Post by Angel on Jun 18, 2009 20:07:47 GMT -5
Hello everyone. I initially wrote this out for posting in the Staff Lounge, so please forgive any confusion. I realized that by posting it in the Staff Lounge, I was being a bit hypocritical to my message.
Your probably wondering what the hell this post is, and maybe even groaned when you saw the title. It's a "sketchy" thing to take people, a site of people doing their best to make the entire site great.. and put them in a form of review. But I sat down and I looked at us, I looked at the site.. and I've just learned some things I really feel like I need to share.
Now, I think this applies to most everyone, including staff members that are more known as lurkers. When you first are on the site, or even when your a member. You want to be on the staff. Not always because of actual reasons, and you don't always WANT to be on Staff. I know Bob_Snicket would have never been a staff member had he not been asked. But he stays because he likes to contribute the RP and possibly the site. We like to be in a position to help people out run the things we love, because we don't want to see them fall. Sometimes you have personal reasonings for why.. but one of them was always "I want to help this place. I feel like I deserve to be recongized." and I want my words to mean something.
It goes back to the issue I told you all was the biggest problem on this site since I got here. Rankism.
In the end, that's the key point to this entire post. Everyone on this forum staff is very similar in one special way. We all want.. we all want to know that our opinions, our work, the little things we do everyday matter to this place. Not just staff, members too. But this is mainly about the people that have been here for a while.. and have watched this place grow. LGN and Dobs (just as an example) got into a fight recently that had a underlining issue that I feel started the entire thing. LGN felt that his word should mean something. He wanted a position where he could be apart of the RPG and help out further.. and felt that his contributions meant nothing. Other members have foughten over positions and jobs, not entirely because we want to do it, but because we want that recognition. We want to feel useful.
It's underlining in almost every dramatic incident in this site, every fight, every power struggle, every new idea even and it's the thing that for some reason is horribly unspoken about. Plenty of times, people have foughten over the simple instance that their contribution has been taken as nothing, or they feel their opinion and stand is looked upon with biased, or they feel that someone has more say than others.
But what we need to remember is that all of our words really do mean just the same. Yes, Dobs and Ghost are both admins.. but that's just because it's their jobs to run the site. Admins in my opinion aren't people who have more say, or who are more "important" they are just the people who can push new ideas, who make certain that the site itself isn't falling under itself. They are the watchers, but their say is the same as the rest of us. In the end, I think this is a good amount of alot of issues on alot of things when it comes to dramatics on the site. Everyone wants a say, and in the end, everyone deserves a say. Even members.
I've noticed lately we stopped posting things for members eye. Yes, that's partly my fault, being stereotypically the one who is posting all the new changes. But this cannot be blamed on one person, and in fact is everyone's doing. And it's not really our fault, we are used to hiding here in our Staff Lounge, where no one else can see us.
Which is why I'm proposing something new. No more posting things about rules and etc. INSIDE the staff Lounge. Post them in a new board, where members can view the posts. They don't have to have the ability to post within, or vote, but they have a right to see how we work, to see what's going on and to see the votes that are changing the forum. That way, people aren't "out of the loop" anymore. And if someone really wants to express their opinion, all they have to do is start a new thread and talk about it. This will help get rid of some of the stigma that we are rankist, and don't care about the members at all. Because, we do!
I'm not saying that we can't have a personal spot to bicker at, with sections so we don't have to push our dramatics about the place on the place itself. I'm saying that all site changing posts need to go in the members eye. Because their opinion does count. Everyone's opinion count. I also want to propose that popular member opinion could get one or two votes in the choosing of a new staff member.. or at least they could see what we are talking about and defend our promote their favorite and why.
Make our site a site for the members, not a site for the staff. Make it a site for all, not a site for some!
Also, I want us to stop competing! I want use to stop hiding our feelings, like silly heads. Every person deserves recognition. LGN, if you want into RPG Staff, send ME A PM. Or post. Tell me why, I'm not out to get you. I'm not out to get anyone.
I want to encourage us all to be more open. Staff, just because members will see your response, DO NOT BE AFRAID TO SPEAK YOUR MIND. It's the first step to becoming more open in the first place. Start realizing that in the end, Staff are just here to make sure the site is running well.
Your probably wondering what the hell this post is, and maybe even groaned when you saw the title. It's a "sketchy" thing to take people, a site of people doing their best to make the entire site great.. and put them in a form of review. But I sat down and I looked at us, I looked at the site.. and I've just learned some things I really feel like I need to share.
Now, I think this applies to most everyone, including staff members that are more known as lurkers. When you first are on the site, or even when your a member. You want to be on the staff. Not always because of actual reasons, and you don't always WANT to be on Staff. I know Bob_Snicket would have never been a staff member had he not been asked. But he stays because he likes to contribute the RP and possibly the site. We like to be in a position to help people out run the things we love, because we don't want to see them fall. Sometimes you have personal reasonings for why.. but one of them was always "I want to help this place. I feel like I deserve to be recongized." and I want my words to mean something.
It goes back to the issue I told you all was the biggest problem on this site since I got here. Rankism.
In the end, that's the key point to this entire post. Everyone on this forum staff is very similar in one special way. We all want.. we all want to know that our opinions, our work, the little things we do everyday matter to this place. Not just staff, members too. But this is mainly about the people that have been here for a while.. and have watched this place grow. LGN and Dobs (just as an example) got into a fight recently that had a underlining issue that I feel started the entire thing. LGN felt that his word should mean something. He wanted a position where he could be apart of the RPG and help out further.. and felt that his contributions meant nothing. Other members have foughten over positions and jobs, not entirely because we want to do it, but because we want that recognition. We want to feel useful.
It's underlining in almost every dramatic incident in this site, every fight, every power struggle, every new idea even and it's the thing that for some reason is horribly unspoken about. Plenty of times, people have foughten over the simple instance that their contribution has been taken as nothing, or they feel their opinion and stand is looked upon with biased, or they feel that someone has more say than others.
But what we need to remember is that all of our words really do mean just the same. Yes, Dobs and Ghost are both admins.. but that's just because it's their jobs to run the site. Admins in my opinion aren't people who have more say, or who are more "important" they are just the people who can push new ideas, who make certain that the site itself isn't falling under itself. They are the watchers, but their say is the same as the rest of us. In the end, I think this is a good amount of alot of issues on alot of things when it comes to dramatics on the site. Everyone wants a say, and in the end, everyone deserves a say. Even members.
I've noticed lately we stopped posting things for members eye. Yes, that's partly my fault, being stereotypically the one who is posting all the new changes. But this cannot be blamed on one person, and in fact is everyone's doing. And it's not really our fault, we are used to hiding here in our Staff Lounge, where no one else can see us.
Which is why I'm proposing something new. No more posting things about rules and etc. INSIDE the staff Lounge. Post them in a new board, where members can view the posts. They don't have to have the ability to post within, or vote, but they have a right to see how we work, to see what's going on and to see the votes that are changing the forum. That way, people aren't "out of the loop" anymore. And if someone really wants to express their opinion, all they have to do is start a new thread and talk about it. This will help get rid of some of the stigma that we are rankist, and don't care about the members at all. Because, we do!
I'm not saying that we can't have a personal spot to bicker at, with sections so we don't have to push our dramatics about the place on the place itself. I'm saying that all site changing posts need to go in the members eye. Because their opinion does count. Everyone's opinion count. I also want to propose that popular member opinion could get one or two votes in the choosing of a new staff member.. or at least they could see what we are talking about and defend our promote their favorite and why.
Make our site a site for the members, not a site for the staff. Make it a site for all, not a site for some!
Also, I want us to stop competing! I want use to stop hiding our feelings, like silly heads. Every person deserves recognition. LGN, if you want into RPG Staff, send ME A PM. Or post. Tell me why, I'm not out to get you. I'm not out to get anyone.
I want to encourage us all to be more open. Staff, just because members will see your response, DO NOT BE AFRAID TO SPEAK YOUR MIND. It's the first step to becoming more open in the first place. Start realizing that in the end, Staff are just here to make sure the site is running well.
[M:-5]
We could just make the viewable to save time, but I figured people would want a fair shot and not have people searching all in the old topics. 
