Request for another Admin Feedback Thread

[Dmitri]

I'll echo what's been said earlier. If you have concerns, nothing is stopping members from voicing them to the admins and letting us know, in a civilized and mature manner.

EDIT:

And the rules have been dated recently. I worked on them a year ago, and we've been updating things over time. As for the Timeline Compendium thing, I do understand the frustrations in it not being to-date, but we are not omniscient. We look for things that we notice, and are dependent on information from the Faction Leaders and members to know what to put. When we're given nothing, we have nothing to use. @Padmé has a life outside the site and drinking wine. She doesn't spend all day and night combing through every single thread to find out what happened and if it's worthy to go on the compendium. The compendium I created prior to becoming admin last timeline was a byproduct of my annoying organization, of linking everything, and having been involved in the faction leaderships I was privy to all that was going on, and kept track of anything for the faction leaders. And that was a task I partook on myself on my own decision, not forced on me.

 

[Logan]

While i may not agree with pretty much anything brought up here let's not pretend like most admins are approachable. While not my personal experience I have heard from numerous members about reaching out to admins for various things and receiving no response for months if it all.

So why would anyone think reaching out to you guys privately would produce any real results?

 

[Brandon Rhea]

While i may not agree with pretty much anything brought up here let's not pretend like most admins are approachable. While not my personal experience I have heard from numerous members about reaching out to admins for various things and receiving no response for months if it all.

So why would anyone think reaching out to you guys privately would produce any real results?

If people aren't getting a response from admins, they should come to me and tell me that so I can deal with it. Escalating things up the chain is appropriate in this context.

 

[Dmitri]

While i may not agree with pretty much anything brought up here let's not pretend like most admins are approachable. While not my personal experience I have heard from numerous members about reaching out to admins for various things and receiving no response for months if it all.

So why would anyone think reaching out to you guys privately would produce any real results?

One thing I will say about myself is that I work on a lot of projects at once, both on the site and off. Which means there's a lot of things going on, and easy to get lost in the mess. For me or any other admins, don't be afraid to resend a message or question if you feel you're being ignored. It's possible it got misplaced. Or we've simply been busy that we haven't gotten around to it. Or it's currently still being debated. We have never banned a member for messaging us with a repeated, unaddressed question.

 

[GABA]

I forget, so reminders help!

Just don't message me and then if I don't answer in 15 minutes call my supervisor.
I about have a stroke when my clients do that.

 

[Logan]

One thing I will say about myself is that I work on a lot of projects at once, both on the site and off. Which means there's a lot of things going on, and easy to get lost in the mess. For me or any other admins, don't be afraid to resend a message or question if you feel you're being ignored. It's possible it got misplaced. Or we've simply been busy that we haven't gotten around to it. Or it's currently still being debated. We have never banned a member for messaging us with a repeated, unaddressed question.

Like I said, none of that is my personal experience. When I've actually needed to speak to an admin I do so over skype and it seems to be okay. I was just relaying the feelings from people who I've talked to/seen mention it.

And while what you are saying is true and I fully understand the being busy thing, it can put off members - especially new ones - when they don't even get a "Hey, I don't have the time to give you my full attention right now, but just know that I saw this and will get back to you as soon as I can." type of message. And I know we're all busy, but that literally takes less than 10 seconds to do.

 

[Brandon Rhea]

We have never banned a member for messaging us with a repeated, unaddressed question.

Although we certainly reconsidered that stance when you would always send us shit when you were a member.

 

[Painus]

The trick is to send enough messages in rapid succession that they have to respond in order to keep their sanity.

 

[Jessica Cloud]

@Brandon Rhea

Thanks for addressing the point of how bans are made, AND, how they applied specifically to these most recent situations. As a member myself, I often wonder how bans are made. I wonder how to avoid them. I wonder if I'm next. Could my profiles be the next BLADE? I look at recent situations like Bauren and Pros and I get confused. I say to myself: How did this happen? Could this happen to me? What made Pros special? Could be banned for making a joke profile? Could I be banned just as quickly, for maybe even less? How does this system work exactly and how should I adapt in kind?

Questions you just answered. Much to my relief. Lol.

So thank again. It's great to see you replying here and giving members like me insight into these subtle anxieties. Even if I have not expressed them in PM or in public. It helps me see how you and your team do business and why. So later on, when there is an eventual Feedback Thread getting posted, I can say: "Thanks Admins..."

"Nice job." :D

 

[Brandon Rhea]

@Brandon Rhea

Thanks for addressing the point of how bans are made, AND, how they applied specifically to these most recent situations. As a member myself, I often wonder how bans are made. I wonder how to avoid them. I wonder if I'm next. Could my profiles be the next BLADE? I look at recent situations like Bauren and Pros and I get confused. I say to myself: How did this happen? Could this happen to me? What made Pros special? Could be banned for making a joke profile? Could I be banned just as quickly, for maybe even less? How does this system work exactly and how should I adapt in kind?

Questions you just answered. Much to my relief. Lol.

So thank again. It's great to see you replying here and giving members like me insight into these subtle anxieties. Even if I have not expressed them in PM or in public. It helps me see how you and your team do business and why. So later on, when there is an eventual Feedback Thread getting posted, I can say: "Thanks Admins..."

"Nice job." :D

Yeah, understandable! Infractions are generally the process but sometimes people do enough to where going outside of that process is warranted. I mean, if you made a joke profile right now, would you get banned? Absolutely not. Like I said before, I would agree that if it was just this one issue and we banned someone for a month for that, that'd be an overreaction. It's all about looking at it in the full context of that particular member.

 

[Breeso]

A question... I recently made a character and while I do intend to RP as him seriously, he is pretty much a silly character. In view of recent events, is that alright or?

 

[Gaiaverse]

@Outlander @Gaiaverse @Cinereous

Do you guys honestly think that Brandon - since his confession to not having much time to RP brought this specific issue up - is not part of the community? Do you seriously, honestly think that he has no idea what's going on here, how the members feel about things, what certain issues are recurring problems, etc?

He's been running this site for more than a decade. I think it's pretty stupid to think that he doesn't care about or can't relate to or isn't part of this community just because he spends all of his free time RUNNING the site that we all love so much and thus doesn't have much time to spend DOING the FUN things that WE all get to do - RP.

Take a breath. Your making assumptions what me, Outlander and Cin said and twisting it into something else entirely. We never said Brandon didn't care, I don't know were that came from. Also I wasn't talking about only Brandon, I was talking about the admins in general.

We disagree with Brandon on somethings, one of those being the admins not really being involved in the community. While yes they can probably get the jist of the issues and such, they aren't really 'in with' the rest of the community to understand why. You know what I mean?.

 

[Jessica Cloud]

Great.

Now. I'm going to PM you and your team at least 100 new ideas I have for the site, it's rules, it's Staff composition, and it's daily attendance polices.

Likewise. I expect to hear back from you and your team immediately AND I expect you, (and your Staff,) to adopt all of my 100 suggestions and ideas without question or complaint or, (usually,) common sense. My feedback is non-negotiable, better than yours, and probably equal to the usual troll-filled-teenager-angst-general-hate-mail that you usually get. Only better.

Ah. And I am making your new pink-frilly STAFF uniforms now. Pom poms to come shortyly.

#NotMyMonkeys
#NotMyCircus

Enjoy the rest of the thread! :p

 

[Logan]

Take a breath. Your making assumptions what me, Outlander and Cin said and twisting it into something else entirely. We never said Brandon didn't care, I don't know were that came from. Also I wasn't talking about only Brandon, I was talking about the admins in general.

We disagree with Brandon on somethings, one of those being the admins not really being involved in the community. While yes they can probably get the jist of the issues and such, they aren't really 'in with' the rest of the community to understand why. You know what I mean?.

I just think most people ITT are suffering from groupthink and it's causing more issues than its resolving.

 

[Brandon Rhea]

A question... I recently made a character and while I do intend to RP as him seriously, he is pretty much a silly character. In view of recent events, is that alright or?

That's completely fine. It wasn't the content of the profiles that were at issue. It was the intent behind them.

 

[Gaiaverse]

I just think most people ITT are suffering from groupthink and it's causing more issues than its resolving.

Hmm?

 

[Brandon Rhea]

Hmm?

I can't speak for Relent, but I can say that there is a big issue on the site where instead of airing feedback or concerns early, people tend to share it amongst themselves. Skype is a great communication tool for the site but it also results in echo chambers where people reinforce one another's perceptions (and misconceptions) a lot of the time. Which is why, as someone said earlier, rather than bringing feedback about something when it happens, people tend to stew and then issues explode. A lot of times, by the time the staff learns about an issue, it's already exploded. Then we're not just fixing the issue at the core of it, but also having to deal with the tension that comes along with letting feedback fester.

Which is why I don't think people should put all their eggs in the Admin Feedback Thread basket. That only happens sometimes. If you're waiting for a feedback thread to bring up concerns or issues, that's probably not a good idea. PMing admins when something is at issue is generally a better approach, and then feedback threads can be more high level/high concept type of discussions rather than "I didn't like this ruling" or "I think you're biased because of this decision."

 

[Toska]

I will also say that I'm a mood-based writer. As in, I generally only write when there's a strong desire to do so. And telling me I should RP more is a surefire way of making me less likely to RP. :P Because then it becomes a sense of obligation, and no one wants that for themselves.

As a general rule, never trust anyone who disagrees with this Rp philosophy.

 

[Outlander]

I can't speak for Relent, but I can say that there is a big issue on the site where instead of airing feedback or concerns early, people tend to share it amongst themselves. Skype is a great communication tool for the site but it also results in echo chambers where people reinforce one another's perceptions (and misconceptions) a lot of the time. Which is why, as someone said earlier, rather than bringing feedback about something when it happens, people tend to stew and then issues explode. A lot of times, by the time the staff learns about an issue, it's already exploded. Then we're not just fixing the issue at the core of it, but also having to deal with the tension that comes along with letting feedback fester.

Which is why I don't think people should put all their eggs in the Admin Feedback Thread basket. That only happens sometimes. If you're waiting for a feedback thread to bring up concerns or issues, that's probably not a good idea. PMing admins when something is at issue is generally a better approach, and then feedback threads can be more high level/high concept type of discussions rather than "I didn't like this ruling" or "I think you're biased because of this decision."

Hmm. Hear me out, but maybe this goes both ways?

There's obviously no real way for me to know, as i'm not an admin. I can say, in one of my moments of complete lucidity, that we do have that on Skype. But, by a similar token, is it not possible that it can also somewhat occur within the Admins as well?

 

[Brandon Rhea]

Hmm. Hear me out, but maybe this goes both ways?

There's obviously no real way for me to know, as i'm not an admin. I can say, in one of my moments of complete lucidity, that we do have that on Skype. But, by a similar token, is it not possible that it can also somewhat occur within the Admins as well?

Sure, but that's why we always try to be as involved in conversations as we can. You can't change human nature, but you can mitigate it.