To Clarify Something

[Grakor456]

This was apparently mentioned in the OOC event today, but I was not present and was not able to address this myself. Anyway, I just want to clarify what I meant, as some people seem to have interpreted it more harshly than I really intended (for which I apologize, I'm fairly oblivious to that kind of thing as the other GMs can attest to.) In Garrett's absence thread, I posted the following:

And no, the server is not yours. It's Kretol's and mine. We decide where the server goes, you play here if you so choose based on what we want the server to be. We are under no obligation at all to allow you a say in anything if we don't want to.

When someone makes a server for a game, a MUD, forum, or any other community like the one we have here, he decides what he wants this thing to be, exactly. He might create a forum for the discussion of blind wombats. He creates his forum, complete with nifty features, pictures, and testimonials, and hopes that others come to participate. The forum is his, others who come only do so because they love talking about blind wombats that much...but the forum is not theirs. They are playing in the playground of the forum's maker, and are there because he allows them and because they believe it is the best place to discuss blind wombats.

No one besides the admins can claim ownership of the server or its direction. If, ultimately, I wanted to institute a rule that said every Thursday every character in the game has to wear some form of snazzy hat, then I could make it happen. If every grunt on the forum voted that they think every Saturday we should RP Star Wars instead of Warcraft, that doesn't mean it would happen. It would ultimately be up to the decision of myself or Kretol, as we decide the direction we want the server to go in and what purpose we want the server to have. If the direction of the server, its setting, or its purpose does not agree with you, then it is your right to leave to a place you feel is better suited for what you're looking for.

However, just because the server is ours and we can do whatever we want, doesn't mean that you or your opinions are invalid. First off, it would be pretty stupid if we DID ignore everyone's opinions, as then everyone would leave. I'd like to think that we do bend at least a little bit with the community's wishes, otherwise we wouldn't be as successful as we are. Secondly, I wouldn't ask for your opinions if I wasn't genuinely interested in knowing what they were. If I didn't care, I wouldn't waste my time with posting in and reading an inevitably pointless thread.

Perhaps this is not getting my point across as well as I would like, but I want people to know that if I didn't genuinely care about the community and the players, I wouldn't be here as an admin.

[Cowssaymoo]

Good one Grak, hopefully that'll reduce rumors and get the point across and crystal clear.

[Anski]

Very well said, Grakor.

[LostStranger]

It feels as though this is something that should not have even been necessary to discuss, even if it was in fact so.

The drama so inevitable to CotH is something to muse over, I suppose.

[Diethe]

Actually, that was what Grakor's posts are for recently, specifically the 'Direction of CoTH' and the 'Server Restart' thread. Heck, I think we, the player base created the drama from assumptions and personal and selfish opinions that we want to show. Don't blame the GM for starting an opinion thread, cause all he wanted was your opinion on stuff and what to do from there.

[Nick]

Well said. In my opinion, the players (meaning me included) should know that they have no right to demand anything from the admins mainly because you guys are running this server with no financial help (from us) as far as I know.
It's obvious though that you guys do consider our suggestions wich a lot of private server admins seem to ignore outright (and for some reason their players keep kissing their backsides) and I'm sure most (if not all) of us love you for that.