I've noticed over about the past month or two, there has been a ridiculous amount of staff turnover. Consider the following:
- The Korsakovia/Cabal_chan debacle (resulting in him getting banned from the site).
- The LuckNorris debacle.
- Annorax is no longer an admin.
- Azrael is no longer an admin.
- Kraj comes back on as a Global, then steps down very quickly after that.
- Arnnaria is no longer a mod.
- Madding is no longer a mod.
- charlequin is no longer a mod due to inactivity.
- Yomako and Le Gambit were demodded due to lack of activity too.
Just from all that alone, that's ten staff members gone in the course of roughly a month and a half to two months, including two admins. I have never, ever seen staff members drop like flies this rapidly in all my time I've been on the site. This to me is very alarming, because it telegraphs that the staff is in turmoil and there is little to no stability if people are getting demodded left and right. Especially after the recent batch of hires from early January. I have usually been supportive of the staff in general, but this has really made me question what on earth is going on.
I've noticed over about the past month or two, there has been a ridiculous amount of staff turnover. Consider the following:
- The Korsakovia/Cabal_chan debacle (resulting in him getting banned from the site).
- The LuckNorris debacle.
- Annorax is no longer an admin.
- Azrael is no longer an admin.
- Kraj comes back on as a Global, then steps down very quickly after that.
- Arnnaria is no longer a mod.
- Madding is no longer a mod.
- charlequin is no longer a mod due to inactivity.
- Yomako and Le Gambit were demodded due to lack of activity too.
Just from all that alone, that's ten staff members gone in the course of roughly a month and a half to two months, including two admins. I have never, ever seen staff members drop like flies this rapidly in all my time I've been on the site. This to me is very alarming, because it telegraphs that the staff is in turmoil and there is little to no stability if people are getting demodded left and right. Especially after the recent batch of hires from early January. I have usually been supportive of the staff in general, but this has really made me question what on earth is going on.
Wow, I haven't really been paying a lot of attention and so I didn't even realize all this had happened. Some of the situations are rather routine (stepping down to focus on other obligations is a fairly common reasons staff retire), but a few of them are a bit worrying. I certainly hope that there's nothing untoward afoot but I'm still going to organize a prayer circle for Yukora.
I've noticed over about the past month or two, there has been a ridiculous amount of staff turnover. Consider the following:
- The Korsakovia/Cabal_chan debacle (resulting in him getting banned from the site).
On his own head, this.
- The LuckNorris debacle.
On all our heads, just dumb oversite. Lucky is a great guy & there's no bad feelings here.
- Annorax is no longer an admin.
This is his own choice, dealing with personal issues & not wanting that to reflect on the site. My understanding is that it is temporary.
- Azrael is no longer an admin.
He left a very happy admin, feeling he'd accomplished the things he'd signed on for, to do his IRL some justice.
- Kraj comes back on as a Global, then steps down very quickly after that.
I'd rather let Kraj speak for himself here, but basically this was a bad split, although he didn't give us much a chance to make him feel more at home.
- Arnnaria is no longer a mod.
Not an easy decision, but one the staff stands by.
- Madding is no longer a mod.
His own choice, as far as I am aware he just wanted to spend his IRL-encroached free time here goofing around.
- charlequin is no longer a mod due to inactivity.
Didn't respond to the prompts asking him what was going on for him, IIRC.
- Yomako and Le Gambit were demodded due to lack of activity too.
In Yomako's case, MS requires a significant contribution of time & attentiveness that he was not able to give. As for Le Gambit, the Avatar & Sig Shop community was desperate for attention, in the end creating a CI thread to bring the lack of attention it had received for months to attention.
Just from all that alone, that's ten staff members gone in the course of roughly a month and a half to two months, including two admins. I have never, ever seen staff members drop like flies this rapidly in all my time I've been on the site. This to me is very alarming, because it telegraphs that the staff is in turmoil and there is little to no stability if people are getting demodded left and right. Especially after the recent batch of hires from early January. I have usually been supportive of the staff in general, but this has really made me question what on earth is going on.
To be frank, back in November, I was ready to quit due to the state of staff culture.
Azrael turned that on its head, & a lot of issues have been raised & addressed. One of those policies was staff review, so. . .
The dust is starting to settle, but I personally don't think we've had a significant amount of negative staff actions, & the best way I can describe what it's like in the Staff Lounge is it's like finally being able to open the windows.
I'd like to encourage any staff who feel comfortable coming forward to discuss this, to do so
It's also worth emphasising that as far as I can tell, this is mostly coincidental. The only real connection between any of the incidents mentioned is the three mods removed due to lack of activity, as there was a push made to remove staff who no longer had the time to devote to their duties. We obviously can't disgorge the whole contents of the staff lounges for all to see, but I assure you, the attitude is quite the opposite of turmoil. I can't recall it being more positive any time in my 16 months on staff.
I've noticed over about the past month or two, there has been a ridiculous amount of staff turnover. Consider the following:
- The Korsakovia/Cabal_chan debacle (resulting in him getting banned from the site).
- The LuckNorris debacle.
- Annorax is no longer an admin.
- Azrael is no longer an admin.
- Kraj comes back on as a Global, then steps down very quickly after that.
- Arnnaria is no longer a mod.
- Madding is no longer a mod.
- charlequin is no longer a mod due to inactivity.
- Yomako and Le Gambit were demodded due to lack of activity too.
Just from all that alone, that's ten staff members gone in the course of roughly a month and a half to two months, including two admins. I have never, ever seen staff members drop like flies this rapidly in all my time I've been on the site. This to me is very alarming, because it telegraphs that the staff is in turmoil and there is little to no stability if people are getting demodded left and right. Especially after the recent batch of hires from early January. I have usually been supportive of the staff in general, but this has really made me question what on earth is going on.
Annorax -covered above by Rian.
As for the general turmoil, most of it was very much intentional. In addition to bringing on a wave of new personnel, we also wanted to clean house, and start being more aggressive about terminating staff who aren't quite where we want them to be. So the majority of those changes (six) are due to an effort to improve the staff's performance and accountability.
Madding and I stepped down purely for IRL reasons, not any tensions within the staff, and both of us were very happy with the direction that the site is currently headed.
Kraj had a variety of reasons, but part of the explanation is that I kind of dragged him along with me back into the gig, and when I retired, he had less interest in sticking around.
So I can assure you, there's not any hidden turmoil or any animus going on behind the scenes that's causing mods to drop like flies. I think satisfaction amidst the ranks is the highest it's ever been, and with the new additions from last month, the staff has more than enough coverage and new talent to keep things running smoothly.
I can only echo the sentiments of my fellow staff members in here. The staff, for far too long, had been simply existing with the intent of maintaining the status quo. We weren't taking strided to move forward and we weren't fixing problems with due haste. A lot of the staff changes listed are due to a renewed effort to make these forums the best they can be while being ran by the best staff we can produce. It's only natural that a transition like what we are going through produces noticeable changes; including a sizeable shift in the staff's roster.
There's nothing to worry about. The changes you are noticing are a sign of something good.
Only a couple of months ago, we had staff that had not visited the site since April last year; but we have since then made a greater effort to make sure we have moderators that visit the site on a frequent basis, and don't let forums in shambles. So the number of staff changes recently is partly thanks to the transition we're experiencing, and partly coincidental.
I hate to even suggest this considering the great strides in transparency you guys have recently initiated, but have you considered some sort of 'what we're working on' weekly address or something? The way it is now new stuff is getting sprung on the users out of the blue, and since the final decisions are coming down with (what I assume is) some discussion behind closed doors it's giving everything a 'wheels within wheels' vibe. I can say with near-certainty, for instance, that it shocked a lot of people to have so many moderators taken on board all at once, and a statement like "yes we need that many new mods" or "we're throwing them against the wall to see which ones stick", or whatever the real reason was, would have helped soothed people's reaction.
Hm? Mod open applications were announced on Dec 21, then open for a week, then discussed for a week or so, then the new staff brought onboard on January 11. There were a number of 'thin' areas, & we took on people we had confidence in to fulfill those needs. I guess we thought it self-explanatory, but that is certainly something we can work on.
As for 'weekly' updates on current projects, you mean like this, leading to the opening of the Speakeasy?
I do believe we make an effort to keep the users on board, with subforum-specific announcements for local changes, & CI activity for the Big Bigs.
Still, we can try to up that, no worries
Please read:
A personal appeal from
MTGS moderator rianalnn.
The following update may contain completely half-baked ideas; proceed with due caution.
Currently:
• We're reviewing the previously non-existant staff code of conduct, & sorting that out so we can all have a baseline of expectancy with regards to professionalism as well as moderation styles.
• Market Street is getting pounded, with some potential apprenticeships in the works just to make sure we're always covered in there by experienced staff. We're also ironing out the rules, standardizing the moderation & setting up some FAQs for procedure et cetera blah blah zzzz
What else. . .
• I'm busy learning the technical back-end of the site, pretty cool. Annie has been very gracious in sharing his secret tech so we have some redundancy going on.
• Sene is trying to figure out if there is a place for a more restricted competitive sub-sub-subforum for Standard, potentially to create a place where hardcore spikes can talk srs cardboard without being distracted by 'fun' or 'fun'
• Yukora is dragging us all around by chains on from our navels reviewing our staff holdings & poking the needy bits, that's pretty much ongoing these days. Are we happy? Are we still happy? How 'bout now? We need to restock our Global pantry, so I think that's on top the menu.
• Annorax has set up the basics for a Tournament Organizer group, so that Official TOs can edit the events calendar themselves, streamlining that.
• Users may be vaguely aware of the NSFW beta test area we ran not long ago; a dedicated team of staff are busy hammering out policy to allow for subforums allowing more unrestricted Artwork, Creative Writing, & Debate, much like the Speakeasy has done for WCT/Clans/all the niche community threads. Slow going, but almost there.
• Wha– oh, yeh. I've been looking at attacking the smileys; when I'm less busy I might start a thread in the Speakeasy to get some discussion happening about adding or changing or removing smileys. For instance, I don't like this guy –> :love:, I'd rather it be this guy ->
Pretty low on the totem pole, that, though
• Few random things that need love, like the News sub & its associated slot on the Frontpage, a whole bunch of old retired forums that are kind of in the road & need to be organized, & so on, more every time you turn around
That's got to be most the goings-on at the moment, behind the scenes
Sometimes this stuff just goes nowhere, though. We don't want to rile people up over nothing
I've noticed over about the past month or two, there has been a ridiculous amount of staff turnover. Consider the following:
- The Korsakovia/Cabal_chan debacle (resulting in him getting banned from the site).
- The LuckNorris debacle.
- Annorax is no longer an admin.
- Azrael is no longer an admin.
- Kraj comes back on as a Global, then steps down very quickly after that.
- Arnnaria is no longer a mod.
- Madding is no longer a mod.
- charlequin is no longer a mod due to inactivity.
- Yomako and Le Gambit were demodded due to lack of activity too.
Just from all that alone, that's ten staff members gone in the course of roughly a month and a half to two months, including two admins. I have never, ever seen staff members drop like flies this rapidly in all my time I've been on the site. This to me is very alarming, because it telegraphs that the staff is in turmoil and there is little to no stability if people are getting demodded left and right. Especially after the recent batch of hires from early January. I have usually been supportive of the staff in general, but this has really made me question what on earth is going on.
Links or it didn't happen
But seriously, any links to information / discussion would be appreciated.
EDIT: Nevermind, I'm guessing this thread contains the relevant information.
R~, I thought the Speakeasy wasn't being put into place because of what happened with Testing Grounds?
Those forums are quite different, so no. Testing Grounds were basically a free-for-all forum with no mod intervention at all, while the Speakeasy has actual rules, and is followed closely by a number of mods. A pretty substantial difference, I would say.
I hate to even suggest this considering the great strides in transparency you guys have recently initiated, but have you considered some sort of 'what we're working on' weekly address or something? The way it is now new stuff is getting sprung on the users out of the blue, and since the final decisions are coming down with (what I assume is) some discussion behind closed doors it's giving everything a 'wheels within wheels' vibe. I can say with near-certainty, for instance, that it shocked a lot of people to have so many moderators taken on board all at once, and a statement like "yes we need that many new mods" or "we're throwing them against the wall to see which ones stick", or whatever the real reason was, would have helped soothed people's reaction.
What Ria said, and I can also ensure you that the new staff has been followed up and trained, and I'd say these have become comfortable with their positions in record time. "We're throwing them against the wall to see which ones stick" is absolutely not the case here
Quote from rianalnn »
Sene is trying to figure out if there is a place for a more restricted competitive sub-sub-subforum for Standard, potentially to create a place where hardcore spikes can talk srs cardboard without being distracted by 'fun' or 'fun'
Hehe, yup, this is being formed as we speak, and it is being discussed by a handful of staff and well regarded members. It is tough to say when/if this forum will go live, but it will be based on the idea I posted in this thread. We will keep the community updated as to what the status of this project is
Edit - I would be happy to listen to all thoughts and input regarding this idea. I'll map out what the current consensus is soon.
To chime in on this, and to add to what ria has already said which is correct: this wasn't much of a debacle at all.
I was taken off of the moderator staff for knowingly having a trade thread while being under eighteen. It was totally my fault for not closing it instantly, and I deserved being taken off of the staff. I blame none of the current moderators or administrators for anything that happened during that case. It was a stupid mistake on my part. Definitely no bad feelings here.
In fact, I wouldn't say the staff is in turmoil but I think they are healthier than ever. A lot of great new people and moderators have been put onto the staff that not only have what it takes to be great mods, but they have my total respect. Guys like Megiddo, ExpiredRascals, Viricide and pretty much every new moderator has done their jobs since being added to the staff and has done it well.
I have a lot of confidence in the staff these days, and I am being honest when I say there is nothing to worry about.
I see. It just looks like from a normal user's point of view that something is wrong because there has been such a massive overhaul in the staff in such a short time. I'm not used to seeing that since such upheaval never really happened in the site's history, which is why I made the thread in the first place. So we'll see where this goes.
I see. It just looks like from a normal user's point of view that something is wrong because there has been such a massive overhaul in the staff in such a short time. I'm not used to seeing that since such upheaval never really happened in the site's history, which is why I made the thread in the first place. So we'll see where this goes.
No worries, you creating this thread was good, so that we could address this publicly.
I've noticed over about the past month or two, there has been a ridiculous amount of staff turnover.
I also want to add extremeicon to that list, although he retired two months before. The reason is the same, I guess: it's hard to devote so much time to the forum, and, what's more important, there are many more important things in real life than mtg.
Once all of the dissenters were forced out, dissent magically stopped.
Funny that.
I just have to ask what purpose this serves? If you're going to make an inflammatory statement/claim like this, give some info to back it up. The OP had a concern, and gave some reasoning for it. Could you possibly do the same? What dissenters? What was the dissent about/for?
Because conservative bias is a far, far worse thing. Liberal bias doesn't, statistically speaking, make people stupid. Conservative bias (or at least Fox's version of it) does.
I just have to ask what purpose this serves? If you're going to make an inflammatory statement/claim like this, give some info to back it up. The OP had a concern, and gave some reasoning for it. Could you possibly do the same? What dissenters? What was the dissent about/for?
There was a significant amount of dissent when I was on staff. Unfortunately, I am not at liberty to disclose it, since it was in the Mod Lounge. However, I think that you can see who has left and who has become silent on staff, and you can probably see where the lines are.
Suffice it to say that there was something of a schism amongst the staff, and most of the people who seemed to be on one side have either left, or become largely silent or conformed to the new standard. That standard seems to have been set by our new most vocal Amdinistrator, rianalnn, and Azrael, who had a list of things that he wanted accomplished, but then quit, instigating Kraj's departure as well, and hence this thread.
Regarding what, precisely, the dissent was about, it is sufficient to say that there were disagreements about what was and was not correct moderation, which was ridiculous, considering that many of the complaints were from people who were not regulars of the places that they were complaining about. Instead, they seemed to have axes to grind about a few moderators, and their complaints, incessant and puling as they were, eventually fell on ears that listened. (As to why that was, I'll leave it to the reader's ability to draw correlations between membership in a couple of user groups that I'll not bother to define.)
There's been no shortage of decisions at the staff level that I find questionable, including the reappointment of Clock King. He, like Korsakovia, leaked information from the Mod Lounge. (Granted, I don't think that he leaked it to people who were...carrying out activities quite as distasteful as ...)
I don't understand, or support, the addition of a wide variety of the new staff that were brought on board about, or near, the time that Azrael and rianalnn were made administrators.
The addition of sene to the administrator ranks makes me feel much better about the direction this place is going. Regardless of who is in charge, I have little doubt that the website will survive, regardless of who is in charge, though. I'll not make this out to be a matter of survival for the site.
It's enough to say, though, that I personally think that the way that the website is being run seems...dubious. The staff might all be on one page now, but the question is why. The question is how it happened, how it got that way. And I am here to tell you that the situation may not be as amicable as it seems.
While I voluntarily stepped down and it was partially for personal reasons, there were two other reasons that I stepped down. One was a distaste for what I saw coming. When I saw this thing coming, I decided that I didn't want to be part of a staff that had rianalnn as a leader, particularly one that also had Clock King on it. (That's even more true now that Annorax and extremeicon have stepped down.) The other was that I stopped particularly enjoying the discussions that were going on in Debate, where my very limited bailiwick, was. Since I knew that I neither wanted to be part of the staff changes that were coming, nor was I envisioning enjoying carrying out my duties in an area that I no longer had enthusiasm for.
(Plus, I was tired of listening to...individuals and others complain. So, they got what they wanted, and I stepped down. I don't have to do what I don't want to do, i.e., listen to them, to moderate a Debate section that I lack interest in anymore, or to be a member of a staff that does things that I don't like.)
So that, jedimindtricks, is what I am talking about.
Like every other non-banned user of this site, I am permitted to express my opinions about this site and how it is run. And in this particular case, I really, really don't like what I see. So I will speak up. But I won't do so often. Or petulantly. I will merely hope that this, too, shall pass and that better administrators and better guidance shall return.
Fair enough. I wasn't insulting you, I genuinely wanted clarification of what exactly you were talking about. I'm on this site daily and never knew about some of the things you mentioned, so I'm guessing a lot of other users were oblivious to them as well.
Because conservative bias is a far, far worse thing. Liberal bias doesn't, statistically speaking, make people stupid. Conservative bias (or at least Fox's version of it) does.
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- The Korsakovia/Cabal_chan debacle (resulting in him getting banned from the site).
- The LuckNorris debacle.
- Annorax is no longer an admin.
- Azrael is no longer an admin.
- Kraj comes back on as a Global, then steps down very quickly after that.
- Arnnaria is no longer a mod.
- Madding is no longer a mod.
- charlequin is no longer a mod due to inactivity.
- Yomako and Le Gambit were demodded due to lack of activity too.
Just from all that alone, that's ten staff members gone in the course of roughly a month and a half to two months, including two admins. I have never, ever seen staff members drop like flies this rapidly in all my time I've been on the site. This to me is very alarming, because it telegraphs that the staff is in turmoil and there is little to no stability if people are getting demodded left and right. Especially after the recent batch of hires from early January. I have usually been supportive of the staff in general, but this has really made me question what on earth is going on.
Wow, I haven't really been paying a lot of attention and so I didn't even realize all this had happened. Some of the situations are rather routine (stepping down to focus on other obligations is a fairly common reasons staff retire), but a few of them are a bit worrying. I certainly hope that there's nothing untoward afoot but I'm still going to organize a prayer circle for Yukora.
Archatmos
Excellion
Fracture: Israfiel (WBR), Wujal (URG), Valedon (GUB), Amduat (BGW), Paladris (RWU)
Collision (Set Two of the Fracture Block)
Quest for the Forsaken (Set Two of the Excellion Block)
Katingal: Plane of Chains
- The Korsakovia/Cabal_chan debacle (resulting in him getting banned from the site).
On his own head, this.
- The LuckNorris debacle.
On all our heads, just dumb oversite. Lucky is a great guy & there's no bad feelings here.
- Annorax is no longer an admin.
This is his own choice, dealing with personal issues & not wanting that to reflect on the site. My understanding is that it is temporary.
- Azrael is no longer an admin.
He left a very happy admin, feeling he'd accomplished the things he'd signed on for, to do his IRL some justice.
- Kraj comes back on as a Global, then steps down very quickly after that.
I'd rather let Kraj speak for himself here, but basically this was a bad split, although he didn't give us much a chance to make him feel more at home.
- Arnnaria is no longer a mod.
Not an easy decision, but one the staff stands by.
- Madding is no longer a mod.
His own choice, as far as I am aware he just wanted to spend his IRL-encroached free time here goofing around.
- charlequin is no longer a mod due to inactivity.
Didn't respond to the prompts asking him what was going on for him, IIRC.
- Yomako and Le Gambit were demodded due to lack of activity too.
In Yomako's case, MS requires a significant contribution of time & attentiveness that he was not able to give. As for Le Gambit, the Avatar & Sig Shop community was desperate for attention, in the end creating a CI thread to bring the lack of attention it had received for months to attention.
To be frank, back in November, I was ready to quit due to the state of staff culture.
Azrael turned that on its head, & a lot of issues have been raised & addressed. One of those policies was staff review, so. . .
The dust is starting to settle, but I personally don't think we've had a significant amount of negative staff actions, & the best way I can describe what it's like in the Staff Lounge is it's like finally being able to open the windows.
I'd like to encourage any staff who feel comfortable coming forward to discuss this, to do so
Annorax -covered above by Rian.
As for the general turmoil, most of it was very much intentional. In addition to bringing on a wave of new personnel, we also wanted to clean house, and start being more aggressive about terminating staff who aren't quite where we want them to be. So the majority of those changes (six) are due to an effort to improve the staff's performance and accountability.
Madding and I stepped down purely for IRL reasons, not any tensions within the staff, and both of us were very happy with the direction that the site is currently headed.
Kraj had a variety of reasons, but part of the explanation is that I kind of dragged him along with me back into the gig, and when I retired, he had less interest in sticking around.
So I can assure you, there's not any hidden turmoil or any animus going on behind the scenes that's causing mods to drop like flies. I think satisfaction amidst the ranks is the highest it's ever been, and with the new additions from last month, the staff has more than enough coverage and new talent to keep things running smoothly.
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showpost.php?p=7775703&postcount=17
There's a lot of enthusiasm within newly appointed staff, IMO.
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There's nothing to worry about. The changes you are noticing are a sign of something good.
As for 'weekly' updates on current projects, you mean like this, leading to the opening of the Speakeasy?
Or this, leading into the changes to the rules?
I do believe we make an effort to keep the users on board, with subforum-specific announcements for local changes, & CI activity for the Big Bigs.
Still, we can try to up that, no worries
A personal appeal from
MTGS moderator rianalnn.
Currently:
• We're reviewing the previously non-existant staff code of conduct, & sorting that out so we can all have a baseline of expectancy with regards to professionalism as well as moderation styles.
• Market Street is getting pounded, with some potential apprenticeships in the works just to make sure we're always covered in there by experienced staff. We're also ironing out the rules, standardizing the moderation & setting up some FAQs for procedure et cetera blah blah zzzz
What else. . .
• I'm busy learning the technical back-end of the site, pretty cool. Annie has been very gracious in sharing his secret tech so we have some redundancy going on.
• Sene is trying to figure out if there is a place for a more restricted competitive sub-sub-subforum for Standard, potentially to create a place where hardcore spikes can talk srs cardboard without being distracted by 'fun' or 'fun'
• Yukora is
dragging us all around by chains on from our navelsreviewing our staff holdings & poking the needy bits, that's pretty much ongoing these days. Are we happy? Are we still happy? How 'bout now? We need to restock our Global pantry, so I think that's on top the menu.• Annorax has set up the basics for a Tournament Organizer group, so that Official TOs can edit the events calendar themselves, streamlining that.
• Users may be vaguely aware of the NSFW beta test area we ran not long ago; a dedicated team of staff are busy hammering out policy to allow for subforums allowing more unrestricted Artwork, Creative Writing, & Debate, much like the Speakeasy has done for WCT/Clans/all the niche community threads. Slow going, but almost there.
• Wha– oh, yeh. I've been looking at attacking the smileys; when I'm less busy I might start a thread in the Speakeasy to get some discussion happening about adding or changing or removing smileys. For instance, I don't like this guy –> :love:, I'd rather it be this guy ->
Pretty low on the totem pole, that, though
• Few random things that need love, like the News sub & its associated slot on the Frontpage, a whole bunch of old retired forums that are kind of in the road & need to be organized, & so on, more every time you turn around
That's got to be most the goings-on at the moment, behind the scenes
Sometimes this stuff just goes nowhere, though. We don't want to rile people up over nothing
scumbag
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Links or it didn't happen
But seriously, any links to information / discussion would be appreciated.
EDIT: Nevermind, I'm guessing this thread contains the relevant information.
BRG Loam Control (Assault - Loam) BRG
W Mono White Control (Martyr - Proc) W
LuckNorris Debacle
Charlequin removed due to inactivity
Weaver/Cabal_Chan issues
Arn removed from staff.
Madding stepped down
Azrael leaving staff by his own decision
Kraj stepped down
Annorax stepping down
scumbag
Want Higher Level Card Evaluation? Visit Diestoremoval.com
I think I beat you to it
Also, I'm guessing the original threads which caused the trouble (in certain cases) would have been deleted?
BRG Loam Control (Assault - Loam) BRG
W Mono White Control (Martyr - Proc) W
Those forums are quite different, so no. Testing Grounds were basically a free-for-all forum with no mod intervention at all, while the Speakeasy has actual rules, and is followed closely by a number of mods. A pretty substantial difference, I would say.
What Ria said, and I can also ensure you that the new staff has been followed up and trained, and I'd say these have become comfortable with their positions in record time. "We're throwing them against the wall to see which ones stick" is absolutely not the case here
Hehe, yup, this is being formed as we speak, and it is being discussed by a handful of staff and well regarded members. It is tough to say when/if this forum will go live, but it will be based on the idea I posted in this thread. We will keep the community updated as to what the status of this project is
Edit - I would be happy to listen to all thoughts and input regarding this idea. I'll map out what the current consensus is soon.
I appreciate the time the staff has taken with my queries. It has been most enlightening.
To chime in on this, and to add to what ria has already said which is correct: this wasn't much of a debacle at all.
I was taken off of the moderator staff for knowingly having a trade thread while being under eighteen. It was totally my fault for not closing it instantly, and I deserved being taken off of the staff. I blame none of the current moderators or administrators for anything that happened during that case. It was a stupid mistake on my part. Definitely no bad feelings here.
In fact, I wouldn't say the staff is in turmoil but I think they are healthier than ever. A lot of great new people and moderators have been put onto the staff that not only have what it takes to be great mods, but they have my total respect. Guys like Megiddo, ExpiredRascals, Viricide and pretty much every new moderator has done their jobs since being added to the staff and has done it well.
I have a lot of confidence in the staff these days, and I am being honest when I say there is nothing to worry about.
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No worries, you creating this thread was good, so that we could address this publicly.
I also want to add extremeicon to that list, although he retired two months before. The reason is the same, I guess: it's hard to devote so much time to the forum, and, what's more important, there are many more important things in real life than mtg.
Funny that.
Forced out?
I just have to ask what purpose this serves? If you're going to make an inflammatory statement/claim like this, give some info to back it up. The OP had a concern, and gave some reasoning for it. Could you possibly do the same? What dissenters? What was the dissent about/for?
There was a significant amount of dissent when I was on staff. Unfortunately, I am not at liberty to disclose it, since it was in the Mod Lounge. However, I think that you can see who has left and who has become silent on staff, and you can probably see where the lines are.
Suffice it to say that there was something of a schism amongst the staff, and most of the people who seemed to be on one side have either left, or become largely silent or conformed to the new standard. That standard seems to have been set by our new most vocal Amdinistrator, rianalnn, and Azrael, who had a list of things that he wanted accomplished, but then quit, instigating Kraj's departure as well, and hence this thread.
Regarding what, precisely, the dissent was about, it is sufficient to say that there were disagreements about what was and was not correct moderation, which was ridiculous, considering that many of the complaints were from people who were not regulars of the places that they were complaining about. Instead, they seemed to have axes to grind about a few moderators, and their complaints, incessant and puling as they were, eventually fell on ears that listened. (As to why that was, I'll leave it to the reader's ability to draw correlations between membership in a couple of user groups that I'll not bother to define.)
There's been no shortage of decisions at the staff level that I find questionable, including the reappointment of Clock King. He, like Korsakovia, leaked information from the Mod Lounge. (Granted, I don't think that he leaked it to people who were...carrying out activities quite as distasteful as ...)
I don't understand, or support, the addition of a wide variety of the new staff that were brought on board about, or near, the time that Azrael and rianalnn were made administrators.
The addition of sene to the administrator ranks makes me feel much better about the direction this place is going. Regardless of who is in charge, I have little doubt that the website will survive, regardless of who is in charge, though. I'll not make this out to be a matter of survival for the site.
It's enough to say, though, that I personally think that the way that the website is being run seems...dubious. The staff might all be on one page now, but the question is why. The question is how it happened, how it got that way. And I am here to tell you that the situation may not be as amicable as it seems.
While I voluntarily stepped down and it was partially for personal reasons, there were two other reasons that I stepped down. One was a distaste for what I saw coming. When I saw this thing coming, I decided that I didn't want to be part of a staff that had rianalnn as a leader, particularly one that also had Clock King on it. (That's even more true now that Annorax and extremeicon have stepped down.) The other was that I stopped particularly enjoying the discussions that were going on in Debate, where my very limited bailiwick, was. Since I knew that I neither wanted to be part of the staff changes that were coming, nor was I envisioning enjoying carrying out my duties in an area that I no longer had enthusiasm for.
(Plus, I was tired of listening to...individuals and others complain. So, they got what they wanted, and I stepped down. I don't have to do what I don't want to do, i.e., listen to them, to moderate a Debate section that I lack interest in anymore, or to be a member of a staff that does things that I don't like.)
So that, jedimindtricks, is what I am talking about.
Like every other non-banned user of this site, I am permitted to express my opinions about this site and how it is run. And in this particular case, I really, really don't like what I see. So I will speak up. But I won't do so often. Or petulantly. I will merely hope that this, too, shall pass and that better administrators and better guidance shall return.
Harkius