Pulling this quote from a different thread, because it is appropriate considering how backwards thought process is in this thread, as well as the entire website as a whole...
Everyone wants to stubbornly believe she is even though she said a couple times already she isn't.
Its the
userbase that is being stubborn? No Arnox, its actually YOU that is stubborn, because 98% of the posters keep trying to tell you the obvious....but because of pride, ego and everything else you refuse to listen to common sense and see simple facts for what they are. Perhaps this is some "statement" you are trying to make..."its my website and I'll do whatever the fuck I want"....but in that quest of chasing rhetoric you are only ruining your own credibility in the process, as well as insulting the rest of the userbase (and our intellect) by trying to portray this as some mass hallucination/conspiracy to fuck with Zek. Where there's smoke there IS fire, and its no surprise we are talking about a FLAMING queer and calling a spade a spade.
You're complicating the matter immensely. She said you have a tendency to sling insults at some people. You directly implied you didn't, and I told you that you're kinda contradicting yourself.
As I have said many times before, if she starts infracting unfairly, she will be demodded. However, I can see that assurance is not enough for you. In which case, I don't know what to say to you.
The small userbase isn't actually as bad as you think. A large userbase is a double-edged sword. As the community grows, it begins to become a serious problem to manage. One needs to keep promoting more and more to staff in order to keep up with the load which sometimes leads to bad staffing decisions which can very well lead to moderator abuse and subsequent massive drama. And if you take your time more to scope out good staff members, your current staff members probably won't be able to keep up with the rising load and some offending posts will slip through the cracks.
And not just this. As the forum grows, it begins to get more impersonal. Not all the way, mind you, but it begins to seem less like a tight-knit group and it begins to become more divided and cliquey as the userbase grows.
You mean change the rules to make them much more strict? This isn't going to happen. I'd rather shut down the site.
Understanding and experience don't mean very much if you don't know how to connect the dots and apply that knowledge into proper action. Spectral sounds like he wants to ban half the site and DaGuru... Well, I don't know about him. However, he never really posts about anything besides site policy and the drama of the day. Not good signs. Equanimity was modded not just because "she was nice", but because she was fair, professional, able to keep her cool, and seems to have a good understanding and belief of totse ideals, and she's not a complete dunce.
However, you sound pretty arrogant, presuming to know who should lead this site and carry on the legacy of totse and who shouldn't. So you've been a mod for a long time. That's great but I want to direct your argument right back at you. You don't know me really. I may not have been on Zoklet or even the totse forums but I was heavily involved in totse2 which carried its own set of problems and community with it. I've been a staff member of a couple other small groups as well and I've seen a whole lot of online groups rise and fall over the years. I've talked to a lot of other admins and past admins about their experience and how things used to be done and what happened to the groups they were/are leading...
But I'm not going to say I'm the perfect admin for this site because I'm not at all. And I don't presume to be in the slightest. But don't take me for an idiot who's blundering around and doesn't know what he's doing at all.
Arnox, for the few weeks I've been here, I've seen you make some mild mistakes, and just chalked it up to you trying to find your way or perhaps being a bit naive. But it hasn't been until the last couple of days reading a lot of your posts, I realize you truly do not "get it", and have pretty much given up hope myself you'll never figure all of this out. It isn't just about being "naive", you really don't have any real world understanding about human social interactions...and especially trying to establish a culture in a BBS of this magnitude with such controversial subject matter.
You have so much wrong about all of this....the people you are talking about, and what you "expect" this website to be. Just in regards to me you make the asinine comment of..."However, he never really posts about anything besides site policy and the drama of the day." When the truth is I've posted PLENTY about other topics, and the only "drama" I've been involved in was supporting YOU with your original gut feeling about thanks, and of course this farce in regard to modding Zek.
I could go on an on about how wrong you are about other posters, like Slave and Spectral....but instead just comment how skewed your ideas are about the culture of this place as a whole. Above you talk about..."things will get more impersonal, and less tight knit". Well DUH! That pretty much is the point (and eventual direction) of a website of this nature. This isn't Facebook where everyone is trying to be "friends" with one another and bend over backwards to be polite. Its not supposed to be a circle jerk where everyone agrees with everyone else, or else it would be very boring and bland.
You seem to have a VERY serious problem with "conflict" or people disagreeing with each other. What the hell exactly do you expect considering all the various demographics and lifestyles that are bellying up to the keyboard to talk about such an eclectic and edgy subject matter? You get pissy because people come off as "arrogant" in your eyes, when all I see is PASSION for a person's ethics, morals and life outlook. It seems you have a very hard time dealing with assertive members, you actually find that confidence in their posting and their opinions to be a "negative" thing.
If those people you deem "arrogant" all left, you would have a very bland, milquetoast and uninteresting userbase. But at this point, it almost seems like you rather have a small close knit bunch of friends....then lively debate and interesting discussion. That is your choice. And I'm not going to make any grandiose statements about "well I guess I'll be going"...but if this really is the fundamental "purpose" of this place, you WILL end up with a very boring and stale website and userbase, if all you want is people to be "nice" and "polite" without an ego or assertiveness when discussing their life knowledge and experiences. You'll end up with a bunch of thin-skinned basement dwellers without anything significant to talk about, because without PASSION life isn't really being lived any how.
You'll take what I'm about to say as an insult....but if you want to better yourself as both a person and an admin, you need to grow a set of balls (both online and off) and not get so uptight mingling with folks that have a swagger/confidence about them just because you yourself don't live your life that way.