Moderator Free October

[Notorious.]

As someone who has stuck with FH like glue for the past 5 years, I have never expected something like this would happen. Since everyone here has basically said what was on my mind from the beginning, I'd like to make this short. I'm going to be brutally honest with you here Raz, but this is by far the worst idea I have ever seen. By doing this, not only are you going to have countless people upset about this new feature, but there are obviously going to be people abusing this and everything is going to go into literal havoc. It's for sure crystal clear at this point. Again, I'm not sure if this is what you really want, though it probably even is. You've said that everything was going to be fine when this update gets released but you have it all wrong. I'm sorry to say this but I am siding against you on this. I'm deeply disappointed in what you have caused.

But to the fellow FH members out there, I would like to say that we should all cooperate with one another and remain calm no matter how bad the situation can get. You guys are honestly like family to me and if this feature officially gets added, I hope that the innocent people of this game are not getting banned for nothing. Love y'all from the bottom of my heart~ <3

[Calvary]

As someone who considers themselves a veteran of this game, (my new account cannot tell you I've been on this game since 2011-2012), this is truly unfortunate.

This game has been through quite a lot, and the community itself has been tossed through hoops. We've lost general chat, we went through the hacking ordeal, and now we face a new challenge, and it's present in the face of the Game Master themselves.

To not consult your own staff team about your decision? Idiotic.
To not allow them to post the progress on the patch? Idiotic.
To not allow them any sort of voice in whatever is going on in your head? Oh, did I say idiotic?

Sure, we can sit here and play devil's advocate and pretend this is all sunshine and rainbows and that maybe, 0.000001% of this system will work, but it won't. This is not a matter of opinion, if I'm being quite frank. You have upset an entire community, new and old. People who haven't been on the game in months, or even years, are now upset at you. People who still play the game are mad at you.

You know, if you accomplished one nice thing through this, it was bringing together the community to protest on the matter of your foolish decision. This is the most I've seen the community band together in a long, long time. It actually brought a smile to my face despite the situation. So for that, I give you a thumbs up. For the rest of this? Lol, you better not be expecting a pat on the back, buddy.

I've been on the game many, many years. This game was my childhood. I've made memories on here I will never forget. I made friendships here that will last a lifetime. I've met people from this game in real life, and I've made and formed relationships with people I thought was unlikely. Due to the decline in activity on the game, it's been a struggle to see it as active as it once was. However now, whatever hope was left stranded, you have butchered. You have thrown the community a flotation device amidst the mast sea, and right when people were starting to grab on, you yanked back and laughed in their faces as if to show them a lesson for something they didn't do wrong. The community is now drowning thanks to your endeavors. Congrats.

I'm disappointed, and everyone likely covered the fact that this idea is heinous and ridiculous, but I'm here to say it over, and over, and over again until it sticks in your head. I hope you're happy Raz, because I think you just opened a can of worms you won't be able to close. Whether or not you did it willingly, I guess we will never know.

[Vespian]

[Wyldercat]

Not going to restate what others have said, but this is an incredibly poor decision. I can assume some passive aggressive motives to this, as the staff system is very often criticized. This is not the solution to that problem.

While I do honestly agree with many of the criticisms directed at the way the game is moderated; Feralheart stands out from other games in the fact that its staff are so involved in the community. They are real people that you can talk to and get to know and understand not as moderators or admins, but as friends and members of the community. While a person's judgement may be flawed or biased, an algorithm cannot process context or circumstance. In any community with a report system, the system will undoubtedly be abused in some way, via false accounts or frivolous reasons for the conflict. If a person being blocked results in a ban, players who will take advantage of the system can remove others from the game for no reason other than that they will it.

It also takes away the block button's function in the first place. Sometimes people won't be breaking a rule. They may just be annoying you or saying something you'd rather not read. Non-bannable offenses such as these are meant to be solved by simply ending the interaction. Now, this means that these offenses will result in a ban.

I am not active in this community anymore, but I do hold this game dear to my heart. Please do not send the already depleting game quicker to its death.

[Kawoie]

this is a really bad and stupid decision. your lack of communication to your staff members is despicable.

[Game.Grumps]

Oh, oh dear. This may as well devolve into a giant mess.

[Kawoie]

[XxSilverxX]

Well this went downhill quickly O.O

[Enoki]

I just so happened to crawl out from under my rock, which is known as college, to connect with a few of my online buddies and one of them had shared this with me.

I am truly distraught with grief.

Honestly, I feel the weight of responsibility of taking care of this game has become too great for you, Raz. And in your rash decisions, have decided to rid yourself of the responsibility of recruiting, training, and maintaining a staff team and let the members simply fight for survival in this new block’n’ban fast food joint. If you wanted to retire, just say it.

We aren’t stupid when it comes to seeing that this plan will utterly fail- if we can even call this a plan. Blocking someone doesn’t always mean their doing something wrong, and I doubt you have some high-tech AI that can differentiate between these sorts of situations. People will have the authority to ban people, simply by blocking them or getting enough people to do so. The fact that you’re not elaborating on this gives me the implication that I’m on the right track.

This is a lazy way of saying “I’m done doing my job.” Which, in the span of these past years, hasn’t involved much of your actual presence. It has been the staff team that has been the face of authority on much, if not almost all, problems. You come and go, and rarely post anything. I think this is the first I’ve seen of you posting anything of actual importance in a long, long time. And the fact that you haven’t responded to a single post on this thread or even added on explaining the reasons behind this, really says something about your intentions for this experiment.

This idea is disrespectful to the player base, the staff team, and your reputation. It lacks any sort of actual signs that you care about the game and it’s so terribly flawed that it shouldn’t have even been considered in the first place.

If this is where you want to go with the game, then perhaps it’s time that you gave the keys over to someone who has the time to put more effort in managing the game and its happenings.

For the community of this game, I ask that you take a second look at what you’re doing.

[Vilivikhorith]

Dear Razmirz,

Though I don't necessarily disagree with the idea of self-moderation, I must say your method of implementation is inherently flawed. You are assuming that when people block, rules must be broken somewhere. However, this simply is not true. If you had spent more time in-game, perhaps you would have seen some of the zaney reasons users block others; howling, having bright pelts, reducing lag, sometimes people even do it because they are bored, et cetra, et cetra. You may be using an automated system, but I highly doubt it can anticipate such reasons behind blocking, not to mention some fraction of users refuse to block even the rule breakers.

Also, if we are going by the idea of self-moderation, I want you to look at this thread. Look at every post. The community does not want this. I must ask, why do you want this? If you are giving us the power to decide who is banned and who is not, let us decide, by majority of opinion, want we want in the game, within reason. Frankly, I find the emergence of this feature to be quite conceited, and it makes me wonder more, if the rumours about you and KovuLKD are true. I can only hope that you will recant this decision before damage is done to the community, with no means of mending.