[indent][SUB][SUP][H3][b][COLOR=GRAY]L E T ' S   T A L K:[/COLOR]   [COLOR=SILVER][I]A   C O M M U N I T Y   D I S C U S S I O N   T H R E A D[/I][/COLOR][/b][/H3][/SUP][/SUB][/INDENT][hr][INDENT]As a community, I think the conversations found in the roleplaying discussion are very important to the Roleplaying Community as a whole particularly when discussing the evolving trends and patterns found both here and on other roleplaying websites and mediums. In my previous thread about Discord, there was one issue that kept coming up again and again;

[quote=@Hero]Toxic behavior is ubiquitous; the difference between having it in a Discord server versus an OOC is the rate at which it happens.[/quote]
[quote=@Nytem4re]The complaint of cliques on discord could have been applied to the guild long before discord was popularized/existed. It just was behind "closed doors." cliques gravitate towards each others rps and its not necessarily a completely bad thing (it is better to rp with people you know you'll mesh well with) But of course there is always the issue of inclusion/exclusion. I don't think it was any harder to "talk shit" about other users/threads with the PM system or on skype or texts or whatever. "talking shit" is going to happen organically whether discord is there or not, imo there are other venues one could reasonably do the same.

I feel discord simply made it more OPEN and obvious.[/quote]
[quote=@NuttsnBolts]As for clique warfare, it has always been around; it's just easier to link up with others who have the same view and opinion. Venture into Reddit and you'll see toxic people, venture into Twitter and you'll see toxic people, and even on Facebook where your friends have a real life name and description of their life and you will see toxic people. The issue with RPG is that too many people place this toxicity and clique warfare above their roleplaying experience to either spend the time arguing with each other and not RPing at all. This is a limited interest site with only a small selection pool of people, and all you will be doing is harming the growth and potential for players to join your RPs if you involve cliques.[/quote]
[quote=@Morose]Negatives wise, cliques are definitely a thing. It's up to the GM/server owner to enforce equal participation and opportunity. People will naturally prefer old friends over new ones, so it's up to the server owner/GM/chatroom staff to make sure that no one is being excluded or left out. You can't just hope for an inclusive environment. You need to make sure one happens. I have also found that fights break out easily on discord between players, so to counteract this I've appointed a chat moderator from one of my trusted RPers and that has been helping keep things civil whenever tensions arise (we're human, tensions will happen).[/quote]
[quote=@Dervish]One thing I've seen kill so many fucking Discords and RPs and drive players away is if toxic people are tolerated; there's places on the internet to argue politics all day (let's face it, the only people who want to talk about politics all day are the ones who are so set in their ways are the ones who will never, ever challenge their views or listen respectfully to counterpoints), and I don't see how tolerating racist, homophobic, or sexist bullshit is even a thing. I can't count the number of times I've had people come to me in private and talk about being uncomfortable or feeling unwelcome by someone because of really toxic behaviour, and those people are way better roleplayers than the toxic people almost all of the time. [/quote]
[quote=@Ruby]Discord is where a lot of clique-think meets reality, and the result is a mess. Not a surprise. 

Yeah, I can see Discord increasing the level of toxic drama, just as much as it increases convenience and functionality for GMs and RPers. Staff often finds it's a very small percentage of people that participate in the toxic drama and RP regularly. You're usually around for one, or the other, rarely both. Discord exposes people that way.[/quote]
[quote=@Odin]In all seriousness, these issues have been around forever, and imho have actually decreased a lot, lmao. Toxicity is on the down especially recently (or at least it has been in my experience. I'm sure stuff has happened behind the scenes) compared to the good old days where the Narutards thought everyone that made a Naruto RP was infringing on their copyright and should be KICKED BANNED AND DELETED FROM ORBIT for even [i]thinking[/i] about Naruto and the same goes for other vapid and mundane shit like 'uhhhhhhhh my character sheet setup got stolen' which evolved into its own whole ass drama.

If anything the topic of 'toxic' drama has become less vapid and more sincere in my eyes -- most of the things I've seen people argue about has been shit that deserves some form of speaking up about and the fact that discord allows you to directly call someone out for being a moron is pretty great. If doing so is labelled toxic then I'm not sure what isn't toxic.

EDIT: for clarification, I do think labelling everything that makes you upsetti spaghetti bolognesi as 'toxic' just because someone won't take dumb shit and calls you out is pretty immature and disregards the real issue i.e. you might just be a twat and if someone calls you a twat, that's not toxic, that's calling a spade a spade.
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[quote=@Karkinos]I’ll throw in that RP Discord groups can be uncomfortable for people with anxiety or who lean on Internet anonymity because it adds a social pressure to the roleplaying experience that wouldn’t normally be there. It can be tough when you’re expected to assimilate in a chat room with strangers of various backgrounds, experiences, and age ranges.[/quote]

Toxic Behavior.

Now I'm not looking to create world peace here, but we're talking about people who all share the same hobby and likely the same interests, or at least overlapping ones if they're applying for the same RP. So why can't we all get along? We do we lash out at one another or create memes to mock another by taking their comments out of context? Why are we so downright horrible to each other when we barely know the person behind the other screen. 

Fall outs between players, GMs etc can kill an RP quicker than any other factor. So what exactly is that creates these behaviours and how can they be stifled? What works for you as a GM/player when it comes to avoiding or negating toxicity around an RP or another player and what factors turn you off from joining an RP?

How can cliques be managed? How do we stop mob mentalities from grouping up on other players and how can new players break into the clique of a group established RP?

As always, please weigh in with your thoughts and opinions below. Let's have a civil discussion![/INDENT]