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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
- Guitarlos
(#6879)
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Posted on: Mon Sep 5, 2011 9:12pm
As long as that wouldn't be too hard to fix, then I'm all for it. :) And Krill, people could always lie. If they were harming the reputation of another user for reasons like that I doubt they'd have an issue with lying about their reasoning. But having abusing the feature be a banable offense would hopefully help.
- Jay & Micah
(#4366)
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Posted on: Mon Sep 5, 2011 9:13pm
Taxel, I'm just saying. If its an outright lie, the user being down-rated could always be like "Now wait a minute..." And report it to a mod or something. ~ Krill
- Mikhail
(#23932)
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Posted on: Mon Sep 5, 2011 9:14pm
@Krill - Yeah, I like that idea. It would make it easier and reduce the possibilities of it being abused.
Anyway, i think Aywas is a great site. There are a few users, but not that many, so it's more like a nice little...Town? Community, I guess? Either way, I haven't come across any rude users yet, so there can't be that many out there.
- LexAmacantha
(#29108)
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Posted on: Mon Sep 5, 2011 9:14pm
This addresses my feelings about most webpages I join. Places like Deviantart that are cooperate run and have hundreds of thousands of members have a distinctive "awesome artist" and "bad artist" classes. It's just a natural thing; the more people you have in a community, there will be less of a communal feeling and more "crime." I've seen modest sites that have had the same thing occur. It's just what happens. It is good that you realize that this is a relevant issue and that you have addressed it, but there isn't much you can do to prevent this shift.
Thank you again for addressing the issue, though. Members will be reassured in their good admins and moderators.
- NightWolf714
(#26967)
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Posted on: Mon Sep 5, 2011 9:15pm
One thing that could be considered is what Stack Exchange and a couple of other sites do. There, you have to be active for a bit and get reputation yourself before you can start giving rep to other people.
- Lunch & Obi
(#2021)
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Posted on: Mon Sep 5, 2011 9:16pm
Thank you for this. It's funny though. I'm a pretty seasoned player (not like most of you, of course), but I barely get on like...the site chat (I'm kinda terrified of it.) and just kinda lurk in the forums, only making threads for selling, buying, and ranting about stuff that's going on in rl. I actually have this fear of people hating me for any reason. And it's really difficult to try to get to know people offline and online for me. I mean, with the Scav Hunt and any event like that, I'm always willing to participate and join in. I'm never really rude to anybody on here. I always try to be nice and hope the person I'm talking to on here treats me like I treat them. I don't know. Getting to know people takes some time for me. o_o But, thank you for stating this. I didn't know that so many reports were being brought to your attention like this. It is kinda sad.
- Daisy
(#21884)
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Posted on: Mon Sep 5, 2011 9:16pm
Hmm, is being rude and disrespectful something ban punishable? Wispy
- Jack
(#1)
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Posted on: Mon Sep 5, 2011 9:17pm
It's something reminder, warning, then ban punishable, Wispy....everything is in stages, and sometimes good people have bad days.
- Kirema
(#264)
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Posted on: Mon Sep 5, 2011 9:17pm
Aywas is still the best community I have experienced online. I love the petsite feel yet being a mature site at the same time. +like
Posted on: Mon Sep 5, 2011 9:12pm
As long as that wouldn't be too hard to fix, then I'm all for it. :) And Krill, people could always lie. If they were harming the reputation of another user for reasons like that I doubt they'd have an issue with lying about their reasoning. But having abusing the feature be a banable offense would hopefully help.