Lack of transparency

[Gears]

So, Ive been seeing a couple things that has been concerning to me that I feel there needs to be a discussion on.

As of recent there has been a growing lack of transparancy on decisions made by Community Leadership regarding well known Community Members and additionally the lack of communication on progress towards the next update, (Yes theres an update coming, But the months leading up to this has been rather silent).

To start with, Within the last year there has been a considerable amount of Community Bans done silently with no explanation and only a handfull of people really knowing the full reason as to why they were done. Some of these people that were banned include but not limited to... A Former Senior Dev/Map Creator, A Multi Positioned Member of the Community that achieved MoH and also several vocal members of this community. My question to community leadership. Is why does the community not get a chance to read the reasons of why these people were Community Banned. People can easily speculate and come to their own conclusions which could get out of hand. But if they knew the reasons, They would be able to judge and discuss if these bans were warranted or not. I ofcourse get there are particular people who have done illegal activity and in no way should that be disclosed entirely due to obvious reasons. However when it comes to ingame actions or actions on forums, these can be disclosed for the community so that the they may decide if Community Leadership has made a fair decision. If Community Leadership remain silent and say nothing additionally, it opens a speculation that these bans may not be as suitable as one would think. A Community Banned person cannot defend themself to the community and we are forced to just accept that whatever ban is done is just and appropriate, there is even a possibility we will never know the reason to a ban, due to community leadership denying any chance to appeal.

Reasons for Community bans have been done before, 2 actually. Logic was rebanned and the explanation for that is still there. Dinaric was notably community banned, but since his ban is now lifted, that reason is now hidden from the community as we have moved on. I see no reason for bans that are of a similar nature that the same can be done. So is Community Leadership going to be more transparent on these bans or will we need to speculate and hope they will allow these people to appeal in the future.

 

Moving towards the second point I wanted to focus on. Dev QnAs and Communication about updates. Roughly towards the end of last year and into early this year. We were able to see what progress was being done and also ask questions on upcoming changes, These all of a sudden stopped around the time the last update rolled out. For me I found these really interesting and engaging towards the community, We also had a Community Polls on proposed changes, One of those led to the re-addition to null, which for most it was a welcome return to the server. From the point of last update to now with the upcoming update, We really didnt see any of this happen again. I feel this was a missed chance from Community Leadership as for me it was a big motivator to keep focused on the server and small tidbits showed really good transparency. My question towards community leadership, With the upcoming update, will we see a return of these monthly (or even once every 2 months if thats better) Dev QnAs and will we get more polls for the community to get a chance to steer parts of the update into the popular direction. Cause for me, The wait between updates really hurt my desire to play on the server and just pushed me more into burnout. 

 

Lastly, I just want to say Im not writing this to cause Drama or to be overly negative. I just personally feel that previously transparency from community leadership was far better. When the "New" 4 Founders stepped into the vacated roles and reigns were handed over. We saw more communication, a positive enviroment and were open to talking about these issues. Recently I feel its slipped back into the fog, Im just hoping it could become clearer.

Edited November 24, 2023 by Gears

[Cox]

Yeah enjoy the ban buddy you’re gone

Edited November 24, 2023 by Cox

[Hanz]

Free Sixta Free Aaron

[Edgar]

I hate retired people.

[Bleach]

Good to see you too!

[Mystic]

If you're curious about bans generally approaching a Director+ solves this. 

 

How Jad explained it is that if that person is interested in coming back they can reach out to director+ for permissions to post appeals. Community bans are known by all VA+ and anyone who really just asks. Its not really knowledge everyone NEEDS. 

 

Jayarr was beamed for threatening the sovereignty of assets synergy deems their own. 

We all know about Dragon. 

Sixtas was just general repeated toxicity after multiple warnings iirc. 

 

I got this from just asking. 

 

As for the development clarity. I agree. For the most part inferring is easy, as just asking around will lead to knowing Bananakin is making our new map. You can find those streams easily. As for updates you can see the implementation phase on the forums. 

 

I do though, miss the poll we had for SO and Null It really showed the community had a say in that kind of change. The Dev QnAs were so fun and really kept the hype which we lacked this time around. Glad this isn't another step up or step down post, and glad you mentioned it as I've heard similar complaints from others. 

Edited November 24, 2023 by Mystic

[Marvel]

27 minutes ago, Mystic said:

If you're curious about bans generally approaching a Director+ solves this. 

This. Gears you are well aware of this from your time as Director and Management. I've had plenty of people come to me regarding community bans.

https://synergyroleplay.com/forums/topic/26408-global-community-ban-information/#comment-273124

As well as this post going over everything regarding Community Bans and quite literally answering all of your concerns regarding them in your post.

If anyone ever has any concerns, questions, or comments, feel free to reach out to a Director!

[Bleach]

Edited November 24, 2023 by Bleach

[Mystic]

2 minutes ago, Bleach said:

how long did this take to make on imgflip.com babe

[Gears]

11 minutes ago, Marvel said:

This. Gears you are well aware of this from your time as Director and Management. I've had plenty of people come to me regarding community bans.

https://synergyroleplay.com/forums/topic/26408-global-community-ban-information/#comment-273124

As well as this post going over everything regarding Community Bans and quite literally answering all of your concerns regarding them in your post.

If anyone ever has any concerns, questions, or comments, feel free to reach out to a Director!

Yes, Im fully aware that for particular bans you may be open to giving the infomation. To focus more on what I was proposing, was that Community Bans (Apart from illegal actvity) should have a write up on the forums, similar to the one Logic has and funnily the post was now hidden and the list was updated within an hour of me pointing it out. I guess that was just forgot that it up and didnt remove it till now.

Community Bans are the capital punishment of Synergy and I was more envisioning the idea that when someone is Community Banned, There would be a addition to the community ban infomation explaining what reasons and any examples/evidence that can be provided. That way if people feel passionately about this ban and dont feel its warranted, it opens up the chance for people to discuss it on the forums and judge if this ban a Community Ban Worthy. By doing it privately 1 on 1 and infomation going towards people that are initially curious, it closes away a discussion that may bring more people in to weigh their opinions with others.

(On second thought I just realised why that post was hidden...)

Edited November 24, 2023 by Gears

[Bleach]

1 minute ago, Mystic said:

how long did this take to make on imgflip.com babe

10 seconds pookie

[Fyi]

the bans are to cover up the money laundering

[ToasterBath]

6 minutes ago, Fyi said:

the bans are to cover up the money laundering

Edited November 24, 2023 by ToasterBath

[Mystic]

6 minutes ago, ToasterBath said:

[KaiserNeiner]

2 hours ago, Gears said:

Moving towards the second point I wanted to focus on. Dev QnAs and Communication about updates. Roughly towards the end of last year and into early this year. We were able to see what progress was being done and also ask questions on upcoming changes, These all of a sudden stopped around the time the last update rolled out. For me I found these really interesting and engaging towards the community, We also had a Community Polls on proposed changes, One of those led to the re-addition to null, which for most it was a welcome return to the server. From the point of last update to now with the upcoming update, We really didnt see any of this happen again. I feel this was a missed chance from Community Leadership as for me it was a big motivator to keep focused on the server and small tidbits showed really good transparency. My question towards community leadership, With the upcoming update, will we see a return of these monthly (or even once every 2 months if thats better) Dev QnAs and will we get more polls for the community to get a chance to steer parts of the update into the popular direction. Cause for me, The wait between updates really hurt my desire to play on the server and just pushed me more into burnout. 

So for this, I consider the Dev QnA's a way for the community to feel more involved with devs and founders, which is absolutely amazing. While the QnA's have not been prominent, a lot of the dev team has been very active and involved in day to day interactions with the community. We constantly see Baron, Xaze, and even Wosy on the server or in TS, making themselves known and available. I see this as a much better alternative than QnA's.

[Brooklyn]

8 hours ago, Gears said:

These all of a sudden stopped around the time the last update rolled out.

*coughs* 

[Mystic]

2 hours ago, Brooklyn said:

*coughs* 

To be fair this says nothing. Its UI tweaks and shit we can barely understand. Clicking on it leads nowhere and half the time the statements of what was changed are cut off.

All this really says is "yeah we're workin on stuffs"

Edited November 25, 2023 by Mystic

[Brooklyn]

12 hours ago, Mystic said:

To be fair this says nothing. Its UI tweaks and shit we can barely understand. Clicking on it leads nowhere and half the time the statements of what was changed are cut off.

All this really says is "yeah we're workin on stuffs"

To be fair this states 80% of things that will be included in the Update. The other 20% are things like map & models & surprises

[Mystic]

2 hours ago, Brooklyn said:

To be fair this states 80% of things that will be included in the Update. The other 20% are things like map & models & surprises

what does this state? its all UI tweaks for BH menus. Literally all it is.  Like 30 people actively play BH. Nobody knows what half this shit is
 

Resolved Issue where hunter contracts and clan...

Fixed Bug where Guild Management had to be in a....

Small bug fixes

Several Bug fixes with the clan system

Fixed a mispelling

buyarmor typo fix

Ah yes. 2 typo fixes. The other shit is 2 ambiguous bug fixes and 2 statements that are cut off, which clicking the hyperlink brings up an error webpage.

Scrolling up its literally just statements like

Debug and tested server side functions. 
Finished client-side UI for the ledger. 
Fixed locality issues with mcs
Removed all of the old depreciated clans code
Polish, Removed all debug code
Fixed and Added functionality for hunter contra...
Client-side code for restrictions to prevent AC
Patched bug displaying multiple of the same cla...

You get the point. These commits are not keeping the community in the loop, its letting people know that there is work being done, and that bug fixes are happening as well as small tweaks and server sided functions being adjusted that don't affect us at all. My point is this channel could disappear and we'd be all the none wiser simply  because its not informative to your average player. Which is the point of this post. That github channel makes sense to a handful of people. Your average person isn't understanding 90% of the things in there aside from "Bug fix, fixed typo"

Not dissing devs or anything, simply defending the point of this point as i know very well Xaze and the Dev team are working their assess off day and night to make these updates worthwhile and enjoyable.  The post is about transparency to your average player, not that few of us who can understand whats going on via a github commits webhook, and those of us who talk to them fairly often.

Edited November 25, 2023 by Mystic

[Piff]

I agree we should know ban reasons if requested.

 

[Kortnul]

On 11/24/2023 at 4:19 PM, Gears said:

lack of transparancy

this the TL:DR

[Ccmonty]

did jayarr get banned for a 3rd time?!

[Thom]

On 11/25/2023 at 12:02 AM, Brooklyn said:

*coughs* 

I wouldn't know I'm Perma Banned from the main discord