Open Letter to the LU community regarding rule changes
Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2017 8:12 pm
Greetings,
As many of you are aware, there has been some recent uproar regarding league rules and a lot of unnecessary drama. Allow me to clarify the situation and correct some misinformation that has been thrown around that has only resulted in a toxic environment and innocent players getting caught in the crossfire.
It has been made clear to us that there are certain individuals who would like the league council to reconsider the policy on profanity on league servers. Thank you for bringing your concern to our attention and we'll be more than happy to have a civil discussion regarding changes to the rules. However, due to some players being more vocal than others, it has become clear to us that we cannot have such a mature discussion in a civil manner without certain players resorting to targeting other players for having different opinions as them. Threads are being locked and removed from the BZFlag forums because they achieve absolutely nothing since the more vocal players always take over the thread and go off topic. Some of you may believe that the league having its own forum would solve this problem but it wouldn't, the same vocal players would take over the conversation and the council will be to blame for locking threads instead of the BZBB admins.
The league welcomes players of all ages! Even players that are younger than 13 years old. The project allows players to join the community provided they have parental consent and therefore are allowed to join the league as well. Even though the most cliques in the league are older players, that doesn't mean younger players wouldn't like to join. If you don't see any younger players in the league, take a moment to think why that is. Is it because no one is welcoming them? Is no one explaining to them that they need to be registered with the league to spawn? The league shouldn't be an exclusive playground full of cliques.
This whole fiasco began when we took punitive action against a certain player. Well, rules exist and if someone is breaking them we must take action to rectify the behavior. If we don't, then other players will follow suit and that'll just lead to a nasty environment. For example, if I started playing in the league with a cheat client and I get banned for it, would you all begin objecting to my ban because of my contributions to the project/league and the league should be more forgiving?
We would love to discuss changes to the rules to make the league a better and more enjoyable place for players, however I don't believe we as a community are mature enough to have a civil discussion regarding this when it is obvious some players intend to start a mob to force change.
Let me make one last thing very clear: BZFlag is not a democracy; there are things that cannot be decided with a vote. This is why we have admins and council members in charge of making the final decision. In order to have a fair vote and know "what the players really want," we would have to get a vote from every single player in the league and that's just not realistic. So don't confuse your opinions with what the players actually want.
Thanks for tanking with Leagues United!
As many of you are aware, there has been some recent uproar regarding league rules and a lot of unnecessary drama. Allow me to clarify the situation and correct some misinformation that has been thrown around that has only resulted in a toxic environment and innocent players getting caught in the crossfire.
It has been made clear to us that there are certain individuals who would like the league council to reconsider the policy on profanity on league servers. Thank you for bringing your concern to our attention and we'll be more than happy to have a civil discussion regarding changes to the rules. However, due to some players being more vocal than others, it has become clear to us that we cannot have such a mature discussion in a civil manner without certain players resorting to targeting other players for having different opinions as them. Threads are being locked and removed from the BZFlag forums because they achieve absolutely nothing since the more vocal players always take over the thread and go off topic. Some of you may believe that the league having its own forum would solve this problem but it wouldn't, the same vocal players would take over the conversation and the council will be to blame for locking threads instead of the BZBB admins.
The league welcomes players of all ages! Even players that are younger than 13 years old. The project allows players to join the community provided they have parental consent and therefore are allowed to join the league as well. Even though the most cliques in the league are older players, that doesn't mean younger players wouldn't like to join. If you don't see any younger players in the league, take a moment to think why that is. Is it because no one is welcoming them? Is no one explaining to them that they need to be registered with the league to spawn? The league shouldn't be an exclusive playground full of cliques.
This whole fiasco began when we took punitive action against a certain player. Well, rules exist and if someone is breaking them we must take action to rectify the behavior. If we don't, then other players will follow suit and that'll just lead to a nasty environment. For example, if I started playing in the league with a cheat client and I get banned for it, would you all begin objecting to my ban because of my contributions to the project/league and the league should be more forgiving?
We would love to discuss changes to the rules to make the league a better and more enjoyable place for players, however I don't believe we as a community are mature enough to have a civil discussion regarding this when it is obvious some players intend to start a mob to force change.
Let me make one last thing very clear: BZFlag is not a democracy; there are things that cannot be decided with a vote. This is why we have admins and council members in charge of making the final decision. In order to have a fair vote and know "what the players really want," we would have to get a vote from every single player in the league and that's just not realistic. So don't confuse your opinions with what the players actually want.
Thanks for tanking with Leagues United!