I'm standing for officer. Now, whilst I could do any of the officer roles to an acceptable degree of competence and effectiveness, I'm solely standing for one role. I will do any of the others, if asked. But I am standing for one role.
The RMB is A ProblemTM. It has been A ProblemTM for a long time. I'd like to fix the problem. But first, let's just identify the problem and how we got here. TRR doesn't get a ban button, doesn't get an eject button, we are where everyone sends their trash to. Some of these players can be reformed, and we help them to do so and they become productive members of society. Many of them can't be. A lot of them flame out, get deleted. But others stick around and they gum up the RMB with their trash takes and their offensive statements.
There's not much we can mechanically do to change that reality. We've tried. We asked for mute buttons, we've asked for other things. NS admin isn't budging. In response, and I can't blame people for doing this, the great and the good of the region have given up the RMB. We've ceded the battlefield to those who post these reprehensible opinions. That's not something anyone should be blamed for. No one should be required to endure days and weeks and months of horrible things being said to them, or about them or the people they love or associate with.
But it does mean the RMB is in a bad way. So let's see if we can fix that. I have the beginnings of a plan, but it'll require the help of those who are able to commit something to the cause. I'm not demanding anything of anyone and I'll do it alone if I have to.
- Suppress everything: Not really, but a lot more. I as an RO, both in TRR and in TNP have previously exercised my ability to suppress judiciously. In TNP, ROs are empowered to suppress any speech except speech regarding TNP politics. I'm not saying it's necessarily a good idea to adopt that here, in TRR, but it's an approach that has worked to reduce toxicity in TNP in the past. I would like to, if elected, exercise my ability to suppress much more widely than it has been used by ROs here in the past. It's a departure from how we've operated here, yes, but I think it's a necessary one. Mass suppression of individual posters, regardless of what they're posting is a potential tactic I'd like to use, to either get them to stop posting entirely, or to leave TRR.
- Read everything: I have no life. I am the full time carer for my 83 year old dad. That takes up, not that much time of my day, because he's an independent sort of guy and lives like he's 30 years younger. He'll outlive me, I'm pretty sure. I'm always online. I'm always reachable. Ping me, and I answer. Tag me, and I'm there. If there's a thing going on on the RMB, tell me about it, and I will have time to address it.
- Drown out the spam: Potentially difficult to do given both the RMB fatigue that we have, and the smaller number of people that we have, however, during times of mass spam on TNP's RMB previously, I did not eject to TRR - as delegate I removed very few people from TNP because doing that, just moved the problem elsewhere, and wasn't fair to TRR. Instead, what I'd do is utilised the population of TNP or TNP RP to post on the RMB and just drown out the spam with inane chat. If elected, I'd like to pursue a similar scheme here - probably an opt-in role on the discord, that I could ping any time I felt like the RMB was getting away from us and needed this kind of thing. Flood the battlefield, and the enemy can't fight more. Starve them of attention, and they go away.
- Some carrot to go with the stick: The RMB Awards are a cool idea. They can be helpful in raising up the better posters and encouraging them to keep on posting. This program, and potentially things like hosting festivals and events on the RMB can help us make the RMB a fun place. It'll require buy-in from both RMB users and non-RMB members, but if we work at it, we can do it.
- Cast the net wide: Let's look for out-there ideas to help regulate and guide the RMB. Let's look at things we've dismissed in the past for not being viable and take a second look. Let's push ideas forward that we might not have considered before. What we've tried in the past hasn't really worked, so lets look at everything else we can. Have an idea for the RMB or Gameside? Come talk to me, even if it's a bit weird.
Happy to take questions, comments, outrage, abuse, accusations of leaking to Europeia, let me have it.
Oh, and y'know, conflict of interest disclosure: I'm in TNP (until September), The Wellspring (forever), Britannia Prima (until I get bored of paying for stamps).
