Re: Forum cleaning and new rules

Please, before you do anything, think strongly of how you go about it. If you've worked as a Community Manager before, you must have heard of the outcry and mess a certain newly appointed Community Manager caused over at the Sony EverQuest forums when she decided to "clean up the forums, re-organize them, and change the forum rules".

Please please please go about this very gently and listen to the community before you make any drastic changes. It can go horribly wrong and cause a lot of hostility between Illyriad staff and Illyriad players - I speak from personal experience.

This is not a critique of you in any way, just some advice from a gamer who has seen this very thing go horribly wrong.

- Dhenna

AFAICT, most of what Luna is doing is just clarifying how things already are, and clarifying a few common sense points. The only changes I can actually see - e.g. the removal of the Bitter Sea - are entirely appropriate to a game that is growing, and that (as it needs to be inclusive of more, diverse members) is turning from a small club into a broader assembly.

The way that the devs interact with and support Illyriad's community is very cool - and now one of them has made the community her main focus, which is great. I don't see why people would be anything but supportive of the devs on this.

I would appreciate the discussion about how to gently proceed with improvements in forum and community administration to remain open, too. Or should everyone that wants to be part of that discussion send a private message to GM Luna asking what thoughts are currently being considered?

I agree with Dhennas analysis: do proceed, but be gentle.