Ok hello, I have been summoned to this shitshow of a thread and I will respond however, before I get into it, I won't be posting anymore on this thread & will gladly continue any discussions on discord, either in private or a group, your choice. Everything I put here is my own personal opinion, I've not discussed this with anybody before posting.
Before getting into specific points, I want to talk about the discord itself, which has apparently become the point of contention for the majority & more specifically, what a player will see.
Upon entering the discord, this is all you can see:
In the #get-role channel, you may pick the servers/games you play & want to have access to, these are our offerings (other servers are crossed out):
(Alora is the last option cba taking another picture)
Now, let's continue on the path of an Alora player, who will then react to the Alora image at the bottom to be given the correct role. This role will allow the person to see our general (which all have access to once they react to something) & alora sections, which look like this:
Now I know what some of you are thinking in regards to this general section, so let me go into more depth. The #general chat is largely filled with people joining the server and small-talk, scrolling up for the past few days I don't see a single other server being mentioned. #Media is a mix of things such as dog pics & a bunch of other random shit. #Irl is self explanatory, as other channels such as memes, music, off topic, nsfw & anime. Somebody brought up giveaways earlier, so let's take a look shall we:
The last RSPS related giveaway in this channel was on the 27th of March, and it was an Alora one.
The Alora section doesn't require any explanations, it's purely for Alora.
The ONLY point I'm willing to concede here is the newspaper, which includes SMALL sections for each game, looking like this (leaving out other RSPS bc censorship)
If you really think we're able to persuade / advertise from 3-4 lines of copy & pasted text, then you need to have a strong hard think about your own cognitive functions.
This sums up our discord experience for those who only react to Alora. There are no @ everyone, @ here pings talking about other servers, those are done in their own sections, which a person is unable to see unless they have reacted specifically to get those perms, or are Admins. It truly disappoints me, that this can be classified as advertising, many of the accusers & people making the decisions are in our discord & others may join at any time to have a look for themselves.
To look again to the original post, there's a very clear difference in what we expose a person to, in comparison to the example given here:
'ICE used to say in the discord players had to abide with Alora rules which is no server advertising. But now that doesn’t matter because ice isn’t Alora only, which is fine. But if players can’t follow our rules, we can’t allow clans that allow other server advertising/association publicly.' - Moe . Ok, let's discuss this point, first about the rules, which as you mentioned is fine. The real thorn in this statement, is advertising/association publicly, in what way are we 'allowing other server association/advertising'? A person has to give themselves the roles in discord, to see the sections that correspond to those games. They MAY hear about it in in another channel, but be realistic here, is that really so wrong, to DISCUSS a server in passing in a clan's discord?
This rule & the reasoning behind it that I've been provided seems to imply that we continually say @Everyone hey check out X RSPS it's so much better than Alora!!!@!@!@!
From this point the post is gonna get weird because I'll be damned if I fuck up this goliath of an essay because I try to quote something.
'Either way at the end of the day if you would rather pick another server over Alora because you enjoy it more than that's on you' - 11. The rest of your post somewhat made sense but this line does not, what's on us? Is this rule on us because some of our clan don't play this game anymore? Some clarification on what you meant would be appreciated (@ discord).
@gim deathkid - are you a robot? Your response managed to convey not a single meaningful message.
@hc ashley , a few points here.
1. The rule states " Players are only allowed to publicly advertise clans on the world yell & forums, if the clan is directly related to Alora only."
This is not meant to deteriorate advertising, but only stop advertising of those "clans" it self that also promote other servers as competition.
A - We do not promote other servers, as I have, in my own eyes, proven sufficiently above. Either people play those servers or they do not, it is not our job to convince people. I will agree on the wording on the rule, but disagree with the statement itself & would rather see it repealed or reworked.
2. I can understand the frustration and why some individuals are upset about this rule, but its to create a healthy in-Alora based clan competition.
A- Ok but, why? Why does competition have to entail requirements of being Alora & Alora-only? The premise of the idea may work if the server was larger & had more variety in clan options but in practically, it does not.
3. Im sorry but "using your position of power to eliminate people from the game" are you serious? for as long as ive been playing i see no reason for any of the staff members to take such low and pitiful attempt of wanting to rid of a player base or use their powers in means to "reduce competition" between clans.
A - This is a mentality that is hard to fight, it happened to us when ICE had many staff members as well & is largely made from an us vs them mentality, something that both sides tried to fix but were unsuccessful in doing so,
4. An additional point from me, I've heard, in passing, about your interactions with one of our ex-members in regards to him convincing you to play another server by sending links or something similar. To be clear, the ICE staff team does not condone this behaviour & it happened without our knowledge. The person in question has since been demoted (although, not for this reason alone).
@Code 002 , AKA stick-insect
1. First off I would like to say the difference between an "Open" cc and a "private" cc. An open cc ANYONE can join at ANY given time. Thus allowing a more ease of access to "other" rsps (we all know games such as COD and WOW are not a part of this *potential* new rule). Do not twist my wording to your pleasure and agenda.
A - So the only actual difference here is if said CC offers other games in an outside-medium such as discord? Would like some clarification (discord).
2. Secondly, think of this from a "never played alora this is my first time" movie.
They would see the advertising of a friendly helpful OPEN cc.
They join this help clan.
They notice 300 players in the clan. (
)
Yet only a handful actually still play the game it is based off of. In my eyes I joined the clan to be a part of the community along with the game itself. If I saw talks/giveaways/events for other servers while trying to seek HELP for alora. Why wouldn't i just not play alora and go play with the rest of the community I've joined.
A- So I have shown the pathway into our discord. The clan-chat on the other-hand is a bit different, in regards to 'talks/giveaways/events for other servers' - that is addressed elsewhere in this post.
Many of us do not play Alora, that is correct. To imply we talk about other servers at all in our clan-chat is a tad bit insulting. From one of the people we've put in charge of the Alora section of our clan:
Once in a blue moon, when a higher-up /non-alora player hops in, they may say they play another server, without mentioning it. If, somehow, a name is mentioned, the player in question will immediately be warned. As an ex-staff member, that has never been a problem & never should.
3. Now onto the topic of Youtubers. If my memory serves me right YouTubers are essentially paid advertisers to an extent for the longevity of the server. (I could be wrong but doubt it) This is where the difference lies within. Where as an OPEN clan has near free reign of what's going on inside of both their Discord and Ingame CC.... ( and the rest of this paragraph).
A - I may not remember this as well as you, code, but from I know, we only took measures to delete discord links etc in Alora discord? I don't particularly remember banning/muting players for advertising discords with other content in it (apart from a few cases of RWT encouragement, I think).
4. Also in the case of Youtubers. If they advertise non alora related videos through an Alora platform ie. Discord, forums. They have had their rights as a Youtuber REVOKED and banned from said platform. Always have always will.
A - Back to my aforementioned point, is what we do, from what I have shown of our discord & what you are able to find yourself, really count as advertisement?
5. Also coming back to the "using position of power to essentially get rid of the competition " is about as tinfoil as I could possibly imagine. Like how in any way shape or form does that make sense. Besides attempting to stir the pot more than it is already. THAT seems so close minded and biased I really shouldn't even be replying to tbh but I'm irked to no end.
A- Same response as Ashley's. The other clan in question did it incessantly when the roles were reversed. Do not take this as me excusing this behaviour, I do not condone it at all however, it is the natural outcome from how things are structed & interactions have happened over time.
6. Now again, just my opinion on the matter. As it is intended to preserve the integrity of ALORA and nothing else. Any questions or concerns about MY opinion feel free to message me
A- Intentions? Sure, I agree. Unfortunately, in my opinion, these intentions have not correlated well to it's consequences. If you (the team, not individually), intended to preserve integrity, a single PM is all it would have taken between the staff team of the server & the clan for us to evaluate how to change things. This, to the best of my knowledge, did not happen. If there is no communication and you hit US (I say us, because really, it doesn't affect anybody else) with this out of the blue, you can understand the reactions you're seeing here & in other places.
7. It's nice to see alot of old faces I haven't seen ingame in over a year start popping back up again.Welcome back we've missed you.
A- Missed you too, full-homo. Wouldn't exactly say I'm back though.
@
Moe just catching your post in the last few seconds so will try to be brief.
1. What we were aiming for with the wording is as follows, a public clan (clan that is for Alora only) may advertise on the yell and forums. A private clan (clan that is for all Servers) may not advertise on the yell and forums due to association with other private servers.
A- Same thing I said on discord, what about the PK clans (PKING ON ALORA KEKW) & those that come from other servers?
2. I have screenshots of people who were being sent links/messages to join other servers. Players have also left ICE due to trying to provide them with another server to play without seeking for it.
A- Not a single staff member was ever contacted about this happening, we can't read the PMs of our members you know? I encourage anybody with said screenshots to step forward so that we can take appropriate action (although afaik, the person I mentioned in Ashley's case may have been the only one). If you're in our discord, feel free to use the #report channel or just PM a staff member (LT+).
3. Actually you can provide rules on a Discord and monitor your discord. Prior to ICE being a "open, all platform gaming" discord, players had to abide with Alora rules. (which included advertising), and players would get punished if they tried such a thing.
A - Completely agree with you here, Moe. I'm not sure what happened to our Rules section, ICE has undergone many changes as of recent and it's hard to keep up. The rules section WILL return & we will be actively punishing said behaviour.
This post has ballooned to a shit-show in it's own standing, this was not my intention, I will try to sum it up with a few bullet points.
- Our discord does not promote other servers, it is out of choice, with very few exceptions, that you are exposed to such things. (A few lines once a month, in a discord, REALLY does not warrant it being classed as advertising).
- Our clan-chat does not promote other servers.
- Clear lack of communication between the parties.
- Admittedly, our rule section seems to have disappeared & been forgotten about. It will return very shortly & will include statements to make sure advertising/link sending is punished, as it ought to have been.
LASTLY, DO NOT TAKE ACTION BEFORE COMMUNICATING, this is not an in-game punishment where a player is being banned for hacking etc, a simple line of text could & most probably would have caused this entire rule & thread to be nullified.
Thanks for reading this fucking mess, sorry for mistakes, I won't respond here anymore, pm me on discord @ Aka#1550 (I won't send links to other servers, I promise ).