Bolded for emphasis.
And that's exactly my point. These people consistently expect us to bend to their petty bullshit. We consistently decline and get more and more shit hurled at us for causes that are absolutely meaningless, considering this is a game. And in the grand scheme of things, we make no difference, whatsoever. The same shit people are doing now is the shit they've always done, and will continue to do.
Why can we not break the cycle? Pride is not sufficient reason.
They do so because they don't understand.
To some extent they're basing their opinions of us on misinformation coming out of Spiritus. It's only been recently that I've been made aware just how pervasive their caricature of this region is, from the reasons why it was founded to what we're about to the reasons behind our defense of people like Gov when he was a Citizen. To some extent I blame myself as Monarch and Jarl of FA, because I haven't done enough to combat this slander and promote who we really are as a region. At some point, I made the decision to move on from that drama believing that they would as well...obviously, I was wrong. The same sort of character assassinations that led me to leave Spiritus to begin with never ended, and only extended to this region...and it's still going on, even three years later.
Otherwise, we've done the best we can with a bad hand...having to defend Gov and support his right to interact with regions that don't want to be involved with him, rightly or wrongly, was never going to play out well no matter what alignment we were in. I'm not saying that our 'partners' are in the right at all, but I think if they knew what we were really about they would be more understanding of why we do some of the things we do. For what it's worth, I think most people who venture here end up with a very good impression of the region.
But things being as they are, what do you propose we do?
Well, we all know that's not true. I simply don't know of a forum where the head admin is more beloved by the people.
I appreciate you saying that...you know, I try to be open because that's the sort of community I've always wanted. I know I'm rather eccentric though, and sometimes I do feel a bit vulnerable.