08-27-2019, 12:24 PM
Newly appointed purple prick here coming at you with some opinion.
So, let's start with what all sides have done that could lead to this. No one ever wants to admit they're wrong or even think they're wrong, really. We get it. Gaming is competitive and you want to win. But that same principle many times carries over into community/interpersonal relations and that's one of the several factors that leads to drama.
Going into specifics, here's where I'm at right now of factors that could lead to the mess this community is now.
Admins/Ownership: None of you are bad people at heart. You did a lot of work to get up to the position. And being an admin can be an inherently difficult position because you in many cases may have to end up putting friendships aside to do what you believe is best for the community and that can be a very difficult thing to do. However, in this community, I do believe the administration can be very out of touch with the community and even its own staff and the most recent decision shows that. There has been a string of decisions I disagree with/make no sense to me, but this recent thing is the best example I think. There were plenty of opportunities to address it individually, or have a staff meeting with administration presiding, or mediate the main parties involved in issues. But from what it looks like, this all waited until things blew up and even those who are believed to be guilty by association are punished in the same way as others who may be more involved in drama. This just comes along as making an excuse to get rid of people you don't like/never liked, but that's secondary. Here's what seems to be missed with it:
IT DOES NOTHING TO SOLVE THE ISSUE. It's just "okay, they're not here, problem solved, let's go home"
So, your dog (the person or people who started an issue) shits (the issues) on your floor (the staff/regular members) next to a rug (the rest of the community). You have options. You pick up the shit (get the small things out of the way), clean the floor (have a discussion on the issues), and train your dog to not shit on the floor (find a way to prevent the issue in the future).
Using this metaphor, I'm going to describe the handling of the recent situation:
The dog shits on the floor, you proceed to push the shit under the rug, and then shoot the dog and declare victory. So, you have a dirty floor (your own staff turn against you), now a dirty rug (the rest of the community catches on and turns against you), and dead dog (the people you community banned). That's pretty much where we're at now.
The Community/Other Staff: Now, there is still a community factor involved in this too, and just because the staff mishandled, doesn't mean there isn't any fault within it. Firstly, I think part of it has to do with a lot of the community is still high school/recently out of high school age. The kind of drama in the community is par for the course with it. And it's okay to have friend groups. Disagreements happen to. But no matter how boneheaded or detrimental something may be perceived as, or how much you dislike someone, it's not like high school where the school won't come down if one group has a problem with another person or another group. Civility is absolutely necessary for this community to be healthy and I have seen a lack of civility in many of the recent issues. But given that things already happened and the dog is dead, the best thing to do is learn from what's an unfortunate situation. That's what maturity is about, and I think was the biggest thing lacking during the situations that led up to this on the community side of things.
As someone who has seen it before, these are the things in the end that do end up killing a community. So it's up to those that are now the base of this place to make improvements and do what's necessary to keep it going if they want it to survive.
So, let's start with what all sides have done that could lead to this. No one ever wants to admit they're wrong or even think they're wrong, really. We get it. Gaming is competitive and you want to win. But that same principle many times carries over into community/interpersonal relations and that's one of the several factors that leads to drama.
Going into specifics, here's where I'm at right now of factors that could lead to the mess this community is now.
Admins/Ownership: None of you are bad people at heart. You did a lot of work to get up to the position. And being an admin can be an inherently difficult position because you in many cases may have to end up putting friendships aside to do what you believe is best for the community and that can be a very difficult thing to do. However, in this community, I do believe the administration can be very out of touch with the community and even its own staff and the most recent decision shows that. There has been a string of decisions I disagree with/make no sense to me, but this recent thing is the best example I think. There were plenty of opportunities to address it individually, or have a staff meeting with administration presiding, or mediate the main parties involved in issues. But from what it looks like, this all waited until things blew up and even those who are believed to be guilty by association are punished in the same way as others who may be more involved in drama. This just comes along as making an excuse to get rid of people you don't like/never liked, but that's secondary. Here's what seems to be missed with it:
IT DOES NOTHING TO SOLVE THE ISSUE. It's just "okay, they're not here, problem solved, let's go home"
So, your dog (the person or people who started an issue) shits (the issues) on your floor (the staff/regular members) next to a rug (the rest of the community). You have options. You pick up the shit (get the small things out of the way), clean the floor (have a discussion on the issues), and train your dog to not shit on the floor (find a way to prevent the issue in the future).
Using this metaphor, I'm going to describe the handling of the recent situation:
The dog shits on the floor, you proceed to push the shit under the rug, and then shoot the dog and declare victory. So, you have a dirty floor (your own staff turn against you), now a dirty rug (the rest of the community catches on and turns against you), and dead dog (the people you community banned). That's pretty much where we're at now.
The Community/Other Staff: Now, there is still a community factor involved in this too, and just because the staff mishandled, doesn't mean there isn't any fault within it. Firstly, I think part of it has to do with a lot of the community is still high school/recently out of high school age. The kind of drama in the community is par for the course with it. And it's okay to have friend groups. Disagreements happen to. But no matter how boneheaded or detrimental something may be perceived as, or how much you dislike someone, it's not like high school where the school won't come down if one group has a problem with another person or another group. Civility is absolutely necessary for this community to be healthy and I have seen a lack of civility in many of the recent issues. But given that things already happened and the dog is dead, the best thing to do is learn from what's an unfortunate situation. That's what maturity is about, and I think was the biggest thing lacking during the situations that led up to this on the community side of things.
As someone who has seen it before, these are the things in the end that do end up killing a community. So it's up to those that are now the base of this place to make improvements and do what's necessary to keep it going if they want it to survive.
![[Image: frieren-fall-winter.jpeg]](https://otakuusamagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/frieren-fall-winter.jpeg)
