Cultural Protocols: What? Why? How?

[mpog]

the person who prompted the discussion, mpog, is reluctant to even broach the subject of moderation's role in the current CP system likely because he feels like his too-frank opinions on the subject led to feeling nearly hounded out of the game (I'm guessing);

Apart from the "nearly" you are guessing right. There was a point where I had to leave the game because the situation started to exacerbate the clinical depression I have been struggling with for years.
I had to realise that the only way I could return to playing particracy was if I severed all ties to my old accounts (in-game and here on the forum) and used another name. And one of the reasons I don't want to go into any details concerning my past experiences here is that it would make obvious who I am.

[Siggon Kristov]

The last moderation team was lead by Amazeroth who very much leaned towards none-intrusiveness and I think it was much more appropriate for the game (not sure if you were here then). So moderation can and does change, and player input can and does greatly affect changes. So don't hold back.

Hear, hear. I think there is also a considerable minority of players which lost a sense of belongigness and interest into this game because of the very "active-style" moderation.

I have been driven away from participating in the community too much, because of Aquinas. I find his personality to be overbearing, and I think he ignores his Eurocentric and faith-based biases and tries too much to police even the Off-Topic section of the forum (even before he was a moderator). In general, I find him to be annoying and overly self-righteous. However, I actually see his role in maintaining cultural coherency as a good thing for the game itself. And just like I had that idea about a 9-member panel which the community dragged through the mud, Aquinas has done something which involves players' participation in managing things like global RP and the indexes; he has given realism projects a sense of legitimacy which Amazeroth shied away from. I think we can all agree that an efficient Moderation that updates itself to suit the community's needs is a much more favourable situation than someone who takes weeks to do routine tasks.

[hts]

To be completely honest, I am starting to worry that there will soon be too many culturally open nations. As a person who prefers CPed nations, I am starting to run out of options (right now there is still plenty of options, but in time I worry there wont be).

I think that it might be necessary to lessen the requirements for making a new CP so that we can get more new cultures.

[toro42]

To be completely honest, I am starting to worry that there will soon be too many culturally open nations. As a person who prefers CPed nations, I am starting to run out of options (right now there is still plenty of options, but in time I worry there wont be).

I think that it might be necessary to lessen the requirements for making a new CP so that we can get more new cultures.

Agreed. Maybe only 2-3 parties to make an open nation protected?

[CCP]

Personally, it's the 1-month countdowns that are the most onerous part to me. Some problems with it were mentioned in the CP Era Affirmations thread.

[Zanz]

Yikes.

I haven't got a horse left in this race anymore, I'm far from as active as I was, and I have no plans to ever be that active again. So this is really just an "Hey everyone remember that Aquinas is a swell guy" post.

Aquinas, though I can probably commiserate with you here, as I'm frankly pretty astounded at the amount of crap you're catching right now for simply continuing to run the same ship you've run for over a year, but I want to say that I very much hope you don't make the same decision I made when faced with much less flak.

You have been and by all estimates will remain the best moderator that this game has had in all of my years playing - Darvian included, IMO. You have been consistent, fair, open to criticism and an agent for positive change. I know everybody's being very careful to say those things while they say how shitty you are as a person, so I wanted to say that you're great without all the caveats.

If former Mods started a drinking team we'd be world champions, no doubt in my mind.

[hts]

Agreed. Maybe only 2-3 parties to make an open nation protected?

Personally, it's the 1-month countdowns that are the most onerous part to me. Some problems with it were mentioned in the CP Era Affirmations thread.

I agree that both make creating a new culture quite difficult, but it is really the combination of the two that make it really hard. It is not easy to get 3 players dedicated enough to spend a month in a nation without inactivating.

IMO, something has to be done to ensure that some of these nations get new cultures.

You have been and by all estimates will remain the best moderator that this game has had in all of my years playing - Darvian included, IMO. You have been consistent, fair, open to criticism and an agent for positive change. I know everybody's being very careful to say those things while they say how shitty you are as a person, so I wanted to say that you're great without all the caveats.

I agree Zanz. In my personal experience, Aquinas has always been very friendly and helpful, and he has done a lot of great things for this game during his time as moderator.

You have my full support Aquinas.

[Aquinas]

Yikes.

I haven't got a horse left in this race anymore, I'm far from as active as I was, and I have no plans to ever be that active again. So this is really just an "Hey everyone remember that Aquinas is a swell guy" post.

Aquinas, though I can probably commiserate with you here, as I'm frankly pretty astounded at the amount of crap you're catching right now for simply continuing to run the same ship you've run for over a year, but I want to say that I very much hope you don't make the same decision I made when faced with much less flak.

You have been and by all estimates will remain the best moderator that this game has had in all of my years playing - Darvian included, IMO. You have been consistent, fair, open to criticism and an agent for positive change. I know everybody's being very careful to say those things while they say how shitty you are as a person, so I wanted to say that you're great without all the caveats.

If former Mods started a drinking team we'd be world champions, no doubt in my mind.

Thanks Zanz, that meant a lot.

[Rathon]

There are players who are heavily in favor of playing in nations with Cultural Protocols, and there are players who much prefer to play in open nations. And no matter what you do, you can't please everybody. Somebody's always going to bitch about something. We need to realize that we have a system in place that allows both types of players to play in the type of nation they prefer. It's not perfect. It's never going to be perfect. But we are lucky to have a moderator gracious enough to, despite constantly being on the receiving end of harsh criticism, listen to our complaints and do his best to make the game more enjoyable for everyone, which at the end of the day, is all we can really ask of him. If you don't like it, there are other places you can go to play political simulation games.

[Reddy]

Yikes.

I haven't got a horse left in this race anymore, I'm far from as active as I was, and I have no plans to ever be that active again. So this is really just an "Hey everyone remember that Aquinas is a swell guy" post.

Aquinas, though I can probably commiserate with you here, as I'm frankly pretty astounded at the amount of crap you're catching right now for simply continuing to run the same ship you've run for over a year, but I want to say that I very much hope you don't make the same decision I made when faced with much less flak.

You have been and by all estimates will remain the best moderator that this game has had in all of my years playing - Darvian included, IMO. You have been consistent, fair, open to criticism and an agent for positive change. I know everybody's being very careful to say those things while they say how shitty you are as a person, so I wanted to say that you're great without all the caveats.

If former Mods started a drinking team we'd be world champions, no doubt in my mind.

This. Some of the attacks on Aquinas are just by certain sour, begrudged players hiding behind new user names who at one point or another could not handle certain Moderation rulings. Thus they can't really be said to be based on any great or consistent principles.