You might have noticed I’ve been rather busy doing all kinds of stuff for Beardy, his merch, his site. But one you might not have seen is me moderating his server.
Beardy and I played together long before he had a twitch and we’ve been in some great groups and some really terrible ones. Through our experiences, we’ve been gathering a list of what we wanted for our community.
One of our biggest complaints about unfun groups: weak moderation.
Toxic, rude, aggressive players were allowed to continue on with no intervention. The thinking, I think, was while the toxic people were bad, no admins wanted to rock the boat. No one wanted to make anyone feel bad.
But the inaction made the good people feel bad. Real bad. And good play groups broke apart while the toxic ones took over.
So now that I am head moderator of our not so small group, I take the toxicity head on.
In the last couple months I’ve gotten quite a fill of it. We have collectively banned several players for playstyles specifically laid out in our server rules of what we don’t accept. Telling people how to play, judging others styles, dominating the circle. And most importantly, when these issues were brought up, instead of listening with curiosity, they flung excuses and worse turn the attack on me.
I and my friends have received novels of why I am a terrible person. I’ve been called a queerphobe. I have been yelled at. I’ve even received an actionable physical threat (at the con coming up).
This work isn’t for the weak. I don’t write this post for sympathy. I take great joy in standing up against bad people for the sake of the good and kind.
I am writing this to let those who want to know, what it takes to keep safe, fun places safe and fun.
And I write this as a warning to other play groups.
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
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