Transparency, to our way of seeing this, largely meant discussing things rather than just trotting out new things. When new rules were drafted, the forum was invited to chime in. When further new members of the team were sought, the same thing happened; we wanted your opinions and were happy to field them. We have since made it a point to engage as much as possible, in the sense that we explain ourselves, sometimes falling on deaf ears and sometimes leading to greater clarity. This is a fairly stark contrast to the past, where stuff just sort of happened. I am not spitting on the past, but I generally prefer more accountability and openness.
The thing is, as I pointed out, I'm not hard-and-fast against this. But it foes feel like a slippery slope to me, and I feel like there's some really slick rhetoric being used in the post prior to mine. To wit, the phrase "choosing to hide". This makes it sound as if our mindset is aiming for secrecy, as if we have discussed this and deliberately chosen not to share this part of the process. This is, in fact, not the case at all, and the reason I'm settling such a potentially small thing straight is because words are powerful little beasts. Historically, this forum has not engaged in the practice of publicizing its moderator/administrator votes. It is not a decision we rolled back, and not even a decision we really made. It is something that has never been done, and something we have consequently not thought much about. As such, I will not have this characterized as a conscious choice, where said characterization makes it look like our aim is to keep information from you. That is simply inaccurate.
On its own, publicizing staff votes doesn't bug me, but the underlying precedent is worrisome. First we're publicizing votes. Then we're having to show you the entire deliberative process. Then we are allowing you to invalidate votes based on your subjective interpretation of the facts. Where does it stop?
I'm going to say this next bit with full realization that some feathers are going to be ruffled, so just hold on.
Trust in the staff team is shaky among some of the forum. I get that. But guess what? Trust in the users, at least speaking personally, is at an all-time low. Many of you are perfectly good people who bring up good points and who, even when they disagree, are pretty polite about it. many of you - I'm not naming names or pointing fingers - seem hell-bent on making trouble, acting in bad faith and generally making this as hard as they can, in pushing as often as they're able in order to get their voices heard or to settle whatever agenda they might be set upon. All things being equal, I have no problem explaining myself to someone, or making concessions if it really is for the greater good. But what I'm trying to say here is that this trust thing goes both ways; it's not just a one-way street. You are asking for more transparency than we've yet given you. That's fine. But we also asked for more understanding when we chose to intervene, and look how that's turning out. Claims of dictatorship, blatant character assassination, personal attacks, the whole bit. How can either side trust the other to be better if that apparently isn't happening? To my way of seeing it, in a big-picture sense we've done a lot of what we said we would, and the forum itself has not. More drama, more backbiting, more character assassination, respect fading and due consideration not given. I feel like this has begun to resemble the slippery slope I alluded to. We wrote out a post after the Dark situation where it was basically suggested that there needed to be work done on both sides. Well, we're doing our part fairly well (not perfectly, not by any means, but fairly well), and you guys...well, to my eye, you're not quite there yet. And I think any negotiation has to work on both sides.
Check out my Manamon text walkthrough at the following link:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/z8ls3rc3f4mkb … n.txt?dl=1