Hydras in mini normals

[Tierce]

The preference is mod-based.

The player was pulled out of the game because he signed up after the hydra did; it is a matter of chronological priority in sign-ups.

[Tierce]

The mods are aware they should sign off about their hydra preferences in the queue thread, Zach. I inform them of such when I tell them that their game is up for sign-ups, though the moderators are not required to state it openly. Furthermore, the players can simply ask in the thread if hydras are allowed or not.

[Tierce]

Make it a (loosely enforced) rule that 50% of normals be hydra-free, in the same way my Princetonian overlords ensure that only a third of all grades are As?

There is no way I am enforcing a rule that forces some moderators to act in a certain way because others acted in a different way. That makes no sense and it seems much healthier to leave it up to moderator choice. Some welcome hydrae, others do not. It is not up to me to enforce a percentage choice.

[Tierce]

"Normal" is completely arbitrary in that it is based only on what the community expects/considers standard. Breaking or not breaking the normal rules means nothing because the rules can always be altered to whatever the people want them to be. For example, the only reason that Cults aren't normal isn't that they go against the normal rules, it's because the community has decided that Cults generally suck and should pretty much only be seen in specialized games.

Does the community at large think that

hydras

generally suck and should pretty much only be seen in specialized games? Probably not, but there's room for debate, hence this thread.

Perhaps a poll is in order? Although, you'd only be polling people who visit MD, so there would be some bias. (I would guess it would be against hydras.) The mods could make it a global announcement, but that's purely up to them.

If you'll excuse me, this isn't true.

mith, the list mods (particularly me) and the Normal Review Group are the ones who define what is and isn't Normal. The community decides what is commonly seen in any game, regardless of Normalcy, and they

can

affect decisions on what is Normal (either explicitly or implicitly, by changing trends in games), but they don't have direct input on the Normalcy rules as they stand.

[Tierce]

So what is the stance of the list mods? Is there a bunch of discussion going on behind closed doors or something?

On this? Not really. I far prefer to leave it up to mod choice and, failing that, chronological sign-ups.