From 6aee29436c1c781ef570161d82c6277eedd0a092 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: "Seraphim R.P" Date: Sat, 3 Apr 2021 20:40:22 -0400 Subject: [PATCH] Create epistletochristcord.html --- epistletochristcord.html | 100 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 100 insertions(+) create mode 100644 epistletochristcord.html diff --git a/epistletochristcord.html b/epistletochristcord.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..218f419 --- /dev/null +++ b/epistletochristcord.html @@ -0,0 +1,100 @@ +
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on the future and longevity of christcord
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03 Apr 2017

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Introduction

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Who am I (for the unaware)

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I’m Elliott, commonly known around the internet as “vipr” or “vypr.” I’m the co-founder (along with stupiddroid) of Christcord, although eventually was removed due to issues that have been resolved for some time. I’m 18 years of age. I specialize in programming, theological thought, and breathing. I’m also fairly decent at writing, you tell me. I run a blog over at http://vypr.xyz, and you can contact me through Discord, email (me@thevypr.com), or Twitter (@thevypr).

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My Intentions In Writing This

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I hope to see server-wide progress, not only at an administrative level, but at the member level. I also hope to get people thinking and being self-aware of what they’re doing to themselves and others. I believe that the best way to truly do that is by outlining the problems and providing solutions. Whether or not I expect this “letter” of sorts to be effective, is a question for another day.

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For Those Reading

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When I reference staff or the administration, this includes the “council,” as they are in a nearly equal position of power.

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If I receive administrative punishment, leave the server. If I receive punishment for openly criticizing the server, then it’s best for everyone to not be involved, unless you want Stockholm syndrome.

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Please provide responses and criticisms, if feeling ambitious. I’d prefer to create a discussion rather than not having one at all.

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Meta Info

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This letter is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ for more detail on what that means.

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Our Current State

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I believe in the past 2-3 months, there has been a great amount of degration among the server. This isn’t specific to any area, but the server as a whole. I not only speak for myself on this, as stupiddroid agrees, and I’m more than certain there’s a great number who can say that the server has been in decline. Fighting has increased significantly than it has ever before, people of importance and value have departed, bad decisions are being made, and progress overall has dropped.

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I believe the responsibility lies primarily in the staff, however this is not to say that they are the only people responsible. I will cover the staff, but the members should take the time to learn about loving your neighbor. I believe that the staff haven’t been doing their job properly of maintaining order, and when they do so, they do it in a way that can be degrading to the server as a whole.

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Problem 1 - Inaction and Improper Action

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A good example of improper action would be the creation of rule 11, which came about after a transgender person was told that it was okay to be transgender, and that they should keep on doing so. Whether or not this story of origin is true, my statements still apply. While the premise of the rule was in hope of stopping sin’s influence on the server, this has created a route for censorship and oppression of viewpoints that are as equally valid as anyone else’s. The server has been around since last November, we have never needed such a rule.

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I believe that this has contributed to the fighting because then there is a “de facto standard” of what is sin and what is not, and because the server has a stance, people may perceive those who disagree with their personal stance as someone who is wrong because the server agrees. Not only that, this provides a medium where staff can (on a case by case basis) say to one person that they’re breaking rule 11, and saying to another person that they aren’t for the same reason. The administration is Catholic and Protestant, definitions of sin will conflict and will be inconsistent.

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Another reason to disagree with the rule is the sheer lack of use, why have a rule that isn’t enforced? If we have a rule defining not to promote sin, shouldn’t we be banning everyone because we clearly don’t have a problem with people not following the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ? There are Muslims, Sikhs, atheists, and so on. By not converting them or showing (in great display) their error, aren’t we promoting their sinful behavior as a result of our inaction?

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Thus, not only is this useless, this is not for a Discord server’s administration to define or deal with, but rather the server as a whole. Historically, when sinful things have came around, the server has dealt with them well, either by talking them through or dismissing them if unnecessary or just absurdly obvious (i.e. manipulative satanists).

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Problem 1 - Inaction and Improper Action (Proposed Solution)

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Remove the rule, leave it to the members to sort out, only in very grave situations should the administration ever have to deal with it. The only time staff ever needed to intervene was when there was collective server-wide disagreement, and that the staff needed to remove the person so that the server would be back in order. This however, does not warrant a server rule, because it isn’t constant enough to be necessary.

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The simple way of dealing with fighting is isolating who the roots of it are, and dealing with those individually. Force them to stop, one way or another. Then once that’s done, look to see how they can resolve it.

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Problem 2 - Toxic Members (Detail and Solution)

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In these past few months, we have had more members with bad attitudes joining, creating fights, borderline trolling, or simply not keeping conversation thriving. This has been a significant problem, resulting in even moderators leaving because of it. The best way of dealing with this is by having more of a vetting system for new members or some sort of approval system.

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Guests would either:

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    a) have very limited access (i.e. only access to #hangout)

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    b) need to be interviewed to ensure that they are what we expect from a member

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    c) be barred from entry until we are prepared and ready to do A or B

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A good example of this kind of system would be /r/socialism Discord’s interview system, to ensure quality, or /r/Islam’s application system. /r/Islam’s method would be good at the beginning, to deter those who really don’t have any care for participating, but the interview system would be the most effective.

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Problem 3 - The Council (Detail and Solution)

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These members are redundant and given the fact that the people are not choosing who these members are goes completely against the point of having the council in the first place. On top of that, this council should not be hidden or out of plain sight. People have a right to know how the main administrative area is doing their job, rather than waiting for documents that would explain what they did, which could lack detail, or be simply wrong.

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If we as a server cannot hold our own administration accountable outside of a council, this creates an avenue for the council to thrive in corruption, forwarding their agenda. The simple fact that they have agreed universally on every issue they’ve received means that there isn’t enough diversity to have the alternative opinion hold value.

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The solution to this is either:

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  • a) Removing the council and letting the server as a whole vote on decisions.
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  • b) Reelecting the whole council based on server-wide voting and changing the council to be readable by all. Then reelecting once a month or at a certain interval (every 3 months, every 6, etc.) +Until then, no one but the Council has a say in anything. We are subject to a small collective’s decision that affects a very large amount of people who will most certainly not agree in that same collective manner.
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Conclusion

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Until these issues are addressed and given great consideration, I do not see the server thriving for long. Even if it did survive long enough, the place will be even worse than what it is now. Valuable members are leaving. If this continues, that number will increase. I will even have the nerve to assert that if nothing comes of this, I will found another Christian Discord server if that’s what needs to be done. I refuse to let Christians be confined to a server that is slowly killing itself due to ignorance.

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+ + + christcord + + epistles + + + +