Escapist heading in "a new direction"
- Thread starter IceForce
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Kyle Gaddo said:
Thank you for taking the time to reach out and let us know what's going on. I think people around here tend to get a bit nervous about changes since we have been tossed about a bit and have had some rough patches. I for one am looking forward to our upgrades and am hopeful it will bring our community here closer and help us grow again. I am sure people will calm down a bit once things get updated and settled in. Thank you for being open about this, as we have pretty much been in limbo for sometime never knowing what was to come next. It is definitely refreshing and appreciated.Nick Calandra said:
I know you guys are focused on the forum migration and that's cool, but I'd like to make a suggestion (that I know is gonna get ignored or even possibly shouted down) just for the record. Please for the love of everything, lighten up the rules. They're so damn long and stuffy.Nick Calandra said:
Thread that did it: https://intosanctuary.com/index.php?threads/its-sad-that-people-like-saelune-will-never-post-here.545/Arnoxthe1 said:
Obsessing over your old forum enemies and acting superior to them is just lame. I'd rather post here or Reddit.
Thread that has guaranteed I never will post again just now: https://intosanctuary.com/index.php?threads/analysis-of-a-civil-war-in-america.757/
A video linked by you from a self-proclaimed alt-right YouTuber who hits all the marks of an anti-Semite, anti-feminist, and who seems to be openly pushing for a second Civil War in the U.S. Yeah, I'm fucking good, mate. All that shit is still there, just not as blatant.
* crosses fingers and hopes Lego, cosplay, action figures, tabletop gaming and comics make the cut too*. Movies and TV are everywhere, the other geek stuff is a bit harder to find at times. I miss some of the stuff they used to do here.Nick Calandra said:
OK, so there is one thing I am gonna give you. I do think that the Sanc community do talk about the Escapist members a little too much. I do understand that some of them are hardly the easiest to approach when it comes to certain matters. I guess it's easy for us to get defensive because we never really had a place of our own to talk until now, and now that we do, we often get shit on and stereotyped by our former community.Elfgore said:
Our site is indeed inherently "right-winged" (more right-leaning than actually right) but I honestly hate saying that in a sense, because I wish for everyone to be there and to talk about their viewpoints and ideas no matter what they are. And that is always how it's been. And so, Houseman in that thread is pretty on-point when he laments that others of different viewpoints will probably never come there simply because of the general atmosphere of Sanctuary.
-Houseman said:
He's pretty aggressively right, yeah. Thing is, you can find truth anywhere. Neither the left side nor the right have a monopoly on truth. And if you'd read that thread, I actually said that another US civil war would be bad on all sides. Also, our site isn't about politics anyway. It's about gaming and being together as a group.Elfgore said:
Good, I'm glad to hear that. The new site is, as I described in another thread... like someone got over zealous with the Windows 8 tiles, and it looks like scattered mesh of stuff. A good starting point, but it needs refining. Can't wait to see the NEW-new redesign.Nick Calandra said:
Also good news!
That's certainly a breath of fresh air. I've made my opinions on matters from the past few months very clear on those associated threads, and on this thread as well. I did at one point consider if I was gonna stick around for very long after said events. I'm still cautious, as we've been burned a lot in the past and the recent wounds are still a bit fresh on the mind. But if everything you and the team have said so far is upheld, then it'll be a great level of transparency we've been desperately in need of for a long time. This is how a vocal community could really shine.
I have high hopes for you guys
Yea, I read that, I really liked this one a couple of weeks ago as well:Nick Calandra said:
https://www.escapistmagazine.com/v2/2019/06/28/that-dragonborn-feel-how-i-turned-elder-scrolls-into-a-board-game/
I am personally partial to custom items whether it be board games, cosplay costumes, custom Lego minifigs and builds, custom gaming action figures, custom computers and cases and custom gaming furniture so maybe we will see some articles on those in the future as well. They do not necessarily need to have someone dedicated to just doing that full time to have an article on it here and there when someone comes across something interesting.
EDIT Adding examples:
Stuff like this is awesome too :
https://bit-tech.net/reviews/modding/Temple_of_Nod/1/
https://www.wired.com/2013/12/lego-rivendell/
https://www.therpf.com/forums/threads/fallout-new-vegas-ncr-veteran-ranger-finished-pg-8.101257/
https://nerdist.com/article/cosplayer-lifelike-spider-man-costume-moving-eyes/
https://www.pcmag.com/feature/337789/7-pcs-turned-into-furniture-you-might-actually-want
https://www.mini-itx.com/projects/bender/
Clinton and Bush were "right wing". Bernie Sanders is left, Alt right are racist, sexist extremists and yea birds of a feather and all, that is all that needs to be said really. It is what it is and there is a reason most people want nothing to do with it and don't want to hear about it all. Life is too short to deal with that nonsense tbh.Arnoxthe1 said:
I was pretty clear. Besides, this thread isn't about you or your site it is about changes the Escapist is undergoing, and what we have to look forward to here so no point derailing about topics most are tired of hearing about anyhow in a thread that has nothing to do with it.Arnoxthe1 said:
So why did you bring it up then? You can talk about it but others can't? As I recall, none of us from Sanc were even the ones who brought it up in the first place. You guys did.Lil devils x said:
Even further, I already contributed something on topic about the forum rules, but that was promptly ignored of course.
I* didn't bring anything up, *you guys* are different people not remotely related. I just addressed the comment that was made, which likely I should have ignored given the positivity of this thread. We have good things to look forward to, no point in wading through negative BS to get to it. I for one am happy they cleaned up the site, it was long overdue before moving forward, hopefully that means we can get more quality content creators on board. I am really hopeful now that they actually started communicating with us that means we have something to look forward to.Arnoxthe1 said:
I mean, what do you think was going to happen? Free Speech isn't actually Free. Part of Free Speech is taking on the responsibility of making your Speech worth listening to. Pretending to be Free Speech usually ends up leading to one echo chamber or another.Arnoxthe1 said:
But then, control speech at least somewhat doesn't do that much better.
I hope the communication keeps up. Unfortunately another thing this forum has seen a lot of is the new guy(s) coming in, promising more communication, doing so and being approachable and answering questions for maybe a thread or two, then vanishing and leaving the users here in the dark again. These promises are very rarely followed through on and I would encourage our latest overlords to make a very conscious effort to do so as apparently these forums are a very easy thing to forget about when other metaphorical fires need to be put out
I admit I am hopeful for this latest new direction. Unlike some of the previous ones, which tended to range between "these good intentions are going to backfire" and "are they actively trying to end this site?" this actually sounds promising. Though unlike those previous ones the history of a lack of follow through is no longer a comfort.
One suggestion I have for strengthening the community, though I hesitate to make it for it can be prone to abuse, is more frequent but softer touches from the mods or warning warnings for a lack of a better term. In the past I've generally appreciated the times a mod has stepped in to tell people to cool it or to get back on topic when discussion starts to get heated. This lets us know the moderators are indeed actually watching, can give us a sense of who the mods are, generally keeps discussions less toxic, and can prevent long time user permabans from the kreeping accumulation of actual warnings.
Currently we rarely hear from the mods and warnings are handed out silently. This can be especially frustrating because the kinds of posts that usually get warnings these days don't just come out of the blue, but are the product of an escalating path of discussion that could be defused without official warnings or suspensions by a simple "hey guys, things are starting to get pretty heated. Remember to be respectful or warnings will follow" post from a mod. This can also help old and new users alike(when's the last time we got one of those? ) figure out where the line is for acceptable behavior where the CoC is vague or subjective. As long as this isn't abused by mods to reach beyond the CoC to try to mold the forums to their own biases and opinions and silence those people or topics they dislike, I think this could go a long way to making the community healthier and more welcoming to new users
One suggestion I have for strengthening the community, though I hesitate to make it for it can be prone to abuse, is more frequent but softer touches from the mods or warning warnings for a lack of a better term. In the past I've generally appreciated the times a mod has stepped in to tell people to cool it or to get back on topic when discussion starts to get heated. This lets us know the moderators are indeed actually watching, can give us a sense of who the mods are, generally keeps discussions less toxic, and can prevent long time user permabans from the kreeping accumulation of actual warnings.
Currently we rarely hear from the mods and warnings are handed out silently. This can be especially frustrating because the kinds of posts that usually get warnings these days don't just come out of the blue, but are the product of an escalating path of discussion that could be defused without official warnings or suspensions by a simple "hey guys, things are starting to get pretty heated. Remember to be respectful or warnings will follow" post from a mod. This can also help old and new users alike(when's the last time we got one of those? ) figure out where the line is for acceptable behavior where the CoC is vague or subjective. As long as this isn't abused by mods to reach beyond the CoC to try to mold the forums to their own biases and opinions and silence those people or topics they dislike, I think this could go a long way to making the community healthier and more welcoming to new users
Alright then.Nick Calandra said:
I think you're overthinking this. If we said, "Say what you want. You won't get punished." but then we start punishing people for that somehow, then yeah, Sanctuary would be pretending to have free speech, but that has never happened, and I've made VERY sure that that doesn't happen.trunkage said:
