The Voices of the Unheard

The things I have heard on this post are truly sickening about this community, and have opened my eyes and brought further awareness to how horrible this place truly has become. It's time to do something and it starts with us and no one else. The GMs aren't taking this post seriously, clearly as they have made no comments, so we as a community need to become a stronger voice. And not rely on anonymous accounts to do our bidding. People have attacked me for posting anonymously but this is a defence mechanism. This community will jump after me for this and I cannot suffer in the way people have mentioned others suffering unbeknownst to even myself. If people have a general consensus about what I've been saying (ignoring trolls); and are PMing me thank you and the like, then it's time for immediate change and recognition of the problem. Nothing will change until you make it happen. And it starts with us TOGETHER.

A shocking title right? Here's the even bigger shocker- This post is insanely serious. Unlike many people on LOTC I'm commenting anonymously, currently I actively play the server but I need to stay anonymous because unlike many of this server I'm not doing this for a shocking reaction. This is a wake up call. Lotc has one of the most toxic and disgusting communities on the internet and I say this with full honesty. Here are my reasons; Extremely poor staffing. (Often targets people, and moderates subjectively without any standardized action, moderators pick and choose their favorites and reduce punishments that will otherwise be greater for people who they have favor for). Evidence: I have noticed that a specific player on this server whomst has recently appealed was banned for extreme toxicity that was relentless and did not stop. This player did arguably the same evils as another player who was PERMANENTLY banned for criticizing one of the staff member's choices, an admin who has resigned since, regarding his punishments. While both are bad, can you tell the difference? The first player has a RECORD of extreme harassment, and he still gets to come back in a short amount of time without any further questioning. Names are left out to not trigger anyone. The moderators and GMs as they are called, give extreme favor to their "egirls" and while I hate to make this a point here, it is true. If someone dares piss off a GMs favourite egirl it triggers their shock reflex to try and eliminate and destroy whoever's girly is hurt by whatever the other is saying, even if it is at a perfect and logical point. Moderation on LOTC is truly atrocious, and completely subjective. Moderators act off their feelings and not the facts. Other servers have standardized action, LOTC has opinionated moderation. A culture of trolls and sadism Evidence: A player I've noticed specifically baits and witchhunts people, trying their best to get people banned however they still remain on the server without any problems. If the moderation of LOTC can tolerate people manipulating people into getting banned and expecting people to be immune to such manipulate and group demonization then there is a serious problem. This culture of witchhunting, trolling and demonizing is sadistic and psychopathic, and the people who do this are repeat offenders WHO NEVER stop because they are under the personal protection of the staff. People hurt eachother and demonize eachother to such extreme lengths that it seriously harms the overall mental health and wellbeing of the server, as a result it is a chain cycle that will never stop. Ban appeals and bans don't work. People do it again regardless because they are manipulative psychopaths. I can think of a handful of people who fit this bill exactly as I describe, and I'll leave that for the community to speculate upon. People are constant trolls and bring negativity to the server as a whole, making it more appealing to simply not care and take it seriously and join their culture rather than taking the server serious. Ban Appeals Aren't Working to Prevent Repeat Offenses Ever noticed after someone successfully appeals they go on to repeat the behavior? Perhaps this is not for all offenses, but this is definitely applicable to harassment charges. Players who bait and harass people on such mountainous occasions with lengthy records never stop and somehow they keep coming back to **** on the community. Why? Because the GMs favour them or they are extremely expert at manipulation, which one do you think? I think it converges on both. The Culture of Egoism and Narcissm While it is nice to have a kick from something every once and a while, the amount of ego boosts given to players by roleplay to fill the black holes in their hearts and minds out of what they lack to receive IRL, and don't tell me this isn't the case here. LOTC is full of acne-ridden teenage boys who cannot get a girlfriend, a lot of them. Not everyone of course however, but still. LOTC encourages elitism, if you can deny this you are ******* insane. The amount of cliquism that is on this server is gargantuan. Cliques are unavoidable, but the way that they are run on this server is insane. I've joined many groups previously only to be harassed and picked on in group chats for being the new player, and ignored by the leaders of said groups and kept under a muzzle because I wasn't high enough in roleplay status to even speak to them OOC. So much for keeping RP and OOC apart. And honestly? People get SO TRIGGERED over events IRP AND OOC. If someone attacks your character, they'll get pissed OOC if they lose, and vice versa; people will often target you for OOC events based off this disgusting culture of narcissism. Now that all my arguments are laid out, let's take a look at this article: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/your-online-secrets/201409/internet-trolls-are-narcissists-psychopaths-and-sadists You see now? There is a huge f!cking problem with this community that the people who benefit from it are ignoring and the trolls will simply disregard this post or comment some bullsh!t like they usually do. Those who attempt to take this serious will respond on accord of their egos without any logical points, and if someone does have a logical point they'll be snuffed out. Why the hell can I already make a legible prediction of what will happen? So now that we have all these problems laid out, what is the salvation for this community? Your ego will probably tell you none, but there probably is a solution. Here are my "points" to improve LOTC. Comment below if you'd like to improve or add any and discuss how we can eliminate this absolutely sh!tty culture of narcissism and trolling. Institute objective staffing and moderation. Standardized action for each offense and putting tabs on moderator's power. Making things more democracy based, as well as ONLY taking action upon players when there is HARD PROOF that something had occurred IN THE MOMENT and over one of LOTC's platforms, or else the staffing problem will never cease. We cannot have moderators making subjective decisions anymore because it is clearly damaging. Limit moderation's power, and reduce it to a point that is objective and reasonable. Stop making staff so hierarchical as well. To eliminate trolls and sadism, there needs to be stronger sanctions against "baiting and witchhunting". The amount of damage that this type of behavior wreaks upon the community is insane and there needs to be stronger and more harsh consequences. Permanent bans for this behaviour should become the BASE. Since people always will repeat offend in this regard, because they are simply mentally ill and that is a fact. Offer support for those who have been witchhunted and demonized, because it is not a great feeling. There is no need to turn staffing and action into giant crusades to completely mentally destroy one specific person. Stoning is not appropriate in a civil society. Improve and innovate the appeal system. The appeal system should ALWAYS have LONG probational periods. 1 YEAR AT MINIMUM. Because we know players on LOTC love to repeat their crimes, stricter sanctions should be pushed to those hoping to appeal. Appeals should be less, convince the reader you should be unbanned, but rather a simple form where the staff can review player consequence and watch how the player reacts to staff comments and criticism to TRULY evaluate how they feel. Writing a paragraph is easy, being put up against action based tests is often not. The appeal system needs to become less based on words but rather ACTIONS and not EMPTY CLAIMS. There is not much you can do to eliminate the egoism of the server, but promote kindness and caring. The community needs kindness and caring more than ever right now. Players should be welcoming instead of hostile, and those who seek to make others feel inferior and bad should be met with quick and fierce warnings from the staff team at best, but overall this is a community effort and CANNOT be fixed with rules and legislation! Now that is my final rant. You don't know who I am, just know I am walking amongst this community, and apart of it as much as you are. And it pains me to see how horrible this community has grown over the past years.