It is my opinion that calling Tom a "volunteer" is a bit misleading. After all, he is the creator of BM and pays the bills for the game last I understood. He also was the receiver of financial support (via donations). Not sure if he still continues to receive donations for BM, but everything still pointed to him. Whether he made a profit personally off of BM or not, it's his brain child. He started East Island (or Continent) and while Dwlight is an example of his vision for BM which included player contributions, it should not be taken lightly that if Tom hadn't done work prior to this there could have been no Dwilight. If my math is correct, BM had been worked on for 5 years prior to Dwilight. In the end, if Tom decides to pull the plug on BM, BM is gone. Timothy and yourself, being volunteers on the project could be replaced. (Not saying you should be of that you want to).
It's quite possible that the growing divide you mention is partly due to the fact that Tom doesn't run the game any more. More than one player has gotten the impression that BM is currently ran by people who don't share Tom's passion. Whether this is true or not of Timothy is outside of my ability to say. I don't always agree with the decisions made by the admin team here, but again I don't expect to. It's the nature of any game. I can say that there are disappointing things that have happened that I wish hadn't. BM isn't nearly as fun as it used to be for me. It's more of a struggle to get people active and do things than it has been in the past. I've noticed players that are going through the motions more now.
Another impression that some have is that their concerns are falling in the cracks. I can't say that I've had this issue, but it has been said in the forum that there was a Titan review with no response in 2 weeks. Now, I can respect that the Admin team may have been reviewing the situation and RL got in the way or something else, but it is something that can give the impression that the Admin team may no longer have the passion to handle these issues. Again, I want it clearly known that I haven't had this issue personally.
I think that may imply more of a system than exists. It's not so much like a legal/court system where you appeal to correct a criminal label applied to you as much as cutting out derogatory, insulting posts.
I think that may also be where the divide is stemming from. Players (especially newer ones) are used to a Customer Service model for games (even those ran by individuals). Not having a clean "chain" of command frustrates them and may give a false impression of a lack of customer service. It's like if you go to a grocery store and have a price come up differently than advertised and the cashier refuses to give you it, you can "appeal" that decision to a supervisor/manager. A chain of command per se. Whether that is considered something that the admin team would consider, that I leave to you all.
The mod powers are relatively limited, in terms of enforcement. One can warn the user, increasing their warn level between 0% and 100%.
I appreciate you explaining the warning system. I haven't gotten a warning yet here in the forums, but had never really looked into the system myself.
