1Kevin, Yesterday at 4:08 AM  Last edited by a moderator: 35 minutes ago
It is no secret that the general state of the forums in the last few months is toxicity gone unchecked. This can be attributed to a few reasons and the blame does not solely rest on the admin team or the players. The blame rests on both groups. The admins for becoming too lax with the forum rules and the players for taking gross advantage of them.

Moving Target Gaming is more than just a couple game servers. Our forums reflect that. MT-Gaming is a gaming community in which players can discuss, share, and enjoy many different things that may not have anything to do with SA:MP or V-RP. However, the forums have begun to sink into a dark state where vile content has been left alone and allowed to become the norm. No one thinks twice about seeing someone post something totally uncalled for on another's wall on the front page of the forums because we are used to it. The problem is the front page of the forums is the way we present ourselves to new players. It is the first thing they'll ever see of MT-Gaming outside of the servers. I'll tell you right now, they aren't getting an impression that makes them want to be apart of this community.

Before moving on with the this announcement, it is important to note that while MT-Gaming values supporting a forum for free and open discussion, we are a private entity. The administration team is free to remove any content which violates the rules which are laid out at their discretion. This is not censorship, this is moderation. Different websites and forums have different levels of tolerance for various types of speech and you must abide by said forums policy to continue to freely enjoy them.

Furthermore, this is not an attack on your free speech as some will chime. You are free to be an asshole if you'd like but not on MT-Gaming. Some will also argue that we are all adults here and should be able to say what we want. I agree in that we are all adults and should know what is objectively appropriate to say when discussing things with other adults. I would be utterly dumbfounded if any of you spoke to your parents, employers, etc in the manner in which you speak on the forums.

Finally, before getting into where we are heading moving forward. Some will argue "it's just a computer screen, turn it off." To you I say, it is not just a computer screen. People tend to say that words are just words and that actions have consequences. Well, in an online setting the absence of face to face actions exasperates the idea that words, in fact do, have consequences. People respond to things differently and while you may be able to turn off your computer and forget about the things that someone said to you, many others cannot. Those words follow them when the screen is off. Those words sit in their head, they do not leave. It does not matter that someone over the internet said them. It only matters that anyone at all said them. You do not know the inner struggles of your fellow human being and it is incredibly selfish to think that everyone is able to deal with things in the same way you are. We are all different. The inability for you to be slightly empathetic, to have an ounce of sympathy, and to just think how if you believe it is so easy for them to just turn off the computer, then why don't you do it yourself. Just turn off the computer and never write the hateful words which you are about to post.

So, what exactly is changing? From this point on, the admin team will return to strictly enforcing the rules of the forums and removing content that violates these rules. This includes inappropriately offensive content, trolling, off topic posts, posts solely for likes, etc. Users will also be warned appropriately and temp-bans will be automatically placed. The forums are not a place for users to harass and troll each other. They are not a place to voice your opinions in a vile and unnecessary manner.

From this point on toxic, edginess, trolling, bullying, harassing, etc will be dealt in a swift manner. If you decided that you don't like the fact your friend got punished and are going to jump on a circle jerk bandwagon complaining, your post will be removed. If you happen to break a rule in the process, you'll also be punished.

Profile Posts

Due to the fact that players can delete and moderate their own profiles, the admin team is supposed to step back and let players deal with things themselves. However, this has proven to be ineffective as most players would rather argue and hurl insults back instead of deleting a post and moving on. Furthermore, many players continue to harass people on profiles after that player has deleted their posts. Sure, they could block them but that simply makes the harasser move on to their next target and continue to fill the new profile posts section with trolling and inappropriate nonsense. To mitigate this, a usergroup has been created which will hide a users profile posts from the sidebar. Admins will still be able to see the persons posts on the sidebar and users will be able to see them if they actively search for the persons profile.

This is a first step which will be evaluated. If this does not successfully discourage the use of profile posts to harass and troll other players then the profile post sidebar will be removed.

Forum Rules

In attempt to better clarify the rules which will be enforced, a new tab as been created at the top of the forums. This will be where all MT-Gaming rules can be found whether they are for the forums, teamspeak, or a gaming server. The SA:MP and V-RP rules have not been added to it yet, so please do not report that as a bug.

Link (Can also be found by clicking the Rules tab at the top of the forums)

Conclusion

At the end of the day, this process will have growing pains but as the name implies, they are necessary to grow. MT-Gaming needs to move on from this behavior and return to being the community to which people look forward to coming onto and discussing things. Through this process, certain individuals will end up being shown the door and because of that we will unfortunately see some dedicated players leave us. However, at the end of the day, if they were unable to behave in a manner which is conducive to a friendly community, then they simply did not belong here to begin with. Finally, this is a joint message from the entire team and not something that was decided by unilaterally. The entire MTG staff believes that this is the correct direction for the forums and something that needs to be done.
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