The Staff Feedback Thread

[Mr. X]

Reading into a couple posts reguarding Sodom, and seeing some of his recent comments, I can say this - Standards here have fallen. One comment though stands out- "I'm not sure actually... best guess is around 22 or so but he doesn't speak a word of English and his tongue is usually too busy with other tasks to be doing much talking anyway."

He's a member of the staff, a group made up of those who are supposed to be the best members that the site has to offer. If this is some of the best the site has to offer, it makes me extremely disappointed to have ever supported this place.

 

[Logan]

IWhen there is a complaint placed against you as a mod, especially by multiple people at once, your first action shouldn't be to counter it. Taking it personally and replying in a defensive manner to every single argument made by the member who feels offended helps no one - your first cause shouldn't be to save your dignity (if that is what you believe you are doing) but to make things right for everyone in the most pleasant and quiet way. Arguing most of the time only serves to further agitate the one(s) who feel(s) offended, as we saw it happen in this thread a while ago. And as we can all agree on, this is a Pokemon forum, so naturally, not all of the members are adults and emotions tend to overtake rationality. What does that constitute? It constitutes long, heated and petty arguments when the party who feels wronged is struck back in such way. I would like to think that the higher stuff of this forum are capable of choosing people who can prove to be "the bigger person" as we say and show maturity.

I'm guessing you weren't actually around at the time of the incident because your post seems pretty uninformed. I didn't take any complaints personally, in fact, I didn't really take anything said seriously because I knew I hadn't done anything wrong. You're obviously just taking one side of the situation and barely looking at the other here. I didn't try and 'save my dignity' I'm a moderator on a Pokémon forum my dignity went out the window a long time ago. I don't know if you noticed but I didn't actually argue with anyone in the thread, I actually went out of my way to have a PM conversation with the user in hand but he took it upon himself to take the argument public, an argument which I didn't actually take part in myself. I would say that I was the bigger person because I avoided a public argument and I avoided publicly posting about the situation. If you go back into the thread you'll notice that it was the higher staff members (namely shenanigans, Went and Livewire) who posted in the thread, not myself.

What I mean by maturity is that perhaps you should withhold your pride and admit something is wrong, after so many people actively argue about it, and continue to argue about it after you have countered their points. Even if you are in the right, and what you did was within the rules, if people are still angry with you, something's up. I think the purpose of the moderators isn't only to keep the forums clean, but to also ensure the members hanging around in them are having fun, and certainly not disregard any problems they might voice, simply stating "they are wrong". Maybe they're not right, but they're not wrong either, because there is a problem, according to their opinion, and your job is to resolve that problem, especially if it concerns yourself personally.

I'm been around these forums long enough and I'm an experienced enough staff member to be confident in what I do. Believe it or not I'm here to help people and not every decision I made should be taken as an insult. 'after you have countered their points' I didn't do anything like this, I didn't even comment in the thread in an argumentative matter whatsoever. I decided to take a mature, executive decision and stay out of the situation when it got heated and I allowed the higher staff members to deal with it. If I'd of been asked to apologise and been told I was in the wrong by a higher staff member I would have done. I wasn't though, because I'd done nothing out of my way and the higher staff believed that too.

I looked into Aethestode's thread and I saw a series of posts deleted by Hashtag whose explanation for deletion declared them "off-topic" and "spam"; I won't go into saying whether they should have or should have not been deleted, as it's an old matter and I'd like to keep my post on my previous topic.

The posts were deleted for exactly what the deletion notices say. These deleted posts weren't actually anything to do with the argument and I'm happy to show you exactly what they say to prove to you that there was nothing wrong with the deletions.

I'm going to say that this matter (like all matters, in fact) should have been solved with the delicate diplomacy that it obviously lacked. Perhaps Hashtag's first step, instead of silencing them, should have been to communicate with them directly. Answer their question in a well-worded PM or VM, explain to them in a friendly manner, and you won't come off in such a bad light. It's not that hard to treat them the right way. You could even do that when stating the reason for deleting the posts, instead of remaining coldly indifferent about it.

You're wrong there actually mate. I tried to deal with the situation in a calm and private matter but it was actually the user on hand who took the argument public (and if you notice I still didn't participate in the thread). Your statement here is actually very incorrect. This is why people shouldn't get involved in situations that don't revolve around them because you have no idea what has gone on in private and you're only inferring your opinions from a hazy situation.

 

[abnegation]

Reading into a couple posts reguarding Sodom, and seeing some of his recent comments, I can say this - Standards here have fallen. One comment though stands out- "I'm not sure actually... best guess is around 22 or so but he doesn't speak a word of English and his tongue is usually too busy with other tasks to be doing much talking anyway."

He's a member of the staff, a group made up of those who are supposed to be the best members that the site has to offer. If this is some of the best the site has to offer, it makes me extremely disappointed to have ever supported this place.

One thing I will say is that just because it's not announced to the general public, doesn't mean that these matters aren't looked into. I can't guarantee that these incidents haven't been ignored by HQ-staff members as I'm currently on leave; but it is highly unlikely that any complaint - especially one noted by numerous members - goes unattended or looked into by Super Moderators and Administrators.

To add to this, I don't like this hypothesis that any staff member is among "the best members." Nor are staff members "the best the site has to offer", because PokéCommuity doesn't "offer" human beings. Every member is a person (spam bots aside) and not a piece of merchandise that are offered to you to compare to others. So let me just say that while Sodom, or any other staff member can make mistakes; there's absolutely no reason for you to assume they're the "best" members, or something PokéCommunity offers for you to taste, sample and critique like fine wine.

Bringing my point to a full circle here, don't use a mistake of one staff member who has been here a long time and supported the site in many ways; as an incentive to regard PokéCommunity as a disreputable place. Believe me when I say these matters are handled accordingly - and if you believe that a staff member who has worked on PC for years should be fired for a minor mistake or negative comment I urge you to look inward. Consider whether you think that's a fair philosophy on how a Pokémon forum with little impact on the real world should handle their volunteers. Most Moderators on PC are predominantly professional and handle their sections extremely well, so don't use a hiccup as an excuse to cast their consistent positive efforts aside and grow "extremely disappointed" in a site you chose to join of your own free will and have no obligation to support or remain using.

 

[Hikamaru]

To add to this, I don't like this hypothesis that any staff member is among "the best members." Nor are staff members "the best the site has to offer", because PokéCommuity doesn't "offer" human beings. Every member is a person (spam bots aside) and not a piece of merchandise that are offered to you to compare to others. So let me just say that while Sodom, or any other staff member can make mistakes; there's absolutely no reason for you to assume they're the "best" members, or something PokéCommunity offers for you to taste, sample and critique like fine wine.

Bringing my point to a full circle here, don't use a mistake of one staff member who has been here a long time and supported the site in many ways; as an incentive to regard PokéCommunity as a disreputable place. Believe me when I say these matters are handled accordingly - and if you believe that a staff member who has worked on PC for years should be fired for a minor mistake or negative comment I urge you to look inward. Consider whether you think that's a fair philosophy on how a Pokémon forum with little impact on the real world should handle their volunteers. Most Moderators on PC are predominantly professional and handle their sections extremely well, so don't use a hiccup as an excuse to cast their consistent positive efforts aside and grow "extremely disappointed" in a site you chose to join of your own free will and have no obligation to support or remain using.

I agree with Gav here. Just because someone is a staff member doesn't mean they're the "perfect" members, because while they tend to get looked up to a lot, I still know of several members outside of staff who also get looked up to in a similar manner.

Staff here are carefully selected and most know how to handle their sections well. Sodom has been at it for three years now (seriously that long ago?) so I know he's doing a good job, as well as pretty much any of the other long-serving ones right now. And of course, staff can make mistakes just as often as a normal member so yeah everyone is pretty much equal in that regard.

 

[gimmepie]

Reading into a couple posts reguarding Sodom, and seeing some of his recent comments, I can say this - Standards here have fallen. One comment though stands out- "I'm not sure actually... best guess is around 22 or so but he doesn't speak a word of English and his tongue is usually too busy with other tasks to be doing much talking anyway."

He's a member of the staff, a group made up of those who are supposed to be the best members that the site has to offer. If this is some of the best the site has to offer, it makes me extremely disappointed to have ever supported this place.

I fail to see the problem with Sodom's behaviour in all honesty, and I've actually tried to. I just can't see anything wrong with it.

If this was a website aimed at children I'd be the first one to say "off with his head" but this isn't a website specifically for children and from what I have seen the majority of the members here are actually adults or at least in their middle to late teens.

I won't comment on the issue from which that comment arose, because I don't know nearly enough about it to say anything. What I will say though, is that whilst Sodom can and does push the boundaries he's an extremely capable mod from what I have seen and I'm thankful that he staffs one of my favourite sections.


Actually I'm extremely happy with the staff in general right now. At least from what I've seen in the sections I frequent our current staff are all invested in our online community and are still active and interesting posters that interact with everyone. As an added bonus they uphold the rules without acting like cyber-Hitler. I honestly don't know how anyone could say the standards at PC have fallen when we have such competent staff running things and a great community atmosphere as a result.

I'm not denying the existence of flaws, merely stating that I feel that flaws are limited and that we have a very positive community as a result and that I feel this is largely due to our current staff's efforts.

Edit: Sorry if this was terribly written, it's late and it;s been a long day.

 

[Aquacorde]

While I will say that I have a general distaste for Sodom's behaviour, I don't believe the rest of the staff members tend act in the same vein. Judging a group by a vocal minority isn't a good way to go about it. Staff members seem to have had very few altercations with members recently, and that's a good thing. Like, this thread basically wasn't posted in since August- great! Means people ain't had much issue. Also that it was forgot about for a bit, probably. Overall, I think staff is okay. Again, don't let once person or incident change your view of an entire group. i mean certainly don't be overly trusting and keep an eye on things when you think it could be showing signs of corruption but yeah

 

[Mr. X]

Like it or not, people judge a group by its leaders and thus their actions. The staff is meant to serve as a example for what new members should strive to be - And Sodoms recent comments are not in any way a good example.

 

[Shining Raichu]

Guys, baba was a troll and so is his "Daddy", I mean it's nice of you guys to play along with him but I'm getting bored now, aren't you? I think we're done. Mr X, I'd like to thank you in particular, you've played your part beautifully, but I think we've all milked the most entertainment value we're going to by now.

 

[Mr. X]

And again, Sodom proves my point.

I'll outright say this - The quality of staff, rather the standards they are held to, has drastically fallen in recent years. And on that, here's some more gold complements of Sodom-

 

[Percy]

Wow, I can't believe I haven't saw this thread yet...xD
Sorry for being a bit off-topic with the current topic, but I have some feedback for the ROM Hacking forum mods:
hashtag
Christos

They're doing a very good job :)
Especially hashtag

Thanks very much, you two! :)

 

[Hikamaru]

Wow, I can't believe I haven't saw this thread yet...xD
Sorry for being a bit off-topic with the current topic, but I have some feedback for the ROM Hacking forum mods:
hashtag
Christos

They're doing a very good job :)
Especially hashtag

Thanks very much, you two! :)

You'd be happy to know the reason why they do the job so well is because they used to mod the section a long time ago, and of course earlier this year they made their comeback and expanded the section even further to make it easier for the hacking-focused members to navigate.

I may be someone who never posts over there, but it's to show how determined they are and that's part of their success for making positive changes to the board. Still, keep up the good work guys! You have definitely made the community much more fun for ROM hackers in a good way.

 

[Lusus]

I think when somebody thinks PokeCommunity is a site to brainwash kids into being gay and rape them, then everything Sodom said was perfectly justified.

 

[Nah]

I'm just glad that this thread is getting used again.

 

[Pendraflare]

I'm just glad that this thread is getting used again.

On one hand, yeah, it was pretty dead for over three months so it is nice to see good comments from it.

But on the other, I don't know about you, but it's not fun when long-winded conversations ensue about attempting to justify one's actions as right or wrong. x_x

 

[Nah]

On one hand, yeah, it was pretty dead for over three months so it is nice to see good comments from it.

But on the other, I don't know about you, but it's not fun when long-winded conversations ensue about attempting to justify one's actions as right or wrong. x_x

Tbh, I want to hear what the members have to say about us (or at least me), whether it be good or bad, whether it's just a short post or a long discussion.

 

[Squirrel]

Just want to leave a shout out to Dragon, he's been an impressive staff member since he came back to VG and he's really improved the section by leaps and bounds. He goes the extra mile to make it a constant hub of activity where there's always a number of events going on to take part in and he's all-around a really friendly guy to go to with questions/concerns. Great job man.

 

[Hikamaru]

Just want to leave a shout out to Dragon, he's been an impressive staff member since he came back to VG and he's really improved the section by leaps and bounds. He goes the extra mile to make it a constant hub of activity where there's always a number of events going on to take part in and he's all-around a really friendly guy to go to with questions/concerns. Great job man.

And not to mention his amazing job looking over The Welcome Lounge as well ever since he took over that section earlier this year. I know how amazing his greeting posts are and I know for sure most others who posted there could definitely not replicate it, and that's what makes him unique yet still captures the friendly, adorable nature that previous TWL mods have had.

I've been an active regular in the section and I know how much of an inspiration he (along with former TWL mod turned smod Sheep) has served to me, and my greeting style was pretty much partly influenced by him. But yes, I definitely agree with you on how heavily he improved the activity in VG.

So Shawn, if you are reading this it's just another mention of how awesome you are.

 

[obZen]

I rarely do this, but I wanted to give major props to the staff for handling this thread very well.

 

[Guardian]

Props to Moderators for being a part of discussions, doing a good job at being a mod, and for being easy to reach out to. (Included but not limited to: Adventure, Peitharchia , curiousnathan , Zekrom, also Sydian and Sheep, shenanigans. ( I am hanging around the subforums they are in charge of so I can only take them as examples).

Would be nice, however, if certain administrators/super administrators would reply to messages. Suggestion: if you dont have time for what I reached out to you, or if you think the reason is not reasonable or you dont agree with it, or if there is any reason you dont want to discuss it with me, then tell me so, instead of ignoring it.
It's nothing big, but still worth mentioning.

Other than that, everything and everyone's cool.
Keep it up! :D

 

[SumGai]

I've been in a great many forums, and never have I felt so welcome. Most places ignore or even haze newcommers. So it's weird being welcomed and treated so nicely.

Anyway, Dragon in particular has been really helpful, thanks again Dragon.