.:j:. Junker Congress Faction Feedback

[Mímir]

Why isn't this thread locked yet?

Anyways I think people - including Congress - would benefit a lot from letting go of the ad hominems. It's always the "kids", the "pew-happy", the "lolwuts", the "non-rp'ers", the "haters" etc. (and of course, by extension one also also positions oneself as the positive opposite - the "mature", the "roleplayer", "the kind" etc. - when one fires shots like that. It's as prejudist as it is self-serving, so please just don't). What about "fellow members of the community"? What about approaching those players' opinions maturely and free of bias? Maybe they have a point, and if not then surely you can make an argument that attacks their point of view, rather than their person? There are a lot of trading factions with no pews that are well respected and liked, how can that be? Plus Congress operated a bounty board and were frequently involved in PVP... Your argument makes no sense, or it is based on your experiences in '08 - I assure you that what happened in 2014-2015 had nothing to do with "pews" or lack thereof.

If you look at this thread it's fairly obvious that what started out as mild complaints got brushed off by first association ("oh you are in X faction, so that is why your opinion is Y, and that's why it's ok for me to just ignore everything you say"), then critique is interpreted as "envy" and further on "hate to those who succeed in making big clans". Look at pages 19-23 (POB's entering the scene, yay). It just picks up speed from there.

There was a time when Congress was super active, and other players on this server (with a diminishing player count) were eager to see them out of Puerto Rico and out of jump ships so that they could interact and roleplay with the rest of us. Some of us spent our time trying to explain this in a nice and polite manner and in many different ways, also including statistical data, and got our heads chewed off or were just totally disregarded.

When communication breaks down and the ad hominems are instantly thrown around, you eventually annoy people. The total dismissal of any and all critique on super unfair grounds ticks people off - it is frustrating spending your time trying to help, only to get the word "hater" thrown in your face over and over again, while the point you were trying to get across is totally ignored. I mean it's downright laughable to hear "mature" and "Congress" mentioned in the same sentence if you look at those pages. It's like no one in Congress ever stopped to think "hey, what if they are right?" or "what if they don't hate us, what could bring them to have these opinions?" No attempts to understand any of it was ever made, it seems. People that were in a position to actually help either gave up, couldn't be bothered or further isolated Congress by fueling the ever convenient notion that everyone are meanies out to get them.

When you then on top of that have a "non harmful player" admin involved who abuses her position attempt to get Congress out of a terrible bind their stubbornness alone brought them in, and the proof gets leaked so denial is not an option, well then there isn't really much left to do. The faction had to die. It's just too bad there won't be a lesson learned from it, I think no matter what a lot of Congress players will stubbornly insist that all of what happened was a direct result of "pew kids hating on a calm mature trading faction" or some similar fairy-tale.

If that story is so important, then so be it - it is however quite ironic as that tale in my view is the sole reason of Congress' demise.

EDIT:

Disclaimer: I, like every single other person who posted in this thread, never "hated" Congress. Had fun with them in-game too. Etc. etc. etc. No one is spitting on anyone's grave either, let's calm our tits for a moment. Can't believe that this has to be spelled out, but apparently it does.

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