08-27-2020, 07:22 PM
[div style="width: 450px; margin: auto; text-align: justify"]Okay, holy hell there is a lot to go over here.
Re: Truce's Ideas I think you've got a lot of really awesome ideas, Truce! I'd love to see just about everything you suggested, though I likely won't for reasons I'll discuss later in the post.
My Group I wanna clarify since I don't think it was clear, the new group was not going to be a staff run group whatsoever. It was a group that I came up with with inspiration from Crows (for the mutation) and Van (for the new biome) that needed staff approval to exist. I was still gonna do the same thing members do to get a board and garner support. Sadly, it's not going to happen, even if there was enough interest for it.
Re: Fae quite frankly, the staff team's ability to process things has been shot when compared to where it used to be and where it should be. I'll get into the why in a minute, but as far as what you've been told thus far, I doubt that answer will change. We take complaints (especially like what you've lodged) very seriously, and I find it deeply regretful that the slow response makes it appear as though we don't.
EDIT: I hadn't actually realized that we hadn't responded, I thought that the matter was wrapped up. Responding will be added to our to-do list.
Survey Last Sunday staff reviewed the survey for the first time. (I didn't even peek at it in advance). 9 people responded, and they had a lot to say. The two biggest takeaways are that the new world needs a hell of a lot of work, and so does the staff team. Moving forward, those will be the priority.
What's Really Going On I'm not gonna beat around the bush, my heart isn't in bb anymore. It hasn't been for a while. This past summer has taught me where my personal true priorities lie, and it's not here. It's my family, my girlfriend, my education and my mental health. I can't name anything more important to me than those things, and that's where my attention has been this summer. I tried to bring it back to bearbones, but I have failed. I was feeling this before the influx of feedback from members last month, but that brought it into sharp relief that I simply do not have it in me anymore. Bearbones clearly needs so much more than what I have to offer it, so I think that it will be the best for both me and the site for me to step down.
But here's the thing. Crows has been feeling the same way as me. We both want and need out, and it's unfair for either one of us to dip before finding suitable replacements, or worse, leaving bb to fend for itself. A couple years ago, this wasn't a problem because we had a senior moderator ready to step up (Crows c
, but right now the site does not have that. By the time someone is a smod, they've been around for a while, know the mechanics of the site and how to moderate it. We've had the chance to vet them during their "career" as staff. So the two of us are having to work out how to make up for that while still finding someone new to fill our shoes. We've got ideas, drafts, but progress is slow. The internet gives us both a lot of anxiety these days, to the point where they're not around much and I'm able to keep up conversation with a hard, generous max of 4 specific people and 1 specific server.
That's why nothing's getting done. I've been trying to get myself to write this post since the beginning of the month, but the only thing I wanted to do was write my stepping down post. Which is why I said a bunch of stuff that I was planning on putting in said post. I wish this could be it for me, but unfortunately it's not.
I'm asking for your patience as we figure out what the hell is going to happen to the staff team. Pretty soon it'll look very different, and I hope from there the team and the site will be able to thrive again.
Well we got a bunch more posts after I initially wrote this so. I probably won't have much to add, since I already wrote this well before the influx of replies.
Leader Tryouts Updating this at 5:30pm pst on 8/24/20, someone was supposed to reply to the tryout thread this evening. Since people are asking here, though, I'll answer here too. Simply put, we were waiting for more applications. Usually how this thing goes is that we get some apps and let the community vote. Right now for LS it's a vote between Timothy and getting absorbed into BL and Truce, Scully and Finny vs no one.
The @ "Not only that, but some staff members have made characters to seem "invested" in TNW, but then immediately dropped them after a couple of posts."
I recognize an @ when I see one. Yeah, I joined FL as a genuine attempt to get back into the game and back into the site, but take all the stuff I've been dealing with and combine it with a distinct feeling that only one person actually wanted me there, it was hard to muster up the motivation to continue.
Transparency I want to see staff be more transparent too. I have a strong desire to do that personally, but that is sometimes overpowered by intense anxiety. It's not just for logging into bb, it's for just about any communication that is with people that I haven't known for years and/or aren't p much family to me. Even with people that fit that criteria! This year, the numerous changes and events that have happened, have changed me. I'm sure anyone that's known me for a while can see it. I refuse to hate the person I've become, but I recognize that I have new shortcomings.
I've very much become the speaker of the staff team. Not because anyone else can't do it, but because historically I've often done so (particularly after my promotion to admin) and because I've felt that it's my responsibility. Not to mention my schedule usually let me be around when others weren't, but that is changing. I don't think that becoming "speaker of staff team" was good for anyone, let alone me. People look to me for answers I don't always have, and I fear that me doing this has made others feel their voices don't count as much as mine, so they don't use them. What's more, years ago people used to come to me to be their voice on staff. People don't really do that anymore. I think that when I exit the team, that will be my biggest regret. That somewhere, somehow along the way I stopped being someone people could talk to.
But those aren't the only issues with how the staff team communicates. I fully recognize that the whole thing w messages requiring approval thing exists for a reason, and a good one at that. It ensures little things like grammar and big things like tone. It forces discussion to make sure that we are making the right decision. But oh my god if it doesn't slow the process down. Once upon a time, when we had 6+ people on the team, one or two people not being available wasn't that big of a deal. We could still get something out and feel confident it was as it should be. Now there is the sense that we need minimum 4/5, if not 5/5. Frankly, I still don't feel entirely confident posting some things without Crows' reviewing it. This post being one of them, I didn't even want to show the rest of the team without their input.
On BB's problems (ok this ended up being a little bit of an unrelated tirade) One person alone isn't going to save bb. It's taken me far too long to accept that. This site has deep issues, and always has. No one person is responsible for causing or fixing it. Everyone has to. One of the problems is that we look to one or few people to take care of everything - leaders, staff - and just. Leave it to them. I've been on both sides of it, I'll admit it. I haven't fought against it perfectly, but believe me when I say that I know what it's like to have it all on you to fix. Look at the groups I've led, look at the site itself. I know I'm not the only one. And yeah, the staff team, the leaders, they have to take the lead. But acting like they're the only ones that have to contribute to the solution isn't right. And no, I am not talking about this situation right here, it is clear that it is the members that have the ideas, members that have the drive, and staff have failed to demonstrate the same. I'm speaking generally about a problem that makes the site toxic to those in leadership, to the point that 2/5ths of the dwindling staff team can't wait to leave and Truce is the only leader left in TNW.
Writing this, I know not how much more I will be on this site, let alone in an influential position. I don't know if I'll get another chance to shine light on this issue that has only gotten worse. BB won't have the diverse leadership it needs until there is support for its leaders (this very much including staff leadership). Again, I'm not trying to cry that there is a lot of distrust and dislike of staff right now. I don't agree with all of it, but I know it is there for a reason and I'm not here to invalidate that. I can't tell you how many times I have asked what people want only to get silence or vagueness. I implement what people want when they do tell me and am rewarded with little to no engagement. Something I'm sure everyone else who has ever had any position of power here can relate to.
I'll be the first to admit that I am part of the problem. I tried to change and learned two things: it will never be enough, and I have much more pressing things I need to care of. At the first opportunity I will get out of the way and let someone else that still has the investment in bb have a go.
ok y'all went off I think I've already covered the most important stuff with this, so I'm just gonna go ahead and post this rather than writing more and waiting even longer for approval. For clarification's sake, I drafted the first half of this on 8/23, waited for Crows' response and wrote the rest on the 24th. I got to show the rest of the team last night.
Re: Truce's Ideas I think you've got a lot of really awesome ideas, Truce! I'd love to see just about everything you suggested, though I likely won't for reasons I'll discuss later in the post.
My Group I wanna clarify since I don't think it was clear, the new group was not going to be a staff run group whatsoever. It was a group that I came up with with inspiration from Crows (for the mutation) and Van (for the new biome) that needed staff approval to exist. I was still gonna do the same thing members do to get a board and garner support. Sadly, it's not going to happen, even if there was enough interest for it.
Re: Fae quite frankly, the staff team's ability to process things has been shot when compared to where it used to be and where it should be. I'll get into the why in a minute, but as far as what you've been told thus far, I doubt that answer will change. We take complaints (especially like what you've lodged) very seriously, and I find it deeply regretful that the slow response makes it appear as though we don't.
EDIT: I hadn't actually realized that we hadn't responded, I thought that the matter was wrapped up. Responding will be added to our to-do list.
Survey Last Sunday staff reviewed the survey for the first time. (I didn't even peek at it in advance). 9 people responded, and they had a lot to say. The two biggest takeaways are that the new world needs a hell of a lot of work, and so does the staff team. Moving forward, those will be the priority.
What's Really Going On I'm not gonna beat around the bush, my heart isn't in bb anymore. It hasn't been for a while. This past summer has taught me where my personal true priorities lie, and it's not here. It's my family, my girlfriend, my education and my mental health. I can't name anything more important to me than those things, and that's where my attention has been this summer. I tried to bring it back to bearbones, but I have failed. I was feeling this before the influx of feedback from members last month, but that brought it into sharp relief that I simply do not have it in me anymore. Bearbones clearly needs so much more than what I have to offer it, so I think that it will be the best for both me and the site for me to step down.
But here's the thing. Crows has been feeling the same way as me. We both want and need out, and it's unfair for either one of us to dip before finding suitable replacements, or worse, leaving bb to fend for itself. A couple years ago, this wasn't a problem because we had a senior moderator ready to step up (Crows c
, but right now the site does not have that. By the time someone is a smod, they've been around for a while, know the mechanics of the site and how to moderate it. We've had the chance to vet them during their "career" as staff. So the two of us are having to work out how to make up for that while still finding someone new to fill our shoes. We've got ideas, drafts, but progress is slow. The internet gives us both a lot of anxiety these days, to the point where they're not around much and I'm able to keep up conversation with a hard, generous max of 4 specific people and 1 specific server.That's why nothing's getting done. I've been trying to get myself to write this post since the beginning of the month, but the only thing I wanted to do was write my stepping down post. Which is why I said a bunch of stuff that I was planning on putting in said post. I wish this could be it for me, but unfortunately it's not.
I'm asking for your patience as we figure out what the hell is going to happen to the staff team. Pretty soon it'll look very different, and I hope from there the team and the site will be able to thrive again.
Well we got a bunch more posts after I initially wrote this so. I probably won't have much to add, since I already wrote this well before the influx of replies.
Leader Tryouts Updating this at 5:30pm pst on 8/24/20, someone was supposed to reply to the tryout thread this evening. Since people are asking here, though, I'll answer here too. Simply put, we were waiting for more applications. Usually how this thing goes is that we get some apps and let the community vote. Right now for LS it's a vote between Timothy and getting absorbed into BL and Truce, Scully and Finny vs no one.
The @ "Not only that, but some staff members have made characters to seem "invested" in TNW, but then immediately dropped them after a couple of posts."
I recognize an @ when I see one. Yeah, I joined FL as a genuine attempt to get back into the game and back into the site, but take all the stuff I've been dealing with and combine it with a distinct feeling that only one person actually wanted me there, it was hard to muster up the motivation to continue.
Transparency I want to see staff be more transparent too. I have a strong desire to do that personally, but that is sometimes overpowered by intense anxiety. It's not just for logging into bb, it's for just about any communication that is with people that I haven't known for years and/or aren't p much family to me. Even with people that fit that criteria! This year, the numerous changes and events that have happened, have changed me. I'm sure anyone that's known me for a while can see it. I refuse to hate the person I've become, but I recognize that I have new shortcomings.
I've very much become the speaker of the staff team. Not because anyone else can't do it, but because historically I've often done so (particularly after my promotion to admin) and because I've felt that it's my responsibility. Not to mention my schedule usually let me be around when others weren't, but that is changing. I don't think that becoming "speaker of staff team" was good for anyone, let alone me. People look to me for answers I don't always have, and I fear that me doing this has made others feel their voices don't count as much as mine, so they don't use them. What's more, years ago people used to come to me to be their voice on staff. People don't really do that anymore. I think that when I exit the team, that will be my biggest regret. That somewhere, somehow along the way I stopped being someone people could talk to.
But those aren't the only issues with how the staff team communicates. I fully recognize that the whole thing w messages requiring approval thing exists for a reason, and a good one at that. It ensures little things like grammar and big things like tone. It forces discussion to make sure that we are making the right decision. But oh my god if it doesn't slow the process down. Once upon a time, when we had 6+ people on the team, one or two people not being available wasn't that big of a deal. We could still get something out and feel confident it was as it should be. Now there is the sense that we need minimum 4/5, if not 5/5. Frankly, I still don't feel entirely confident posting some things without Crows' reviewing it. This post being one of them, I didn't even want to show the rest of the team without their input.
On BB's problems (ok this ended up being a little bit of an unrelated tirade) One person alone isn't going to save bb. It's taken me far too long to accept that. This site has deep issues, and always has. No one person is responsible for causing or fixing it. Everyone has to. One of the problems is that we look to one or few people to take care of everything - leaders, staff - and just. Leave it to them. I've been on both sides of it, I'll admit it. I haven't fought against it perfectly, but believe me when I say that I know what it's like to have it all on you to fix. Look at the groups I've led, look at the site itself. I know I'm not the only one. And yeah, the staff team, the leaders, they have to take the lead. But acting like they're the only ones that have to contribute to the solution isn't right. And no, I am not talking about this situation right here, it is clear that it is the members that have the ideas, members that have the drive, and staff have failed to demonstrate the same. I'm speaking generally about a problem that makes the site toxic to those in leadership, to the point that 2/5ths of the dwindling staff team can't wait to leave and Truce is the only leader left in TNW.
Writing this, I know not how much more I will be on this site, let alone in an influential position. I don't know if I'll get another chance to shine light on this issue that has only gotten worse. BB won't have the diverse leadership it needs until there is support for its leaders (this very much including staff leadership). Again, I'm not trying to cry that there is a lot of distrust and dislike of staff right now. I don't agree with all of it, but I know it is there for a reason and I'm not here to invalidate that. I can't tell you how many times I have asked what people want only to get silence or vagueness. I implement what people want when they do tell me and am rewarded with little to no engagement. Something I'm sure everyone else who has ever had any position of power here can relate to.
I'll be the first to admit that I am part of the problem. I tried to change and learned two things: it will never be enough, and I have much more pressing things I need to care of. At the first opportunity I will get out of the way and let someone else that still has the investment in bb have a go.
ok y'all went off I think I've already covered the most important stuff with this, so I'm just gonna go ahead and post this rather than writing more and waiting even longer for approval. For clarification's sake, I drafted the first half of this on 8/23, waited for Crows' response and wrote the rest on the 24th. I got to show the rest of the team last night.
[align=center]
I wanna be your happiness I wanna be your common sense pain Wrap your head in a [glow=#684460,2,300]picket fence[/glow] Rebuild after the hurricane [abbr=this user is trailhead's miss american pye — aporia has tip toed in here, peed on all your things, and then deathdropped through the floor into hell — you've been poked by fangs — crows cleaned up apoira's pee and threw chocolate at you — joey baked you yummy cookies — firebird is definitely building a nest here — you have been bitten by a wild eskie (but w love though) — skullcrow has built u a pillow fort — vid sat on your head for about ten seconds before flying away — rev loves you — hoot hoot — you are my wife / you're my wife / boogie woogie woogie — hoot tried making a nest but got burnt zoinks — darwin gave you a kees — joey loves you <3]![/abbr] —