Monday, October 22, 2007

Ragnaboards, Real Life and the Good side

Blame it on Level Up I guess, after years of players who have this love hate relationship with both the game and the management

Even us as mods who have a different way of running the Official Ragnaboards, most likely because like Goenitz one for the original veterans of both LUG and the game, we kick it up old school
Follow the rules. No questions asked.
Seems harsh right? But with the recent rampant sprouts of flaming in RB, accusations of GM's not during their jobs even adding us mods in the growing list of people supposedly not doing anything.

There is something I want the people to understand about us Mods in RB

1. We are not Direct Level Up Employees, we do not have a salary from them. We Volunteer and are selected by a LUG manager to manage the Ragnaboards in accordance to the rules ist stated there. For short any free time we have outside our real life we devote it to RB.

2. We do not work inside the Level Up facility. Infact some of the mod teams are either students or have other office jobs that is not Level Up Inc affiliated, or families for that matter. So if personal puns are thrown at us, some we can brush off others hit home when it calls out some very hurtful issues those people dont know.

3. Moderators are not Level Up customer service reps. Though we do pass reports of issues we bring up to LUG, those reports are for review to our sups and we have no access to the CSR's. Not all Mods even know the GM's nor have easy access to them

4. Mods have lives and feelings to. And I will say, due to their roles as mods has become more mentally and emotionally mature and I am PROUD to be part of my mod team. Best team I have worked for even though we have our differences from time to time. And though as RB mods they are expected b the public to hold some sort of poker face, the fact we are players and normal humans who can get hurt as well is a undeniable fact. Most player overlook this but there are some that understands us as well and we are thankful for the kind sentiments they share.


Now on to the issues. Lately children these days are getting worse and worse in losing respect of what is right. In fact they are now Pming us for illegal trading, to allow flaming in the boards and asks special favors like banning who they wish us to ban and the worse I just got lately a person insisting I divulge confidential Level Up information. Of course we refuse, after 4 years in being part of LUG ( not to mention highly monitored as well) we would not stop to such lowly actions.

A person I spoke in YM said he was going to talk to GM Cassiel in becoming a mod and in my shock even would want to enforce this: ( this was after I asked him to kindly stop flaming RB)

"well ok lang mag flame as long as may KATOTOHANAN.... u should thank me na pinagtangol ko pa company mo"

Ohh wow. This person also claims to be close to one of my former managers. Possibly used that same connection in getting personal information about me ( and maybe even about my team..who knows) And posted it in RB.
Also demanded I should not be a mod after I said I will look into the issue after I finish my reports ( I was doing some office work and my YM was open...I know I shouldn't YM at work) And the fact that they will use their friendship with their so-called LUG contacts to maybe intimidate me was the one that made me shook my head. No wonder our country is being poked punned at for corruption... *sigh* And then they accuse us as the political/ unfair ones in the Boards...again WOOOOOOOOOOW

I wanted to say soo much about what that person did but rather not as of the moment.
I guess my one folly as well is that I'm very friendly towards people and would rather speak to them on a personal basis. Waiting replies in RB is too long.

This too can be a double edged sword when the people I talk to have a different motive. The type that are nice when you are talking to them and backstabbers later on And I learned this reality the hard way. But still I prefer to still talk to them on a personal basis becuase not just becuase one person thinks of me or us differently due to clouded judgments doesn't mean we shouldn't stop doing that extra mile on connecting with our forumers


But I also heard that these same people rather would like to handle this issue to people that they think as higher authority rather than discuss it with me. I don't blame them especially when they themselves think that I'm more a lowly person for them to speak to.
I seeeeeee... WOW...that is soo teledrama
But I think after I saw these posting in RB I and after having it reviewed too by non LUG and my co worker peeps; Actions speaks louder words

Other kids take the game too seriously in a more Violent matter. One infamous player and an acclaimed moderator of another pRO fan-forum has been constantly stalking one of our teammates. Gone as far as threatening his family and life.
We spoke to the head Moderator from that forum but seems like no action has been taken either.

This is not new to us. One of our female mods last year received anonymous calls at her own home. She is one of our younger mods and is very pretty too, apparently players took a liking to her after an EB with players and took things a step too far.

Its hard to treat everyone in RB equally conversation wise. Really A lot of the forumers insist we treat them as adults and treat the kids as kids, others who are kids demand we don't see them as kids but as adults while there are kids and adults who does not wish to be associated with one another. One time a poster said that just because most of the posters are children shouldn't mean I should treat him as one too.
But we cant also deny the fact that 40-60% of the personality of the people in the boards regardless of age act like children especially when mad...and sometimes that is their personality.

This poster is most likely an older person who made a very bad joke in RB and an flaming offense. After I explained my side they will try to twist your word.
Word of warning to mod aspirer in RB that this are just of the few Psychological games people will play on you.


One more light I want to also bring up. And I'll give the full Kudos here to my co-Worker Mod Kamesh who is still very new to the moderating world. She makes sure RB is in a happy state of mind. The Jellopy fields challenge along with another Mod Cassandra is one of the most successful events held in RB.

But behind her cheerful composure, is that she sleeps late at night and wakes early in the morning. Divides her IRL time to process major issues from the boards to Level Up.

I wanted to share light to this becuase people think we have ignored the issues we get from RB like the dupe thread in Midgard Congress or the URDR population issues, and the Valkyrie Bugs and other updates.

This image bellow shows that we do listen to people reports and issues and we do pass them to LUG, though the replies from LUG may take time doesnt mean we try not to have your voices heard
*small note on this I found out oct 25 that Ragnabarkadahan was a fansite forum and not an Level Up official Forum. Thanks to Master Diwa for clearing this up. The Ragnabarkadahan's popularity has been advertised in Waukster and other official LUG sites that made it look an official forum

On additional good notes. Valkyrie server despite the issues on its shaky premiere has been a success. Bot hunter had kept it a hush hush on catching bots before Valk's release and this worked marvelously. Chief Bot Hunter Goenitz and a good friend of mine headspears this operation and please read the anticipated interview he has with Master Diwa at his blog. But the real thanks goes to the players of RO
Those who sill believes a free Bot environment and helps out our MP by posting and reporting delinquents in RB, the Midgard Police and to the Level Up customer Service. Great players comes from those who strive hard in the game and still upholds righteous morale

New updates will be going on with Valk along with the other servers. For now LU Live at the World trade is the most Anticipated Event. And I hope to see people there
Good Luck to all the Participants!