SyrixCoffeeWolf

No, if you're uncomfortable with "nigga" in the servers, feel free to warn.
I said I personally don't warn for something like that when it's clear there's no discourse between the two people because the whole point of being staff in a server (in my opinion) is to make sure everyone is having a good time. If there's immature dialogue but it's all in good fun, I tend to not ruin the atmosphere. That being said, I won't let racism run rampant, and there is a difference for most people between the hard R and nigga, but it's not the end of the world if you feel necessary to enforce them the same way.  

To be honest I reckon I'd still get fired if I called my manager a "nigga" or "faggot"

Honestly to weigh in, bonfire hit it on the head IMO. If anything rebrand the server. I think keep the theme or full rebrand

I can't believe people are voting yes for this
 
the whole point of tgh is ment to be maps based on video games and people playing on the maps casually and just doing whatever, making the server have random ass deathmatch maps ruins the entire point of the server.
 
The servers not ment to be deathmatch server #2314, it's trade gaming history, for gaming maps. Random people who join are going to be more likely to stay if we play on cool gaming maps instead of generic deathmatch maps, like if back when i joined tgh the server had deathmatch maps and when I found tgh it was on a random deathmatch map I probably wouldn't have even joined the server at all.
 
also if this vote actually goes through I wouldn't be surprised if we get a ton more random deathmatch maps added to the server and half of the servers map list would end up as random deathmatch maps more than actual tgh which to me is just a joke
 
The only non gaming maps I would like to see come back are both cyberpunks and any non gaming maps that were on the server in the past because they actually have history with the server. (with the exeption of masscc being kept as a map we can go to with a command by a higherup or whatever)

I'll just say it right here, voice changers are unfunny and extremely annoying. I wouldn't allow those for a second.

I'd honestly rather we keep soundboards and voice changers banned completely. As for things like the immature voices rule we got more chill about that a while ago. 
"We are hoping to see staff hold back a bit more regarding the immature voices rule as we feel that staff are jumping to stop people from harmless fun on the mic far too quickly. For example, if someone does an impression of myself having fun on the server, let them but not to a consistent level and as long as people aren't getting annoyed by it. However, do not forget that this is still a rule and is still not allowed, but let people feel a bit more free regarding the rule."
I overall think the rule is already in a pretty good place right now.
 

Just gotta change the definition of spam. Cause' I've seen people get muted over just using their mic which is just at a high volume

Also I really wish "no immature voices" meant "no little kids on mic" because that would be a great improvement on the quality of conversation thx

I guess I will be reasonably serious on these forums for once. I understand that these forums aren't exactly a great place for you. You didn't have the best start, which sort of lead to a lot of harassment going your way. The issue is, this is what, your 4th goodbye thread? Something like that. If you are leaving because of the harassment, it really isn't a good idea to make an entire thread for it. You can just silently leave. Nobody is stopping you. Making goodbye threads one after another is just going to lead to more harassment. I would recommend leaving silently next time you want to leave.

nuen/bluez did it "without anyone knowing" but the higher ups could tell/there are some things that help higher ups tell... that said IMO the problem with that and the problem i see with him/her (nuen) doing that is that it just seems like you would be sweeping the old issues under the rug/running and or hiding from previous issues. I'm a believer in that if you want to change/be better, you should be able to show the progress that goes with it. All a new account would do is show a different person without the progression or story behind it. To relate: It's something others can look at you and say you accomplished something to overcome an alcohol addiction and be clean and a valuable member of your community as opposed to moving to a place nobody knows you or your problem that you overcame.
 
We've had several old members reinvent themselves from their old ways with very negative reputations and they are very valued members of our community. never used new accts to "start fresh" they own up to the past and push forward. hopefully you can do the same.

I think a lot of people know that I used to be (and still am) very opinionated but back then I was worse to a point where I got a hell of a lot of hate from most people in xG and I left it because I felt like everyone hated me. Came back in August 2016 and here I am today as the DM.
It's much better to just stick to the same account but try to be the best person you can possibly be so that people can recognize that you have made a change

keep jolly roger bay and hazy maze cave

@SegFault @Tekk

I think you misunderstand my motive here. I'm not in any way, shape or form condoning previous actions made by either Goldfish or Nep. I can understand where you're coming from, as I had to dig myself out of the hole I was digging for myself since my first demotion up until my apology thread. However, I am most definitely not condoning the actions that the members of our community are taking against these two (i.e. using their name as an insult, fat manning them out of ten mans, etc.). As members of the community, we should be the better person and at least attempt to reform them, not shut them out or harass them. Leave the past in the past, I know for a fact the people we as a community target can be good kids if you don't push them over the edge.
This brings me back to the point that just because this is the internet does not mean you can say whatever you damn well please. Not to mention the fact that Goldfish himself has said that the constant harassment he's subjected to on the daily is the main reason that he acts the way he does. The video provided in the OP is a prime example of this ideology, the peers (the community) are at just as much fault as the accused (harassed person pushed over the edge).

People just don't care about the effect their words are going to have on someone else. Even myself, little things that people say that really shouldn't mean much get to me and can really sour my mood.
Whether it's Goldfish or just a random on the server, anytime someone is taking it too far I shut it down as fast as I can because I know how damaging it can be for people to just constantly harass you. This is especially true for people that do it because they think being mean to someone is cool or will make other people like them.
Now, this isn't to say that you should be taking a little bit of trash talk or banter as harassment. That will always be a part of the game. It's harassment when they're personally targeting and insulting you - that is the problem. 
Think about what you say before you say it. There's a reason that the saying "treat others the way you want to be treated" is thrown around so much.

This. It bothers me so much when people say shit like "it's just a game" or "it's just the internet". People still have fucking feelings, we're all real people behind real screens.

if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.

After talking to various people, family and friends, I have decided that I am actually going to stay as a Division Manager. This community means far too much to me and I know I can work all of this out with the right help, I just have to get back on track again. Truth be told, I actually started declining really bad all the way back in early October when I stopped going to counseling and I haven't had an appointment since. Instead of stepping down, I am going to schedule my counseling again, visit the doctors and perhaps a nutritionist. If I get put on anti-depressants I may have to take a break for a few weeks so I can get used to them but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Thank you for all of the support guys, I genuinely love you all so much
 

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
i will miss u
hope u get well 
❤️

Hello everyone. 
So I'm sure that some of you are aware of my dip in activity recently. Well, I wouldn't say it's a dip, it's been on a slow decline for the past few months. I feel like I owe a bit of an explanation to those who've been wondering where I've been. Prepare yourselves, this is gonna be a long (and a bit ranty) one. However beforehand, I should give a small disclaimer: this is not meant to start drama with anyone, so please don't bring that shit here. Thanks.
First and foremost, if I'm being completely honest, I can't stand Team Fortress 2 anymore. I started to get bored of the game all the way back in August, and had a little dip in activity then as well, which resulted in a warning from Seg. I've tried so many things to keep the game fresh for me, but guys, there's only so much I can do. The game is so old at this point, and there's hardly ever any new content in the game. If there is, it's all just cosmetic. We haven't had a major gameplay update since the dumpster fire that was the Pyro Update a while back. And while yes, xG has a lot of fun community maps to enjoy, most of the time, you'll just be playing on the same 4 or 5 maps, with an occasional unpopular map in the mix. That's because I'd say about 70% of the maps on TGH and 50% of the maps on Surf are complete garbage, and can kill the server if we go to the wrong ones.
But even if you get rid of those maps, the best/most popular maps still get boring quickly because they're so overplayed. I've also come to the realization that I can't stand Surfing. Some of you may have already noticed, but I now only come on Surf if TGH is dead (which actually happens quite often nowadays) because I actually despise surfing. Just my opinion, it is the opposite of fun. All of this together has made TF2 almost a chore for me to play nowadays. I feel like my eyes are constantly watching the clock, waiting to see when I hit the one hour mark so I can stop playing TF2 and do something I actually enjoy.
Another reason I haven't been coming on as often is because (gasp, could it be the dreaded word??) drama. XG has always been a clan filled with its fair share of controversy and shit talking and all that, that's nothing new. I knew that coming in to xG, but I made myself swear that I would try not to get involved in it or cause any myself. Unfortunately, that's not always how it works, and more often than not, it found me. That's not to say I didn't always deserve it, I realize I've made some foolish choices over the years. But the point is that I've ended up in the crossfire of several disputes and controversies, and it's starting to get very, very, very old. I didn't want to let it get to me, but honestly it's so frustrating and my patience has run out with it. Just when it seems like one thing has finally died down, a new controversy suddenly flares up to take its place, and it starts all over again. 
Perhaps the thing I despise the most about this clan is (oh boy RANT TIME!!!) group drama. It's always been a thing, and while it has died down recently, I still believe it's a problem. Look, I get it, in life, there will always be cliques, and there will always be people who don't see eye to eye, that's fine. But I think most of it is just so fucking petty and easily avoidable. It's always two groups at cold war with each other until one person does something to a person in the other group or someone in a group gets in trouble on servers, and then suddenly, everyone has to take a side. Then you're either a "gay furry pedophile who kisses up to staff" or a "tryhard troll who doesn't like furries but plays here anyways for some reason" or some other dumb bullshit like that. It's even worse for me because I'm a mediator, so I always have friends on both sides, most of which who can't stand each other and talk mad shit behind each others backs. Most of you in this clan are over the age of 14, shape up and fucking act like it. This isn't middle school, if you don't like someone, be the better person and avoid them. Again, I don't care if you disagree with/dislike a certain person or group of people, that's fine. But you don't need to always be talking shit or picking fights or dumb shit like that. And I'm not aiming this at any one group, every group that I've been a part of has had people who do shit like this. I see not only our staff, but sometimes even our higherups doing this, like come on, grow up. 
*S i g h* I apologize, but I've wanted to say that for a lonnnnnnng time. These days, I've been finding myself losing sleep at night, thinking about what I'm going to do with xG. I fear losing all the friends I've made here, and worrying about how getting a second job will further affect my playtime. I kept telling myself that I can't leave, or I'll lose everything I've worked for here. But then every time I tell myself that I'm gonna be more active and work harder, a week later, my activity starts to dip again and my interest in the game falters. How long until I don't have any more chances to improve my activity? How long until I just become known as another one of the Admins who got demoted for inactivity? Why should I keep holding this staff slot when there are probably players who are far more active and far more deserving of it than me? I figure... maybe it's just best that I bite the bullet. It pains me to say it, really it does, but maybe it's just time for me to move on.
I think I'm going to step down, and take a break from TF2 for a while. I'm not going to quit it forever, nor am I never going to come back to xG, but for now, I need a break. I just have too much on my mind right now, since I am turning 21 soon and I need to be looking towards the future. I want to be spending what free time I have left doing things that make me happy, and make me feel good, and TF2 just doesn't do either of those things for me anymore. I'm sorry to everyone I'm disappointing by making this, but I think it's for the best.
I don't wanna end this on a negative note though. Over the last couple years I've spent here in xG, I've had some great laughs, and made a lot of greater friends. I've learned a few things and learned to improve not only as a staff member, but as a person too. And so I'd like to take some time to thank those of you who made my time here so enjoyable.
To Krampus: Thank you for always being a great friend. I don't care about what anyone else says about you, you've always been good to me and I thank you for that. I hope everything works out well for you and Grape. ?
To Semper: I'm glad I got to meet you and become friends with you, you're really funny and sweet. I would give you all of my tendies if I could. ? 
To Nutty: Thank you for being a chill DL and a good friend. Tell Pichu I said hi. ? 
To Kypari: Thank you for helping me improve when I faltered. I do hope things get better for you, and I hope we can talk again sometime soon. I wish the best for you and your brother :3
To Tekage: helo
To Elcark: I don't know if you'll ever see this, but thank you for getting me back into xG. I never would have gotten back into the game had it not been for your kindness and friendliness. I wouldn't have met anyone here I know today without you. Thank you.
To Seg: Thanks for being so chill and friendly. I hope you only continue to improve as a DL. ? 
To Caleb: I'm not sure why, but honestly I was super afraid of you when I first became a staff member. Maybe it was a rumor I heard, but anyways, I'm glad we met. You are a really funny guy and I believe you can change xG for the better. ? 
To Bonfire: Okay it might seem weird for me to mention you here since we aren't really that close but when I first came to xG, I kinda looked up to you and saw you as a good staff member. I wanted to be in your position someday. Thank you for being an inspiration. (also everyone stop calling him gay bonfire gaming or i bite grrr)
To Hyper Wolf: Thanks for being a cool dudebro, best of luck to you :3
To everyone else that I couldn't name because this post is long enough already: Thank you all for all of the great times you've given me. My time here at xG has had its ups and downs, but for the most part, I really did enjoy my time here. I wish the best for all of you, and I hope we can all still be friends after I leave. May we meet again, either in discord playing games together, or in xG if I ever decide to come and visit again. 
Peace out. ✌️
-Precious.

aww rip ? 
Sucks to see you go Kypari, but if you think it's the best choice, i'll support you through it. I hope you start feeling better, and I do hope we meet again, be it in xG or outside of it.
I'll never forget you noodle boi, take care. ❤️ 

Very sad to see you leave but of course your own physical well-being comes first. I do hope that we can see you again when you work everything out!

This was the right thing to do, you shouldn't let a gaming community hurt your mental health and stress you out to the point of feeling sick to your stomach.
 
Gonna miss you as staff man. ?

"Just mute the person clientside if they're annoying you!" is something you would say in a casual game where there is no one to moderate what players say or do. But that's not the situation, here in xG, we have our own community servers with our own staff with the power to enforce rules. Yet, even though we have these powers and could stop the harassment ourselves, some people are content to just give the same 'just mute them clientside!' response. Personally I think this is a lazy solution to a bigger problem. The person who is being harassed is probably going to think the staff are lazy too, and grow bitter towards them, while the person who was harassing them gets away with it. Even if what they're saying isn't against the rules, they are doing it because they know it will irritate someone and get a reaction out of them, and that is harassment. 
I'll give you an example. I have a stupid bind I use 'for the memes lul' that goes something like "I'm daddy's little fidget spinner! He puts me on his dick, and I spin! Whishhh!". When I use that bind, I mean no ill intent by it, I'm just using it to be funny and dumb. However, I have realized that a lot of people actually don't find this funny at all. They find it more disgusting or annoying, and they've asked me to stop using it. While again, I by no means wanted to harass anyone with it, people were still annoyed by it, so I'm going to stop using it. This goes with anything else I say on the servers. If anyone ever tells me it's getting on their nerves and ask me to stop, I stop. Because again, if I just keep saying it, knowing it will irritate them, that would be harassment.
Some people think it's a matter of people getting too easily offended, but I don't think so. In schools, if a student is doing something that they know is irritating another person, the school faculty will usually step in and separate them, right? Yet on our servers, where our staff serve mostly the same purpose and have the power to defuse a situation, it's okay to just take the easy way out and essentially tell them 'deal with it yourself'? If you don't step in to stop harassment, it gives a green light for the harasser to keep going. And in my eyes, that is incredibly lazy and corrupt.
If you disagree with me about this, hey, that's fine. We don't have to see eye to eye on everything. But you cannot convince me that telling people to clientside mute is a better solution than actually dealing with the situation yourself. By doing so, you fail the person who asks for your help, and you fail in your duties as a staff member.
Great post by the way Caleb.

What is below this paragraph states how I personally feel about the state of the servers and the TF2 division as a whole right now.  No other person had any part in this, so if anyone is to be questioned then that person is me. I don’t mean this thread to attack anyone, but its important it gets out there one way or another.  I may be being completely irrational with this post, but this is several years worth of frustrations summed up into a single thread, so I apologize in advance.
 
If you are new here, I'm a previous Division Leader, I've been staff several times, and am currently an admin of the Team Fortress 2 servers.
 
Take this thread as you will.
 
Drama
 
Between several servers, different discords, groups, there has been on common theme between all of them.  That theme, is the absolute inability of people to get along with other people that have opposing views, creating drama.  There are times that a simple discussion turns into an absolute shitfest for no reason at all, and fuel must be added to the fire no matter what in order to fit each person's own narrative.  There are also times when people are constantly mocked on the servers for one reason or another, and when they ask the person who is doing it to the stop the response is usually “get over it” or “just local mute them”.  How is that a solution we should be enforcing at all? If people are mocking someone just to annoy them, or get a reaction, or whatever other reason, it is harassment, and should be handled as such.  When things are agreed upon and finished, it doesn’t come lightly, it comes when one person steps in and says let's get this done with, almost as if the two opposing parties are unable to even communicate without being at each others throats, let alone negotiate, unless a third party steps in.  It’s time to brighten up and get along with each other.

 
You may be asking, “why is this a problem?” Or you may be rolling your eyes at this point, well I'm directing this at everyone.  With the rate of how things are going, these servers we love to play on could very well be dead sooner than any of us think if something doesn’t change.  If that doesn’t concern you can you really call yourself a community member? It's all of our jobs to not only maintain the servers, and not only to play on the servers, but the most important job of all of us, is to have fun playing on the servers, not only for ourselves but for others.  We all represent xG, even if you aren’t a part of the clan, when you are playing on the servers, talking on the forums, or in the discord, you are representing xG and who we are as a clan.  Do we really want drama to be the thing that defines us when people look at the clan? Do we really want people to walk away because of it? I know I don't, and I sure hope you don’t either.  It doesn’t matter if “it's just online”, everyone here is a real person, with feelings of their own, we aren't built the same, and we weren't built to handle emotions the same as the next person.  If someone has a problem with how you act towards them, or how you treat them, then it's time to lighten up and be considerate for other people's feelings. As is such with the Castroy situation, he is repeatedly mocked with a phrase that is very well known to hurt him, but it is continued anyways because those doing it like seeing the reaction, or seeing that it annoys him.
This can be solved with one word.
Respect.

 
Another issue I'd like to bring up, is how things are handled in the division.  On several occasions I've seen people say “well not many people are complaining about it so it's not that big of a problem”.  I firmly believe that having that kind of mindset will drag the division down, we should not be waiting for people to complain to get things fixed, or removed, or added, etc.  Our priority should be looking at the issue that is at hand, even if it was mentioned by a single person, and seeing what we can do about it. Fix the issue before it becomes a problem, don't wait until the boat has already sank. On the surf server, there is a well known issue with the checkpoint saver plugin, where it resets your saved position with no warning.  I tried several times as a DL to get it fixed to no avail. That being said, I saw someone say that their checkpoint got reset, I didn’t see their name but a few times beforehand but I could see they were genuinely disappointed.  The only solution that was offered was to “jiggle your mouse around a bit and test before you walk away”, which is all fine and dandy, except for the fact that simply, they shouldn't HAVE to. We do things to make the experience more enjoyable for all players, if a new player joined and saw that their progress was reset for no reason they'd probably think otherwise and not feel too good about the server at that point.  After I saw that, I took it upon myself to finally sit down and fix the plugin once and for all, I didn't do it for myself, or for the higher ups, I did it for HIM, the one who brought it up. That's where the issue of “waiting until it becomes a problem” comes into play. Nobody else thought it was a problem, even the higherup I sent it to( @SegFault ) so he could add it to the server, but when it's affecting our players, at that point it IS A PROBLEM, whether it is widespread or not.  I believe this can be attributed to one word:
 
Motivation.
 
Something I feel several of our higher ups are lacking, or at least a good portion of the time, especially when it comes to working on the servers.  As a DL your job is the same as everyone else, but you have the responsibility to actually add to the servers and fix what's wrong. I'm not saying @mrnutty12 and @SegFault don’t do anything, but it feels like when they can't figure something out they just give up and wait until someone else( @Lithium ) figures it out.  In my eyes this shows a complete and utter lack of motivation, and unwillingness to work. You don't have to be working on the servers at all times, but if you are unwilling to dedicate time to it then why are you in such a position? An example of this is with @mrnutty12. I won’t lie and say I don't get frustrated with you when it comes to server work, because I do.  And I won't lie and say I'm always nice when I bring it up to you, because I'm not. But when you threaten to step down everytime I DO bring it up to you what does that say? It shows me personally you're unwilling to take criticism for your actions. You have told me yourself that people think you're lazy, and you think you're useless, but you don't try to change. How can you sit there and guilt yourself when there's no attempt being made. I don’t do it to try and hurt you, or push you away, I tell you how it is because it should be a red flag that clearly something is wrong, and that it should change. Another example: Population events quickly went from several times a week to sometimes not even happening once a week, whether that be from lack of players, or those who set them up just not wanting to do them.  This issue is not only directed at the higher ups, it could be directed at the division as a whole. To me it feels like many people just don't care what happens anymore, as long as x server has players on then they’re happy, those servers normally being surf or tgh. It's almost as if some people would rather see the server they like completely filled and the other server completely dead, that doesn't sound like a healthy community or playerbase if you ask me.
 
Management
 
Management wise, I don't think anyone could ask for a better staff team, but like all teams, we have our faults.
Disagreements on rule matter
Many times I have seen staff enforce a rule in wildly different ways than the next staff, which if it gets the job done is fine, but not when its creating a false idea of what they can and can not do.  There have also been times that I've seen rules enforced that I've never even seen or heard of. Obviously we will never all enforce things exactly the same, but there should be more efforts to try. This comes down to one thing, consistency.
Arguing in the servers, or discord
Disagreeing with each other is a given, it's not that big of a deal, but how it is handled is absolutely a problem.  A good example of this would be of what I saw last night. I won't give any names in order to provide anonymity but basically, there were two sides.  One side said he or she did this on the server and then put the blame on someone else because of x reason, and the other side disagreed and said the person that was blamed was the one who actually stated the issue on the server.  Keep in mind, there were witnesses on both sides that had different stories, and there was no solid evidence of either stories. Both sides were at each others neck for over half an hour, over something that couldn’t lead anywhere, and then it was attributed to them “trolling” or being “passive aggressive”.  These weren't just people that had just joined the server either, these were including staff members, higher ups as well. Quite frankly it's sad to see it happening.
Rules
It's no secret many people think we are too strict on rules.  While I think rules are important to have, at a certain point it needs to come down to staff discretion.  In order to do that though we'd need something I mentioned earlier, consistency.  As it is right now, I think all of our rules are fair, and they make sense, BUT the matter is, is that we have too many.  I understand the want for rules to be specific, and I also understand the rules to be generalize, it should be somewhere in between.  Have some trust in our staff and give the players some freedom. We can still enforce the rules, but we don't need to have a 2 page long list of rules, either.



 
Conclusion
I won’t sit here and put the blame for what's happening on one person, because what's happening is all of our faults, and that means the only way things will change is if everyone works together.  We are all told that the servers losing players can be attributed to “the game dying”, that’s not a good reason. If anything, that tells me we need to push harder than before to get our servers back to where they should be. There are rumors that are thrown around on the daily of “they said this” or “they did that”, and there are constant disagreements within our own staff team, and times when staff are at each other's throats while on the servers. There are times when the entire server is riled up because of situations like this. How many people have to leave before something changes? I didn't plan on coming back so soon originally even considering the irl information I learned, but I also didn’t plan on never coming back. I came back because I saw what was happening, and I care for this clan more than damn near anything, and I'm not willing to let this continue without at least trying to get it fixed, it's time for people to take off this mask as if everything is fine in the community and buckle up and get this figured out.  If you disagree with me, then feel free, if you agree with me then feel free; but no matter who you are, it's time for things to change around here. We are supposed to be a community, a community traditionally is a group of people who share common interests, and goals. What kind of community are we when we aren’t acting like one.
 





Edit: How the bulletpoints are SUPPOSED to look..

On surf I like lullaby, tensile and telstar the most.
On TGH, I like Kakariko, Mariokart and Rusty Bucket Bay the most.