My Brief Thoughts on the Mod Survey

[Gustav 6,417]

I put up the article connected to last week's mod survey today! If you haven't read it yet, go check it out. Here are a few of my general thoughts about it:

 

-I think I've cooled off a bit from when I originally posted the survey. At first, I thought I was going to end up disagreeing with a ton of people in the comments and spend all day writing up walls of text in response to super minor points (yes, I know I'm guilty of this). But instead of writing the article and preparing for a debate, I was mostly just happy with getting opinions out there objectively and letting them be interpreted.

-I learned a lot about what a lot of people think, and I appreciated hearing and considering things I don't necessarily agree with. I hope everyone who read it, regardless of what they think, was able to do the same.

-I appreciated connecting a bit with @Vice today, someone I've generally seen as a decently nice person but who I've rarely (if even ever) spoken with directly. I got some tips for survey-making I'll try to put into use if I ever do something similar in the future.

-Most of my recent issues with moderation have to do with the enforcement of the Code of Conduct rather than the Code of Conduct itself. Maybe we have people who are complaining that there's a Code of Conduct? I don't know, I didn't notice that in the responses at all. The sense that there are was present in a few responses, so I do worry that my point wasn't communicated clearly--I'm for a Code of Conduct and I think ours is good. I just don't think simply stating "Code of Conduct" is a valid substitute for an explanation, nor do I think anyone (mod or non-mod) should be trying to figure out ways anything and everything could be against the rules because of it.

-The discussion that followed about staff ownership of locker rooms still kind of gets to me. Whether or not the implication is that I can't be trusted to not let my team spout off offensive shit (I'm fully aware that it isn't), I still find it very hard not to feel like that happening would be a punishment I don't deserve.

-There's also a bit of a loophole to the above--we're free to make unaffiliated servers. We're also not required to have a Discord locker room (many might not remember this, but 10-ish seasons ago Toronto briefly killed theirs and went to the forum). I could hypothetically just make a Discord server, invite everyone on my team, and call it "Gustav's server" or something. There's nothing anyone can do to stop me from doing that--it's not an affiliated server and I will never claim that it is. If, hypothetically, someone tried to force me to hand over Davos...my response might be "well, there's no Davos Discord, but if you'd like to play for us I'd be happy to invite you to Gustav's server."

-The time has been served, but #FreeHogan. Most responses--even most of those that didn't have many issues otherwise--agreed that that one was stupid.

[Vice 403]

It was lovely talking to you! We can learn a lot from something called the sociological perspective. Being able to remove your lens from the interpretations of situations really allows you to have an impact on the topic you're reporting on.

 

I think you did a very good job reserving your own opinion from the thread and I think in turn for being transparent, the community responded in kind and instead a lively discussion can be had.

 

TPE-worthy if you ask me. 

 

 

[Spartan 4,402]

54 minutes ago, GustavMattias said:

The discussion that followed about staff ownership of locker rooms still kind of gets to me. Whether or not the implication is that I can't be trusted to not let my team spout off offensive shit (I'm fully aware that it isn't), I still find it very hard not to feel like that happening would be a punishment I don't deserve.

Yeah this rubs me the wrong way as well, and it's odd that I feel that way. Bek and Sam are both highly active members of the server, and Josh was part of the team in the past as well. I really have nothing to hide about what goes on in Moscow, and plenty of people have eyes on what goes on in there. The simple idea of just not having full ownership and creative/authoritative control over a team that I really, really love just bothers me to a mildly unreasonable extent. 

 

I don't like feeling like I, or my team, needs a set of eyes outside my own to be monitoring us. Or that due to the accidental action of another GM in an isolated incident, I am no longer trusted to hand over the locker room if the next GM wants it. It's a lack of trust and an odd expectation to set that just makes me feel like I'm not considered as capable enough, or responsible enough, to handle my shit or Moscow's shit. 

 

59 minutes ago, GustavMattias said:

There's also a bit of a loophole to the above--we're free to make unaffiliated servers.

Heck, I joked about it in gen chat that I'd just add "Not the" before Moscow Menace in the server name. It's such an exploitable loophole. If there were more harmful situations of locker rooms getting deleted and people being upset about it, then I'd maybe sympathize with the folks arguing the "staff owner LR's" point. But I've seen multiple M LR's get purged/remade on a GM's whim without an eye batted. Gen chat was even purged at one point, under staff ownership. I just don't get the argument at all to either centralize LR's or to put them all under staff ownership. I don't know of a single other major sim league that operates like that. 

 

At this point, I'm just tired of this stuff. I'll happily pass Moscow over to the next GM if I get removed for cause one day. Until then, I'll keep doing what I'm doing and I'm not going to get told what to do and how to do it.

[Gustav 6,417]

2 minutes ago, Spartan said:

Gen chat was even purged at one point

 

One? lmao

 

We're past this, but there was a brief period of time where it would be completely wiped every month or so for no reason. 

[Spartan 4,402]

Just now, GustavMattias said:

 

One? lmao

 

We're past this, but there was a brief period of time where it would be completely wiped every month or so for no reason. 

One time since I've been in the league lol

[Gustav 6,417]

1 minute ago, Spartan said:

One time since I've been in the league lol

 

Zoomer

[Beketov 9,025]

6 hours ago, GustavMattias said:

The discussion that followed about staff ownership of locker rooms still kind of gets to me. Whether or not the implication is that I can't be trusted to not let my team spout off offensive shit (I'm fully aware that it isn't), I still find it very hard not to feel like that happening would be a punishment I don't deserve.

-There's also a bit of a loophole to the above--we're free to make unaffiliated servers. We're also not required to have a Discord locker room (many might not remember this, but 10-ish seasons ago Toronto briefly killed theirs and went to the forum). I could hypothetically just make a Discord server, invite everyone on my team, and call it "Gustav's server" or something. There's nothing anyone can do to stop me from doing that--it's not an affiliated server and I will never claim that it is. If, hypothetically, someone tried to force me to hand over Davos...my response might be "well, there's no Davos Discord, but if you'd like to play for us I'd be happy to invite you to Gustav's server."

You do realize this is still just a discussion right? We haven’t implemented anything and have no direct plans to.

[Beketov 9,025]

5 hours ago, Spartan said:

The simple idea of just not having full ownership and creative/authoritative control over a team that I really, really love just bothers me to a mildly unreasonable extent. 

I’m still far less interested in the ownership side, that sounds like a nightmare to deal with from all sides.

[Gustav 6,417]

2 hours ago, Beketov said:

You do realize this is still just a discussion right? We haven’t implemented anything and have no direct plans to.

 

For sure--but it was part of the discussion in the thread so I'd call it relevant.

 

I have no issue with the stated purpose of it, just that as someone who's run my own server with no issues that I'm aware of for...two and a half years, and always given mod perms to commissioners, it kind of feels like a slap in the face (even though I'm well aware that it's not intended to be). I guess I've already said that though so I think I've said what I needed to say about it.

[Berocka 2,263]

26 minutes ago, GustavMattias said:

 

For sure--but it was part of the discussion in the thread so I'd call it relevant.

 

I have no issue with the stated purpose of it, just that as someone who's run my own server with no issues that I'm aware of for...two and a half years, and always given mod perms to commissioners, it kind of feels like a slap in the face (even though I'm well aware that it's not intended to be). I guess I've already said that though so I think I've said what I needed to say about it.