Sorry to see you go, Trance. It seems like this site is in serious need of changes at the top. As Birdbirdbirdie said, this forum is at risk of sinking if something doesn't change, and I really hope it doesn't come to that. I love the forum and would miss the daily interactions with some of the users here.
Sad to see you go trance really is. On another note: Even if there are changes to the staff of the site how long will it be till other members of the site call for a recall of staff and new admins? Not very long, so a changing in staff isn't necessarily, "save the site." I must criticize again who uses this site more than the admins and staff and who do those two groups try to make happy? The members of course and from what I've seen a lot of is the members inability to fully agree on a certain situation so instead they just keep jabbing at the staff too keep making changes. And as you said Trance even when staff decide to start changing things it seems to take decades just to get started on anything. There are two edges to this sword that is hacking away at the life of this site and neither edge is looking like it's going to dull down anytime soon.
My guess to why people aren't motivated on the user front is because the staff don't give people a reason to be motivated. It's amazing what doing something as simple as going to a thread and chatting it up with people and overall asking how people's day went (On the FORUM, not chat.) can really cheer people up and get motivated. I did that with my time on staff, and as a result, most everybody liked me and attempted to listen to what I said. However, as a result of my argumentative attitude on Staff, it caused me to become a bit shallow and broken on the forums, so I seemed a bit robotic and harmful, which led to my inevitable retirement. If I could take back what I had done to screw things up, I would; but I wouldn't go back on the time I've had here, especially as a mod. Staff need to make an effort to make people feel protected, welcome, and overall happy. I don't see that. All these fancy little events are for nothing if you can't motivate people to do it.
I don't care what anyone else says, you were valuable to the staff and thank you for your service under me. Good luck in future endeavours good sir.
From my perspective: The disappointment with the varying parts of staff (at varying times) stems before my time and is rooted in the trolls and ungrateful users. It had a snowball or domino effect from some bad things that happened long ago. The site was pretty bubbly around the time I joined it, but I hit staff during the stormiest period and was on it through some of the most over-dramatized and trivial events, as well as some that were handled proper. I feel that it's some of the users that ultimately drove Foxy from the site, even after all the things that occurred before me and during my tenure had been said and done and finally moved past. But some people just don't want to let live.
Screw it, let's enlist an all powerful overlord and nominate them to the top. It may be a one sided, totalitarian administration but at least we can plan our mutiny through Skype chat and die together in battle.
Rarit, for the longest time I enjoyed talking to you but working with you was always a hit and a miss with me. But, we can't always be a perfect team, eh? Never-the-less, it wasn't specifically you that made me leave, so you are right on that front. I hope things go well for you and I hope staff does come back and do something. For so long I've tried to keep things going, even though my life is hectic as heck I tried my best to come up with ideas or improve existing ones. You're right: Staff needs to act now. If now this site is going to continue to sink, taking everyone with it that doesn't see it coming, and I don't want to look back on a tragedy like that. This site used to be so much /more/ but so many changes ultimately killed it. First staff did what staff wanted, then staff tried to do what the members wanted but decided that wasn't good enough. Then we tried to please everyone, and that's just not going to work. Staff needs to solidify what it is they want to do, which hopefully is listen to the members, get the members involved. You guys need to shape up, take a step forward and stop taking sluggish steps. I remember when Skype discussions were LOUD, always going on, always planning... now it's... dry, barren - empty. Then when something was brought up it was either ignored or brushed aside, no matter how much it was brought up. You want to keep this site alive? Act like it. For the sake of everyone here, freaking act like you care - or better yet... actually /care/ enough to do SOMETHING about it. But Rarit, I can say you have earned so much respect from me. And I'm sorry we never really got along fully on the staff front... maybe now we can just kick back, relax, have a virtual drink and say 'cheers' to what has been as we hope for the future, eh?
Quit making staff retirement sound so appealing :derpe:. Rarit, you have gained some major respect for being the first to look back on that original list of staff flaws and how to potentially improve them, and changing your opinion regarding it. From what I've seen, there is a lot of bias in how some of the staff decisions go. The decision for just about everyone to just ignore that list of flaws has been one of the most glaring examples of bias clouding what should be a common sense decision. "What decision is that?" I can see one asking. The answer is to look at the list for the constructive criticism that it was, and work on trying to improve the flaws mentioned. It has been fantastic working with you Rarit. Just overlook the flak you've been getting, in my opinion. We've explained several times that the staff as a whole comes to a decision regarding situations, and that you're the one who was always willing to then go forth and carry out the task. I feel that a lot of the negativity toward you is unnecessary, and that you did a great job as a moderator. As I said, you were the most willing to buckle down and deal with a situation after the staff discussed how to deal with the situation. I'm really sad to see you go, and hope you at least stick around as a member. I wish the best for you in everything else that comes your way. In my case, I've frequently requested and been open for constructive criticism. Feel free to even just PM me with a "Hey, I disagree with what you just did" or a "Hey, what you did was pretty cool. Keep it up!" In fact, maybe some form of positivity symbiosis could start to develop if someone does something awesome, and people remark about it through a PM. One of the biggest things I've seen that leads to staff leaving in droves is their ideas being completely ignored, or just set aside and never looked at again. One of the things causing these consistent issues seems to almost always either be a breakdown in communication, or personal bias toward the suggestion. We've been given some ideas on improvements we can make, and they were completely ignored. What happened as a result? We had our second largest volley of staff and ex staff leaving the site en masse. As for the constructive criticism I've asked for, the most I get is that I'm hardly ever on the site. I agree that this is an issue, but I'm at a loss on how to fix it. You see, I'm working full time, going to college full time (yes, I even am taking summer courses), spending time with my girlfriend (we at this point only get to see each other once a week, or twice if we're lucky), organizing local brony meet ups, helping organize special trips like Everfree Northwest and the viewing of Equestria Girls that my local group had, and maintaining some semblance of both a social life and family life. Despite all this, I really want to try and help keep this site at the very least afloat, if not improve it. This has been my very first brony community, so it holds a special place in my heart. I've met some of the most amazing people on here, and still continue to meet some awesome people as they join the site. To explain some of the things I've done behind the scenes, I've fought to keep our Shoutcast radio when it was being strongly argued in favor of removing it (glad it's still here), I'm filming some of our very first major convention footage at a brony convention (hoping I can get some big name interviews while I'm at it, so cross your hooves and wish me luck), tracking down new musicians to ask to use their material on our radio, and keeping in touch with both the military bronies (they have some amazing connections in the brony community, and are generally awesome people) along with the musician community. I plan on asking some of the musicians to see if they would even be willing to do some form of show for our site, because I think that would be super cool! So yeah, just a taste of what I'm doing behind the scenes that doesn't tend to get much publicity. I just don't want the impression that I'm never on the site and don't care about it. That's one of my biggest concerns right now with how ridiculously hectic my personal life is. Yes, I have thought about stepping down as well, but I feel like I'll keep striving to keep things going as best as I can with the limited time available to me. I apologize for all of this not being as cohesive as it could be, but I'm typing all this up when I have to be awake in six hours to prepare myself for filming some footage (and hopefully interviews) at Everfree Northwest. My mind is currently a bit preoccupied with other matters, but I figured I'd chime in with my two cents on this topic.
I've read this and I didn't show up. But I set myself to invisible... Cause I'm sneaky. However, staff shouldn't be invisible IMHO. Sent from my EVO 4G Shift using Tapatalk 2
Tbh, that thread is easy to overlook. I must've missed it when (or if) he mentioned it in the staff room.
^ I can understand that. I only noticed it because I subscribe to he Staff forum. He also reminded me about it in real life.
Weren't you on my case for not posting in that section? and here you are admitting to not even reading it?
i don't think that was me. I certainly don't remember saying that. Anyway, this hardly has anything to do with me stepping down so i figure we best get back on track. If there's still anything left to say, that is.
