Worldly Talk Closed
Our Worldly Talk discussion section is now closed.
The latest election cycle in the US resulted in increased frequency in posting, but more importantly increased vitriol and antagonism. The trend did not abate in the following months. The amount of moderator time spent reading increased, as did the number of warnings, infractions, and bans that were handed down. The problem did not stop. So, we felt it was time to re-evaluate the assumed benefits of Worldly Talk and weigh them against the damage it was causing to the community and to relationships between members.
During our investigation we discovered that Worldly Talk accounted for a minute percentage of overall site activity, and that it was all but dominated by about a dozen participants. What was more interesting was that several of the top participants spent the vast majority of their time and posts in that subforum. Despite the low number of posts, and the even lower number of key players, Worldly Talk accounted for over half of our moderation activity and an even greater percentage of moderation time. We concluded Worldly Talk was not, "Civil discussion and debate on real world events and issues," where the community in general participated, and in downtime between game posts; it was essentially a private argument forum for a small group of people who, as a group, could not be civil.
So, after careful and prolonged consideration, both the administration and moderation teams concluded with no dissenting votes that it is not in the best interest of Myth-Weavers as a community to keep it.
Topics that would previously have belonged in Worldly Talk are totally disallowed. Some topics may eventually be allowed in General Discussion, but rules regarding that are pending. Worldly Talk is being left visible, in a closed state, to show examples of the discussion topics and, unfortunately, to show examples of why it was closed.
The latest election cycle in the US resulted in increased frequency in posting, but more importantly increased vitriol and antagonism. The trend did not abate in the following months. The amount of moderator time spent reading increased, as did the number of warnings, infractions, and bans that were handed down. The problem did not stop. So, we felt it was time to re-evaluate the assumed benefits of Worldly Talk and weigh them against the damage it was causing to the community and to relationships between members.
During our investigation we discovered that Worldly Talk accounted for a minute percentage of overall site activity, and that it was all but dominated by about a dozen participants. What was more interesting was that several of the top participants spent the vast majority of their time and posts in that subforum. Despite the low number of posts, and the even lower number of key players, Worldly Talk accounted for over half of our moderation activity and an even greater percentage of moderation time. We concluded Worldly Talk was not, "Civil discussion and debate on real world events and issues," where the community in general participated, and in downtime between game posts; it was essentially a private argument forum for a small group of people who, as a group, could not be civil.
So, after careful and prolonged consideration, both the administration and moderation teams concluded with no dissenting votes that it is not in the best interest of Myth-Weavers as a community to keep it.
Topics that would previously have belonged in Worldly Talk are totally disallowed. Some topics may eventually be allowed in General Discussion, but rules regarding that are pending. Worldly Talk is being left visible, in a closed state, to show examples of the discussion topics and, unfortunately, to show examples of why it was closed.