bumblefina

yes

finally

“(violent revolutions, genocide, eliminating age of consent laws, executing heretics, etc.)” literally all things that have/do happen in character on the server. Why do we have to ignore these sorts of things and avoid the discussion on them in regards to the REAL world, but allow them to occur in game? I’d say that these all easily fall under mature themes as well. “If we allow political debate, we get into the dangerous territory of forum moderators deciding the Overton Window for legitimate discussion.” The server has been up since 2011. In all that time, this sort of political debate has been allowed. It didn’t manage to rip itself apart or burn down in all that time. Why should we ban it now? The purpose of the thread is to highlight the lack of planning and forethought that Telanir’s new policy has. The points I make in my post are clearly my personal opinion on the matter, but I wanted to draw to light the ramifications a vaguely worded policy like that can have. I’m very aware that using #FreeHongKong doesn’t actually DO anything. It’s a form of protest against this policy, one that I disagree with to my very core. Trust me when I say that I feel completely helpless when it comes to Hong Kong, as well as many other issues around the world. That doesn’t mean I shouldn’t voice my opinion and spread awareness of the situation.

Hello! My name is Shannon. I’ve been on LotC for several years now, and have been mildly vocal over those years in regards to different subjects of debate. I usually try to keep my commentary short and concise because I personally struggle to get through really long posts. However, this particular subject is one I’m especially passionate about and this post will probably get a bit long winded at times, but I will do my best to stay focused. I’m going to be posing a lot of questions that, while I may have a personal answer for, I want the reader to ask themselves. Feel free to respond to the post with your personal answers and opinions. Anyway, let’s start with a basic definition! Censorship and Deplatforming Censorship is a concept that most of us learn about in secondary school. We read books like 1984 by George Orwell or Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, which are typically among the required reading for high school students in the United States. Luckily, many of us do not experience real world censorship in our day to day, as most of us are living in first world countries with constitutions that protect our basic human rights. However, most of us are aware that censorship is alive and well in many parts of the world where people are being suppressed by their governments in an effort to control them. The Internet, as we all know, is not controlled by any one government, and while some countries can choose to shut the service off, they cannot control it. This opens up the question: Are people granted rights on the internet? Do we have a right to free speech on the Internet? The short answer, from a legislative perspective, is no. The Internet, and websites like this one, are not subject to upholding our personal basic right to freedom of speech. That brings us to a concept called Deplatforming.[1] “Deplatforming, also known as no-platforming, is a form of political activism or prior restraint by an individual, group, or organization with the goal of shutting down controversial speakers or speech, or denying them access to a venue in which to express their opinion.” Do the users of Lord of the Craft come to the forum specifically to discuss political or controversial topics? No, not typically. Does that mean that the rule doesn’t deplatform us as users? In my personal opinion, I believe it still does. In effect, we are being denied the ability to freely discuss our opinions on specific subject matter. From my own subjective moral standpoint, this is wrong. Let’s look at why censorship and deplatforming are a problem. I’m going to try and avoid generalizing and speaking about it on a global level, because my goal is to focus on it’s effects here on LotC. Most users of Lord of the Craft are between the ages of 16 and 26. The human mind stops maturing at age 25.[2] In our most formative years, we have decided to spend a great deal of time roleplaying in a fantasy medieval world. I’ll go out on a limb and say that it’s because a few of us are in fact trying to find a temporary escape from the real world, and there is nothing wrong with that. Using a social platform as a coping mechanism is okay, to an extent. However, we have to look at where coping becomes seclusion. Avoiding problems for extended periods of time will not magically solve them. Everyone has to learn this at some point in their lives, and I have certainly learned that lesson while trying to run from my own by submerging myself into the LotC world. That being said, I do not believe that people come onto the server to cope with or specifically avoid matters that are controversial or political. In fact, I think it’s incredibly important for the users of LotC to be exposed to matters that are political and controversial in nature. I do not believe we can grow and mature as a people and as a community by ignoring the real facts of the world. To become a well rounded and mature individual, I believe one must be willing to expose their minds to other thought processes and opinions, and in the modern information age, here on the internet, we have such an incredible opportunity to do so. Unlike our parents, and their parents before them, we have an incredible ease of access to people our age from all around the globe who each have been raised in different environments and have varying beliefs and opinions. It’s with the access to these various streams of thought that we as young adults can grow and progress. The world is, of course, a very harsh and horrible place. It will continue to stay that way as long as we bury our heads in the sand and act like nothing is happening, refusing to expose our minds to the greater reality. Political Debate Political debate is something most of us are exposed to in some regard almost every day. Whether it’s the news feed on your phone, your Youtube homepage recommendations, or a television program, all of us are regularly exposed to the current ongoings in the world. It’s a regular segment on news channels to host people, be them experts or otherwise, to attend their shows and debate a current matter. We’ve all seen clips of these debates become heated as one or both sides become impassioned about the subject. It’s perfectly normal and has been happening for as long as humans have been able to speak to one another. We’re volatile creatures by nature, a violent species with a strong will. Many of us are quite stubborn. Does this make these debates useless? Are people simply wasting their breath and energy by debating these subjects? Personally, I strongly believe they are not. Politics touches every part of our lives, every part of our world. Even people who actively avoid politics are still touched by them because of lawmaking and their governments enforcing various policies. So, is it healthy to avoid the debate entirely because it might upset us? At some point, all of us will get into an argument or heated discussion about something political in nature. It’s a fact of life. But just because it’s inevitable and often times uncomfortable doesn’t mean it’s bad for us. Tracing back to the point about such debate being healthy for us, we also have to continue to argue and discuss to learn the boundaries by which we should operate. By experiencing hurt, be it physical, verbal, or emotional, we are taught the boundaries at which these things affect us and others around us. Someone who experiences that sort of hurt can then use the experience to understand the gravity of which that feeling affects a person. Conflict is not inherently bad. It can be used for mental and emotional growth of a person. Of course, it won’t always happen that way. Some people won’t grow from it, but that’s simply another lesson to be learned. Depriving people of that opportunity doesn’t help anyone. Depriving people of the exposure to different or opposing beliefs will not be beneficial to anyone. The Moral Consequences As previously mentioned, the owners and rule makers of LotC and it’s forums have no legal responsibility to uphold freedom of speech on their platform. However, we can ask the question, do they have a moral responsibility to uphold freedom of speech as a basic human right on their platform? Morality is broad and everyone in the community is at their own unique place on the moral spectrum. I believe though that we have a baseline of modern morals, ones that are defined by the United Nations as basic human rights. One of the rights as defined by the UN is the freedom of expression. This includes freedom of speech, of the press, of association, of assembly and petition.[3] Can we say that, by denying one of the basic rights that the United Nations deems as universal, that LotC’s rule is morally corrupt? I know it sounds extreme, referencing the United Nations in regards to a minecraft roleplaying server, but the reason I do it is because the right exists for a reason. No matter the country or the platform, these rights are meant to be universal. Given to all people, no matter what. To deny that right, to deny that freedom because you want the users of this platform to argue less, is not a proper solution. The Line of Controversy In addition to a ban on any form of political speech, Telanir has banned any discussion of the vaguely termed ‘controversial’ subject matter. The problem here is that one's definition of what is and is not controversial will vary in degrees both small and large. My 80 year old grandfather believes global warming isn’t real. Does that mean that because he defines it as a controversial topic, it’s discussion should be banned? LGBT people are denied their basic rights all around the world, but will I not be able to discuss my own sexual orientation because I myself am LGBT? Who I am at my core is considered controversial by many, many people around the world. Will I be unable to discuss it? What about our transgender community members? Are they no longer allowed to discuss who they are? You have to see how shakey the platform that you are trying to prop this rule up on is. At what point will the community decide they are not able to be themselves within LotC? The Blur between OOC and IC Despite the rule mentioning that it applies to OOC lines of communication, there is a significant blur between what happens in character and out of character, both on a personal and political level. Misogyny, homophobia, racism, and classism are all a regular part of day to day interactions for many people in the world of LotC. Why should we, as a community, be unable to discuss this and it’s real world ramifications, and yet be subjected to it in character? If LotC is the world we escape into to avoid these real world problems, then why are they allowed to occur in character? I am by no means saying that you should now go and ban all those things in character. Hell, you’d lose half the player base because of those things alone. The political and moral mirror to the real world in game is highly present in a vast majority of interactions on the server. Where do we plan to draw the line about discussion? If I speak about my characters struggles with sexism and homophobia in character, will I simply be expected to stay silent on any real world experiences I’ve had in regards to that? We have to look deeply into this rule and understand that there are certain aspects, political, controversial, and of a mature nature, that occur both in the real world and in our roleplay world. Mature Content and the LotC Experience In addition to the discussion about the lines between OOC and IC, we find ourselves at the subject of ‘mature themes’ on LotC. As it has been mentioned and as many people are aware, content that would most definitely be considered ‘mature’ is daily and commonplace on the server. Decapitations, murder, mutilation, and torture are all a part of life for our characters. I wonder if this rule about OOC discussion is a step towards the disallowment of these sorts of actions in character as well. Actions, that quite frankly, go hand in hand with medieval environments. I do not think the server would be as enjoyable or dynamic without these sorts of evils present in the in character world. I believe that by vaguely stating that ‘mature themes’ should not be discussed, there has been a serious wrench thrown into the discussion about it in regards to in character matters. The Judges The next point I come to is the discussion about who the judges are and how to decide what is and is not rule breaking. All of the staff are volunteers, as we know, and I would hazard a guess that all of the GMs are under the age of 25. There has long been the concern of staff using rules to their own advantage, and whether or not we want to believe it, it has happened in the past and is liable to happen again. We are flawed and volatile creatures, as much as we may hate to admit it, and I can only see this rule being abused by those who are not trustworthy with the power this gives them. Target bans have been made even easier to give out with this, by deeming anything even remotely controversial or political as rule breaking. I want to be clear that I do not think the vast majority of staff would abuse this rule, but it certainly opens up a door for those who would. The fact is that controversy is subjective, and when you add in something subjective as a law/rule, the judge inherently is unable to be objective. Defining Inflammatory Discussion Quite frankly, I do not have any solutions to this matter. It’s not really my job to have a solution. But I do think that this rule was poorly thought out, poorly planned, and will be poorly executed. I believe that this rule has the opportunity to be much more highly defined and fine tuned to fit what Telanir is trying to go for, which is a space where people cannot harass others with derogatory or otherwise harmful discussion. That much, I agree with. But the manner in which this has been presented and thus far upheld to the community is laughable. I do believe that with proper planning and thought, the staff CAN define what is inflammatory discussion, and prohibit that sort of behavior on the LotC medium. I do not think that an extremely vague and broad rule is any kind of proper means to solve the problem that Telanir sees in the community. The Human Resources Approach Expanding on that, I believe that what we are seeing is a prime example of Telanir’s almost complete disconnect from the server and the communities mentality and ideals. Telanir seems to me to be treating the server as a PR project, a campaign or corporation in which he must soften all the edges in order to avoid controversy. The long winded and largely meaningless blog posts we receive from him only serve to highlight his inability to understand the wants and needs of the server. By using sweeping actions, he ineffectively finds solutions to otherwise specifically solvable problems. The TL;DR Outright banning discussion about political, controversial, and mature themes is morally questionable, not productive for the growth of the community, extremely hard to define, and ineffective. Telanir did not put enough thought or planning into this wide armed rule, and the server will suffer for it. If you made it through all of that ranting, I thank you for your time to read. As I mentioned at the start, this is a subject that I am extremely passionate about, and I will not stop discussing and fighting back against this policy until something is done about it. #FreeHongKong. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deplatforming [2] https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=141164708#:~:targetText=But emerging science about brain,maturity until the age 25. [3] https://www.aclu.org/other/freedom-expression BONUS CONTENT!

You’ve always been an absolute delight and I wish you the best in life. I’m very glad I got to know you. God bless, my friend.

Something like physical strength shouldn’t be strictly defined and I am of the strong belief that this is neither beneficial towards dynamic roleplay, nor is it enforceable. People and creatures do not come in 5 distinct sizes. Also, your responses to people’s feedback has been frankly awful. You have a really bad attitude and it’s not helpful in the least.

nice

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now this is epic

Honestly just stay off the forums to avoid the brunt of the drama. Only need to look at posts that are linked as flyers and stuff, or read up on lore once lore games is done. Humans are a good place to start but the community can suck you in the wrong direction if you’re not careful. I’d say wood elves are a good intermediate between low and high fantasy groups.

I read it front to back. I paused on parts and mused on it. My conclusion is that you have wonderful ideas but no real sense of execution. The idea of having a more objective rule set is great, but the execution of it.. well, I suppose we’ll have to wait and see. LotC has been one big, 8 year long experiment in a self run community. One of the biggest points that I feel like people often tend to not outright address is the fact that all of our staff are also members of the community. They are not hired, not separate from the rest, and ultimately they are very often still children themselves, finding their own way through life. They are capable of making mistakes and misjudgments based on personal feelings. If we as a community can stop treating the staff as if they are infallible and morally balanced at all times, I think we can better recognize that interactions with players will never be perfect. My other issue with your statements is once again the morality. You speak a lot about morality. I fear the day you truly begin to rely on the players and members of this community to follow what you feel is a correct moral compass. The world we live in is vast and so full of different people, that no one person could ever possibly dictate what is a true and right morality. Without insinuating that there are players who are immoral in their beliefs, you need to understand that what YOU find morally reprehensible, may not be what another player finds morally wrong. Please do not base any belief that the community will maintain your ideological set of morals, because it’s just not feasible. My final issue is your brief commentary on shadow leaders. Quite frankly, what is the point you’re trying to make? Are you simply acknowledging it? Trying to stir the non hidden leaders to take control? Condemning shadow leading? If you have nothing productive to say on the matter, you might as well have left that section out. We’re all painfully aware of what’s going on behind the velvet curtain in some communities, but unless you plan on actually doing something about it, there’s no point in saying you’re aware. We’re all aware.

ITS GAMER TIME @Vindicant

Mcname: DeusVidet Category: Skinning Attach Content: https://www.planetminecraft.com/skin/plain-jane-the-baker-s-daughter/

Better shear durability Greenhouses to get 1-3 common nodes placedm, only common plants, not the rare ones, or ones that need very specific growing conditions. IE. You cant have a desert plant and a mountain plant in the same greenhouse. Instead, growing some basic medical herbs that grow in moderate climates, like tippens, serpents stalk, blissfoil. Add the rest of the herbs, including but not limited to Larihei’s fingers, Blood lotus, Goblin’s Ivy, Metzli’s Tangle, Clutcher’s Straw, Ant’s Blight, etc. I’d also like to see more nodes spattered across the map, here and there. There’s still a few regions that lack any nodes as well. Otherwise, great job so far! Really enjoying this plugin