Meth Quokka

Frokane's Mildly Politcal Hangout Thread

Got kicked off The Guild Discord, because I told someone to "Get Raped" which is basically the most ethereal insult you could make. Offering 20 bucks to whoever rapes them though. Figure it out.

As a sidenote, anyone who takes that seriously as a threat can also get raped.

@Chrononaut

I'm sorry I don't consider that to be fonz cool, especially when directed at a minor. You want to add that against a mod too? It's not a threat but not a common decency for the site.

I'm gonna give you a chance to rollback your stance here.

Looking Back - 5 months have passed, what now?

<Snipped quote by Kangaroo>

What constitutes a good mod and what not is, also, entirely subjective. I'm not saying you're wrong, because you're not, but as Hank has previously stated, he prefers janitor-style mods and I myself prefer a different style of mods. Neither of us is wrong, we just have different preferences.

@Odin

Yes I completely agree that quality is subject to a lack of objectivity, but my initial point remains is that who has ever registered me as a bad mod who should never return. As far as I am aware, it's no-one. Ergo an argument that my reappointment as a mod as being a sign of nepotism is most likely null and void and symbolistic of a failing of the system. If it's the second, please go ahead and tell me what I'm doing wrong, I welcome constructive criticism; the main criticismIi've received thus far was that I was too lenient.

I think there are plenty of good candidates for moderator positions that, as far as I know, have never been considered, where as I do know some people that I personally think are probably one of the worst picks you could make have been considered. Perhaps for that reason I'll ask @Hank if he could run me/us through the process that you go through when you are being considered for moderator. Or perhaps one of the other mods could. I'm interested to see what the process is from start to finish. How do you get considered for the position all the way to how is the acceptance of a new moderator announced.

Odin

The idea I have is that at the moment it's entirely whimsical and based on nominations from other moderators. You should be aware that you're missing out on a lot of good candidates like @Nytem4re or others, who by now have lost either the backing or the desire to help at all.
[/quote]

Who would you consider as bad mods considering I can only think of one nomination that I personally made in the past who hasn't made mod. The rest hasn't been direct naming as far as I am aware, so you're either accusing a mod directly or making speculative judgements. As for the consideration process, it is mostly based off the opinion of the current staff. To make something public that was previously private, I nominated Nutts as my successor because I believed he was right for the role and I stand by that nomination.

<Snipped quote by Kangaroo>

I don't and didn't mean to pry in your personal life - when you resigned I respected it because you'd shown that you were critiquing yourself as well and I liked that. When I named you here, I critiqued you for still not being as active as others. Perhaps it was a momentary thing, I can't tell as I am not omniscient. The reasons for that are irrelevant to me if I am not aware of them - this is why the suggestion of a moderator thread where mods can post status updates or other things is a good suggestion because it makes people aware that one given mod might be away for a few days - in this case I was unaware of the reasoning for you being gone and therefore could not make a weighted judgement. You're telling me now, yes, but if I'd known this prior, perhaps I would've understood why you were gone instead of having to judge that for myself.

Odin

I believe the main part of this is asking why I wasn't present on forums? as I said, I would be active on discord when needed but may have periods where I fall back to relying on push notifications.

Looking Back - 5 months have passed, what now?

<Snipped quote by Kangaroo>

First of all: any appointment of a new moderator is going to be influenced by a little bit of nepotism. Denying that is ridiculous. If you think that you were selected 100% for being a good moderator, then you're doing yourself a disservice. Whoever selects moderators (I imagine Hank + Mahz + the rest of the moderator team is allowed to pitch in) is naturally going to have a preference for people they like.

Whether that is because they just like them, or because they would fit well in the team, that is another matter, but ultimately nepotism is bound to play a role to a lesser degree. It's more problematic when it occurs in larger degrees. As far as I know we've not reached that point yet and I'd like to keep it that way (hence, I'm not really looking to have moderator elections).

Secondarily: appointments where nepotism played a larger role than expected/usual would probably be that of Ruby. It's not really a secret Hank and her get along and it didn't take too long for her to be re-appointed. Call me a cynic but I don't believe she was approved for re-entry just because she's, according to the rest, a good moderator. It definitely helped her case that a lot of the moderators know her and like her.

Your own reappointment also comes to mind although that event was far less publicized so I have even less of an idea how that all played out. If it was you returning and saying 'hey I got time again, make me mod again please' then clearly that's not the process it should've been. But, as usual, nothing was really said about it, so I'm not sure.

Besides that I am unaware of recent appointments as all the other members of the moderator team have been there for quite a while. But.. do note that you're inferring that I said there was nepotism involved in the current staff. I never said that. I said we should beware of that. There's a difference. The nepotism on Newguild is far less rampant than it used to be in my eyes and I want to keep it that way too.

The key point I was trying to make and that I am sure you'll agree with is that elections for moderator positions are ridiculous and stupid and invite nepotism.

@Odin

Having reread the conversation, I did misinterpret it but I guess I will address the points raised nonetheless. This may seem like an argument of semantics but sometimes definitions are important; I personally consider nepotism to be promotion/selection in spite of ability; ergo the appointment of someone right for the role does not entail nepotism. Am I perhaps arrogant by suggesting that I am a good mod? perhaps, but that is built off the commentary of multiple people from different cliques.

Is the fact that I have previous experience with the mod team and a history of interaction a factor in my reappointment; absolutely. It's the same as a company rehiring someone who'd previosuly done a good job, they're hired off merit and the knowledge that they can perform with the team currently assembled.

The ruby reappointment I can't comment much on as it was during my period of well documented absence but my own I am happy to discuss beyond my personal issues. I'd put out an offer to resign from being a moderator around a year before my actual leaving because I recognised that i didn't have the same activity that I thought would be required from a mod. The feedback i received that there was no cap on mod numbers and I was free to continue because my opinion and perspective on issues was desired.

When I resigned was because I was cutting ties to focus on some central personal issues, when I resolved them I sent a message to Hank and made the point that the issues were resolved and that I was more free in terms of time. About two months later he contacted me and asked if i was still returning because he wanted my opinion for the defence of a genre thread/event. That is the circumstances of my return.

Looking Back - 5 months have passed, what now?

@Odin if you don't mind me asking, what precise appointments would you point to as cases of nepotism?

Looking Back - 5 months have passed, what now?

It seems the story of my departure and return is somewhat less relevant now but nevertheless i feel it deserves a comment from me. Yes, resigning due to time was the majority reason but not all of the reasoning. There were some personal things that I'm not going to spread across the site because there are some things I like to keep private, as you basically said you understood why previously.

The activity comment; the primary difference between when I resigned and now is that I'm no longer at university and lost a 30-40 hr/week commitment whilst I was working 20-30 hours. The last two weeks got a little rough with work as I stepped into a caretaker manager role and I've had two days off in the last 15 days, one was tied up with some family stuff and the other I rather selfishly spent gaming. However every day I check my discord inbox and the staff channel. Sometimes I'm lax with the site's PM inbox but as I've said before, discord is the best way to reach me because of push notifications.

But I've received 6 reports in the last month, 4 were between the hours of 2-5am which is usually when I'm asleep and the other two I handled in less than 30 minutes. The only guild contacts I've had in my DM box besides that are personal guild conversations.

I said when I returned I wouldn't be trawling through the guild looking for things to do as a mod, I'm here to help users when contacted and to offer my opinion on any moderations issues that arise. If those two things are not desired by a sizeable contingent of the community, I will respect those wishes and step down. However, allow me to be self-indulgent and say I've not seen a single user suggest my return was a negative for the team and if someone does, contact me and I'm happy to discuss it.

Nar Mat Kordh-Ishi - The Orcish Mercenary Saga

Well damn, here I was thinking I was done with roleplaying. Then I saw this and it gave me that fizzle again. I remember having a crack at one or two of these in years gone by.

If I can pump out a character that isn't complete trash, I might just be in.

In Defense Of The Genre [Part II]

@The Spectre
Two parts to this answer.

Firstly the return, a while ago (around or month or two I'd guess) a fair chunk of my time freed up and I mentioned to Hank that if he felt like he wanted me back on the team, I'd be happy to do it. I was then invited by Hank a few days ago to rejoin the team as my perspective on this issue was wanted and I delivered that as I saw best.

As for my own activity, well I finished my masters degree so I'm no longer both studying full time and working full time. Will I be an active role player? I would say unlikely because I felt out of the loop with that a while ago. Will I be active on the forums? If I see a thread that I feel I can positively contribute to and piques my interest then I will be involved in it.

I'll likely be most active on the discord due to accessibility and quicker response times, but unless my work blows up something crazy and starts bleeding 6-7 days a week out of me, all should be well.

In Defense Of The Genre [Part II]

For some reason I'm awake again at 1.30am and deciding responding here is a good idea, so excuse any glaring errors that may exist.

@didgeridont
The first point I'd like to address is the need for private moderator discussion on this topic; as I have previously said we are a collection of individuals that try to make mutual decisions. We have different thoughts, opinions and processes by which we would respond. Therefore a chat were we can openly have our differences and reconcile them before we talk to users. Having an argument between moderators in public would not be a good look. We discuss as a team so we can operate as a team, that is it. No maniacal plans or evil intent behind a private chat, just somewhere we can hash things out.

There was a couple of questions at me from @Odin

1) Regarding the function: I believe so yet in remains in the admin team's hands to change that role function. If they decide champions of virtue for the forum are required then that is what will happen. I left the team during that thread so I cannot comment on the discussions or events that occured after till my reappointment.

2) Bringing it to the mods. As I said before I left use my discord. I run up a fair bit of mobile data keeping push notifications on discord so if you have an urgent issue hit me up. Bear in mind my timezone is a little wonky so that can throw a spanner in the works.

3) Screenshots and trolling. I may be misreading this but I don't think I've done any of those things. My contributions to this thread ahve been to see what I can personally do and to try and keep it civil where needed.

@BingtheWing The major call for civility was after the invoking of Nazi/Facism comparisons. I felt at that stage it needed a course correction as that breaches the realms of civility. May just be my opinion on that though.

@RWBY Spectre See above for my personal reasons for wanting a private discussion on it beforehand. It was part of our founding mod principles 4 years ago when Sherlock, HeySeuss, Lillian and I got together to hash it out. I still stand by moderators only standing out by position rather than being the old school sherriffs of the west.

@pugbutter sorry mate the 10 hour shift at work got the better of me. I'm here for however long I'm awake again if needed.

As for the ignition point, I wasn't on the site at the time, so I have no contribution towards that.

In Defense Of The Genre [Part II]

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@Didgeridont

I'm not here to create parity in the argument, I'm here to try and find a solution. I have no stakes in the argument that is being had.

I will never ban someone for constructive criticism when it's presented in a civil manner, which I'm hoping my actions in this thread are helping promote.

Asking for a little compromise from each side is the best way to find that path IMO. Anyone that knows me from my previous stint as a mod will know I owned up to my mistakes either publicly or privately, depending on the situation.

@Kangaroo
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@j8cob appeal 2

I can understand how you feel that way and accept that there's nothing I can do for your personal situation. However the compromises I'm asking for is how can we mend this rift for the betterment of the community. As I've said before, there are discussions being had between the mod team, we just need to find the appropriate solution that we cna all get behind.

In Defense Of The Genre [Part II]

Can we cut the Nazi references at this stage? The premise of this thread is civil and those kind of comments are nothing close to that.