I have always thought of the 'Test' channel as a communication tool for the small Test community, to keep in touch with other testers, as they play on other servers and realms. Lately its turning into an international 1-9 chat with people getting their 'panties in a bunch' over something and using it to 'bash' the game or who works for the game. Lets try and keep the game-bashing on your server's 1-9 where it usually is. I hate to finger-point but some Splitpaw members have turned Test channel into thier rant channel over things that may or may not affect them. Please remember that its not your private channel, it is a community channel. I can be on test and see that over half the people on the server, no longer use the channel due to this.
I haven't been as active in there myself lately, though I'd agree with you, it's our tester's community channel and it's vitality important to holding our little community together. I tend to ignore it when the ranting or arguments start. The people from live servers who join just to use us as a source of information aren't my favourites either. However I doubt posting in this sub-forum is going to reach the right eyeballs. I suspect the offenders aren't testers at all? Sad to hear there are folks playing on Test who stay out of the channel though. Do we need to resort to making a new "testers" channel and password protect it? Would be a sad thing, but always an option.
Soresha wrote: As the test channel is turning out I almost always these days ignore it. I think you may be right in the private "testers" channel. I hate to see it go this way, but it is turning into a rant channel. Eshaac
I have to agree. Lately the Test channel has had a lot of ranting going on and it seems from people I am not familiar with (although I know some of us have toons on live and I may not know who they are). I usually only say something when I feel the need and when folks get ranty, I just plain ignore it. I would hope we would not have to resort to a sub-channel, but if it gets too bad, we may need to .
test.test has become the cross-server crafting channel, where anyone can go and get help from nice, knowledgeable people. But yeah, it's gotten crowded and less friendly. Perhaps it's time to make a new channel?
I sadly tend to agree. I'm under the impression that there are a lot of people around that never played on Test on that channel lately. I hope I'm not one of the ranting ones and bothering people. If so just tell it and I'll try to behave (if it's a char from Ka Tet of Honour on Test it's me, and if it speaks from Storms it's usually me too. Could be my live co-Guild Leader / Danockh on Test for his main but he doesn't speak much).
I've also observed a much higher number of players in the channel from a /wc result lately. Sadly it's not from more people playing on Test though. So yeah, we are gradually seeing our community channel being taken over. So ok, perhaps we make a test.testers channel then. The name should be a fairly big hint that it has an intended population. We don't have to password protect it straight off the bat. That should be truly the last resort measure, but at least we'd have the option? But we circulate knowledge of the new channel's existence in a semi-private manner, using tells and guild MOTDs on Test. No reason those who can still tolerate it, can't sit in both channels. Answer a few questions still, and keep an eye out for anyone who needs to be invited over.
As a counter-point, in case anyone cares, this thread is more or less indicitive of the reasons I personally don't play on test (or indeed have any characters subscribed to the test.test channel) anymore. Specifically, the bossy, exclusionist, holier-than-thou attitude held by some test residents is massively offputting. It may be worth remembering that test.test is not anyone's private channel (to police for "acceptable" content), and that the game client comes with a working /ignore function. It seems it would be much easier to simply use that rather than creating/contributing to a thread with such condescending and xenophobic overtones. Anyway, there's another perspective that may or may not be relevant to you. I suspect not, but if that's the case, feel free to ignore it.
Yeah we have a few colourful characters. Though I don't know when you've experienced "exclusionist" behaviour, I'm sad to hear that. Most folks who play on Test are very welcoming of new faces, if anyone wants to come join us on the Test server that's great. Believe me, it's not that anyone wants to exclude new testers, but I think we are all genuinely concerned about preserving our community. It's a fragile thing, suffering from slow decay as it is. I think of the Test community as an extended guild. We help each other, work together, never charge each other for crafting, etc. For example the broker on Test is more like a shared guild bank in all honesty, certainly I put things up not to make money but to distribute to others. However in truth nearly all are part-time Test players, splitting their time with different live servers. And even when playing on the Test server we're split across many small guilds. So for a long time, right or wrong, test.test has effectively been our /gu channel. Perhaps a private channel akin to what guild alliances typically use IS more appropriate, when you think about it this way.
Yes I have noticed a bit more ranting recently in the test channel. I play on Splitpaw and Test - I do hope you aren't going to blacklist Splitpaw players we're not all like that honest! I don't chat much in any channel unless it is to help people out - and that is what I love about the test community that you can ask questions and get sensible and helpful answers. I do believe that it is possible to /ignore toons on other servers if that helps. I must say that I am feeling a bit anxious at the moment due to the paucity of information about the ProSiebenSat deal - hoping that I am not going to lose access to my family on Test and the test and homeshow channels. For me community is a tremendous part of playing EQ2 and although I don't chat much I feel I know many of you. Aeriel and the rest of the clan
