As many of you know, there's been some recent events that have greatly upset some members of Alacritis. Here, I'd like to give my own personal words and invite people to message me if they have issues of their own. Other staff can also give their words here if they would like.

The first thing I'd like to say is that we are human. Most of the time, we as staff are professional and level-headed in dealing with all of you. Perhaps we make mistakes at time, and perhaps we get a little too testy at times, but given how much we all spend here and, quite honestly, the amount of drama, complaints, and arguing that we see here, I don't find it surprising at all that sometimes we might get a little annoyed - especially when our unanimous decisions are being argued and questioned repeatedly. I won't argue that I can get a bit irritated at times, but let's be honest; who doesn't? If you look over all of our dealings with members we have been more than fair, even on occasions when the member has treated us horribly, and I think it's extremely unfair to claim that we bully or attack our members.

Secondly, I'd like to say -- that while we encourage you to be true to your characters, that we are not an entirely free-form writing site. We have restrictions, rules, and a set of staff that monitors what goes on for a reason. We do not allow wolves to randomly kill children or to inflict harm on others that might not deserve it (obviously you can do as you please with NPCs, but we have always restricted your interactions with other players' characters). I'm growing very weary of people telling us that certain aspects of the site are restricting their characters, because that is exactly why we have a rule page with over a dozen sections. Yes, we do want to restrict your characters -- in that their actions can't terribly affect the lives of others without good reason. We already allow maiming & character claiming (though we do give members the option to petition staff if the maim is too severe or they feel they are being bullied), and we feel things as severe as deathmatches warrant much more serious consideration. Having no restrictions whatsoever on characters would greatly decrease enjoyment of the site for the majority of the members as it would simply be too stressful to play on here if you could not say or do anything or post anywhere without the risk of your character being disabled or killed because of it.

I'd also like to talk for a moment about "keeping IC things IC." While this is the ideal, we all know perfectly well this isn't the case. We can't solely consider in-character events when talking about serious aspects of the site, such as deathmatches. For example, if Wolf X kills Wolf Z in a siege (they had only been trying for a maim, but the player of Wolf Z decided they were tired of their character and saw it as a good way for them to die), will we allow Wolf Z's mate to try to avenge them in a deathmatch? While to the wolves it obviously looks as though Wolf Z meant to kill them, this could be severely abused.... and we do have to take these things into consideration when deciding what kinds of things should or should not be allowed.

I'd also like to address the "well this was allowed in the past" complaint, especially in regards to fights and deathmatches that had previously been allowed. It isn't ideal that some things have been allowed in the past, and that we don't allow them now, but I would like for you all to understand that an entirely different staff team ran the site just a year or so ago. We have taken a lot of things into account regarding nearly all of the site changes, and we're adjusting to finally having a large staff team that communicates with one another in regards to decision-making. So please keep in mind that just because something was allowed a year ago, it doesn't mean it will be allowed now, and we would appreciate not being called out for inconsistency when most of the current staff were not part of the team when some older decisions were made and many of those decisions were not written down for us to make reference to.

So yes -- things might have been allowed once that we do not allow now, and vise versa. We honestly are trying to be fair and steadfast in what we decide but I feel more often than not, we get complaints and people getting angry because X happened in the past. It is only inevitable that the site will change over time and so will the rules and what we do and don't allow.

The bottom line is that staff decisions are final. If you don't agree with them, please only discuss this with staff. The entire staff team spends countless hours working on this site for you, not for ourselves, and for our decisions to be consistently belittled and argued with gets exhausting.

Quickly I'd also like to address the overall atmosphere of the site. I am saddened when people feel like others are constantly striving to screw them over behind their backs in regards to packs, challenges, etc. I don't know how to fix this negative atmosphere but if anyone has any ideas to reduce hostility and to harbor a more fun, inviting atmosphere, I'd love to know and discuss with you!

NOTE: Huge snowstorm coming my way, might very well knock out power for a few days, so please contact any other admins or staff members if you need to as it's been declared a state of emergency where I live and you likely won't be able to reach me.

Eve would like to put in a little bit of her own thoughts.

I feel like there is a lot of clumping people together, in both the case of members and staff. Just because one staff member did something you didn't really like, doesn't make all of staff members terrible people. Not that any of us are. You have to remember that most of us have full time jobs, kids, and families. We have lives and things we can do besides Ala, and yet we spend countless hours trying to make this the best site it can be. I can't even begin to count the hours I have spend on here on my short time on the staff team, I can't even fathom how many hours Nyx has spent. Some of us took days off to move the site, and a lot of us have put in real money to this site.

Just because of one event, I think its a little harsh to bash the site so hard. Like Nyx said, seriously shit happens. We can't prevent EVERY little thing that happens, cause we all make mistakes. Like does your boss not get angry at you at times? Did/do your teachers not lose their cool sometimes? Even in society there is times when leaders make mistakes, but we put on our big girl/boy panties and get over it. Sorry, but its true. If we were to go around preventing every little thing, this wouldn't be fun. It would be so restricted and blah. And every site you go on there are going to be issues. I haven't been on a single site that didn't have OOC drama, because its human nature to lose your cool! We aren't robots, and emotions can get the better of us.

Nyx has said a lot about how the rest of the staff feels as well, but again we are each of our own people... if that makes sense. We react in different ways and we are triggered in different ways. In regard to the drama that happened, I wasn't here for it, but I did read back in the cbox to see it. And I can also say that I was on skype personally before this happened trying to explain things again and again. Its hard when no matter what you say, your points are argued and there was a lot being said about staff playing favorites. And honestly that offended me. Yes I am closer to some people than to others, but when it comes to staff choices I NEVER pull favorites, nor does anyone else. I was really, really upset when my choices were called biased, because I strive to do my best to make the right choice. I don't look at names when it comes to choices like that, I look at the facts and at the characters. I won't look at the player when I make the choice, but on what I feel is fair and right. Its a huge judgment on my character to say that I play favorites and that I am biased, even though it wasn't my name being said. Again it was the staff being lobbed into one pile, and its a judgement against all of us as people. We don't have to do this you know, its by choice. The site stressed me out and makes me cry at times, but I still work my hardest to get things done in a way that is as fair as it can be. Also, there is always going to be someone who doesn't like what we do, but we aren't all agreeable people. There is stuff I don't like in the government but I don't whine and cry about it. I deal with it and move on.

I also agree with Nyx on Ala being more negative as of late, and it breaks my heart. Ala has saved me a lot, it has given me something to do when I lost my job, and keeps be busy enough that I don't literally stay in bed all day and cry -- because that is where I'm at with my life right now. And I know for some members its the same way.

Also to put in my two cents on all of this as well, basically just backing what Nyx and Eve have already stated.

One of the major forms that I see as a problem just about anywhere is lack of communication, or effective communication. Not everyone understands and perceives things the same way, and where there is a dispute it does need to be talked about.

Regarding the drama the other day; yes, it was a bit out of line on my end. I should have taken it to skype, rather than drag it out in the cbox. However people are human, and we should all respect each other. It is not my fault if someone perceives my mannerisms as overly aggressive, when they are not intended to be, and same as if someone was talking to me. I have, a number of times, grew huffy at staff and fled the site for a little while. Hell, Eve and I have snapped at each other. The thing we all need to remember is that we can't take crap personal here. When you start taking things personal and dragging them to OOC things become less fun for everyone.

Now I regard Alacritis as part of my family. Heck, you all know by now Keno has a few screws in her head loose and she can be a loose cannon. I don't know about anyone else but I will say this bold and clear;; There is no one on Alacritis I have a personal issue with. I don't always agree with IC actions, and my inner characters might pop out and flare up in anger, but we can't let the IC drama become OOC. If it does, and we realize there is a mistake, we need to apologize.

I don't expect anyone to apologize for something that they didn't actually do either, but in short, let's all just try to get along better. Alacritis is made to be fun, to be a stress relief, not a stressor. We all make mistakes, and we all must learn to accept no one is perfect. Open your heart, Ala, and try to look past the drama. Let's make this site what it's meant to be. Our Alacritian Family Home.

~Keno

Hello Ala,

I was there when alactritis was created on proboards, and even though I've been on and off it was because I was unsure if any of the members really cared about how I felt and all that stupid selfish stuff. After reading this, I realize staff does do an amazing job and I'm very easily frustrated when what I say is ignored or thrown out which was, what was happening why I left last time. Whenever I posted something in the chat box, I would be ignored, or the conversation centering around something I just couldn't talk about without starting a fight or something. That's what I figured as an aggressive environment. But people seemed to miss, if you have aggressive members the staff are only going to retaliate the best way possible to answer the situations and it is indeed frustrating that staff are being held at fault.

On the plotting aspect I always felt my plots weren't important enough. Someone else's character was always more popular, more relatable and no one wanted to thread with mine they were too busy threading with more "important" characters. I see this as a huge problem when introducing new members to the site. I think I just really, felt left out. I didn't think my creativity was enough and when I had a pack it didn't feel like I deserved it because there was so much going on I just threw it around. Roleplaying here, became a chore.

Anyway what I'm saying is this is what I saw on my end that caused me to be a little upset at Ala. I really love many of the people here, I loved roleplaying, but whenever I did something, thought it was cool, everyone was so engulfed in something else that I just got frustrated and wanted to crawl into a corner. I might come back but I have issue's with communication on Ala I hate offending people coming off wrong, and I don't like being just in the shadows as I have felt. I want to present a solution to the hostile environment but I'm not sure if I even have a right to say anything. I might come back I might no, I'm still dealing with RL issue's and I take cbox roleplay sites very seriously. I want people to care about me and I can't force them to. Nyx has been the best I repeat THE BEST STAFF to appear ever. So I hope all the members can appreciate their staff more.

I'm going off about nothing, this is just my two cents. I'll go back to lurking still deciding if I should come back or not qmq if you need me my skype is shoesama and you can contact me through email rivaxoruslawless@gmail.com also DA Centiipede. Thanks.