Public Apology regarding Premier Members
Aug 10, 2018 12:59:41 GMT -8
Post by Godai on Aug 10, 2018 12:59:41 GMT -8
Hello Everyone,
This message will not mark a full return to action, but it does mark action regarding an issue that has arisen recently, and the staff and I need to act fairly quickly. What happened is the result of several events and choices, many of which are mine, and I do intend to apologize for what has happened.
I will keep things anonymous until necessary so everyone is caught up with necessary information.
Everyone on this site has something that they wish they could change, whether it's someone new who wishes we have more staff to approve their character, to someone who is wishing our evaluation system wasn't so intensive, to a staff member who wants more time to write their own characters, and even me. For me, the main thing I wish I could change on the site is that I was given more instruction or knowledge when the founding staff took their leave. I openly admit that I have been flying by the seat of my pants in trying to run this site for several years now, and I've always done my best to figure things out, but sometimes they do still elude me.
The recent example of this came when we were offered screenshots from a member of information located in the private staff forum, and then a conversation off site between them and two other people. The information was notes on a few members regarding their behavior and steps we've taken to correct it (i.e. warnings, bans, etc), in this case. This is a recent development as the majority of the knowledgeable staff wasn't around for older offenses. The person who sent the screenshot was one mentioned, and quelled their ire at our callous list of our past negative interactions with them enough to share that they received this from a Premier Member. The screenshots of a conversation that accompanied the screenshot of the staff forum contained statements about wanting to "burn" Godai for what we had to say about the negative events we've had with this individual, and that they had the power to do so.
The conclusion we reached is that I never fully realized exactly what the Premier Member group was, and how it could interact with the Staff Forum page. Basically, Premier members, if they had the password, could still access all staff information after their demotion. I had thought I corrected this in the past, but I didn't. You may have noticed that there are no premier members anymore. The only course of action I could see to fix this was to remove the group entirely. And as a statement to the fact that we have had over a dozen premier members in the past and none of them spoke up about this, no one has the privilege to hold that position anymore. (I want to note that the majority of our premier members go immediately inactive after demotion, so I don't want to place the same burden on everyone, but it needs to be addressed uniformly).
We have also chosen to ban the two members who chose to violate trust, and act on bruised egos to take down a place that many dozens of people have worked to create a safe, fun, and nurturing environment. Every member who's posted and chatted has, in some degree, shaped Godai, and these two people felt that us keeping notes on smaller actions that mitigated harm (even if the notes are phrased very curtly) meant that the whole place had to go. I do want to state that the Ban is there simply to mitigate any damage they might do while angry at us. It would be shallow to silence a person who has felt wronged without giving them the opportunity to talk about it, which leads me to my main point.
Everyone has negative feelings and opinions about things. I started this saying that everyone wants something to be different about Godai, and all those feelings are okay to have, but we cannot act irrationally just because we are upset. If we do, it results in destruction, and potentially harming others, and I fail to see the joy that would come from that. Instead, we should talk about these feelings with a goal of creating something out of them. Sometimes that might just mean that someone needs to go create their own space completely apart from others and lead their own life. That is exactly how Godai started. We were upset with the way another site was run, so we chose to make our own, and it became this, which as faulty as it is, remains to be praised and feels like home to many.
This Thread was posted three years ago, and doesn't have much to make it in the way of being pretty, but it does still hold true. I understand, it sucks to feel those emotions of hurt, and betrayal, and anger. I've felt every single one of those. I felt betrayed by Zaiaku91 for taking advantage of my mistakes. I felt hurt by FluffyBunnies when she chose a more destructive path at our expense. I also felt moved, and warmth when Vartio chose to preserve the security of the site by sharing with us this information. And with those feelings, I am typing this, and I intend to talk with them all privately.
I would like to finish with a request and apology: Please, do not hold onto those negative feelings, whoever might have them, we are here to create using the words on a page. They are powerful tools, and I will always encourage the use of them. I am sorry if any actions on my part have caused anyone to feel like they cannot be heard, you are valid, and while I can't say I check my inbox every day, I want everyone to walk away from this thinking about how they might open up to others and what they can create in doing so.
Sincerely,
John
This message will not mark a full return to action, but it does mark action regarding an issue that has arisen recently, and the staff and I need to act fairly quickly. What happened is the result of several events and choices, many of which are mine, and I do intend to apologize for what has happened.
I will keep things anonymous until necessary so everyone is caught up with necessary information.
Everyone on this site has something that they wish they could change, whether it's someone new who wishes we have more staff to approve their character, to someone who is wishing our evaluation system wasn't so intensive, to a staff member who wants more time to write their own characters, and even me. For me, the main thing I wish I could change on the site is that I was given more instruction or knowledge when the founding staff took their leave. I openly admit that I have been flying by the seat of my pants in trying to run this site for several years now, and I've always done my best to figure things out, but sometimes they do still elude me.
The recent example of this came when we were offered screenshots from a member of information located in the private staff forum, and then a conversation off site between them and two other people. The information was notes on a few members regarding their behavior and steps we've taken to correct it (i.e. warnings, bans, etc), in this case. This is a recent development as the majority of the knowledgeable staff wasn't around for older offenses. The person who sent the screenshot was one mentioned, and quelled their ire at our callous list of our past negative interactions with them enough to share that they received this from a Premier Member. The screenshots of a conversation that accompanied the screenshot of the staff forum contained statements about wanting to "burn" Godai for what we had to say about the negative events we've had with this individual, and that they had the power to do so.
The conclusion we reached is that I never fully realized exactly what the Premier Member group was, and how it could interact with the Staff Forum page. Basically, Premier members, if they had the password, could still access all staff information after their demotion. I had thought I corrected this in the past, but I didn't. You may have noticed that there are no premier members anymore. The only course of action I could see to fix this was to remove the group entirely. And as a statement to the fact that we have had over a dozen premier members in the past and none of them spoke up about this, no one has the privilege to hold that position anymore. (I want to note that the majority of our premier members go immediately inactive after demotion, so I don't want to place the same burden on everyone, but it needs to be addressed uniformly).
We have also chosen to ban the two members who chose to violate trust, and act on bruised egos to take down a place that many dozens of people have worked to create a safe, fun, and nurturing environment. Every member who's posted and chatted has, in some degree, shaped Godai, and these two people felt that us keeping notes on smaller actions that mitigated harm (even if the notes are phrased very curtly) meant that the whole place had to go. I do want to state that the Ban is there simply to mitigate any damage they might do while angry at us. It would be shallow to silence a person who has felt wronged without giving them the opportunity to talk about it, which leads me to my main point.
Everyone has negative feelings and opinions about things. I started this saying that everyone wants something to be different about Godai, and all those feelings are okay to have, but we cannot act irrationally just because we are upset. If we do, it results in destruction, and potentially harming others, and I fail to see the joy that would come from that. Instead, we should talk about these feelings with a goal of creating something out of them. Sometimes that might just mean that someone needs to go create their own space completely apart from others and lead their own life. That is exactly how Godai started. We were upset with the way another site was run, so we chose to make our own, and it became this, which as faulty as it is, remains to be praised and feels like home to many.
This Thread was posted three years ago, and doesn't have much to make it in the way of being pretty, but it does still hold true. I understand, it sucks to feel those emotions of hurt, and betrayal, and anger. I've felt every single one of those. I felt betrayed by Zaiaku91 for taking advantage of my mistakes. I felt hurt by FluffyBunnies when she chose a more destructive path at our expense. I also felt moved, and warmth when Vartio chose to preserve the security of the site by sharing with us this information. And with those feelings, I am typing this, and I intend to talk with them all privately.
I would like to finish with a request and apology: Please, do not hold onto those negative feelings, whoever might have them, we are here to create using the words on a page. They are powerful tools, and I will always encourage the use of them. I am sorry if any actions on my part have caused anyone to feel like they cannot be heard, you are valid, and while I can't say I check my inbox every day, I want everyone to walk away from this thinking about how they might open up to others and what they can create in doing so.
Sincerely,
John
Wremn
Mr. Johnapillar
