I'd like to begin by saying this is not something that we are very happy about. We don't like sitting in the corner and plot getting rid of certain players from the community.
There however, are some people who have proved themselves to be more harmful than good. The community has talked to the Administration for a long time about these certain people. We too have been making our own personal opinions on how these people behave throughout their time here on Discovery.
With heavy hearts, the following players are banned indefinitely from both the gameserver, and the forums. You are more than welcome to apply to be unbanned after the standard 6 months are over with. We are not doing this without a good reason. If you look back here at your interactions between other people, maybe it'll become clear to you as well why we've been pushed to go to these extents.
We understand that some of these players might be in charge of factions on Discovery. We're extremely sorry that we must take away the head figure of your organization, if there is any way that we can assist you please don't hesitate to ask us. These people will still be around in Skype and can work out arranging a new leader.
This is a decision that has been agreed on by all of the Administration. To prove that we legitimately care and haven't made a snappy decision, each of us wrote up a little statement regarding our own personal stance regarding these actions. You can find them below.
Quote:This sort of action is not one carried out lightly and arguably should have been done earlier. Regardless of what people perceive the staff admin team has tried to be as fair as possible and given people chance after chance.
It has became apparent that this approach is doomed as there are certain mindsets that are never happy and feel it is fine to deride and bully whoever they dislike.
In a possibly pointless attempt to try and preserve the game we love and try and engender a community that is not a pit of barbed wire the following actions are being taken.
Quote:This is a sad day for Discovery, that this has to happen.
The decision was not taken lightly, but it has probably been a long time in coming.
This decision hasn't been done to appease any Group, but the large majority that come to play, talk to friends and more importantly, have fun at nobody else's expense. This majority play the Game, make mistakes, learn from them and are generally happy to play the Game without causing any drama. They don't come here to be dumped on by the so called 'Elite', who appear to feel that they are 'bomb-proof' and can do whatever they feel like. The more vocal 30 or so Players, are not The Community, please just remember that.
The people, listed above, are the ones the didn't manage to dodge the bullet, this time. There were a few that did, but be aware that, if the toxic attitude carries on, some might not be so lucky next time.Those that are still here, and you and the rest of the Community probably know who you are, take heed and clean up your act. If you want to also leave, because you feel so aggrieved about this decision, then contact the Admin Team and we can oblige.
Quote:We have tried to be nice and tolerant for a rather lennghty time now, we have turned many blind eyes and give you many chances to improve. Sadly this did not work out. Apparently you mistook being nice for not being able to act, which gave you the impression that you could just behave however you wanted as long as you did not leave grey areas the rules definitely have. This has come to that point where we do consider it to be a problem and problems have to be dealt with...
Lythrilux Wrote:We've appointed new admins before and aside from seeing a vast slew of freshly processed sanctions nothing really changes in the Staff's workflow nor does the level of organisation and efficiency improve. I feel the latest appointments won't be enough to give DiscoveryGC the ground-shaking changes it'll need in order to survive.
As you see, our workflows can change to get ground-shaking things done, so that the Mod can survive.
I will give you a little bit of information on my personal reasoning for this decision:
Lyth: You used to be an ambitious (sometimes to a slightly annoying level) guy, that wanted to create a great faction. Sadly this turned into you ignoring the people around you, just for the sake of getting said faction the perks you wanted to have for it. The way you did this was acceptable in the beginning, but has become worse since. Ever since we did not agree to a few of the changes and events you suggested your attitude has become more hostile towards us as well as other members and as it seemed even to your own faction members. It has come to that level were I dont think that you are fit to interact with the community in the way thats expected.
Meph: You are a not a bad guy, but you are a troll, even though you may not see your behaviour as a problem, it just doesnt work this way.
Impy: You have mastered the art of using the grey areas, you appear to be constantly searching for loopholes you can use just to later on lecture others about how this is wrong. This is not helpful, but harmful.
Karst: I have received PMs from players that showed me how toxic your attitude is, even though you try to portrait you as a victim really nicely. Your violation report on a decision the Rheinland government made, which you did not agree to can only be described as malicious, some if not most of the PMs I received support this view on you. I dont think that people with such attitude have a place here.
Swifty: I have talked with you not too long ago to figure out what your problem with the staff is. It turned out that you are holding the people that are doing this 'job' now responsible for things that happened 3 and more years ago, while nearly none of them even were in a staff position back then. I also dont think you really understood what I tried to explain to you.
Sorry, but this doesnt work. Your negativity wont get away regardless of what we try. Do your self the favor and do something you enjoy without bitter thoughts.
Snoopy: This one is the one that hurts me the most. You were a staff member once and I pretty much liked you for the work you did and the attitude you displayed. You stopped being a staff member and some time later you became negative and bitter. You dont seem to really play the game anymore, you just post with negativity for whatever reason. Take the advice I gave Swifty and do something you enjoy.
These last word essentially goes to all of you. I dont doubt that you can be cool people and that you have great ideas, however you just do not fit into this community well, or you do have a vastly different opinion on what this community should be than I do. Go and do something that you like, go something where you can be the way you want to be, there are likely places where that is possible, this isnt one.
Quote:I'm pretty sure there will be quite a few of you who's gonna think that a fresh staff member shouldn't be apart of a major decision such as this,but i assure you this is not something i haven't had the time to think it trough as many other members of this community. You were given plenty of chances to change this outcome and you either ignored it or didn't care of what will happen or thought will never happen,well we did..so today we put an end to this harmful behavior towards our nicer part of the community.
Quote:Our community getting lower and lower so that's why this decision wasn't that easy for all of us but still in order. After getting through the Annoucement thread, some of you may think that we are here to get all of you banned and completely destroy the Community, but that's not right. The Server is open for everyone and we welcome you to play and enjoy the little world here. But If you are here to harass and break the game of other players, then we'll that act that strict toward you. We have some members who chose that way and due to such actions and attitude of theirs, the disco might get population getting lower. That's why we had to agree on getting problematic players away from the Community. There's not much needed from you, just follow the rules and play kindly. Enjoy the game not only yourself, but let to enjoy it for others.
@"King Boo"
Quote:I know that nobody is perfect. Faction leaders, normal members of the community, and especially the Administration team.
Despite this fact, i'm sure (almost) all of us strive to take away from Discovery the very purpose that it was created for in the first place. Enjoyment. We're all here to have fun. We're an Roleplaying environment. As a whole, we all fly under a (really darn old) Space Simulator with shiny new upgrades on it. There have been countless interactions that i've seen while merely watching the servers console, as well as the many forum threads that I see here on the website which show how much people seem to enjoy playing with other people they've met in one way or another.
We like to think that we don't ask for much. There are some rules that we ask everyone to follow. Really, it all boils down to "Don't be a dick" and you'll be fine. That's always been my way of saying it at least. As i've mentioned before, nobody is perfect. Some people make mistakes, which is completely fine!
There however, are some people which really seem to cause major problems. They come up over and over again doing things that they shouldn't be doing. People complain. Some people even quit due to these individuals. These people break the rules, or walk very, very closely to the boundaries of the rules with the intent of getting away with as much as they can without getting into any trouble.
You're here to have fun. Yes. But you have to be considerate to the people around you too. Ruining someones day in order to have a spurt of your own personal amusement is completely unacceptable.
Lyth, Swifty, Impy, Mephistoles, Snoopy and Karst..
While I have my own personal thoughts on each of you, I've really gotta say that i'm a little disappointed. I know that you probably aren't bad people at heart, through the amount of problems that have been caused thanks to you all (perhaps more of an attitude problem regarding some of you, rather than throwing things at people) I can sadly say that a lot of other people are being discouraged about this place.
Seriously. I've gotten PMs from various people about things regarding a few of you guys.
I don't like resorting to this, but I really have to agree that maybe it's time you took your leave from the community.
Quote:Please players, we bear you no ill will. Please forgive us, if you can. This pains us, we came to conclusion your attitudes do not fit here.
Whatever your faults, you don't deserve to get banned in such an abrupt and unexpected way;
but sometimes before we can usher in the new,
the old must be put to rest.
Quote:This is a game where people come to enjoy themselves. If someone were to make my time significantly less enjoyable for their own pleasure then I'd be fairly annoyed. These bans are a step forward to make this community a much more enjoyable place to interact with other members. We realise this is a brutal approach but what other choice do we have? How many more warnings can you give someone? We hope we don't have to repeat this process so I personally suggest those who are walking rather fine lines to re-assess their attitude towards other members and the staff.
Quote:Something like this is never easy. Many will scoff at that, or think "well look at this Admin bias", or whatever negative thoughts come about due to this decision. You have every right. In fact, contrary to what many of you claim, we encourage people to tell us when we're wrong, encourage you to point out where we could improve. But that comes with a caveat - Don't be a dick about it. Be constructive in your criticism, not an outright troll or so negative that you have to dig through paragraphs of hostile remarks to find a solid suggestion or constructive remark.
Anyway, I don't think one staff member is happy about taking this action. We also realize that we may lose more members beyond those we banned. But to mirror what others have said, to usher in the new, you need to remove the blockers. Sadly, the aforementioned people have been more of a blocker than a helper.
To those who are no longer a part of this community:
Ask yourself, if you were a new player, and you showed interest in a rather old game with a low population, and you saw some of the posts that you have made, would you want to stay? I would be shocked if you said yes. The attitudes displayed have been ever increasing in their negativity towards the staff, the changes made, and Disco in general. If you don't like something, you make a suggestion on how to change it for the betterment of all, not just for you, and not when it's surrounding by such negativity that people just stop reading after the first sentence or two. Otherwise, why are you here? An outright negative attitude and disregard to others helps no one. It has gotten so bad that 3 admins have completely stepped down due to the community (Aerelm, Alley, and Garrett). Whether you loved them or hated them, they left because a video game is meant to be fun and a stress reliever, and Disco and specifically you folks made it more stressful and not fun. So they left. Your attitudes caused even myself to have more fun playing ARK single player than open up the forums and see such sour and negative attitudes. If myself and others took breaks because of it, how much more so will new players see that and not want to remain. Had you all remained and kept it up, YOU would've been Disco's final nail. We'd rather go out having fun, rather than the negative remarks from you all prevent others from having fun here.
To everyone else reading this:
This wasn't easy, and it may make our reputation worse with some. We'll live with that and deal with that, but know that it was with Disco's longevity and the community as a whole in mind that we made this decision. We want people to log and have fun. We want ideas to keep coming. We want people who actually care about the game and others to keep flying and playing with others. As King Boo said, all the rules, whether you agree with them or not, center around one thought - Don't be a dick. Just have fun, but not at the expense of others. If you notice something wrong, don't be a dick and come up with solutions. Even if they're not implemented, i promise you they are considered and kept in mind. Lastly, we're not perfect. Anyone who says otherwise is full of crap. But we love this game. We love this community. That's why we volunteered to help out and make it last as long as possible. If that means we have to be harsh at times, we will. But it's for all of YOU in the community that we do it. We want to have fun. We want you to have fun.