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As the Chief of the SOS Brigade I’m often asked “I understand that you are pro activity, but does that mean all activity?” To this I must answer no, but I am often further asked “But why not? Its activity isn’t it?”

No. No it isn’t.

Not all forms of ‘activity’ are created equal. Further, not all activity is good. I understand the concept is confusing to those of you who may want to be active, and like a vibrant community. But I know you will grasp it once you realize that Bad activity actually hurts overall activity levels, being counterproductive, and even harmful to a community. Things the SOS Brigade and myself are decidedly against.

Today I’m going to go over Bad Activity so that everyone can spot it, and work hard to not get involved in it for the betterment of the community, and our overall activity.



What is ‘Bad Activity’

Let’s get to the heart of the beast, bad activity.

Bad activity is like 3 tons of candy on Halloween. It seems like the most awesome idea in the world until you are sick for a month and have lost all of your teeth. Sadly this is the pit that many people fall into.

Let’s look at the first form of “Bad Activity” – Trolling

Trolling is loud, in your face, and spurns a bunch of discussion. But the result is that usually people want to talk less, there is more hate, and the community is torn apart. Sure this form of activity makes it look like we are doing things, and keeps everything hopping for as long as the hate sustains itself, but it does more harm than good. Often those who see this form of activity as beneficial “Oh at least people are talking and maybe our thread will stay high enough to get more views!” fail to see what else they are doing.

First trolls are forcing a group, any group, into becoming their ‘target’. After all if everyone agreed there would be no one to troll so trolls often make targets out of people who have agreed with them by making an issue, just so they can troll. This creates an unhealthy division, where the divides are on personal levels rather than on issues. This type of division is harmful when it bleeds over into important matters. Trolls will continue to berate those they are targeting, regardless of what they are saying, and the targets will often fight back by taking everything the trolls say as just another attack. This will slowly kill the community.

Sure, the first group of targets will leave since no one will put up with harassment like this. But then the trolls will need more targets, so they will make more, and so on until the Trolls start trolling themselves into extinction.

This results in less activity, and thus is bad.

Now onto the second form of Bad Activity – Drama

You know those people who take things way to seriously? Those people who think that if you bring up an issue it is immediately about them and you are just being subtle? Or that if you do something it is against them? Drama queens create a form of personal activity known as Drama, which is our second form of bad activity.

Drama is like trolling, except it is usually one sided. It brings about a similar boost in activity. The person being accused has to work at proving themselves innocent while the Drama queen goes on and on about being treated horribly.

This ‘pity me’ act is a good way to draw attention to oneself, and puts the drama queen at the center of attention. Further the Drama queen will usually be sided with as they are the ones crying wolf. Luckily the Drama Queen has a weak point. If a Drama queen does this too often gradually everyone will start to realize that they are just being annoying, and ignore them.

The bad part about having a Drama Queen or two in the community, is that when paired with trolls, often if someone is being mistreated, harassed, insulted, and threatened, as a part of the ‘target’ group, their cries will become unheard regardless of how real the situation is. Why? It is because it is often the trolls who are hurting on the person calling out, and why would they want to stop their fun?

Drama Queens give trolls a good excuse to mistreat people who can’t otherwise cry out, because if there is one Drama Queen around, the rest of them can easily be tossed into that group even if there is a serious situation.

This not only traps players into being proverbial punching bags, but it also turns the community cold towards the needs of its fellow players, dividing us in our hearts to simply not care for one another until we sacrifice ourselves off to fighting and bickering, and division, resulting in a failed community, and less activity.

After all who wants to be around a place where you will be treated poorly and no one will help you?



How to spot Bad activity

I listed the two most common forms of bad activity. There are more, including the third most common of “self defeating” where someone will do something horrible to themselves so they can blame it on someone else, or where someone will purposefully do the wrong thing so that there is argument. There are many more of course, but all forms of bad activity have the same markings.

Just examine this list to learn how you can identify bad activity:

Bad activity usually carries most of the following traits:

1. It creates hate
2. There is a negative conflict
3. Someone feels bad because of it
4. There is division on the personal level
5. Nothing is truly gained, and many things are often lost

This is a simple list. Sometimes bad activity can be hidden deeper, using a real situation to draw out a fight, rather than solve the problem. Bad activity plagues everyone, and sometimes can’t be recognized because of the high level of negative emotions it purposefully causes.



How to stop Bad Activity

Stopping hate is hard. However the answer is never more hate. You may rightfully dislike someone who is harassing you, and yes it is fine to stand up for yourself, but feeding the Bad Activity only encourages it to continue, which isn’t something anyone wants.

What can you do to stop Bad Activity? Here are a few suggestions:

1. Don’t take anything personally. Bad Activity thrives on negative responses. You will tire those out who are trying to provoke you into joining them if you simply laugh them off.
2. Always help, even the drama queens. It is easy to look down on someone because you know they are just begging for attention, but a drama queen won’t stop just because they are ignored. They will twist what you say to be “misunderstanding” them, and continue on. The best way to cure a Drama Queen is to listen to them, and help them. If they get embarrassed from you helping them over nothing or giving them too much attention, then they will gradually learn when they should ask for help, and when they should complain, eventually stopping them. This also ensures that those who need help, get it.
3. Create GOOD activity, like community projects, or friendly competitions! Healthy rivals are good friends. We can compete against each other for fun, for the sake of fun, and for everyone to enjoy. Good activity will outshine the need for Bad activity, and can help build up a broken community that has been plagued by Bad Activity.
4. Break the cycle. Don’t hate on those that hate. They want that. If you have to, ignore them while they are being hateful, like they just don’t exist. But pay attention when they are being helpful, or are asking for help. This will encourage positive actions, and starve the negative ones.
5. Keep problems between the smallest number – Misinformation and hurried conclusions are the tools of Bad Activity. They rush the findings so that there is confusion, anger, and unpleasantness. Because people who are not directly involved will exaggerate a situation, a good PR department will often tell you to not publish anything bad, even if it has happened to you, until the situation is resolved. If a notice needs to be made then it is about how everything is under control, with no names named. This is because if there is a mistake of any kind, you just attacked that person anyway. Blaming creates Drama, and pointing fingers is trolling. This doesn’t mean you can’t field questions openly, but responses should be simple and reassuring.
6. Seek out the truth – Bad activity uses lies to further create hate, misunderstandings, and conflict. Don’t believe anything until you have seen solid proof as to stop yourself from falling into a potential hate trap.

Just remember to keep positive and you can be a proponent of good activity too! So just say no to all the negativity and Bad Activity!



Fae
SOS Brigade Chief

PS. This wasn’t written with anyone/anything in mind. In fact it is something I had already written a while back for another game I was in. I just attached it to some questions I was getting as the Brigade Chief. If any of this rings true about anything in eJapan or eRepublik it is merely a coincidence and not intended. I admit that recently I have fallen prey to acts of bad activity. I knew I needed a reminder. Further, it couldn't hurt to pass along the information as well.