Announcement: New Community Moderators

[Vae]

Greetings, Phoenixed.

Unfortunately, Rhíulchabán has not shown up around the site for quite some time.
As you can see, he's not logged onto the site at all since March 17th:



It was agreed upon amongst staff that we would give Rhiu one last week to contact us.

That week has passed.
We have heard nothing.
 

Active mods are an important thing to have. Spreading out the workload is the entire reason we decided to add more members to the mod team, to begin with.
We understand that life gets in the way, and that Rhiu had the strongest community support during the election.
We are not trying to undermine the user vote.
We wish Rhiu the best in whatever has stopped him from returning our messages, but we must move on.
 

@Umbra.Exe ranked third, per the election results:

He, along with @Revates, are our two new mods.
 

Please give them your support and your respect.

Thank you.

[TrishaCat]

Fug

Rhiu where are you? ;_;

Well, congrats to Revates and Umbra. I wish them the best of luck. Toshabi should've been Rhiu's replacement mod tbqh fam

[Zaraphayx]

All according to plan.

[Snagged]

It's sad to see Rhiu couldn't make it here, for whatever reasons he may have.

But, congratultaions to two of our new moderators

[Dr. Doggo]

what if he comes back

awkward

[Vae]

3 minutes ago, Sir Gibby said:

what if he comes back

awkward

If he does, then there's not much more to be said.
We need active mods, and we were left with few options.
Rev and Umbra are involved in the community pretty much every day, even if it's not apparent on the forums.

[Feelwell]

This is unacceptable!

I demand a revote until Rhiu shows up!

Seriously though, congrats to Rev and Umbra! Good luck with the moderating.

And may furry jesus have mercy on your blackened souls.

[Dr. Doggo]

17 minutes ago, Vae said:

If he does, then there's not much more to be said.
We need active mods, and we were left with few options.
Rev and Umbra are involved in the community pretty much every day, even if it's not apparent on the forums.

best of luck to them, hope they dont ban me

[Toshabi]

Rhíulchabán right now:

 

 

[Chrysocyon]

Well Umbra had my vote, I have confidence he'll make a great mod. I do hope everything's alright for Rhíul though and he gets through whatever he's going through.

[Falaffel]

>Umbra becomes mod the day Rhiu comes back

fucking rip

 

Listen, I'ma be honest here and have an actual opinion:
I don't really agree with it. Not that I expect mods to be professional, but, as always, the communication with the community is all but non-existent. As always, the community gets a day-of announcement. No one knows what's going on, and it just feels like a "HEY GUYS, HERE'S YOUR NEW MOD, WE JUST FINALIZED THE DECISION YOU WEREN'T IN ON"
I have a hard time even believing there was a sense of urgency to getting new mods, seeing as how slow and uncaring the actual voting was handled. There was plenty of time to bounce an idea off the community before just deciding. That just ain't the ol' FaF/Phoenix way, though, is it?

[[null]]

2 hours ago, Falaffel said:

>Umbra becomes mod the day Rhiu comes back

fucking rip

 

Listen, I'ma be honest here and have an actual opinion:
I don't really agree with it. Not that I expect mods to be professional, but, as always, the communication with the community is all but non-existent. As always, the community gets a day-of announcement. No one knows what's going on, and it just feels like a "HEY GUYS, HERE'S YOUR NEW MOD, WE JUST FINALIZED THE DECISION YOU WEREN'T IN ON"
I have a hard time even believing there was a sense of urgency to getting new mods, seeing as how slow and uncaring the actual voting was handled. There was plenty of time to bounce an idea off the community before just deciding. That just ain't the ol' FaF/Phoenix way, though, is it?

[Chrysocyon]

While better communication would be nice, I feel like this a trivial matter on a niche forum. It's not that serious and I don't think it really makes a big difference to the bottom line.
The whole "community vote," while a little fun, was rather superfluous to begin with. I for one trust the current staff and feel like they're more qualified to make these decisions anyway. If current politics has taught me anything, it's that what people vote for is not always the best thing or for the right reasons.
When it comes down to it, we still have two great, responsible guys for our new mods, there's no need for creating more drama for them as soon as they start.

(just speaking in general, not a stab at Rhiulchaban or what he's dealing with, he's a great guy too and might have even made a good mod had circumstances been different)

[DrGravitas]

16 minutes ago, Chrysocyon said:

While better communication would be nice, I feel like this a trivial matter on a niche forum. It's not that serious and I don't think it really makes a big difference to the bottom line.
The whole "community vote," while a little fun, was rather superfluous to begin with. I for one trust the current staff and feel like they're more qualified to make these decisions anyway. If current politics has taught me anything, it's that what people vote for is not always the best thing or for the right reasons.
When it comes down to it, we still have two great, responsible guys for our new mods, there's no need for creating more drama for them as soon as they start.

(just speaking in general, not a stab at Rhiulchaban or what he's dealing with, he's a great guy too and might have even made a good mod had circumstances been different)

A simple gesture can go a long way, in either direction. I agree that the matter is minor position on a niche forum. A forum with a population so small it can't well afford to alienate many people and still hope to survive, let alone grow. So what would be so terrible in allowing a little inefficiency and relaxing back for the sake of better unity? I'll be here regardless of who our two new mods are but I'll be happier knowing others are happy enough with the outcome to stick around too.

[Toshabi]

I DONT have an opinion other than the most drama this forum has had since the Dahlia Hawthorne incident has been this thread.

 

Other than that, people on this forum are crazy levels of gay.

[Zaraphayx]

I too am gay.

[Revates]

6 minutes ago, Toshabi said:

Other than that, people on this forum are crazy levels of gay.

2 minutes ago, Zaraphayx said:

I too am gay.

Me too.

[Falaffel]

1 hour ago, Chrysocyon said:

While better communication would be nice, I feel like this a trivial matter on a niche forum. It's not that serious and I don't think it really makes a big difference to the bottom line.
The whole "community vote," while a little fun, was rather superfluous to begin with. I for one trust the current staff and feel like they're more qualified to make these decisions anyway. If current politics has taught me anything, it's that what people vote for is not always the best thing or for the right reasons.
When it comes down to it, we still have two great, responsible guys for our new mods, there's no need for creating more drama for them as soon as they start.

(just speaking in general, not a stab at Rhiulchaban or what he's dealing with, he's a great guy too and might have even made a good mod had circumstances been different)

I know both the new mods personally, i know they're great people, i know they'll do good, and they know my intention is not to create drama for them. 

I personally don't trust them to pick the right mods. Mods picking the new mods has always been a huge problem in this community. It created an "us vs them" mentality for the longest time. It may have gotten better recently, but the elections are still the step in a better direction. The elections are kind besides my point though. The new mods are kinda besides my point. 

However, I don't know how to really articulate my point. I just wish to see more care. Some more communication. I want everything to seem more inviting, even if it's illusion. Superfluous things can sometimes be beneficial if they instill the right feelings. I just don't like the disconnect I see between the mods and users. I hope it changes with Rev and Umbra. 

[Toshabi]

42 minutes ago, Revates said:

Me too.

 

45 minutes ago, Zaraphayx said:

I too am gay.

 

[Xaende]

22 hours ago, Sir Gibby said:

what if he comes back

hawkward

FTFY

[Silo]

52 minutes ago, Falaffel said:

I personally don't trust them to pick the right mods. Mods picking the new mods has always been a huge problem in this community. It created an "us vs them" mentality for the longest time. It may have gotten better recently, but the elections are still the step in a better direction. The elections are kind besides my point though. The new mods are kinda besides my point. 

However, I don't know how to really articulate my point. I just wish to see more care. Some more communication. I want everything to seem more inviting, even if it's illusion. Superfluous things can sometimes be beneficial if they instill the right feelings. I just don't like the disconnect I see between the mods and users. I hope it changes with Rev and Umbra. 

Do you believe that mods should search for volunteers that are best for the community? Or should they see what is best for the current mod team? From what I've seen, the mods chose what was best for the mod team, but so the guidance of the rest of the community. 

Though, I do believe the election of new mods was very low priority or even unessecary. I think that the election of two new mods will cause the rest to become further disconnected from the community. They will have less input on important matters and will have their work split (This isn't good for Making consistent decisions!) At least, this is my prediction. 

 

 

 

[Falaffel]

Just now, Silo said:

Do you believe that mods should search for volunteers that are best for th community? Or should they see what is best for the current mod team? From what I've seen, the mods chose what was best for the mod team, but so the guidance of the rest of the community. 

Though, I do believe the election of new mods was very low priority or even unessecary. I think that the election of two new mods will cause the rest to become further disconnected from the community. They will have less input on important matters and will have their work split (This isn't good for Making consistent decisions!) At least, this is my prediction. 

 

 

 

First off, the election is still not my real concern. I think how it's being handled currently is how it should stay.

Secondly, new mods were incredibly needed. There were only two real active mods before, and they should not be expected to do all the work. 

I believe most of their decision making is fine, and I'm not concerned about the consistency. However, I am concerned with the communication of their decisions, and their involvement of the coumminty.

[QT Melon]

I see the buzzword "communication"....

[Falaffel]

2 hours ago, QT Melon said:

I see the buzzword "communication"....

yes i would like to communicate that i would like more communication and repetition often helps 

[Sidewalk Surfboard]

7 minutes ago, Falaffel said:

yes i would like to communicate that i would like more communication and repetition often helps 

What more "communication" do you need? They clearly stated their reasoning in the OP and obviously the community made the decision (since Umbra had the majority of the vote as well) that if one person could not be mod, he would be the second choice. I don't know why you're so upset. Are you just complaining for the sake of complaining?

[Falaffel]

Just now, Sidewalk Surfboard said:

What more "communication" do you need? They clearly stated their reasoning in the OP and obviously the community made the decision (since Umbra had the majority of the vote as well) that if one person could not be mod, he would be the second choice. I don't know why you're so upset. Are you just complaining for the sake of complaining?

lmao

[Sidewalk Surfboard]

12 minutes ago, Falaffel said:

lmao

Instead of explaining your reasonings, a simple "lmao" tells everything I need to know. I have seen the light.

[TrishaCat]

I agree and would've preferred if they waited and asked us how to handle Rhiu's lateness rather than just deciding on third best as well. These are our moderators after all; having input from the community even on how to handle this situation would've been nice. That said, I don't think this was poorly handled either. Honestly, most websites I go to don't even have this amount of feedback from users regarding moderation, so comparatively I find it hard to complain. But asking users would've been better rather than just adding on Umbra.

[DrDingo]

On 05/04/2017 at 6:00 PM, Vae said:

Active mods are an important thing to have. Spreading out the workload is the entire reason we decided to add more members to the mod team, to begin with.

From this, do you mean that Rhíu is gonna join Umbra and Revates in a mod position?

I mean, I guess it'd make sense if the site needs as many active mods as it can get. Never a bad thing

[fennecbyte]

2 hours ago, Sidewalk Surfboard said:

I have seen the light.

You must have seen the wrong light, for the light you have seen is not the light of good posting.

[QT Melon]

I don't think we are communicating enough.

[[null]]

[DrGravitas]

I've got it! I know how to solve all our problems!

It's so simple, I'm amazed nobody has thought about it before. It's the one sure-fire way to ensure everyone's in the same camp, on the same page, has the same goals, the same needs, faces the same problems, and are on the same footing!

We make everyone a mod! 8D

[Vae]

4 hours ago, DrDingo said:

From this, do you mean that Rhíu is gonna join Umbra and Revates in a mod position?

I mean, I guess it'd make sense if the site needs as many active mods as it can get. Never a bad thing

We were planning on just taking Rev and Umbra into a mod position.
Unless we change that decision.
But afaik, there were no plans for all 3, since 2 were agreed before voting went up.