible.
    More: http://www.cnvc.org/

    EDIT: better HowTo: http://www.wikihow.com/Practice-Nonviolent-Communication
  8. For any and all reasons for closing and/or hiding threads that I could find in postings above - in my opinion - none of them is good nor valid. Look how this is handled "IRL".
    Simply put, closing and hiding is violence, and we should know that violence won't do good, especially in the long run. It will mostly create more violence.
    We can discuss each proposed reason if there is interest for that.

    If censoring is really needed - which mostly shouldn't be the case - I'd suggest editing posts in question, visibly marking them as censored and giving explanation, while the original content was sent to the poster for reference. But hiding threads just makes people think: "They want to hide something or even to mislead people - perhaps like companies that try to remove negative product reviews." This just creates more problems.

    I see there is a difference when trying to access a hidden thread - "You do not have permission to view this page or perform this action" and a non-existing thread - "The requested thread could not be found."
    So I think what you said is not correct.
  9. Locked threads are visible to everyone. They are not hidden in any form or way, you just have to search for them. The "You do not have permission to view this page..." message means the thread was likely deleted and/or moved to a forum you don't have access to (see Krysyy's example on the previous page), whereas "The requested thread could not be found" means it was deleted only.
    We don't have a "Hide thread" option, only lock and delete.

    To add to that, we rarely ever delete or move threads. 99% of the time we lock them.
    607 likes this.
  10. This would be the definition of "hiding (from public access)."
    SkareCboi likes this.
  11. Good point.
    Still, like I said, it's not something common for us. We mostly resort to locking.
  12. Oh, I've been back for a few months. I greatly appreciate the concern, though. If I ever see you on utopia (I'm on there rarely, only for a tree farm), I'll be sure to say hi.
    EquableHook likes this.
  13. Guys I got an amazing idea
  14. wut
    tuqueque likes this.
  15. Ban the person above you?
    nuclearbobomb likes this.
  16. I don't know, I got to that part you guys can finish the rest. It took a lot of work.
    ShelLuser and tuqueque like this.
  17. If you're going to actively participate in an discussion that matter to others; I would ask you to be taking this seriously or leave this discussion. Your responses can be taken wrongfully and I don't want to see more fights than there are.
    tuqueque, Rundercaster and ThaKloned like this.