A statement on OTAF and a defence of Amazeroth

[Aquinas]

I have read with sadness the recent discussion on the OTAF thread.

Farsun, as he has now publicly revealed, asked me to impose OTAF as the compulsory and official system for Particracy's military role-play. He wanted me to impose it without consulting Amazeroth and whilst Amazeroth was, as he knew full well, seriously ill. I hope most of you will understand why even if I had wanted to make OTAF official right now, it would have been entirely inappropriate for me to act in this way.

My personal contact with Amazeroth during his absence from Particracy has been limited, but I can report we have briefly discussed the issue of OTAF becoming official. He tells me his position is, and has always been, that he would consider making OTAF official once the scheme has been fleshed-out and presented. Farsun has been talking about developing OTAF since at least February 2012 but he has never completed it and apparently often says he needs it to be made official first before he finishes it. Hence the impasse.

Since I am happy to be transparent about my own position on this, I will say that I am sensitive to the risk of a detailed, compulsory system of military RP over-burdening players. I would also, like Reddy, be concerned that any individuals appointed to regulate military RP should be appropriate for the task and be able to communicate with players respectfully. However, like Amazeroth, I would be more than happy to examine any fleshed-out system for military RP that was presented to us. We would probably want to see a measure of consensus for it amongst the player community before rolling it out, though.

Amazeroth has come under fire in this discussion. You are allowed to criticise Moderators, of course; we do need to be accountable to our players. I will say, though - and those who know me closest here will know I believed the same thing before I was appointed - that I do not believe the criticism is fair.

Amazeroth has contributed enormously to this game, and as a Moderator, he has been hard-working, committed, sensible, just and personally kind and generous. He has very much kept the show on the road, including during what must have been some very challenging phases in our history. The claim he has "done almost 0 for this game in roughly the last 3-4 years" bears absolutely no relation to the reality. I am very sorry and very disappointed that individuals have decided to publicly misrepresent him in the way we have seen, and at this time - whilst he is not here to defend himself. He deserved better than this.

It is no secret, I think, that he has demands on his time, with his job and his family, and there have been some periods when he has not been able to access Particracy as much as he would wish. There have been calls for more Moderators at times, but without going into depth, let me just say that that process, in practice, is more difficult than is often generally realised, and I would personally find it difficult to fault him on his decisions there.

It has been suggested there is a hierarchy amongst Moderators. This is not true now and has not been true in the recent past either. Amazeroth went out of his way to tell me he did not see himself as above me in any way. It is true, as some of you know, that on certain issues I have chosen to wait to consult him, but this should hardly be surprising in any Moderation Team. Not least in a situation like the present one, where I am a new Moderator who does not have the more experienced Moderator alongside him. The very natural respect I have for Amazeroth's experience and knowledge should not be interpreted as an indication that he is domineering.

Nor, I can assure you, is he someone set upon vetoing all new ideas proposed by fellow Moderators and players. As it happens, I believe his reforms on RP laws, where unanimous consent is no longer always necessary, is one of the most radical changes we have had in Particracy's history, and that the opportunities presented by that have yet to be fully realised.

Amazeroth is expected to return to Particracy soon, and if I have anything to do with it, he will be with us for a long time yet.