Bringing Back General Chat?

[AlphaEclipse]

Going to make this short, as it is a continuation off of https://feral-heart.com/smf/index.php?topic=65566.0.

It has been years since the removal of General chat back in 2013. it was removed without any prior warning to the community, and the reasons being were a little murky and unclear. Since the community has definitely matured and the staff team has become more efficient, are you for or against the revival of general chat? Do you feel it would benefit the game or only cause more issues in regards to both the present and the future? Anyone is free to elaborate and give their ideas and suggestions regarding general.

As community members we have the right to voice our opinions and discuss them in a civil manner. Regardless of it being an urgent issue or not, we help to represent the community wishes and questions. If any responses are overly-aggressive towards other players and/or staff I will have this immediately locked, and it would only be setting an example to not be listened to. I know this topic is repetitive but a large portion of the community wants to talk about it still, so why not let them? Any clarification and explanation in regards to why it will not/will be returning would be greatly appreciated. I am also fine with this being locked as long as it is given proper explanation.

[Azurain]

While I am curious to see how it would be, maybe it wouldn't be a good idea to bring it back. At least for now. There really aren't too many players online anymore, and the majority of them stay right in one spot in The Grounds, where everyone can hear each other anyway without the help of general.

Just my two cents.

[Valar.Morghulis]

While I am curious to see how it would be, maybe it wouldn't be a good idea to bring it back. At least for now. There really aren't too many players online anymore, and the majority of them stay right in one spot in The Grounds, where everyone can hear each other anyway without the help of general.

Just my two cents.

The reason why everyone is so close all the time is most likely due to not having any other way to communicate if we’re spread out across the map. Having a party chat as a replacement for general is also very inconvenient. People would spread out more if they knew that they could talk to everyone from other parts of the map.
What about other, bigger maps? Cherika, Kibou and Eastern Pass are very active on the weekends. It would be nice if you could talk to people from the whole other side of the map, while exploring the other part.
“It wouldn’t be a good idea to bring it back. At least for now.” - We’ve been here, without general for years. How long do we have to wait for? I think it’s been long enough. Having general removed doesn't bring any good to the community.

[Dinhosaurr]

In all honesty, I am very Neutral about this topic.
The topic about bringing General Chat up is not a new one in this community, as it's been several years since Feral-Heart has been up.

Why I'm All for it -- While I might be all for bringing back General Chat, there are some cons that I'll list down below later in this. General allows for the player to communicate with other players across-map. It's similar to how online multiplayer games can spy on other's conversations while you're on your own, busying away with other tasks, but can also contribute to the conversation here and there. Impressive Title Servers advocate for the general chat due to speech bubbles that are definitely a big flaw to said "local" chat, whereas Feral-Heart does not have that issue, so Local has been big on how community members interact with one another. Although I joined a little later than the existence of the General-Chat, I've heard lots about how a variety of old players would definitely enjoy to see it's return. If a large amount of players would like to seen it's return, then It, perhaps, wouldn't hurt to see what it would be like. Feral-Heart has grown since it's previous years.

After the incident back late last year, Feral-Heart's player count has more than likely, decreased; therefore you wouldn't see as many online as you used to, and this would even apply to years prior to 2018. FH's lessening population would encourage General's return !

However, I believe that Feral-Heart can still be, and has been, thriving without it.

Here's why I don't find it necessary - General Chat, If I remember correctly, or read it somewhere, was removed due to the high population count. If you already knew, people talk a whole lot in Local Chat already. Now, imagine the amount of spam and flooding that General-Chat would receive if members over a whole map could communicate all at once. It would also be an unfortunate hassle for Razmirz to remove it, and now add it back in, and if he felt like it didn't have a purpose to hold, take it back out. Many people tend to group up in The-Grounds, mainly around the portal area to check out what's going on in Local chat, or even be around friends, but most times than not, people wouldn't contribute to what's going on. There is also this slight boundary where younger-aged members will confuse Local and General-Chat. Local, you often see the... interesting role-plays that go on there. As for Party Chat, I don't find it quite of a nuisance, as-in, Party Chat has been a type of private chat between a group of members online, or a separate role-play chat for frequent role-players.

Feral-Heart can still survive with or without the well-favored General in my opinion !
Although I'd love to hear more opinions, nonetheless.

[Jango_Fett]

i'm gonna not format this for the sake of time



so for those of you that didn't read this thread - what r u doin gO THERE NOW
it basically explains absolutely all of the issues that FH has had with General in the past and why they're irrelevant
it's also why this thread exists[ily alpha]

now
gonna quickly go through some points
jesus bless me

@Azura

that's the entire problem.
no one is branching out and seeing what there is to see in the game because the people simply aren't there.
you'd all have to explore in exactly the same spot.
back in the old days of FH, the reason it did so well after General was removed[and i don't mean better than before - because that's debatable] was because people already had established spots to go around
there were also more people who were just willing to not be in the more populated areas
they made their own places

this is an MMO. you play an MMO to socialize/talk to/see other people. this is like if suddenly no one went out into the wilderness and stayed in the grand exchange on runescape.
that makes 0 sense and you miss out on a large chunk of the game and what it has to offer.



valar brought up another good point if you're skipping posts go look at hers nerd



@TToskuu[love the name btw i cant pronounce it but it's cool]

general wasn't removed because too many people used it. it was removed because of spam and people not knowing about turning it off.
if people confuse local and general... they'll confuse local and general.
there is nothing to stop them from asking for clarification, or being gently informed. that's what we're here to do at FH - be gentle with corrections, no?

party chat really has nothing to do with this as it's obviously a temporary private chat. i don't really understand why you brought it up. it has nothing to do with general chat.
i don't want to sound mean, but i do not understand.

feralheart i'd say hasn't really been thriving - it's moreso the remnant of what is left of this community is stuck in for the long run.
general would just improve quality of life on the game.



now time for me to post what me think because me big brain


raz locking the thread with a vague statement isn't really shocking to me. i can only ask what i might have done wrong on the thread or if something was miscarried in the process.
i do not expect an answer, as i understand Raz prioritizes his real life over FH and was probably tired of people sending it over to him over and over.
however.
just because you prioritize the IRL over a digital space, doesn't mean you should just... not explain what it is you are doing.
especially in a community that has had tense relations towards staff and raz himself, or vice versa.

the entire general chat saga is reflective of that.


i do hope that the decision can still be made on general chat, and that maybe the thread is either unlocked or given proper explanation as to why it was dabbed on.
i don't want a repeat of yeet skeet mcgeet.
that was something i actually put time into and made triple sure no one could go 'you didnt provide a solution'.
but now we're here.


i again apologize if some of this is hard to read i'm multi-tasking like mad.

[Calvary]

I really have no room to speak in all of this, but I think I should as there's been a bit of an issue with this same topic coming up again and again.

Firstly, I think it should be addressed, something I want to state adamantly about because it kind of upsets me now that I'm looking at things. The previous thread that was made in regards to this, there was a lot of discussion, even with staff members, who kind of beat around the bush about the topic but were very outspoken about the idea of General chat coming back. This, I think, was a mistake.

Why?

It was bound to give hope to something that is likely not going to happen. As much as that disappoints me, there should have been a decision made from the get-go before anything should've been said in the discussion itself. As you can see now, there is still no rightful decision, and basically the idea has been strung along and people have been led to believe something that simply won't be existent, at least not for a very long time.

Should there have been more of an elaborate reason as to why this discussion should cease? Possibly, but it also should not be dragged on for as long as it has been. I believe that with so many people who have brought up this discussion on General chat, it should be acknowledged that we won't have a straightforward answer, or maybe our answer has been given. We should acknowledge that as many times this is brought up, we aren't going to get an answer, or perhaps with how many times threads have been locked for this discussion, we should likely take the hint and back away from it for a bit and allow the Staff to make that decision, and return to us when they feel they've made a decision on it.

The more we bring this up, the more annoying it gets, and the more nothing is done about it. I think we should leave this be for now, and allow them to come to us when they feel it is right.

[Astraea]

I really have no room to speak in all of this, but I think I should as there's been a bit of an issue with this same topic coming up again and again.

Firstly, I think it should be addressed, something I want to state adamantly about because it kind of upsets me now that I'm looking at things. The previous thread that was made in regards to this, there was a lot of discussion, even with staff members, who kind of beat around the bush about the topic but were very outspoken about the idea of General chat coming back. This, I think, was a mistake.

Why?

It was bound to give hope to something that is likely not going to happen. As much as that disappoints me, there should have been a decision made from the get-go before anything should've been said in the discussion itself. As you can see now, there is still no rightful decision, and basically the idea has been strung along and people have been led to believe something that simply won't be existent, at least not for a very long time.

Should there have been more of an elaborate reason as to why this discussion should cease? Possibly, but it also should not be dragged on for as long as it has been. I believe that with so many people who have brought up this discussion on General chat, it should be acknowledged that we won't have a straightforward answer, or maybe our answer has been given. We should acknowledge that as many times this is brought up, we aren't going to get an answer, or perhaps with how many times threads have been locked for this discussion, we should likely take the hint and back away from it for a bit and allow the Staff to make that decision, and return to us when they feel they've made a decision on it.

The more we bring this up, the more annoying it gets, and the more nothing is done about it. I think we should leave this be for now, and allow them to come to us when they feel it is right.

I do agree with Calvary's statement here. I am going to keep this rather short because pushing and pulling at the topic will not accomplish anything.

We may never get an answer, and on the contrary, we may someday. No one knows. But every attempt to speak about the chat being removed has ended in failure. Is there a connection there? Probably. It would be nice to get a solid answer and reason someday as to why they will not bring it back, for the sake of the community. I do agree with that completely. I don't think leaving the community out in the dark is fair in any way, for any reason. Especially with how the chat was removed initially without any of the community knowing or even having a say in it.

The staff team makes decisions they think is the best which in all realty, will not please everybody every single time. In my honest opinion and I think the best we can all do is take a step back from this subject until further notice or reasoning if there happens to be one in the future. <3

[Valar.Morghulis]

It's rather blinding to the community when we are restrained on giving an opinion about this topic, simply because someone doesn't want us to keep suggesting it even though it's a popular interest for the game's survival.
So far, there is no real reason why the chat won’t return, regardless of whether the staff team is active and can easily control the chat.
If the topics were not getting locked without explanation (except "actions speak volumes" which is in itself egocentric, because our actions, constant talk about general chat also speaks for itself), there wouldn’t be reasons to make any more posts.

[Insoholic]

It's rather blinding to the community when we are restrained on giving an opinion about this topic, simply because someone doesn't want us to keep suggesting it even though it's a popular interest for the game's survival.
So far, there is no real reason why the chat won’t return, regardless of whether the staff team is active and can easily control the chat.
If the topics were not getting locked without explanation (except "actions speak volumes" which is in itself egocentric, because our actions, constant talk about general chat also speaks for itself), there wouldn’t be reasons to make any more posts.

I must say that this post displays exactly the same sentiments that I was thinking.

[AlphaEclipse]

I made this thread after being prompted to by several people to do so. I do agree it is annoying, and I myself know it will not accomplish much. I understand the reasoning behind while it will not likely return, but a large portion of the community does not, especially when some staff are so persistent on why it should be revived. It is confusing to the regular user. I am not pushing an agenda for General, it's just that the community was simply turned away in an inappropriate fashion. Whether it is the best decision or not is irrelevant to me at this point.

Just having this thread open, regardless if it receives any replies or not, speaks leagues about the administration. It shows they accept discussion and encourage it, even if we are all essentially kicking a dead horse. General is as dead as contacting Kovu at this point, yet discussing ideas is still widely encouraged, as it shows there is still life and an urge to better Feralheart. It is the whole reason this board essentially has existed since the game was made public. Not all proposals will be implemented but it doesn't make them any less worthy of discussion. Furthermore, the locking and little explanation of the former thread does nothing but embarrass those involved—it embarrasses the administration itself, and doesn't translate well to the community or those that are unfamiliar with General.

This thread is not retaliation by any means, it is simply a push to encourage more transparency, even if it's not the most popular method of doing so.