Step up or Step Down

[Bacta]

As of the update of July 3rd, the founders were very actively hands-on and you’d spot them in groups for weeks at a time. This was the last time we’d see it in such an active state, before its very inevitable decline. Why do I say inevitable? Because of how you all are as founders.

This post may come across as toxic at times, but it is sincerely heartfelt, and spoken from the eyes of a player in synergy. Someone who’s watching this server die at a second hand rate, and wants someone to acknowledge what’s wrong. At no point is there intended offense, and this post should be read in a more concerned tone than an angry keyboard warrior tone.

Community figure heading
None of you have the time to dedicate to fully assisting and aid in anything this community would actively need at a moment's notice. It’s a lot to ask of someone to be readily available at any moment, especially with real lives at play, but that’s just the root of the problem. Your guys’ life. All of you are very very busy with your careers, and that’s excellent and all, but it has obviously shown that you as a founder team cannot act as you would before. Oftentimes, the community would be looking up to you as a team to do what’s right and to take initiative. 

But what do we get to watch instead? You promote Xaze to development coordinator and dump everything development related onto his shoulders, when we’re at our lowest we have been. This is just a spit in the face to the community. Having talked to the developers, I know they appreciate this promotion, but they are also aware that this hasn’t changed anything. There power has been the excat same, they have even been able to do stuff without you guys even being aware.

Hell, did you guys know that there are some models that have been added to the server for specific events, like the imperial one? This was in fact the opposite of harmful, so don’t get mad at this fact. Infact, the player base was at a consistent 50-60+ players for the weekend it lasted, and everyone loved the two models that were slid in.

Your lack of involvement as a team as a whole has left the community with a sour and bitter taste for you all. It’s actually by the day that certain people get called the real founder team over you guys, in OOC. OOC of all places. Now you guys can do what you normally do, which is brushing this off your shoulders and saying that the community doesn’t know what they want, etc etc. But it’s become clear that a good chunk, at least half, of the community don’t trust the judgment coming out of you all as a team anymore. This leads into the next point.

Step up, or step down
Take a look at all the top communities. All their owners started as no-lifers, constantly grinding out what’s best for their community and doing what they thought was right at that moment. Even still, top dogs like corvezo and scott don’t even have any out of house jobs because they can rely on the steady income their server is making.Which brings me to our next topic, which I’ll go over in just a minute.

With what I mentioned just prior, I’m curious how willing any four of you would be in stepping down from your positions. It’s obvious you get free income, and maybe you’ll fight to stay purely based on your past in the community and how deserving you think you are of the spot due to your past deeds, but even if you think you don’t want to step down, take a moment to think. Are you capable of maintaining the old workflow you sought out prior? Is your time valued enough to be wasting away at a garry’s mod server, when your real career demands so much more?

The dilemma this post brings up is almost immeasurable on your end, but you have to realize where you are as people in our eyes. The fact that any one of you could step down, and not so much as a blink would happen on how the community is being ran right now, should say heaps to you. This has happened once in the past, and it seems to have come time again, for things to change. Drastically, at that, with who is in charge of the community. If none of you are willing to step up once again and show your face, then there is no reason for you to keep your positions. The longer you sit uptop and do nothing, the more angry your community will be.

Server income
Any player, and at all, can look at the store page you yourselves made very accessible to track, and that’s a good choice. Because we can see that you get at least $100-$200 a week, maybe even more. At what point is the line drawn between how much of this you will be pocketing? There is no chance in any way, shape, or form that this all goes into development and server upkeep.

If we had someone actively track how much income is made from that page alone, and compile it all into a monthly over-all, would you confidently say you're still putting that money back into the community? I would beg to differ. If you are going to pocket money like it’s a business, then at least treat it like one. 

 

With that, I’d like to ask for it to be publicly stated. In what scenarios do you pay your developers? Is it just for things like those big battalion packs? That map? Some of xaze’s code?

Do people like woeny get paid? Someone who’s been a very active figure and overall leader in the community these past few months? Someone who truthfully is doing the job you all should be doing in a community sense, someone who people respect and look up to?


Server status

We all know how it is. This community is so unmotivated and unwilling to get on, it’s crazy. The demotivation, in part, comes down to how you as a founder team are acting. With not a peep from your mouths but occasional “update” community meetings or Q/As, how are we to find any motivation at all. Development is not the problem, and that’s very very clear to anyone. Xaze and jayarr push their asses to get updates out at a constant rate, and no one can say development is at a low. It actually has peaked at this. So what are you as the founder team going to do? Push for a big update? What’ll that do? Absolutely nothing. Two days of hype, then several weeks/months of downtime.

There’s nothing more to say about the stats, it’s just sad. Each month we drop about 5-10 players in population, and it just keeps going down the more silent you get. Take a look at this chart
https://i.gyazo.com/38f2accfc49e0d5f5afafb13f2b99cb9.png

Notice those peaks? Those are all community held events. We have to push, every day we can, to make major events happen, just for a hope, a little spark that maybe people can have fun on the server. Fun is subjective, and not fully your fault as the founder team, but god damn if this just hasn’t been acknowledged publicly or talked about with any form of a solid plan at all.

 

What are you going to do?
So with all of that said, what is your course of action? Will you step up and change your ways? Do you have any plans at all devised on what you’re going to do to make things better? Everyone's confidence is low, and we don’t need another beat around the bush answer. Please just tell us what you have in mind, we need to know. If not just for knowledge sake, then for the sake of the community.

 

Don’t just hit us with “Oh, you all have so much to complain about but no solutions!!!!”. That’s not our job. It has never been our job. This only falls on people who are either management+ or the developers. We as the community are not in charge of longevity and health, we simply maintain the balance by doing something we occasionally have fun with in this video game.

I hope this post got the point across, it may have been passive aggressive at times, but there’s no other way to seemingly get the message to you all. If it’s not publicly made, it’s easily disregarded. Please just take a step back and understand where we’re at right now, and don’t take on the defensive in a heart beat.

 

I know this does not seem it but i will always have mad respect for the Founder team, I love Square/Jad/Dragon/Forseen and have looked up to them, but i see no other way at this point to convey suggestions or to push you guys to do the server justice. Put that same effort you guys put in when you first got the server, when it was bouncing back and at its best, seeing Jayarr/Xaze/Woeny/Maddoxx putting in 200%,without these 4 people the server would die, I cant say the same for you 4.

Edited October 8, 2022 by Mazen

[Comics]

There's only so much you can sweep under the rug in 3am meetings. Apologies and excuses don't work if you never follow then up with change. So if real life gets in the way of ever runningservers maybe you shouldn't run them? You definitely shouldn't scrape the earnings from your volunteers who do all your job for you

[Mavelle]

I actually agree with quite a bit of what's being said here. Especially the bit about Jayarr, Xaze, Woeny, and Maddoxx putting in 200% and essentially singlehandedly keeping the community afloat. Because I know for a fact, especially with the statistics corroborating, that pop has only surged when we work extremely hard to put together huge events and publicize them in every way we can (rather than GMs hosting regular events. I feel absolutely terrible for people hosting stuff that people just... don't get on for)

I think there's a lot that you guys could do to improve on the stuff that Mazen's saying. Financially, it's kept a secret what's paid for, what's bought, and how much income the server makes. Now, I get that. But many, many, many times in the past (I can even go back to Zim talking about this on previous similar posts) people have brought up how nice it would be to even just have a little section on the forums that discloses or talks about the server's finances. 

Right now, the literal only thing players know about the server's money is - "All of the money goes back into the server", and "Dragon does the uhh money stuff".

Some more things that I think could be done to address the issues in our community would be expanding. I know Jad's spoken about how he doesn't want to market if we're not in a good spot to put forth our server, but I disagree wholeheartedly, and I think a lot of other people do. Any strategies we can develop for marketing or getting our public image out there would be infinitely better than a lot of people think; because even if someone joins and disconnects, they've joined.

 

I know you guys have been supposedly thinking about working on a new server for the 2.5 years I've been here, and I know that takes a TON of patience, resources, etc. 
I do think, however, that it can definitely be looked into as to why we don't have enough of those things to move out into a new server. Is it lack of founder time? Is it lack of leadership members?

Something else to note; careers, jobs, etc. All of us juggle it. But you guys are... like... BUSY busy. If you are that busy, I think a good solution to the problems that come with it, is at the very least allowing Woeny and Xaze as Coordinators (a rank that was originally defined as "A founder in everything but name") to have much more autonomy. Dev having to get everything approved by people who can barely hop on once in a while due to scheduling puts so many wrenches in so many cogs.

At the end of the day, Marvel and I can push for loads of RP on Clone Wars Main. Jayarr and Xaze can do their hardest to add AWESOME content for us constantly. Maddoxx and Woeny can manage all of our systems incredibly well. But server recoveries have to start from the top down at the same time as the bottom up.  And believe me, we each spend 200 hours a week going bottom up.

Stuff like the business/financial/marketing and actual community expansion can only be done by the Founders. It can't be done by any of us.

 

 

EDIT: Don't be afraid to speak up, y'all. All of this is just words. It's better if people with unique perspectives hop on! Don't be the guy just watching this for forum drama and staying out of it just because you're afraid of "making enemies" or losing positions, or shit like that. Hell, if I'm posting on this, I'm signing up for that too. There are real problems here. They've been going on for the better part of a year. They aren't getting better. I'm not afraid to call it out- nothing changes unless it is.

[Opa]

The entire post is straight facts. Personally, I feel like Founder feels more like a retirement rank without actually retiring, there's way too many of y'all 1 Founder is all you need aka server owner.  The fact that personal life stop's somoene to interact with their own community daily is just  a big blown up lie, the reality is that your life + other games are just higher importance, I wouldn't say anything if you could manage playing other shit + working on the community actively, but you can't which is kind of crossroads.  Many of us work a lot irl etc, but still can be on, if even more people use this as excuse really there will be no more players playing this server

[Lyonaxis]

Now more then ever there is need for something to change, the server is suffering and something need to be done.

[BadDog]

Yes, I agree with what you are saying that something needs to change in the community 

[KillJoy]

Honestly, if want to bring back the player base than we need to have more encounters, and event server people just sit idle and just b-hop around when is the last time anyone actually rp that being medbay check ups or eng room maintenance. Or anyone going to village and rp at the bar. Not everything should be placed on the founders, yes they went bravo 6 but the community as a whole just gets on to shoot than leave. The only time I saw actual rp was the imp event. Which is sad because y’all can rp like that any day of the week. Main reason people is because they are bored, just increase the small encounters than a huge event in between. 

[Egert]

I have been waiting for something like this. Someone to speak up because it had to be said. I honestly do think the founders do not know what even happens in the server and with the players. Don't remember last time Dragon played, Square hopped on for the first 2 weeks of July Update, Forseen hopped on for the first month of the update in July and mby a bit in August, And Jad hops on the server sometimes but not frequently(This is during usually from 7AM EST-5/6PM EST  so don't hate me). I generally don't see much hands on help from the founders, it more seems that you are managing the Dev team and Community management a little and sometimes don't know what they are doing. I've been saying this for a bit but there would not be a need for 4 founders when the workload could be split into 1 or 2 people(from outside perspective). I'm not disrespectful towards the founders i know what you have done for the community in the past but currently at this time it isn't the same. Something really does need to change.

[TessaKitty]

I've been on and off Synergy since 2017. I've gone through a lot of rough and toxic shit here, but I've stuck around. I've come back time and time again, because I'm passionate about the community and I'm passionate about the people I've met here and the people I've made friends with in my time. When I came back to Synergy a few months ago, I was met with people genuinely happy to see me. Because I have legacy here. I've made a mark, and so many other people have also made a mark. All of these other people have created amazing memories and awesome friends in their time on Synergy. So many people have that same passion that I do. This community is a goldmine. It has endless potential that I know we can bring back again. We just need motivation. Everyone here just needs the motivation.

The structure that Synergy has developed over the years has cemented a capacity to run autonomously based on the chain of command. Everyone thrives from having someone above them, looking down and patting them on the back for doing a good job. I know that first hand because as a BCMD, I still feel that way about the people above me. And I know that the people in my battalion feel the same way towards me. I am personally able to obtain very high numbers while I'm online. Right now however, people such as myself are losing motivation. It seems like we're all putting in work for a project that is simply owned by 4 guys that we've only seen like twice in the past few months. We in higher positions on the server have a responsibility to uphold. We must play our part in being that figure for the people below us, and so must all of you, the founders.

Synergy will die unless something changes, imminently. I don't think any of you should step down, but I would very, very much like to see you all take the step up. Synergy is home to so many people and its genuinely heartbreaking to see 16 people on the server where there used to be 100 more. We are doing our jobs, and I understand that perhaps you are doing yours. But if you all do more, we also will do much more for you. 

This is not intended as a lecture, or a scolding. Its a plea for help. The same can be said for everyone here. So I want you all to ask yourselves. Should our community be begging us for help and attention? No. Something is wrong here, very wrong. This is not a business anymore. It barely counts as a community. Its a small server on Gmod. Its time to start running it as such. Its time to step up <3

[ShadeButt]

I agree with everything on this, The server needs some love from the big bois, I've been playinng sense 2021, I've seen the servers ups and downs and well, It's not going so well, Events can't happen without players, and without events players will continue leaving. MAKE SYNERGY GREAT AGAIN

[Cox]

1 hour ago, Mazen said:

As of the update of July 3rd, the founders were very actively hands-on and you’d spot them in groups for weeks at a time. This was the last time we’d see it in such an active state, before its very inevitable decline. Why do I say inevitable? Because of how you all are as founders.

This post may come across as toxic at times, but it is sincerely heartfelt, and spoken from the eyes of a player in synergy. Someone who’s watching this server die at a second hand rate, and wants someone to acknowledge what’s wrong. At no point is there intended offense, and this post should be read in a more concerned tone than an angry keyboard warrior tone.

Community figure heading
None of you have the time to dedicate to fully assisting and aid in anything this community would actively need at a moment's notice. It’s a lot to ask of someone to be readily available at any moment, especially with real lives at play, but that’s just the root of the problem. Your guys’ life. All of you are very very busy with your careers, and that’s excellent and all, but it has obviously shown that you as a founder team cannot act as you would before. Oftentimes, the community would be looking up to you as a team to do what’s right and to take initiative. 

But what do we get to watch instead? You promote Xaze to development coordinator and dump everything development related onto his shoulders, when we’re at our lowest we have been. This is just a spit in the face to the community. Having talked to the developers, I know they appreciate this promotion, but they are also aware that this hasn’t changed anything. There power has been the excat same, they have even been able to do stuff without you guys even being aware.

Hell, did you guys know that there are some models that have been added to the server for specific events, like the imperial one? This was in fact the opposite of harmful, so don’t get mad at this fact. Infact, the player base was at a consistent 50-60+ players for the weekend it lasted, and everyone loved the two models that were slid in.

Your lack of involvement as a team as a whole has left the community with a sour and bitter taste for you all. It’s actually by the day that certain people get called the real founder team over you guys, in OOC. OOC of all places. Now you guys can do what you normally do, which is brushing this off your shoulders and saying that the community doesn’t know what they want, etc etc. But it’s become clear that a good chunk, at least half, of the community don’t trust the judgment coming out of you all as a team anymore. This leads into the next point.

Step up, or step down
Take a look at all the top communities. All their owners started as no-lifers, constantly grinding out what’s best for their community and doing what they thought was right at that moment. Even still, top dogs like corvezo and scott don’t even have any out of house jobs because they can rely on the steady income their server is making.Which brings me to our next topic, which I’ll go over in just a minute.

With what I mentioned just prior, I’m curious how willing any four of you would be in stepping down from your positions. It’s obvious you get free income, and maybe you’ll fight to stay purely based on your past in the community and how deserving you think you are of the spot due to your past deeds, but even if you think you don’t want to step down, take a moment to think. Are you capable of maintaining the old workflow you sought out prior? Is your time valued enough to be wasting away at a garry’s mod server, when your real career demands so much more?

The dilemma this post brings up is almost immeasurable on your end, but you have to realize where you are as people in our eyes. The fact that any one of you could step down, and not so much as a blink would happen on how the community is being ran right now, should say heaps to you. This has happened once in the past, and it seems to have come time again, for things to change. Drastically, at that, with who is in charge of the community. If none of you are willing to step up once again and show your face, then there is no reason for you to keep your positions. The longer you sit uptop and do nothing, the more angry your community will be.

Server income
Any player, and at all, can look at the store page you yourselves made very accessible to track, and that’s a good choice. Because we can see that you get at least $100-$200 a week, maybe even more. At what point is the line drawn between how much of this you will be pocketing? There is no chance in any way, shape, or form that this all goes into development and server upkeep.

If we had someone actively track how much income is made from that page alone, and compile it all into a monthly over-all, would you confidently say you're still putting that money back into the community? I would beg to differ. If you are going to pocket money like it’s a business, then at least treat it like one. 

 

With that, I’d like to ask for it to be publicly stated. In what scenarios do you pay your developers? Is it just for things like those big battalion packs? That map? Some of xaze’s code?

Do people like woeny get paid? Someone who’s been a very active figure and overall leader in the community these past few months? Someone who truthfully is doing the job you all should be doing in a community sense, someone who people respect and look up to?


Server status

We all know how it is. This community is so unmotivated and unwilling to get on, it’s crazy. The demotivation, in part, comes down to how you as a founder team are acting. With not a peep from your mouths but occasional “update” community meetings or Q/As, how are we to find any motivation at all. Development is not the problem, and that’s very very clear to anyone. Xaze and jayarr push their asses to get updates out at a constant rate, and no one can say development is at a low. It actually has peaked at this. So what are you as the founder team going to do? Push for a big update? What’ll that do? Absolutely nothing. Two days of hype, then several weeks/months of downtime.

There’s nothing more to say about the stats, it’s just sad. Each month we drop about 5-10 players in population, and it just keeps going down the more silent you get. Take a look at this chart
https://i.gyazo.com/38f2accfc49e0d5f5afafb13f2b99cb9.png

Notice those peaks? Those are all community held events. We have to push, every day we can, to make major events happen, just for a hope, a little spark that maybe people can have fun on the server. Fun is subjective, and not fully your fault as the founder team, but god damn if this just hasn’t been acknowledged publicly or talked about with any form of a solid plan at all.

 

What are you going to do?
So with all of that said, what is your course of action? Will you step up and change your ways? Do you have any plans at all devised on what you’re going to do to make things better? Everyone's confidence is low, and we don’t need another beat around the bush answer. Please just tell us what you have in mind, we need to know. If not just for knowledge sake, then for the sake of the community.

 

Don’t just hit us with “Oh, you all have so much to complain about but no solutions!!!!”. That’s not our job. It has never been our job. This only falls on people who are either management+ or the developers. We as the community are not in charge of longevity and health, we simply maintain the balance by doing something we occasionally have fun with in this video game.

I hope this post got the point across, it may have been passive aggressive at times, but there’s no other way to seemingly get the message to you all. If it’s not publicly made, it’s easily disregarded. Please just take a step back and understand where we’re at right now, and don’t take on the defensive in a heart beat.

 

I know this does not seem it but i will always have mad respect for the Founder team, I love Square/Jad/Dragon/Forseen and have looked up to them, but i see no other way at this point to convey suggestions or to push you guys to do the server justice. Put that same effort you guys put in when you first got the server, when it was bouncing back and at its best, seeing Jayarr/Xaze/Woeny/Maddoxx putting in 200%,without these 4 people the server would die, I cant say the same for you 4.

I’m not reading allat bro 😭😭😭💀💀💀🤦‍♂️

[Ccmonty]

I do not think server pop has broken 60 in the past month for more then an hour or two. Staff enjoy making events when there are people on to play in them and when no ones there to play (for my POV at least) "well whats the point of doing an event when no ones on. ill just do one later/tomorrow when people are on".  No one wants to be a game helper because they want to play the event instead. no one wants to EJ for the same reason or because theres no EJs on. We are struggling to crack 30 players which we used to get just by people AFKing. 

The most i've seen founders do recently is promoting xaze and implementing gprotect, the problems with which needed to have a server suggestion to get fixed despite the very vocal moaning and groaning of almost the entire staff team about it in game, ts, and discord. we have the same group of around 10-13 people running every event, we have multiple dead and VERY dead battalions (INCLUDING CG ATM), but most of all people don't want to play because the servers dead and theres been consistant radio silence from the founders. please. at least tell us that you have a plan

[Bbstine]

I'm genuinely asking this because of my own curiosity. But if things were to change and you could remove anything from the server and add anything, what does everyone think would help our server population?

[TessaKitty]

Just now, Bbstine said:

I'm genuinely asking this because of my own curiosity. But if things were to change and you could remove anything from the server and add anything, what does everyone think would help our server population?

Its not a matter of removing things or adding things. Its a matter of people and motivation. I don't think that any kind of development right now could help our population. Like sure do a map update, get 10 extra people on. But how are we gonna keep those people on the server? Thats not gonna be a matter of development. No quest system can fix that problem. 

[Bbstine]

Just now, TessaKitty said:

Its not a matter of removing things or adding things. Its a matter of people and motivation. I don't think that any kind of development right now could help our population. Like sure do a map update, get 10 extra people on. But how are we gonna keep those people on the server? Thats not gonna be a matter of development. No quest system can fix that problem. 

So do you believe that what we are missing is a form of advertisement to bring in new players? Or is this a matter of having people who are prominent in the community joining and people will want to join because they are on?

[Mavelle]

3 minutes ago, Bbstine said:

I'm genuinely asking this because of my own curiosity. But if things were to change and you could remove anything from the server and add anything, what does everyone think would help our server population?

I talked about a lot of possible things in my post above !

[TessaKitty]

Just now, Bbstine said:

So do you believe that what we are missing is a form of advertisement to bring in new players? Or is this a matter of having people who are prominent in the community joining and people will want to join because they are on?

I suppose that could have some impact on it. Its the people that are already here that need to change though. The people who are in positions to enhance activity. Think of it like this. If we had a GM team that didn't run any events, the solution wouldn't be to look for more gamemasters. It would be to motivate our current GM team to make more events!

[Dono]

Change needs to happen. If your PLAYER leadership is in unison on this, it cannot be ignored or brushed off. If you only listen to your behind the scenes infrastructure group that just pat you on the back all the time, this community will flatline.   Take the message here and really consider the future of this community. Even if S&Box comes out in like 3 years. Your not gonna have a community to switch over by then if you continue being absent as the leaders of the entire community. Mavelle covered pretty much all the points. 

[Leer]

It is sad to see the server in such a low state, I havent been gone from the server for more than a year. But in that time DB's went from dozens of troopers to barely ten at any given notice. And server count went from being at around 100 everyday to about at max 25.

[Aegis]

As a new addition to the community, I have to say I have no clue who the founders really are. I see the Devs always present and working on things, and the admin team trying to keep things afloat, but there feels like a disconnect from the top. More transparency with funding and roadmaps would be spectacular in order to let people see what is going on, and what the higher ups got on the docket. Ultimately I don't have a solution,  but a discussion should be had.

[GregRocks]

I've gotta say, I've wanted to say something like this myself for a very long time. I just know I didn't have the community standing for it to matter.

@Mazenfirst off, thank you. You are speaking for a lot of Synergy coming out and saying this. You're a real one.

As far as founders, he's right. They do nothing. Everything community related is done by Xaze, Maddox, Jayarr and Mavelle. (At least mainly. No shade to anyone else who helps, such as hicom, devs and high staff.) I've never seen so much effort put into Synergy, but by God I didn't want it to be everybody but the founders. Jad and Forseen come on the forums once in a blue moon to throw shade or decline a 6 month old suggestion, but that's literally it. Fuck behind the scenes work, it's time they actually start doing something other than reaping the profits of the four actual people who run the server. 

There is no reason every founder should not be active and engaged in the community. They're not figure heads, they're supposed to be the leaders. I'm with Mazen. They should start doing their jobs, or leave and let the people who are already doing their jobs assume their positions.

Edited October 8, 2022 by Lovestruck

[Taz]

i thought you quit synergy

[Zensras]

Okay let's be real for one second:

Say new founders come in,  then what is your plan?   I'm seeing a lot of seething and less answers here.   

If nothing changes,  Are you gonna sit there and complain about Forseen and the rest?


Will say this at least:  Jad is one of the more active founders of them all.   He gives a shit.

 

[A-a-ron]

From what I've heard and the little I've personally seen, Dragon is MIA I saw him for the first time on the forums in like a year last night after Keegan's post. I honestly dont know what Forseen has done except play destiny in his channel. My interactions with Square except for one dm conversation where I had the possibility of fucking with his revenue have been negative, and he gave his only job to Xaze even tho Xaze was already doing it. And from what I hear Jad is the only active founder, but people don't want him to be which is irony at its finest.

I +1 this suggestion!

Edited October 8, 2022 by A-a-ron

[Fyi]

this is a funny post

[Lyonaxis]

7 minutes ago, Zensras said:

Say new founders come in,  then what is your plan?   I'm seeing a lot of seething and less answers here.   

If nothing changes,  Are you gonna sit there and complain about Forseen and the rest?

 

3 hours ago, Mazen said:

Don’t just hit us with “Oh, you all have so much to complain about but no solutions!!!!”. That’s not our job. It has never been our job. This only falls on people who are either management+ or the developers. We as the community are not in charge of longevity and health, we simply maintain the balance by doing something we occasionally have fun with in this video game.

 

[Comics]

13 minutes ago, Zensras said:

Okay let's be real for one second:

Say new founders come in,  then what is your plan?   I'm seeing a lot of seething and less answers here.   

If nothing changes,  Are you gonna sit there and complain about Forseen and the rest?


Will say this at least:  Jad is one of the more active founders of them all.   He gives a shit.

 

What has jad done exactly? Being a good pr guy doesn't make you a good founder? If current leaders do nothing and we have perfect replacements that already do everything what exactly are they there for?

No one is able to give every solution but maybe we should by making sure our leaders actually do something for the server? What should we do? Watch as the server rots and just don't blame the actual leaders because they're cool?

Maybe we want to play synergy in a year because sitting around feeling bad isn't exactly gonna make that happen

[Maddoxx]

ok now it's moved, you may continue. 

[GregRocks]

I guess I'll be the first one to @Jad @Dragon @Square @Forseen

[Katy]

The situation the server is in reminds me a lot of the state of the server two years ago at this time, except now it's much worse. Founders M.I.A., low server pop, and the developers handling most of the work that gets put into the server with little Founder involvement (besides approval and disapproval). That ended with every Founder resigning of course and the current Founders being put into their new positions. The player population will continue to dwindle as the loyal player base diminishes and new players fail to join because of a lack of players. Even then, the new players continue to be demotivated by older players who know how things were much better. It's all a cycle and it's sad to see.

[Mystic]

People would rather quit Gmod than find another server when they leave Synergy. That has to speak volumes of the playerbase we have in our hands. Clearly, we need to find out whats going wrong. Why don't we make a response form or something and ask what would bring back old players? This in turn can potentially draw in new players who want the same thing.

In my 2 years of owning Gmod and server hopping i've NEVER found such a well put together community as Synergy. It's painful to see the server at 6 people online at like... 1am. I know its not fully in the Founders control, but i genuinely feel bad for the devs and Management/Directors who try so hard to pull events together to get 40 people on the server and have only 20 or so participate as it dwindles through the event. 

[Guac]

Does this ever work?

 

On most of these "call-out" type posts, I have a hard time accepting the plain anti-founder bashing and GM team blaming. You can look back at any one of these posts in the past year and I will there defending those who seemed to be targeted without true reason. The rhetoric used primarily is "a lack of transparency" or "a lack of communication". Both have their place on the list of issues, and every facet of leadership (High Command, High Staff, Founders) has. These posts are created during a morale drought, and aren't taken seriously no matter how much community "support".

 

However,

 

Things are different now. We have a community that has grown so much since when I first joined, in spirit and numbers; but it has been dwindling. This community growth was demonstrated through the Imperial event recently hosted. With no models or structure, a group of people decided to come together to host one of the most entertaining "day-long events" that I have ever seen. People who I once knew as FPS players, were managing to create and sustain some of the best role-play that I have seen in months. With little to no formal coordination, this entire day was orchestrated simply by the players' drive and motivation they had seen, coming from the top down.

 

What does this mean?

 

The "hype" generated through change, passion, and direct leadership intervention; shows that it is possible to regain the fruitful player base we once had. You see this being done with our tri-monthly updates, which I will admit, have paid dividends. However, they are simply not sustainable. Due to the confusing judgment and PERCEIVED lack of care coming from the founder team, people have become disenchanted.

 

What are the solutions?

 

I think anyone who demands the Founders be online to the near capacity of other members in leadership roles (Director+), has a narrow scope of judgment. I think that in many cases, a founder doesn't need to be online at all. I recognize the effort that has been put into this project, and the lives that each of the founders holds outside of Synergy. Which is why things need to change. I think that with the current development team that we have, and the wonderful High Staff leadership in place, Founders should and can take their hands-off approach a bit more literally. By allowing the members of leadership currently in place to have a higher set of powers regarding content implementation, executive authority in situations below them, and any other job that has to be sent through the current founders at this point; I firmly believe a better player atmosphere will occur. A player atmosphere, that contrary to which the tri-monthly updates develop, is far more sustainable.

 

Moving forward.

 

Say what you want about the founders, but I have seen each and every one of them at some point shows true, hands-on, and deep passion for this community and its betterment. However, due to the absence of it in such hard times, I think that the most love and beneficial action they can do at this point, is to loosen the grip.
 

Spoiler

"People would rather quit Gmod than find another server when they leave Synergy. That has to speak volumes of the playerbase we have in our hands." - Mystic

Buenos Días - Guac

[GregRocks]

10 minutes ago, Guac said:

Does this ever work?

 

On most of these "call-out" type posts, I have a hard time accepting the plain anti-founder bashing and GM team blaming. You can look back at any one of these posts in the past year and I will there defending those who seemed to be targeted without true reason. The rhetoric used primarily is "a lack of transparency" or "a lack of communication". Both have their place on the list of issues, and every facet of leadership (High Command, High Staff, Founders) has. These posts are created during a morale drought, and aren't taken seriously no matter how much community "support".

 

  Reveal hidden contents

"People would rather quit Gmod than find another server when they leave Synergy. That has to speak volumes of the playerbase we have in our hands." - Mystic

Buenos Días - Guac

It's not like this is a sudden development in the community where we decided we wanted to hate on the founders. This, if anything, is the LAST ditch effort to get some actual change to happen. If the status of things is so bad (it is.) that someone like Mazen, who has defended the high leadership of Synergy tooth and nail, and has given his all to Synergy to make it a better place, then it's a genuine issue. These posts keep happening because no real change gets done.

 

13 minutes ago, Guac said:

However,

 

Things are different now. We have a community that has grown so much since when I first joined, in spirit and numbers; but it has been dwindling. This community growth was demonstrated through the Imperial event recently hosted. With no models or structure, a group of people decided to come together to host one of the most entertaining "day-long events" that I have ever seen. People who I once knew as FPS players, were managing to create and sustain some of the best role-play that I have seen in months. With little to no formal coordination, this entire day was orchestrated simply by the players' drive and motivation they had seen, coming from the top down.
 

  Reveal hidden contents

"People would rather quit Gmod than find another server when they leave Synergy. That has to speak volumes of the playerbase we have in our hands." - Mystic

Buenos Días - Guac

You have managed to list one singular time recently where Synergy was not dying, quite literally despite the founders. This HUGE event was done completely without them. Something this big is something I would expect Founders to be in on, but it was entirely done by people MINIMAL 2 steps below them. Other than this one day, I have been STARVED for activity and roleplay, despite everybody except the founders being HEAVILY hands on to change that.

 

17 minutes ago, Guac said:

What does this mean?

 

The "hype" generated through change, passion, and direct leadership intervention; shows that it is possible to regain the fruitful player base we once had. You see this being done with our tri-monthly updates, which I will admit, have paid dividends. However, they are simply not sustainable. Due to the confusing judgment and PERCEIVED lack of care coming from the founder team, people have become disenchanted.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

"People would rather quit Gmod than find another server when they leave Synergy. That has to speak volumes of the playerbase we have in our hands." - Mystic

Buenos Días - Guac

These changes have all been headed, developed by, and planned by the development team. Your perceived lack of care is literally a lack of care. Founders should not be sitting back in their chair watching Synergy die.

 

20 minutes ago, Guac said:

What are the solutions?

 

I think anyone who demands the Founders be online to the near capacity of other members in leadership roles (Director+), has a narrow scope of judgment. I think that in many cases, a founder doesn't need to be online at all. I recognize the effort that has been put into this project, and the lives that each of the founders holds outside of Synergy. Which is why things need to change. I think that with the current development team that we have, and the wonderful High Staff leadership in place, Founders should and can take their hands-off approach a bit more literally. By allowing the members of leadership currently in place to have a higher set of powers regarding content implementation, executive authority in situations below them, and any other job that has to be sent through the current founders at this point; I firmly believe a better player atmosphere will occur. A player atmosphere, that contrary to which the tri-monthly updates develop, is far more sustainable.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

"People would rather quit Gmod than find another server when they leave Synergy. That has to speak volumes of the playerbase we have in our hands." - Mystic

Buenos Días - Guac

I'm sorry, are you suggesting that they need to be MORE hands off? "Not only should they stay hands off, they should start doing even LESS by letting the people below them do those things instead!" At that point what will they fucking do other than reap all the cash from the actual people who care's hard work? "Clearly during this time of Synergy dying, the people at the top of the server don't need to do more... But do even less!". Truly, this is an astounding take.

 

26 minutes ago, Guac said:

Moving forward.

 

 

Say what you want about the founders, but I have seen each and every one of them at some point shows true, hands-on, and deep passion for this community and its betterment. However, due to the absence of it in such hard times, I think that the most love and beneficial action they can do at this point, is to loosen the grip.
 

  Reveal hidden contents

"People would rather quit Gmod than find another server when they leave Synergy. That has to speak volumes of the playerbase we have in our hands." - Mystic

Buenos Días - Guac

I've got to say I am truly dumbfounded. First off, could you list any of these times recently? (After the release of the new map) Because I sure haven't.
I'm really lost at the "loosen their grip" part. Let's say I'm the CEO of a business, (because let's face it, that's what they are), and I am generally hands off. I start noticing my business is falling apart. Is my best move to "loosen my grip" and start doing even less? Let the management start running the whole thing? NO! My move is to be hands on, help my business succeed again! After all, I am at the very top and the leader of this business, I should start leading it!

I genuinely cannot understand this take on the situation. Even if there is behind the scenes work that they're doing, it clearly is not enough! Watching Synergy fall apart and watching the people below them try to fix it is NOT what they should be doing! They need to step the fuck up, or let the people who are ACTUALLY running the server take their positions.

[Eclipse]

Post is 9hrs old and no founder comments. Where they at!?

[Marvel]

Sorry for the depressing take but I just don't know what to say.

I'm at the point where I just don't know what to do anymore. Everyday is a struggle to get on the server. After like my first week of Director it just turned into some depressing position where I find myself feeling responsible for the server's current state because of my position but what can I do? This is my second time in the position and I was told quite often last time that I just got Director at the wrong time but I'm starting to believe I got it at the wrong time now. I was actually pretty excited to work back up to Director when I rejoined the staff team earlier this year thinking it would be a million times better than my first time. So far it's just been really depressing and stressful. 

It's like I'm just being forced to watch the server slowly die and I can't do a damn thing to stop it. I know other people feel the same way. I agree that something needs to change because at this rate we're gonna hit rock bottom. Been with the community for 4 years now and I can't tell you how many times there have been posts like this when we were hitting 100+ players and I know you older fellas remember the monthly "Synergy is dying" posts. Hell we even agreed with them sometimes but now it's so much different. Synergy is dying and something needs to change because everyone that's left that actively plays and engages with the server/community have no idea what to do and I doubt Founders have the magic cure either.

 I really didn't know how to put this into words :/ 

[Zim]

i tell you kids, back in my day, we had it so rough... or so much better, i can't tell anymore. anyway, every day, we would wake up at 2 in the morning and go to the forums for juicy drama. we all lived in a closet, you see, so it was one room. and we would ask, me and joah and square and jackson, "what's for todays update?". joah would smack us all with a shoe and say "content". and if we complained and said "but we added content yesterday" - because we had worked on updates every day - he would smack us all five times with a shoe and say "tough its all your gonna do. i'm trying to feed a family of me with just half a silver buckington", a silver buckington was about the same as half a 250,000 credit purchase back in the day. then we would head to the teamspeak. we met up with the admins from down the teamspeak channels, and would code the 1674 lines of trash to make the updates they wanted. on the way to teamspeak, we had to deal with the discord messages that piled up during our 1 hour of sleep, it was so tall it extended to outer space. when we got to the top of the messages, we would see the good boys with their fancy messages - which they dont make like they used to, and we would be forced to talk to them for 'good relations'. then, when we finally got to the server at 4 in the morning, the players would come up to us and say "your worthless trash and never put time into the server or my suggestion for c3po with fat tits and a fuckable pussy. i hate you", then they would smack us all with the arrest batton 10 times and tell us we had 7 years of updates to make up for. then, we went to restricted areas so players couldnt reach up, and staff team would say "ok listen up idiots", then he would tp to us and spank us each 60 times, then hit us each with the stun batton 40 times each. then it was 7 at night and we had to try and play another game to feel better after all the abuse. then, when we got on LoL, we'd ask joah "whats the play today?", and he'd smack us each 50 times with a verbal abuse and say "this is why i love jackson more". and if we complained, he would verbally smack us each 100 times with a fire comeback and say "im trying to feed a family of 154 on just one islet sliver, just you wait until your dad (Mods) gets home" - now an islet silver was worth about as much as a tac insert (or a lightsaber crystal). then, when our dad got home from his job at the Havoc factory, he would hit us all 180 times with his belt. if we had been naughty, we would hit us all another 600 times. then, at 12:58, joah would say "ok time for bed". then, we got into our potato sacks, and he would hit us with text messages to do updates tomorrow before we went to sleep.

[Square]

5 minutes ago, Zim said:

when we finally got to the server at 4 in the morning, the players would come up to us and say "your worthless trash and never put time into the server or my suggestion for c3po with fat tits and a fuckable pussy. i hate you",

 

Finished making it long ago, decided to keep it for myself. 

[A-a-ron]

Just now, Square said:

Finished making it long ago, decided to keep it for myself. 

 

[Eclipse]

Just now, Square said:

Finished making it long ago, decided to keep it for myself. 

You should comment on the post Mazen made

[Square]

1 minute ago, Eclipse said:

You should comment on the post Mazen made

Ok 

 

[Eclipse]

Just now, Square said:

Ok 

 

No I mean this post the Step up or Step Down post the one about you stepping down

[Square]

Just now, Eclipse said:

No I mean this post the Step up or Step Down post the one about you stepping down

Yes I am giving you founder. You own the server now congratulations

[Eclipse]

Just now, Square said:

Yes I am giving you founder. You own the server now congratulations

Thank you but you should really respond to the real post

[Brooklyn]

My thoughts and opinions have already been expressed by basically everyone else on this post, but I do have something extra to say. 

It's obvious at this point that Square's posts reflects the Founder Team. This post is not serious to them and it doesn't matter. If I'm wrong, please reply. Throwing up a post that is comparable to saying "Who are you?" to someone who brings up issues, shows the mindset from the top doesn't want to acknowledge this as more than a "rough spot because of school and work." That is literally said at every Community Meeting. There are Commanders, High Staff, new players, old heads, every combo of people that are part of this community that are bringing up issues. Why is this treated as a shitpost? 

Why, as Community Owners and Leaders, can you not acknowledge that the state of the server is not a rough spot. Synergy has been slowly and slowly losing people and then we were steady for 8 months. Then boom, in 2 months we drop half our population. Factions are dead. people are not motivated. Some battalions don't have leadership, the server doesn't have players. This isn't a rough spot.

Honestly, tell us this isn't a rough spot. Tell us that there is a plan beyond "Updates". Is there anything? Any discussion? Any form of solution? Or will this just brush off like every post does. We all care. We all want to play here and be part of this Community.

[Comics]

7 minutes ago, Square said:

Ok 

 

Another classic "who even are you" moment from one of our 4 founders responding to genuine criticism.

This is why you let jad do all the talking because he's at least good at pretending to care about the community. It's like a big funny joke to you because you don't lose anything since you aren't even a member. Do you respect anything about thi community, time and time again they complain about you doing nothing and you remain completely silent or crack some pathetic joke. Do you even read anything that people say? Your directors aren't happy, you have borderline unpaid devs doing all your work, and who knows how happy management is. You know you lose that $200 if no one actually plays on your server? 

There isn't team here, no one wants to be on your side because you're killing the one thing they actually care about. Lip service isn't going to keep synergy afloat. You can't live in a delusional forever and pretend things will work out this way. You can't be both incharge of the server but not responsible for its failings when rivals are hitting peak easily 

 

[Bacta]

25 minutes ago, Square said:

Ok 

 

Did you get this post checked by Jad before posting?

[Mystic]

34 minutes ago, Square said:

Ok 

 

Crazy this is your response to a Former High staff member who made a genuine post about the state of the server and proving how childish youre being over this post

[Square]

I will put a small bit here, but ultimately will be addressing this at the community meeting. 

It's a little more difficult than you would think to address absolutely everything here over a box of text. Just to start things off though there is a lot of misinformation throughout this entire thread. And again you guys have absolutely no idea what goes on behind the scenes of the server. One thing that stood out to me was the criticism of my role with server development and that it somehow with Xaze's recent promotion just been shot away which has no validity at all considering I appointed Maxwell's to the same role just a little under a year earlier. We as founders have put a team of people in place within the community to lead and run the server. They are all participating within their roles as they should and all leadership has direct lines of communications to us at any given time. You guys are very quick to assume that we are no where to be seen but if you ask ANY of these members you will soon realize that all 4 of us make ourselves accessible and take time out of our day to meet in order to get whatever needs to be sorted taken care of. This could happen in a discord call, a private TS cahnnel, over text or phone call, anywhere. It is not my responsibility to make all of my meetings and other founder's meeting public to you guys. It's clear that you have set up some expectations on your own that cater strictly to what you think you're entitled to. 

 

The server population decline has been something on my radar for the last weeks/months. I've been running this damn community for 5 years of my life, and have more experience with it's inner workings than any player or member of the community entirely. The thought that I personally don't care deeply offends me as I have spent a great deal of my life dedicated to the overall success of the community. Just because you don't see it doesn't mean it doesn't fucking happen. My job isn't to make sure you see me and I am not going to sit here and publicize every little thing I do on a day to day basis. The fact that you think you are entitled to that is ridiculous. Founder interaction within the community and sever ISN'T what is killing the player pop, rather its a set of toxic mindsets that seem to continue growing. I want to take a second and explain that I am not trying to shift blame. I read and acknowledge what you have said but the only solution to the server player population is to continue grinding the reps of updates and furthering the player development on the server. WE CAN'T FIX ALL OF THAT FOR YOU. You literally said it yourself in this fucking thread that when YOU GUYS as players came together and made a day out of the server to do an imperial event, it was some of the best RP/time for all of you. Why is that only limited to that 1 day? Why is that we have players come over from icefuse and other servers applauding the content we have on our server, applauding that we update our server more frequently, yet leaving and saying how shit the rp is between the PLAYERS on the server. This has happened so many times I can't even count them. Players actively leaving the server to go somewhere else with less content so that they can be in a more player driven community. 

 

This is one thing I will say, I have been working with Xaze on scheduling the coming updates through the rest of the year, this will be the most content we've ever released in any given year and the entire playstyle of the server is going to be re-written into almost a new game. We will get through this time but you guys need to start respecting the hierarchy and individuals we put in place to oversee the day to day operations of the server. 

[Rudy]

I'm not gonna lie, I may have only been here for a few weeks, but all I hear is complaining and people talking about "Well back in my day!". from  a new person joining the community I honestly don't see a lot of issues, ye maybe the founders don't "do a lot" but at the end of the day they fucking fund the server you guys spend months on. I have not been here long enough to say the founders don't do jack shit. And for the whole Step down thing, there may be people here that say, "Oh well, I can be a better founder!" Half of you would be crying and having 0 clue what to do. 

And if your expecting me to go on this rant about Ideas I have and ways to make the server fun, then keep scrolling cause besides personal preference, I like the server, I think its fun, I don't fuckin care we get 40 on a day, its fun, when we get 50+ I still enjoy, when we get 20+ I still play. Its enjoyable for me. And to go to another thing with what some people are saying, if you feel like you are stressed 24/7 over a gmod server, weather you are a BCMD / Staff / Gm / Anything, then in my opinion thats fucking upsetting. Now calm down Forum warriors, let me explain, I've had my rodeo with servers and me joining and becoming high staff ranks, I get what some go through, but for me I put money on the line for something I needed to pay out, if I didn't then I would have lost nearly 600$, That's stressful, If a server is your only source of income, thats when I'd be worried if Im doing a good job, getting the right people and if it's worth quitting and flipping burgers.  

I've been playing gmod since 2014, at the right bold age of I think 9 years old, my first PC game besides CS. After a long wile of growing up when I hit 15 I decided to make a server with a buddy of myn from high school, we made a SCP RP server ware worked 24/7 to make sure that this shit would work and put my whole savings account into it. And thankfully after nearly a year it worked, I was being payed wile at school cause of donations and I never felt so good, yet I never played, I hired Dev's got the staff team to Manager's of my server and I did was pay for it and be the "leader" of it, until we shutdown cause of internal issues, but my point is with this is, when you work so hard on something from start to finish, there's a point ware you want to work in the backround, just because we dont see square online don't mean he's sitting there rubbing his toes laughing at the server dying, Yes I think there's needs some change, yes the server may be going down but at the end of the day, from what I've read the server has always had these moments off low counts, and you guys pushed through.

I want to keep playing here, I truly do, I don't want to stop playing until I feel like I'm done with GMOD as a whole, but yawl got to think rationally for maybe 10 seconds here and understand, if I put in 1000's+ hours into this, I would not want to play every day either. 

And If any of you are going to try and + Cope me or something and send me a essay Im not gonna read it so just be blunt with me on anything you think I messed up in my words.

 

[A-a-ron]

5 minutes ago, Square said:

I will put a small bit here, but ultimately will be addressing this at the community meeting. 

It's a little more difficult than you would think to address absolutely everything here over a box of text. Just to start things off though there is a lot of misinformation throughout this entire thread. And again you guys have absolutely no idea what goes on behind the scenes of the server. One thing that stood out to me was the criticism of my role with server development and that it somehow with Xaze's recent promotion just been shot away which has no validity at all considering I appointed Maxwell's to the same role just a little under a year earlier. We as founders have put a team of people in place within the community to lead and run the server. They are all participating within their roles as they should and all leadership has direct lines of communications to us at any given time. You guys are very quick to assume that we are no where to be seen but if you ask ANY of these members you will soon realize that all 4 of us make ourselves accessible and take time out of our day to meet in order to get whatever needs to be sorted taken care of. This could happen in a discord call, a private TS cahnnel, over text or phone call, anywhere. It is not my responsibility to make all of my meetings and other founder's meeting public to you guys. It's clear that you have set up some expectations on your own that cater strictly to what you think you're entitled to. 

 

The server population decline has been something on my radar for the last weeks/months. I've been running this damn community for 5 years of my life, and have more experience with it's inner workings than any player or member of the community entirely. The thought that I personally don't care deeply offends me as I have spent a great deal of my life dedicated to the overall success of the community. Just because you don't see it doesn't mean it doesn't fucking happen. My job isn't to make sure you see me and I am not going to sit here and publicize every little thing I do on a day to day basis. The fact that you think you are entitled to that is ridiculous. Founder interaction within the community and sever ISN'T what is killing the player pop, rather its a set of toxic mindsets that seem to continue growing. I want to take a second and explain that I am not trying to shift blame. I read and acknowledge what you have said but the only solution to the server player population is to continue grinding the reps of updates and furthering the player development on the server. WE CAN'T FIX ALL OF THAT FOR YOU. You literally said it yourself in this fucking thread that when YOU GUYS as players came together and made a day out of the server to do an imperial event, it was some of the best RP/time for all of you. Why is that only limited to that 1 day? Why is that we have players come over from icefuse and other servers applauding the content we have on our server, applauding that we update our server more frequently, yet leaving and saying how shit the rp is between the PLAYERS on the server. This has happened so many times I can't even count them. Players actively leaving the server to go somewhere else with less content so that they can be in a more player driven community. 

 

This is one thing I will say, I have been working with Xaze on scheduling the coming updates through the rest of the year, this will be the most content we've ever released in any given year and the entire playstyle of the server is going to be re-written into almost a new game. We will get through this time but you guys need to start respecting the hierarchy and individuals we put in place to oversee the day to day operations of the server. 

See if you said this before baby raging at Eclipse and making fun of Mazens resignation I could take it seriously

[Rudy]

Just wanna rq, if you yawl think I posted that shit to dick ride the founders or any high staff, I really don't give a shit, I'm just speaking what I think, Its an opinion at the end of the day fellas .

10 minutes ago, Vit0 said:

I'm not gonna lie, I may have only been here for a few weeks, but all I hear is complaining and people talking about "Well back in my day!". from  a new person joining the community I honestly don't see a lot of issues, ye maybe the founders don't "do a lot" but at the end of the day they fucking fund the server you guys spend months on. I have not been here long enough to say the founders don't do jack shit. And for the whole Step down thing, there may be people here that say, "Oh well, I can be a better founder!" Half of you would be crying and having 0 clue what to do. 

And if your expecting me to go on this rant about Ideas I have and ways to make the server fun, then keep scrolling cause besides personal preference, I like the server, I think its fun, I don't fuckin care we get 40 on a day, its fun, when we get 50+ I still enjoy, when we get 20+ I still play. Its enjoyable for me. And to go to another thing with what some people are saying, if you feel like you are stressed 24/7 over a gmod server, weather you are a BCMD / Staff / Gm / Anything, then in my opinion thats fucking upsetting. Now calm down Forum warriors, let me explain, I've had my rodeo with servers and me joining and becoming high staff ranks, I get what some go through, but for me I put money on the line for something I needed to pay out, if I didn't then I would have lost nearly 600$, That's stressful, If a server is your only source of income, thats when I'd be worried if Im doing a good job, getting the right people and if it's worth quitting and flipping burgers.  

I've been playing gmod since 2014, at the right bold age of I think 9 years old, my first PC game besides CS. After a long wile of growing up when I hit 15 I decided to make a server with a buddy of myn from high school, we made a SCP RP server ware worked 24/7 to make sure that this shit would work and put my whole savings account into it. And thankfully after nearly a year it worked, I was being payed wile at school cause of donations and I never felt so good, yet I never played, I hired Dev's got the staff team to Manager's of my server and I did was pay for it and be the "leader" of it, until we shutdown cause of internal issues, but my point is with this is, when you work so hard on something from start to finish, there's a point ware you want to work in the backround, just because we dont see square online don't mean he's sitting there rubbing his toes laughing at the server dying, Yes I think there's needs some change, yes the server may be going down but at the end of the day, from what I've read the server has always had these moments off low counts, and you guys pushed through.

I want to keep playing here, I truly do, I don't want to stop playing until I feel like I'm done with GMOD as a whole, but yawl got to think rationally for maybe 10 seconds here and understand, if I put in 1000's+ hours into this, I would not want to play every day either. 

And If any of you are going to try and + Cope me or something and send me a essay Im not gonna read it so just be blunt with me on anything you think I messed up in my words.

 

 

[Eclipse]

13 minutes ago, Square said:

I will put a small bit here, but ultimately will be addressing this at the community meeting. 

It's a little more difficult than you would think to address absolutely everything here over a box of text. Just to start things off though there is a lot of misinformation throughout this entire thread. And again you guys have absolutely no idea what goes on behind the scenes of the server. One thing that stood out to me was the criticism of my role with server development and that it somehow with Xaze's recent promotion just been shot away which has no validity at all considering I appointed Maxwell's to the same role just a little under a year earlier. We as founders have put a team of people in place within the community to lead and run the server. They are all participating within their roles as they should and all leadership has direct lines of communications to us at any given time. You guys are very quick to assume that we are no where to be seen but if you ask ANY of these members you will soon realize that all 4 of us make ourselves accessible and take time out of our day to meet in order to get whatever needs to be sorted taken care of. This could happen in a discord call, a private TS cahnnel, over text or phone call, anywhere. It is not my responsibility to make all of my meetings and other founder's meeting public to you guys. It's clear that you have set up some expectations on your own that cater strictly to what you think you're entitled to. 

 

The server population decline has been something on my radar for the last weeks/months. I've been running this damn community for 5 years of my life, and have more experience with it's inner workings than any player or member of the community entirely. The thought that I personally don't care deeply offends me as I have spent a great deal of my life dedicated to the overall success of the community. Just because you don't see it doesn't mean it doesn't fucking happen. My job isn't to make sure you see me and I am not going to sit here and publicize every little thing I do on a day to day basis. The fact that you think you are entitled to that is ridiculous. Founder interaction within the community and sever ISN'T what is killing the player pop, rather its a set of toxic mindsets that seem to continue growing. I want to take a second and explain that I am not trying to shift blame. I read and acknowledge what you have said but the only solution to the server player population is to continue grinding the reps of updates and furthering the player development on the server. WE CAN'T FIX ALL OF THAT FOR YOU. You literally said it yourself in this fucking thread that when YOU GUYS as players came together and made a day out of the server to do an imperial event, it was some of the best RP/time for all of you. Why is that only limited to that 1 day? Why is that we have players come over from icefuse and other servers applauding the content we have on our server, applauding that we update our server more frequently, yet leaving and saying how shit the rp is between the PLAYERS on the server. This has happened so many times I can't even count them. Players actively leaving the server to go somewhere else with less content so that they can be in a more player driven community. 

 

This is one thing I will say, I have been working with Xaze on scheduling the coming updates through the rest of the year, this will be the most content we've ever released in any given year and the entire playstyle of the server is going to be re-written into almost a new game. We will get through this time but you guys need to start respecting the hierarchy and individuals we put in place to oversee the day to day operations of the server. 

Thank you for giving real input. This is what I wanted. It is good to hear from your end. I would have liked this originally.

[Comics]

9 minutes ago, Square said:

The thought that I personally don't care deeply offends me as I have spent a great deal of my life dedicated to the overall success of the community

Then why is tour first response to criticms always to make bad jokes as if there's no issue at all. You dismiss everything to start then post rambles about how you're actually great and nothing is ever wrong.

Even in this post you managed to blame us for the server failing.

10 minutes ago, Square said:

YOU GUYS as players came together and made a day out of the server to do an imperial event, it was some of the best RP/time for all of you. Why is that only limited to that 1 day?

Like we aren't here to run your server. We aren't here to make it perfect, that's literally your only job. You cry about how we don't understand anything and your the only person who knows what's really going on. So why isnt it your fault that everything is failing?

If you're really running the show why is everything falling apart? Who are you leading, what are you doing. You lie deceive and manipulate because its easier to pretend everyone else is wrong. We know nothing because we are told nothing. Then nothing happens and we call it out and we're told off for being ignorant. Your server is dying and it doesn't matter what mechanism is causing it and whether we can see it. We see 4 men who have all the power to change and do better but we're told we can't understand and should stay quiet.

You can't host community meetings if there isn't a community. Who are you going to lie to then?

[Square]

31 minutes ago, A-a-ron said:

See if you said this before baby raging at Eclipse and making fun of Mazens resignation I could take it seriously

This is very ironic coming from a member of the community that no one takes seriously. Previous founders constantly ask me why you aren't perma banned from the community yet.

[A-a-ron]

6 minutes ago, Square said:

This is very ironic coming from a member of the community that no one takes seriously. Previous founders constantly ask me why you aren't perma banned from the community yet.

Luckily I'm not the founder so people don't have to take me seriously. You're in the position to actually do something with the server and all you do is blame the people who actually give a fuck about the server. You say the community has no clue what happens behind the scenes then say people wanting to know what's happening is "ridiculous".

You're speaking on this thread like u have nothing to lose, it seems like you feel entitled to people playing on your server. Hell even your own Directors are getting tired of you guys. 

Your first reaction to seeing this thread was to ignore it, then respond to a shit post made by Zim, who im guessing is the Founder thats asking why im not perma'd since he has done it to me before. Then you make fun of Mazens resignation then say eclipse is now founder. THEN you make an actual post and expect people to believe you.

Edited October 9, 2022 by A-a-ron

[SquishyFishyy]

Im just gonna say the biggest demotivator for me was the AFK.... I would hop on the server see like 12 people on in the morning and theyre all sitting in the jedi temple or standing AFK in bunks.... I get on an RP server too RP and seeing a number which is basically just 0 makes me log off... I ended up resigning because of IRL but yeah the AFK was very demotivating I dont wanna log on the server see everyone AFK and then what do i do? AFK too? No I can do something much better with my time.

[Square]

3 minutes ago, A-a-ron said:

Luckily I'm not the founder so people don't have to take me seriously. You're in the position to actually do something with the server and all you do is blame the people who actually give a fuck about the server. You say the community has no clue what happens behind the scenes then say people wanting to know what's happening is "ridiculous".

You're speaking on this thread like u have nothing to lose, it seems like you feel entitled to people playing on your server. Hell even your own Directors are getting tired of you guys. 

The directors have everything they need to set themselves up for success and I have already spoken with Marvel and plan on speaking with Mavelle about a clear lack of communications between them and management/myself. This is in no way shape or form me saying they are doing a poor job, I actually am quite fond of the two current directors. However after speaking with management and Marvel about an hour ago it is quite clear that they weren't conveying what they needed to up the chain. 

If there was ever an issue that required my attention coming from the directors and they reached out I would make time out of my day to address it, however that has not been the case. 

[Square]

I will give everyone an opportunity to speak with me on the matter post community meeting on Saturday. That way everyone has the platform to say what they would like to me.

[A-a-ron]

Just now, Square said:

I will give everyone an opportunity to speak with me on the matter post community meeting on Saturday. That way everyone has the platform to say what they would like to me.

What about the other 3 Founders? This post isn't just about you

[Square]

1 minute ago, A-a-ron said:

What about the other 3 Founders? This post isn't just about you

The point of our team and work relationship is to take care of each other when we need it most. I'm not going to to dive into this anymore, but they are dealing with events happening in their own personal lives and I will be able to properly provide you with any information you need during this time as I have done throughout all my time in this community. If they are able, they will be there. 

[Xaze]

Hey guys! 

I definitely want to provide my perspective since my name keeps getting referenced. I want to make my position on this post, absolutely clear. It seems like the biggest issue is communication, and the break down in the chain of communication that is continually happening. 

 

What is the Development Coordinator? 

It is my job to plan, add, and manage all aspects of development on the server. I'm in control of what's being added during our weekly hot fixes. I do a lot of work in the background to patch bugs every week. We usually will do a restart Wednesday Night / Thursday morning. I also manage the development team and members who are added, tasks that are being worked on, etc.

 

My Opinion on the Founders: 

Let me make this clear; I am happy in my position. I have an open line of communication between all four founders. I talk to Jad and Square almost regularly when it comes to the server, and anything development wise. When it comes to our backend infestructure, all of my concerns and plans have been listened too and acted upon. I've pushed heavily for us to move to a new box and to correct some of our networking through our current provider. These suggestions were taken seriously, and have been put into action. 

 

Compensation:

Compensation for the development team should not be a concern of the community. Please do not worry about if I'm being paid or not. 
 

Mentality: 

I want to make it absolutely clear that I care about the leadership and people in the community; and I want to strive to make Synergy a better place. I respect everyone who gives their actual opinion on this post... but I also think it's clear that there needs to be a mentality shfit in the community. This current toxic mentality needs to shift. We as the community members need to start promoting a positive outlook. 

[Woeny]

Providing my insight,

 

12 hours ago, Mazen said:

Community figure heading
None of you have the time to dedicate to fully assisting and aid in anything this community would actively need at a moment's notice. It’s a lot to ask of someone to be readily available at any moment, especially with real lives at play, but that’s just the root of the problem. Your guys’ life. All of you are very very busy with your careers, and that’s excellent and all, but it has obviously shown that you as a founder team cannot act as you would before. Oftentimes, the community would be looking up to you as a team to do what’s right and to take initiative. 


 

I personally dont think its necessary at all for founders to be hands on involved within the community, The structure was set up so myself and @Xaze can handle 99%  problems. While they all have their owns lives to attend to my personal experience, anytime ive messaged any of the founders for any situation I get a response within a couple of hours if not early the next morning, thats how its always been, Information is always passed upwards from myself @Xaze or @Maddoxx to make sure they stay informed, much like alot of the player base being informed from others! 


The post brought up Imperial day as it was our hands down best day for sure thats just a fact. the founders had no involvement with that, that was done by directors HC Xaze and Jayarr. I wasnt present for the first day as I had other duties but speaking on the second day, There was 1 event ran that entire time the rest was player rp ran throughout the entire day you can ask almost anyone and they would agree. 
So question to follow that up

What is holding us back from continuing that trend but with clone wars? We were able to push as a community forward and show that things can happen. 


^ might seem off topic but it also shows that there isnt need for founder involvement as they do there parts 
 

 

Edited October 9, 2022 by Woeny

[Mystic]

6 minutes ago, Woeny said:

Providing my insight,

 

I personally dont think its necessary at all for founders to be hands on involved within the community, The structure was set up so myself and @Xaze can handle 99%  problems. While they all have their owns lives to attend to my personal experience, anytime ive messaged any of the founders for any situation I get a response within a couple of hours if not early the next morning, thats how its always been, Information is always passed upwards from myself @Xaze or @Maddoxx to make sure they stay informed, much like alot of the player base being informed from others! 


The post brought up Imperial day as it was our hands down best day for sure thats just a fact. the founders had no involvement with that, that was done by directors HC Xaze and Jayarr. I wasnt present for the first day as I had other duties but speaking on the second day, There was 1 event ran that entire time the rest was player rp ran throughout the entire day you can ask almost anyone and they would agree. 
So question to follow that up

What is holding us back from continuing that trend but with clone wars? We were able to push as a community forward and show that things can happen.


^ might seem off topic but it also shows that there isnt need for founder involvement as they do there parts 
 

 

A change of pace is what im guessing. ImperialRP is new to Synergy. Clone wars RP is 5 years old. Even with other impRP days we would need to take time to figure them out, and even then thats not guaranteeing people wont get tired of it after a few days due to the lack of events that are doable. What we need is to figure out a possible rotation of maps or do an Order 66 to ImpRP thing once a month or every other month. Something like that. What we really could use is a schedule. Take the GM team and utilize it to its fullest extent. I think this would help tremendously as it would keep consistency and RP at the same time. Eventually people would start to engage. Once that becomes a boring thing they could just turn around and do the same thing with different ideas. 

The only issue i see, is its not plausible to compare something we did once that was so unique to CWRP which has been played out for 5 years.  Maybe if we got model packs from the workshop and a few NPCs it could be done more frequently? or have a rotation of new NPC and model packs done monthly to keep the GM pool fresh? I dunno. I'm just tossing out ideas right now.

Edited October 9, 2022 by Mystic

[Maddoxx]

1 minute ago, Mystic said:

What we need is to figure out a possible rotation of maps

 the venator...

[A-a-ron]

35 minutes ago, Xaze said:

Hey guys! 

I definitely want to provide my perspective since my name keeps getting referenced. I want to make my position on this post, absolutely clear. It seems like the biggest issue is communication, and the break down in the chain of communication that is continually happening. 

 

What is the Development Coordinator? 

It is my job to plan, add, and manage all aspects of development on the server. I'm in control of what's being added during our weekly hot fixes. I do a lot of work in the background to patch bugs every week. We usually will do a restart Wednesday Night / Thursday morning. I also manage the development team and members who are added, tasks that are being worked on, etc.

 

My Opinion on the Founders: 

Let me make this clear; I am happy in my position. I have an open line of communication between all four founders. I talk to Jad and Square almost regularly when it comes to the server, and anything development wise. When it comes to our backend infestructure, all of my concerns and plans have been listened too and acted upon. I've pushed heavily for us to move to a new box and to correct some of our networking through our current provider. These suggestions were taken seriously, and have been put into action. 

 

Compensation:

Compensation for the development team should not be a concern of the community. Please do not worry about if I'm being paid or not. 
 

Mentality: 

I want to make it absolutely clear that I care about the leadership and people in the community; and I want to strive to make Synergy a better place. I respect everyone who gives their actual opinion on this post... but I also think it's clear that there needs to be a mentality shfit in the community. This current toxic mentality needs to shift. We as the community members need to start promoting a positive outlook. 

 

10 minutes ago, Woeny said:

Providing my insight,

 

I personally dont think its necessary at all for founders to be hands on involved within the community, The structure was set up so myself and @Xaze can handle 99%  problems. While they all have their owns lives to attend to my personal experience, anytime ive messaged any of the founders for any situation I get a response within a couple of hours if not early the next morning, thats how its always been, Information is always passed upwards from myself @Xaze or @Maddoxx to make sure they stay informed, much like alot of the player base being informed from others! 


The post brought up Imperial day as it was our hands down best day for sure thats just a fact. the founders had no involvement with that, that was done by directors HC Xaze and Jayarr. I wasnt present for the first day as I had other duties but speaking on the second day, There was 1 event ran that entire time the rest was player rp ran throughout the entire day you can ask almost anyone and they would agree. 
So question to follow that up

What is holding us back from continuing that trend but with clone wars? We were able to push as a community forward and show that things can happen. 


^ might seem off topic but it also shows that there isnt need for founder involvement as they do there parts 
 

 

Do you guys understand how hard it is to believe that that's all your own thoughts when you're all sitting in a channel with each other? It just feels like you guys are like, hey what should I type next square? It could very well be all your own thoughts and not biased or influenced at all but its nearly impossible to believe that when you've been in a channel together for hours.

Edited October 9, 2022 by A-a-ron

[Mystic]

4 minutes ago, Maddoxx said:

 the venator...

Yes! But the Venator was stupid because there was no reason to be on it. If we had a weekend where we went to the Venator for a day, then went to a different base or planet for the weekend to help out other "clones" (people on EJs or somethin) That would be badass!. It was just dumb to go on the Venator just to go back to the base we just left.

(cough cough @Mavelle @Dono this could be super cool for our storyline)

At the end of the day i genuinely care for the server, i am concerned for the state of it, i don't know the story of whats all happening nor will i try to say i do. But instead of criticizing on this post, i  will try to give as much help or as many ideas as i can. 

Edited October 9, 2022 by Mystic

[TessaKitty]

1 minute ago, A-a-ron said:

 

Do you guys understand how hard it is to believe that that's all your own thoughts when you're all sitting in a channel with each other? It just feels like you guys are like, hey what should I type next square? It could very well be all your own thought and not biased or influenced at all but its nearly impossible to believe that when you've been in a channel together for hours.

He's got a point. Whether intentional or not echo chambers do be a thing 

[Xaze]

Just now, A-a-ron said:

Do you guys understand how hard it is to believe that thats all your own thought when youre all sitting in a channel with each other? It just feels like you guys are like, hey what should I type next square? It could very well be all your own thought and not biased or influenced at all but its nearly impossible to believe that when youve been ina  channel together for hours.

@Squarefuck off. I hate you. 

 

I can think for myself. :) 

[Square]

5 minutes ago, A-a-ron said:

 

Do you guys understand how hard it is to believe that that's all your own thoughts when you're all sitting in a channel with each other? It just feels like you guys are like, hey what should I type next square? It could very well be all your own thoughts and not biased or influenced at all but its nearly impossible to believe that when you've been in a channel together for hours.

Crazy to think about that is what we were talking about and not provoking productive conversation to get these issues resolved. 

[A-a-ron]

8 minutes ago, Square said:

Crazy to think about that is what we were talking about and not provoking productive conversation to get these issues resolved. 

Sorry I have to speculate "My job isn't to make sure you see me and I am not going to sit here and publicize every little thing I do on a day to day basis. The fact that you think you are entitled to that is ridiculous."

I brought a legitimate concern that people agreed with and you're response is sarcasm. You clearly don't care about how to community feels, and if you do, you have a fucked way of showing it.

Edited October 9, 2022 by A-a-ron

[Woeny]

22 minutes ago, A-a-ron said:

 

Do you guys understand how hard it is to believe that that's all your own thoughts when you're all sitting in a channel with each other? It just feels like you guys are like, hey what should I type next square? It could very well be all your own thoughts and not biased or influenced at all but its nearly impossible to believe that when you've been in a channel together for hours.

I can see your perspective on that which is 100% valid if you wish to look into like that

I can say the same thing in regards to your post along with others, Alot of players sit in the same channel together whose to say they arent forcing there thoughts on you or bias as you stated?

Ive always been one to be vocal about my opinions and in essence tell people to fuck off, or if i disagree with something, as you've known first hand along with others
My thoughts are my own I truly don't think founders are needed in a day to day operation as the leadership presence is already in play from myself, Maddoxx,Xaze, Mavelle, Marvel All of the Has and Va's 
Adding founders to that listen doesn't really add much, they focus on other operations of the server while its others to piece together the day by day
as that isnt there responsibility when it comes to the server.

 

Edited October 9, 2022 by Woeny

[Hanz]

29 minutes ago, Woeny said:

I can see your perspective on that which is 100% valid if you wish to look into like that

I can say the same thing in regards to your post along with others, Alot of players sit in the same channel together whose to say they arent forcing there thoughts on you or bias as you stated?

Ive always been one to be vocal about my opinions and in essence tell people to fuck off, or if i disagree with something, as you've known first hand along with others
My thoughts are my own I truly don't think founders are needed in a day to day operation as the leadership presence is already in play from myself, Maddoxx,Xaze, Mavelle, Marvel All of the Has and Va's 
Adding founders to that listen doesn't really add much, they focus on other operations of the server while its others to piece together the day by day
as that isnt there responsibility when it comes to the server.

 

Aaron doesn't really have much to lose or gain if he posts a different opinion than the people in his channel other than clout, which I am pretty sure he doesn't care about, whereas you do have something to gain or lose. For all we know Square could be sitting there telling you to do this or be removed (I highly doubt this, but it is possible). Even if it is not like that, I know you would feel pressure from him to post agreeing to him. I believe you have the backbone Woeny to post what you really feel, but you never know on SWRP what people are willing to do to keep a position or to gain one.

Edited October 9, 2022 by Hanz

[ETsilvian]

i dont really have any words for this topic cause im dumb brain and cant explain things for shit but i truley care for the server and im praying to god that it picks up again. because rn it just feels like the same thing everyday.

anyway im tired imma sleep now :) 

 

<3

[Cox]

We must go to Titan Peak

[A-a-ron]

@Jad @Forseen @Dragon Thoughts? This post isn't just about square

Or some sort of confirmation youll be at the meeting

Edited October 9, 2022 by A-a-ron

[Misfit]

23 hours ago, Bbstine said:

So do you believe that what we are missing is a form of advertisement to bring in new players? Or is this a matter of having people who are prominent in the community joining and people will want to join because they are on?

400% believe THIS could bring old, new and current players to the server. solely from experience i personally got a big drive to play on the server when GM models were announced WITH A PICTURE. Secondly i got a group of my friends on the server just by showing them clips of me on the server and before that they would clown me daily for having over 10k hours on fucking garrys mod

in short, i believe we should show people what they're missing out on. make ads n shit or just a promotional video/team as a whole

[Piff]

I see where most of you guys are coming from, but I think there is a huge part a lot of you are missing that I think many miss, this server has been around for years now, most of us are grown up already or hitting that point where something like a GMod server simply doesn’t matter, you can hope for old population to come back but most likely anything done to bring it back will be temporary 3 to 4 months max, me for example I think I was like 15-14 when I first showed up on this server, I’m 18 now, I have a job, school and I’m in the Marine Corps reserves now, now I can’t say the same everyone else is living like me, of course some of y’all could just be fat mfs living with their parents or just lazy and have all day to play, but I personally think this has been the reason for the servers decline since people have lives to live, of course GMod  slowlly dying, server may be boring, but they all add up and most people are more interested in their real lives now instead of a game. But TLDR, people have real lives and grow up and don’t play anymore or get bored of stuff they use to love and don’t anymore. 
 

but also I would agree that me personally I don’t know what founders do so I’m not going to straight up say just step down, but at least consider if what you do can be filled in by someone else which most likely it can be, but yeah, but some of y’all are giving a lifeline to something that’s always been declining

Edited October 9, 2022 by Piff

[Scarecrow]

Ah lovely the more things change, the more things stay the same

[Finn]

I think the core issue here is that the Founders have 1 foot in the door in policy making still. If you guys want to step back and let Management/Directors do their jobs (which I 100% agree with), that's perfectly fine. But when you then involve yourself with things that are under their purview, it creates a lot of uncertainty and stops progress. I'm of the opinion that Founders should take less active of a role in the community. 

There have been a lot of good steps taken recently in giving Xaze and Woeny more autonomy in running things, and I think that should go all the way. Barring big emergencies, Founders shouldn't have any hand in setting policy, staff, development, etc. Focus on the financials, the marketing, growing the community, etc. and let everyone else do their jobs.

[TessaKitty]

1 minute ago, Finn said:

I think the core issue here is that the Founders have 1 foot in the door in policy making still. If you guys want to step back and let Management/Directors do their jobs (which I 100% agree with), that's perfectly fine. But when you then involve yourself with things that are under their purview, it creates a lot of uncertainty and stops progress. I'm of the opinion that Founders should take less active of a role in the community. 

There have been a lot of good steps taken recently in giving Xaze and Woeny more autonomy in running things, and I think that should go all the way. Barring big emergencies, Founders shouldn't have any hand in setting policy, staff, development, etc. Focus on the financials, the marketing, growing the community, etc. and let everyone else do their jobs.

I like the 1 foot in the door analogy. It goes in line with "step" up or "step" down. 

[Bleach]

Heart said it best.

[Aegis]

11 minutes ago, Finn said:

I think the core issue here is that the Founders have 1 foot in the door in policy making still. If you guys want to step back and let Management/Directors do their jobs (which I 100% agree with), that's perfectly fine. But when you then involve yourself with things that are under their purview, it creates a lot of uncertainty and stops progress. I'm of the opinion that Founders should take less active of a role in the community. 

There have been a lot of good steps taken recently in giving Xaze and Woeny more autonomy in running things, and I think that should go all the way. Barring big emergencies, Founders shouldn't have any hand in setting policy, staff, development, etc. Focus on the financials, the marketing, growing the community, etc. and let everyone else do their jobs.

You make a good point with focusing on Marketing and Financials. There's probably a way to fund some advertising in order to grow the community. Furthermore, allowing autonomy would promote a sense of stability and/or confidence, which in turn would improve overall morale, making new joiners more lively to stay, and spread the word to others.

[Gears]

When a known forum troll and rep farmer in Aaron is speaking actual facts and truths, only to have it being dismissed and memed on by higher ups. You know its fucking bad. 

[Bro]

ThAtS iT iM gOnNa SaY iT!:
 

These posts aren't new, as you can image, people have been stating the same thing over and over. I am not stating your opinions are invalid, but what exactly are you hoping to provoke from this? You are handing the Founders an ultimatum: Play or leave forever. (Ultimatums are very unhealthy ways to deal with problems)

[Finn]

Just now, Bro said:

ThAtS iT iM gOnNa SaY iT!:
 

These posts aren't new, as you can image, people have been stating the same thing over and over. I am not stating your opinions are invalid, but what exactly are you hoping to provoke from this? You are handing the Founders an ultimatum: Play or leave forever. (Ultimatums are very unhealthy ways to deal with problems)

Is it so much to ask the people in charge of the server actually play the server?

[Bane]

On 10/8/2022 at 1:05 PM, Bbstine said:

I'm genuinely asking this because of my own curiosity. But if things were to change and you could remove anything from the server and add anything, what does everyone think would help our server population?

The big thing that synergy needs is active involvement from the founders. If two or three of them played for an hour or two twice a week this negative view about them would be gone/mitigated. Asking them to step down is unrealistic, but we do want them to start being more involved. Both the staff and GM team need their input and leadership rn

[Bro]

Just now, Finn said:

Is it so much to ask the people in charge of the server actually play the server?

I mean, when you play for 3-5 years, it gets a little hard to keep having fun, especially from a perspective of ultimate leadership. You don't see your CEO everyday on the register do you? Why expect the same from them? That being said sometimes it does get hard, I just don't think giving people an ultimatum is healthy.

[A-a-ron]

3 minutes ago, Bro said:

ThAtS iT iM gOnNa SaY iT!:
 

These posts aren't new, as you can image, people have been stating the same thing over and over. I am not stating your opinions are invalid, but what exactly are you hoping to provoke from this? You are handing the Founders an ultimatum: Play or leave forever. (Ultimatums are very unhealthy ways to deal with problems)

Asking the people who "run" the server to play isn't unrealistic

[Forseen]

2 hours ago, A-a-ron said:

@Jad @Forseen @Dragon Thoughts? This post isn't just about square

Or some sort of confirmation youll be at the meeting

Unfortunately I will not be at the meeting, however I've been reading all the posts and am looking at some of the feedback and suggestions on them for things to look into.

[A-a-ron]

1 minute ago, Forseen said:

Unfortunately I will not be at the meeting, however I've been reading all the posts and am looking at some of the feedback and suggestions on them for things to look into.

Woah! A cool headed response! Thanks!

[Finn]

Just now, Bro said:

I mean, when you play for 3-5 years, it gets a little hard to keep having fun, especially from a perspective of ultimate leadership. You don't see your CEO everyday on the register do you? Why expect the same from them? That being said sometimes it does get hard, I just don't think giving people an ultimatum is healthy.

This isn't a big corporation though. We're a small community, and we should stop treating it like anything else. I'm not saying they need to hit the 40 hours we all do, but the fact that they can't even get on for a 20 minutes a week is inexcusable. I agree there shouldn't be an ultimatum, and I also think something needs to change at the top.

 

And for the record, at my actual job, with an employee count of a few hundred, I see my CEO at least 4 times a week. I don't talk to him, but I know he's there, and involved, and committed. I don't see that in the Founders.

[Brooklyn]

4 minutes ago, Finn said:

they can't even get on for a 20 minutes a week is inexcusable.

Wow Finn. I've finally rubbed off on you.

[Bro]

6 minutes ago, Finn said:

This isn't a big corporation though. We're a small community, and we should stop treating it like anything else. I'm not saying they need to hit the 40 hours we all do, but the fact that they can't even get on for a 20 minutes a week is inexcusable. I agree there shouldn't be an ultimatum, and I also think something needs to change at the top.

 

And for the record, at my actual job, with an employee count of a few hundred, I see my CEO at least 4 times a week. I don't talk to him, but I know he's there, and involved, and committed. I don't see that in the Founders.

I can agree with this, the only issue I truly have with the post is the ultimatum that was presented. But I also enjoyed deep diving into the forums for "Server Dying" posts that hadn't been removed

Edited October 9, 2022 by Bro

[Mystic]

1 hour ago, Bro said:

I can agree with this, the only issue I truly have with the post is the ultimatum that was presented. But I also enjoyed deep diving into the forums for "Server Dying" posts that hadn't been removed

damn it im at my reaction limit. so just take this

:funny:

[Fizzik]

2 hours ago, Brooklyn said:

Wow Finn. I've finally rubbed off on you.

you shouldn't do that to people brooklyn, that's kinda weird.

[Finn]

11 minutes ago, Fizzik said:

you shouldn't do that to people brooklyn, that's kinda weird.

I didn't mind, no worries.

[A-a-ron]

[Maxwells]

[Dennis]

 @Bro @Mazen 

[A-a-ron]

11 minutes ago, Dennis said:

 @Bro @Mazen