For those with negative views or first impressions of FOG...

Recently, we have had some mild internet forum drama sprout up relating to this message board. Some people have some misjudgments about FOG, which I am here to clear up...

• FOG is not a closed community. This means that anyone wishing to join is welcome, so long as they agree to follow our rules here. Yes, there are some communities that can be found on the web that restrict their member base to only those that are invited or who the staff there feels are worthy enough. Never has FOG been this way, nor will we ever be.
  
  
• The FOG message board does not boast elitism. While we may have members that consider themselves elite (a person considered to be one of the best in a particular category, especially because of their talent), the overall board itself claims no such title. This isn't to say that elitism in and of itself is either a negative or positive thing, but simply that FOG is neutral to that, or any other title.
  
  
• No one message board or community as a whole, FOG included, can be generalized as any one thing. Calling an entire community a name like "egotists" not only makes no sense, but is purely based off of either nothing and therefore your own assumptions, or based off a person that may be a member that you've met. In no way, shape, or form can an entire message board, just like a community in the real world, be any one thing, and such ignorance will not get a person very far. It is important to be open-minded, especially when first joining a new community.
  
  
• FOG's intention is not to be formidable or intimidating. The appearance that onenitedrive and I chose for the overall scheme of FOG was meant to not only represent our name, but also to appear sleek, simple, and professional.

Understand that, originally, I was just like almost all of you, wandering around from website to website in search of places to role-play. I role-played everywhere from Neopets, to little sites my friends or I created, to a Lion King message board, to Harry Potter, Star Wars, and Soul Reaver ones, until I was fortunate enough to become part of a fantastic community. Eventually, and after a bit of a falling out, I wanted to create a perfect haven of my own for all those who, like me, just wanted a more adult place where they could relax and be at home, without worrying about being crushed under a gigantic community, being surrounded by lazy one-liners, trolls and flamers, immature kids, or people that enjoy picking on those who like to role-play in their spare time.

So, onenitedrive and I gave FOG our hearts and souls, devoting countless hours into the creation, the images, the content, all of our features, the aesthetic pieces, typing up each detail, and traveling from one and of the internet to the other in search of role-plays to read through to discover those that might share my common goal.

The idea behind FOG was purely to give you guys a place where you could get away from the rest of everything that seems to occur on most role-playing boards and just enjoy role-playing with others that actually value writing and role-playing and take it seriously. So, before you lash out against a small, tight-knit community, whose goal is nothing more than to be unique and to give people a nice play to role-play at, think first who it is you'd rather be insulting -- us, for having valued quality and effort, or all the other boards in existence that have no such values. Take a step back for just a single fleeting moment at least, and look at what you really are upset about, and ask yourself if it is warranted.

For anyone who feels the need to create any further inappropriate threads on this topic and thinking of calling us 'immature' or 'egotistical' for desiring to be at a place that has its own admirable values, take a look at yourself and really see who is the immature one, for any reasonable and logical human being would surely agree that a mature person would not waste time creating those types of trolling threads.

Whatever your opinion is of FOG, be it good, average, or bad, I hope that we all can keep our opinions to ourselves and give the community a chance before passing any further judgements.

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Weiss wrote:It's well and good to be humble, but if we pretend to be anything less than we are - a community of people who strive for excellence in literature and roleplay - we will not garner the interest of those who seek such standards as a norm. To insult the forum is nothing less than insulting everyone who makes this forum what it is, and I believe that such statements should be handled the way any insult to a forum member would be. Perhaps it's because of my personality that I feel this way, but kindness has its limits, and I believe far too much leniency has been shown to people who have no respect for the site or the community. It is one thing to criticize the community through negative feedback; it is another to make pointless threads and off-topic arguments to defame it.