== Listeners of Ashla == An anti-toxic clan.

[Lessen]

Jan 18 edit, for anyone wondering: while I'm maintaining this overall attitude/goal as a challenge to myself, I'm going to go back to switching names whenever i feel like it, with no clan tags. I'll keep my current in-game name in my sig so people who know me on the forums can ID me, though.

[important note: I posted this in Community Discussion rather than in Clan Advertisements because the Clan Advertisements forum wasn't allowing me to post, AND ALSO because it's meant mostly as an abstract thread for discussing toxicity and if it should be consciously resisted. It's also just a pseudo-RP philosophical rant.]

Hello,

Listeners of Ashla =LoA= is a non-existent (edit: slightly existent) clan that, if it existed, would be dedicated to maintaining and spreading an insistently positive, encouraging, empowering, fundamentally anti-toxic attitude in-game.

"Ashla" is the name of the light side of the force, and the Listeners of Ashla are people who are willing to stop, let go of everything clouding their mind for a moment, and just look at what's in front of them and listen for what their human heart is feeling about it.

"Your heart?" you might ask, "what does your heart have to do with the Force?" Well, son, this cult has a slightly alternative view of the Force. See, the Force flows through all of us. As Yoda said, "Life creates it." The Force is a manifestation of our essences, then, and accepting our essences (and the essences of others) is then the way of the light side of the Force, Ashla. Hatred does not come from the heart. The greatest Jedi Master of this interpretation of Ashla is the late great Jedi Master Mister Rogers, who is quoted as saying:

"The greatest gift you ever give is your honest self."

"When I say it's you I like, I'm talking about that part of you that knows that life is far more than anything you can ever see or hear or touch. That deep part of you that allows you to stand for those things without which humankind cannot survive. Love that conquers hate, peace that rises triumphant over war, and justice that proves more powerful than greed.”

So, we do our best to listen to our hearts and use the quiet power that rises from within to break through toxic hatred and the brutal repression of feeling. This is the essence of the Listeners of Ashla. And the feeling of empowerment this attitude provides also naturally enables you (and everyone you meet and encourage) to grow as a player, as well.

Sociopaths need not apply. Your hearts are goners! (<-- edit: this is a joke)

If anyone Hear-Hears this with enough fervor then this clan would be at risk of becoming a real clan. Right now it's just kind of an idea. There's no reason to lose a community this small to toxicity without even putting up a fight. (edit: I've started using the clan tag in-game, as =LoA= Cassian so the clan "exists" now. Add me on Steam if you're interested, or I can just be a one man casual anti-toxic aura. My own non-toxicity is a work in progress.)

 

[andrew]

Listeners of Ashla =LoA= is a non-existent clan that, if it existed, would be dedicated to maintaining and spreading an insistently positive, encouraging, empowering, fundamentally anti-toxic attitude in-game.

Sociopaths need not apply. Your hearts are goners!

so this clan is founded as a "we're better than toxic people" clan rather than "we're good people" clan

 

[CC-1119 'Appo']

/ignore exists in-game so, no issue if you want to avoid toxic chat. admins also exist to stop tkers and if you're talking about the forums, there's staff here too.

 

[Lessen]

so this clan is founded as a "we're better than toxic people" clan rather than "we're good people" clan

Yes.

No, but really, I wasn't going for that. I'm aware that a clan that literally identifies as "we're trying to be good people and thereby support/improve the community" is kind of an uncomfortable, phony-smelling, restrictive-feeling concept, but to that concern I just feel like saying "Oh well!"

And anyway, it's "we're trying to be good people, and we think we're capable of it," not "we're good people." I suppose even with that much humanization, it could still be seen as "we're superior to the rest of you because we're trying," which still isn't how I mean it, but if people see it that way then i would be inclined to just embrace it with irony and be a caricature of Light-Sidedness, like the character played by a tryhard lightside KOTOR pro.

I also believe that the idea that "if you visibly try to better yourself, you therefore must be looking down on the rest of us" is one that keeps toxicity as the status quo.

And true sociopaths, if they exist in the way that I am told that they exist, really are just fundamentally outside of the argument for "humanity," and I mean no hatred towards them for that... this is just... irrelevant to them.

/ignore exists in-game so, no issue if you want to avoid toxic chat. admins also exist to stop tkers and if you're talking about the forums, there's staff here too.

The problem I'm addressing is not that I am personally wounded by toxicity. Toxicity hurts the community. Toxicity makes people play worse. While I'm not at all proposing hunting down and exterminating toxic players, the widespread acceptance of toxicity makes the game more frustrating in subtler ways. Toxicity discourages positivity, demoralizes people, probably discourages teamwork?

It makes the game less fun, even if there's not an actively toxic player on the server, because everyone is affected by the idea that hostility, insults, frustration, and discouragement are the norm.

Encourage! we need more courage.

 

[chicknman]

sign me up pls

 

[Sammy]

Ad-blockers and the like prevent you from posting in the clan advertisements section -- not sure why but they do.

 

[Jediknight Fou]

The problem I'm addressing is not that I am personally wounded by toxicity. Toxicity hurts the community. Toxicity makes people play worse. While I'm not at all proposing hunting down and exterminating toxic players, the widespread acceptance of toxicity makes the game more frustrating in subtler ways. Toxicity discourages positivity, demoralizes people, probably discourages teamwork?

It makes the game less fun, even if there's not an actively toxic player on the server, because everyone is affected by the idea that hostility, insults, frustration, and discouragement are the norm.

Encourage! we need more courage.

I agree with most of this, but i doubt anyone can change this.
Im just happy that im not one of this ragekids ingame, after years of mb2.
I remember some players who were really nice before and are now corrupted and really toxic ingame.
But i have to say if i kill someone ingame and he starts raging and insulting me, it makes me smile.
Give me your hatred ppl i love it.

 

[Lessen]

I agree with most of this, but i doubt anyone can change this.

So you're discouraged?

This clan would not be a failure if we did not manage to single-handedly de-toxify the community. The point of it would just be to have at least somebody defying the toxicity instead of accepting it. Having nobody at all fighting against the dark side is very bleak.

also, speaking for myself, i'm virtually troll-proof, and i've spread toxicity too sometimes while playing.

edit: @chicknman if you are interested seriously, add me on Steam. I'm inactive in game right now though because of college things.

 

[Lessen]

There's been basically no interest, but hey, that's cool

I've started using the clan-tag in-game, playing as =LoA= Cassian

if you see me in-game being toxic, call me a fucking hypocrite I'll appreciate it

 

[Chaos the Chaotic]

Clearly you're abnormal.

An invitation has been extended.
The Dark Network - The Hub Of All Things Dark

 

[BigBossBigTeef]

Clearly you're abnormal.

An invitation has been extended.
The Dark Network - The Hub Of All Things Dark

This is the edgiest thing I have seen in years.

 

[Lessen]

Clearly you're abnormal.

An invitation has been extended.
The Dark Network - The Hub Of All Things Dark

"Vampire Rave," incredible.

But, if your joke here is "you're just jerking off about being 'Different'," isn't that just more "if you visibly try to change yourself or change anything about your situation, then you're looking down on the rest of us."? Won't that response just keep things stagnant? Am I wrong that non-toxicity is better than toxicity?

edit: to clarify further, this clan concept is not "We are better" and it's not "We are here to single-handedly save MB2 from toxicity." Lots of people in this community have called the overall community toxic, and many people who aren't usually toxic have felt the influence and become more toxic. If there's so much agreement that the community is "toxic," then people must have an idea of what "non-toxic" means, and they must, on some level, wish the community was more like that.

The premise of this clan is something like "rather than succumbing to the existing toxic aura, let's attempt to have our own non-toxic aura." Rather than accepting what we're given, attitude-wise, let's try making something else. And I made it into a visible clan rather than a personal goal, because if people agree with the idea and join, then we can encourage each other, and if we're all visibly trying to resist toxicity and spread positivity, that might encourage other people.

(and "resist toxicity and spread positivity" does not mean "go around preaching." Someone in LoA could be completely silent for all I care. Just... make extra attempts to catch yourself before you say something toxic, take a deep breath and think about what you would rather say. That's "the rule.")

edit2: does this kind of thing necessarily ride a line between good intentions and holier-than-thou competition? Yes, probably, but I think it's better than the alternative.

 

[Chaos the Chaotic]

This is the edgiest thing I have seen in years.

Are you serious?
It's a community of pretenders.

It's insulting they call themselves dark. All I see are emos.

Just a site to hunt for damaged suicide girls

Lulz at Oddwad.
Isn't that like Dracula spreading his plague in London.
Humanity is the disease.

Cure it with fire. Flame on!

 

[BigBossBigTeef]

Are you serious?
It's a community of pretenders.

It's insulting they call themselves dark. All I see are emos.

Just a site to hunt for damaged suicide girls

Lulz at Oddwad.
Isn't that like Dracula spreading his plague in London.
Humanity is the disease.

Cure it with fire. Flame on!

I stand corrected, you are the edgiest thing ive seen in years.
How the fuck did you manage to become more edgier than a conglomerate of websites?

 

[Chaos the Chaotic]

Some are born, others are forged.

I'm from the internet.

 

[Lessen]

Random comment, which I think i mean absolutely no disrespect by: It just occurred to me that I have very little guess of how old Chaos the Chaotic is in real life, nor what his cultural background is. If I had to guess, though, I would say he's.. 37 years old... and... Swedish???? And has a beard. I mean he's definitely "from the internet" in a "juvenile" humor kind of way, but he has a very distinct personal "culture" that strikes me as slightly "old" and in some way "sophisticated." And he might have a relatively uncommon cultural background.

These are absolute shots in the dark and, Chaos, I don't expect nor do I really want you to tell me the answer. Guessing at your background could be a fun game.

 

[Puppytine]

Random comment, which I think i mean absolutely no disrespect by: It just occurred to me that I have very little guess of how old Chaos the Chaotic is in real life, nor what his cultural background is. If I had to guess, though, I would say he's.. 37 years old... and... Swedish???? And has a beard. I mean he's definitely "from the internet" in a "juvenile" humor kind of way, but he has a very distinct personal "culture" that strikes me as slightly "old" and in some way "sophisticated." And he might have a relatively uncommon cultural background.

These are absolute shots in the dark and, Chaos, I don't expect nor do I really want you to tell me the answer. Guessing at your background could be a fun game.

He's 'murican.
And his superior English skils clearly shows that he is native language speaker, at least.
Also, "Good thing I graduated with a degree in journalism" -- (SPOILERS!) Star Wars: The Force Awakens discussion (SPOILERS!)

 

[Lessen]

Part of the reason I guessed European was because, although he seems "sophisticated" he also talks in a way that's very "stilted" and uses unusual formatting. But I guess a degree in journalism could explain that too.. Also the wacky "alien" tone seemed unlikely to come from someone who's from the center of the universe (America). I've run out of guesses then, I can not explain the existence of Chaos the Chaotic. He is a culture unto himself (from my extremely limited scope).

 

[Chaos the Chaotic]

I'm a millennial

Brooklyn bred until they separated me from the other children after I got cut by a ho.
And no, that is not a joke.

It was the fall down the rabbit hole.

My education was atypical? The results however netted me one of the highest scores in verbal and writing despite my moratorium on doing homework.

They even put me in honors haha.

 

[Fang]

Mightve cringed but gl





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