2020 Community Rules & Guidelines Update (Draft) -- Posted to Accouncments

Updated to be more clear: (verbiage about limitations and moderation differences between venues as well as "Steam SotA Community Portal" instead of "Steam." Hopefully now it is clear, we are not claiming we own Steam now, or in the previous guidelines.

These Community Guidelines apply to the following Official Catnip Games venues. Please keep in mind, our ability to moderate some of these venues varies depending on the technology and available tools utilized at the venue and moderation restrictions inherent to venues not fully in our control. Please assist us in spotting transgressions so we can do our best to keep our venues enjoyable for all:

• In-game areas and chat
• In-game LFG (Looking for Group) feature
• In-game books and papers
• In-game quests
• In-game scripted NPC conversations
• Official chat rooms
• Official forums
• Forum signatures
• Forum profiles
• Forum profile posts
• Official Discord server
• Steam SotA Community Hub
• Official Facebook page
• Official YouTube channel
• Official Twitch channels (shroudoftheavatar, communityoftheavatar)
• Any other official social media and communication outlet maintained by the Catnip Games team.

Each guideline applies to the entire community on as fair a basis as possible. Note that while we do not actively moderate outside of the official channels, actions may still be taken on accounts if grievances are sufficiently severe.

 

edit
Changed title to "Community Rules & Guidelines"

 

Understood, makes sense. Thank you for remembering this and responding after you've had time to think this over.

Let's also consider the Chaotic recipients in the same group as the ONBE/Warrant holders...

I was being intentionally vague about "not fallen too far" means, but I can see how my choice of words is misleading as well. Problem is, aside from recanting personal stories given to me from various recipients, which isn't cool, there's not much I can do to explain this point of view. Not saying any of them were given inappropriately and I'll press that some of the ONBEs have special stories behind them that would inspire the community even more if they could be shared in their entirety.

So, if I'm wrong, I've shaking my finger at Catnip pointlessly. Ignore it, if you feel there's no merit to this.

However, I do feel there's some merit to this based on these personal accounts, as well as discussions with Devs. One from SotACon 2019 reminded me that OBNE is traditionally a "Richard" thing and Chaotic is a "Starr" thing, and that choices were often theirs based on their experiences with the player base (implying the decision making might not have been,.. 'holistic'.) It was my understanding that this program would be reviewed from said discussion, which I was assuming this was part of.

From my perspective we have all weathered a lot from release to the present. Instead of the honors for being persistent and devoted being handed out in greater numbers, they've tapered off, as the list you've provided shows. For those players, I respect them even more for staying their ground, standing tall, still engaged, and not giving up. I've given my list to @Chris directly after circulating it around to other players, and I encourage everyone else reading this to send him a list of their candidates as well!

Looking back on this conversation, I'd say there's no point even setting a policy, it's priorities. There will always be the next set of code that needs to be added or debugged, or more balance, or the policies that need to be refined, or the forums need to be moderated, or the support queue needs to be handled. It doesn't take too much time to say "Thank You" or "You Deserve It" or "This person has been a Rock-Star!". And I'm not sure anyone would care if there weren't physical goods shipped to save on S/H, if that's what holding Catnip back.

For these deserving and passionate players, it would be outstanding to each of them to be recognized by their favorite game. I'd like to see them get this recognition! And its meaning is why I consider this important.

Sincerely,

Engineer

 

Good work on the guide!

 

thanks Aventine Appreciate that

Perceptions during any sort of recognition program can certainly vary throughout a community, however true or false they might be. I agree though that perceptions are important, and bad perceptions are often eliminated through transparency and indications fairness was implemented. I'm sure as we work towards awarding our next round of awards, we'll put significant thought into it. I assure you we'll work hard to try to make it as fair as possible and always try to find folks, who are at that time, the most deserving on the recognition. Thanks for the input Engineer Keep your ears open for the next round of appreciation. It shouldn't be too far off as I get more time to tackle additional special projects.

 

Alrighty, locking this bad boy down. Posting "final copy" to announcements as a sticky. I can always tweak here and there as we discover new items to address or to address differently. Thanks for the help!