I'm just going to go ahead and say something that I feel is very relevant but is pretty much echoing what has been said already. Whilst there is nothing wrong with being in a 'clique' or being 'popular' there is a genuine risk of that leading to some people becoming very out of touch with how a situation is for other people.
I led two guilds back when I role-played in WoW and played on a rather close knit server for years so I'm comfortable suggesting that popularity is a double edged sword and very much a case of being both a blessing and a curse.
Not everybody knew me but more than one individual came forward and claimed they were surprised how nice I was because they'd heard nasty rumours about me or they thought I was more intimidating than I actually am.
I was also called out more than once for being out of touch and I took steps to remedy that by being more open and friendly.
Just like in the real world an online community can change rather abruptly. What worked for some people in the 'early days' might not work for other people in the present day. Sharing advice is great but in some cases it can come across as demeaning.
If somebody makes a genuine effort to find role-play or get involved with stuff and they're repeatedly told to 'try harder' then it shouldn't be difficult to work out why they risk becoming frustrated.
I do think certain recent threads have helped get the ball rolling in terms of making people take a step back and reconsider their stance on such matters so I'm very pleased with that. I've already had an increase in the amount of people contacting me over PM's so I'm happy to consider it something other than a coincidence.
As an aside, as someone who threw the 'clique' and 'popular' tags around in the past I didn't mean it as something that's always negative. So I'll happily apologise if people saw it that way!
After all, role-play is just a hobby that I enjoy. It's not something I lose any sleep over. I just enjoy solving problems and having a solid debate. Forum posting is therapeutically satisfying for me.
I led two guilds back when I role-played in WoW and played on a rather close knit server for years so I'm comfortable suggesting that popularity is a double edged sword and very much a case of being both a blessing and a curse.
Not everybody knew me but more than one individual came forward and claimed they were surprised how nice I was because they'd heard nasty rumours about me or they thought I was more intimidating than I actually am.
I was also called out more than once for being out of touch and I took steps to remedy that by being more open and friendly.
Just like in the real world an online community can change rather abruptly. What worked for some people in the 'early days' might not work for other people in the present day. Sharing advice is great but in some cases it can come across as demeaning.
If somebody makes a genuine effort to find role-play or get involved with stuff and they're repeatedly told to 'try harder' then it shouldn't be difficult to work out why they risk becoming frustrated.
I do think certain recent threads have helped get the ball rolling in terms of making people take a step back and reconsider their stance on such matters so I'm very pleased with that. I've already had an increase in the amount of people contacting me over PM's so I'm happy to consider it something other than a coincidence.
As an aside, as someone who threw the 'clique' and 'popular' tags around in the past I didn't mean it as something that's always negative. So I'll happily apologise if people saw it that way!
After all, role-play is just a hobby that I enjoy. It's not something I lose any sleep over. I just enjoy solving problems and having a solid debate. Forum posting is therapeutically satisfying for me.
