[ SECRET POST #142 ]

[grayout.livejournal.com]

⌈ Secret Post #142 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 05 pages, 120 secrets from Secret Submission Post #021.
Secrets Not Posted: 0 broken links, 0 not!secrets, 0 not!fandom.
Next Secret Post: Tomorrow, Monday, May 28th, 2007.
Current Secret Submission Post: Here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[sevendials.livejournal.com]

I can understand that. It's worrying how many people don't actually think of the implications of what they write. In my experience, blanket statements are something you've gotta be very careful with...

Also, if the first comment I made came across as accusing you all of arrogance just for playing ACAW - well, ack, mea culpa, and I apologize for that. There's no excuse for that kind of statement, and if I came across as thinking that I'm sorry. Still, I can only go by what I've seen on this comm, and I have been a little - well, worried? by the way some of the ACAW players react to criticism of just about anything to do with the game. It sometimes (though not always) seems like a serious discussion is off-limits, because of the tendency some players have to dogpile the game's critics.

While a little passion in players is certainly not a bad thing, it's not healthy to stifle criticism or try and keep it all under wraps. The problem is, a lot of people have the natural instinct to act like everything's peachy in front of authority figures (and a mod is an authority figure, even if they themselves choose not to act like one) and restrict their complaining to private conversations, or keep things general because they don't want to hurt a specific person's feelings (and so end up obliquely insulting everybody). That said, if people keep dogpiling anyone who criticizes the game, it seems to me like the problem's just gonna get worse, because people are going to get worried to say anything for fear of the reaction...

This has happened in just about every RP I've ever been in. It's sometimes easier to pretend a problem is general than to specifically target a certain player or group. (In the last RP I was in, damn near everyone had a problem with the way one player was handling her character, but it took a lot of nerve to even admit to each other that we had a problem, never mind to tell the mod.) I know it's not good behavior, but a lot of people shy away from confrontation and would rather just unconstructively bitch. Humans, eh?

[grayout.livejournal.com]

I don't really see anybody dogpiling -- I mean, sure, they're all going to have their say but... really, the smart thing to do would be to AVOID the dogpiling by contacting a mod privately through AIM or something to tell them what's wrong. I just do not see the logic of all this here and auugh, it's just annoying for -everybody-. Well except maybe the secret poster. ):

Bah, humans. Robots > all.

[sevendials.livejournal.com]

... yeah, I think this is the crux of the issue. The logical thing to do would be to contact a mod and hash this out privately. People, however, are not logical. In fact, a goodly amount of the time people are just plain dumb. (Plus, some of them would rather just complain and get it off their chest and move on than actually do anything about it.) It might also be that the person in question was just after venting: sometimes all that anyone really needs to do about an issue is blow off steam and that's it, problem over. Perhaps doing it here wasn't the smartest idea but - yeah, it's all coming down to 'People are Stupid' again.

Maybe a mod post is in order. With the mods' screen names written in big scrolling sparkly letters so nobody can miss them or imagine you're trying to hide from them. I can understand it's frustrating to try and be accessible and still see people complaining in .png images of 800 by 800 pixels or less... Hm, maybe if you were to set up a free journal called something like 'acaw_feedback', posted like, one entry in the same way you do for secret submissions here - though the replies would probably have to be left visible - and allowed anonymous commenting, if people would perhaps be a bit more forthcoming with their problems? That could allow them a way to make their issues heard without necessarily feeling they had to attach a player name to their problems.

I can't be any more specific about what their problems are, mind, since my own issues are a horse of a completely different color, small-scale, and also largely resolved.

[grayout.livejournal.com]

I've tried that, even kinda made chat rooms inviting everybody to voice ANY opinion or suggestion they had about ACAW good OR bad. Nothing worked. Trust me, we've like gone out of our way to TRY and contact these people but...

(lolol randomly, if you read any of the comment spams by the ACAW players here it's seriously just them yelling PENIS PENIS PENIS at each other gaehtjkgahekjtgaet ... or that's what it turns into, anyway. we're kind of all crackheads)

http://stoptazmo.com/death_note/ ?

[sevendials.livejournal.com]

In which case I'm guessing that - well, maybe people just like to complain? (Not a very helpful idea, that.) Either that or they're deliberately trying to stir wank, and if that's the case I'm gonna forget trying to see things their way. If I agree with them then eh, whatever, but forget defending them. I do not like trolls, largely because well, if they don't like something that's fine, nobody says they have to, but why does it matter if someone else does?

(This is probably a hangover from being in a less-popular fandom a lot of people only seem to be able to admit to enjoying if they label it a guilty pleasure... ah well.)

Also, don't worry about being a crackhead. I think we all have moments like that; I'll just know to ignore the spam in future. Not like I have to look if I don't want to. And I still think your RP's premise is absolutely made of love, and the idea of having three separate communities to (theoretically, though plenty of people seem to play characters on both sides) keep the factions separate and allow for proper plotting strikes me as absolutely - well, why don't more RPs think of taking advantage of that? That's a great way round the old problem of characters knowing things they shouldn't.

Thanks for the link, by the way! I'll have to run through them sometime when it's not two in the morning...