theearth: (Default)
Save the Earth Mods ([personal profile] theearth) wrote in [community profile] saveyourselves2014-05-01 08:29 pm
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MOD ANNOUNCEMENT

As many of you are aware, there has been a recent incident involving ourselves and a few players. We wish to address this matter here.

Firstly, we apologize not only for our delay in speaking on this, but for our own behavior during this. We do take fault for having been too inflexible on the matter which started everything. All of us are to blame for this inflexibility and we all take responsibility for it; not just one mod is fully to blame for anything which happened. The plot the player desired should not have been dealt with in the way that it was. Our reasoning had been that we had not seen evidence that the plot had been set in stone, we had not been given reason why change was necessary to reconcile the plots, and that the details behind this plot/what was needed to occur to bring it to fruition were not brought to us. We offered one compromise, it was not taken, and we should have been more flexible about offering further compromises. We are, again, sorry for that inflexibility on our end.

Secondly, to prevent any risk of this sort of situation ever happening again, we are discussing a frankly overdue new system of accounting for, organizing, and simplifying coordination between planned plots, both meta and player. Details on it will be coming soon.

And thirdly, the mod with the most concerns voiced about her has been issued a warning, and will be taking far less of a stance involving plot-related issues for the time being. We will monitor her behavior to ensure a repeat of this kind of situation does not occur again and, should it, she will be dealt with. In line with those concerns, while she will still be involved in plotting and whatever issues may come to us, the other mods will have far greater a say, and will be considered the figures of authority where directly addressing player concerns and needs is concerned.

However, what we stand firm about is that ganging up on a person while refusing their own comfort is not permissible. The mod in question had become extremely uncomfortable having so many people, including one not in the game, on her all at once while she was not feeling well. This was the reason warnings were issued. We do, however, concede to having been too impulsive in issuing warnings to all involved, and once more, we do apologize to the parties who had been warned without having acted severely enough to warrant a warning. All but one of the warnings has been lifted.

Finally, not all the mods are experienced mods, and even the more experienced mods will acknowledge they can always use some help. So please, we ask that if any of you have any suggestions on how we might improve to come and tell us.

Thank you and, once again, we all apologize for our respective parts in this situation.

Comments to this post are enabled. At request, they have been unscreened. If you have left a screened comment and would like it unscreened, please indicate so! As per the suggestion of Guin, if you would prefer to leave us a screened comment, please do so on the Mod Contact post.

We will make a second post addressing those concerns, resolutions, and invitation of a second round of feedback as soon as we're able.


UPDATE - 5/3:

The StE modteam is currently planning to come together as a group and discuss all the issues brought to them on this post. Linda and Guin will be present while we are all on to continue discussion as a full team in order to ensure that all points and issues are thoroughly addressed.

This discussion will be happening as soon as possible - but coordinating schedules has proven difficult, so please bear with us.

This post will be edited accordingly once the discussion's day and time have been set.

UPDATE - 5/3:

The discussion will begin Sunday, May 4th, 5:00 P.M. CDT/3:00 P.M. PST.

UPDATE - 5/4:

The discussion has begun and is underway; it's proven to be more intensive than anticipated and hasn't yet ended, but will resume tomorrow and continue until concluded.

In the meantime, screencaps of the discussion thus far are posted at Linda's public Plurk; further updates will be made on this post and the linked Plurk, including the date, once set, of the second post.

UPDATE - 5/5:

Discussion has now concluded - we're sorry for having been quiet for so long!

Formal address of the points brought to this post as well as a second OOC post and a mod apps announcement will be coming by the end of tomorrow - Tuesday, 5/6.

- THE STE MODS: Anduin, Blue, Mini, and Olga
fae_of_the_rose: (Default)

[personal profile] fae_of_the_rose 2014-05-02 06:50 pm (UTC)(link)
I personally don't like them since things tend to be skewed and you can't verify a source if it's anonymous so you might have old players who dropped causing problems and gods know what else, but that's just my personal opinion. I can totally see why people would find them useful, but mods should really not go on there if they want to remain level-headed and fair when a situation arrives. I probably should have just said "as a mod" and not "as a mod and a player".

Though it isn't a good thing if a player has to find out about something going on in their game from an anonymous source.

[personal profile] upsocks 2014-05-02 07:03 pm (UTC)(link)
You definitely do have to slog through a lot of shit on anon comms; I can understand not wanting to look through them because they're essentially the gossip mags of the RP world and it can be kind of stressful sometimes. It just seemed a bit strange to me to offer not going there as advice in this particular scenario, considering it was a big part in alerting players to this problem and kind of directly goes against what you're saying.

But yeah, it's not a good thing when a player has to find out about issue going on in their game from an anonymous source - that's the point. If it's getting that bad, then it's a major red flag that might have gone ignored because it's very easy to think "it's just me" otherwise. As you said, you had no idea there was even a problem.
fae_of_the_rose: (Default)

[personal profile] fae_of_the_rose 2014-05-02 07:09 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, I see your point. My own bias against them makes it hard to see that they can be useful sometimes. Sorry if I sounded contradictory or like I was shaming the people who went to the anon comms. I honestly didn't mean to.

+1

[personal profile] darn_socks 2014-05-02 07:23 pm (UTC)(link)
The old adage is generally 'go to the mods', and that's generally what I want to do right off the bat. However, having seen the ban-threatening PMs they have sent players for bringing up issues (which, might I add, contain language that in my humble opinion slants pretty heavily in an almost bullying direction), an immense amount of doubt starts arising. I can't go to a private mod venue and fully trust that I won't have my fun in a game outright threatened for complaining at the drop of a hat; and where else am I supposed to go, if I want to get feedback from anywhere that isn't potentially hostile mods or my immediate plurk friend circle?

Echoing what's already been said, the fact that we've been driven to having to unearth most of these issues in an anoncomm in the first place really does not speak well for the climate of communication in-game.