My completely transparent moderator application

[Jalpha]

I can picture in my head your retarded toddler laughter as you made that post.

[strpk0]

ok pedophile

[DonVelD]

I can picture in my head your retarded toddler laughter as you made that post.

I can picture you having toddlers on your mind alright

[Jalpha]

Don't project. It's ugly.

[Zentetsuken]

Don't project. It's ugly.

[VDZ]

While it's true that, due to the community's roots in the aforementioned internet nihilism centers there is a wealth of trolling/griefing/whatever other schadenfreude-focused mal-intentions in Haven

My experience is the opposite. The most vocal griefers tend to be the newer generations with their Discord circlejerks and zoomer speak. While there's always been griefing, it wasn't nearly this high-profile ten years ago when most of the players did come from what you call "internet nihilism centers". Which makes sense, as those groups tend to have less harmony ("groupthink" if you want to put it negatively) and don't have the degree of cooperation the social media generation has.

However that is not to say opposition to aleck becoming a mod is without validity. The most compelling critiques come from the user "VDZ" who specifically cites aleck's own words. They paint a picture of aleck as hating the game/moderation/developers, as seeing its players as appropriately miserable for engaging with the game, and as being generally disgusted towards anyone who is an active part of this community. Taking aleck at face value I believe the point to be quite effective: from what he has said, it would seem he views the game and community with complete disdain.

However this is a surface level reading at best, and here is where that nuance I promised is most enlightening. The most succinct way to describe the highlighted statements is "projection"; aleck is correct to state that the game is a directionless mess, a game that the developers refuse to see as a game and so one destined to be both unfinished and without satisfying gameplay systems. The community is plagued with bad actors and autists looking to provide direction where j+l will not, who create systems that are typically obtuse and/or malicious but consistently half-baked. However all his statements calling the playerbase pathetic for sticking around this long apply most potently to himself. For whatever irrational reason aleck continues to be involved and hopeful despite all evidence pointing in the opposite direction. By his own logic none is more sunk-cost fallacied than himself, especially since he is somewhat more mature than the average troll or social reject that has played this game for over a decade.


Aleck's best-kept secret is that he very much loves Haven and Hearth and its community, even with these innumerable flaws. All his frustrations and whining about the developers, or all you morons, are his way of expressing how much he cares about this game even if he sees himself as pathetic for continuing to. He would make an excellent candidate for mod, though I'm not sure if even he understands how miserable it would be for him.

While the idea of Zentetsuken just being tsundere is appealing, even if true that would be a problem by itself. Regardless of what his intentions actually are, it's what he communicates that influences the community. And if what he communicates is that everything sucks and it would be better to shut everything down, then that's not a positive influence.

This is in addition to the 'the road to hell is paved with good intentions' problem. Even if his intentions are good, too much disillusionment with the status quo may inspire him to act more radically than is actually good for the community.

He would make an excellent candidate for mod, though I'm not sure if even he understands how miserable it would be for him.

This would also be a problem. Proper moderation requires not just good intent but also competence. If he can't keep it up and soon either grows embittered or gives up, appointing him as mod wouldn't be very useful.

[rye130]

Seems like pretty decent rules and things to consider when picking a mod. Don't have a strong opinion one way or the other on Zentetsuken being a mod, but its funny as fuck that so many people seem so against it considering how terrible some previous mods have been.

[DonVelD]

While the idea of Zentetsuken just being tsundere is appealing

[WowGain]

While the idea of Zentetsuken just being tsundere is appealing,

anime pfp strikes again

[strpk0]

While the idea of Zentetsuken just being tsundere is appealing