Update on the Rules.

The staff has recently updated the rules to go along with the changes that have been made on the site. We've been listening to everyone's input, discussing it, and making changes we see fit. However, not everyone likes our changes and it is causing a stir in the community. So, I will explain why these new rules were added.
I will not go through every rule listed, but mainly the one that will inevitably cause a problem with the members. For the full list, please read the rules here.

I apologize in advance for the length of this announcement, but it's important.

Quote :

5. In the past, the CB was often used as a method of talking to other members and venting out problems. However, this caused many problems once it was used for ranting for hours on end every day. It caused a lot of stress on other members and spurred arguments. We ask that you use the “Venting Area” to post your problems and seek advice. That way those who wish to help can read and offer advice, and those who don’t want to see it don’t have to. If it’s URGENT and you need advice as quickly as possible and don’t think making a thread would help, you can post in the CB: but briefly.

This is the rule that everyone is getting fussy about.

When this site was first created, the CB was a place for members to talk about things they enjoyed and for spontaneous roleplay. Everyone agreed that any talk outside of roleplay was used in ((some form of quote)). From time to time, someone would rant about their problems, and it was fine.

However as time continued, the occasional rant grew into four or five rants a day from different people -often about the same topic as what they ranted about even just the day before. RP and idle chat died out and soon the CB was only about angst filled drama.

This was never the intention of the CB. The CB is a place for fun and chatting and chat-roleplay; it is not a place to complain about your problems!

Yes we understand that lately the CB has been a very good way of communicating with others and getting help. We know that everyone has problems in their lives that they need to get off their chest. Trust me, we understand.

However, the constant venting of problems (or lack there of, which I will explain later), is becoming a problem in the community.

Let's face it, despite our high member count, only a small portion of us use the CB. At most, we have 20 members who used to log on daily. However, as people began to vent constantly in the CB, others were getting upset because it felt like they weren't allowed to rp or talk about happy things in life or funny things. They understood that talking about something funny while someone is upset isn't very polite, so when the CB became a place for people to rant and be upset, it no longer became fun. Because of this, half of our regular members decided to no longer sign in to try and avoid it. Even I struggle to log on every day because I know that someone will be ranting. It's tiring.

Venting is not what the chatbox was put there for, it was meant to be an escape from the problems of life, not a source to put them onto others who didn't necessarily want to hear them.

As a result, we've had to revoke everyones ranting/venting rights from the chatbox and instead set up the board for it or ask members pm each other instead. This was done to try and restore the fun and calm nature of the chatbox that was taken away by the venting. We know venting is still an essential part of a healthy lifestyle, it's never good to bottle it up. This is why we now have the Venting Area: we are transferring the venting from the CB to the forum.

It might take a little longer but this way people who don't want to hear about it or who want the topics to remain light and cheerful so they don't have to think about depressing things don't have to be burdened with it when they have just as much right to be in the chatbox as everyone else.

We know not everyone is going to agree with all of the rules all of the time. We know that everyone wants to "hold a vote" or discuss with the staff about the rules we make. However, we simply can't please everyone. The site can't function if we try to do that. We know we've upset a lot of people by posting this rule, but we're doing it to try and help others who have felt like they can't even log on anymore because of the venting.

Hopefully everyone can understand why we did this. If not, we're sorry, but we cannot change it. If we let things continue one, we would only lose more members and our site would eventually collapse.