Quote from JeffFirst of all, the day we officially announced the merge, there were a few people from the existing SP community that reacted... poorly. Poorly is an understatement, but I'll be nice about this.
I really wasn't aware of this, but it wouldn't surprise me. I've been on the same end of it as you, trust me. We started this thing called the NTF, basically the noob task force (I didn't name it, I know it's ridiculous), that specifically tried to find members whose behavior was consistently negative and non-contributory without doing anything blatantly obvious enough to get the mod's attention. People flipped the fuck out and accused us of turning the place into some regime where only calm, friendly, polite animators could be part of the forum, despite every attempt to explain that wasn't the case.
As the member who was picked to help get it off the ground, I dealt with so much shit for it. Being called a suck-up, or a mini-mod/mod wannabe, all sort of bullshit. Trust me, I get where your hesitation is coming from.
Honestly maybe you're right. I know, shocking that someone on the internet is reversing their stance, but you have a point. Maybe I'm just used to the community to the point where I don't notice these negatives like you do. Like you said, I can be insulting and callous but I really do like this place, and I'm also on board for the merge, maybe I'm wrongly assuming the rest of the ex-mod group is the same way. I still think for the most part they are, but I haven't been watching as closely as you probably have.
Quote from JeffThis whole argument over my hesitation to re-implement an old feature of the forum is pretty solid evidence of how you specifically are acting this way. I simply see the kind of overreaction I received as a sign that you don't like that I'd like to change how this particular part of the forum is done.
I think this is the biggest miscommunication we're having here, and that's what's causing the frustration on both our parts. I've admitted to seeing your point of view, so see this through mine, I need to clarify this if we're going to get anywhere.
I asked you for something back, and the response I got wasn't really as calm or respectful as I think you believe it was. Reducing the status of "honorable members" which was made up of some of the oldest, best members of this community to a "reward" that's yours to give or take away is just kind of insulting to someone who's been here for as long as me. Even if you didn't mean it that way, that's how I took it.
Once it became an issue of the group being generally uncooperative, I had a hard time believing it. I haven't seen it and I know for a fact I don't act like that, and you said yourself that you don't know most of the group, so I really didn't understand how that could be a good reason. It more or less sounded like you didn't care (again, dunno if that's the case, just explaining my side here), so that combined with being drunk led to hostility.
And now you're using that as an example of my unwillingness to cooperate, even though this is literally the first time I've ever fought against a change brought on by the merge. I've even told SP members to leave if they don't want to accept the FA community and whatever changes they'll bring. Yet because of the behavior of a few people who acted in the opposite way of me, I'm being punished for it as well. It's just a shitty situation and it's hard to react reasonably to it. So, sorry if I was being a dick, but I'm having a hard time figuring out how to even go about resolving this. It just sort of sucks.
I just don't want to be labelled as uncooperative because I'm having a bad reaction to being grouped together with people you view that way. If that never happened you'd have no reason to think I'm not all for changing the forum, or that I want this place to be an "anarchistic hell hole". That's not true at all.
Hopefully that all makes this...
Quote from JeffNow, if I DID let ex-mods discuss these changes to rules in the sub-forum, and I was met with the same kind of response I've received from this small topic for every issue, how do you think that would go?
..seem a little less plausible, especially since you acknowledged that I'm willing and able to be civil about this sort of stuff. But like you said, I can't speak for the rest of the group and neither can you.
Quote from JeffI have to judge whether or not you would be an asset to discussions based on how you act and present yourself generally on the forums. I would have to go through each member and see whether or not I would want them to have that sort of privilege based on either previous experiences or by looking at their posts
I mean, yeah, it's convoluted. Like I said I have no clue how to go about this, you're the one with the authority here now and whatever you decide, I guess that's how it has to be. It just needs to be clear that I've contributed positively to this forum in a ton of ways, and so have the majority of the people in the group that no longer exists to recognize that fact. Apparently a few people gave you reason to think we're crotchety old farts who want you kids off our lawn so we can go back to the good old days, but as long as I can make it clear that's not the case at all, and that whatever change you decide on will be affecting decent members like me.. well I can't really do or say much else. The rest is up to you I guess.
