Question General Direction question for Site Administration

[Grand Shepherd Burtch]

So, I’ve had a dumb question picking at the back of my mind for a while now. I’ve often considered asking discreetly in a private channel, but I also wonder if other people are curious about the same thing, so I figure, “what the heck. Make it an open interview. Maybe this will give Tefka a chance to outline out his goals for the community in public setting.”

So I noticed a general trend in the overall rule changes on the site since I got here in April ‘21. Removal of rebellions, removal of PVP judging, laxation of faction activity checks, talks of removal of certain game features (like factory and codex judging) in recent OOC threads. If I was to observe a pattern, I would say that the general theme of late is one of de-regulation. Perhaps this has been in the works since before I’ve gotten here, but I can only really speak for the time that I’ve been around.

So, my question is a little hard to articulate, but I’ll try my best to be as clear as possible. What is the general goal behind this apparent de-regulation trend? Or are there several considerations? Is there anything that could be asked of the community as a whole to help this along?

For the sake of people reading this, I can understand if there are things that would rather not be discussed with the general public at this time. Leadership often requires a bigger picture view of the scenery, and sometimes it’s not best to discuss such things in a setting full of people that cannot see said bigger picture. If this is the case, then “no comment” will be a sufficient response, and I won’t press this inquiry any further.

Thank you for your time.

 

[Tefka]

Sucks, cause you have a nice write-up here, but the answer is pretty short and simple - my role, if anything, is deregulation. Aside from initial creation and spinning new ideas, it's probably the most important role of mine.

It's the role the community can utilize to fight back against the regulation of the Admins/Staff, to prevent rules creep. Rules creep, or the ever growing list of bullshit you have to read just so you can make believe you're Darth Vader. And it's literally the only role, aside from direct feedback, that can directly contest the authority of the Admins.

So the more sheepish you guys get, the more pulled back you become, the more distrusting and quiet from Staff you get, the louder and bigger my role becomes because I basically have to fend for myself in the department of deregulation.

De-regulation, cleaning things up, killing old ideas, it has to happen to grow. It's a steam valve building pressure, a volcano rumbling, a pimple throbbing on the crease of your nostril where it's hard to wrap your chubby fingers around to pop.

Eventually, that energy has to go somewhere. I want it to go somewhere.

Hell, it might even leave Chaos.

But I'd rather risk total annihilation than never being able to take a creative risk with Chaos.

 

[Grand Shepherd Burtch]

Thank you for the explanation!

Two follow-up questions, if you don’t mind, for this interview-style discussion:

1. Would you say that a balance between the relationship of you and your staff has been crucial in your efforts to generate role playing energytm for the site? In the sense that the push-pull opposing efforts — done in a respectful manner — is crucial to the way that you guys run the site?
2. What is the plan for all this energy that you appear to be freeing up? Is there anything in the works that you feel free to talk about at this time?

 

[Tefka]

Everytime you ask these questions I feel like I'm sitting down for a podcast lmao. Bruh why don't you actually just podcast interview people yo speaking voice can't be that bad and you seem very interested in asking questions, and I'm being real.

1. I don't really think about it like that, I just like to break things when people get too comfy. For ten years people have thought I'm some sort of corrupt politician leading a fanfiction website and not some weaponized toddler with a strong background in linux and web design.

2. There literally isn't a plan, I've seen two different discords for other websites cheering that we pissed people off and they got more members as a result lmao. Like there isn't a plan to "free up energy", we just doin things. I don't pretend I can control that energy, nobody ever can. People will try though, but don't mind me I'm just watchin'.

 

[Grand Shepherd Burtch]

Everytime you ask these questions I feel like I'm sitting down for a podcast lmao. Bruh why don't you actually just podcast interview people yo speaking voice can't be that bad and you seem very interested in asking questions, and I'm being real.

Haha! Maybe someday. Observing the flow of interviews is fascinating, but I like written format, because it gives me more time to a) react to when a person puts up boundaries and b) carefully respect them.

That being said, my purpose in these questions is to reciprocate all the questions that you’ve been asking in these OOC threads. You get a lot of opinions in response, but a differential approach could spark a unique result, compared to what’s been tried in the past. Kinda like Coran Horn when he opted to act as opposition in all jedi counsel discussions, even when he agreed with what was being said.

Next follow-up question, (and you can halt this any time you like.):

1. From your response, it seems that you aren’t keen on pursuing any goals in particular. Is there anything in particular that you’d like to pursue if you had the option, and is there anything holding you back? (Aside from the map rework, that is)

Hands over the mike

 

[Tefka]

Nobody's reading this but you though lol, and yeah im not doing an interview bruh

 

[Ala Quin]

I'm reading.