hey, wanted to reach out about some stuff that happened in the server regarding one of the other staff, is that alright?
(sorry deleted the message bc i saw the owner come online and thought they might be better able to answer my query)
Aer gave you long detailed responses laying out exactly how what you were saying didn't fit, and told you about how this community isn't the same as a fanfic community. I'm sorry you didn't like it, but looking at what aer said, none of it was rude or out of line in the slightest.
"It is not their fault that your story is either uninteresting or unaxiomatic."
"Write whatever moves you, but know that you aren't getting the special permission slip for it. Your idea has been rejected on multiple levels."
"What is this ticket for?"
The first comment was out of line. Blatantly rude and unnecessary, and accomplished nothing other than being mean. The second was a blindsiding comment that implied that somewhere within the entirety of the server and wiki and whatnot, there are a handful of people that have the authority to just say, "actually no, you're not allowed to write that :)" without any indication that they can just do that.
The third was most worrying. The ticket was not opened because I wanted to explain my idea, or because I wanted to complain about people not liking it. The ticket was opened because I received numerous disregarding comments about my idea, in a community that advertises itself as being uplifting to its creatives. Being told that "actually Rule 14 only counts sometimes," with no indication of what those times are is why I opened the ticket.
Instead of actually addressing my concerns, I received an extensive lecture on the lore that I did not ask for, and that doesn't even mention the numerous assumptions that were made about the course of the story I'm trying to write when I only explained the baseline idea. This idea of "the affini don't act like that" being harped upon numerous times comes from nowhere when I know for damn certain I never said anything about their reception to this character's behavior. But none of that matters, because that wasn't why I opened the ticket.
This is not to even mention the overarching feeling that my concerns weren't even being taken seriously. On multiple occasions, Harmony did not refer to the other members of the server as anything other than sophonts, which says to me that if ae cannot loosen the roleplay to handle an administrative duty, then how do I know I'm even being taken seriously?
Apologies for the block of text, but my concerns were never with my ideas not fitting. They were with the way I was treated, and the way that Harmony added onto with reductive and just plain rude comments.
7:27 PM
There is no universe where it isn't rude to tell a creative excited about an idea that their work is "uninteresting" completely unprompted.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sophont sophont isn't a made up word, its a way of speaking about folks when some folks prefer not to be referred to as "people".
"It is not their fault that your story is either uninteresting or unaxiomatic" was a response to your previous comment, where you said "What I care about is that it's interesting, that it's a new way of looking at this universe, that despite its diversions from how the affini Normally Act it's still something worth exploring. I want to keep it within the axioms, obviously, but I want it to still be interesting."
you're not getting a special permission slip is because it was clear that you were asking the same thing repeatedly because you wanted folks to agree, and whenever folks disagreed or pushed back, you were getting upset.
Rule 14 was put in place to prevent folks from going and copy editing someone's work or talking about how their writing sucks, it is NOT in place to prevent us from doing our jobs as people who know the setting and how it works and helping folks write within the setting. We can't stop you writing jack shit. We don't want to be able to stop you writing jack shit. But we can tell you if your idea makes sense or not in the hdg setting.
You claimed that the ticket was for clarification on rule 14. I'm pretty sure that's not what you actually were looking for.
"It is not their fault that your story is either uninteresting or unaxiomatic" was a response to your previous comment, where you said "What I care about is that it's interesting, that it's a new way of looking at this universe, that despite its diversions from how the affini Normally Act it's still something worth exploring. I want to keep it within the axioms, obviously, but I want it to still be interesting."
That does not make it any less rude or uncalled for. The message that preceded it, "Thousands of works have managed to be interesting while being well within the axioms," was fine. The uninteresting comment was an unnecessary stab that accomplished nothing other than just being cruel.
you're not getting a special permission slip is because[...]
my concern was with the blatant rejection of what I was trying to explain; that people have the authority to reject works and concepts is explained or documented nowhere. there is no evidence where one would think to look (rules, guidelines, etc) that specifies that a work can be rejected.
Rule 14 was put in place to prevent folks from going and copy editing someone's work or talking about how their writing sucks
Hey Remember When Harmony Made An Unnecessary Comment About My Idea Being Uninteresting :) Isn't That Funny
As for the Sophont thing, I will concede that it is a real word, however in the context of a community where the term has linked connotations to the HDG, and as such many others (such as myself) would assume that this is the context it is being used in, it is still a worrying thing to see. For those who don't want to be referred to as "people", there are words like User or Member that do not cause that potential misunderstanding that someone is roleplaying when they should be engaging professionally. But that's a minor point at this point.
My concern still remains that the way in which I was spoken to shifted dramatically from a somewhat cordial conversation to unprompted deprecating comments, that even in context are still unnecessary and cruel.
That does not make it any less rude or uncalled for. The message that preceded it, "Thousands of works have managed to be interesting while being well within the axioms," was fine. The uninteresting comment was an unnecessary stab that accomplished nothing other than just being cruel.
you were setting it up so that "interesting" and "axiomatic" were opposed concepts, and aer's counter to that was to assert, essentially, that lots of people effortlessly do both, and if you couldn't, it's not the fault of the axioms.
my concern was with the blatant rejection of what I was trying to explain; that people have the authority to reject works and concepts is explained or documented nowhere. there is no evidence where one would think to look (rules, guidelines, etc) that specifies that a work can be rejected.
What do you think rejected implies in this case? We have no power over ao3 tags. We have no power over what you write. We can tell you whether a concept makes sense in the setting or not as you explain it. And as you explained it more, it didn't start making more sense for the setting.
Hey Remember When Harmony Made An Unnecessary Comment About My Idea Being Uninteresting Isn't That Funny
That wasn't what I was doing. I haven't read any of your writing aside from the tickets. Don't act offended when I'm not offending you.
Sophont being used in such a way is normal in the server, and if you engaged in the server regularly, you'd see that it is commonly used in a non roleplaying manner. You weren't being deprecated against, the comments weren't unnecessary or cruel, and while I'm sorry you took it that way, that wasn't how it was said.
What do you actually expect or want to accomplish from this anyway?
I want accountability. I want to know that the people in charge of keeping the server safe are accountable when they fail to uphold that, let alone contribute to making it unsafe. I want to know that when things are said that hurt, regardless of how it was intended or layers of context or whatever, that those who say them will take responsibility for the consequences of it.
Because it doesn't matter that there's context for the "uninteresting" remark. It doesn't matter what the intended connection behind it was. What matters is that it felt like a punch to the jaw, and the more you try to explain why I shouldn't be upset about it, the more I start to question whether this server is as safe a community as it claims to be.
You weren't being deprecated against, the comments weren't unnecessary or cruel, and while I'm sorry you took it that way, that wasn't how it was said.
"I'm sorry you took it that way" is word for word the kind of language that actual abusers use. Instead of fault being in the hands of the person who said the offending statement, it's my fault that it hurt. That's bullshit and you should know better as an admin of a community with "Either the space its made safe for marginalized / otherwise vulnerable users, or it isn't, and we're committed to making sure this remains a safe space for everyone," listed in the rules page.
I'm leaving the community now. I wish you the best, and I hope none of the errors made here are ever repeated.
Isn't That Funny