Let's fix this

[Cashew]

I realise that there is a lot of anger due to the lack of communication between Staff and the Community. I'm going to try and ease that a bit by telling you all my personal thoughts which will include some information that I believe is less sensitive and is "okay" to share. I must highlight, though, all of the bans were voted on. This means that not every Admin voted to ban Member X, in fact there was a lot of debate regarding some members.

Bias:
For those of you who scream "Bias!" I can assure you that there is absolutely no bias whatsoever included in these bans. If I could screenshot and show you all the voting process we went through you'd see that Admins removed themselves from votes admitting that their vote would be influenced by personal disagreements/experiences.

DDoS:
@Alley already said it wasn't the banned players so I thought that I'd just reiterate that to make sure that everyone knew that. If you watch Spazzy's stream on his YouTube channel, they mention the DDoS attacks. I quote Lyth "We condemn the DDoS attacks", so all of you that are tarnishing them with that brush - you're incorrect. Sorry.

Paranoia:
I spoke to Wesker earlier and he was asking me some questions, I told him I was writing this post and that he should seek answers in there. One of the things he highlighted was that he was paranoid that he or anyone could be banned at any moment. This was a very large exception and no one should be afraid to express their opinions on the forums about how things are done. Having the public criticise the body in charge contributes to a healthier relationship to make sure that the body in power doesn't throw the interests of the public out of the window. Now, a lot of you have just read that and are already scrolling down to reply to it saying: "But Cashew, you just banned 6 people for expressing their opinions!" or something along those lines. No, we had many reasons for the decision that was collectively made. Unfortunately I can't share those reasons because this is Cashew posting not Admin Cashew posting, if that makes sense.

Future:
What happens next? Well, this was the first step in our attempt to re-invigorate Discovery, which I understand is slightly strange and ironic. We're looking at bringing a swathe of new old players back to Discovery. There are several ways we can do this but a "mailgun" (I always forget the name of that, ask conrad) is definitely the best/most hopeful way of achieving this. Once we have more players we can begin to unveil more stuff, but I feel I've said too much about that already. In fact I'll probably get slapped for it, but I think it's better me getting told off than there being more uncertainty and confusion. What I think is very hard to see in this decision is that it was done in the best interest of the future of Discovery. I am aware that some of the banned players were faction leaders or members in important positions. We are already outlining plans to help assist these affected factions and I personally encourage the high commands or leading members of those factions to either contact myself or another Admin to make it known how we can specifically help you.

No confidence in the Administration:
I can clearly see that there is a lack of trust in the Administration. I'm not going to sit here and start yelling you should trust us, I hope to gain your trust through the actions that we will take as a team in the future. I fully accept that the actions that the Administration took a few days ago have had an impact on the, already shaky, relationship between the Admins and the Community. There are no plans at the moment to re-vote on the recently banned members. So there is no point in appealing for your buddies, they will all be able to appeal after 6 months like anyone else. I say that because I would like to re-build the relationship between us, that unfortunately means moving on from these bans. How can we re-build this trust-less relationship?

Staff:
- Us as staff need to be much more efficient in processing requests/reports/SRPs/appeals etc
- We need to have a much bigger presence on the forums, engaging in discussion
- We need to be more consistent. I am echoing Garret here, it's a good point to raise.

Community:
- Try to work together, this is your mod. Nothing good will come from mercilessly unleashing words of spite and hate on each other.
- Take in interest in the newer players, they are the people who will make that server pop increase. This means in game and on the forums.
- Play fair, its in your interests to make the other player's experience as best as you can make it. If it's good, then they'll be more inclined to log again.

I'm sure there are many more for the Staff, perhaps you could suggest some? I'll be pushing for more efficient and consistent methods in Admin discussions and votes.


Conclusion/End:
We recently completed a vote on the player requests and are beginning to grind through them and implement the ones that passed. If your request was not passed, one of us will hit you up with a message to let you know. I also keep seeing events being tossed around discussion, this is something I'm interested in. Although I've forgotten a lot of commands in game and server side, so I'll have to re-learn those. Lastly, please realise that I am acting in the best interests of the community and the future of Discovery. I saw the lack of communication and tried my best to offer the answers I could give without breaking rules, naturally I won't be able to answer some questions due to the sensitivity of information. However, please ask away and I'll try my best to provide an answer.