In my opinion (and this is as an irregular poster if you go by Tom's standard) there are a few things that spring to mind regarding a toxic atmosphere. As a preface, I'm going to say that thanks to the forums there have been two effects on a personal level. The first is that I've stopped actively recommending the game to others like I did during my first six months or so. The second is I won't put characters in realms with some players because I have little-to-no faith that they will act with any integrity - if they don't here, why should they in game?
One of the first issues is the game's volunteers are just as culpable as the ordinary patrons/players. Many times I have seen members of the Dev Team, Magistrates or Moderators be rude, belittling or downright hostile to other players as if they will get away with murder. Everyone is bound by the Social Contract but yet this goes on and I have zero faith that if I were to use the report function as asked on any member of one of these groups that something would come of it or corrective action be taken. And so it will continue and nothing will change. I've said it before - you do not have the right to treat someone like dirt just because you volunteer for the game or otherwise have power.
That leads me onto Moderation Policy. So far we only know two things about this new stance. The first is that there is currently an attempt at a crackdown in force. The second is that there is a blacklist of three players (currently) who are on watch for any offences. But we know nothing else about it. Many members of the community offered suggestions or ideas but there's been no indication of whether they've been taken on board or not. I offered a couple regarding linking game accounts to forum accounts and they were roundly ignored by everyone and not just the moderation team (no surprise there really, most things I say are either ignored or taken the piss out of, wouldn't be surprised if it happened on IRC either). So this point is two-fold. The first is to ask what exactly is going on? Are new guidelines/rules for conduct on the forum coming into play in conjunction with this crackdown? The second is about this blacklist - what exactly do you have to do to earn such a status? Am I on the blacklist? What for?
The third is linked to Magistrates cases which has been mentioned before but it bears reminding. As it stands, anyone can offer their input into a Magistrates case. This has to stop because it means that groups of players (like with the case I attempted to bring recently linked to the toxic atmosphere cases) can just rise up and barrack or stonewall one side or the other, especially when it's then not moderated out as it should be (this goes back to the role/behaviour of the volunteers somewhat). Posts in those forums should, in my eyes, be for four parties only: Defendant, Plaintiff, Magistrates, Witnesses. You don't allow the gallery to shout out in most RL courts, why should we here?
Yes, there's not much we can do regarding making the forums private or much else without messing with usergroups or the forum software. But anything that isn't from one of these four parties should be deleted without warning. Defendants, Plaintiffs or Witnesses should only respond to specific questions from the Magistrates and nothing else. Discussions/deliberations are already in private and should stay that way rather than it spilling out into public. This would go some way to getting rid of this atmosphere but I am aware it may engender the same issues as we had under the Titan system.
