News
Search Options ►Concerns and Community
Site Update
If you like the idea of the reputation feature suggested in the comments, why not share some thoughts on it on this thread?
Hello folks, I'd like to talk about something that concerns me. There have been quite a lot of people who have mentioned the Aywas community has not felt the same and has seemed, almost... colder and ruder.
In the beginning, we all knew each other from a small handful of common sites. We recently passed 30,000 users - so we've grown a whole bunch from the original beta testers, and people from all kinds of sites have joined and made Aywas their home.
With more people, the original family feel gets diluted. I suppose that happens when you have so many people coming in. We can, however, all work together on that.
First thing is, for those of you coming from more aggressively moderated sites, you may not know that the moderators are all really, really nice people. If someone rubs you the wrong way or behaves disrespectfully to you, our staff is always here to help. We've seen a large number of these sort of reports lately and we encourage you to keep reporting. We want to help!
Second thing is, we have always required that members be mature and respectful - it's a staple of our TOS . It's kind of awkward phrasing, but I think it's still a decent description - to show respect to other members, the staff that works hard to entertain you, and the site as a whole.
This seems to be slipping. More and more, there are people who are not acting mature and/or respectful. We've seen a larger increase of individuals who express damaging and hurtful comments in public places, on and off site. This also contributes to an overall feeling of coldness and breeds pain and anger, because whether it's here or not, it still affects all of the community in the way that it infects. We encourage thoughtful feedback, but we don't tolerate bashing and mindless insults, whether here or elsewhere. That hurts our community feel, and does not represent a mature and respectful attitude.
While we want to welcome everyone, maturity and respect is necessary to keep our community thriving, and keep that family feel we all yearn for. The best way to ensure this is to report inappropriate behavior and contribute ideas, not venom and hatred.
That said, please remember that Aywas is a private website. It's one of the things that sets us apart from other ones - our ability to filter registrations. That doesn't end at the sign up page, though. We want a community full of awesome people who have fun together and are, of course, mature and respectful. Please remember to be mindful of how you treat others, the staff, and the site - everywhere. Our community does not welcome hurtful attitudes, and we as staff will step up and do our best in preserving the purpose of our filter.
Your reports are the most helpful in aiding us there - whether it's someone speaking in chatspeak or someone who acts disrespectfully toward you, site, or staff, your reports can make or break our efforts.
I think our community needs healing, but I know we can do it. :) Thanks to all for reading. Now let's do our best!
Posted by Jack
(#1) on Mon Sep 5, 2011 8:33pm
- Simply Odd
(#16535)
-
Posted on: Tue Sep 6, 2011 10:43am
I have not experienced any rudeness yet. o-o
Though I hope I haven't come off as a mean
person to anyone either.
- One Of Thirteen
(#27282)
-
Posted on: Tue Sep 6, 2011 11:08am
Hi all, I'm pretty new to this site, having been introduced to Aywas by my daughter who has been with it since (almost) the beginning. I'ts upsetting to think that a small minority could try, or even want, to spoil it for the others. I can honestly say that I've met some incredibly generous and nice people since I have been on here and am lucky to have not met anyone yet who wasn't. My daughters friends on here have helped her through a very difficult time and have been so very supportive. You all know who you are and thank you.
Thank you Slash for working to keeping this site a friendly family - your site should be an inspiration to all others!
- Pristine
(#7061)
-
Posted on: Tue Sep 6, 2011 11:30am
I am all for seeing moderation of bad behavior on the Aywas site and forums. I found Aywas through some friends on another site I frequent, Pony Island, where there is similar moderation, and it works, and PI is one of the friendliest sites on the 'net that I can think of. I don't frequent the Aywas forums, but the couple of times I've asked questions in the Help section, I've got prompt and friendly responses, so I luckily haven't seen any of this "hurtful behavior".
That being said, I don't like the tone in this post - that I think one or two others have pointed out - that behavior off-Aywas-site can be punished on Aywas. It is not the Aywas moderators' duty to be policing anything but the site itself, so on top of being a bit of an infringement on privacy, it's not a good use of moderators' time. I happen to frequent an adults-only board with some ties to Pony Island, where PI players will frequently go to rant about other players. Lots of what's said isn't nice, but as adults, sometimes we just need a place to "blow off steam"; as long as we act polite and friendly on Pony Island, everything is hunky-dory, and I hope it would be a similar way for Aywas.
I can definitely support the want to have a friendly community, though, and I appreciate all of the work the administrators and moderators do to this end. A site that moderates bad behavior is a rare "site" to see (pun intended), but they're about the only ones I end up frequenting, and I think Aywas has been doing a great job and will continue to do a great job. :)
- OKami_hu
(#23130)
-
Posted on: Tue Sep 6, 2011 11:42am
I don't really consider myself a member of the community - I'm here for the site features. That does involve trying to weasel out cash from the other members, but that's beside the point; main thing is, I have no idea how bad the situation got, so I can't form an opinion. The idea of a "like" feature irks me though, because I joined Aywas, and not Facebook. As for the site itself... Well, I do have my grudges, and sometimes I do voice my displeasure, but since I'm still here, it means I was vague enough (or nobody read my comments =D).
- moonsoul
(#22561)
-
Posted on: Tue Sep 6, 2011 1:50pm
From what I've observed from the months of being a member here, I've seen complaints about rude behavior, but I've never seen the rude behavior in the first place. Perhaps that's because the situations are dealt with so swiftly that the inappropriate behavior vanishes, but part of me wonders if it was ever there to begin with.
This is a rocky road to travel. Of course, you don't want to let obnoxiously rude behavior run ramped on the site, but you don't want to have to discipline every little thing that happens. Some people are naturally harsh in the way they speak without intending to offend the other person.
As an example, imagine that someone put a lot of effort into making an alternate Melo lineart, and the first comment they receive is,
"Your Melo looks kind of pudgy."
All of that work, and that's the reply they get. They get offended, and report it. I don't think that's something that should be punished, or even talked verbally with either party. To me, that kind of comment is an inarticulate version of someone criticizing it from an artist point of view. If their goal was to the hurt the person's feelings, they certainly would have gone much further than that.
I have no objections for punishing behavior that only serves to ruffle peoples feathers. However, I think there should be caution not to go overboard and scolding behavior that has no intention on hurting anyone. It's great that everyone is concerned that the site is a friendly environment. It's still hard to grasp the concept of venom and hatred going around when I've been browsing the forums for months and have seen no instances though. :P
- Verd 🍬🍬🍬
(#7493)
-
Posted on: Tue Sep 6, 2011 6:16pm
We are Bur + Collie and we approve this message :)
- Kayte[MOVING #9602]
(#23585)
-
Posted on: Wed Sep 7, 2011 2:29pm
I may not have been here long, however, the way you and the staff treat the members as well as most other members kindness helped me feel welcome and like part of the family. I hope that the problem users can learn to act better though. Unlike most sites, this one has a strong connection between users and staff, which I like. On most sites, you have no idea who the staff even are, but on here, its easy to get to know the staff right away, and I really do like that.
- Naru
(#3478)
-
Posted on: Thu Sep 8, 2011 1:15pm
Personally, Felisfire is my home. XD I rarely actually come on here anymore. But I can relate to the change in the attitude on the forums; I remember the times I was a newcomer, and making a rant about a mutant I didn't win in the auctions, and that the person who won it was selling it again for a higher price. Then everyone went over to the sales thread and started ganging up on the person reselling it and saying how there were people bidding who actually wanted the pet and how /they/ wouldn't sell it on, and how reselling was "uncool". XD Those were the good days.
But about a month ago I remember reading the rants and see where I could offer advice or comforting words, and I saw a few... comments pointing out how the person ranting is wrong, or asking really personal questions or just being negative in general. My Naruface has that after happening to her a few times now, and it doesn't really feel good, yknow?
.... Okay I should shut up shouldn't I. Tl;dr: Good to know things are getting taken care of.
-b
- Bri&Nikkidee=AFK
(#268)
-
Posted on: Thu Sep 8, 2011 3:33pm
"But about a month ago I remember reading the rants and see where I could offer advice or comforting words, and I saw a few... comments pointing out how the person ranting is wrong, or asking really personal questions or just being negative in general." Thisssss. I mean... I can understand people being upset with a rant...but some of the time people are just downright nasty when it comes to it. |: You can definitely disagree with someone on their rant without being rude or butthurt or anything (Or obviously passive aggressive). I think that's the only REAL problem I have with our community though, I've not really seen any blatant rudeness toward newer members (though there used to be a bit a few months back) and I think most of the tension is just people like me being very concerned about the economy. There are a lot more people on aywas now, so it's just alarming when people start to have less and less of a need for a lot of GP for breeding or anything, because then that's just money that's not going toward the site. D: So of course there's that whole mentality that most of the older users have where they want to fix it, and they WANT prices to be raised, and they don't want to see people whining about it, and then there's the other side with the people who just simply have no idea about it and see it as the older users being rude or just wanting to ruin it for them or something or they see it as the users just trying to be "elitist" and keep the wealth to themselves or something. ---------- fff I'mma stop derailing now. ANYWAY I just hope that things can be fixed right...and our community can grow stronger, even though we're growing much larger. <3 -Brianna
Posted on: Tue Sep 6, 2011 10:03am
That is a good speech! YAY! totally agree! =D