[/li][li] Topsite replies

[Rolo]

Topsites is a place where people may submit reviews and rank FoF. The admins, who take great pride in FoF, watch the page closely and attempt to gleam all the feedback from the page that they can.

For the past two years, the admins have had a very strict rule never to reply to topsites reviews (and post general reviews, because that's just stupid), no matter how harsh, insulting or emotional they were, and we've encouraged members to do the same (any rude replies are dealt with as an offence). After all, the topsites page should be somewhere where people can leave reviews of any kind without the threat of being bullied by those with the opposing opinion, and we really do appreciate the feedback we're given.

However, we are aware that, in not replying to any of the criticism, we're not listening or doing anything to fix things, but we have been doing so for the past few years.

Therefore, here is where the admins will reply individually to reviews and will show that your words have been listened to and that the admins are not emotionless beings.

[Rolo]

2010-02-09 09:58:14
It looks pretty good, though the current skin hurts my eyes from the color contrasts... then again, maybe my monitor is too bright.
The roleplay looks nice, and the admins are very friendly. The only thing that bothers me is I've seen members from FoF attack other roleplays. Attack as in spam, flame, etc. The reasons being because they are unrealistic, something like that.
If I hadn't seen that stuff I might have joined It looks like such a nice site but I don't really trust it.

We're aware this review is very very old, but we thought we should reply to it anyway.
We're really sorry you had some bad encounters with members from FoF =/ Seriously, the admins try to be as inviting and non-judgemental as possible, and FoF have always accepted members of all types (abstract naming or otherwise) just as long as they are prepared to alter their work on FoF to fit the guidelines. Unfortunately, I am aware of the people that used to do those kinds of things, and they were spoken to several times and were asked to stop or alter the style of what they were doing not to upset anyone. However, the admins cannot control the actions of individual members, so this may or may not have worked. Nevertheless, we stress that we do not condone such attacks on other sites, and that it was not FoF but individuals carrying out these 'attacks'.

And to make things even better, we have not heard reports of this kind of behaviour from members for over 2 years now, so we tentatively claim that the issues resolved themself We hope this won't be an issue in the future, and that you'll be able to trust the site more in the future.



2010-02-16 15:37:53
The site idea is fantastic, the roleplay is great, everyone is extremely literate and creative.

However, the way these people treat each other is just unacceptable.

Every single time I have gone on the C-Box, drama abounds. People are yelling at each other and accusing each other of all sorts of things. People get upset at each other for the tiniest of reasons and mods are constantly accused of favoritism and elitism... And the accusations aren't too far off, in many cases.

People speak to each other with barely-veiled rudeness and contempt, and the atmosphere is just unfriendly in general. Forest of Fate is extremely clique-y, and they don't like to let new people into their cliques.

Another old review, but it holds a lot of feedback so we've replied to it anyway.

We're glad you enjoyed the roleplay at FoF but we're sad to hear that you thought the community was not so good =/. FoF do aim to be as inviting as possible, but that doesn't always work, just because we're all human and prone to mistakes. However, you've raised some important issues, and we did act on them.

The C-box is the only part of the website that happens in real time, and because of the amount of people often talking on the chatbox, some fights do break out occasionally. However, let us stress that this is not the norm, and the staff aim to resolve things as quickly as possible. The c-box and the site, on the whole, a very polite and friendly place, in our experience, but we're really sad to hear that it wasn't the case for you =/ Rudeness is not tolerated, and after getting this review, we made considerable efforts to nip problems in the bud and create a better atmosphere on the site overall. We hope the site is now a lot better, atmosphere wise.

The accusations of favouritism and elitism concerned the staff at the time, and we did take the claims seriously. The moderators do aim to be impartial and as fair as possible, and the staff did second guess themselves after the claim. So, we asked members to report on how happy they were with our moderation style and the staff in general, and no one on the site said that they felt we were elitist or favouritist. Most reacted in outrage at that idea.

At the time of resolving conflicts, some members believe for a bit that we have dealt them an unfair hand, and they tell us so. However, the actions of the staff members are always aiming to end the conflict on the c-box quickly (it's not an appropriate place to talk out such issues), and then, after the initial problems have died down, the actual root of the problem is dealt with through private messaging or other means. We ensure that, after the problems, all bad feelings and misunderstandings are sorted out so the members can move on from the conflict, and they very rarely criticise the actions of the staff once they've actually found out the reasons behind them.

FoF's style of moderating is very different to most sites, involving resolving problems through talking them out and helping members with communication problems to be able to react better rather than banning or silencing people, so although the initial conflicts may be tense and slightly less controlled than on another site, in the long term we've found that people feel much happier with it, and the members themselves learn better how to deal with conflicts. These days, cbox drama is a lot less common as a result. We apologise if your feelings were hurt within any of these conflicts, and we're very very sorry if we dealt with the situation poorly =/ We always aim to better ourselves, and we really hope we don't do it again.


2010-08-20 21:43:12
Forest of Fate is almost dead. Hardly anyone gets on, and those that do don't role play. The staff is too busy to update the site and so concerned over their FogClan plot that the other clans are being completely ignored.

It is not going to last much longer.

We won't comment on activity or staff busyness, considering how old this review is. However, we wanted to thank you for bringing the whole issue of the focus on the Fogclan Plot. It made a huge impact on the running of the site. After this review, the staff talked about the focus of the site, and we made considerable efforts to put more emphasis on the other clans. With the move to v2, the Fogclan plot was made a lot less high maintenance and other plots, including the Meadowclan plot, was released. The emphasis on the clans is more or less even now :3 I, Rolo, will be the first to admit that the first Fogclan plot was a failure, but the lessons have been learned and hopefully our running of plots will be better in future.

[Rolo]

I wish there could be a 0 star rating! I joined as a person who didn't quite understand the whole roleplaying thing yet. They taught me with lots of attitude and rudeness. I said that I loved them, but now that I look back at this, I regret all of it. They were perverted, rude, and down right annoying. Lots of them scared me, for they always asked for my picture and told me that they would find me once they got a car. Instead of helping me with a cat's bio, they yelled at me. Sometimes they even approved of the bio, but then decided not to accept it. I spent most of my time on that site just trying to figure out what they wanted, and even a year later, I STILL don't know. I never felt included. I was always left out of the conversation, and people never answered my questions.

If I went there right now, I would get yelled at and ignored for simply saying what is true! sigh...

This review upset a lot of the staff. We were incredibly sad to hear you'd left the site with such negative set of feelings =/ Especially because it sounds like we'd gotten to know you quite well and that you once felt you loved us. All we can say is that we're sorry. I don't know when and where you participated in where people made you feel so unwelcome, but we do try to make the site as inviting and welcoming as possible. Likelihood is, people didn't realise they were leaving you out or that you felt their tone towards you was not what it should be. If you had said something to any of the moderators/admins privately, we would have done our best to alter situations and help you to feel a better part of the site. We WOULD DEFINITELY have taken you seriously, and we wouldn't have yelled at you. We very rarely, if ever, yell at anyone anyway, and we wouldn't ever do so in an emotional situation like this.

We've never known for anyone to ask for pictures, so we're rather puzzled about that one. Most members, including the staff themselves, do not give out pictures themselves, so why someone would have asked you for one, unless they were joking, is beyond us. As for the situation of someone saying they'd come to find you in a car... we're somewhat puzzled about this one. All we know is that the members on FoF would not have been talking seriously when they said that, and that most likely they were joking at the time. FoFers often kid about meeting up, driving insane members to institutes and just going on crazy shenanigans, so I think that's probably what they were doing then. Still, we're sorry people scared you =/ We are keeping an eye out for situations like this in the future.

As for the bio accepting, we employ a double checking system, so two staff members needed to accept the bio. This, however, wasn't made very clear, and after this review came out, we immediately made this clearer in the rules. If the bio didn't get moved over after 2 checks, that was a genuine mistake on the admins part, and we apologise =/ We're sorry the system was so unclear. We have made huge efforts to make it clearer these days.

Again, we're so sorry about your bad experiences =/ If you were ever to come back, please know we'd welcome you with open arms and we'd try our utmost to help you get started out properly, get your cat accepted and to get you fully into the community. Please know that we never tried to be rude or nasty or anything other than friendly and nice, and we are always trying to make the site better in this respect. Thankyou for your criticisms, they were listened to and we did a lot to try and alter things in light of the information here.


2011-04-26 18:57:39
I don't know about FoF, I really don't. The people who are actually on that site seem to be very close, however maybe a little bit too close. I was always unnerved when they talked about skyping and all that. But then again, why should I have felt that? I was never really included. I was greeted, but not quite spoken to. And to be honest, some members would plain out snub me and each other. I was shocked! Even over the internet you shouldn't treat other people that way!

But I have to admite, aside from the nasty cliques, they know how to role play. Their plots are long and confusing and sometimes downright weird, but most of them are very good writers.

We're sorry that you didn't feel fully included in FoF =/ Admittedly, around the time you left this review, FoF paled in comparison to what it once was. We were not quite as welcoming as we once were because of the lack of active members and because a lot of things were going on behind the scenes. However, with the launch of v2 the staff have made an effort to greet and include all newer members and have made many attempts to make the community more welcoming to newer members. Members on FoF never conciously leave anyone out, however they may not realise that they're doing so. We believe the site is a lot more welcoming with the launch of v2. FoFers adore new members and truly do want to get to know you, after all They'd never want to snub you, and if they ever do you should tell them or the admins and efforts will be made to stop it happening!

FoFers do not see themselves as an exclusive club, and they always enjoy meeting new people :3. As for the idea that there are cliques, I think sometimes people believe that those involved in the site or in the c-box are older than they are. People are constantly joining the site, and we have members who have joined recently who have been mistaken for being old members before, just because of how at ease they are! People come and go relatively easily on FoF, and we've had members leave and return years later because of the community. It's not difficult to join the community, but it's important to make an effort to talk on the c-box and to tell people if you feel left out. The chat box can get very busy, and I think every member has points where they've not been on the inside of a conversation, but we know it's not a deliberate attempt to isolate us :3

As for Skyping, Skyping is used as an instant messaging software soley in most cases, like AIM or MSN. It's a useful tool used to keep in contact with members outside the c-box, because the c-box is not suitable for all conversations! Occasionally, some FoFers use the microphone to talk to one another, but I've not heard of any webcaming. So, fof member use of skype is no different to friends keeping in contact over msn or facebook .