stark

Post Your Pikcha

Holmes

Quick selfie. Note the top of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes teeshirt.

What Hogwarts house are you in?

I usually get results for either Ravenclaw or Slytherin. Seems about right.

In Defense Of The Genre [Part II]

I am exhausted from watching this thread straight from this morning until now. I am leaving to take a break, grab dinner, and maybe paint/draw for a bit to clear my mind. Ya'll behave and be civil. This is not the cue to derail the thread or get volatile because I'm sure another mod will be monitoring things and the threat to close the thread if things go south still stands.

Meanwhile, my PMs are always open if you need me, or you can tag me in a post and I'll see it/answer upon my return.

Like the Terminator, I'll be back.

In Defense Of The Genre [Part II]

Ok. This thread is starting to get heated. Cool it down or I will be forced to lock the thread, even if only temporarily, so that things can level out before discussion can continue.

In Defense Of The Genre [Part II]

I do have a question for you, @Sherlock Holmes. Why aren't you active enough with the community? Based on my time here, I have only seen you on to do your job as moderator. I can understand if you are too busy with work or school to be more active. It would be nice to see you spending more time with the community while you aren't doing your jobs. Then again, I am not here to demand you to be more active. It is just a suggestion/question after all.

@The Spectre

I used to be significantly more active -- I had several roleplays I was participating in, both on the forums and in PMs, and I was very active in the community socializing-wise. (Spam especially.) Then my life changed a bit -- I moved to Manhattan, I obtained a full-time job that kept me out of the house more (because I was working from home previously), and I had more things going on which stole my active time away from roleplaying. I still care about the community and have a lot of friends here with whom I keep in touch. I am still invested, even if I'm not down for roleplaying much anymore due to time constraints. I pop on here numerous times throughout the day, when I'm able to at work, and also when I get home. Of course, I can't sit on a discord while I'm at work (which seems to be when a lot of people are most active), however, for a length of time to get too involved in a conversation or a roleplay that may keep me from my paid duties. (As I'm sure is understandable.) I was promoted to moderator because I did and do care about the community and because I'm usually a solid voice of reason, none of which has changed. I'm just more active behind the scenes than in front these days.

I know that my ghost-level of obvious community involvement is just temporary, however, so I keep on keepin' on as best as I can in the meantime.

Right now I'm currently working on getting an agent here in the city, so that I can return to illustrating full time and start working from home again, which would allow me much more freedom to socialize. Meanwhile, I'm happy to keep up on the janitorial duties that moderatorship sometimes requires, as they are generally quick/easy to manage, if not glorious in nature. (Because, hey, shit needs to get done sometimes.) I contribute in the small ways that I can at the moment. It's not ideal, but it's what I can do for the time being, until my longterm plans play out.

In Defense Of The Genre [Part II]

@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.

@Kangaroo

To add to this point -- I'm the only moderator left who also (briefly) moderated on the original site. (Pre-Guildfall.) There was also discussion on these matters with the old moderating team, though the methods were slightly different concerning the means we used to communicate. (Largely the same end result, however.) Discussion has always been on the table for moderators and, I hope, will always be. It allows us to make the best possible decisions, I think, rather than acting unilaterally on complex matters where each of our unique experience/knowledge/perspectives can help shape the outcome wisely. I doubt that anyone would argue the validity of that statement and acknowledge that most matters are fine discussed behind 'closed doors'-- airing dirty laundry serves no one positively. (Not the moderator team making decisions, not the tenor of the forum, and certainly not the ones that decisions are being made about so that everyone knows their business.)

Now, that said...

I make the exception for the people directly involved -- they should understand everything about the situation in which they find themselves entangled. Occasionally, for stupid behavior, I think I (as well as other moderators) tend to assume the high road that we're dealing with 'adults' who know what they did wrong. I don't need to explain to someone that them posting a link to a porn site is going to get them in trouble -- they should have common sense and know that by looking at the simple rule list we have. (In some ways, however, this may be taking things for granted on my side in my dealing with the situation, which I perhaps should address.)

I would like to see some manor of mode enabled that allows the moderation teams to hold an account temporarily (freeze it, if you will) -- so that the user cannot continue the offending behavior -- and somehow limits their interaction to only the moderators. Then conversations can still be held, if they have questions or need clarification, before a final ban decision is enacted one way or another. This would leave lines of communication open, eliminate the situation where ignorance in a ban can be an issue, and suspend the need for alt accounts to be made for appeals. It would also allow the moderator team to deliberate, if necessary, and keep the involved people in the proverbial loop.

We need to eliminate the situations that allows problems to get as big as they've become, so that there aren't this many people involved in one gigantic tangle of situations. (It's all become rather like a gigantic spiderweb that branches out into ridiculous proportions for all the strands of people even remotely involved.)

I do understand much better now how this all evolved, however. (Thank you to those who responded both in the thread and in PM.)

I also understand that the vagueness of the rules is a source of contention. I think Mahz did that for the benefit of the moderator team so that we could tailor each situation depending on the surrounding circumstances. To some degree, we mods do need that flexibility because no situation is simply black and white. (As I'm sure everyone will agree.) This is why we choose moderators in whom we have confidence to be the judges and juries of problems, so that the site can generally be kept free of issues, outwardly pleasant, and a nice experience for the user base.

I also realize that there are presently those who are lacking confidence or taking issue with particular moderators and their actions. You are, of course, entitled to your opinions -- we all know that not everyone is going to get perfectly along and I think we all have to acknowledge that. (Otherwise, we're all in need of a collective slap upside the head.) In the end, however, we all have the same goal of making this site a place we're all happy to co-exist. I think that, if an issue is had with a moderator, then complaints need to be sent to the entire moderation team, as well as directly to Mahz and Hank. At the end of the day, administrators are the only ones with power to demote or promote people, but I think making the whole team aware of issues being had is necessary, so that we can all try to work to resolve them. And, if people don't feel comfortable bring it up to everyone on the team, then they should approach the moderator with whom they feel the most comfortable with and let that moderator try to address the issue.

No witch hunts forming, no angry parties. (Not saying that's happening in this thread, just talking hypothetically.) Just rational decision making by people who would like to resolve a problem being had and move forward.

Now, re-addressing the point of lacking confidence in some of the team, I will respectfully disagree. (As I have not had your negative experiences, naturally.) In my interactions, most everyone on the mod team is fairly level-headed and, when things are discussed, we do manage to balance each other's shortcomings all out. That is not to say a different team may work better; it might work worse. It could be a fantastic success, a raging disaster or, possibly, more of the same. I have no large issues with the way the moderator team currently works as a whole, but I also see the entire picture of that, which the community does not... Which brings us back to the first few paragraphs: the need to discuss things and then discerning that which should and should not be made public issues.

As has been said by some people in this thread, I agree that moderators should hold themselves to a slightly different standard than the regular users of the forum. We need to learn to check our behavior and remove ourselves from a situation emotionally before acting, so that we can make fair and just decisions. That said, we also need to accept that we are just human and will fuck up from time to time and may let a situation get the better of ourselves. For these occasional situations we do, of course, we ask for grace from the community and we need to be able to step back, confer with others, and try to rectify those situations as amicably as possible. Discussing with the moderator team, keeping those directly involved in the loop, and leaving the rest of the community to carry on in peace while we try to resolve the situation.

It is ridiculous that the situation has (apparently) festered this long and we need to somehow wipe the slate clean and start fresh. On both sides.

(Good lord that was a lot to type. Hopefully it all makes sense and has minimal errors. XD)

Also, @Andreyich No need for the negative autistic comment. Keep further remarks of that nature in your back pocket in future, please.

In Defense Of The Genre [Part II]

The same can not be said, in my eyes, of all other mods. There are few, very few mods, that I think are worthy of approaching nowadays and that is pretty much just limited to Sherlock Holmes despite their seeming inactivity (but don't worry, I am certain that Sherlock is reading this; that is just their style).

@Odin

Yo.

There was a very select moment all of this drama started, even before the Official discord was made. I'd like your opinion on when you think this all started. Anyone else is free to answer that too.

@Odin

This. I am curious about answers to this and quite interested to listen to all sides because I honestly do not have an opinion on this matter.

As I'm sure it has been noted, I was not a part of the initial Discord and I really only pop onto the 'official' one to check the mod area and make sure no one is having a meltdown. I chat here and there, but not necessarily with any regularity. I have been a step behind in this matter (because of my fringe involvement) and I don't know that I've ever been quite able to put the fragments of pieces I have together to form a clear enough picture of when the dissent actually began.

I don't know the full extent of the drama between the two Discords, except what bits I hear from other moderators and see users post about in situations such as this. (I'm usually just minding my own shit, answering various PMs to move/delete threads and make other site adjustments...)

People don't come to me about drama. I tend to not get involved, unless it is necessary, because who the hell would choose to exist in this vicious cycle of stress on a regular basis? I don't do it in real life and I'm sure as hell not going to 'entertain' myself by doing it on the internet. (I know some people enjoy it, but I largely find it to be nothing but an exercise in frustration.) That said, I still welcome people to come to me on all matters -- I will always listen. And, if I need to, act to help resolve the situation.

If anyone has any direct questions for me, I will gladly answer. (Here or in a PM.) I'm mostly interested to see the above questions answered, though. I feel it's a crucial piece I've been missing to this entire puzzle and I think it would be beneficial to clarify my thoughts on the situation. (Otherwise, I feel as though I'm in grumpy old person mode and just want people to stop shitting on my lawn, so to speak.)