TCG Moderator Decision

[Darj]

I should've worded it a bit differently to be less confusing, but rather that we're not going to have a moderator that handles solely public relations. Rather, it'll just fall on us already here to actually keep you in the loop about stuff when it comes up. That's sort of why we already made that thread in News.

 

More directly, Zai's not doing PR duties anymore specifically, but that responsibility will instead be shared among the active staff members; least among the three listed in the opening post as the ones who normally update it.

 

Ah, that makes sense to me. If you all mods can put effort into communicating with the community, then it should be fine.

[Ryusei the Morning Star]

"In Darj's case, he was originally slated to be the replacement for evilfusion, given the above reasoning.

 

Looking over his record and questions posed as to how he would handle the section, we were satisfied with what plans he had in mind (facilitating HEALTHY discussion about design and seeing that members felt welcome without being alienated for viewpoints) and how he'd work with the rest of us on general forum matters"

 

Is there a "not" in here I'm missing?

[Phantom Roxas]

Please elaborate 

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the mods went against the people's choice on General Mod (this was when I was still around)

 

The rapid decline of Debates & General after my banning shows the Mod Team did not do enough to keep the section alive. That was literally the most active section before I got shafted. Brightflame and Jack haven't posted in months. Vla1ne barely posts. 

 

There were more than enough opposing view points that me being banned should not have killed a section that coughed out 100+posts daily. 

 

At some pt one needs to be willing to try something different (in this case a democratic approach) to see if that works

 

What could the mods have done to reinvigorate Debates? Quite frankly, I don't think the onus is on the mods to keep either Debates or General alive. Ultimately, those sections are for discussions, so the most that could be done would be to keep posting topics, and that's not exclusively the responsibility of the moderation team. If regular users aren't posting new topics, then the moderators really can't help with that. It's on those members as well to keep the sections alive. Like you said, people either barely post, or haven't posted at all in months. I doubt the mod team could have done much to change that.

[Flame Dragon]

Why? Let's look at it empirically? Of the recent mod choices you guys have made, how many worked out?

 

General pretty much elected Dad, and he's still going strong. The people the mod team has chosen seem to be playing musical chairs with mod assignments 

 

Calling something that is clearly not an election an election is the wokest take one can get from this.

 

I mean are you guys really not concerned about our low new member retention rate, or bleeding of veterans...or dysfunctional site

 

No offense to Sakura, but he had literally not asked Evilfusion for the ACP password to change the lights....like c'mon...the team is dysfunctional and people need to stop shrugging and start cleaning sheet. IMHO, Yui is the only one doing his job and not pointing fingers as to why he can't do it

Ideally the people we most want to get the mod position should be one of the ones the members would most want to see get the job. They don't have to be number 1, but they should have general good will shown. When that isn't the case it would certainly highlight a disconnect between the team and the users at large. That is the kind of thing we are going to try to avoid in the future. However calling something and election when it isn't is still just disingenuous.

 

I can't speak for new member retention, but the site has always bleed veteran members. I don't know how long ago it was that I started seeing people say "the site is dying". While it is something we don't want to see that is life. You lose interest in things and depending on what you got out of the site that could go away. I will say the dysfunctional nature of the site is the biggest issue. The cardmaker is the biggest draw and that had loads of issue. However I don't think anyone on the team is knowledgable enough to fix it. You can call it pointing fingers if you like, I wouldn't blame you for it, but the reality is making changes to the site at large is something we need our nonexistent Admin for to really have anything of substance done.

[Ryusei the Morning Star]

 

What could the mods have done to reinvigorate Debates? Quite frankly, I don't think the onus is on the mods to keep either Debates or General alive. Ultimately, those sections are for discussions, so the most that could be done would be to keep posting topics, and that's not exclusively the responsibility of the moderation team. If regular users aren't posting new topics, then the moderators really can't help with that. It's on those members as well to keep the sections alive. Like you said, people either barely post, or haven't posted at all in months. I doubt the mod team could have done much to change that.

Play Devils advocate to foster debate mostly

 

There's not been a lack of material to debate in the last 7 months

 

Did you know that coalition talks in Germany have broken down. That's HUGE. It has massive implications for the world if Germany cannot get a government together especially with the US turning away from Europe and towards the Pacific and Brexit

 

It's not an easy job, and I'd hate to be general mod, but you need to be willing to throw yourself to the sharks there. No one has been willing to do that

 

 

Ideally the people we most want to get the mod position should be one of the ones the members would most want to see get the job. They don't have to be number 1, but they should have general good will shown. When that isn't the case it would certainly highlight a disconnect between the team and the users at large. That is the kind of thing we are going to try to avoid in the future. However calling something and election when it isn't is still just disingenuous.

 

I can't speak for new member retention, but the site has always bleed veteran members. I don't know how long ago it was that I started seeing people say "the site is dying". While it is something we don't want to see that is life. You lose interest in things and depending on what you got out of the site that could go away. I will say the dysfunctional nature of the site is the biggest issue. The cardmaker is the biggest draw and that had loads of issue. However I don't think anyone on the team is knowledgable enough to fix it. You can call it pointing fingers if you like, I wouldn't blame you for it, but the reality is making changes to the site at large is something we need our nonexistent Admin for to really have anything of substance done.

Well, we do have programmers, we had people that could get YCMaker to show up (Tormey). We can copy the code and try experimenting with it elsewhere. There are options where the card maker is concerned

 

The only finger I would point is the Evilfusion situation. The guy has been Super for years, he's done the lights, not asking him how he did it and for the password is malpractice and dysfunction

 

Ideally yes, they two would line up, but they haven't. So once again I pose my question, how have the mod chosen mods done empirically. The mods chosen by the members are currently 2-0

 

Birdie and Dad did what we wanted them to do, and got out of the way when they no longer could. Can you say the same for guys you chose?

 

If the mods choosing the mods worked, I'd be fine, but things have gotten worse. IK we always bleed veterans, but in 2017 we've lost more than I can recall in the last 5 years

 

Started with Dolphin in February, and has gone downhill since then

[Phantom Roxas]

Play Devils advocate to foster debate mostly

 

There's not been a lack of material to debate in the last 7 months

 

Did you know that coalition talks in Germany have broken down. That's HUGE. It has massive implications for the world if Germany cannot get a government together especially with the US turning away from Europe and towards the Pacific and Brexit

 

It's not an easy job, and I'd hate to be general mod, but you need to be willing to throw yourself to the sharks there. No one has been willing to do that

 

Again, it's not solely on the mods to play devil's advocate. Couldn't regular members do that, too?

 

There has certainly been plenty of material. I myself have been keenly observing AT&T's bid to acquire Time Warner, and I posted a debate thread for that. However, it's been lacking in activity. But I'm not claiming that the mods aren't doing enough to keep that thread, let alone the entire section alive. I'm wondering why other members aren't posting in that thread.

 

I didn't know about the coalition talks. Perhaps you could have started a thread about that since your return.

[Ryusei the Morning Star]

Again, it's not solely on the mods to play devil's advocate. Couldn't regular members do that, too?

 

There has certainly been plenty of material. I myself have been keenly observing AT&T's bid to acquire Time Warner, and I posted a debate thread for that. However, it's been lacking in activity. But I'm not claiming that the mods aren't doing enough to keep that thread, let alone the entire section alive. I'm wondering why other members aren't posting in that thread.

 

I didn't know about the coalition talks. Perhaps you could have started a thread about that since your return.

I'm somewhat reluctant to get into Debates. For one politics (geo or domestic) tend to make me more of a jabroni than I am normally. 

 

Also there's the whole thing with me being on pretty thin ice

 

I'll do it if no one else will, but I'd rather stay out of there. 

 

Being the mod of debates won't be easy, it was never meant to be. It's honestly the hardest job on the site IMO, which is why I suggested people like Flame who actively debate on both sides. I get where you're coming from in saying that the mods shouldn't bear responsibility, but debates unlike most other sections needs friction. You can either have that in the form of a controversial poster like me of old, or, you can have it as a mod who instills "chaos" by being a devils advocate

 

The large point here is that the mod team, despite their best intentions, don't understand the intricacies of every subforum. And as long as they try to pretend they do, we'll keep getting meh mod fits. I'm not comfortable sacking Broke N, cause that's just not the type of person I am, but my honest opinion is to have another TCG mod as well, one done by election

[Dad]

I mean, this ain't really the place but i could put up some discussion if y'all ACTUALLY want to debate.

 

Theres topics that can be res'd, there's new topics, and then there's member posts. If i was still a member is be happy to debate (considering i kept vlaine and Brightflame around in debates easily) but I'm not. I can't be a third party that only pops his nose in to control irrational behavior AND debate with you.

 

So if you want content, sure. If you want posts, participate.

[Flame Dragon]

Well, we do have programmers, we had people that could get YCMaker to show up (Tormey). We can copy the code and try experimenting with it elsewhere. There are options where the card maker is concerned

 

Ideally yes, they two would line up, but they haven't. So once again I pose my question, how have the mod chosen mods done empirically. The mods chosen by the members are currently 2-0 

 

Birdie and Dad did what we wanted them to do, and got out of the way when they no longer could. Can you say the same for guys you chose?

 

If the mods choosing the mods worked, I'd be fine, but things have gotten worse. IK we always bleed veterans, but in 2017 we've lost more than I can recall in the last 5 years

 

Started with Dolphin in February, and has gone downhill since then

If someone could get YCMaker to come and update the cardmaker and fix the various other issues I'd be for it. I'd assume everyone on the team would be.

 

We've only appointed what, 5 mods in the past 2 years. I don't remember the circumstances around Dad's promotion, but I don't think he was picked via public opinion. At the very least I don't think that was the deciding factor in his promotion. Could easily be wrong though. Some people took issue with Yui getting the job at first, but I'm pretty sure it had a receptive response. Not to mention you just said you think they're doing a good job. Broken's promotion has caused issues, but I'd like to believe people will calm down once he has had a chance to prove himself. Birdie was only a mod for a short time so it is too hard to say how things would have played out had they stuck around for longer. The biggest issue has been Zai.

 

And ultimately the thing you're calling for is more member participation in moderator appointment, and we are going to be doing just that going forward.

[Ryusei the Morning Star]

If someone could get YCMaker to come and update the cardmaker and fix the various other issues I'd be for it. I'd assume everyone on the team would be.

 

We've only appointed what, 5 mods in the past 2 years. I don't remember the circumstances around Dad's promotion, but I don't think he was picked via public opinion. At the very least I don't think that was the deciding factor in his promotion. Could easily be wrong though. Some people took issue with Yui getting the job at first, but I'm pretty sure it had a receptive response. Not to mention you just said you think they're doing a good job. Broken's promotion has caused issues, but I'd like to believe people will calm down once he has had a chance to prove himself. Birdie was only a mod for a short time so it is too hard to say how things would have played out had they stuck around for longer. The biggest issue has been Zai.

 

And ultimately the thing you're calling for is more member participation in moderator appointment, and we are going to be doing just that going forward.

Cardmaker:

 

Tormey mentioned when I last spoke to him, granted this was like mid June, that he was brushed off. Dolphin mentioned he was a pretty good programmer, letting him take a look at the code can't have hurt. And pretty sure we have other coders too. Bottom line, the status quo is a net loss of us. We need to think of new answer beyond *le shrug*

 

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Dad got unanimous support among the main general posters. You had everyone from me to vla1ne to Brightflame (back when he was a leftie) enthusiastically back Dad. Dad had, at that point, been a regular poster in Debates/General and regularly butted heads with us. Sometime you guys need to realize the people who frequent a section know what they need there pretty well (which is why I support leaving Zai's fate up to the RP'er who post there instead of LARPers like me who have never gone into R/P)

 

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Yui has made himself available a ton, much like Birdie did. Birdie didn't last long, but she made important changes while she stuck around. Yui is willing to mingle with new members and is polite and respectful in PMs. He's not condescending at all. Not sure if he's supposed to be a PR mod, but he's doing a damn good job at it.

 

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Pretty sure Yui ranked pretty high in the PR mod election anyway, so why people are aggrieved at him IDK, General is an odd fit for him, but *shrugs* I was banned can't comment

 

---

 

Needs to be heavily user based. Hina was cut as General mod because x and y on the mod team didn't like her despite a number of general users being favorable to her. That's unproductive. Her jobs isn't to make nice with x and y, but rather to keep a section in order. 

 

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I appreciate that you want more base involvement, but as of yet, I have not seen it. A good faith good idea would be to hire another TCG mod in addition to Broke

[Tinkerer]

Ugh, I really don't like sticking my nose in YCM politics.  Makes my skin itch, but I do have a couple cents that I might as well toss in.

 

I think BrokeN should do fine as TCG mod.  I really don't have much issue with any one person over another.  However, this brings up the question, what is the responsibility of a mod?  The thing is, though there might be a specifically defined criteria, I have this strong impression that there is a disconnect between members' impressions and mods' impressions on what the job entails.

 

If anything, I think this responsibility is the thing that needs to be touched on and redefined.  It is this point that the members should define, because that will impact what the majority of the site recognizes as important.  I am not suggesting that the mods don't have input on this definition, but it should not be under the position of modship, but rather as members themselves.  This mutual understanding should ultimately lead to elections of mods that push forward what YCM values and it will give a certain goal that mods work towards.  Further, as the site changes, there should be a re-examining of these responsibilities and removing those that might be unnecessary while adding those that might be more in-line with the times.

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

Okay I grew angrier and angrier as I read the OP. But I have grown as a person and I can contain that. However I do think that I should get it said.

 

This felt condescending. You're giving us basic and vague information in what reads as an attempt to hush anyone with any issues while not even really going into the issues with all this. You also have a lot of assumptions there.

 

Also sorry but that reasoning for VCR is just ridiculous. Favoritism? Between mods? The people who work together? We've already got three people from RP and they don't seem to be making any sort of...plots. Should we be concerned that Sakura, Night, and Smear, all Showcase people, are on? It feels like a weird reason for someone not to be in. Is it not a good idea to have mods that can work well together? Not to mention Broken also RPs. Honestly, no offense Drew you spitfire, I would have been more willing to accept it was because of his personality (as said, spitfire, emotional, etc).

 

I won't go into why I feel Broken might be iffy because I don't know him THAT well plus you've already written off any issues with "Eh, he'll get better hopefully".

 

Oh and um...you seemed to list why you were considering Darj but not why he wasn't picked. Not that I think you have to, it'd be kinda embarrassing potentially for him, but if you're going to go out of your way to say you're explaining don't just not explain. (Also I don't know Darj at all so can't say much about that anyway)

 

ALSO, the "plans to reform" bit is concerning. Mods have the power to change things BUT they should NOT change things without the members input. That is the big reason that electing people as mods internally alone can be an issue. Even if y'all think it's a good idea if the memberbase doesn't then you'll just go in the opposite direction you're wanting.

 

I appreciate the idea of getting people's input but I'm sorry at this point I don't believe y'all. It's been said before. And it's been ignored before. You have to prove yourselves now if you're wanting me to believe you. Not saying I'm not open to believing but I really need something to believe in first.

 

Though real talk I've always thought PR mod was a silly concept and it's better that whichever mods happen to be available and good at communicating should just do whatever it is they're supposed to do. (Still unsure what that is)

[Blake]

I have concerns in regards to Broken being a moderator. I did PM Sakura and Flame Dragon about it, which I will say is the first times PMs have seemed to yield results, so that's a plus. My concerns are mostly around temperament, nothing really to do with how "qualified" he is. While I would argue more on that point for, say, CC or GFX, TCG doesn't have that creative nature to it that I feel benefits from having a skilled person leading the section.
 
I also know that Broken had a member(s) raising concerns after the Halloween event (not myself), asking the team to never let him near managing a site event like that. For the decision to appear relatively out of the blue was a red flag, and Flame Dragon said he actually hadn't even heard about it, despite other mods (don't know which) guaranteeing he wouldn't.
 
Broken could very well be a good moderator. He's had no chance to prove either way, and so long as the trial period is treated as a trial period (which it has never been utilized as), then there should be no problem. In ideal world, we wouldn't be in this situation, and due process would really diffuse any concerns until being proven issues during the modship. I just felt I couldn't sit back and accept a decision that happened so suddenly, and, by admission of Flame, Broken was only brought up as Evilfusion stepped down before his mention on the 21st that led to his promotion. 
 
Before moving on, I want to touch on the way this was handled a little more:
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/170959185209458699/384136124932554762/unknown.png
 
The red text was absolutely unacceptable. If the point was to tell the members that something was coming, why would you actively discourage discussion? Drama has become such a buzzword around here that it's impossible to talk about it while avoiding accusations of causing drama. Sure, you can say you wanted members to PM the team about it, but, even if that was true, no info would have been given out all the same.
 
I disagree with abolishing PR as a position entirely. Even ignoring the solid foundation set for it, which has gone mostly neglected, the entire reason the position was established was due to a lack of personability on the team, and that's largely still there. The only current member of the team who has that sense of approachability ot trust to them, be it from my PoV or others I know of, is Yui. Who seems scared of sharing info that may somehow oppose or inconvenience the team, so it leads to even his personable nature not achieving the goal. More on this later.
 
Now, members don't need to know everything, I've said such in the past. But both Yui and Broken's promotions have come about in relatively the same context with little-to-no prior information. Yui was a happy accident, but that doesn't change that learning from the mistakes that led to that situation is wrong. It caused Dad and I to have a fight, which honestly hurt me.
 
Keeping the site updated as you go through these processes is important, and taking your time is equally important. Concerns could have been brought to light openly, which Broken (and VCR and Darj and whoever else) would have had a chance to answer, much like with the PR "Election" thread. Concerns and objections would never rule out a member entirely, but going through the motions would have saved a lot of grief on all sides. It doesn't even have to be a matter of mods being selected, things like the debate about what was too NSFW for YCM are important to share.
 
I also wanna say that in general... Talk is cheap. I offered plans to renew and update Custom Cards, but nothing came of them. I ended up doing other things, but that doesn't change that I didn't do what I said I would. I don't think you should gauge an applicant on immediate plans, nor do I think that we can truly believe anything said in this thread without action. Fool us once (Yui), shame on you. Fool us twice (Broken), shame on us.
 
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Because like you said, his schedule opened up. I don't recall him saying he should be let back on the team in response to what he felt was a failure on someone else's part.

Bree's schedule is more open now. She left on similar terms to Dad, and I believe Sakura told her she would be welcome back, much the same as Dad.
 
She said it half-sarcastically and half-seriously, by virtue of feeling that the team would benefit from adding her back, as well as being tired of seeing this happen every few months, even when it's less "dramatic", like this time has been.. The team has valued ambition in the past, though I personally tend to be wary of ambition, and seen it as a valuable quality. I don't see why this should be concerning when it was something that made her desire flare up to help the site.
 
Koko also came back under similar circumstances before, after taking an amicable leave. There were no protests then, and it all worked out for the better. This isn't indicative that such will always be the case, but why squash someone looking to improve the site?
 
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Broken, I genuinely hope you succeed. No one should have to start anything with people telling them "you're going to fail" or worse, and any personal gripes or concerns do not change that. I would rather be cautiously optimistic than see my pessimism validated.
 
As for the team moving forward, experience makes me believe that the team won't be able to pull off PR as a whole. The team is stuck to this idea of absolute unity, where saying a single thing out of line with the rest of them, be it opinion or otherwise, is seen as a betrayal. Evilfusion telling me he said not to ban Enguin ended up giving him grief, because he was met with "how dare you tell him that"... When the fact that I let people know that helped to keep the situation from escalating. The sense of loyalty the team wants to maintain only leads to mistakes and poor judgment leading to stubborn insistence, and what we've seen is that there's little-to-no punishments that actually happen for members of the team.
 
It is for this reason that I believe the team needs someone who is willing to challenge it, to be prudently open with the memberbase, and be willing to sit and think about what's happening, so that due process happens. Hasty decisions can go well, but that doesn't mean they always will, and erring on the side of caution can prvent those issues. No, I'm not shilling myself here. I just feel that someone with that role is important, although another Alfred is going too far. I'd be looking for someone like this, not quite a devil's advocate, to top off the team before looking for more section specific mods. Or at least consider someone with a temperament lending itself to such while looking for said section mods.
 
I've already covered most, if not all of this, with Flame and Sakura in PM. I don't know if Sakura actually read it, but I know Flame did.

 

EDIT: Forgot something.

 

Winter, stop blaming activity on the mods. You're mixing issues together that aren't relevant to the topic at hand, and you know what they say: Be the change you wish to see.

[Ryusei the Morning Star]

Winter, stop blaming activity on the mods. You're mixing issues together that aren't relevant to the topic at hand, and you know what they say: Be the change you wish to see.

Context Black, I was talking about Debates. Debates needs a spark to be active, that can either come in the form of someone like me, or it needs a provocative mod. I stand by that. I can't be the change in this case, because clearly that's the sorta thing that gets you banned if you do

 

The only other example I can guess is my criticism of Sakura not asking Evilfusion for the Christmas lights password or taking more initiative to try to update the cardmaker?? In which case Tinkerer beat me to it and already made a crowd-sourcing thread to update the code for links and Pendulums. I stand by my critique of sakura as well. I cannot add lights even if Evil gave me the password, and it's such an obvious thing to do that I'm still astounded sakura didn't do it

 

Was there a different occurrence you were talking about?

[(GigaDrillBreaker)]

It occurs to me I haven't said this publicly.

 

The best candidate for TCG mod is probably Black.

 

The safest candidate, whom I also believe would be fantastic in the role, would be Sleepy.

[Ryusei the Morning Star]

It occurs to me I haven't said this publicly.

 

The best candidate for TCG mod is probably Black.

 

The safest candidate, whom I also believe would be fantastic in the role, would be Sleepy.

Sleepy would be a wonderful addition to TCG/OCG. She's sweet, active in the section, and insightful. I'm not comfortable with sacking Broke. N before his trial period. What's done is done and he should not bear the cross for the mod team, but there's no rule against 2 TCG/OCG mods

 

We've almost always had 2 in that section. Nai and Defacto Koko, Nai and Evil, Evil and Koko before that, etc

 

I'm not sure if Black wants or would even accept a modship, but Sleepy and Broke. N would be a compromise duo we can try out

[Phantom Roxas]

Black was kicked off the mod team for the same reason I was, at the exact same time, over the same incident. Yes, he was going to step down anyway, but his resignation was, shall we say, accelerated. I wouldn’t trust him with another midship any more than I would expect people to trust me with one.

[Ryusei the Morning Star]

Black was kicked off the mod team for the same reason I was, at the exact same time, over the same incident. Yes, he was going to step down anyway, but his resignation was, shall we say, accelerated. I wouldn’t trust him with another midship any more than I would expect people to trust me with one.

Black had a public and acrimonious turf war with me?

 

Anyway if we're talking knowledge of the game, which is a major trait we'd need in a TCG mod, there's not many left that could best Black in that regard

[The Warden]

Winter, please, it's not all about you.

[Ryusei the Morning Star]

Winter, please, it's not all about you.

Fine, Black was not publicly feuding with regular members on a daily basis in an corrosive fashion (and no, that's not implying that the people Roxas was feuding with were innocent)

[(GigaDrillBreaker)]

Winter, please, it's not all about you.

That doesn't negate his point.

 

Roxas's situation and Black's are not identical.

 

If black's behavior in the past is an automatic exclusion, some of the additions to the team since then make little sense, at least as I see it.

[Dad]

Sleepy would be a wonderful addition to TCG/OCG. She's sweet, active in the section, and insightful. I'm not comfortable with sacking Broke. N before his trial period. What's done is done and he should not bear the cross for the mod team, but there's no rule against 2 TCG/OCG mods

 

We've almost always had 2 in that section. Nai and Defacto Koko, Nai and Evil, Evil and Koko before that, etc

 

I'm not sure if Black wants or would even accept a modship, but Sleepy and Broke. N would be a compromise duo we can try out

 

The only issue we had with Sleepy was activity iirc.  

 

 

That doesn't negate his point.

 

Roxas's situation and Black's are not identical.

 

If black's behavior in the past is an automatic exclusion, some of the additions to the team since then make little sense, at least as I see it.

 

No, they're not identical.  But Black was so ready to jump the gun that evil had had enough of his sheet and his spats with Roxas in the Mod Forum.  So he was demoted early.

 

With that in mind, let's try to stay on topic here.  There haven't been too many tangents so if you want to discuss Black And Roxas' demotions, do it privately.  Let's get back to talking about Broke N's promotion, TCG moderators, and stay in line with the thread. 

[(GigaDrillBreaker)]

This is on topic.

 

I suggested Black as a TCG Moderator.

 

Roxas brought up a point against Black.

 

I refuted said point.

[Dad]

I'm saying we can't refuse Black entirely based on his previous demotion.  Him getting promoted now should be irrelevant to his previous demotion.  Those are my own words, no one else's.  That's why his previous demotion is irrelevant.

[Yui]

DISCLAIMER: I haven't slept properly in the last week or so. I've been in a very bad mood lately because of it. I may not necessarily mean 100% of what I say below and it's the lack of sleep getting to me. Okay now let's get started.

 

I shouldn't even be in a situation where I'm saying this, but while I'm in no way against Broken's promotion (he was my favored candidate besides VCR_CAT, which I'll come back round to in a bit), I have some concerns about how it was handled in the final stages and would like to follow up on a few things that have been brought up in this thread. I'll be starting from the top. The fact that we have a mod thinking this has gone poorly and is siding against the other mods is not a good sign for the state we've fallen into.

 

In VCR's case, it had nothing to do with his personality, but rather conflict of interest, considering he is in close contact with three of the active moderators on this site (which are Dad, Yui and Zai) in Roleplaying. Therein lies the potential charge of an inside job / favoritism.

This part, I'm on the mod team's side with. Contrary to what CowCow said more recently, I'd guarantee that if we promoted VCR instead of Broken, there would be at least a few people suspecting some sort of power scheme from RP or accusations of favoritism. And then we'd have to tell them to shut the funk up because there is no power scheme, RP just happens to have well-behaved members who would make good mods for other sections. Broken's no stranger to RP either granted, but he's not quite a regular of the place like VCR is. Now, if I could get in a time machine, rewind a few days, and get VCR promoted instead, I'd probably do precisely that in retrospect, but this is life where we don't have save points or cheat codes, so Broken's what we've got and we've got Broken. In the event that he turns out to do a sheet job and we can clearly tell we funked up in promoting him, we just revoke his junior modship and put someone else (probably VCR) through the trial grinder. I put in my support for Broken because - aside from the hunch of favoritism claims - I figured that TCG, being a section reputable for its... less than stellar personality, needed a hardass running it. Broken just happened to be the hardest ass out of those three, as far as I was aware.

 

Moving forward, the standard will be that if staff promotions come up for specific sections, there shall be a thread for you all to give opinions, and we will use your input to make a final decision.

 

Even if in the end, we don't vote someone in that we felt is suitable enough to handle the job, you'll least be able to have a say in the matter.

Now I hate throwing shade on my friends, but the last time we let members have a hand in who became a mod, it was the PR mod election where we got Birdie and Zai. Birdie left the mod team like two days later, and Zai is by far the mod that's being met with the most opposition to this very day. And I'll be perfectly blunt, I've been defending Zai since the day he got promoted, but am starting to second-guess myself on that front, especially now that Dad's been on the team again for a while more or less negating my purpose for being here in the first place. In the interest of not derailing this thread, however, I'm going to drop that subject here and now, and expect the lot of you to not continue this line of discussion in particular. Not here anyway. We can get a separate thread for this down the line if necessary.

 

Speaking of PR mod, after some discussion among ourselves about how much the position actually worked since its inception, the decision was made to eliminate it.

What discussion? When did this happen? I must have missed this memo. Either that or I don't remember it, in which case it clearly couldn't have been much of a discussion, or it's older than funking Stonehenge and we're only just now announcing it. We need a PR mod, plain and simple, because if we just remove the position, I think we all know ourselves well enough that nobody's going to funking do it. I'll take Zai's spot as PR mod if I have to, like I should have during the election. It won't make the members trust us any more if we remove the position, in fact hampering their trust of us even more than it's already been hampered. Nothing will get communicated between team and memberbase because we can barely even communicate properly among ourselves, let alone with the rest of the site.

 

While this means that PR moderator is no more, it does not mean that we will stop providing closure on site matters.

We've barely been providing closure as it is. See the above.

 

I find the parts in bold rather ironic. I mean, surely most of us already know by now that you aren't that much of a social person but... isn't exactly here where the PR Mod is supposed to come in? In the sense that he/she becomes a communication "bridge", so to speak, between the Mod team and the YCM community.

Yes. Except Zai's barely here to do the one job he was brought in for. Is this to any fault of his own? Beats me. Dude's got a job, it's the holidays so he's got family to deal with, so on. But if the PR mod can't be available as a bridge of communication between members and mods, it may be time to pass the torch to someone else - someone more available - instead of putting it out entirely.

 

This is ridiculous, you all know this?

Yes =.=

 

That "thread in news"? You mean the absolutely butchery of transparency that you mostly use in order to shut down the idea of discussion over the new TCG moderator? With passive aggressive tones and very much implied "Don't question it, you had plenty of warning" that amounted to one little hint in a section that not everyone even visits?

This. This is exactly what I'm talking about somewhere above, and I'll touch up on this again later. We haven't been transparent, and the thread warning to "not start drama about this" borders on threatening.

 

No one was more irritated with Zai's modship than me, but it seems he's doing a good job in R/P? And if not R/P'ers can call him out

Zai polished up the OOC rules, and started the section discussion thread that didn't get much mileage, but otherwise has been doing a good job as RP mod in the same sense that you or I have been doing a good job breathing. There's not much of a job to do in the first place. Smear could do it, and he only exists just slightly more than YCMaker at this point.

 

That, and fankly most of the time we don’t have anything of substance to actually tell the memberbase about. If there’s a feeling that we’re witholding information for whatever reason, we really aren’t.

This isn't wrong, for the record. There's really not much info to share, and a lot of it is disciplinary stuff the entire site has no business knowing in the first place.

 

Really makes me not miss being a mod.

Dude, I haven't even been in this seat for a year and I already know this feeling.

 

Personally I'm not for actual elections being used to determine the new mods. It is messy and the mod team's thought should hold more weight then the member base. However if we call it an election we should treat it as such.

Agreed. See my earlier comments about how the PR election went.

 

Pretty sure Yui ranked pretty high in the PR mod election anyway, so why people are aggrieved at him IDK, General is an odd fit for him, but *shrugs* I was banned can't comment

I took the mantle of General mod because Dad had to step down for personal reasons. After getting shot down (out of concern from friends, which I still appreciate (albeit slightly less in hindsight)) and eventually stepping down from the PR mod election that ended in Zai getting modship for the section I wanted to mod initially, I decided helping a buddy out was a fine alternative, and took his spot as General mod when he stepped down. Granted, he's back to being General mod...

 

Why am I even on the team anymore with that in mind? I'm just unnecessary fluff now; General doesn't need two mods =.=

 

This felt condescending. You're giving us basic and vague information in what reads as an attempt to hush anyone with any issues while not even really going into the issues with all this.

 

Also sorry but that reasoning for VCR is just ridiculous. Favoritism? Between mods? The people who work together? We've already got three people from RP and they don't seem to be making any sort of...plots. Should we be concerned that Sakura, Night, and Smear, all Showcase people, are on? It feels like a weird reason for someone not to be in. Is it not a good idea to have mods that can work well together? Not to mention Broken also RPs. Honestly, no offense Drew you spitfire, I would have been more willing to accept it was because of his personality (as said, spitfire, emotional, etc).

Smear exists in name only and should probably be demodded, unless he's been hiding in the graphics sections and I've just managed to miss him every time he's logged in. Same applies to Night to a lesser extent, wherever he's gone off to. The difference between the Showcase mods and the RP mods however, is that most of the RP mods have all come into power over the last year or so, starting with Zai during the PR election being the second one in after Dad, then me taking Dad's place only for him to come back later. If we put VCR in instead of Broken, that would make four of the now-six active moderators RP members, which is two-thirds of the people actively running this site. Such a shift could seem a bit fishy.

 

Oh and um...you seemed to list why you were considering Darj but not why he wasn't picked. Not that I think you have to, it'd be kinda embarrassing potentially for him, but if you're going to go out of your way to say you're explaining don't just not explain.

This as well. Half-explanations are nothing more than half-assed attempts to try and keep things under control.

 

Before moving on, I want to touch on the way this was handled a little more:
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/170959185209458699/384136124932554762/unknown.png
 
The red text was absolutely unacceptable. If the point was to tell the members that something was coming, why would you actively discourage discussion? Drama has become such a buzzword around here that it's impossible to talk about it while avoiding accusations of causing drama. Sure, you can say you wanted members to PM the team about it, but, even if that was true, no info would have been given out all the same.

This is something I wanted to say while I was going over the OP, but I wasn't quite sure how to word it the way I wanted it to sound. As a moderator, actively discouraging discussion about mod decisions is not okay, as member discussion about mods will give us a far better scope of how they perform than our personal observations, especially considering most of us avoid TCG, which is the very section we're trying to get someone in for.

 

It is for this reason that I believe the team needs someone who is willing to challenge it, to be prudently open with the memberbase, and be willing to sit and think about what's happening, so that due process happens.

 

I spent a goddamn hour and a half writing and formatting this post.