Without the flag - how do we know if VHL is friendly or not?

[jRuutu 2,467]

 

I am sure we have all watched television shows with an audience laugh track playing in the background. The whole point of the audience laugh track is to let us know when something funny was said. We don't have to invest too much time in following what was said as we could just wait for the laugh track to be sure and then smirk and giggle a little as the laugh track signaled now is a safe and correct time to laugh with the others watching the show.  Of course, not everybody enjoys those types of shows as the audience laugh track can be seen as annoying, but the benefits of the laugh track are easy to see and understand.

 

The Pride logo in the VHL discord server worked the same way. When you joined the Discord server you did not have to invest too much time in getting to know who is who or what is being said as the Pride Logo signaled the server and VHL as a league is a safe and friendly place.  Now that the Pride logo has been removed, there is no easy way to know what kind of place VHL is. To get to know the people in the league and the league as a whole you would have to invest your time in talking with the people. You would have to monitor the discussions on various platforms around the league. In the hectic modern times, it is fair to ask: Who has the time for that? If we are to assume the goal is to attract as many people into the league that are willing to do the point tasks and that way bring life to the forums, I fear it is too much to ask someone to do the point tasks and then also talk with the people in the league.

 

When the Pride logo was the VHL Discord logo, you could skip the boring part and jump right into being friends with everyone. Almost as if you knew everybody in advance through the Pride Logo: "These people are my people, I also have the Pride logo in a lot of my things".  The same is true with the audience laugh track. Imagine if all of a sudden the laugh track is removed from your favorite show. Imagine you are there sitting with people you kinda know but not really, you would not know when to laugh, you would not know if the people you are watching with are cool or not. When the laugh track started to play, you could laugh and look around, and you would immediately know you were with cool and fun people because they laughed at the same time with you.

 

I think the decision to remove the Pride logo was understandable as Christmas time is more important, but when you look at it from the recruitment point of view, the Pride logo was a better tool as the symbolism spoke so many things to so many people.