The Staff Feedback Thread! [read the first post!]

About adding moderator activity status updates to the "Small Changes & Updates" thread, I always thought that was a good idea to do. It's an easy and simple way of keeping members of the community informed about a moderator's status. It also cuts down on the numerous members going to VM or PM said moderator on whether they resigned or if they're just taking a break. It's also a good way in that if a moderator is on a LoA or DLoA, then members at least know to either contact the second mod of the forum (if there is one) or report to a higher staff member for the time being. Honestly, this sort of thing doesn't happen excessively here, so it wouldn't be like the thread would have to be constantly updated either.

There would also be no need to go into specific detail either should the moderator not wish to share why. For example, a simple update such as "Aerilyn is currently on a two week Demotion Leave of Absense" would suffice in my opinion.

PS. Aerilyn is not on a two week DLoA nor plans to be on one anytime soon.

I am okay with updating members when promotions are done. I'm not so sure we need to go into the why, because the why seems fairly obvious to me. They're the best person for the job.

I'm slightly hesitant to post DLoAs because demotions are done as well. Demotions are pretty sensitive things sometimes. To have the entire community knowing that you were demoted can be slightly embarrassing for some, and if we decide to post DLoAs, if someone is suddenly not a staff member anymore, then its safe to assume that they were removed by the higher ups of their rank.

LoAs I don't feel are necessary to post, because when you're on an LoA, you're still expected to do as much as you can when you're on.

Patchisou Yutohru said:

if we decide to post DLoAs, if someone is suddenly not a staff member anymore, then its safe to assume that they were removed by the higher ups of their rank.

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I'm not sure what you mean here. If an update was made commenting on a moderator taking a DLoA, I don't see why anyone would assume that staff member would have been fired or removed from staff from a higher up permanently.

In the case of demotions, I was thinking something vague and more along the lines of "_____ is no longer a part of the Community Staff." This doesn't imply that they were fired and it doesn't imply that they resigned. It means what it says, they are no longer a part of the staff team.

If members want to know more than that, then they're always free to ask the person in question should that person want to explain in further detail.

As for Leave of Absences, I agree, I don't think that needs to be included in there. Those occur more often than DLoAs, resignations, and demotions and are more prone to changing at times, whether it be longer or shorter.

I just think it's a beneficial act of keeping the community aware of a moderator's current status from time to time.

I don't have time for a huge reply right now but I'll just quickly post to say that I like the idea of promotions in there and wondered why they didn't get included before, but I don't want LoAs, DLoAs or demotions since people might not want widespread attention drawn to those things. If I had to leave for unfortunate reasons, for example, the last thing I'd want is an announcement which'd prompt people to flood me with "omg why u no staff any more?!?!?!" more than they already do. Most people include a small note on their profile, in their sig, or as a forum post to show that they're away for anyone who cares anyway.

I agree with adding promotions, however a demotion is more like negative attention, unless the mod in question wants people to know. But usually when they do, they post a blog about it or something to let people know why they left/were fired. And if they don't want people to know, it shouldn't be spread out to the world. But promotions is a very important thing that I think should be added. After all, it's nice to know who to go to on the forums, especially when it's someone being modded in a section that was previously modless.

edit: LoAs I don't think need to be listed, but DLoAs should be up to the discretion of the staff member taking them as to whether or not they want everyone to know. That's just imo.

Aerilyn said:

I'm not sure what you mean here. If an update was made commenting on a moderator taking a DLoA, I don't see why anyone would assume that staff member would have been fired or removed from staff from a higher up permanently.

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I think his point was that if you include DLoAs in the updates thread, then if you see someone is not a mod anymore and there is no update in the DLoA thread, you can draw the conclusion that they're no longer on the staff team without having a post spelling it out for the possible embarrassment of said staff member.

I would be okay with a post that was ambiguous enough to not give details on if it was a forced demotion or a resignation, but I could understand why some people may not like seeing that after making their decision/getting demoted. I think having it note DLoAs and letting members draw the obvious conclusion from that would be a nice compromise.

I'd love to hear about promotions, but demotions are a bit more of a private thing. I'd not want to know why, but I'd also like to see an ambiguous notice about it that doesn't imply having been fired or having left by self-initiative.

Someone else posted a nice phrase for that i.e. [Username] is no longer part of PC's Staff, but their time in service is fully appreciated and recognized.

Kinda adds a positive thing to a negative while keeping people informed of it all.

In regards to this thread itself,

TwilightBlade is an old acquaintance of mine that I've tried to recently get in touch with. She introduced me to breeding and gave me an Energy Ball Vulpix in HGSS (if I recall correctly). She's fun, knowledgeable and definitely the go-to sMod for me. I think in '10 she was just a bitty Mod. I'm glad you got this promotion, whenever that happened during my hiatus lol

Forever is awesome. So attentive, active, funny and approachable. I've known her for three years (although, we haven't talked in two or so formally), but she's still the same bean she's always been. Really, a great choice on the staff's part.

BinaryPeaches is MIA. I never see her anymore. Where did you go Tara? You were everywhere in '10! Your tentacle reach knew no bounds; yet, nowadays, I've maybe seen you post a handful of times. More activity is needed on your part. As a person, though, you're fantastic!

I don't really know the other staff members enough to be able to comment on their contributions, activity, etc. There are certain staffies that have left since '10 that I'm happy are gone, though. The current staff appears well-constructed and functional, which is always good.

:)

Personally I don't believe there's any harm in denoting when someone takes a DLoA. A permanent demotion/resignation should probably be silent, for it's that member's business to choose when or if they tell anyone who asks.

I don't believe there's any harm in noting the DLoA status simply; nobody is forcing anybody to ask reasons, and it doesn't matter if 5000 people do want to know the reason, they don't have to get one. To want to refuse to do something that would increase overall transparency seems just a tad strange and suspicious if you want to be paranoid about it.

I see no reason to continue a policy that is probably doing more harm than good in the long run, because it makes members uneasy.

I'm fine with promotions being updated/mentioned publically (and always have), and tbh would probably prefer a note about demotions as well. Mods get asked regardless, and there's no need for a reason to be stated with it. I suppose if a mod doesn't want it to be mentioned in the thread that can be allowed too so it'd be up to them on if they want mention... but then I'd rather all one way or the other in the end with demotion notices.

I'm just going to suggest the obvious and what everyone has been trying to say about demotes/promotes is to have a closed thread updated by administrators whenever possible about moderators coming or going. It can be brief and requires no explanation because that's more on a personal level and can be discussed if the demoted/retired mod chooses to discuss about between members and only between members off/on-site.

I would agree what bobandbill said that moderators would get spammed through VMs about how they got demoted, but I just think on a more official level that the thread would be a good timeline that feeds consistent updates and all of the publication of reasons is up to the moderator. I don't think it would be a good idea to have it public though.

post of Staff Update thread said:

X , moderator of [forum], is no longer part of staff
Y , has joined staff and is now a moderator of [forum]

X , previous moderator of [forum] has been promoted to [blah]

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It doesn't have to be wordy, and it's subtle enough to have information undisclosed on how the staff member has left office.

dloa/loa should be kept private at all times imo

Could we merge this with the small updates thread so we don't have 29403829048 stickies?

Is a "Forum/Staff Updates" thread disorganized?

...wait, I'm really confused. When you say "this", which thread are you referring to? I thought you meant the thread we're in now which makes no sense to me at all but now idk. Do you mean that staff updates would be posted on the forum updates thread? I thought it was almost a given that that's how it'd work.

I'd rather put both in the same thread, we don't get enough staff changes to mantain a thread exclusively about those.

Yeah when I said "this" I meant "this idea", not "this thread". Sorry if I confused.

Oh right. Yeah I'm absolutely for those updates being done in the small update thread. B)

Also about demotions and DLoAs being posted in the thread - still a definite no from me. I'll put it this way - I've gone on DLoA before due to some pretty big deal medical issues which were, at the time, something I was feeling pretty bad about and I didn't really want to be dealing with a load of people asking what was wrong. If, at that time, the Small Updates thread had been posted and my DLoA had been logged in it, I'd have been bombarded by people asking me where I'd gone / what was wrong / hoping to see me back soon / whatever which, while the thought is nice, would have been incredibly irritating and not at all something I needed to be dealing with. A lot of DLoAs are due to either exams or circumstances outside of a staff member's control, such as my one which I just mentioned. I don't think for a minute that people on DLoA for such reasons need bombarding and really, it's pretty inconsequential to members if a mod leaves and hstaff take over. DLoAs are a matter between the staff member in question and higher staff and I don't see why we need to inform members of them, honestly. Ye can see if a staff member's not bolded any more and leave it at that. I don't really want to broadcast to the entire community that someone's had to take time off or leave; it's up to them to tell who they want to and they shouldn't be bothered with questions regarding their leave if they don't want to be.

I'd like to re-address some stuff that came up earlier a lot in this thread. I saw quite a lot of people saying that they're intimidated by higher staff because they feel like we're gonna tell them off for something, that they're in trouble, etc., but I'd like to know where this belief comes from. Do we come across as too strict in public or overly standoffish or what? Or is it just the fact that we could do those things that's scary, even if it's not something we do particularly often?

^ It's the fact that you could do those things. The fact that I might hesitate before randomly VMing a h-staff or addressing them directly because if I were to somehow upset them or if they were to ignore me, it would feel like much bigger of a deal than with a nonstaff member. Because you have formal authority and could do things.

Ah, that's the answer I really didn't want, haha. Because if it's the fact that we're able to do stuff that bothers people then I really don't know how to deal with that. No matter how friendly and visible around the community we are and whatnot, that ability to do stuff isn't going anywhere, so I... kinda don't see how we can fix it. But maybe I'm just wrong there, idk. Thoughts, anyone?

Twilight Sky said:

but I feel that, if it helps clarify some things (though maybe not), people might be afraid of the higher staff because some of them give off an aura of "we're silently and collectively judging you" kind of thing.

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I think that's common paranoia. For me, I don't like saying things about people that I wouldn't say to them directly. Higher staff don't delve that deep into the characteristics of day-to-day members. So I'd say knock that one out of the ballpark.

Razor Leaf said:

Ah, that's the answer I really didn't want, haha. Because if it's the fact that we're able to do stuff that bothers people then I really don't know how to deal with that. No matter how friendly and visible around the community we are and whatnot, that ability to do stuff isn't going anywhere, so I... kinda don't see how we can fix it. But maybe I'm just wrong there, idk. Thoughts, anyone?

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It's not that strange actually. You hold positions of "official" authority here and authorities always make some people apprehensive, at least when colorful/bold/italicized names and userbars bleat out I BE STAFF whenever you post ^^ There would be tricky things with taking away the colors or styles though, like people don't knowing who to approach with forum problems and stuff, so I'll just not even suggest that as a joke ^^