My open letter on how to solve some of these issues

[Nathan]

Another one of these topics?

We had several of these topics, and most likely, they won't stop because they are not being addressed. Every single person who wants to see the community grow has been ignored or, worse, provided a ton of excuses or even finger-pointing/wagging. Some leaders have taken a step further and just go straight to name-calling (ad hominem fallacy), which means they automatically lost their debate. It's got to stop.

I wanted to sit and think through a plan to get things in order. I brought up similar points in the past before. Now, I wanted to think through them, formulate a concrete point of view and ask.

Why?

I joined Argonath in May of 2009. I went through various CnR servers, and then I randomly stumbled across Argonath. When I joined, Cutt3r was the very first person who helped me. He walked me through the basics of the server, did a quick RP, and then I was on my way. Since then, I have been hooked. I spent that summer playing SA:MP on a very crappy HP laptop that barely ran SA:MP in 1024x768.

As the story goes, I went through various stages of the community. I became a moderator and then admin. Contrary to certain leaders' opinions, this was before I had any money donated, and it was purely because I was helpful to the community. I was community-banned three or four times for various reasons. I made several enemies and a couple of friends. Long story short, I've been here long enough to understand what happens when things go right and wrong.

I genuinely want this community to grow and flourish. I want this community to have hundreds of players on various servers. I genuinely want this community to succeed.

What I don't want is to be ignored or, worse, harassed. I don't want excuses. I don't want "we're working on it". I just want the best for this community.

We're about to launch several new servers; you just need to wait.

We have a bigger problem: the bedrock/foundation of the community. I fundamentally believe that if the foundation is not fixed, no other efforts will result in meaningful results. It doesn't matter if we launch 10+ servers when we have a failed foundation. It doesn't matter if we hire the best developers, and write the most amazing scripts; if the foundation is broken, things will fail.

At the end of the day, putting lipstick on a pig doesn't solve the problems. It's still a pig, no matter its shade or makeup.

I believe we need to refocus from launching new servers to actually focusing on building a solid foundation.

I wanted to lay it out in three simple to understand points with details on how I believe we solve the issues. These are my own beliefs and are based on feedback that I gathered. I am open to having things changed or modified. I am open to debate and to be challenged.

So, how do we actually build a solid foundation?

Active, Transparent, Accountable Leadership

First, changes must start at the top. Leadership must be active, transparent, and accountable for their actions. Who is part of the leadership? This spans from CLs down to moderators. Everyone with a rank should be considered a leader and represent the community.

Active

Good leadership is an active one. By active, I mean involved in the server's life and the community. Take SA:MP as an example: the top activity is held by three non-staff members. I am one of them. I even experimented, I logged in for 12+ hours, and not a single staff member logged in. Not a single community leader or senior admin, or really anyone else in sight. The players have given up on the server. The leadership isn't helping either by not being active.

Sometimes, real-life happens. Hell, even for me, there are times when I get so busy that I don't check Discord for days. But it's no excuse to be a benchwarmer and hold on to a rank if you have no intention of being active and available on the server.

Each member of the leadership should put in at least an hour (60 minutes) per month. If they can't do that, they shouldn't hold their rank and should be removed. Simple as that.

Transparent

Over the last decade, we had a complete breakdown of communication. As Cutt3r put it nicely, "if communication breaks down, everything fails". Decisions have been made in closed rooms for us. HQ continually keeps saying they are listening, but the reality is that no actions are visible on the outside. We're just getting one-sentence answers that some progress is happening.

Instead, we should enforce a culture of radical transparency. As actions are decided, they should be brought up to the community. Not for a vote but just to clearly show that progress is being made and how the HQ thinks about things. I believe that providing more data and information gives better context to everyone, especially those who actually care and want the best for the community.

Often, I find myself bringing up points only to have them refuted by leadership. For example, I asked Badandy about the status of the MTA:SA server, and I was shown a screenshot of 20-something pages. My assumption is that they just spent three weeks writing a plan that only HQ can approve of instead of actually working on bringing the new server up. I shouldn't have to pull teeth to ask for this information. Instead, leadership should consistently show what progress is being made, if any.

Accountable

Mistakes happen. Deadlines are missed. Some decisions that are made are inadequate. The leadership needs to start owning up to it and being accountable for how they plan to resolve issues. I'm not talking about apologizing all the time, but instead being accountable and owning up. Not a single leader ever apologized for past behavior - yet it's expected from players when they make a mistake.

Acknowledge mistakes. Own up to them. And then be accountable for resolving them.

Continuous Iteration & Experimentation

Any successful organization, whether it be a community or a company, is one that continuously looks for improvements and continuously experiments with various ideas. We must embrace a culture of change and adaptation if we want to survive.

Continuous Iteration

One of the common mistakes a lot of organizations and servers fall into is thinking that they should continuously deliver major features. Over time, this will result in burnout from the developers who are doing this voluntarily.

Instead, we should encourage developers to release updates and fixes often instead of bundling them together in one mega update. In software development terms - it's about waterfall vs. agile methodologies.

In waterfall, it's linear, and everything is pre-planned. There is no flexibility. This means that every single aspect of the release needs to be 100% clearly defined. The reality is that when building software, whether game servers or applications, waterfall methodology quickly breaks down because objectives and deliverables often change.

In agile, it's more fluid. It allows short-term deadlines and allows flexibility. It's not as rigid, and things can change - as long as everyone is on the same page. This allows for fixes to be released sooner and gives the players an impression that changes/fixes happen quickly.

If we embrace a culture of change, everybody wins.

Experimentation

Doing things as they have always been done and expecting different results is insanity. Over the last ten years, we squandered many opportunities that existed. We could have launched sooner on other game servers. We could have embraced specific trends. But instead, the current leadership only rules in an autocratic way, which doesn't work.

We should embrace experimentation. Try out new game modes and potentially move away from just being an RPG community. If we rapidly try out new modes and servers, we can quickly see what sticks and what gets the community to grow.


Community Building & Direction

In the end, the most critical aspect we should focus on is community building and direction.

One of the enormous opportunities we're squandering right now is thinking purely of separate, segmented servers, which in their own end up being their own "mini" communities. This is a major issue as it means the community is fractured into several pieces. This means that each leader is moving/pulling in their own directions and vision. This means that players who join Argonath not only just have different experiences depending on which server they go to, but different leadership styles/enforcement of rules, and different realities. This results in rifts being created between each server and no desire for players to play on various servers.

Community Building

We should have a strong focus on community building. We should encourage all new and old players to be actively involved in the community and not just in the game server that's most favorable to them. As an example, we used to have more involvement on the forums, and now, most of the topics are about SA games and a little bit on III:MP.

A strong community is built by leaders who encourage communication, feedback, and motivation in others and only want the best for the players they lead. A healthy community does not have communication breakdowns and opaque decision-making.

Every single member of the leadership should have the same mission and goal - constantly improving the community and leaving the place better than when they found it.

Community Direction

On the final note, I wanted to bring up one of the most significant issues that need to be solved, which is community direction. Right now, we're essentially sitting in a ship without a captain and without a rudder or a sense of where we are going and who are trying to be. We have several servers being pulled in various directions without any clear indication on where they should be heading.

What makes any community successful is knowing exactly where we are and knowing exactly where we are going. In the past, we had the "Argonath Vision" - which was flawed but did set a framework for us to follow up. I would love to have the same community experience in every Argonath server in the ideal world.


Final notes:

I'm tired of having to be part of these discussions. But it stems from the fact that I feel we lost our way and that the current leadership is no longer listening and providing no results. We had several players try to initiate and be the "change they want to see," but I feel it should also stem from the leadership.

I promised myself that this would be the last time I open up and participate in these discussions. I'm sick and tired of having to repeat the points over and over again. Often, a single line gets taken out of context, and the whole point gets missed.

I perhaps made some mistakes in the above points, but this is again after thinking about this a lot. I want this framework to be a guideline that someone builds on top of, iterates, and improves.


Update: I decided to restore the original letter because I believe it sets a good framework for how things should be done. I am still taking a break from this community and therefore do not want to continue discussions.

[Cutt3r]

Hopefully something good will come out of these discussions. I think you have explained the points well.

We should all let bygones be bygones. I say this not directed at anyone specifically but I have seen topics made where discussions go awry because something may have probably happened in the past between those concerned. We all want Argonath to be a successful, thriving community across servers. We may put our thoughts differently but let's please keep our discussion respectful 

If we can't agree with someone let's just agree to disagree and leave it there.

EDIT: I think Badandy is happy to share progress on the MTASA server with anyone interested on Discord, that's a good step in the right direction. Thanks!

[Hammer_]

Everything from the start to the finish is correct, when SA:MP Argo's playerbase fell, it was because there was lack of leadership activity(not talking about all the managers), and the server in competition of ours had new updates releasing week in week out, and it still does. What did we have? Whenever suggestions were made, they were just ignored. I stand by your points for the very first time in my life, imo.

[Mario_Rinna]

Every single person who wants to see the community grow has been ignored or, worse,

I personally haven't been ignored, so you are incorrect.

provided a ton of excuses or even finger-pointing/wagging. Some leaders have taken a step further and just go straight to name-calling (ad hominem fallacy),

The name-calling isn't a fallacy when it's just that – name-calling, and not justification for an argument of some kind.

which means they automatically lost their debate. It's got to stop.

So you are a side in the debate and the moderator in it at the same time. How very autocratic of you.

When I joined, Cutt3r was the very first person who helped me. He walked me through the basics of the server, did a quick RP, and

...and he's been suffering from bad karma ever since.

I was helpful to the community. I was community-banned three or four times for various reasons.

Yes, being community banned (THREE TIMES? FOUR?) is very helpful to the community.

I made several enemies

The willingness to declare some random dude online an enemy reveals a lot about you.

I genuinely want this community to grow and flourish. I want this community to have hundreds of players on various servers. I genuinely want this community to succeed.

There is no reason to believe this instead of your track record..

What I don't want is to be ignored or, worse, harassed. I don't want excuses. I don't want "we're working on it".

You don't seem to care about what anyone else wants or doesn't want. Why should your wants take priority?

I just want the best for this community.

Who elected you as its representative?

We have a bigger problem:

Not we, you.

It doesn't matter if we launch 10+ servers

We again? And where's your contribution to this?

when we have a failed foundation. It doesn't matter if we hire the best developers, and write the most amazing scripts; if the foundation is broken, things will fail.

You don't have the rank or the experience to make these judgments. "I've been watching for a long time" doesn't qualify you to make them.

I am open to debate and to be challenged.

Let's see if this is true.

Leadership must be active, transparent, and accountable for their actions.

They do not owe you any of this.

I am one of them. I even experimented, I logged in for 12+ hours, and not a single staff member logged in. Not a single community leader or senior admin, or really anyone else in sight.

When I think of it, I wouldn't want to log into a server with you alone in it either. Have you considered your own attitude being the problem? I mean, if you're always alone, then you probably don't have any friends, and whose fault is that?

The leadership isn't helping either by not being active.

If they're working on a new game-mode, then it's understandable that "supporting" an empty server is not exactly a priority, as that drains resources into a trash bin. Especially if the new mode is significantly different from the abandoned one, and here it's probably the case, given how even the platform is different.

Sometimes, real-life happens. Hell, even for me, there are times when I get so busy that I don't check Discord for days. But it's no excuse to be a benchwarmer and hold on to a rank if you have no intention of being active and available on the server.

Evidence of intentions where?

First of all, there's not exactly a flow of volunteer devs here. There wasn't one even back when the server was full.

Second of all, there is no reason to "fire" someone because of their inactivity – it's not like there is finite amount of ranks. The structure can be easily stretched.

Third of all, it's not very polite to call people "benchwarmers," when all of them have contributed more to this community than you ever will. What do you bring to the table to assign people labels or make demands of any kind? Rants?

Each member of the leadership should put in at least an hour (60 minutes) per month. If they can't do that, they shouldn't hold their rank and should be removed.

Again, it's not your place to make these demands, I'll just save us all some time and not respond to each and every one.

Over the last decade, we had a complete breakdown of communication.

To have a breakdown, it had to have been there in the first place.

Decisions have been made in closed rooms for us.

It's how things work. The HQ should change the way it operates for... what? For your personal preference? C'mon, bruh.

HQ continually keeps saying they are listening, but the reality is that no actions are visible on the outside. We're just getting one-sentence answers that some progress is happening.

Instead, we should enforce a culture of radical transparency. As actions are decided, they should be brought up to the community. Not for a vote but just to clearly show that progress is being made and how the HQ thinks about things. I believe that providing more data and information gives better context to everyone, especially those who actually care and want the best for the community.

Often, I find myself bringing up points only to have them refuted by leadership. For example, I asked Badandy about the status of the MTA:SA server, and I was shown a screenshot of 20-something pages. My assumption is that they just spent three weeks writing a plan that only HQ can approve of instead of actually working on bringing the new server up. I shouldn't have to pull teeth to ask for this information. Instead, leadership should consistently show what progress is being made, if any.

You want to see what? The draft of an unfinished game-mode? Code?

Accountable

Mistakes happen. Deadlines are missed. Some decisions that are made are inadequate. The leadership needs to start owning up to it and being accountable for how they plan to resolve issues. I'm not talking about apologizing all the time, but instead being accountable and owning up. Not a single leader ever apologized for past behavior - yet it's expected from players when they make a mistake.

Acknowledge mistakes. Own up to them. And then be accountable for resolving them.

I agree. Let's start with an investigation into how you were allowed to walk away from 3-4 community bans. Who unbanned you and why wasn't that a mistake? This is what I would like to know.

Imagine making a bazillion of owner-level demands to the devs instead of simply being grateful for them tolerating your nonsense and allowing you to return.

Any successful organization,

Here's another one for your list of fallacies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_Scotsman

Over time, this will result in burnout from the developers who are doing this voluntarily.

No, devs burn out and quit because of topics like this.

But instead, the current leadership only rules in an autocratic way, which doesn't work.

Complete nonsense. An autocrat rules alone. Who's the autocrat here, if there's more than 1 person in HQ?

We should embrace experimentation.

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Try out new game modes and potentially move away from just being an RPG community. If we rapidly try out new modes and servers, we can quickly see what sticks and what gets the community to grow.

Why not make your own community if you want to change _everything_ about this place?

New game-modes? Who's going to make all of that? Badandy? 1 guy? RAPIDLY? 

One of the enormous opportunities we're squandering right now is thinking purely of separate, segmented servers, which in their own end up being their own "mini" communities. This is a major issue as it means the community is fractured into several pieces.

Diversity an advantage, not a problem.

This means that players who join Argonath not only just have different experiences depending on which server they go to, but different leadership styles/enforcement of rules, and different realities.

Which is what made this place great, as having the same server on every platform is just a 0 iq move.

This results in rifts being created between each server

No, it assigns people their own areas of responsibility.

and no desire for players to play on various servers.

This results in the ability for community members to choose what they like and allows the community to provide different experiences.

Community Building

We should have a strong focus on community building. We should encourage all new and old players to be actively involved in the community and not just in the game server that's most favorable to them. As an example, we used to have more involvement on the forums, and now, most of the topics are about SA games and a little bit on III:MP.

A strong community is built by leaders who encourage communication, feedback, and motivation in others and only want the best for the players they lead. A healthy community does not have communication breakdowns and opaque decision-making.

Every single member of the leadership should have the same mission and goal - constantly improving the community and leaving the place better than when they found it.

Community Direction

On the final note, I wanted to bring up one of the most significant issues that need to be solved, which is community direction.

You are deciding this based on what? Based on how you feel?

Right now, we're essentially sitting in a ship without a captain and without a rudder or a sense of where we are going and who are trying to be. We have several servers being pulled in various directions without any clear indication on where they should be heading.

Opinion—like most of your post—presented as fact.

It's not a ship, it's a fleet.

 sitting in a ship without a captain

A captain, by the way, fits perfectly the very definition of an autocrat. You want a captain? I thought you were trying to not have one? I'm sorry, man, my head's going to explode.

In the past, we had the "Argonath Vision" - which was

...an irrelevant and outdated post taken out of context by people who could not even comprehend its meaning.

I would love to have the same community experience in every Argonath server in the ideal world.

I would love to NOT have the same community experience in every Argonath server because copycat servers don't have a reason to exist.

Final notes:

I'm tired of having to be part of these discussions. But it stems from the fact that I feel we lost our way and that the current leadership is no longer listening and providing no results. We had several players try to initiate and be the "change they want to see," with failing results. Instead, I feel it should also stem from the leadership.

I promised myself that this would be the last time I open up and participate in these discussions. I'm sick and tired of having to repeat the points over and over again. Often, a single line gets taken out of context, and the whole point gets missed.

I perhaps made some mistakes in the above points, but this is again after thinking about this a lot. I want this framework to be a guideline that someone builds on top of, iterates, and improves.

For a player, you are fighting in a wRONg and counter-productive direction. Not only that, you contradict yourself.

You want a leader with control over everything and yet, at the same time, one of your key "problems" is that things are too autocratic (even though that's impossible since autocracy is rule by ONE). I think I've almost had a stroke just writing this.

It's 2022, and you still have a dev willing to make something for you, and instead of going to suggestions & ideas board, writing up some ideas about what you'd want to see in your "perfect server", details on scripts, mods, game mechanics, etc., you do what? Demand HQ to change its structure for your personal amusement? That's what's important to you? You want "meaningful results", but you present meaningless, vague ideas.

When it comes to autocratic leadership, you have no idea what it is. If there were an autocrat here, you would have his boot far up your butt already – for criticism, etc. The fact that your post is here, out in the open, disproves the existence of autocracy. 

tl;dr the music's too sad and cringe

[JayL]

Often, I find myself bringing up points only to have them refuted by leadership. For example, I asked Badandy about the status of the MTA:SA server, and I was shown a screenshot of 20-something pages. My assumption is that they just spent three weeks writing a plan that only HQ can approve of instead of actually working on bringing the new server up. I shouldn't have to pull teeth to ask for this information. Instead, leadership should consistently show what progress is being made, if any.

A reasonable assumption on this matter would be the direct opposite of what you are suggesting. To pitch an idea, a sensible person makes a functional proof of concept—a prototype—before the pitch itself. We haven't seen any reason to doubt that Badandy is a sensible person, so the respectful assumption here is to suppose he does have something up his sleeve if he's out there making a draft.

The fact that he is going for a challenging endeavor (setting up an English RP server in MTA:SA, as we extensively discussed in another thread) means he needs adult, constructive feedback, not childish gossip.

[Sinister]

Moderator Comment

big quote

Damn

[Nathan]

...

Often, a single line gets taken out of context, and the whole point gets missed.

Missing the forest for the trees.

[Nathan]

.

[JayL]

I brought this up in Discord and it came down to the fact that I have a lack of trust that anything meaningful will take place. We've seen this story play out a number of times with various heroes and the end result has always been the same - they burn out, start to have resentment, and then quit, leaving the rest of us with nothing. I'm not saying Badandy isn't capable of building an amazing server nor am I saying the current leadership is inadequate.

My point is that we should move in a direction with a solid foundation. A solid foundation results in a successful place being built. Doing things as they always have been done will result in the same results as before and at that point, the question to ask is why waste the time developing and launching multiple servers.

You were assuming that Badandy was not "actually working on bringing the new server up." Thus far, what have you offered to back up this assumption? Past cases. You're projecting pessimism on his endeavor. We haven't seen his product yet and we haven't seen any credible indication that he is going to fail to deliver on his promise. You say that you hope to find a solution and that you are excited for a possible solution (Badandy's project). However, you write demotivating things about it. Aren't you working against the very goals you stated initially?

[Brian]

You keep saying you want progress, you keep saying you're annoyed at things not moving forward. Yet you keep asking the same questions that have already been answered, bringing up the same points you were given feedback on already and continually spread the same misinformation.
You make new topics while refusing to respond to responses you were given on your previous topics and comments. You refused to respond to me on Discord, and then you left the group chat. You ignored my and others' comments on the forums and then bring up the same complaints again. You can't demand transparency and then when people are transparent but its not the answers you want, you claim people aren't.

Yes, we want you to provide feedback and we are genuinely interested in your concerns but you keep talking about a healthy environment, community building, creating a foundation. Yet you are the one that is trying to leave handprints in freshly poured concrete and when its finally cured  you start chiseling at it because it isn't exactly how you envisioned it.
You claim you don't want a dictatorship, that you want things to be transparent (which in my opinion we are, anyone can reach out to us or post a comment on the forums and we will respond to it and give you the information that we can share), yet you counter exactly that in your own arguments.

You claim there's a divide between the different severs in Argonath, yet when I've told you (And others, publicly on this forum in recent times) that that is actually something we've worked to resolve over the years, you ignore it. You continue to spread misinformation. There is no animosity between the servers anymore, we see each other as equals, part of the same community, sharing the same goals. Helping each other out where we can. We talk to each other regularly, share our concerns and even discuss issues in our servers and how to resolve them together at times.

We should embrace experimentation. Try out new game modes and potentially move away from just being an RPG community. If we rapidly try out new modes and servers, we can quickly see what sticks and what gets the community to grow.

Have you had your eyes closed over the past year? Did you ignore everything we shared with you publicly on these forums and in Discord?
GTA:III is releasing its beta at the end of the month, Minecraft re-opened with a vanilla 1.19 server yesterday, SA is designing a move to MTA:SA. GTA V is working on FiveM. VC:MP is working on its next version. I publicly (and privately) asked several times if there's any interest in other servers (Like Valheim, Rust, Gary's mod, etc) but there didn't seem to be enough interest to warrant the dev and manpower to manage them, not to forget we'd also need to provide hosting (That we'd pay for out of pocket ourselves). If I had proper access to a dedicated server I'd love setting all of these up and servers up so our players have more places to have a good time at but unfortunately life isn't that easy.

I'm tired of having to be part of these discussions. But it stems from the fact that I feel we lost our way and that the current leadership is no longer listening and providing no results. We had several players try to initiate and be the "change they want to see," with failing results. Instead, I feel it should also stem from the leadership.

I promised myself that this would be the last time I open up and participate in these discussions. I'm sick and tired of having to repeat the points over and over again. Often, a single line gets taken out of context, and the whole point gets missed.

Do you not understand how unhelpful your topics are, they're the same questions (that we've answered already), the same blame game (that is mostly invalid) and the continued animosity and misinformation.
Might I remind you that we also made an agreement when you got unbanned the last time that you'd stop this type of behavior, that if you had concerns you'd reach out. You even agreed that we could straight up ban you if you continued as you were, yet here you still are.
If you really want the change you keep talking about you will need to be able to take in the information provided to you, process the information and then alter your opinion and feedback. Not just continue repeating the same thing over and over.  Be the change you want others to be, because to me it seems a lot of the issues you bring up are issues in your own behavior.

I also don't think you realize how much annoyance and stress you bring with your behavior. We do our best to respond to your concerns, bring the change you are worried about, yet you completely ignore us. We're kind and respectful to you even though you are not to us.
We have one, unpaid developer designing and working on a brand new server to solve the issues of our past and yet you still claim nothing is being done. No offense to you but it genuinely feels at times like we are trying to teach a toddler a new thing and we're just having to repeat ourselves over and over again in the hopes that at one point it clicks and they realize what is being explained to them.

We (the leaders, the staff) are not perfect and we are aware we can do things better. We are also aware we can be doing more and we know we've made mistakes (and will continue making mistakes) but we are willing to learn from it, we are willing to accept that we made a mistake and we are not afraid of sharing what hasn't worked in the past. But when we do you ignore it and you claim we are ignoring you or shutting you down. We've given you chances and we will continue to give others chances would they show interest.

You claim you want a more community spirit but you are the one that is causing more of a divide within the community. People like Mario Rinna, JayL, Cutt3r and others have shared their concerns and worries properly. They provided questions and feedback and continued their discussion when feedback or questions were returned to them. Andy and I got a lot of useful information and realized things we didn't consider ourselves and they also helped relieve some worries we've had about the servers future. They remained respectful and understood we've got our own skillset and experiences and didn't take our opinions and responses as personal attacks (because they are not).

[Nathan]

.

[Kessu]

Kessu managed to separate himself and VC:MP from Argonath and specifically has language saying they will never be united with the server of the server (see language in Discord servers post).

We weren't given a host by Argonath, so we got our own and will not return to have the same possible issues where our server was down for 8 months. We are still part of Argonath. Do not attempt to twist what I've said very clearly.

First time I'm hearing about this as well, didn't see any sort of announcement.

VC:MP server is making a new script from scratch that is being tested, there will not be any news about it nor any changelogs that you can see. The entire server and it's systems will be tested within administrative team and released once fully ready to the public.

That's part of a post directly replying to multiple points of yours. We're transparent, you're just spreading bs because you don't read anything you're told and then claim we're the bad guys.

This is me talking to you, person to person, fuck the ranks. I'm getting sick and tired of your shit.

You want to have a conversation? Then fucking read the replies. Stop being an idiot.

[Kessu]

Yes, we want you to provide feedback and we are genuinely interested in your concerns but you keep talking about a healthy environment, community building, creating a foundation. Yet you are the one that is trying to leave handprints in freshly poured concrete and when its finally cured  you start chiseling at it because it isn't exactly how you envisioned it.
You claim you don't want a dictatorship, that you want things to be transparent (which in my opinion we are, anyone can reach out to us or post a comment on the forums and we will respond to it and give you the information that we can share), yet you counter exactly that in your own arguments.

This is my main issue. Why is it that I have to pull teeth and ask questions instead of being a proactive conversation led by administration? Why is the leadership afraid to have an open dialog and to work in transparency instead of covering things with curtains and revealing them only when users ask for them?

Having these "closed-door" meetings, decisions being made for us, without taking into account that perhaps we have seen a thing or two and would rather help resolve the issues ahead of time INSTEAD of being forced to accept decisions made for us which results in players not wanting to spend time in any of the servers?

At the end of the day, the focus should be on building something that people want - not building personal projects and then hoping people like them.

We don't owe you daily, weekly, monthly, yearly or once in a lifetime updates. You are not entitled to telling us how to spend our time. We rather focus on things that are important, such as actually developing the servers instead of being your babysitter and holding your hand just so you don't get lost. Newsflash, sometimes you gotta be able to find your own way. In this case, just asking if you want to know something.

For the love of god how many fucking times do I need to repeat that.

[Kessu]

We're kind and respectful to you even though you are not to us.

I've always responded in a similar fashion. I never resorted to name calling, cursing others out, etc. The same cannot be said by some of the members of the leadership team (Kessu specifically). Asking tough questions is not the same as being disrespectful. I'm asking tough questions because I truly want to understand. Instead, I'm seen as being just a toxic influence of the community.

You're not asking the hard questions, you're asking the same questions everytime you open one of these topics. And we've replied to these questions already. That pisses off basically everyone and I for one will call out your behavior exactly as it is.

You need to re-read Mario's post because he was spot fucking on with how you've behaved and how you make others feel with your constant shit. We're tired of the same constant shit and if it doesn't stop soon, we will enforce your deal with Aragorn.

[Mario_Rinna]

Missing the forest for the trees.

Nice one, haven't seen this boomer meme for a while.

Doing things as they always have been done will result in the same results as before and at that point, the question to ask is why waste the time developing and launching multiple servers.

Who are you to say if they're wasting their time or not? They can decide for themselves.

Things don't get communicated efficiently.

Hypocritical, given how you're barely capable of communication yourself.

This is my main issue. Why is it that I have to pull teeth

Just a month ago you threw an ultimatum that, frankly speaking, was so pitiful, empty, and infantile that they didn't even bother to do anything about it. You asked some questions here on forum, people spent their time to answer, you left without saying bye. Now the full moon is approaching again, and you're back with another cringe episode of Santa Barbara nobody wants to watch.

Why would anyone want to talk to you, cater to you, given your rep of acting like a Karen? Does the Earth revolve around you? Badandy did send you something, and yet you're still mad he didn't drop everything he was doing and start entertaining you. 

Having these "closed-door" meetings, decisions being made for us, without taking into account that perhaps we have seen a thing or two and would rather help resolve the issues ahead of time INSTEAD of being forced to accept decisions made for us which results in players not wanting to spend time in any of the servers?

Then don't spend time in any of the servers, if none of them are up to your in(s)ane standards which you cannot even properly explain. If nothing is good enough for you, why are you here? Are you some kind of a masochist?

At the end of the day, the focus should be on building something that people want - not building personal projects and then hoping people like them.

Devs aren't people?

For the other servers, I think support for them would only come when we have more than 10 people in the community who are active.

Why more than 10? Because you feel like it? Why not more than 11? More than 12? Out of where are these numbers coming?

At this point, I'm at a crossroads. Do I simply just give up and move on to other pastures, or do I keep continuing to fight and bring positive change. At this point, I don't know.

At this point, if you move on to other pastures, pulling teeth and putting lipstick on your pigs or what is it that you do for a living, you will bring positive change. It's a win-win, bro.