The reason she upsets me is because she doesn't allow for what I consider the natural development of the discussion and tries to contain everything under little boxes (which would be ok if the thread starter/main posters in it were the complainers) on what I believe it is her own initiative (doing so to delete trolls and bully is also ok and desirable). I know it is hard to have the best of two antagonic world views come together, so in overall she is doing a fine job.
I agree with you about not allowing the natural progression of a conversation, however "bullying" is something else completely. As per its definition, bullying is intimidation, harassment, persecution, etc etc.
As much as Serica and I disagree on various things, I have to give credit where credit is due... she doesn't screw around and she will bring an abrupt end to harassment and bullying on the forum and thats a good thing.
Not all of us have thick skin and over the years I have seen many really good people leave the game because of harassment on the forum.
In EU and on the forums I've been on both ends of bullying. Unfortunately in the past there were no avenues of recourse for a person who was continuously being harassed and bullied. Forum admins and also MindArk did nothing to stop it either. I've been in those shoes more than once, and when it didn't stop, my last option was to go on the offensive in order to get things to stop. Just like in high school, the only way to deal with a bully is to kick his ass.
Still today there are certain situations for which there are no avenues of recourse and in my opinion where its permissible to bring the fight to the forum. This however is at odds with PCF rules, but for these circumstances where naming and shaming is required, there are other forums that can be utilized if needed.
In my early years of EU, I decided to do something that had never been done up until that point, which was to make a large multi-society organization. That was the NBK, and when I was running it, at its height, it was 11 socs and 750+ combined active members. Over the years I've had to directly and indirectly boot somewhere between 500 and 1000 people for a whole range of things between scamming/exploiting to simply an inability to get along with others. That alone made me a target. I also became a target for anyone on the losing end of an internal NBK power struggle. Moreover anytime one of the NBK members got scammed and MA did nothing about it, who do you think they went to? That would be me and in those situations, if the scam was egregious enough, I would take things to a whole new level and drive the scammer out of the game, get MindArk involved so the accounts get locked, and in some cases I was able to dig up the person's real life contact information. There were times when I uploaded recordings of those phone conversation onto YouTube. When you do things like that, you have to expect that some people will want retribution for burning them.
After a year long break, when I returned a couple of years ago, all of that past drama is a big reason why I didnt want to be in the NBK any more, even though things have calmed down over there now. They have a lot of good members, no doubt.
Over the history of EU, harassment and bullying has been a major issue. Since 711 took over the forums, things have been cleaned up dramatically. When David Simmonds became CEO of MindArk, things in-game also were cleaned up however there still are a few areas where MA could improve. For example, during events where a bunch of avatars are hunting in close proximity, where fights and kill stealing often breakout, there should be an option to request a MindArk or Planet Partner Dev to come into the game on the spot and bring an immediate end to the disruption. This would spare players a lot of angst and prevent MA from having to ban depositing players.
1. I don't see the OPs definition of bullying
Let me give you a clear example. Let say for whatever reason you and I didnt get along and as a result I was bullying you on the forums. I would do this by looking up your recent posts several times per day and starting a fight with you on each thread... Disrupting your society recruiting thread, any selling and buying threads that you had, any threads for services, shops, land areas, or whatever else you were involved in. I would be there endlessly trolling you in thread after thread.
Those are all things I've experienced on numerous occasions throughout the years.
Or lets say that I was repetitively spreading false information about you on the forums such as that you were a scammer and that you were booted from your last society. That also is harassment and thereby a form of bullying, especially if its a continuation of previous actions that are similar in nature.
Usually when you see some bullying on the forum, its just the tip of the ice burg of whats happening in game between those people.
One time I had a guy in the NBK who stole something from someone in Twin Peaks, so I booted him. In real life he had some kind of disorder and took anti-psychotic medication of some type. Anyway, getting booted didnt sit well with him. So as a result, he befriended an alcoholic high skilled person who I had pushed out of the society few weeks before him. Together they started a smear campaign against me, this boiled over onto the forums and went on for weeks. Then that person who got booted for stealing decided to start an EU Radio Station.. He was one of the DJs on that station and every day, his entire show in between songs was dedicated to talking about how much of a dickhead I am. Anyone who got booted from the NBK could come on his show for an interview to discuss the dictator HardWrath. This went on for months. Finally when I had enough, the shit hit the fan on a EU forum that no longer exists. Him and I went back and forth all day, every day for over a week strait on an unmoderated thread that was probably a hundred pages long. It was constant fighting between him and I plus a few of my friends and a few of his friends. Finally I got under his skin enough, he resigned from his radio station, handed it over to someone else, left his society, and then left the game. Today that EU Radio Station is called Atlas Haven Radio. Some of you have heard of it. That alcoholic high skilled person I mentioned, well he is still around causing problems for me and others.