Hello. If none of you know me... well, I'm just a guy who cares about the general welfare of a server he used to enjoy. Before you throw me out a window saying that I don't know what I'm talking about or am totally clueless... let's get one thing straight. I've been playing this server since Minecraft 1.2.5. I've been playing multiplayer a whole ton longer than I've played singleplayer. I have also played many different servers, but have always been attracted to this one in particular. The community is great, the staff are great.
As some say, I have been around the block a few times.

Lately, I've seen many things wrong with how things are working nowadays. Don't know how or why the system has been degrading over the course of the past few months, but I certainly don't like it. I bet a lot of you ladies and gents don't like it either. Some of the main things that have really been bugging away at me; publicity, handling of the forums, the Handling of the Complaint section, and quite simply the users that continuously are allowed to come back. Now these issues are certainly eating away at many people, and it's about time somebody addressed their opinion.

Publicity

I feel as though the server administration has not been open enough with us; the community. Yes, small surprises can be concealed, but things that the server population needs to know can't be withheld. From what I have gathered, this secrecy has given trolls a reason to be trolls. It allows people to join some sort of cult of anarchy. It's simply disorderly.

I give this challenge to the administration. Start doing weekly updates. Make a whole board dedicated to updating the server on what's going on. What's the deal. Sure, we don't need to know about the finances and jazz. But weekly updates would include upcoming planned events or some what some people have been doing recently. Maybe how the next update is coming along. Heck, you could get people to pay for exerts in the newspaper, allowing them to do some advertisements or whatnot.

Keeping the public in the dark doesn't help us out much. It causes unrest. With unrest comes rumors, people claiming doomsday is here. We don't need that.

Handling of Complaint Section

Let me start off with the handling of the complaint section of the forums. Obviously, there is something seriously wrong with all this. Four, five months ago, there was absolutely something drastically different about the complaint section of the forums. The staff didn't need to post as often on how people should not post on the forums if they have nothing relevant to add. This is total garbage. And then when somebody does get out of line, the staff would rectify the problem sternly and with force. I surely was actually intimidated by staff back then. Why the heck are these people still allowed to do this stuff? Why are you still letting users do this? It's unbelievable! Obviously the punishment system is not enough! And if you need some evidence here;

Five months ago;
http://www.ecocitycraft.com/forum/threads/user-complaint-gtrenegade15.99654/
http://www.ecocitycraft.com/forum/threads/user-complaint-gtrenegade15.99655/
http://www.ecocitycraft.com/forum/threads/user-complaint-gtrenegade15.99656/
http://www.ecocitycraft.com/forum/threads/user-complaint-xgajx.99708/
http://www.ecocitycraft.com/forum/threads/ban-appeal.99651/

Now;
http://www.ecocitycraft.com/forum/threads/complaint.115032/page-2#post-620911
http://www.ecocitycraft.com/forum/threads/user-complaint.115697/
http://www.ecocitycraft.com/forum/threads/user-complaint-parkourkid96.115154/#post-617639
http://www.ecocitycraft.com/forum/threads/user-complaint-mrcooltrey.115969/

Unacceptable. Don't know why there hasn't been an example out there yet. I have found within my studies that once you make an example out of somebody, it wouldn't happen again. What was the point of the gallows? To publicly display that if you defy the laws of the land and government, death and pain surely will come.

Before I get to my next point, I would like to add a corollary to this. The staff team are allowing other users to mini mod the forums and correct other people's errors on complaints. No. That is not their job, that is the staff team's job. If you want to be the one to tell somebody what they did wrong or right, apply for staff. I don't care if you have some valuable insight or have suddenly seen a strange thing in the hacking complaint. It isn't your job. By letting other users do a staff member's job, it can lead to misinterpretations and confusion. You don't see some guy go to the neighbors yard and tell them that they're violating the laws and take them into custody. No! You call the police, let them in on the case, and leave it for the law to decide.

Lenient Punishment

Lately, more and more people have been doing actions so ridiculous, that I don't understand why they haven't been banned yet. Permanently banned for that matter. It doesn't make sense at all! Why the heck are we allowing terrifying trolls and scammers back on this server? What is the appeal to that? Those repeat offenders need to get off the dang server; it's only ruining the experience for the newer players. Often I've heard users ask why we don't have as many players on anymore. It's these low life scammers and trolls that keep us from growing. I don't care if they've donated zero dollars or two thousand dollars; if they are trolling they need to be banned for a long period of time. Yes, we need dedicated players. What we don't need is dedicated trolls and scammers.

Now, several days ago I saw something incredibly awe inspiring. Two users (un-named of course) were obviously being ridiculous trolls and just being incredibly obnoxious. They started pelting the shout box with lots of degrading things and sorts. Well, andrewkm came in and whipped their butts. He came in sly and cool and told them to stop doing what they were doing. On top of that, he made them get banned for a longer period of time that would let them think about what they've done. Actions like these are what keep a server in great shape. High discipline gives room for a lot more community bonding and fun.

Forum Handling in General

After quitting Minecraft, I had started to play another game. This one is mainly comprised of mature adults, or children who are actually mature. There were two reasons for this. One being that the game has an incredibly hard learning curve, and the forums were handled incredibly well. I read the rules on that forum and here's a brief exert from it;

• Do not pick a fight or insult another poster. Do not continue a fight if you feel you have been insulted. Report it to the moderator. If you instead respond in kind, you run the risk of being considered part of the problem.
• Despite its prevalence on the internet, bigoted language is frowned upon here. Do not go there.
• Do not disrupt a thread with spam, giant images or intentionally garbled language. Screenshots and so on that make sense in context are also allowed, but image spam is not allowed. Forum games may use giant images but only in the spirit of the game as defined by the OP.
• If the creator of a thread gives appropriate additional guidelines for an individual thread, please try to respect them. Threads often drift away from their opening themes here, and there isn't a strong sense of thread "ownership", so there's a gray area, but if a thread has been designed for a specific purpose, please try to adhere to that, especially if the creator urges you to do so. Do not derail threads.
• If you post links to illegal material (files that are being illegally distributed, ie unsanctioned commercial game/music torrents/downloads, etc.) or post illegal images (or images that would have been behind 18+ warnings, etc.), you will be banned. Don't ask for links or otherwise ask to be directed to places where you can download/obtain things like that either, even if the situation is somewhat more lax in your locality.

Sounds pretty simple right? Well that's because... it is! The owner of this had posted what he wanted and didn't want, and took actions accordingly. Now when I took a look at the monthly banned users, it wasn't large. But the users who did get banned, had a swift one. Because of this, there are absolutely no trolls at all. Heck, now and then we debate about politics and the like. Yes, it's in the rules not to, but there is a special forum for that thing. I even had to give advice to a person who had a cat who wasn't feeling well. She was debating to put her down. It's rules like these that keep the community mature and kind. There's one guy who has incredibly bad grammar... we don't pester him about it. We answer his questions and move on.

On here... not so much. There's always those trolls who'll write down anything to make somebody get ticked off. Or somebody will be incredibly disrespectful to somebody and create a huge ordeal. It's absolutely terrible. If we had rules and discipline like the forum above, we wouldn't have such big problems. Yes, there actually are mature people on the internet. Sadly, we don't have too many.

Conclusion

I hope after reading all of the points I have made that you have learned something. You, the reader, need to help get this place back in shape. I absolutely sick and tired of all this nonsense. And I know that I'm not alone.

Obviously I care about this server. I'm not some anarchist or troll trying to get people into an evil uproar. No. I just spent two hours writing this. I've spent a few weeks thinking and formulating what I might say. I have wasted much oxygen and life span to type this. Currently I'm ready to go and eat something... I'm hungry.

Don't tell me this garbage hasn't been happening. I've been watching it for the past few months. Sometimes in disbelieve and utter humiliation. Don't deny what you see as something else. It is what it is. Going along pretending everything is skippy well is certainly not what got this server to stay up and running for so long. Don't say I didn't tell you so.

Thank you for taking the time and reading this whole entire thing. I'll be quite surprised to see how much of this gets censored and debated upon. No matter how much gets edited, the right people will see what needs to be seen.

Dragon out.

TL : DR - Listen, if you spend eight hours a day numbly holding a melon sword or endlessly slaying new players without emotion, you can lighten your days with this. Read it.

 

Oh I would like to add that later on I shall draft up a format for the newsletter, if it isn't made. I'm always here to help in times of need.

But we don't need a player count. Not if it's full of trolls and whatnot. I'd rather have a fifty people population than a two hundred player population with one troll inside. That's just me.

 

Yes, but that newspaper is player run. We can't get updates on what is going on with the server that is useful unless the owner(s) have told us or one of the publishers gets information themselves. I'm not just talking about little events the players plan, I'm also talking about maybe coupon sales that might happen a week after publishing. Upcoming events that users haven't been informed of yet. Things of the like.

The complaints have something different between them. On the older ones, there are not as many postings as to not post on the complaint unless there's something relevant. Now, there's tons. I don't care if those posts get removed. I don't care if you warn them after the fact. Obviously there hasn't been anything there to stop them. They keep on coming! This is not preventing them!

Assuming things?! We have to assume things because we don't get any information at all! They need to be publicly warned so the masses know not to do something! When you want to tell everyone that something is bad, do you just do it in secret or in front of the whole population? If you're thinking smartly and logically, you'll side with the latter. I'm getting tired and weary of seeing these people repeating what they're doing. Obviously they don't see enough of a consequence, or just don't see that people get warned.

There was a whole heck of lot less scammers and trolls back then. Have you seen the amount of complaints in the past few months? Ridiculous! It wasn't some candyland, but it sure was compared to this.

Yes, I feel the need to tell the administration how to run the server. Why? Because in my opinion, and I think many others, the way it's being run currently isn't right. Obviously if this many people have been asking for change, and it hasn't happened yet, then there's a problem. Even if the administration could give us a more detailed report instead of some cryptic vague response.

Moaning? You think I'm moaning... that's funny. I guess if I'm moaning then there's a lot of people like me who are moaning. We're a bunch of zombies!

To me, I don't see much change. If things are going at such a rapid pace, we should be informed every step of the way. Tell me how not informing us would be a problem. Yes, the administration has been active, but it would be great if the community were informed each step of the way.

Yes, suggestions. They've been talked upon, but none have had any progress of late. Just mind numbing debates. Not a whole lot of them have been approved or disproved yet. I would at least want that. And don't say it takes too much time. You can easily acquire more staff. More staff to get more work done. I know many who would help out. Heck, I would if I played minecraft still or could play for three hours each day.

Four months is an incredibly long period of time. Lots of things can be done. And don't tell me it takes awhile to formulate ideas and such. Just let the community help. We're here. I don't see any reason not to let us help with the problems. If I can help the server out I certainly will!

I wish I could know what you're working your buttocks's off for. Sure, I get you're busy. But maybe some status on what's going on?

 

What is it? 1984 if I recall. "Big brother is watching you."

 

Here's a great example;

http://www.ecocitycraft.com/forum/threads/user-complaint-kick_me_1235.116345/

How do I know these people who posted irrelevant comments are doing something bad? No staff corrects them publicly, so now I am mislead to believe that it is okay to post such things. This is not good. Just furthers what I said before.