Lightning Dash's Feedback of Poniverse

Lightning Dash · January 10, 2016

UPDATE

To be honest, most of what I've mentioned in this post I'm not to concerned about anymore, however, I have a new issue I hope can be looked into right away. So far I've not got word back about it yet. Here's my quote from my reply down below that I want to be looked into:

Now the main thing I want to put into discussion here is the way members are moderated. The forums and it's design, the way threads are handle, and the development team; I honestly have no more complaints over anything like that, and I can pass any issues that fall under those categories, but the way members are moderated is something that really has to gain some improvement. This is something that really needs improvement and focus. Also, I won't say any names in here for the sake of member privacy.

We're all Bronies here, are we not? Maybe some aren't, but either way, we're an internet community that's centered around the actual Brony community, and that's basically the foundation of this entire network (Poniverse). I'm sure we all know the Brony Code by now (Love and Tolerance). In the end, we're not just a community that's here to discuss the show, but we're also a community of friends which in my opinion is the main aspect on this community.

Pretty much all of us has at least 1 friend we speak to on here. If anyone on this forums doesn't have a friend, then damn, I feel sorry for you, but I'll happily take you under my wing, literally. I'm super awesome once you get to know me too. But what's the worst thing that can happen on here? In my opinion, it's seeing a friend of ours getting banned for whatever reason, or getting banned yourself, and this seems to happen quite a lot. In some cases when a friend gets banned, you end up losing all contact with them, and that's a really upsetting ending to friendship.

Last year, one of my friends ended up getting the old full ban, although thankfully I was able to add him on Skype, and he's become one of my closest friends. Naturally, I asked him why he got banned, and while I have no evidence on what exactly happened, some of the points he mentioned lead to me believe the ban was done unfairly. As I know him well, I know he has difficulties in how he communicates to others, and because of the way he handles communication, it can lead to becoming problematic. From what I've gathered, that's the main reason why he ended up getting banned from the forums.

Very recently, in fact just yesterday, one of my other close friends got fully banned from the forums due to grammar issues. While I won't say his name, I'm sure there are members of staff here that know exactly what member I'm talking about.

The problem with this is that while his grammar may not always be understandable, and I won't lie, even I sometimes have issues with what he's trying to say. The thing is, it's not something he can really help. It's not something he chooses to do, and he doesn't choose to not improve and learn by it, but unfortunately, he does have difficulties in communicating and learning by his mistakes.

I've known this friend since around the time he registered on here, up to this date, and I speak to him almost daily. We speak as close friends, and because of this, I as a friend of him know what he's like, how he talks, I've identified that he does have some difficulty in communication and that he struggles to learn from it. But in the end, I know him personally because we're close friends that's spoken to each other for a long time. The staff that dealt with him does not know him personally. They probably didn't identify that he has communication and learning difficulties; They don't know that this is how he is. I could say the exact same for my other close friend that got banned from here last year.

The problem is, there are some members, maybe a lot of members and Bronies in this community that do had communication and learning difficulties, and I mean no offense when I talk about this, but it's something that cannot be helped, and banning them because they have an in-ability to get to the required standards on this forums is absolutely shameful, and it's shameful as a Brony community. You can sit there and say it isn't, but it really is shameful and unfair.

Now I'm no expert when it comes to individuals that have learning difficulties, or have issues in expressing themselves in a way where the rest of the forums can understand what they're saying. But I'm still able to notice when a friend of mine does have difficulties, and I don't let the communication difficulty affect my view on them. I at least compromise and try to understand them without throwing them out because I, not only as a friend, but as a fellow Brony, I care about them.

I get that this forums has a presentation to maintain, and members are expected to reflect a good presentation; I get that, but there should be a line drawn for the sake of the Brony community as this is one of the top Brony sites, if not, the top Brony site where we all gather together on. It's like a mass internet convention if you will. Those in the community that have difficulties should have special care instead of trying to force them to reach the same standards of the rest of the forums.

This doesn't mean that those with difficulties are treated differently, but they still should be let off in a case that's not generally harming other users or the forums. As my friend that recently got fully banned from the forums, the reason why he got banned was completely because of his grammar. He's still a kind soul that doesn't mean any harm to anyone, and as far as I know, he's never caused anyone any problems or been offensive towards other members.

It's extremely unfair that he got banned over grammar reasons, and because he has difficulties, he shouldn't be held responsible with something he has an in-ability for. It's as bad as banning a disabled person from a marathon because they're not fast enough in their wheelchair; It's not their fault at all, but that doesn't mean they're not allowed to participate in the race because that would be wrong to ban them for something that's beyond their control.

I honestly don't mean to be offensive towards those that have these issues, but there's really no other way to say this than to speak my mind here.

It's the staff's responsibility to not only keep the forums clean, but to also help members with their needs and help them feel welcomed to this community regardless of their conditions, if they have any. It is not right for a staff member to basically throw these individuals out the front door over something they can't help.

I don't care if you say he didn't care about how he communicates on here, and I don't care if you say he didn't want to try and improve, because I as a friend that knows him very well know that it's just the way he is, and he cannot help it. The thing with him is sometimes you can understand exactly what he's saying, but then there are also times when you can't. He's not doing this intentionally at all, it's just the way he is.

You as staff members that take on the responsibility to attend to the members that are having troubles have failed to deal with my friend correctly. You've failed to deal and help him correctly. Now I'm not saying you should go and take a class in how to deal with individuals with difficulties. What I'm saying is sometimes you should either learn to deal with these members correctly, or otherwise if you're incapable, then maybe you should let them off the hook.

This doesn't mean it's unfair treatment between members, it means doing the right thing for someone that requires special treatment. As a Brony community which is probably the most accepting and caring community that exists, it's only right that you take the most reasonable course of action when dealing with members that have learning difficulties.

If you say otherwise, then I'll be willing to sit here day in, day out, and argue with you regarding this whole thing. I totally understand that the community wants to be treated equally, and in cases of toxic members that never improve their attitude and become a problem for the community, then sure, I agree that banning them is the only thing that can be done for such members. But we're not even talking about an abusive member at all, we're talking about a member that's never been abusive for as long as he's been here, and got fully banned all over grammar reasons. It's shameful as I've said.

But not only is it shameful, but it proves that the staff on here are not qualified to handle members that need special treatment. It's also frustrating that I as a friend of the banned member cannot speak on his behalf; Not here, not on Skype, nowhere will the staff let me speak on his behalf, and that's pretty sad because it's only natural that a friend will defend their friends if anything was to happen to them.

I get you're being professional, and then there's member privacy, but come on, make it a little more natural and allow me to defend my friends and fight for their rights if they're not capable of doing it. I'll even be willing to relay what they want to say in regards to their ban. If you feel that's not a legitimate way of disputing bans, then open a chat between me, my friend, and a qualified member of staff so we can resolve it, and so I can support my friend if they're struggling to bring the true around and why it was unfair.

With all that said. The staff should learn to deal with members that have learning difficulties. It's probably not a common case anyway, but in this case it is.

Just think about it. You as a staff member are here to maintain the forums, maintain the members and enforce the rules to maintain order on the forums and network. You're also just like any normal member that's here to join in as a community. You really shouldn't throw a member out because they can't help with their grammar. You can sit there and say he was capable, but I as a friend, I know him and how he communicates, and you do not know this about him, otherwise you'd not have misunderstood him and banned him for something he's incapable of doing.

Like I've said at the start. The Brony community is the foundation of this entire forums and network, and it's unfair to throw a fellow Brony out in this fashion and for that reason.

If you care and are a truly a reasonable line of staff, then you'd unban him, and we all can take this into private and have it resolved. It's highly likely that he'll struggle in disputing why it's unfair and all that, so it's only fair I'll get taken into the private discussion as support. I have my standards, and I'm prideful, so I'll help resolve it without being bias just because he's a friend. If there's one thing I'm good at, it's being fair and reasonable in doing what's right.

I feel as if you should start helping members as a fellow Brony instead of a formal staff member.

If you wish to take this in private, I'm free to receive a private message over it. My friend is up for having this resolved.

Introduction

Okay, it's been over a year now since I've been a member on here; It's about time I made my own feedback topic. Now this opening post is extremely large, so prepare for a long read. It would be best to read only if you have the free time to spare and plan on reading the whole post. Please remember that nothing I say in here is directed towards any individual as I won't be using any names. I want this to be as complete, and as honest as I can, so it's a constructive feedback topic.

The whole idea here is to give both the positives and negatives of the site, while being honest with it. I strongly believe there is room for improvement, which I'll get to in here. Also, I'll spoiler tag the main feedback and suggestion sections to minimize scrolling. Anyway, read away and enjoy

Feedback

The first thing I really love about Poniverse is it's so welcoming and accepting. Since I've been here, I've made so many friends, and it's a really awesome place to spend time on. MLP Forums, and all the friends I've made here has pretty much turned my life around. Although I don't post much, I still feel comfortable and happy here, and I never feel worried in posting around the forums when I do.

MLP Forums really is a great community filled of all types of Bronies, and I can always count on this being a place of serenity for me; I don't really have much to live for in real life, so everything I have here and all my friends on Skype are everything to me, and I will never leave Poniverse no matter what. This is also a place where I can finally be myself without worrying too much on being judged which is very important to me.

I also love the overall presentation of Poniverse. It even has everything any of us could ever want: The forums, Pony.fm, Poniarcade, and Equestria.tv, and not forgetting all the wonderful features and visuals we have here. Almost everything is laid-out exactly as it should be. I also love the maturity on here. The moderators and even a lot of the members post in a mature and professional manner, and that does send a clear message to all the new members and passing guests on how we act on here; It's not an intimidating environment, and maintains a positive and welcoming atmosphere.

All the visuals: Poniverse network site images, Sub-forum icons, emoticons, badges, etc, perfectly fit in with each other, and perfectly match the community they're made for. I also love the way members can send in their own banners to be used on the forums. I haven't seen any other forums that does that, and that's pretty cool we can have our own banners used on the forums. The background is pretty awesome too. I totally love the way how it changes from a day-time theme to a night-time theme depending on my clock; Pretty awesome how that's done.

The 20 character minimum is also another great idea we have it. Not only does it help cut spam and encourage higher quality posts, but it also prevents those annoying reaction gif posting too which I see on other forums; That kinda brings out elitism as members on those forums thinks it's a cool thing to do instead of making a worth while post. I'm really glad that's not a thing on here. The 20 character limit also helps to discreetly guide members in how they make their posts; Longer posts generally have more thought and care in them compared to short posts on Internet forums. If any feature/system should remain, this is one of them. Also noted that different sections have their own character limit level to better fit the type of posts required in those areas.

Another thing that I like about Poniverse is the many events that's done on here. The most notable one being "Making Christmas Merrier" which is a very kind and thoughtful thing to do. I haven't ever been on an Internet forums that does something like that. I've gathered the charity is chosen for it's younger viewers which makes a whole lot of sense, and it's really kind to create an event like this. I'd donate cash myself, only I've been totally poor for 4 - 5 years, although I will someday.

Moderation is another thing I give a lot of respect and credit to. The way topics and posts are moderated is perfect as far as I can see. I don't generally go around the entire forums to say otherwise if this is not the case in some areas. But as far as I've personally seen, it's perfect. I also like how any problematic content in posts are removed to keep everything friendly. As I've never had any personal issues with moderation, and I've never been on the staff ladder to get an inside look on it, I can't say a great deal about it; Only what I've seen, and like I've said, as far as I've seen, it's done perfectly. Also, I haven't ever seen a troll on here yet, so that proves moderation is done by the book.

I would like to give a big thanks to the sites' co-founder - Feld0, for creating this top class Brony forums. It's really grown into a well presented and functional forums, even though there's the occasional server issue that happens ^^ I can guess it wasn't easy creating the forums, finding the right trusted line of staff to work together to make this place clean and awesome, and keeping it going while getting up all the content Poniverse has to offer. I run a Skype group, and although an IM group has a large gap between an Internet forums, it's still a community, and I know it's not easy in guiding a community to set a great example. The presentation is near-perfect here, and it's so friendly and welcoming.

I actually feel more comfortable on this forums than I do in my own house, and that's saying something. I know I've been giving a lot of positives for Poniverse, but there are a few concerns I have, and believe there is room for improvement which I'll go into detail in the "Concerns and Suggestions" section below. Overall this is the best forums I've ever been on, and it doesn't feel empty either; That's not because of the activity, but there's a certain vibe where I feel connected to this place, and it's a wonderful feeling.

Just to break it down:

Presentation and Visuals - Near-perfect. The forums and members really set a great example of positivity, and all the visuals are well done and fitting.
Atmosphere - Near-perfect, too. It's very welcoming and friendly, and it's a very comfortable place to be in.
Features - There's many awesome and useful features on here. There are a few features I would like to see on here though, which I'll go into detail in the "Concerns and Suggestions" section below.
Moderation - As far as I've seen, it's perfect. Everything is kept clean and civil.
Forum Events - The forum events are great. I also like the idea of how we can win prizes, even though I've never won anything in my life.
Staff and Member Relationship - The relationship between staff and member is pretty great on here. It actually feels that the staff do care about us, unlike other forums I've been on. A few concerns over that which again I'll explain later, but on the surface, it's really great.

With all that said, I'm going to move onto a less positive note with the forums. Please keep in mind that nothing I say in here is personal or un-reasonable, just an honest constructive feedback for Poniverse. While this place is totally awesome, there's still room for improvement.

Concerns and Suggestions

I want to make a few things clear before I start expressing my concerns and the suggestions I make here. Firstly, I won't mention any names for the sake of user privacy. Also, I'm not bashing the forums itself, I just feel there are things that can do with improvements; Some more than others. I'm going to go into a rant with the next bit so I'll spoiler tag it to split and shorten this area of the thread. Sorry I have to do this, but I want to make this topic as complete and honest as I can.

Also, the last thing I'm going to make clear before I make these suggestions is this will be the final time I ever make a suggestion on this site, unless the system changes with how suggestions are handled. Honest, and this may sound blunt, but I honestly don't believe the developers of this site give a fuck about what the members want. I do not blame or point the hoof at the moderators or administrators as they've got nothing much to do with forum development, and I believe they merely just say what they're told or know. With that said, all the wonderful staff members here that actually get involved with the community, I have nothing against you in this so don't take any of this personal.

I have seen so many suggestions here, and a lot of them are really good ideas that would work better for the members of the forums, after all, the members are the most important thing on any Internet forums, and a forums should be shaped to suit the needs of as many members as possible, with a few exceptions. As long as nothing affects overall membership or presentation to guests and member alike, then any idea that's realistic should be considered and executed.

One thing I'd like to point out is optional features that a member can toggle shouldn't ever be deemed as being a negative, unless it's something that affects all members. A good example is the flag and gender graphic that can be toggled to appear on members posts. It's an optional feature, and because of that, logically there is nothing bad about that. If a member wants to make their own setup with their profile and posts, they as a member wanting to have the best experience possible should be allowed to have that.

I didn't want to say this, but I'm going to be dead honest here. This site feels like a business with how it's ran behind the scenes. As far as I can see, the developers don't give a crap about what the members want as I've said. Of course, the founder has every right to have things in a particular way, however, I, like any other member of the forums, we all come together as a community, and that basically is what a forums is, otherwise you may as well run a business site like Microsoft does.

With that said, the members should be first priority, and their needs should be heard and attended to as long as what they need/want doesn't affect others in a negative way. This site was created to bring Bronies together, correct? And now we have a nice large community. While the site has it's founder, and staff that help keep the place running, we're all still equal as a Brony community, and we should work together as a community to make things work as best as possible. Don't get me wrong, some things should have it's limits, but in the end, a voice within the community should be heard at the very least.

Like I've said, I may not own the site itself, but the forums is still a stage that a community sits on, and I'm a member that's a part of this community. Obviously there are other Brony forums out there, but I've personally chosen this one purely because of how active it is and it's vibe, and that there are many awesome members on here. It's just a crying shame the site doesn't allow the community to have a say much on how we want it. Sure we've got enough to come together as a community, but that's besides the point.

Bottom line: As far as I see, the developers just don't care about what the community wants. With the way this site is run, it feels like a business, and us members only get what we're given. Sure, a rare few suggestions get taken into account such as the Admin Approval feature; It's great that one did make the cut, but many other things do get rejected, and it feels as if the developers took a look and said "Nope, don't want that. Go and tell them we're not doing it". It's just I as a community member of a community forums don't feel equal into what the community should have.

Now, I've found myself brohoofing certain replies to suggestions because okay, I somewhat had an agreement to them, but now that I think about the forums in this perspective, I have a change of heart. After what I've said here, I will go ahead and bring some things up that I didn't suggest. Also as an added note. I can't take "We shouldn't waste time with adding a feature for members" as a valid excuse. Because hay, apparently the staff shouldn't bother wasting time to attend to members needs. Sorry but that's actually what the staff are there for; Not only to keep the forums clean and running, but also to attend to the members needs.

If you ask me, improving member experience is first priority when it comes to using the time staff have in management. Are you building a business site? or are you building a forums around it's members to make them feel more at home, and enjoy the site more as they use it? Sorry but I can't take that seriously. I'm not trying to tell you how to run a forums, but a forums is built for members; Technical resources should help deliver a better experience for the members.

With all of this off my chest, this, as I've said at the start, this will be the very last time I'll ever make a suggestion on here, unless the way suggestions are handled is changed. Right now it feels almost futile to give an idea on here. As time goes by, I'm beginning to feel that this suggestion area is becoming redundant. I will still jump into suggestion topics if I feel the need to, but when it goes to sending over my own ideas, I ain't doing that anymore.

The first concern I want to bring up is how suggestions are dealt with. I acknowledge that InvisionPower Board does have it's limits, and quite a few suggestions that I see aren't exactly realistic; The staff that reply to these suggestions usually make valid points which are understandable, however, this is not always the case, and even so, the way the staff approach and reply to suggestions ain't quite how I believe it should be, and this is one thing that can really be improved.

One thing I really would like to point out is when a member of staff replies to a suggestion topic, it does feel like they are representing the entire team of staff. Because of this, when a member of staff says the suggestion won't be done because of whatever reason(s), then it does appear that the entire line of staff have thrown the idea into the trash can.

There also has been a case in one of my own suggestion topics where none of the staff made a reply to, and because of that, my suggestion feels completely ignored. I appreciate the staff are being professional in the details they give when replying to suggestion topics, but it defiantly has room for improvement, which brings us to how I believe it should work.

Firstly, the staff should lay off biased opinions when replying to suggestion topics. A lot of times when I see certain members of staff make replies to express their view over a suggestion, it does look like they're disapproving the idea based off of what they like or dislike, and this is a major fault. I'm not saying the staff shouldn't express their own personal concerns over any given suggestion, but if they must, they should clearly mention what they're saying is just a personal concern; Nothing more, nothing less. Whether the staff member agrees to the suggestion or not, this should not affect their reply to it.

Also, one other thing the staff should do when making replies to suggestions is to make it constructive. Most replies made by the staff towards suggestions are single sided; Either they are for or against the suggest, and only express the side they're on with it. If I was to make a suggestion, one thing I'd like to see is total acknowledgment for that suggestion from the staff. A lot of suggestions I've seen has it's benefits and drawbacks, and the staff, regardless of if they personally like the idea or not, they should still list out the positives and negatives of that suggestion. Doing that will help acknowledge what good can come from it, and what it could affect.

Another thing I'd like to see from the staff is more insight into what's being planned. If the suggestion is giving an idea on something that's currently being planned, like for example, I made a suggestion regarding the badges recently, and I was told that they were planned on being re-mastered. It still wasn't really enough information for me to know exactly what's going on with them. I feel that this is the same case for a lot of other suggestions that are made; Being under-informed, and as a result, I wasn't totally satisfied with the response I received.

Giving more insight to what's going on in regards to a suggestion might not always be possible, but if that's the case, there should still be more details like "We've recently been planning on re-mastering the badges soon, and hopefully we'll get the new ones put up within the next few months, with the exception of delays. We can't give a precise date on when, but it shouldn't be too long from now". Keeping in mind that is only an example, but a reply like that does make me feel more connected to what's going to change, and as a member, it's only fair that I have a good idea on what's to come.

Finally, I'd encourage more members of staff to get involved and reply more within suggestion topics. A lot of times some do, but not always. Like I said above, one of my suggestion topics didn't get any replies from the staff at all, not even a Brohoof to suggest acknowledgment. Even if there's nothing to say regarding benefits and drawbacks, the staff should at the very least make a response to acknowledge the idea, and also give some insight on if it'll be considered for the future or not.

Bottom line regarding how suggestions are handle is the staff shouldn't be biased, they should give us as much insight as needed to better satisfy the original poster, and overall, give a constructive reply no matter what the member of staffs' personal issues are. I don't doubt any given suggestion is discussed between the staff, but it would help if there was more communication between the staff and members of the forums with suggestions given.

Keeping on the subject of managing suggestions. One thing I'd like to see happen is for there to be a previously brought up suggestions index thread. Quite a few suggestions have been brought up multiple times, and that means going over why those given idea(s) never took effect on the forums and didn't make the cut. Also, there's over 20+ pages of suggestions that's been brought up since the forums started, and it'll take awhile for a single member to going through each individual one to see what ideas have already been mentioned. I don't doubt none of us have the patients to do that, and would rather just make our own topic without seeing if our idea was previously brought up.

It's a very easy and simple task to go through the Feedback and Suggestions sub-forum, and put together a topic with all mentioned suggestions in, and all the main details on if they were fulfilled or declined. It would take quite a bit of time to search through everything, and then put it all together into a single pinned topic, but in the long run, it'll give full insight into what's already been mentioned in terms of given suggestions.

Overall, it's simple, and would help members see what ideas have already been mentioned, especially if they wish to put in their own suggestion which turns out to have already been brought up; No need to resort to the search feature. Of course there's nothing wrong with bringing up a previously mentioned idea, and this wouldn't exclude members to have a right to post an idea that's already been made, but a suggestion index can give them an idea on making their version of the same idea better.

You can also take the extra step and include regular updates on mentioned/planned features so we know what's coming, and around when it's going to happen. Most of the time with these suggestions, they just die out after some time, and it gets to a point where the idea felt forgotten. With a suggestion index, you can keep us informed on any decent suggestion that's being considered so the idea doesn't feel lost and forgotten.

I'd also made sure to include the links to each suggestion topic within the suggestion index so a member can easily and quickly review all the details on any idea that's been mentioned. It's something that any member of the forums can do, although it would be better for a member of staff to do as they can keep it locked and updated whenever something new is brought up, plus they have the inside look into what's going on.

I'll actually update this bit here. The section below I was talking about the badges, and a few days after I started writing this all up, a new post was made which gives information that I could have done with while writing this up and giving my own suggestion in them. As I was not informed of why something couldn't specifically be done, I couldn't make a suggestion to get around that, although I have updated my post below for an alternative. With that said, a suggestion index with all the information needed over any given suggestion and what's previously been mentioned is something I fully support and would like to see.

UPDATE - While I was writing this up, a new topic was made regarding this, and I gained a little information on why these ideas mostly were never done. With that said, I'll still keep this stuff up, although I have added an extra bit to this below. By the way, this is even more of a reason to add a suggestion index; Un-informed over what can be done and what can't on here.

The next thing I want to bring up, and this is something that's been brought up so many times; I myself also brought it up recently, and that's the badges. Before I start this, I acknowledge that there are plans on re-mastering them, or "revamping" the visuals of the badges. Still, I'll throw out my own ideas on these just for the sake of laying everything out in this thread.

There have been many suggestions about the badges: Some are pretty decent ideas, and some like removing them I personally don't agree with as they actually are pretty cool. I even made my own suggestion about adding a feature to simply allow an individual member to disable them from their screen. After thinking about it more, I have a brand new suggestion for the badges which I'll mention later, but first, I want to make an indirect reply to the staff reply I got in my topic. I'll spoiler tag to keep it semi-separate from the rest of this area. Also, don't take anything personal. I'm merely giving an honest response here.

I don't see us utilizing technical resources and staff effort to implement this feature.

This forums is built for a community. The community is the second most important thing on the forums (The first being the actual forums where the community gathers together on). The forums is already up and running, and it's been running for about 5 years now? Those technical resources should be used to attend to the members needs now. I honestly cannot take this as a legitimate excuse purely because a forums is built for members, and if any of the staff's resources are to be used on something, it's the members needs.

Don't get me wrong, the forums still needs maintenance, but that's the whole point of having different staff for different things. If you don't have enough staff to handle a certain aspect of the forums, eg the members, then it's time to start hiring. The staff are also there for help and support, as well as making sure the members have the best time they can have.

In fact there has been some discussion on revamping the images used in general to better allign with the age of the forum and additional aired FiM content.

That's great to hear. I'd have preferred a little more insight onto what's going on with them, but I can understand there are limits to the information you can provide. Again, it wouldn't hurt to have been informed more on these things; Even more of a reason to make a suggestion index here.

I may be biased as I believe web design is a form of art, and representative of the creator.

Firstly, don't be biased. This is what I'm saying with suggestion management; You shouldn't be biased. Just because you see things in one way, doesn't mean the rest of us do. The key words there being "you" and "I".

Yes, web design is a form of art, and I totally respect MLP Forums theme and art that makes it up to what it is, but this goes against the fact that the members are lower priority to the theme of the forums. While I can agree it's totally up to the web designers and forum owner to make the site look in a particular way to how they want it to look, the members should also be considered, after all, we (The members) are the soul reason as to why this place exists as a forums.

If this was Microsoft's website, I'd understand that, but it's not, it's a Brony community designed to gather Bronies together as a large community. It's only right the forums is shaped to suit our needs, and make us feel both comfortable, and happy, as well as enjoying communication on here, even if it's just a small minor change.

So outside of browser blocking (which I personally see as modifying art) the rank badges should remain visible for users as that is the general intention of the site's defined user experience and theme.

An interesting choice of words there. This is even more proof that the developers are dictating on how the user experience should be/how they want it, and not how we as the actual users/members would prefer it to be.

And let's not forget I was giving an optional idea to a new feature. If a member has the ability to disable and enable a feature at will on their screen, and we're talking about registered members here, does the theme really matter in terms of being a valid argument? Truth is, it doesn't, and I'll explain it right here.

We all log on to this forums to either discuss MLP, talk to our friends, get connected to the Brony community, or simply to enjoy the features Poniverse has, eg Equestria.TV, which is one of the awesome things this network provides. Despite this, we all have other miscellaneous features that add to our user experience, and as a result, improves our enjoyment we have on here when it comes to posting, and simply being a member on here.

If an optional feature is only to take effect upon the member that chooses it, then that's how they want it to be in terms of making the forums better suited for their needs. This does not mean they are condemning the sites' theme, only the fact that they are using the features to make it better for them as a member, thus making them feel just a little more comfortable in using the site, and overall feeling more happy with it.

This is true member experience; Being able to change things to our liking while at the same time not causing damage to the forums or the other members of the forums. While I can agree there should be certain limits when it comes to specific features, but when it comes to a feature that only takes effect on the individual members monitor, the theme should never be an element in going against that.

One thing I'm sure a lot of us have noticed is the amount of suggestions that's been given. The idea on keeping the rank we're on is probably the one that's been mentioned many times. I quite like this idea, and even more so if we could select any previous badge we've attained (As important information was mentioned while I had already written this, I've updated and altered my suggestion below). Now as the badges are used as a memento to signify our total posts around the forums, this idea would ruin it's purpose, however, I believe the badges could be used differently rather than to signify our total post count, in which case, this idea could take effect.

Now for a lot of us, the badges can be seen as a representation of the member, instead of showing post count rank. If you ask me, having the purpose of the badges as representing a member and their posts, would be better than to represent their post count rank. In fact I have a friend that doesn't post on the forums purely because he wants to keep his rank. Here's our exact conversation on Skype (Spoiler tagged):

Me: By the way, who are you on the forums?
My Friend: -Name censored for privacy- ^^
My Friend: I was Handsome Changeling
Me: ah, I should friend you on there.
My Friend: I don't go on it often X3
My Friend: Like, rarely
My Friend: Even if I have done a lot on there in the past
Me: No prob though. I'll still friend you
My Friend: Totes ^^ Main reason I don't post as much is because I don't wanna lose my rank XD
Me: oh?
My Friend: Changeling. It matches my profile perfectly
Me: oh ^^
My Friend: There should be a system so you can pick (If you have it) What rank you are :/
Me: It is a shame you can't keep ranks on there though
My Friend: Yeah exactly
My Friend: I would gladly just stay as Changeling
My Friend: Because obvious reasons
Me: Yeah ^^
Me: There has been a suggestion for that only they didn't accept it.
My Friend: I suggested it too I remember, didn't get a reply
My Friend: Admins need to listen to their fans, it's a bit fucking rude in all honesty
Me: It is actually. Most important thing to an Internet forums is the members.
My Friend: Exactly

Now, I really love the whole idea of the badges, it's just a shame they're not being used in a more productive way. To be honest, I can totally understand the whole concept of them and being that extra bit of enjoyment with posting, and the posting rank titles don't have to be abolished; If I were to make a suggestion to combine both post rank badges and badge representation, I'd say to make the images more compact in fitting on our posts. That's where I come to the updated part of this.

UPDATED AREA

As I said at the start of this, I found out more information on this, and why it can't be done. It's good to know that, however, this is even more of a reason to put up a suggestion index with detailed information regarding why something didn't make the cut, which I've said so many times already. With that said, I actually have another suggestion on the badges, although this can either replace the current system as post count ranks can be disabled, or both could be done at the same time; Whichever works and looks best. I'd personal keep the best of both so nothing gets excluded.

Maybe I did jump to conclusions over this, but you can't blame me. It would help, as I've said a few times, to actually inform us like putting up a suggestion index, otherwise we're not going to know about it. Anyway, on to my updated suggestion over these, and I'll still support anything that can give us the option to select our own badges.

If this was to work in the best way possible, the ranks should be disabled entirely, and instead, create the multiple member groups that each have their own badge. If this is to work correctly, then these member groups should be made selectable. Obviously, there shouldn't be any different perks between the different member groups, just as a way to make these cool badges become possible as being selectable for members.

The only issue that can come from this is the sub-forums that require a certain number of posts to view, eg Debate Pit requires 40 posts as a minimum to view. In this case, you could have the "Blank Flank" group run up to 40 posts, and after 40 posts have been reached, then this could enable the ability to select the other badges. There probably are a few different ways to achieve this, but it doesn't take a brainiac to figure the best system out.

Now I've said this above, but the badges and being able to change which one you have on your posts would be really cool, and why a lot might not care much about them, and some may even like how it is, but honestly, members being able to select the badges is still the better idea, after all, some are going to like to have a specific badge, where as others may not like the badge they have, and want to change that.

Either way you could work out a way to combine both of these: Keeping the posting rank, while at the same time do the idea of making other user groups to satisfy both parties. Of course it would work out best if both sets of badges were entirely different. I personally would prefer just giving us the user groups, and re-doing the post rank badges so they don't collide with each other. You have control over how they work compared to post count ranks. It defiantly is a more realistic way of doing it.

I actually have another idea over badges, although you're probably are not going to like it because the theme and art is way more important than the members according to the logic of some. I'll still mention it for the sake of being my final suggestion.

What I'd loved to have instead of the badges, is a custom icon/badge feature. You know how we have our avatar and signature? Well how about having a feature that works like how our avatar works, but for an icon instead? This is a Brony community, and I figured wouldn't it be a great idea if we could put our cutie mark under our avatar instead of the badge feature we have. Whatever icon you want, you could put up in replace of the badges. It would be nice to have something like that, and any of the members on here could make use of it.

I've actually gone ahead and put stuff together to make an example of how I'd believe all these features could come together. The whole idea is to combine things without throwing anything out. Now I'm being fair here as I'm not excluding anything, so take a look at my idea of it, see what you think, and use your imagination a bit if you believe my idea can be improved.

Now, I done this fairly quickly, but I'm sure the web designers can come up with far better graphics for the flags and gender. Either way, doing something like this is both compact, and includes all of these cool features. I honestly believe this can work. I'm sure all of this stuff is do-able. Maybe a little trial and error until you get it right.

Bottom line for this idea. I respect the post count ranks and badges that follow them. I don't feel they should be excluded. However, I also love the idea of being able to select our own badge (Which would work via a selectable member group to make this work, and only activates once 40 posts have been made to access the specific sub-forums), and maybe even include a way of selecting a custom icon (Similar to how our avatars work). It doesn't take much imagination to think of a realistic working system for this.

It also doesn't hurt to give out your own ideas on this; That's the idea of working together as staff and member.

Updated Update

Okay, I had another new idea while this was written, and I think this one would really be a realistic and do-able system. Firstly, with the post count rank badges, there are different types but split into 2 groups: Objects and creatures, and the Pony races (Also including Changeling's). Now while I was thinking about this, I thought that the suggestion I've given above could still be done, but the post count badges and selectable badges can be of the different sets.

As you saw in my image post example above, I had the idea of keeping the post count rank badges, but I also had the selectable badge which I personally choose to be "Pegasus" for obviously reasons. Why not make 2 sets of these badges, but have the Pony races + the other races as the selectable badges? This probably would be the better way of doing it, and although you can exclude custom badges, you can still keep the idea of post count rank, while at the same time being able to select a Pony race badge (Which in my honest opinion would work best).

Of course this means making new badges to fill up the post count rank badges, but I'm sure the Web Designers can come up with a perfect set of new badges for them. So just to break this new idea down:

Keep the post count rank badges, but keep them as being objects and creatures which would still fulfill their concept.
Separate the Pony races and other races, and make these as being the added selectable feature (Like you see in my image post example above).
Obviously make the few new post count rank badges to fill in the slots where the Pony races used to be.

This way, you'll be able to keep the best of both features, and you can make these compact to work together in posts like I showed above in the example. You have all the possible benefits with this. The only negatives I can see are spending the time to make it work, and of course if the new member groups was to be made which for this to work right may have to be done, unless you make the selectable Pony race badges as a separate system, then that's probably going to take a bit more thought to achieve. Either way, it's sound, and I'm sure it can be done. As always, if you think my idea can be improved, make your own suggestions, and work with me here.

Staying on the subject of making things compact. The previous ideas of flags and a gender symbol would work out well, as long as the coders know what they're doing which I presume could make it work. I'm not exactly for or against those ideas; I honestly don't mind as I wouldn't personally use them, but I'll respect those that would like these features.

There was a lot of talk about the gender icon idea, and again, by making the images compact so it all fits neatly within posts, this could work out fine. The feature was of course suggested as an optional feature, in which case, shouldn't be deemed as a worrying feature. I'll take a few quotes from the last page of that suggestions' topic.

It goes ageist what MLP is all about if you're opinion on something is different based of the fact that I am a woman then that is really dumb. I feel like this would work vice versa as well.

To start off with, this would be an optional feature, and because of that, those that fear their posts would be judged/seen as different due to their gender can simply not make use out of the gender icon feature; It's an if you don't like it, don't use it feature. In plain English, it doesn't affect you if you're not using it.

I don't doubt some members, especially a lot of the female members that would like this feature, as a lot of members get mistaken for being male. Some females most likely would prefer to send out a clear message that they're a female due to the majority being male within the community.

Also, I honestly don't believe gender has much effect on how the individuals opinions are viewed. We live in a time where males and females are treated equally; That might not be the case in some things, but keep in mind this is a Brony community which is probably the most accepting community that's around. I really can't see any member on this forums, in this community discriminating another over their gender, or changing their view on a post just because it was posted by a female.

The only topics that could have a different effect on who is posting, are topics that target a specific gender. Still, would it really have a negative impact from this community? I don't believe it would, not within a Brony community.

Honestly I want people to have a reason to add to their profiles. I want people to have a reason to go to other profiles and check them out.

I agree with this statement, to a degree. Again, this is only talking from ones perspective. While it's nice for a member to be curious and check out the full content of a profile when checking a members gender, it still shouldn't be a valid argument in terms of clicking on a members profile.

Members should want to click on a profile to get a better look at the member they're curious about, not just to check if they're male or female. It's like for example, if I wanted to know more stuff about Feld0, the first thing I'll do is view his profile. I mean, this is not a dating site where browsing a members profile to check out their gender is something that we should do.

Normally, when I see a members name and avatar that interest me, I somehow get this feeling that this is my type of member that I could become friends with, and because of that, I'll view their profile to get a better insight on them because I generally want to make friends with them. And going onto a members profile to see if they'd make a good friend is one of the biggest reasons for a member to view somepony Else's profile. Gender shouldn't be that reason, because I myself honestly don't give a damn if you're male or female, as long as you're cool, then I'm gonna be cool with you; I'll visit your profile because I want to know you more, not over your gender.

Also, I think from a visual design perspective, visual glut is unattractive. There was a discussion some time ago about adding national flags to the area housing a persons avatar. I eventually came to the realization it would start making the area cluttered.

I'm pretty damn well sure the team of Web Designers are there to make all visuals work on a forums, and finding the best way in making the visual more compact so they don't over-crowd an area. With that said, posts won't be cluttered with the image content if they were made to be compact, which generally means using smaller images that fit together.

The post example I gave when I was talking about badges is a perfect example of how you can make images fit together without making it look like a pile of mish-mash.

Also, like a gender symbol, it would work on unintentionally coloring opinions of the actual content made and that flies against the motto I live by (imagine people complexly).

I honestly don't think the color of the gender symbols (if this was to become a thing) should be any issue. While society teaches us that Blue is for the boys, and pink is for the girls, we don't have to follow suit with that. With that said, the simplest solution is to make them the exact same color. I'm sure the Poniverse designers are more than capable of creating top class graphics for them.

Unless it is specific to the topic I couldn't care less what gender or nationality you are when I am reading your opinion. In the case where it matter I trust the intelligence and judgement of the individual to add this information to the text for context anyway.

PS. Excuse my poor MS Paint skills. Also, it's nothing personal, don't take it to heart

Anyway, as I've said. I don't believe this community really cares about gender, and you even said yourself right there. The suggestion regarding having a gender icon on posts is more for those that want to make it clear what gender they are. I can guess that some females that get mistaken as being a male all the time can be dead annoying for them, and such a feature can help stop that. It might not be a big thing, but I'm pretty sure some would like to be able to publicly show what gender they are. Either way, it's an optional feature that one can choose to use if they really want that. They shouldn't have to mention their gender within the post they're making.

It's pretty useless in my opinion. I think that if there's any disputes you can just hop onto their page and have a look.

Not to mention some people might be gender fluid or not want to talk about their gender.

Pretty much all the stuff I've mentioned above. As for not wanting to talk about their gender, well that's why it'll be an optional feature; If you don't want it, don't enable it.

As for the flag suggestion, again, it would work out best as being optional, and compact so it all fits nicely within posts. The only issue I see with this feature is that there are hundreds of flags, and that would take some time to make suitable graphics to match the forums' theme. Regardless, I still support the idea of flags as it doesn't have any negative impact. Being compact, it can all fit together with everything else that appears in members posts.

Unlike the gender icon idea, I doubt any member on the forums would use the flags just to give a clear message of which country they live in. It would act more as a nice addition to posts. Not much to say on this, but either way, I still support this idea for those that would love to display their country, and nothing negative can come from this.

If the fear of member posts being cluttered becomes a problem, let the Web Designers do what they're meant to do, and sort it out so the images aren't over-sized, and has a great layout to a point where it looks awesome. Ain't that one of the reasons why we have Web Designers?

I will say that the topic over adding country flags did get really good feedback, but it still remains inconclusive. Meaning it seems to have gone dead on if that's going to happen or not. If it happens in the future, awesome, and good to know it was taken into account. By the way, I really love this reply from the thread:

Keep the flags small, not large, as it might actually annoy other people since some do hold some grudges against other countries.

The idea seems pretty nice, it would give one more of an identity.

Oh, and if this becomes a thing.... don't you dare forget little ol' Iceland Staff Members

I couldn't have said it better myself, and this also goes to the gender icon idea; It would add to ones identity when they post around the forums. Not that gender and what country you're from/living in is a great deal, but it does give that little more character for a lot of members.

I don't doubt much that it's on the to do list, but still, the topic dates back over a year ago, and since then, nothing seems to have been mentioned on it. The suggestion I gave about a suggestion index could also be used to keep us informed on future features.

The last suggestion I want to give is being able to expand threads; Add a little arrow on either side of threads to expand them so it fills in the background spaces for better reading. This would be most useful in large threads that have large posts in them, like the ones you see in Debate Pit. Being able to expand the sides of the thread would minimize scrolling, as well as making it a bit easier to read as it would lower the number of sentences in paragraphs.

For this to work as best as possible, navigating from the thread, or refreshing the page should reset the size back to normal (Un-doing the sides expansion). For example, if I was reading through a large debate topic and the majority of posts are large, I could simply click the arrows at either side of the thread to fill in the gaps of the background, thus having a lot more space for all the text to rest on. Refreshing or navigating from the thread should put the size of the thread back to normal/default.

Conclusion

With all the feedback, concerns and suggestions given here. Overall the forums has a near-perfect presentation, and in terms of moderation, it's really well done. While I did give a negative insight on how I view the way suggestions are handled, and what I have problems with, please don't take any of this to heart. I may sound blunt with some things, but in the end I'm just merely giving an honest constructive feedback for Poniverse.

I really love this forums, and it is the best I've ever been on. I really would love for the improvements I've given to be fulfilled to make this site even better. If I was to give a short plain English comment onto what really is my concern, it's that I feel the voice of the members should be heard more, and more thought should go into what can be done. It's really not that hard to think of alternatives instead of throwing something out altogether. If I'm right on the whole Poniverse developers thing, then there should be a lot more communication between them and the line of staff, as well as the developers coming out of their cave to check out what's going on in the forums, and with the members; Get more involved with the community.

I've made so many wonderful friends since being here; Way more than what I've ever had throughout my entire life, and this community is very accepting and awesome to be a part of. Despite the fact I'm a very rare type of Brony (and I'm glad I'm not the onlypony like this), this community is still very accepting and friendly, and I've pretty much never been judged over the way I am, which I'm really happy over. I also love the way how many on here are ready to give a warm welcome; It's truly magical. I guess that's what is meant by "Friendship is Magic".

"MLP Forums is the #1 brony forum on the net." And I strongly agree. Yeah okay so there are a few improvements I've mentioned about what can be done to make this place even better, and I hope these things are taken into consideration. But even then, this place still is awesome, and I'm never going to leave MLP Forums

Anyway, I think I've written up enough here already. Thanks for taking the time to read through this if you did, and no matter what happens from here, I still hope we can all stay together as a large family. Just to make it clear one last time. The main thing I really would like to see as I've said, is more of a relationship between staff and member; Don't be too uptight with keeping information hidden, and keep us more informed in regards to suggestions. Just remember, it's benefits that work in the long-run that's important.

PS. I spelt Miscellaneous without using the spell checker; I'm really proud of myself for doing that ^^

Edit: I'll make a reply to all replies in here when I have time Thanks for the replies though. I'm glad this was acknowledged ^^

Edited April 10, 2016 by Lightning Dash

Roketsune · January 21, 2016

Wow, that's a great deal of material in one post, Most of it I don't have a stance on and thus I won't comment on it. However, I definitely have observed the same thing you have about the senior leadership and how they interact with the userbase. One thing I have noticed is, while the sectional and general moderators seem quite involved as regular users, I very rarely see the administrators comment on anything besides official events/functions and moderation. They live in an ivory tower well above and apart from the rest of us, and this is conducive to an aura and attitude of arrogance and rigidity. I have personally witnessed this when speaking with two of them on a major concern of mine, and this was quite repulsive to me and turned me away from supporting the site.

As you have said, there are many wonderful features of the place. IIRC, you said this place is extremely lively and is very conducive to rampant interlocution both culturally and through the design. The userbase, despite conflict being sited as a reason for banning this and that, is actually very mellow and rarely becomes combative. However, this major disconnect between the senior echelon in power and its users is a major threat to the well being of the site, and I hope it changes before there is a disaster or severe decline.

Jokuc · January 25, 2016

@@Lightning Dash, I agree with most of what you said, especially that the staff are not listening enough to the members. From my experience on this site (over 4 years), it seems like some of them try to listen but are just too ineffective and "lazy" to actually make the technical work needed in order for a feature to be implemented. I said "lazy" because it does feel like they're not taking the development "jobs" seriously... ...But at the same time I don't have enough insight in how much and often the devs actually do something and I fully understand that they do not want to work 5 hours a day with a pony site when they're not getting paid. I have no clue at all what the revenue, budget and cost for running MLP Forums is but the fact that we don't even have any hired developers (as far as I know) means that if an idea isn't simple to implement (such as an ad-on/extension or a default feature within IPB) it is most likely not going to be added and

I don't see us utilizing technical resources and staff effort to implement this feature.

is going to be the answer 90% of the time. Why? Because it takes time and effort to write custom code for custom features, it's not a walk in the park. Is this ok? I don't know. As a member of the community I feel extremely let down when so many great suggestions are thrown away but when taking price tags and manpower into consideration I just don't know. The main issue is not that the staff do not listen, it's that they are not motivated enough to try again and again and again and again

and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again

with the creation of new features when everything already is fine. Here's the thing though: There is always room for improvement.

About your idea with the badges, I'm not as convinced. Look, I know it might sound awesome for some to have your own custom badge/icon/cutie mark or whatever, but that would be very boring if you ask me. First off, I would miss the "ranking" idea with the badges a lot, the post count based badges is one of my favorite things about this place. Secondly, I do not think it would work out that well even if we had both features active. Many members don't have a certain cutie mark that they want to use (like me) and some just don't have the skills to create one. I believe that a big issue would be -just that- that a custom image can be uploaded which means that a member could use whatever image they want to as long as they claim it's their cutie mark, basically making it another avatar. Which to me is just dumb. Now one could argue that you don't have to use a custom icon if you don't want to, but then it would (in my opinion) be much better to keep the current badge system and add that hide/show feature you suggested in your other thread (which I thought was a great idea). I'm also 100% with you about being able to keep a certain badge once you have unlocked it. Unless this "revamping of the current badge system" bs is finalized or at least decided already, I think the staff should prioritize making this option possible one way or another. It's not like IPB can't be modified in the slightest from my understanding and I don't even get why we're not using vBulletin to begin with if IPB is so god damn limited.

Lastly, I do agree that the overall design of the forums is pretty good but please. PLEASE. Re-design that grey and blue navigation bar, I cannot stand it. The old menu we had back in 2012 were a million times more good looking and relevant to the theme of the website. Right now it looks like something you would see on a site when the CSS get messed up because of your shitty internet. It just looks very out of place compared to the rest of the design, continuity should be an important principle for every web designer.

PS. Wow props to you OP, I would never be able to spell miscellaneous without looking it up. Yes, I just copied it from your post ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Roketsune · January 28, 2016

@@Jokuc, I don't know how difficult coding for forums is, and they probably don't have much money to work with beyond what is necessary to keep the forums operational. Thus, I'm not prepared to say they are not sufficiently motivated to implement improvements, though maybe it is a factor. The problem I have observed is they just seem generally detached from the userbase, and have the belief that they know what's good for us and don't need us to advise them. I'm reasonably sure, if any of the admins have actually looked at this, their general impression of this criticism of them is, "Well, the peasants can say what they want. But, we know better and don't need their input." Thus, any improvements or suggestions they themselves don't conceive are more likely by default to be rejected. While it's nice they have set up this sub-forum and don't ban people for criticizing them, that kind of attitude and approach to governance doesn't facilitate the adoption of ideas or concerns from the general userbase, for good and for bad. The best way I can describe it is a strange sort of authoritarianism infused with various brony ideals.

This same attitude I've observed also manifests itself in other ways, and reduces how welcoming the place appears. One major example is this tendency I have observed for the staff to judge how much potential a thread has for general discussion, and unceremoniously lock those which fall below some threshold in their minds. Threads which received multiple responses in rapid succession have been locked for not being appropriately facilitating to popular discourse. I highly doubt allowing them to remain open would piss a reasonable person off or otherwise be a detriment to the site, but it doesn't meet their arbitrary standards and they thus see the need to intervene. I don't know whether this is a recent development or they have been doing this for years. Either way, it's just another pointless act of control which makes the place seem less friendly than it could be. This and other questionable acts of control also, I believe, naturally encourage more of the same, and I very much fear they will keep adding things to their Do Not Allow list in the name of decorum and slowly kill the site. Or maybe the reverse is true and they have become less controlling over time. I only joined a year ago and only have that experience to go by, but that experience troubles me.

While people are generally foolish and thus a massively democratized form of governance here might be foolhardy, it would be nice if the userbase was offered a somewhat larger role in the decisions that are made. I feel it would be useful if the populace was at least asked to discuss planned changes to rules or staff or functionality, rather than keep having new edicts issued from on high with no consideration of the popular reaction to them.

This Ivory Tower kind of distance and snootiness I've observed is pernicious and antithetical to innovation and tolerance. If this site ever enters a period of decline and decreasing relevance, probably the progression of this attitude will be the cause of it. If the leadership of Poniverse in general operates similarly, then this is a major concern for all of bronydom because of how many brony resources fall under its umbrella. I really don't want to see the subculture enter a period of decline due to stagnation and intolerance at the highest levels.

Jeric · January 29, 2016

Noop. Theres a lot of truth to what Lightning Dash says when it comes to communication. Yes, the main issue with development improvements is usually three fold. We focus on prioritization (stability always trumps visual or cool gadgets). The sheer number of things we have listed as improvements is a huge factor, and also that we do have limited resources in development. We have an open application looking for devs though (hint hint).

I do disagree with him on bias. I don't throw out a party line for a reason ... it is a waste of my time and the communities time to simply say something that is pleasing. I'd much rather be genuine when I say I don't like an idea. That said, I do see where we could work better at maybe collaboratively tweaking the ideas to make them fit better. Compromise and all that jazz.

And as far as this talk about Ivory Tower? Holy crap man! I'm nothing special and sure as hell make more mistakes as a human than I would prefer. I'm Charlie Brown (even have the same hairline). I'm just an average guy who happens to have a family, reads a lot, and likes Ponies. Being an Admin isn't a life defining role. It is a role, and it has it's responsibilities ... true. But it sure as heck isn't anything I would say makes me better than anyone else here.

Do I like people marginalizing others? No. Do I think this community should allow topics focused around pedophilia in a forum that has 13 year olds, or I hate x race? Nope. Does that make me someone who sits on an Ivory Tower? Maybe in YouTube comment land ... but not in the real world.

I'm a goofball who would so much rather say wheeeee than, "You fined!" And I will speak for the other Admins when I say they are not far removed from that. (Troblems and Spoon out silly me all of the time)

As far as being detatched ... man if you saw my Skype and PM numbers! Seriously, if anyone on this site just wants to PM me and say hi ... please do so.

Anyway, LD we do hear where you are coming from and if you know any Pony fans who are talented with web dev, by all means send them our way.

Roketsune · January 31, 2016

I do disagree with him on bias. I don't throw out a party line for a reason ... it is a waste of my time and the communities time to simply say something that is pleasing. I'd much rather be genuine when I say I don't like an idea. That said, I do see where we could work better at maybe collaboratively tweaking the ideas to make them fit better. Compromise and all that jazz.

I wasn't even convinced necessarily that most of the laudable ideas were being rejected, or that you were especially rude about rejections. I was merely stating why the complaint about the attitude and number of rejections seemed plausible to me. As you say, you should not be dishonest in the name of diplomacy, and some ideas I'm sure are not feasible.

And as far as this talk about Ivory Tower? Holy crap man! I'm nothing special and sure as hell make more mistakes as a human than I would prefer. I'm Charlie Brown (even have the same hairline). I'm just an average guy who happens to have a family, reads a lot, and likes Ponies. Being an Admin isn't a life defining role. It is a role, and it has it's responsibilities ... true. But it sure as heck isn't anything I would say makes me better than anyone else here.

I'm a goofball who would so much rather say wheeeee than, "You fined!" And I will speak for the other Admins when I say they are not far removed from that. (Troblems and Spoon out silly me all of the time)

As far as being detatched ... man if you saw my Skype and PM numbers! Seriously, if anyone on this site just wants to PM me and say hi ... please do so.

I don't accept this argument, and I will explain why. I am not disputing that you indeed behave this way to people privately and are not consistently an anal and humorless dick all the time. However, I and probably the majority of bronies do not immediately pal around over Skype or PM with the majority of other bronies. Thus, the vast majority of us are only going to have your public observations to base an impression on. You, by your public correspondence, do not strike me as particularly easygoing or involved with the community on a basic level. A great amount of posts from you are moderation posts or answers to staff-directed questions. Practically the only time I have seen you insert yourself in a conversation was to issue a command, or to respond to people here.

Now, am I saying what we need is total anarchy and for you to never be in business mode? No, obviously not, though I fear you think that's what I'm agitating for. What I am getting at is, you carry on as our superior far more than our equal. Yes, you are authoritatively our superior and people should know that, but you don't seem publicly very inclined to act as a regular brony. You seem detached and primarily focused on administration/overseeing. You are not the only one I have observed this trait in, and I have observed the reverse tendency in other admins and lower staff. I should not be expected to know you are a goofball privately because that is private behavior. Now, you can reject my impression or not, but, as a user of this place, that is my impression, and I am telling you I believe this is a problem.

Do I like people marginalizing others? No. Do I think this community should allow topics focused around pedophilia in a forum that has 13 year olds, or I hate x race? Nope. Does that make me someone who sits on an Ivory Tower? Maybe in YouTube comment land ... but not in the real world.

Since you felt it necessary to go there, I'm not going to be very gentle. Your comment also demonstrates how warped your perception of multiple things is.

You will remember, I raised a concern to you about censorship. You refused to respond and I asked again for an answer. You stated you were too busy to respond the first time, and your hostility was perceivable. The other three admins were invited to the conversation after I made my displeasure with your unprofessionalism obvious. Yellow Diamond was the other one to respond. You seem to have a selective memory, because I told you, after I extracted the reasoning for censorship that I should have been freely given in the first place, that I found the reasoning to be sound.

There were two primary things about that encounter (which was cut short on your end and not mine, despite my attempts at prudence and courtesy) that turned me against you and the senior echelon. The first was the one you just repeated: that I was advocating there no restrictions at all, that there should be open season on all members if we want that, that we should do blatantly erotic RP on MLPForums. I was advocating for nothing of the sort and merely told you I found that legitimate political/social discourse should be allowed if at all feasible.

The second reason was your and Yellow Diamond's offense at my statement that honorable leaders should demonstate transparency freely, and to explain their reasons for this or that upon request. This was the most troubling attitude and behavior of the two. The other two refused to respond at all and thus it is reasonable to assume they endorsed the views of the other two. That is an utterly revolting attitude to take as administrators, that we don't have the right to even ask why this or that is being banned. I will never fully trust someone who has such an arrogant and self-insulating view of governance, and thus this was a major reason I just don't trust the admins of this site. I also have changed my mind about the real reasoning behind the actions in question and don't feel it's the primary cause after all, but to help keep you focused on this I'll avoid commenting on that for now.

When the lot of you take umbrage at the view transparency is a moral obligation of just leaders, when you act overwhelmingly more as a lord than a commoner on the forums, when you just announce changes with no input from the userbase, then you are setting the stage for degeneracy from the top down and give me little reason to trust the senior staff. Again, the lower staff I observe being more social and acting as commoners, and little of my grievances are aimed at them. It is at you two in particular, and the four admins in general, that I am criticizing.

Now, I have excoriated you for your failings, but I would be remiss if I didn't point out there are substantial acts of governance done properly. Even with me, someone you clearly dislike personally for my opinions, you invoked the very mildest form of moderation. Staff in general seem to do this, and I praise them for such a light-hoofed approach to moderation that seems woefully uncommon. I have not seen a place that so massively fosters interaction between the users by culture and design, and that is very laudable. Even in these extremely controversial threads, the amount of combat was minimal. And, as much as I like to condemn you, you all DO allow the vast majority of political discourse in the Debate Pit. So, don't take me for some whiny and short-sighted anarchist that is butthurt at moderative action.

I want to go away from you for a bit to address a couple of other reasons for concern. Again, one of my complaints is users don't seem to be asked what they think of a planned change to rules or whatever. For example, before I arrived here there was a substantial rule change on how suicidal threats and repeated whining in status updates are handled. Now, I am somewhat indifferent on at least the threat part since compelling arguments can be made either way and it seems generally a wash either way. The welfare of the site was the motivation for the increased controls on certain behaviors. Correct me if I am mistaken, but, I believe the userbase was never consulted before a decision was made. Yes, you all spoke at length amongst yourselves, but the average denizens were never polled, were they? As our welfare was a primary concern, did none of you think to ask how we felt on the matter? No, you saw no need to. Again, you all are detached from the general population.

The second thing is the founder of this site, Feld0. To be blunt, I have no god damned idea who he is other than he's the founder and 1st in command of this place. He's like this mysterious deity who everyone speaks of and who occasionally brohoofs something, once in a great while will make a post about servers or developer requirements, and otherwise is completely unseen. I understand he's somewhat preoccupied with his own job AND maintaining Poniverse, but, the only time I have seen him make a post here was when he announced changes to the servers and expenses recently. I can't relate to him at all either as a fellow brony or as a leader of the herd because he never speaks to us. This doesn't inspire any confidence at all. Maybe he's a swell guy, maybe he's competent at technical stuff but otherwise doesn't give a damn about the average brony. Again, this is evidence of detachment from the userbase at the highest levels, the Ivory Tower that you rejected so vehemently.

Now, you all can do as you like, obviously. No law mandates you allow this or that, we are obviously powerless to compel change aside from moral authority derived from the popular will of the site. You can make this place even greater than it is, or progressively raze it to the ground. That is not what I am contesting, and I'm getting tired of people responding as if the reverse is true. I have merely told you somewhat indelicately what I perceive as the worst problem this place faces. Until you all decide condemnation of leaders is verboten, I have the right to express those concerns, and whether you like it or not is not a consideration.

Wow, over 6k characters? My tennis elbow is never going to regenerate at this rate.

Lightning Dash · April 8, 2016

I won't go to much into detail with replying to what's been said as there's a new serious issue I want to focus this post on, but I agree with almost all of what both Jokuc and Jeric have said in here. I'm still standing by the whole bias stuff I mentioned, although what I really meant with that is I believe replies to suggestions shouldn't be all based on personal opinions.

At least give the positives about any given suggestion as long as there are positives that can be given while remaining genuine.

Also as Roketsune has mentioned about an "Ivory Tower". I think maybe you got a bit carried away with what I've been saying.

I never said any of the staff was superior compared to the rest of the community; That's not what I've been expressing. I'm saying that the staff don't give much hope into suggestions and if they'll even be considered. It just feels hopeless, and I feel there's a lack of communication when it comes to what we as member want for the forums, and what has already been planned.

It would be nice to get some kind of insight into what's to come. As for the development team, I can understand if the problem is finding the right people that are both passionate and qualified to do the job.

PS. If I knew anyone that could take on those roles, I'd sure as hell recommend them in signing up in becoming web developers on here, but I honestly don't know anyone for the job. But I totally understand that issue.

Now the main thing I want to put into discussion here is the way members are moderated. The forums and it's design, the way threads are handle, and the development team; I honestly have no more complaints over anything like that, and I can pass any issues that fall under those categories, but the way members are moderated is something that really has to gain some improvement. This is something that really needs improvement and focus. Also, I won't say any names in here for the sake of member privacy.

We're all Bronies here, are we not? Maybe some aren't, but either way, we're an internet community that's centered around the actual Brony community, and that's basically the foundation of this entire network (Poniverse). I'm sure we all know the Brony Code by now (Love and Tolerance). In the end, we're not just a community that's here to discuss the show, but we're also a community of friends which in my opinion is the main aspect on this community.

Pretty much all of us has at least 1 friend we speak to on here. If anyone on this forums doesn't have a friend, then damn, I feel sorry for you, but I'll happily take you under my wing, literally. I'm super awesome once you get to know me too. But what's the worst thing that can happen on here? In my opinion, it's seeing a friend of ours getting banned for whatever reason, or getting banned yourself, and this seems to happen quite a lot. In some cases when a friend gets banned, you end up losing all contact with them, and that's a really upsetting ending to friendship.

Last year, one of my friends ended up getting the old full ban, although thankfully I was able to add him on Skype, and he's become one of my closest friends. Naturally, I asked him why he got banned, and while I have no evidence on what exactly happened, some of the points he mentioned lead to me believe the ban was done unfairly. As I know him well, I know he has difficulties in how he communicates to others, and because of the way he handles communication, it can lead to becoming problematic. From what I've gathered, that's the main reason why he ended up getting banned from the forums.

Very recently, in fact just yesterday, one of my other close friends got fully banned from the forums due to grammar issues. While I won't say his name, I'm sure there are members of staff here that know exactly what member I'm talking about.

The problem with this is that while his grammar may not always be understandable, and I won't lie, even I sometimes have issues with what he's trying to say. The thing is, it's not something he can really help. It's not something he chooses to do, and he doesn't choose to not improve and learn by it, but unfortunately, he does have difficulties in communicating and learning by his mistakes.

I've known this friend since around the time he registered on here, up to this date, and I speak to him almost daily. We speak as close friends, and because of this, I as a friend of him know what he's like, how he talks, I've identified that he does have some difficulty in communication and that he struggles to learn from it. But in the end, I know him personally because we're close friends that's spoken to each other for a long time. The staff that dealt with him does not know him personally. They probably didn't identify that he has communication and learning difficulties; They don't know that this is how he is. I could say the exact same for my other close friend that got banned from here last year.

The problem is, there are some members, maybe a lot of members and Bronies in this community that do had communication and learning difficulties, and I mean no offense when I talk about this, but it's something that cannot be helped, and banning them because they have an in-ability to get to the required standards on this forums is absolutely shameful, and it's shameful as a Brony community. You can sit there and say it isn't, but it really is shameful and unfair.

Now I'm no expert when it comes to individuals that have learning difficulties, or have issues in expressing themselves in a way where the rest of the forums can understand what they're saying. But I'm still able to notice when a friend of mine does have difficulties, and I don't let the communication difficulty affect my view on them. I at least compromise and try to understand them without throwing them out because I, not only as a friend, but as a fellow Brony, I care about them.

I get that this forums has a presentation to maintain, and members are expected to reflect a good presentation; I get that, but there should be a line drawn for the sake of the Brony community as this is one of the top Brony sites, if not, the top Brony site where we all gather together on. It's like a mass internet convention if you will. Those in the community that have difficulties should have special care instead of trying to force them to reach the same standards of the rest of the forums.

This doesn't mean that those with difficulties are treated differently, but they still should be let off in a case that's not generally harming other users or the forums. As my friend that recently got fully banned from the forums, the reason why he got banned was completely because of his grammar. He's still a kind soul that doesn't mean any harm to anyone, and as far as I know, he's never caused anyone any problems or been offensive towards other members.

It's extremely unfair that he got banned over grammar reasons, and because he has difficulties, he shouldn't be held responsible with something he has an in-ability for. It's as bad as banning a disabled person from a marathon because they're not fast enough in their wheelchair; It's not their fault at all, but that doesn't mean they're not allowed to participate in the race because that would be wrong to ban them for something that's beyond their control.

I honestly don't mean to be offensive towards those that have these issues, but there's really no other way to say this than to speak my mind here.

It's the staff's responsibility to not only keep the forums clean, but to also help members with their needs and help them feel welcomed to this community regardless of their conditions, if they have any. It is not right for a staff member to basically throw these individuals out the front door over something they can't help.

I don't care if you say he didn't care about how he communicates on here, and I don't care if you say he didn't want to try and improve, because I as a friend that knows him very well know that it's just the way he is, and he cannot help it. The thing with him is sometimes you can understand exactly what he's saying, but then there are also times when you can't. He's not doing this intentionally at all, it's just the way he is.

You as staff members that take on the responsibility to attend to the members that are having troubles have failed to deal with my friend correctly. You've failed to deal and help him correctly. Now I'm not saying you should go and take a class in how to deal with individuals with difficulties. What I'm saying is sometimes you should either learn to deal with these members correctly, or otherwise if you're incapable, then maybe you should let them off the hook.

This doesn't mean it's unfair treatment between members, it means doing the right thing for someone that requires special treatment. As a Brony community which is probably the most accepting and caring community that exists, it's only right that you take the most reasonable course of action when dealing with members that have learning difficulties.

If you say otherwise, then I'll be willing to sit here day in, day out, and argue with you regarding this whole thing. I totally understand that the community wants to be treated equally, and in cases of toxic members that never improve their attitude and become a problem for the community, then sure, I agree that banning them is the only thing that can be done for such members. But we're not even talking about an abusive member at all, we're talking about a member that's never been abusive for as long as he's been here, and got fully banned all over grammar reasons. It's shameful as I've said.

But not only is it shameful, but it proves that the staff on here are not qualified to handle members that need special treatment. It's also frustrating that I as a friend of the banned member cannot speak on his behalf; Not here, not on Skype, nowhere will the staff let me speak on his behalf, and that's pretty sad because it's only natural that a friend will defend their friends if anything was to happen to them.

I get you're being professional, and then there's member privacy, but come on, make it a little more natural and allow me to defend my friends and fight for their rights if they're not capable of doing it. I'll even be willing to relay what they want to say in regards to their ban. If you feel that's not a legitimate way of disputing bans, then open a chat between me, my friend, and a qualified member of staff so we can resolve it, and so I can support my friend if they're struggling to bring the true around and why it was unfair.

With all that said. The staff should learn to deal with members that have learning difficulties. It's probably not a common case anyway, but in this case it is.

Just think about it. You as a staff member are here to maintain the forums, maintain the members and enforce the rules to maintain order on the forums and network. You're also just like any normal member that's here to join in as a community. You really shouldn't throw a member out because they can't help with their grammar. You can sit there and say he was capable, but I as a friend, I know him and how he communicates, and you do not know this about him, otherwise you'd not have misunderstood him and banned him for something he's incapable of doing.

Like I've said at the start. The Brony community is the foundation of this entire forums and network, and it's unfair to throw a fellow Brony out in this fashion and for that reason.

If you care and are a truly a reasonable line of staff, then you'd unban him, and we all can take this into private and have it resolved. It's highly likely that he'll struggle in disputing why it's unfair and all that, so it's only fair I'll get taken into the private discussion as support. I have my standards, and I'm prideful, so I'll help resolve it without being bias just because he's a friend. If there's one thing I'm good at, it's being fair and reasonable in doing what's right.

I feel as if you should start helping members as a fellow Brony instead of a formal staff member.

If you wish to take this in private, I'm free to receive a private message over it. My friend is up for having this resolved.

Nitro Dash · April 8, 2016

Quoting Lightning Dash:

I won't go to much into detail with replying to what's been said as there's a new serious issue I want to focus this post on, but I agree with almost all of what both Jokuc and Jeric have said in here. I'm still standing by the whole bias stuff I mentioned, although what I really meant with that is I believe replies to suggestions shouldn't be all based on personal opinions.

At least give the positives about any given suggestion as long as there are positives that can be given while remaining genuine.

Also as Roketsune has mentioned about an "Ivory Tower". I think maybe you got a bit carried away with what I've been saying.

I never said any of the staff was superior compared to the rest of the community; That's not what I've been expressing. I'm saying that the staff don't give much hope into suggestions and if they'll even be considered. It just feels hopeless, and I feel there's a lack of communication when it comes to what we as member want for the forums, and what has already been planned.

It would be nice to get some kind of insight into what's to come. As for the development team, I can understand if the problem is finding the right people that are both passionate and qualified to do the job.

PS. If I knew anyone that could take on those roles, I'd sure as hell recommend them in signing up in becoming web developers on here, but I honestly don't know anyone for the job. But I totally understand that issue.

Now the main thing I want to put into discussion here is the way members are moderated. The forums and it's design, the way threads are handle, and the development team; I honestly have no more complaints over anything like that, and I can pass any issues that fall under those categories, but the way members are moderated is something that really has to gain some improvement. This is something that really needs improvement and focus. Also, I won't say any names in here for the sake of member privacy.

We're all Bronies here, are we not? Maybe some aren't, but either way, we're an internet community that's centered around the actual Brony community, and that's basically the foundation of this entire network (Poniverse). I'm sure we all know the Brony Code by now (Love and Tolerance). In the end, we're not just a community that's here to discuss the show, but we're also a community of friends which in my opinion is the main aspect on this community.

Pretty much all of us has at least 1 friend we speak to on here. If anyone on this forums doesn't have a friend, then damn, I feel sorry for you, but I'll happily take you under my wing, literally. I'm super awesome once you get to know me too. But what's the worst thing that can happen on here? In my opinion, it's seeing a friend of ours getting banned for whatever reason, or getting banned yourself, and this seems to happen quite a lot. In some cases when a friend gets banned, you end up losing all contact with them, and that's a really upsetting ending to friendship.

Last year, one of my friends ended up getting the old full ban, although thankfully I was able to add him on Skype, and he's become one of my closest friends. Naturally, I asked him why he got banned, and while I have no evidence on what exactly happened, some of the points he mentioned lead to me believe the ban was done unfairly. As I know him well, I know he has difficulties in how he communicates to others, and because of the way he handles communication, it can lead to becoming problematic. From what I've gathered, that's the main reason why he ended up getting banned from the forums.

Very recently, in fact just yesterday, one of my other close friends got fully banned from the forums due to grammar issues. While I won't say his name, I'm sure there are members of staff here that know exactly what member I'm talking about.

The problem with this is that while his grammar may not always be understandable, and I won't lie, even I sometimes have issues with what he's trying to say. The thing is, it's not something he can really help. It's not something he chooses to do, and he doesn't choose to not improve and learn by it, but unfortunately, he does have difficulties in communicating and learning by his mistakes.

I've known this friend since around the time he registered on here, up to this date, and I speak to him almost daily. We speak as close friends, and because of this, I as a friend of him know what he's like, how he talks, I've identified that he does have some difficulty in communication and that he struggles to learn from it. But in the end, I know him personally because we're close friends that's spoken to each other for a long time. The staff that dealt with him does not know him personally. They probably didn't identify that he has communication and learning difficulties; They don't know that this is how he is. I could say the exact same for my other close friend that got banned from here last year.

The problem is, there are some members, maybe a lot of members and Bronies in this community that do had communication and learning difficulties, and I mean no offense when I talk about this, but it's something that cannot be helped, and banning them because they have an in-ability to get to the required standards on this forums is absolutely shameful, and it's shameful as a Brony community. You can sit there and say it isn't, but it really is shameful and unfair.

Now I'm no expert when it comes to individuals that have learning difficulties, or have issues in expressing themselves in a way where the rest of the forums can understand what they're saying. But I'm still able to notice when a friend of mine does have difficulties, and I don't let the communication difficulty affect my view on them. I at least compromise and try to understand them without throwing them out because I, not only as a friend, but as a fellow Brony, I care about them.

I get that this forums has a presentation to maintain, and members are expected to reflect a good presentation; I get that, but there should be a line drawn for the sake of the Brony community as this is one of the top Brony sites, if not, the top Brony site where we all gather together on. It's like a mass internet convention if you will. Those in the community that have difficulties should have special care instead of trying to force them to reach the same standards of the rest of the forums.

This doesn't mean that those with difficulties are treated differently, but they still should be let off in a case that's not generally harming other users or the forums. As my friend that recently got fully banned from the forums, the reason why he got banned was completely because of his grammar. He's still a kind soul that doesn't mean any harm to anyone, and as far as I know, he's never caused anyone any problems or been offensive towards other members.

It's extremely unfair that he got banned over grammar reasons, and because he has difficulties, he shouldn't be held responsible with something he has an in-ability for. It's as bad as banning a disabled person from a marathon because they're not fast enough in their wheelchair; It's not their fault at all, but that doesn't mean they're not allowed to participate in the race because that would be wrong to ban them for something that's beyond their control.

I honestly don't mean to be offensive towards those that have these issues, but there's really no other way to say this than to speak my mind here.

It's the staff's responsibility to not only keep the forums clean, but to also help members with their needs and help them feel welcomed to this community regardless of their conditions, if they have any. It is not right for a staff member to basically throw these individuals out the front door over something they can't help.

I don't care if you say he didn't care about how he communicates on here, and I don't care if you say he didn't want to try and improve, because I as a friend that knows him very well know that it's just the way he is, and he cannot help it. The thing with him is sometimes you can understand exactly what he's saying, but then there are also times when you can't. He's not doing this intentionally at all, it's just the way he is.

You as staff members that take on the responsibility to attend to the members that are having troubles have failed to deal with my friend correctly. You've failed to deal and help him correctly. Now I'm not saying you should go and take a class in how to deal with individuals with difficulties. What I'm saying is sometimes you should either learn to deal with these members correctly, or otherwise if you're incapable, then maybe you should let them off the hook.

This doesn't mean it's unfair treatment between members, it means doing the right thing for someone that requires special treatment. As a Brony community which is probably the most accepting and caring community that exists, it's only right that you take the most reasonable course of action when dealing with members that have learning difficulties.

If you say otherwise, then I'll be willing to sit here day in, day out, and argue with you regarding this whole thing. I totally understand that the community wants to be treated equally, and in cases of toxic members that never improve their attitude and become a problem for the community, then sure, I agree that banning them is the only thing that can be done for such members. But we're not even talking about an abusive member at all, we're talking about a member that's never been abusive for as long as he's been here, and got fully banned all over grammar reasons. It's shameful as I've said.

But not only is it shameful, but it proves that the staff on here are not qualified to handle members that need special treatment. It's also frustrating that I as a friend of the banned member cannot speak on his behalf; Not here, not on Skype, nowhere will the staff let me speak on his behalf, and that's pretty sad because it's only natural that a friend will defend their friends if anything was to happen to them.

I get you're being professional, and then there's member privacy, but come on, make it a little more natural and allow me to defend my friends and fight for their rights if they're not capable of doing it. I'll even be willing to relay what they want to say in regards to their ban. If you feel that's not a legitimate way of disputing bans, then open a chat between me, my friend, and a qualified member of staff so we can resolve it, and so I can support my friend if they're struggling to bring the true around and why it was unfair.

With all that said. The staff should learn to deal with members that have learning difficulties. It's probably not a common case anyway, but in this case it is.

Just think about it. You as a staff member are here to maintain the forums, maintain the members and enforce the rules to maintain order on the forums and network. You're also just like any normal member that's here to join in as a community. You really shouldn't throw a member out because they can't help with their grammar. You can sit there and say he was capable, but I as a friend, I know him and how he communicates, and you do not know this about him, otherwise you'd not have misunderstood him and banned him for something he's incapable of doing.

Like I've said at the start. The Brony community is the foundation of this entire forums and network, and it's unfair to throw a fellow Brony out in this fashion and for that reason.

If you care and are a truly a reasonable line of staff, then you'd unban him, and we all can take this into private and have it resolved. It's highly likely that he'll struggle in disputing why it's unfair and all that, so it's only fair I'll get taken into the private discussion as support. I have my standards, and I'm prideful, so I'll help resolve it without being bias just because he's a friend. If there's one thing I'm good at, it's being fair and reasonable in doing what's right.

I feel as if you should start helping members as a fellow Brony instead of a formal staff member.

If you wish to take this in private, I'm free to receive a private message over it. My friend is up for having this resolved.

You said it, Lightning Dash. You've got like 20 or more good points.

Shadow Dash DJ Rod · April 8, 2016

I knew that friend that got banned for grammar issues to and that's just stupid that he got banned for that. It almost makes me furious that that would happen. i don't know if English is not his first language or something else but seriously really? I beleave the forum rules state that if you are at least literate and can type stuff that people can interpret somewhat easily you should be fine and i could always tell what he was typing.

World Runner · April 8, 2016

I have to say... You're very good at making a point. I bet you spend alot of time on the debate page you mentioned.

I agree with all your suggestions. The thing about the flag's a particularly interesting idea, but what about those of us who have a double nationality(French/English in my case)? Choosing could be complicated. I know it would be just a flag, but if I want to show that I have ties to both countries, it could get complicated... And if I pick the french flag, some Bronies might think: "Oh, I don't speak French." and vice versa if I choose the English one... I suppose I could just say so in the 'About Me' in my profile but still...

Just some thoughts, all your ideas are decent ones in the end.

Edited April 8, 2016 by World Runner

King · April 9, 2016

I never replied to this when it first appeared so I might as well respond now.

One thing I really would like to point out is when a member of staff replies to a suggestion topic, it does feel like they are representing the entire team of staff. Because of this, when a member of staff says the suggestion won't be done because of whatever reason(s), then it does appear that the entire line of staff have thrown the idea into the trash can.

I can see how this might appear to be the case, however we've never simply thrown a new idea into the 'trash can', so to speak. A good majority of the suggestions we see are ones that have already been suggested before and have gone through a discussion process. If the idea hasn't been implemented yet then its either on a back burner ,due to lack of time for development, or its been denied for various reasons.

Firstly, the staff should lay off biased opinions when replying to suggestion topics. A lot of times when I see certain members of staff make replies to express their view over a suggestion, it does look like they're disapproving the idea based off of what they like or dislike, and this is a major fault.

There are generally two types of replies that staff members will make on a suggestion thread.

The first is when we reply with information regarding the idea being implemented or not, this is when we will usually say that its something we're thinking about doing or if its something we can't/wont do.

The second type of reply is when the idea hasn't been discussed yet and we share our personal opinion on the matter. I've never been one to have a 'mod switch'. I reply to anything just as I normally would, whether I be a mod or a member. I don't believe in going through some arbitrary process of announcing whether my reply is an official mod reply or just my own personal opinion, it makes the whole thing feel robotic and boring. Im a Human behind this keyboard and I intend for all my replies to show my personality. It's generally pretty clear when Im showing my opinion or when Im relaying the current staff opinion as I'll make an effort to show whether its my personal thoughts or whether its a collective thought process.

Another thing I'd like to see from the staff is more insight into what's being planned. If the suggestion is giving an idea on something that's currently being planned, like for example, I made a suggestion regarding the badges recently, and I was told that they were planned on being re-mastered. It still wasn't really enough information for me to know exactly what's going on with them. I feel that this is the same case for a lot of other suggestions that are made; Being under-informed, and as a result, I wasn't totally satisfied with the response I received.

Im generally fine with sharing information about certain changes being made, however there are times when its more appropriate to keep things under wraps until we're closer to actually implementing the idea. The badges for instance, it's difficult to go into more detail about how they're being re-mastered when the designs aren't finished. We know that we want to remaster them, sure, but that doesn't necessarily mean we've finished the discussion on how exactly we want to do that. In addition to that we like to surprise people with the finished product rather than spoil it early on (this applies to a number of suggestions).

It's a very easy and simple task to go through the Feedback and Suggestions sub-forum, and put together a topic with all mentioned suggestions in, and all the main details on if they were fulfilled or declined. It would take quite a bit of time to search through everything, and then put it all together into a single pinned topic, but in the long run, it'll give full insight into what's already been mentioned in terms of given suggestions.

Honestly that's not a bad idea at all and I'll probably push for such a thread to be created, even if I have to write it up myself.

As for any comments about moderation bias or some Ivory Tower bullshit going on, I honestly don't believe any of it. Obviously that's not exactly enough to convince everyone but I have my reasons for sticking by the people I work with.

I've worked on this forum as a staff member for 3 years now. I've been Poniverse staff where I helped run the Q&A section, founded the Poniverse Newsletter, I helped moderate the EqTV site, wrote lore for the roleplay project, served as a Moderator Team Lead and now I've settled into being a global support mod. I've seen how this site has changed and developed from behind the lines and I can tell you with utmost certainty that we've been doing our best to change in ways that we feel support this site and its members in a positive way. In fact we're always looking for ways to improve.

That all being said, we're all volunteers here. We're also Human and not perfect in the slightest but that doesn't mean we're going to make simple and stupid moderation mistakes such as thinking of ourselves as 'better' than the member base or abusing power just because we have it. Ultimately there would be no point in doing it and if any of us did, we'd be kicked out. Its happened before.

Tl;Dr: We're constantly seeking to improve and we don't do anything simply for the sake of doing it. There's always a reason behind actions taken by staff members.

Lightning Dash · April 10, 2016

Yeah, I agree, King. By the way, I never said any of the staff thought they were superior to the rest of the community; That's something that got confused. Of course we're all equal and stuff, I was merely saying a lot of the upper staff generally don't 'come out' so much.

Anyway, I don't really have anymore complaints in regards to what I was mentioning in my opening post. I do have a new issue I want to get sorted asap, though. All details edited in the openinig post and originally posted here

Edited April 10, 2016 by Lightning Dash

Roketsune · April 10, 2016

Also as Roketsune has mentioned about an "Ivory Tower". I think maybe you got a bit carried away with what I've been saying.

Well, my name was invoked. Thus. I must respond. You actually invoked my name on my birthday, so you deserve a present of some sort. *looks around, grabs a leftover Cadbury egg as that's the only presentable object* Have this as a prize!

Anyway, I had been monitoring the thread, and I never got the impression they believed you were the one who argued that. I'm pretty sure they only saw me as the disagreeable asshole with crappy opinions (I imagine it's a relatively common impression by those who get too close to me). So, have no fear!

Very recently, in fact just yesterday, one of my other close friends got fully banned from the forums due to grammar issues. While I won't say his name, I'm sure there are members of staff here that know exactly what member I'm talking about.

I'm going to actually do the exact reverse of what I had generally done here months ago and endorse the admins. Chaos and confusion are fun, anyway! Well, only when they afflict other people are they fun. Anyway, I suspect your friend had to be either unintelligible or obstinate to be banned over grammar, if that was the underlying cause at all. I assert this because certain staff members' visceral dislike for me and my ideology was quite palpable, and yet even with me they seemed to follow this doctrine of least aggressive moderation. I never even got a warning for the censorship matters in question. If *I* am granted that sort of magnanimity, then certainly they are extremely averse to banning people save for certain things like bot spam and deliberate sabotage and the like. While it's possible the staff went all Stalin-like while I was away conducting a relocation and a discrimination complaint with the former landlord and too many other things to recall, it seems unlikely to me your friend is innocent. He had to have done a LOT to be permanently banned.

Edited April 10, 2016 by Roketsune

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