Hello, and good evening. I would like to explore the outcomes, challenges, and aftermath of the OT Civil War, as some have called it, and the rules that resulted from it. All is not well in the sub forum because of this war, in fact, I would argue that we are worse off than we were before the drama started. I would actually say that we are in the worst position that OT has ever been, even when compared to the reign of the three modern shitposters, of whom we all know.
First, a bit of background: the OT Civil War was fought between two sides. These two sides made quite a bit of drama during the period of OT in which there were no moderators, which I will name the Warring States Period. This Warring States Period only happened because the previous moderator of OT, Flanster, got fed up with how immature we were acting. This was extremely fast, as the time period between the departure of Stefan and the departure of Flanster only lasted a few months. What happened here, you ask? It can't be that Flanster is worse as a mod than Stefan, because he has more mod kills than him. The amount of mod kills also implies that he has put up with a lot more shit, so that can be ruled out as well. The only explanation would have to deal with Stefan's last months as moderator. Stefan was always a lenient moderator when it came to closing down shit threads and rule+breaking threads. However, this leniency skyrocketed as his last weeks of moderation approached. He became "lazy", as he said in a thread title. During this "lazy" period, OT Denizens started to become restless and quickly realized that they could post almost anything they wanted to without consequences. This led to a shift in thinking: instead of posting for everyone to have fun, people posted to have fun themselves, at the expense of others. People were still having fun, but it would be akin to the fun someone would have watching videos of people falling down on AFV instead of the fun of enjoying a good multiplayer game, or the fun of playing freeze tag with friends.
This mentality carried over when Flanster took over for Stefan at moderating OT. However, Flan had a different opinion of fun; he would not tolerate shit at any cost. This is presumably the reason why so many threads were locked during his time period; in fact, more threads were locked by Flanster in the short time period that Flanster was an active mod than the amount of threads locked by Stefan in his years of moderating. This is not due to the differences of opinions on moderation, this is due to the shift in mindset.
Flanster soon saw the light and figured out he will never mix OT if it continued to possess this mindset. So he quit, and thus started the Warring States Period, and the rest is history.
The Civil War pit two already divided groups against each other, dividing them further. I argue that this separation is the elephant in the room no one wants to mention. The separation was always there; ITT2 regulars wouldn't post in threads made by other people. But now that they don't have to look for their favorite thread in between other threads, they have even less motive to do so. And rightfully so: due to the new rules, denizens are discouraged to post new threads due to the omnipresent threat of exile. Once the new rules became effective, new thread creation came to a screeching halt. This leads to certain threads acting as sort of a post central, becoming megathreads that reach absurd numbers of pages. The lack of new threads has become a further separator, failing to provide a motive for the divide to fade away.
So in a sense, both sides of the Civil War are to blame: one side has a destructive mentality while the other is eletist and provide nothing more than empty complaints with no action following to help resolve them.
I do not know how to fix this, personally. I would like to have a hard, foolproof solution to fix OT, as it is in my best interest to do so. I've met a lot of people on here that I really appreciate and respect, and whenever I unlock my phone I instinctively check OT. However, I cannot simply ignore these problems. I guess the best solution would be for everyone to try to fix themselves first instead of 1) arguing, or 2) doing nothing. And I mean everybody. Some people might argue that there is no problem that needs to be fixed, but there are certainly at least small issues such as the lack of threads that everyone can agree with.
So that was all. All of this is just my opinions and observations, and I could sure as hell be wrong about everything here, so if I am, please point me out on my points. Thank you for reading (if you did), and good night.
also my birthday is coming up UvU
First, a bit of background: the OT Civil War was fought between two sides. These two sides made quite a bit of drama during the period of OT in which there were no moderators, which I will name the Warring States Period. This Warring States Period only happened because the previous moderator of OT, Flanster, got fed up with how immature we were acting. This was extremely fast, as the time period between the departure of Stefan and the departure of Flanster only lasted a few months. What happened here, you ask? It can't be that Flanster is worse as a mod than Stefan, because he has more mod kills than him. The amount of mod kills also implies that he has put up with a lot more shit, so that can be ruled out as well. The only explanation would have to deal with Stefan's last months as moderator. Stefan was always a lenient moderator when it came to closing down shit threads and rule+breaking threads. However, this leniency skyrocketed as his last weeks of moderation approached. He became "lazy", as he said in a thread title. During this "lazy" period, OT Denizens started to become restless and quickly realized that they could post almost anything they wanted to without consequences. This led to a shift in thinking: instead of posting for everyone to have fun, people posted to have fun themselves, at the expense of others. People were still having fun, but it would be akin to the fun someone would have watching videos of people falling down on AFV instead of the fun of enjoying a good multiplayer game, or the fun of playing freeze tag with friends.
This mentality carried over when Flanster took over for Stefan at moderating OT. However, Flan had a different opinion of fun; he would not tolerate shit at any cost. This is presumably the reason why so many threads were locked during his time period; in fact, more threads were locked by Flanster in the short time period that Flanster was an active mod than the amount of threads locked by Stefan in his years of moderating. This is not due to the differences of opinions on moderation, this is due to the shift in mindset.
Flanster soon saw the light and figured out he will never mix OT if it continued to possess this mindset. So he quit, and thus started the Warring States Period, and the rest is history.
The Civil War pit two already divided groups against each other, dividing them further. I argue that this separation is the elephant in the room no one wants to mention. The separation was always there; ITT2 regulars wouldn't post in threads made by other people. But now that they don't have to look for their favorite thread in between other threads, they have even less motive to do so. And rightfully so: due to the new rules, denizens are discouraged to post new threads due to the omnipresent threat of exile. Once the new rules became effective, new thread creation came to a screeching halt. This leads to certain threads acting as sort of a post central, becoming megathreads that reach absurd numbers of pages. The lack of new threads has become a further separator, failing to provide a motive for the divide to fade away.
So in a sense, both sides of the Civil War are to blame: one side has a destructive mentality while the other is eletist and provide nothing more than empty complaints with no action following to help resolve them.
I do not know how to fix this, personally. I would like to have a hard, foolproof solution to fix OT, as it is in my best interest to do so. I've met a lot of people on here that I really appreciate and respect, and whenever I unlock my phone I instinctively check OT. However, I cannot simply ignore these problems. I guess the best solution would be for everyone to try to fix themselves first instead of 1) arguing, or 2) doing nothing. And I mean everybody. Some people might argue that there is no problem that needs to be fixed, but there are certainly at least small issues such as the lack of threads that everyone can agree with.
So that was all. All of this is just my opinions and observations, and I could sure as hell be wrong about everything here, so if I am, please point me out on my points. Thank you for reading (if you did), and good night.