Telanir

I would like this highlighted. Development on the mega-scale (i.e. magic, professions, crafting) begins when developers have a rough combination of a supernova of personal motivation; several months supply of free-time™; active community interest & appreciation; appropriate skill-set and expertise; and staff support. Requirements which are rarely met, and cannot be forced or ignored. Negative reinforcement or complaint butchers not the developers, but their motivation to do anything new or big. My most well-received work as a developer occurs following a message of appreciation or thanks. Often it is from people who I don't know, who are new and are not yet filled in on the behaviour ingrained towards developers here. A cycle of bad communication or poor performance ends never with a topic about how pathetic or useless is the team in question.

It was unusual. We hold no grudges nor hard feelings with Tom. We enjoyed his partnership and wouldn't seek to ban him anyways. His content is available right now as it should be and his account has no restrictions.

His ban situation was exceptional. Many of us were not aware it occurred, primarily because it was a self-ban, and self-bans have no established process. Don't request them.

The poland account will be unbanned on the conditions that the prior behaviour is not seen again.

This ban is not appealable. Refer to the conditions/terms of the last pardon you received.

The FM team will be consulted shortly to clean this thread from any irrelevant discussion, please stay on topic. I believe the content matter has been exhausted though I will not yet lock the thread. Edit: Hi guys, LadyRebecca here. I went through this and hid any sidetracked conversation as well as offhanded insults or compliments. If it's hidden, it's just to keep the thread tidy for the Admins to read through. But any and all of your feedback was noted.

I will bring up the Nation Leader policy for further debate within the administration. In addition, the LT is currently missing a formal director which I intended to address long ago. We will be developing a path to aid their workflow in ways that don’t hamper their work but keep a line of communication with the admin team, hopefully then we can resolve this as well. We do recognize that some of our staff has not yet fully developed or matured. With that said, time mends these issues and we tend to reconsider prior bans/blacklists even marked as permanent. Still, a staff member who has a bad episode must still be punished—we cannot easily excuse lapse of judgement. At the end of the day, their hand was not forced and the decision was theirs to make. Thank you for your civility, we do appreciate it.

Hello Leo, I have read through your feedback and I hope, in this reply, to answer your concerns sincerely. I would like to begin by making the distinction between the duties, domain, and responsibilities of the Administration and the Game Team management. While I am not in a position to answer your concerns in this thread regarding the Game Team or its management on their behalf, I will be covering the rest of your worries. General team/management wipes are an option available to their respective directors should they feel the action is appropriate, these are not admin prerogative. The administration bears responsibility for the state of our staff in a broad sense, however, the complaints directed to a specific team in this thread (Game Team) are best suited to their management. Reporting Staff Conduct Before I continue, I would like to highlight an important concept. Violations of staff protocol will almost always (though minor offenses are typically forgiven) lead to some form of punishment as determined appropriate for the behavior. This includes toxicity, inefficiency/incompetence, and overt bias which are mentioned in this thread. Without documentation we cannot know of infractions and therefore cannot handle them, in the event that you witness a breach of staff protocol please submit an anonymous staff report, we take these very seriously. Advanced Permission Users & Nation Leadership Exclusion We have taken measures to curb the possibilities & temptation for abuse of high permission roles. It is in the interest of an NL to use all resources available to them in order to find and cultivate advantages for their nation above others. This is why we have made the two mutually exclusive, as it had been in the past. We cannot stop what you described as the human nature of bias, but, we can take certain precautions so that the abuse is more difficult. We are aware that it may so happen that we miss out on good talent, but that is the nature of the situation, oftentimes NL’s are made of the same stuff staff is. They may contribute by all means in positions of non-advanced permissions or switch roles. Additionally, though not our prime concern, the demanding nature of both leading a nation and holding intensive staff positions has historically provoked the stress and high tensions that brought out the worst from otherwise capable staff. Overuse of Staff Blacklists I can assure you that staff blacklists are not abundant in nature. Each blacklist bears grounds in non-minor violation of staff protocol (which may range from malpractice, incompetence, to severe unprofessionalism). We do not naïvely invoke nor enforce them without understanding the consequences. Secondly, blacklists are negotiable by those made blacklisted, and, furthermore, are challengeable by the team director given that a fair case is made. Finally, we do not share the stance that a player incompetent in our staff should also be banned for it. Not all are capable of handling themselves on our staff, and yet still they can make good contributions as players. Admin Overreach Both you and Grim brought up the points of administrative overreach. However, at the same time, we are brought before you as responsible for the state of our staff, the performance of our server, and the wellbeing of our community. We do in fact believe that it is our core duty to you the community: that the staff maintains a cohesive and unified direction for our server and community. What good would we be, and what progress would even be possible, if each team was their own chef and pulled the server in contradictory directions? For that reason, we ensure that our staff is covered under a body of similar visions. Despite this, we have been stepping out of micromanaging the teams and their individual members and rather made use of our existing hierarchy. Directors are responsible for the performance of their team, their well-being, community feedback regarding their duties, and etc. For this they have a great degree of autonomy regarding their team so long as they adhere to certain general principles and occasional guidance from the Administration. By and large, the Administration does not meddle in the specific undergoings of our teams and neither do we have the personal resources to do so. One thing we do demand. We require that major server-affecting decisions are passed by the administration for review. No one administrator may make the final judgment, and all of the administration must vote on the topic. This way we ensure sufficient time passes that heated/emotionally-fuelled, complex, or controversial decisions are given the proper scrutiny before passing. Management Autonomy Team directors are able to both apply and revoke blacklists to members from their team at their own discretion. They cannot influence staff-general blacklists, though they do possess strong negotiating power when facing admin-authority blacklists that regard their team specifically. A director that strongly wishes a members promotion with due cause will almost always be heeded. Rings of Staff Members of our staff who are neither directors nor a part of management still represent the face of our staff; our values, goals, and integrity. We value the contributions of each of our staff teams and hold it to be that each director has equal consultation and authority—especially regarding their team. When we declare that those with advanced permissions must adhere to certain policies we do so as to be pragmatic, and not to assess certain teams as high or low ring/tier. We will be setting a high priority to take concrete steps for increased transparency and communication as a staff in the close future. Thank you, Telanir @ LotC Administration

Amendment - Forum Rules No needlessly discriminatory or abusive material may be posted at any time, regardless of who it’s aimed at. We’re all here to have fun, and attacking people isn’t alright. Pre-revision: Hide contents No racist or abusive material may be posted at any time, regardless of who it’s aimed at. We’re all here to have fun, and attacking people isn’t alright. Removal - Forum Rules Do not make a post just to correct other people. That’s not polite, and is simply unneeded. Explanation: Hide contents The rule is non-trivially ambiguous and needed either further clarification or removal. There are cases when certain players absolutely deserve some correction and the corrections are relevant to the topic at hand. Amendment - Forum Rules Criticism must be made in a constructive manner. Make an effort to remain mature and uphold the good nature of each discussion; we do not tolerate toxic or deceitful behaviour and especially not any attempts to belittle others. Pre-revision: Hide contents Criticism is helpful and helps us try to create a server that everyone can enjoy. If you have criticism, regardless of whether it’s for the staff or other players, make sure it’s given in a constructive way. Furthermore, if you disagree with what a player or staff member is saying, you should remain mature when expressing it. Attempts to belittle players or acting with an overall destructive manner will not be tolerated. Amendment - Forum Rules "I didn't know the rules!" is not an acceptable excuse, it is your responsibility to know the rules well! Do not try to misinterpret or skirt the rules in poor spirit, as disruptive or deceitful behaviour will be punished appropriately. If you are unsure about any of these rules—don't take the risk—but do ask; our Forum Moderators are more than happy to help you! Pre-revision: Hide contents And remember, ignorance is no excuse. The use of “I didn’t know the rules” will not be accepted. If you don’t make yourself familiar with the rules, it’s your own fault if you break them. Especially since we have Forum Moderators and GMs happy to help when you don’t understand something. Amendment - Forum Rules We are an English speaking community and, as such, your posts must be in English so that we keep it easy for everyone to read and understand. Appropriate IC languages may be used in the roleplay section, however “txt l1k3 dis” is not acceptable and WRITING IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS can be constituted as flaming if not done in a RP context. Pre-revision: Hide contents Please write in English on the forums, to keep it easy for everyone to read and understand. Appropriate IC languages may be used in the roleplay section, however “txt l1k3 dis” is not acceptable and WRITING IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS can be constituted as flaming if not done in a RP context.

Hi Charles_The_Bald, This appeal has been reviewed. Verdict: This appeal is denied. Your behaviour has not noticeably improved since your last ban. (take a close look at your message histories). Your last unban was directly predicated on the first infringement of our rules resulting in an unconditional permanent ban. Thank you, Telanir @ LotC Administration

VIP level reverted and account restriction lifted. DontEverAsk remains banned.

Though it has been several years, I find that the original reasons to officially cancel the development of this project still apply. Unfortunately, I cannot see us creating a magic plugin that would satisfy the community by and large. Negotiations starring "private magic", lore incompatibilities, and the staggering quantity of conflicting demands. Many people have stubborn convictions on their ideal implementation of a magic plugin—so while we can all agree that a magic plugin might be beneficial on paper, in practice, we have been forced to scrap nearly a dozen designs, for some of which development was completed. At some point you must put the foot down; the magic plugin is a bottomless pit of expended motivation and lost productivity. I regret to declare, it is not happening.

Hi Talavok, I have reviewed your case and the following applies effective immediately: Count of Rape roleplay is dropped, any further sexually inappropriate or uncomfortable roleplay reported will incur not an indefinite, but a permanent ban. Count of initiating chargeback remains. This ban solely negotiable via communications with Tythus LTD. Traditional ban appeals may not repeal this. Further correspondence may be initiated at [email protected] Account will remain banned. Any instances of ban evading will result in a ban extension of a minimum of 3 months. You no longer have any cases to appeal. Thank you, Telanir @ LotC Administration