Best Of

If you have to be told what "inflammatory" means you probably just shouldn't talk about the person at all.

Because the playerbase needs to be expressly told, otherwise they'll take a mile when provided the inch. It's best, in my honest opinion, to be clear on what is considered inflammatory when there is a zero tolerance policy. Though to dispel any potential insinuations, I did not talk about Keroc in a derisive or derogatory manner, nor would I ever do so. He's a good person.

As for the drinking game and on me commenting on how long it would take for me to comment, my opinion on the changes has been known many times over. I'd stop asking the same questions if I knew the answers from the administration, as the answers impact how much trust I have (and I'm sure many others have) in promotions moving forward, as well as the general state of balance. I was not one of those individuals that was vitriolic towards Keroc, nor would I ever be. That being said, I am allowed to criticize decisions made and I feel that both myself and many others feel justified in wanting to receive an answer to these questions. We just recently had a massive promotion in which relics were offered that just had their value directly impacted, we've had major balance changes now seemingly (by my subjective perception and from admin responses given thus far) left half-finished, and said changes have had an impact on how well server-side curing handles them and require a fair amount of changing on client side systems as well. If I come off as relentless, it is because I'm pretty passionate about these changes, and I do not want them to simply fall by the wayside. Edit: I'll add that many of us play the game for different reasons, thus leading for some folks to be have been less impacted than others depending on what their priorities are in the game. I say with certainty that I am not the only one that has lost the drive to play from these changes, and I know two other notable long-time combatants who feel the same and have not wanted to play for the same reasons.

In any event, I do believe and I have always been a strong advocate of treating one another with respect. It's a game, and people should remember that many in the Pools do what they do vastly out of a labor of love. I just don't want criticism or disagreement to be viewed as potentially inflammatory, as Tetchta said.

Hi Aloli,

I debated at first on whether or not to respond to you, but I wanted to extrapolate my reasoning in order to avoid further misconceptions and begin by saying that my post wasn't targeted at you or anyone in specific. Let me give an example of what I mean, and why I am cautious about specifically desiring what Tiur means by inflammatory:

I'm going to preface this by pulling stuff from my work, but here goes: Human beings have something inherent to our psychology and how we're wired called "bias". Our biases are molded and shaped by past experiences, how we were raised, where we were raised, how we've interacted with people, our morals, our faiths (or lack thereof), but most importantly in this case: how we've interacted with specific people in the past. Biases are one of those things that we can subconsciously act upon and not even realize the how or why of it. Much of this is likely common enough knowledge, or might be known already so it begs the question: "Why did I preface this?"

Because both players and admins can be biased, and I don't mean in the "X is biased for Spirit/Shadow" sense. I mean in the, "things can be perceived differently on the Internet due to a lack of tone, inflection, and intonation and we may assume a negative when there isn't one". Something can be registered as inflammatory by someone else if the "someone else" has a history or has potentially rubbed a person the wrong way in the past.

To summarize, I want what constitutes as inflammatory to be defined by the administration because players will toe the line if its not defined (as they have with many other in-game related examples in the past), it's subjective, and can be abused. A lack of tone, intonation, and inflection can mean that something innocuous could be potentially perceived as inflammatory solely based on the source. I am not saying that this has happened in Aetolia, but I am saying that it CAN happen and I've seen happen before across IRE.

All and all, I'm well aware of what inflammatory is defined as and I'm aware as to the general gist of what Tiur is stating. What I'm concerned about is legitimate criticism potentially falling under being inflammatory based on the source of who it is coming from.