The Staff Feedback Thread

[ANARCHit3cht]

I'd like to weigh in on the whole Daigonite(sp?) and Livewire thing. I don't know much of what went on their VMs, but I do know that Daigonite has a bit of a temper. I can see where Livewire is coming from. Daigonite throws insults left and right but the moment someone even so much as tries to reciprocate that it's suddenly not okay and the person is deranged idiot and off-topic and has no factual basis and needs to provide a real argument and is an idiot and sucks at life and is an idiot again.

In the particular discussion I had with her, she raised many double standards. She called others to lay proof to their claims. And when they did, how did she respond? "Oh your proof isn't good enough! It's not a scholarly source but look what I read on tumblr!!" Or maybe when someone said that the decline in a particular action is irrelevant and she replied with "Oh so you think that the world being safer isn't important?" Which is not what that poster said at all. Or when she substituted arguments for other people(i.e. spewing mumbo jumbo about statistics not correlating with personal experience and vice versa) when no one even argued what she put in place of what they are actually saying. Yet then she furiously gets angry when someone is "shoving words into peoples mouths" even tough you can look back at her previous posts and see that she literally just said what you said she said.

That being said, I did notice that Livewire say something about Daigonite getting in trouble and I can't say if that was the best solution. Given the relative personal nature of the situation it probably would have been best to have an outside staff member look at it. In that same vein, Livewire is simply doing his job and does have some validity to the reasoning behind why Daigonite should/might possibly get in trouble.

 

[Nihilego]

I'm going to ask people to move on from the Livewire / daigonite thing because it's not really getting very far and there is probably no conclusion to be reached. Discussion is just circling around the two of them and how they present themselves. Given the backlash in this thread I'm sure both parties have something to think about now - but at present we have no intention of taking action either way. So with all due respect it'd be great if we could move onto other feedback rather than just cycling on this one issue.

 

[gimmepie]

I'm going to ask people to move on from the Livewire / daigonite thing because it's not really getting very far and there is probably no conclusion to be reached. Discussion is just circling around the two of them and how they present themselves. Given the backlash in this thread I'm sure both parties have something to think about now - but at present we have no intention of taking action either way. So with all due respect it'd be great if we could move onto other feedback rather than just cycling on this one issue.

On that note I figure I'll brighten the mood a little bit.
I'm continuing to be impressed by the efforts of the staff to create an online environment that users want to be a part of. In particular I'm really impressed with Antemortem for actually consulting the community (albeit the VIP community) about the future of his section. I'm also really pleased with Magic, Doctor and Skymin for taking similar measures through a notice in the RPC and for continued willingness to involve other users in the happenings of the RPC community. Having read his last post and having briefly spoken to him in VMs I'm, oddly enough, pretty happy with Livewire in that regard too

I'm sure this isn't the first or last thing like that has been done, but I really like to see how the opinions of non-staff users are taken into account by the staff here. Keep it up guys!

 

[Hikamaru]

On that note I figure I'll brighten the mood a little bit.
I'm continuing to be impressed by the efforts of the staff to create an online environment that users want to be a part of. In particular I'm really impressed with Antemortem for actually consulting the community (albeit the VIP community) about the future of his section. I'm also really pleased with Magic, Doctor and Skymin for taking similar measures through a notice in the RPC and for continued willingness to involve other users in the happenings of the RPC community. Having read his last post and having briefly spoken to him in VMs I'm, oddly enough, pretty happy with Livewire in that regard too

I'm sure this isn't the first or last thing like that has been done, but I really like to see how the opinions of non-staff users are taken into account by the staff here. Keep it up guys!

This is actually something that makes me happy. I remember when staff and member interaction was minimal at best, but now it's great to see staff actually having their non-staff peers get involved in suggesting ways to improve. It's pretty much a move that will make it vital for staff and their respective areas to survive the future of PC.

So yeah staff if you're reading this, great job to all of you because you make the forum a safe, happy place to be.

 

[GengarsTeeth]

been here for a day only but I've searched the internet for pokemon forums and this is definitely the best available. I can't comment too much on the areas of the site individually as it's a bit too early for that, the general layout and aesthetic values are great though, friendly community here too. I'll be the first to say there's normally someone I will have clashed heads with by now but there seems to be no ill will here which is hard to achieve when the medium essentially is video gaming.

Well done guys :)

 

[ANARCHit3cht]

I'm going to ask people to move on from the Livewire / daigonite thing because it's not really getting very far and there is probably no conclusion to be reached. Discussion is just circling around the two of them and how they present themselves. Given the backlash in this thread I'm sure both parties have something to think about now - but at present we have no intention of taking action either way. So with all due respect it'd be great if we could move onto other feedback rather than just cycling on this one issue.

I do apologize. On a semi-related note, I do think it would promote a healthier board if the section was given it its own moderator. I don't know what you guys have in motion for that particular section, but if you aren't in the market for promoting someone you could always reassign someone from like General Chat or maybe from a section that has a remarkable lack of activity(I know D&D isn't as active as it could be) such as FF&W. I think a section that has as little activity as that one could more easily handled by a Smod than could D&D. Especially given the nature of D&D to cause more problems than say FF&W would. Just my two cents on that.

 

[Nah]

I do apologize. On a semi-related note, I do think it would promote a healthier board if the section was given it its own moderator. I don't know what you guys have in motion for that particular section, but if you aren't in the market for promoting someone you could always reassign someone from like General Chat or maybe from a section that has a remarkable lack of activity(I know D&D isn't as active as it could be) such as FF&W. I think a section that has as little activity as that one could more easily handled by a Smod than could D&D. Especially given the nature of D&D to cause more problems than say FF&W would. Just my two cents on that.

A mod of one section isn't necessarily suited to mod another section. We do have people who moderate more than one section, but that's because they happened to be suited to all the sections they mod. I doubt that Sodom, Honest, and/or Nolafus would want to mod D&D, and it's not like they ever visit the section either.

Besides, D&D isn't a section one assigns a moderator to lightly because of the fact that it gets hot in there quickly (and often). You gotta make sure that the person who gets modded to it can really handle it well. I do understand that D&D really does need a (second) Moderator, but it'd be better to just have Live in there than a hastily chosen blue mod. Hstaff feels the same way and is sorta watching out for a potential candidate, but there's nobody who's caught their eye yet.

 

[Hikamaru]

A mod of one section isn't necessarily suited to mod another section. We do have people who moderate more than one section, but that's because they happened to be suited to all the sections they mod. I doubt that Sodom, Honest, and/or Nolafus would want to mod D&D, and it's not like they ever visit the section either.

Besides, D&D isn't a section one assigns a moderator to lightly because of the fact that it gets hot in there quickly (and often). You gotta make sure that the person who gets modded to it can really handle it well. I do understand that D&D really does need a (second) Moderator, but it'd be better to just have Live in there than a hastily chosen blue mod. Hstaff feels the same way and is sorta watching out for a potential candidate, but there's nobody who's caught their eye yet.

This person is absolutely spot-on, I know how heated Discussions & Debates can get as a section and in my opinion it's definitely one of the hardest sections to mod, alongside probably ROM Hacking. That's why that when higher staff only mod someone in sections like that if they know the chosen one knows the ins and outs, and has generally good knowledge of the section in general. Live has been so great at looking over the section (even though it initially started with chit-chat topics mixed in) for around 2-3 years, and during his tenure as a regular mod, was joined by shenanigans as a mod partner late in 2011, and then they both went on to join higher staff as well come 2013.

There's a reason why the section mods are chosen, not only because it's where they have good knowledge of the section in question, but also where they feel most comfortable in terms of activity. But I agree with what Zekrom said, it's best to have Live in there on his own because of his impressive knowledge of the board, and then after some time a potential candidate will eventually come up. It's pretty much the case with any modless section currently having a smod as a caretaker mod, they are there until a new candidate is noticed.

 

[Palamon]

I haven't been here in quite a few months, but I'll be brief because of this. Most of the staff are doing a pretty good job, since I went inactive, anyway, and since I went inactive there's not much to say, but. ^^;

Dragon (Idk is that the name Shawn is using right now? Is a very active and friendly guy and promotes activity in just more than his own sections, which is pretty amazing to see. He's also never short in helping someone, which is really nice to see in a staff member. Being all out is pretty good!

As for the other staff, I've been kind of gone for a while, so I can't give a lot of feedback.

 

[Universe]

I just want to take a moment to give props to Went because he puts up with a lot and I appreciate him.

 

[I'm so HM02]

My feedback is for Dragon. I think he is doing great as The Welcome Lounge mod. The mentor adoption thing is helping me a lot because it's making me feel welcome to the community. He also makes mostly every new member feel good and because of him I feel like staying a lot longer than planned. :) I have not really talked to any other mods since joining, so no feedback yet, but a "thumbs up" to how smooth the site is. Thanks.
From: Corey aka cb92xtreme

 

[ANARCHit3cht]

Can I just take this time to thank shenanigans? They've always been super helpful and understand to any requests I've ever had. I don't really know of the higher staff, but I feel like s/he is really approachable and generally willing to help people out with an issue that they might have or a request that they might wish to make. Honestly, you rock dude/tte! Plus even when they are offline, they always seem to eerily pop on whenever I send them a message. >.> Quite creepy.

 

[Yoshikko]

Can I take this time to thank Wolf?! For his continuous effort and like fun stuff that he organizes for the battle server? And for always being so patient and trying to make sure everyone is pleased with the server and is heard!!

 

[Kyoe]

As long as I remember, I've never really had any issues with the staff. Aside of course from the occasional political/social disagreement in more serious matters as can be found in D&D. I've always viewed PC as an open-minded and accepting place, so I'm not going to come here to rant or complain.
A short time ago, the staff was cropped down slightly of one certain mod. I won't say it was a mistake, or that it shouldn't have been done, but it was executed in a very poor manner. I understand that some of you want to move in a different direction with some things. Maybe there was even a personal disagreement somewhere along the lines. I won't speculate on that. The important thing is that it was done without honor, respect, ceremony, or most of all courtesy. PC was a place for me where even when we didn't share the same perspective as each other, the same creed or humors, we could put that aside at the end of the day.¹ And still care enough to be kind to one another.
Now, change is a good thing. Maybe in a month or so everything new will be set in place, and this will just be another memory down the line for the PC Vets that leaves the groms asking questions. Hopefully this is the beginning of a wonderful new chapter that opens things up for some amazingly awesome experiences. I don't know though, and no-one honestly can. But I think this time, in the now, you screwed up.

¹Generally. This also again excludes D&D.

 

[Aquacorde]

Without knowing the current situation intimately, I understand the feeling of injustice and still would like hstaff to review both this incident and mine and speak directly with parties involved rather than send notice of termination and hear nothing more.

 

[abnegation]

I would be quick to admit that staff members, including "higher" staff members can be wrong. There's more ways in being incorrect than just making a bad decision, and in this case it was the lack of tact in which this was handled that let us down. We're a group of volunteers, people just like anyone else on this forum; human. Capable of making mistakes and certainly anything from being omniscient. It just takes a bad day to handle something in a less than sensitive manner. I won't get too far into this, other than to say that there's two sides to every story.

In this case, Hiroshi Sotomura is correct. We're taking what measures we can to ensure this sort of scenario does not come about again, by that I mean we're going to take practical application by adding more care in future when we handle these sorts of situations. It is evident that more follow up support is warranted in termination, and this is one of few isolated cases.

So I'll say that yes, in one way we "screwed up", but not every decision is entirely a loss. I personally will be making an effort to bridge communication between Sodom and higher staff, if not just me, others will be attempting to do the same also.

Also Anna, PM me or one of the other staff members. I wasn't aware you were still at a loose end. You certainly shouldn't feel that way so let one of us know what we can do for you.

 

[Shining Raichu]

Well I mean you can use my name, I was fired not roofied.

 

[£]

On the note of the incident; I don't think there's much good in formally complaining about it now. I think in a year of being here this is the only blunder I've witnessed and that's not an awful track record for a forum! I will air my thoughts though, as I would like to give my honest assessment on a situation that is pertinent to a forum where I have probably spent most of my time. If this thread isn't an appropriate place for my feedback, I would appreciate your consideration of these thoughts regardless.

Andy in my opinion was an excellent mod; and if anything things have gone cruder without him rather than less crude. (I'm only able to observe the past 13 months, of course. But I feel a year is a good timescale to have a scope of someone's form.) Not that crudeness is a bad thing, but if the impact we were looking for was to tighten up GC, this may not have been the step to make.

A good referee makes the right decisions with minimal disruption to play. A good referee doing their work well will not be noticed or appreciated for their good work despite the amount of smooth operation under their watchful eye. But if there's an error, by god they will be persecuted for it. Considering the period of time Andy was around, the forum was very much kept smoothly sailing.

I know about the babaGAReeb incident a month or so ago. They were a troll and they were rightfully banned in a reasonable time frame despite the palava that they did manage to cause. (NB: look into hellbans srsly they're brilliant for the likes of him) Andy's VMs with him, possibly unwise. A mistake perhaps. I'm not so sure the frequency of like incidents would warrant a fire-able offence, but if we were talking in the range of 1/month with a few formal discussions had, then it would be quite clear-cut. But in terms of a mod that is in overall good form or a troll, I think it's a no-brainer.

The reason I'm not going to complain and kick and fuss about this is because I've experienced volatility in a similar situation 3 years ago back on a certain large staff forum, myself. I do have some sympathy for the administration with regards to this situation. I think there's parallels between this situation and that very experience I had back then. Running a large team where every cog in the machine clicks into place smoothly is difficult. Even if it's not clear to the unknowing eye, there's always going to be disagreement.

Andy is quite outspoken and I think this was like a marriage where the signs of an unhappy marriage crept in for a fair few people, but no discussion was had about it until it had reached breaking point. Andy's backbone is both a blessing and a curse on this front. If I could pick people to have a confrontation with, Andy would be extremely low on this list. I think this incident will be noted for the future and I think if nothing else, it will benefit future issues like this one. Talking and diffusing a situation is always the first thing to go for in a high tension scenario.

Although Andy is made of tough stuff, this is a forum where he's put a lot of time and effort in with and I completely understand his aggrievement by the manner this has unfolded. It's a bitter blow for someone to take and the cold manner this was carried out has probably made the aftermath a lot worse than it would have been otherwise. In an ideal world, there would've been discussions as and when things happened. Obviously, Liverpool are yet to win the Premier League in my lifetime, so this is not an ideal world. I do feel Andy is entitled to be very upset though, definitely.

I apologise for how poorly I've conveyed the above. I think I'll just stick with those main areas of thought I've had on the matter.

With regards to now and the future, I guess the issue has been acknowledged here and as far as everything goes there probably isn't much more point to pressing this matter as it bears no beneficial result in the long run. Even if Andy were to come back now, the relation will only be more damaged than it already was due to the way things unfolded. Things would probably be more unsettled rather than less unsettled. I feel Andy is entitled to a sincere apology on the matter, though. It's really unfortunate that this happened the way it did. I'm quite disappointed about this all, but I have confidence that communication will improve from a result of the post mortem of this whole ordeal!

I'll keep an open mind about General Chat. I guess I'll take up the art of communication if I have any further concerns!

best wishes

luck hax xoxoxoxox

 

[Livewire]

Let me make a few things clear here, because this entire situation has become a bit ridiculous.

Firstly, these decisions regarding the staffing of General Chat, and earlier in the case of Pokemon Anime weren't arbitrarily & unilaterally fired off without warning. We handed these decisions out based on the situation in these forums and in regarding to the performance of the moderators in question. Were they executed perfectly? No, they were not. In hindsight, the tone of Went's PM that was sent wasn't appropriate and that shouldn't have happened. However, the change itself needed to happen and that's beyond disputing. But the blog entry from Andy, as well as the sharing of private PM's on the subject was also was extremely unprofessional and inappropriate in its own right. Two wrongs do not make a right here.

Secondly, I would like to take the time to say that yes, we did screw this up, as far the explanation process went with regards to Andy's demotion and with Anna's. Andy and Anna, as far as your situation(s) are concerned, it's too little, too late to fix anything, in my opinion, but on the behalf of the Higher Staff I would like to apologize for the way in which we handled what we decided to do with your modding(s) of General Chat and Pokemon Anime. But what's done is done, and rhetoric afterwards doesn't quite make up for previous actions. We could have handled the execution of both of these decisions much, much better and we will see to it that it doesn't happen again if this problem arises in the future with other staff members. We are human, and we still make mistakes too, as abnegation has aluded too before in this thread and elsewhere. However, while the execution and handling of our decision to remove the two of you may have been a bit flawed, we, in the end, made the right choice in the long run, in my opinion.

Thirdly, I would like everyone to remember that while we appreciate earnest feedback and your constructive thoughts regarding staffing matters being brought up in this thread, this is not the time, nor the place to get personally involved. With all due respect, please mind your own business. This is between the Higher Staff and Shining Raichu/Sodom, and between the Higher Staff and Aquacorde, respectively - not with anyone else.

All things being said and done, I think this should clear the air so to speak and right a few wrongs. Let's all move on, please.

 

[Aquacorde]

While this doesn't address all of my concerns, I thank you for at least getting back to me about certain points.