A Message From The Heart To My Community

by **Mado** Wed Oct 25, 2023 4:36 pm

Hi, guys. How's everybody doing? I hope you're all well.

Today I wanna talk about something which has been on mind a lot lately. NovaStorm has recently became 10 years old and for some reason it doesn't feel like the relationship between its members is getting any better, we still run into much of the same problems we did in the beginnings of it.

The topic of today is talking about and judging people in their absence. I've been feeling very sickened lately by the kind of gossip we'd indulge in, especially on voice chat, it only ever comes to down to negative perspective on people as we dissect each individual and pick at all the faults we could find based on like random remarks they said in the heat of a moment or just outright misinterpreting what they say.

It's time for us to incorporate compromise in our relationships, find excuses for people more than you find faults in them. When you gossip about people like a conversation subject you dehumanize them and disassociate their personality from anything positive about them because you feel strongly about a specific aspect in them and treat their negative points as their mask falling off. Gossip is never fair and it breeds hatred towards people who we're otherwise on good terms with. It's how nasty bullying cliques operate and I believe we're better than that.

I made a solemn decision today, to cut all kinds of gossip from my life, I will refuse to chat with anyone who approaches me with the intention of talking badly about someone even if they feel it's justified.

I implore all of you to wear your hearts on your sleeves and make it a priority to make your boundaries very clear and confront the person directly, ideally in confidence where no one else can influence the conversation if you happen to have any gripe with the way they treat you or any others in the community.

You can always turn to me if they're not responding positively to that approach and please, don't treat it like a weakness to address it with someone else when your attempts at making peace don't work, I can't guarantee that others will hear you out but I will.

Many of us are approaching our 30s and if there's any time for us to overcome high school cliches I think it would be now. If you wish to continue with being resentful or look at most of the community with contempt because you believe they're mentally ill or because their quirks don't adhere to your personal standards or even because they're a villain in your eyes for trivial reasons and with no justification you will not be a friend or confidant of mine, no human devil will be whispering in my ear from this point onward.

I wish you all the best.