"Forum Court"

[EriChar]

Yare yare daze...

Is this a forum court thread, or a chance for everyone to get "I didn't want this member banned" exclamations off their chest? If ya want to bring up issues, make a damn thread for it, don't muddy up a mildly related issue with your bullshit. I say this not as a loosely related staff thing, but a member of the site who is coming close to quitting it over the endless complaint parade we've been seeing lately. Yeah, we get it, some things suck donkey balls. Now stop ruining any enjoyment left in the site with it.

So yeah, 'forum court', my fooooolish suggestion that has really not been captured by the Salem Witch Trial suggestion I see floating around here.

If people are interested, what I was actually getting at was creating a hidden sub board accessible only to staff members and banned members, where terms of bans could be decided, and appeals could be lodged by said banned member, if done in a peaceful way.

Now feel free to continue the staff/site bashing at your leisure. I am done commenting in these issues for the foreseeable future. See you on another site, probably.

[Devlin]

Sept 7, 2015 16:19:19 GMT -5 Kurosaki said:

If you want to go that route where we are going to have to defend every single decision that we make as staff, then I suggest you create a petition for us to do so. If that's the case though, you won't have me as admin. Any further evidence or discussion you want to have over particulars, you can reach me via pc or pm but I'm not dragging this on any further. Thank you.

It's not about defending every choice that you make. This entire problem doesn't really go to that at all. It's not about if the mods are right, if the members are right. It's really really not. It's about trying to fix that very mentality. Or at least it should be about doing that. This site and everyone on it has amazing potential. Everyone here should be able to get along and be friends. This isn't what is going on though. Relationships are divided and damaged. I don't want to put up a petition like that, because it goes against everything that I'm trying to say. It would only polarize the situation worse. From what I can see, you make a great admin too, so why would anyone want to see you leave? I only want to see what damage is done fixed. I want to make it better. Not just for Members, not just for Randy, not even just for administration. I want to see everyone, the entire site, be able to play and be happy and grow. Get new people, meet new people, and not come here to be under so much stress you have to take vacations or leave outright.

If you don't want to discuss this anymore then that is fine. I won't press anymore then I have already. I'm new to this community, but I have seen a lot of people with a lot of passion already, but like I said, I don't know your history. I don't know you. I won't further disrupt you.

Sept 7, 2015 16:29:49 GMT -5 EriChar said:

Yare yare daze...

Is this a forum court thread, or a chance for everyone to get "I didn't want this member banned" exclamations off their chest? If ya want to bring up issues, make a damn thread for it, don't muddy up a mildly related issue with your bullshit. I say this not as a loosely related staff thing, but a member of the site who is coming close to quitting it over the endless complaint parade we've been seeing lately. Yeah, we get it, some things suck donkey balls. Now stop ruining any enjoyment left in the site with it.

So yeah, 'forum court', my fooooolish suggestion that has really not been captured by the Salem Witch Trial suggestion I see floating around here.

If people are interested, what I was actually getting at was creating a hidden sub board accessible only to staff members and banned members, where terms of bans could be decided, and appeals could be lodged by said banned member, if done in a peaceful way.

Now feel free to continue the staff/site bashing at your leisure. I am done commenting in these issues for the foreseeable future. See you on another site, probably.

It shouldn't be about staff bashing. I still think this is a good point for the topic at hand though. I mean, shouldn't this kind of thing be able to be worked out without a court system? I understand why it seems like a good idea, but I just think that it could be handled without a full court, and just with actual communication between everyone. Members, staff, highly advanced post bots, it doesn't matter.

[Taro]

As someone who is just kind of, on the fringe of the site atm - I have no idea what has happened with this ban case and it seems whatever was going to be said has been said. However, perhaps I can help ease a few minds with this transparency thing. I had once been an admin for a while, admittedly a pretty terrible one - it's a lot of work and that's boring >.> but I do have a bit of insight.  

Anywhoot, all the staff board is, is a series of threads and a private chat box which tends to be more active when someone has an idea or their is some kind of staff controversy. It's not at all like some elite club and not everyone is on the same page, trying to manipulate a situation to present to the rest of you guys on a unified front. In fact, the staff disagree a lot of the time. There are always different ideas and interpretations of a situation, and if there is any problem it that things tend to get debated to death as opposed to some kind of internet RP fascism. Kuro is one of the most patient people I've ever met, and has on multiple times defended people who have been staff head-aches, because she can see that they are trying to improve or they don't really mean to be a bother. She is the head admin, and she is fairly hard to truly piss off (I know, I've tried) and on the few occasions she does get personally to angry, if she makes a wrong decision she has always listened to the other staff and changed her mind. So from that kind of head mod situation, you really have nothing to worry about in terms of some crazy dictator. She loves the site, it's been what like 5 year or something and she still puts this much effort in. I'd have exploded by now.

Secondly then is the rest of the mods, who are often changing, it's usually a mixture of a few old school veterans and the newer, enthusiastic role players. You aren't really chosen on how friendly you are with people, but I would say probably a combination of your writing quality, length of time on the site and levels of activity. Whilst these group of people may all in some way have a flaw, or be prone to a mistake they are not some unified thing but a bunch of individuals who like being here. I know I've flogged that point but they are not ever as a unit out to get someone, maybe one mod would dislike someone and even be unfair, but you can bet your ass if you tell another mod the point will then be brought up examined and dealt with accordingly. I understand it can be frustrating not to see things at work, but I suppose that's a kind of protection that comes with the job. At most points if you could see everything there would be either a mod or a regular site member that would look like a bit of a douche bag, when instead they are having a bad day or whatever. True transparency can lead to a lot of unnecessary conflict in my opinion, but it should be important that stuff always justify a decision. If you ever PM one I'm sure they're willing to answer your questions.

To conclude all the staff are, are people with access to a small sub-forum and a chat box, where they act almost identically to how they do on the rest of the site. They try to make stuff work, come up with ideas for how things can go better and discuss dramatics when they come up. It's pretty dull to be honest and I realised fairly quickly I personally rather just RPing here and staying out of all that stuff. It's a lot of hassle, a lot of the time you aren't remotely invested in dramas but feel you have to look it over and give a fair opinion, you constantly try to innovate new things and often they are shut down logistically by other staff or the site later and it's pretty thankless. I've always been incredibly impressed by the staff members who go above and beyond to do loads of site stuff daily for noting and usually little thanks. Them being volunteers does not make them immune to criticism however, if you have a grievance voice it, this thread was healthy and people came in to explain as best they could. If I was still a mod and I had logs, I would be aggrieved to present them every time I made a decision, to have to go back to snapshot bits of stuff but I would probably PM someone a few examples if they really felt the need. Just remember all a staff member is, is a regular member with the ability to move stuff about and go into that part of the forum. It feels mostly like janitor duty to be honest. 

[Vio]

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