On Novice Networks and Inappropriate Discourse

[Katie_Kitty]

but the game would be better off.

In what way? I understand you don't enjoy certain things but I have a hard time seeing how removing the things you don't like will improve the game in any way.

Anyone who thinks "Online Interactions are not rated" is something meant to protect them after all of the shit going down with the RP community deserves to be reported. Stupid.

What is "all the shit going down with the RP community"? has the RP community done something wrong suddenly that I'm not aware of? :/ As far as I can tell, it's just some people with an axe to grind trying to remove RP from the game.

[Alaray]

It's just an auto-invite linkshell. Outside of harsh moderation from SE to keep it purely as an informative network, that's all it'll ever be.

Sometimes the noise can be nice to have. But I also don't think it's worth caring about that much; if it's somehow destroying the new player experience I'd honestly say delete it. If it's egregious chatter, you can report it. Either way, in most I've been in someone'll usually get an answer to their question despite the topic of conversation when asked. So it's usually... kinda harmless.

Plus, tbh, "Online Interactions are not rated" is... a real thing. And if it's not egregious enough for a GM to action or handle, tbh, I don't know why any normal person would... care.

Anyway;

Not like you can't use google anyway to get a direct answer on basically any question about the game if you're somehow stuck. And the mentor program is kind of a general failure. So, yeah, delete it would be my solution.

[DamianFatale]

I don't bother with the novice network. I'm a mentor, but I choose to help people outside of it, and to much success. I don't often face the berating that other mentors have faced. The most I get is ignored when I ask if someone wants advice lol.

[Vahlnir]

Personally, I don't see an issue with players using it as a bit of a general chat so long as help is given when it is asked for. It can do both. I know mine does. All in all my server's NN is actually pretty decent, but I know that isn't the case everywhere. I just don't think people should knock it by default just because the NN doesn't serve its purpose on some servers, because when it works...it really, really works. Anyway, if the chat has entered some ToS breaking territory then yes, I could understand the offending parties being reported and would fully support a good talking to from ToS abiding Mentors/sprouts.

[Catwho]

Lamia's NN has the same troll keep creating new alts and rejoining under a different name, until enough people figure out it's him and blacklist him again. He never breaks the ToS but he does the "sealioning" thing where he keeps asking questions unrelated to the game and never getting satisfied with the answer and pretending he's... like.... doing the Socratic method, to try to goad OTHER people into breaking ToS in frustration. Call him out on his shit and he's "just asking questions!" After a while he figures out he's blacklisted by everyone again, disappears for a few days, and reappears with a fresh name. And the cycle repeats. It's not bannable, but it sure is annoying as heck.
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[LittleImp]

What is "all the shit going down with the RP community"? has the RP community done something wrong suddenly that I'm not aware of? :/ As far as I can tell, it's just some people with an axe to grind trying to remove RP from the game.

Probably just a reference to the explosive growth of publicly adverted ToS breaking RP that's happened over the last year, and the subsequent GM crackdown. But who knows, there's an endless stream of insane drama that comes out of the RP community. My favorite lately is the Ascian cult.

[Infindox]

My favorite lately is the Ascian cult.

... Is that really that big now that it's drama? I only see it on twitter with the same few people talking about it.

[Caurcas]

As some of you touched on, RP in 14 tends toward the problematic. This links back to my grievance with my server's novice network due to other mentors, and even sprouts, defending this behavior when its brought up and harassing people when they try and use novice network to warn people away from these endeavors. Often times they cover their actions by claiming the party questioning their actions and behavior is a troll, which makes their actions all the more insidious.

[soccerdude8]

I'm a new player. I haven't seen anything inappropriate on my server, but I also don't play for many hours a day. For me, I get annoyed with general chatter in NN. I see the green text in the chat box thinking it would be helpful information, but its just banter between mentors. Dont get me wrong, I do see questions and answers alot, but when I look down and its just some banter I get annoyed. Personal opinion of course. I'm sure other players feel like they are part of a community when it happens. I personally think that's the purpose of a guild.

that's my two cents

[Windfire]

Hello Sirenian here and I'd just like to say our NN is not so horrible as is being depicted, yes it sometimes goes way off topic, other night economics somehow came up lol, but questions are asked and answered. I have gotten a great deal of help from NN and it was actually how I got to know the gm of the fc I joined.

To anyone going "omg see NN is bad get rid of it!" I would STRONGLY suggest you take what the op says with a huge pile of salt as they picked fights over nothing (like neir glams), slammed people for "terrible dps" (in low lvl dungeons btw) and called the server trash players.

In short NN is a tool and any tool can be misused, however imo Siren mentors are pretty good about not letting things get too out of hand.