I think this 'MapleRoyals Memes' thread should be locked too, When this thread was created, it was intended to be a safe and open space for players to make memes about anything they find funny - a place to share day-to-day fun, to share joy and farm likes, without judgment or backlash. Unfortunately, over time, the original intent has been repeatedly ignored. Despite the clear rules of memes being Maplestory-themed only, the thread has consistently been used to: - Indirectly target other players through veiled references and inside jokes, - Farm likes at the expense of ridiculing a player/players' - Escalate tensions rather than offering quality non-offensive memes. I want to be fully transparent about why i personally feel this thread should be closed alongside 'Get it off your chest' rather than continuing with stricter enforcement: While the forum moderator can issue Warning Points or Reply-Bans when violations occur, doing so becomes ineffective when players abuse plausible deniability - denying that their memes is about anyone in particular, even when the implications are blatantly obvious to the community. This recurring tactic of hiding behind plausible deniability makes consistent moderation impossible. The forum moderator cannot issue warnings based purely on assumptions, even if the intent seems clear to everyone else. This leaves the forum moderator unable to enforce the rules fairly, and it turns the thread into a breeding ground for passive-aggressive memes. This has happened multiple times, and as a result, the thread has become a hotbed for indirect insults, provocation, and retaliation - completely defeating its original purpose. To add on to this, farming likes, which was one of the key motivating factors for players to deliver top quality memes is heavily outperformed by the '[EXTREME Forum Game] Count to 50,000!' and with the departure of meme master Jae, the thread has somewhat stagnated. Thus, I'd highly recommend this thread to be locked asap.
It looks to me like there are plenty of recent memes about things that people "find funny" judging by the likes given to the posts. I don't believe there are any other methods available to us for evaluating them. From the recent page of this thread, B0nk's meme for example seems to capture the idea of "day to day fun" in my opinion, and I think the idea of "sharing joy" is subjective and open to one's own interpretation (I think MRMarco's recent meme captures this, but maybe others feel differently). All of the other memes in one way or another are directly related to Mapleroyals, and is it fair to say that these memes fall under the larger umbrella of being about Maplestory? The name of the thread itself is "MapleRoyals Memes" after all. I haven't read through the entire thread, but just going off of the most recent page, I don't see any recent posts or replies that are showing "judgement or backlash" towards another specific meme either. About the other points brought up, it seems like many of the recent memes are actually quite direct in what they're referencing, and the idea of memes ridiculing or being "quality and non-offensive" is again subjective and varies between each reader. I think it's fine for our forum mod to moderate this thread based on reports and their own respective judgement. Alternatively, they could impose a rule than bans any meme that references specific players, staff decisions, bans, content updates, and bugs, and require all memes be related to "Maplestory" in a very generic sense.
