Community Reminder - Summer 2023 (Northern Hemisphere)

[BlackOak2]

I haven't done one of these since my pc went down. But it's operational again and although I've seen not too much going on, there are a couple revisits that I'll be bringing back up again.

I'm sure some of you can guess. But, even if you've heard these plenty of times, please don't just shove them to the side. Take a moment to give them a read through. These get brought up in the community reminders from time to time, because they continue to be issues. Reminding yourself that these are still around and still happening will remind you to be mindful of these things.

Besides, I promise to make this one short.

Included In This Release
Private Studs
Sharing Accounts
General Forum Etiquette - Minding Your Words


Private Studs

....
Yeah...
This one again.

Look, we all know it.
There's no such thing as private studs on HWO.

However... to try to share top quality studs, mares, private bloodlines to people in and outside of clubs, we try our best to make it obvious that certain horses are to be avoided for breeding from the general public.

This is a nicety that the community does try really hard to keep pleasant about. If we were to devolve into the hectic messes and nastiness of other games, many... MANY of us would simply hoard our bloodlines and never share them again.

We are trying our best to observe private studs.

Mistakes still do happen. These mistakes comes from a player who knows better, accidentally breeding to the wrong stud; or to somebody that can't speak the language written in the ad; or we forget to check the ad and also the horse's profile page; or even a newbie that's too young to understand that we have such a thing as 'please don't breed, private stud'.

This does NOT mean we can accuse, harass or devolve ourselves because we're upset our stud was used. Ask, remind yourself that mistakes happen and remember that we have all ages around here, as well as languages and intelligence levels.

Someday we'll get our approved mares and this private studs thing will go away.


Sharing Accounts

I'm seeing some of this pop up again.
I'll be brief.

HWO does not support account sharing in any form.
Do Not do so.
Anything that happens during account sharing is unlikely to be handled by admin for anything. <-- This means that if something goes wrong during sharing, you're just snuff-out-of-luck.

So... don't do it; it keeps everything nice and clean.


General Forum Etiquette - Minding Your Words

You know, every once in awhile, there are really long episodes of just the best social interactions around here. Really and truly. Gentle, quiet, observant, even formal.

And then (and often times it's those newbies that come from other games...) we get explosive moments of nastiness. Down right miserable replies that, I must say, really... REALLY just makes ME want to slap the snot right out of them!

This is troll-like behavior. Luckily, we don't seem to have much of any trolling around here. HWO doesn't have a community that supports any form of trolling behavior. Lucky us!

But this doesn't mean that there aren't some rather reactive responses from time to time. So... please remember that many or maybe even most of our newbies come to us, after having existed in other nasty gaming communities. From those communities, they have experienced hate, rage, hostility, even stealing, lying, broken promises and contracts... They have been subject to harassment, bullying and replies that in no small way, tells them they are rather meaningless and their game is nothing. <--Really bad experiences and poor communities. I worded this, specifically this way, to bring it to light, not to hide it behind pretty words.

Okay, maybe that^ is a little over-the-top. But many of us, maybe all of us, remember other games and what can and does go on in them. So, my words may be over-the-top, if concerning just one particular player, but across many players, these things do happen.

So to both the long-term players of HWO and all the newbies reading these community reminders for the first time.
We are different here.
Try to not knee-* and respond with hostility. Reread your words before you post and see if they come back to you as upset and angry or requesting and civil.

And, if anybody needs some aid in wording something, or needs some third-party help in settling a dispute, reach out. There are many of us that can step in to keep things easy.

We are a community of exception.
Let's uphold and stride forth.



--END--

[Diamond Filly]

-

Thanks for this.

[BlackOak2]

-

Thanks for this.

No problem.

[Diamond Filly]

Thanks for this.

No problem.

And I'd like to let you know that I don't think that your words were over the top. That is exactly what needed to be said and in that way too. I have experienced the impertinence of the newer players several times. One thing I don't like is that they don't seem to realize that they're being mean, or maybe they're doing it on purpose.

I guess I'd better stop now before I get my temper too worked up.

[BlackOak2]

No problem.

And I'd like to let you know that I don't think that your words were over the top. That is exactly what needed to be said and in that way too. I have experienced the impertinence of the newer players several times. One thing I don't like is that they don't seem to realize that they're being mean, or maybe they're doing it on purpose.

I guess I'd better stop now before I get my temper too worked up.

They may not think about what they're saying. But, as adults, we must also remember that they go through a bit of horrible things as well. Or can. Not all of them experience the misery that some do. So, being an adult, we need to help them realize what they're doing, understand that it's not alright, show them that there are consequences and help them choose a better path. And, of course, all of this, without losing our own tempers!

Good thing is, learning curve may be steep for this game, but once they get it, it's usually permanent. Bad thing is, we'll always have newbies that act like this, because there will always be rather ugly gaming communities out there that encourage, or at least are seriously negligent about putting a stopper on such things.

In order to develop and maintain the type of community we have here, it must be started early and then it still takes years to develop. In my experience, it's somewhere in the first year to the first five years of a game's startup, that the community starts to turn. If it's not caught in that stage, then it's easily out-of-hand. Maybe it can never be salvaged. I don't know. I've seen a lot of communities go to you-know-where in a kerosene-soaked handbasket and never recover.

So just remember what we have here, that newbies hit a steep learning curve when they sign up on HWO and that it's because of long-term players (and players that become long-term) that we can uphold the community we do. Help them along, try to hold your temper and if you find yourself taking a long walk off a short pier, you can always turn the pc or phone off and disconnect. Can't do that in real life!

[Diamond Filly]

And I'd like to let you know that I don't think that your words were over the top. That is exactly what needed to be said and in that way too. I have experienced the impertinence of the newer players several times. One thing I don't like is that they don't seem to realize that they're being mean, or maybe they're doing it on purpose.

I guess I'd better stop now before I get my temper too worked up.

They may not think about what they're saying. But, as adults, we must also remember that they go through a bit of horrible things as well. Or can. Not all of them experience the misery that some do. So, being an adult, we need to help them realize what they're doing, understand that it's not alright, show them that there are consequences and help them choose a better path. And, of course, all of this, without losing our own tempers!

Good thing is, learning curve may be steep for this game, but once they get it, it's usually permanent. Bad thing is, we'll always have newbies that act like this, because there will always be rather ugly gaming communities out there that encourage, or at least are seriously negligent about putting a stopper on such things.

In order to develop and maintain the type of community we have here, it must be started early and then it still takes years to develop. In my experience, it's somewhere in the first year to the first five years of a game's startup, that the community starts to turn. If it's not caught in that stage, then it's easily out-of-hand. Maybe it can never be salvaged. I don't know. I've seen a lot of communities go to you-know-where in a kerosene-soaked handbasket and never recover.

So just remember what we have here, that newbies hit a steep learning curve when they sign up on HWO and that it's because of long-term players (and players that become long-term) that we can uphold the community we do. Help them along, try to hold your temper and if you find yourself taking a long walk off a short pier, you can always turn the pc or phone off and disconnect. Can't do that in real life!

Thank you for the advice.
I really love the HWO community. Hopefully it just gets better and better!

[BlackOak2]

Thank you for the advice.
And actually, I am *manually censured*
I really love the HWO community. Hopefully it just gets better and better!

Sure thing! And I'm sure it will just... ehem... grow on you more as it's grown on the rest of us.

Could you please go back and edit your post? Even the hint of 'how old I am' isn't a good thing to share.

[Diamond Filly]

Thank you for the advice.
And actually, I am *manually censured*
I really love the HWO community. Hopefully it just gets better and better!

Sure thing! And I'm sure it will just... ehem... grow on you more as it's grown on the rest of us.

Could you please go back and edit your post? Even the hint of 'how old I am' isn't a good thing to share.

Whoops! Yeah, that wasn't the best idea. Post edited.