Ruby

How can we help improve RPGuild? Community suggestions and discussion.

(read: we're trying, because you weren't passive aggressively saying we weren't before, right?)

@Buddha

As clarified earlier, I wasn't. Just the point that community involvement shouldn't be dependent on Mod/Mahz direct involvement.

I'm not satisfied with their answers so far

@Buddha

Tough, I guess. I've seen the Moderators say, "There's no delay in Moderator response to reported issues that we've seen." And then I've seen nothing significant to argue to the opposite of that. Some people say things aren't getting reported? Not sure how that weight falls on staff. It's not as if they do anything to actively discourage reporting.

If you and a few others think their job should be some kind of community coordinator on top of what it already is...okay. Good luck. I've touched on why that may not be a good idea, not that I feel like anyone's listened to me about that in this thread. Fair enough.

At this point I see a couple people pushing a narrative, talking at more than talking with. So my involvement in the thread comes to an end here.

War of the Usurper [A Game of Thrones - A Song of Ice and Fire]

Seems like we will have a very small group, is this functional for you guys?

@Inkarnate

We've done more with less in the past.

How can we help improve RPGuild? Community suggestions and discussion.

I don't think anyone has to remind him. He wants to do it, in everything I've ever seen from him on any level I've ever spoken to him. And he cares.

Tell everyone a story about Mahz and just how much he cares about the Guild:

When I was to become a Mod, we had a little talk about it in private. Pretty average chat on such a topic. What really shocked me? The only thing he REALLY wanted me to swear a bloodoath to? "Don't stop RPing. Don't let Modship make you quit RPing." He cared so much about the very core reason for the site, and about me personally not letting anything ruin that, that of ALL THE THINGS he could have asked me to swear to...that's what he picked. That's what was of supreme importance to Mahz. Probably the reason I'm still here, RPing on this site--because I promised him I wouldn't let anything ruin that.

He wants this site to be the best RPing experience it can be for everyone on the site. That's why he's created MORE RP sub-forums over the years instead of less. That's why he gave the IC/OOC/Character tabs. Tags. Even statuses and a status sidebar. I bet if he logged on right now, he could reel off a really impressive list of things he wants to get to. But the man's gotta eat, he's got life ambitions. And that's absolutely fair. This is a hobby for him, and he's given a lot more time and effort and blood/sweat/tears into it than I ever have, than any of us ever have.

So, no, I don't think any of the Mods needs to remind him like he doesn't care or just doesn't remember. And he probably doesn't need/want me saying any of this. But I've seen the guy work so hard, often thanklessly, over the years that I guess I felt I needed to say something.

How can we help improve RPGuild? Community suggestions and discussion.

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Moderator number 3 has been lurking under the radar here for some time -- just hasn't added to the conversation as of yet.

@Sherlock Holmes

I KNEW YOU WERE AROUND.

Imissyoursass.

How can we help improve RPGuild? Community suggestions and discussion.

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You didn't directly say it, that's true, but the implication came across as "we aren't trying" and are relying too much on Moderator/Mahz involvement. I sincerely apologize if I read that wrong, but the rest of my post is still valid in the sense that I personally don't think trying doesn't make much of a difference anymore.

I've heard a million times that making a Guild Discord has not done anything as many Roleplays already have their own Discords and it's not "official". I can't mark it "official" and I don't know if the current Moderators can. It's true that the community can achieve quite a lot! At the end of the day, however, we're probably going to need at least a little help from Moderators and Mahz is what I'm trying to say, I suppose.

@Cynder

We? I never said anything directed at you. How can anything I said become "we"?

That double negative confused the hell out of me. Don't think trying doesn't make much of a difference? Trying is always more positive and productive than not trying, fair as it is sometimes a person just wants to stop, take a break, and RP a bit--for whatever reason. It's the entire reason most of us are on the Guild.

You've had two Moderators, one former Moderator, and one sub-forum Moderator already chime in here. You've had a little help, here.

How can we help improve RPGuild? Community suggestions and discussion.

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Yeah. People are really angry and I'm not sure why.

Sometimes coming to the OOC sections of the site is like a meal with your abusive father. You're like: "Sooo.. I put bacon bits int he green beans" and he's like "FUCK BACON BITS" and flips the table over.

I don't know. It just seems like the amount of anger expressed is disproportionate to the inciting events. It would be unreasonable to expect people to never get angry but it seems like people get extremely angry over things that seem pretty mild. It's weird.

@Kratesis

This is nothing new to the OOC sections of the Guild.

How can we help improve RPGuild? Community suggestions and discussion.

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With all do respect Ruby (and you know that I absolutely adore you), I don't think this is very fair to say. Not only am I part of this discussion, but I helped to create it alongside of Buddha and Grimhildr. We are trying and the purpose of making these topics is in an attempt to hear what others have to say, unite the community, and try to help the website that we love. I definitely think that my contributions of creating CynderTynder, Partner Supermatch, and the RPG Discord could be considered as trying, but perhaps it's possibly true that other people don't feel this way. I honestly don't really know anymore and I'm beginning to feel a bit jaded about the Guild.

I love this website and it's my first Roleplaying forum, but I'm beginning to think that I'm only staying out of loyalty for my current Roleplay partner. I want to hear your opinion and I want to hear everyone else's as I already said, all voices are equal. I think that the Guild is stagnating and even if that isn't true, there seems to an insanely hostile/toxic atmosphere across the board.

I want to know a way to fix these matters, but I don't think saying stuff like this is a step in the right direction.

@Cynder

Where was it, exactly, that I said you didn't (weren't) trying?

My point, and a few of your own examples prove: how much can be done without Mod/Mahz direct involvement.

How can we help improve RPGuild? Community suggestions and discussion.

I'll refrain on adding onto the reason why I think you do get a reply and others don't and simply state I'm glad it has worked for you. From reading through the thread, you seem to be one of the few. Consider yourself lucky.

@Buddha

Okay.

I've definitely been around for a long time and have been since pre guildfall. I only knew moderators back then as people that did actually do stuff. Regardless of who they were, I was too busy RPing and trying to improve myself as a roleplayer to take note of who they were. Nor did I ever concern myself with it because I wasn't interested in the community, I just wanted to post my posts and go.

And I guess you'll have to forgive me for saying that the current moderators do not seem like roleplayers first, nor chatters first, they seem like 'sit on discord and do nothing all day' first. Which I know isn't their full job. But it seems like it. Which is what I've been saying a few times in this entire thread. It seems like nothing is happening. Community engagement does not come from the moderators, it comes from within the community through projects like the discord by @Cynder which you were a part of.

@Buddha

That Discord was also started with a former mod, and then had another former mod added in early on to help it along. Not current Mods, former ones. Current Mods also helped in various ways when asked. Put it a better way: people who cared about the Guild community and were active in it.

Speaking from a moderators perspective, sure, you might've paid to have this problem back then.

@Buddha

Incorrect. This was from a RPer/non-Mod perspective, as it was how I felt before I became a Mod.

But I am not speaking from a moderators perspective, and I for one am not happy about their seeming absence in light of our growing sense of lawlessness on this forum.

@Buddha

See above. Also this really doesn't seem all that lawless.

So once again. I am glad things have worked for you. I am glad you are happy with it. Not much else to add to that.

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Guess I'm glad I mostly RP, my clique problems just vanished.

<Snipped quote by Ruby>

Yes, I know. It seems like they aren't.

<Snipped quote by Ruby>

What are your suggestions on re-energizing these forums, then? Or are you of the opinion that they are very active and alive?

@Buddha

I've seen the Guild more active before. I've also seen it less active before. There's always been peaks and valleys.

Most community involvement projects will need help from moderators and preferably Mahz himself.

@Buddha

Think you'd be surprised with just how much can be done without either. But it would take actually trying.

How can we help improve RPGuild? Community suggestions and discussion.

Gotta say, I think the Mods do a great job. Any time I've had an issue, it hasn't taken long to get a response. Mahz does the best he can with what he can, I've never doubted that. I've never seen a reason to doubt that, either. Yeah he's been gone a while but the house hasn't burned down, either, and he works hard to get things moving when things go down.

Those of us who've been around a while know what happens when the Mods get very visible and very proactive--it's usually not a good thing. Some people talk about not liking how the Mods seem absent, disconnected. I would've PAID for this problem earlier in the Guild's history, when it felt like the people who were made Mods weren't really RPers first, but chatters in Spam. When it felt like the "little guy RPer" got left behind. It hasn't felt like that at all since the Guild went back up after it's fall.

I never had a clique. I just RPed. And RPed. And, somehow, someway, I became a Mod for a short amount of time. Then I became a chat moderator for a short amount of time. Now I'm just a RPer again. Seems the more time you spend outside of RP sub-forums, the bigger the "cliques" issue is for you.

Also, from personal experience, some of the Mods are more active than you think. Some of them like it that way.

I know who Rilla is. He's an awesome dad and a great writer, and he's really funny. I didn't always know him. I had to go out of my way to find out who he was, but it was worth it. Ditto Hank.

I'm glad Arena is the Arena, I'm glad NRP have their own sub-forum, I'm glad Tabletop has a spot just for them now, too. You can always debate a re-organization of the Guild, but this doesn't constitute a "problem" for the Guild in my mind. Just differences of opinion. As it is, I think Mahz is right: the way the Guild is set up is something that marks it unique.

Increased community involvement projects could do a lot of good on a few of the issues raised. I'd encourage this. Heck, depending on what it is, I might even offer help/advise.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer

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Thanks for explaining that XD We don't have any core classes here, everything in the last two years of school is elective. Which is awesome, means I never had to open a physics textbook again after 16. My character would be taking those shop classes, and one other thing that seemed like an easy option. Maybe computer studies, because when no one's looking he can just go online and look at Imgur.

If you're up for it, Emy and he could have a conversation some time about how to balance the weirdness of having unasked for supernatural powers with having a regular daylight life. Academics say that duality is the means through which humankind can understand God, but it's probably just going to piss teenagers off and make them wish things could be as simple as it is for everyone else. Even if it does mean you can throw people through windows when they annoy you.

@Blood Echoes

lol Sounds like quite the fun chat.