Notice Users new to the server and YOU

So today I was in the mood to write some stuff again. Something I want to address this time is the way people introduce others to MapleLegends.

Something I think we could improve as a community is the way we introduce people to MapleLegends. Sometimes new users ask things, and it's expected proper answers are given when such things happen. One thing you need to remember is that new users put a lot of initial expectations on the first days on the server, and each encounter at the beginning matters a lot regarding this.

Example, let's say I join the Discord server and ask some basic questions. My first initial expectation is how the community responds to me. Is it welcoming? Is it wholesome? Or is it toxic? While I have mentioned this before, people usually assume the Discord community is identical as the one in-game. One thing I want to remind people is that Discord contains a lot of users that still hang out, but no longer play. Therefore, the community on Discord vs in-game can differ by a lot. Does that mean it shouldn't be improved? Definitely not.

Most people new to the server come to our Discord server, which is also where most of our activity is outside of the game.

While I see plenty of users doing this fine, I see people attempting to be funny towards new users, generally being sarcastic or giving a reply based on their 'known' personality. Users here would know that the person is attempting to be 'funny' but new users do not know this. They see this as a very poor and unfunny reply, and generally have a poor taste in their mouth already with the community, just from this encounter. You need to remember these people are new to the server and that they do NOT know you, nor are in the mood to hear your 'funny' reply towards their serious questions. I have posted multiple announcements on Discord before regarding this and how it needs to stop, but it still happens sometimes. Don't be sarcastic and attempt to be funny towards new users asking things, ever. It's possibly depending on YOU if this user considers trying the server or not.

Comparing other servers

There's times a user come on our Discord and ask things regarding another server. Most of the time it's Royals, which makes sense, since it's the other server most know of. As of right now 'Royals' has been mentioned '23704' times in-game alone, which doesn't even include all of them on Discord. So yes, Royals exists, and we know it exists.

Sometimes an existing member of Royals comes in our Discord and asks questions. Again, as mentioned in beginning, this might be to see how the community is. It's expected to be nice to the person, and show them what our community is like. We have plenty of users from Royals, and like any other user they should feel welcome, and not be treated differently just because they are a Royaller. Obviously, there's exceptions, such as someone straight up advertising it (or any other server). However, don't hate on the server for that, but on the user. DM us and let us take care of it and move on.

So other cases we have is 'what makes this better than <insert server here>?' Again, usually Royals is mentioned here. Sometimes people poorly phrase this question, so they will say something like 'Do you prefer MR or ML??' Obviously asking this in the ML discord reveals the latter is the answer.

However, if the person ask this question properly, here's how to respond to it. For one, saying 'Royals sucks' is an extremely poor answer. Not only do you not bring up any proper argument or seem inviting to what makes Legends a server to consider, but you, again, give a toxic feel towards the community. You need to remember that a lot of people trying Legends that came from Royals still actively play there, and may consider playing both. In short, they still LOVE Royals, so bashing it is just not a good approach at all, and likely discourage the user in even wanting to try Legends.

Instead, you point out the actual differences between the two, answers that are actually useful towards the user. Not only will the person know more, but they will think the community is inviting and informative.

You can also reference this topic:
https://forum.maplelegends.com/index.php?threads/maplelegends-features.23369/

Most of this is towards our Discord. In-game there's plenty of people asking things too, and I expect people to give similar approaches towards new users as I wrote here. It's YOUR objective to make the new user feel at home, and not 'pushed' away for also playing on another server, or for being new.

There's times I hear that the Legends community is toxic from new users. It's a shame, and of course with every community there are bad apples. However, with this post my goal is to hopefully get people to try to approach new users better, not only for our community to be initially received better, but also because it CAN get more users, who may become loyal to the server as you are right now.

This is part one which focuses on our users approaching new users. I will make one more topic which will focus on new users approaching our community. While it's important that we treat new users well, we had times where people coming to Legends straight up harass / insult / bash Legends as a whole. Likewise for new users there's tips I have to give, and I try address that in my other topic.

We trust in YOU to take in our new users with love and care.