I think for the past few years I have been known here as "guy who complains." Are we ready to listen? I doubt it, but here we go again, another two-parter.
I remember a time where I was optimistic about TotalFreedom and what was going to happen here. The thing that ended up changing that was when I got the chance to run a server of my own with a management team that was ready for something new. I have seen how well things can run if people are actually willing to try things out and experiment with different options. A few of the things said in this thread happen because they're symptoms of being stubborn and unmotivated, but there are solutions to these things that I have frankly been talking about for ages. I'm going to go over some of people's points and ideas.
This works fine when there's at least 2 active developers, but due to the nature of the developer role on TF, being without an activity requirement, and the terrible build times of TFM and just massive codebase issues, there is often only one active developer who wants to actively improve the codebase of TFM, without anyone to merge these PRs. When your PR is merged into the development, it often takes months for it to be published as a release, or put on the server.
Of course, that's now all basically irrelevant now that Paldiu has started the development of FNS, however I hope that the "it sort of works, so why change it?" attitude will never be repeated to such a degree with the warning of my lengthy paragraph above. Let's hope FNS is finished quite soon, so we can finally kick TFM into the bowels of hell, and let it burn there for all eternity.
Everyone knows now that it's long past time we got over TFM and moved on to something else. The part that nobody realizes yet though is that TF really doesn't have enough motivated developers to get a full, custom plugin done the way TF wants it to be done. Lakefield and I ran into this same problem when we were working on our server. Do you know who our lead developer was? It was the same person who is the lead developer for TF right now. Lakefield pitched the idea that we never needed a custom plugin in the first place and we should just move on to a fully permission based system running with LuckPerms, and that was honestly the best decision we made when it came to moving along server setup. We ended up making a solid permission-based system that worked for many different gamemodes, including creative, survival, skyblock, and the lobby system. LuckPerms is incredibly flexible, and also, very importantly, doesn't require a full-on developer to be worked on. Once the base setup is done, it's possible to manage everything from an easy to use online web panel.
TF could honestly handle many of its development related issues if they just made the same switch we did, but I have pitched that idea before, and every time, one stubborn individual or another says it will "never happen" for reasons like "We already are using NetworkManager" (which honestly most people here agree is dogshit) or "We don't want to sacrifice full op...," a baseless idea that was literally already given up on by the current devs who at least knew better than to attempt to maintain it.
Just accept that it's time to move on to a more standardized permissions system. I know that the people here can do it because the much smaller team working on UMC/Darkstone got it done in far, far less time than it is still taking for TF developers to come out with whatever custom project they're trying to complete. It is not an issue of "we can't do it" or "it's impossible" or "it won't work." It can be done. Easily. If the community and administration here still can't make the choice to do it, it's honestly on them.
And if that wasn't enough, here's another hard to swallow pill for you guys: Your current lead developer chose to use the permission system that was set up by mostly Lakefield over anything that was done here when working on the new attempt at a UMC reboot. You know why that is? It's because it works way better and was made by people who were more focused on the idea of running a stable and enjoyable experience.
This entire server smells heavily of slow stagnation. The current stagnant status of TF will eventually lead to its downfall, whether you believe it or not. The server bills are paid, sure, but there aren't any features actually being added, besides the occasional bug or exploit fix. The server never changes. For some people, that's probably fine, but I enjoy change in my servers. If you eat the same food, made by the same cook, every day, for every meal, then eventually you'll get sick of that food.
I have said this exact same thing a million zillion times and the response I get nearly every single time is some form of "We're ok with this! We don't want it to change." How can people be ok with this? You're right, if the server continues on the same path it's going now, it's going to die some way or another.
The reason I’m bringing this up is because I’ve found nowadays it’s incredibly difficult to do my job. No matter how many times I can repeat “take deep topics to private areas” or “don’t tell people to kill themselves” or “don’t burn pride flags” or even “Stop talking about explicit sexual shit in public”, it will fall on deaf ears. If I then do something to stop it happening, i.e. ban, mute, etc I will get screamed at and made fun of, and I’m sure the rest of the team can relate here
The issue with trying to cleanse the TF community of these behaviors is that beforehand, TF had fostered the same behavior for years, and they still continue to do so for some things. Telling people to kill themselves and burning pride flags and talking about sexual things were essentially seen as basic, day-to-day non-issues for the longest time. It's going to be extremely hard to reverse that type of behavior within this community, but it's definitely being made harder by some of the ways in which this community currently functions. There's a good reason why most reasonable communities don't allow people to say "retarded" and treat the word as what it is, a slur.
And no, this isn’t normal. Any other community would be receptive of the rules that have been in place for years, but on TF if I try to do my job I get screamed at by the community and if I try to do what I’ve done for the past few months now and try to be relaxed but firm I get screamed at by somebody who doesn’t like the fact that I’m being relaxed
At base value it’s just disappointing. I do want to be relaxed and I do want to give people as much freedom as they can but it’s incredibly difficult when people just constantly whine and take advantage of the fact that I’m doing that.
You have been here long enough to know that this is never going to change. It's behavior that has been affirmed and cemented by TF's community over the majority of its long history. That's another good reason why I keep pitching the idea that we try out anarchy over and over and over again. It's the only type of server that you could reasonably expect a community like this to exist within.
An example I can give about this is when I was an event host. I was busy with my own life, but when I did host events people just found ways to exploit it, making me look like a fool.
and god forbid that you ban someone for doing something incredibly stupid, suddenly 50 TF lawyers appear and protest with some pedantic technicality.
Another example of the behavior that makes me keep saying that TF would work as anarchy over and over. Nobody can do this if there are no rules. If TF is going to continue to have this type of behavior as a community, it should accept that it's a place for people to say pedantic things and give anarchy a try.
This community is quite frankly very toxic and no matter what you do, you're examined under an electron microscope for every move. For example, I ban someone and there's a chance people will riot and somehow try to invalite decision despite the legitimacy of the ban or the fact evidence exists to support it.
A good solution to this is honestly to just make punishments and bans private. The way literally every other server functions is that bans appear as someone just leaving the server with absolutely no message or anything, and that ban appeals are private and handled by staff only. I still don't know why TF hasn't made this change yet. The people arguing for transparency as a reason to keep the current system are the same people who throw temper tantrums every time someone gets banned for a valid reason.
Nobody should honestly expect people to treat staff-issued punishments in anything other than a completely pedantic way given that, honestly, the same punishments are issued in a pedantic way too. There's still "naughty, naughty boy" messages that pop up whenever people get banned, people who get banned end up being the ass end of jokes for way too long because the staff here literally have nothing better to talk about, and punishments are still handled and appealed in a manner that is literally just a TF spectacle and tradition at this point. It attracts people who seek out and cause real drama over pointless issues, and not the other type of useful "drama" people here still confuse it with that is just the constructive criticism that occurs when actual issues are addressed and changes are suggested.
