*cracks knuckles* Just one last time, I'd like to draw attention to this thread. It is not my intention to single out any individual, but to draw attention to particular facets that demonstrate what we would like to avoid in the future.
Early in the thread, this was said.
Quote:
We complained because we felt mistreated by AEG during the great decline from the days of early Diamond. Whether that was in the mind of every individual or not, that was how the community behaved.
It's a
somewhat reasonable statement. It offers an observation. It leaves an out for instances of exceptions. On the other hand, it is worded as a factual statement rather than an opinion, which was a little misleading. It
definitely could have been worded better. It isn't exactly the most likely topic to keep things calm. However, the reason I bring it up is the detail is that it offered a specific time frame that was limited to the 2004-2005 period.
What followed was a single generalization that was only tangentially related in the fact that it mentioned a nebulous version of the above mentioned dissatisfaction with implications that
should have separated it from the source. The misleading use of the word "historically" didn't help. After that was
four pages of posts that contained diminishing amounts of respect. You got snookered. A four page flame war erupted out of a single post that
wasn't actually a connected response to the previous post.
A couple voices chimed in and tried to steer the thread back towards reasonable civility and I sincerely wish they had been heeded.
A few things to keep in mind.
Facts are facts.
Opinions are opinions.
Perceptions and observations are really opinions that can
support facts, but do not themselves concretely establish facts other than the fact that they were observed. (i.e. "The barn is red" is not actually proven by observing one red wall of a building.)
When one is stated as the other, it's not unreasonable to expect that it will be treated as either when one is easier to refute than the other.
Facts don't effectively refute opinions, but offer support to contrary opinions.
When possible, treating each as the appropriate type can go a long way towards avoiding unnecessary conflict.
AEG is not "out to get" any portion of the player base.
AEG is not intentionally neglecting any clan or its players, nor intentionally slighting them.
A player can be dissatisfied in spite of AEG's best efforts to avoid such.
A lot of posts that touch on these end up as unconstructive rants, and that's also something I'd like to avoid if possible.
Please keep the word "Respect" in mind while you're here, folks.
