Below is a letter I recieved this weekend. Its really a wakeup call for all of us, and most importantly, me.

I have been exceedingly negative on this list lately. And while I try not to be negative about the Source, me being negative about the patch, about the game, and sometimes the source, is not good either.

I keep begging for peace, perhaps I should lead by example huh?

Everyone should read this letter below and look inward. Look to yourself. What have you done to make this list a bad place? What have we all done to poison the postive thing that is the Source.

Lets all swallow our little petty differences. Swallow our anger at the game. Swallow all the past little things that bug us.

This IS a great game.

We ARE a great group.

We do have GREAT time together and lets get back to the original goals of the Source.

Good People
Good Times
Respect is more important than loot.
Helping people.

Lets remember what the Source stands for, and what drew us all together.

And now, the letter.

Look inward my Source. Look inward.

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I'm going to give you my perspective as somebody new to the maillist and I hope you'll take it the way I intended (as a suggestion, not a complaint).

There is A LOT of in-fighting on The Source's mailing list. In the week that I've been reading, I've read people complaining about:

* mages and archers being overpowered
* The Source on Darktide and how certain people don't want to hear about how much they need new people
* how much certain people dislike the new update
* how specialised skills are pointless and what bastards Turbine are
* direct insults directed at other Source members

Some posts have been well-reasoned and thought out and fall into the category of "discussion". Some, I would venture, are rather closer to "flames".

I don't know if I'm correct in assuming that anybody can join The Source's mailing list without having to be accepted by a moderator. If that's the case, my opinion is that people REALLY need to start being nicer and more tolerant towards each other. This mailing list is not making The Source appear to be the friendly, considerate and evil-banishing monarchy that I know it is. A lot of it sounds like whining and bitching and in-fighting. Even you are not completely innocent in this.

It's really important to remember what it's like to be a lower-level player and to find everything, especially patch day, new and exciting. I don't want to hear about how much you dislike the new patch or how bad it is. I want to hear about all the GREAT stuff that was in it, I want exciting stories about fighting Diamond Golems and Skeleton Bone Lords and other creatures that are so scary that I won't even see them for ten levels. I'm not saying there isn't room for criticism, of course there is, but it's important to remember that a lot of people are still having more fun than
they've ever had. As their leader, shouldn't you be encouraging them and giving them things to look forward to, not making it seem as if at later levels everything is horrible?

My advice to you, or to anybody in the Source who's flamed, criticised or bitched lately, would be to go back and read Druss's first half a dozen articles. Remember what it was like when YOU were new, when The Source was new, and try to get back that sense of excitement. I read them again today (skipping through the Magic parts, hehe, used to be the other way around!) and they filled me with hope for the future.

I'm not saying I don't want to be in the Source, far from it in fact. The Source is Fantastic! But the reason I know that is because I *know* you and Sister C and Ordius and Rhodry. For a new person who doesn't know any of you, they are going to be working out their opinions about you all from what you post to the mailing list. And at the moment... I'm not sure that's a good thing.

Please don't take this personally -- it's just my perspective from the outside.
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Later All

Jamie
Ranter
Druss