Subject: I... think I'd rather not, honestly.
Author:
Posted on: 2017-03-22 13:40:00 UTC
Considering people love to swarm when I play Damsel In Distress, if this is going to stay as drama-free as possible then I'll stay out of it.
But... that being said, this has potential to backfire horribly to clean the slate, so to speak, and I think it's a good idea. Sending you the best of luck and the mental fortitude you're definitely gonna need for it.
I don't want to see friends leave the PPC. I don't want to see anyone leave. It hurts. We're all very emotional right now, reacting more strongly than we would otherwise, and I just want it to stop.
But it's clear that there are deep, gaping wounds in this community. That people from across the Board and Discord have serious issues with others, and with the community as a whole. Some of them have come to light in the last week; I'm sure others are still simmering away below the surface.
So I'd like to make a proposal that in one month - ie, around April 20th, or in the week after Easter - we sit down and calmly go through every single thing that's hanging unseen over our heads.
To do this, I'm going to make an extraordinary request: I want you to tell me what unresolved or outstanding issues you think the PPC community has. Whether they're between two people or one person and a group; whether they're a single incident or a low-level pattern of behaviour; whether they're a failure of the community as a whole or a private dispute.
Please do not tell me here. Email me at huinesoron@hotmail.com. Outline what happened - who was involved, what they did, how people reacted. If an incident happened on the Board, please link to it (the archives are here). If it happened in the Discord chat, please give a date; I'll chase someone up to get the transcripts later. If it happened by personal communication, please do not send me files: a summary will be much better, and I won't have any more accidental doxxing even by email.
I will go through everything I'm sent, and try to put together an impartial summary of each incident. Then, in a month - or later if we have more issues between then and now, I want this to happen when we're calm - I will put it all up for consideration. (If the incident involved me, you are still free to send it to me, and I will do my best to remain impartial in my summary. But if you prefer, you can hold it back and present it yourself.)
Before you ask: yes, this is going to be fething miserable for me. No, I don't expect it to magically fix everything. Yes, you might share an issue and find the community disagrees with you. But yes, I genuinely believe that if we can pull these hidden problems out into the light, look at them together, and decide what censures, reprimands, and even bans the community feels are appropriate, that we can finally put the majority of them to rest.
I am not setting myself up as a moderator. I am not setting myself up as a mediator. I will get everything together and start the discussion, but I will have exactly as much say in the outcomes as anyone else. This is a community matter, and it will be resolved by the community.
hS
PS: 'I think we need moderators but everyone keeps saying no' does not count as an unresolved issue. There is a vote right now which is 2:1 against Board moderators; the fact that you don't like the explicit community consensus doesn't mean it doesn't exist. ~hS, pre-empting that one
I suspect people are busy composing (or at least preparing in their heads) the emails describing all the stuff they want brought up in the planned thread.
However, I'd like to suggest that, if you're sending an email, you write it in a Word document or something, read it over a few times, and don't send it right away. Instead, save the text and put it aside for a few days. Then, open up the draft email and read it again. Make sure you still think all the problems you mentioned are problems (and add any new observations you've had), then either send it or give it a few more days to simmer before a third reading and a send. I'm suggesting this because, as hS said, emotions are running high right now, and it's probably best to not let them run rampant over the inputs to the discussion being planned.
Write it down, certainly, so that you have it, but then do look it over and let it sit for a bit and come back to it a few times. It means you're unlikely to end up forgetting a handful of things you would've liked to include, you'll catch any clarity issues, and you'll have time to think through exactly what you want to say and how you want to say it. Not that you can't always send a follow-up with more information, but it's always nice to have as much as possible in one email rather than spread out over a lengthening email chain.
(Like Tomash, I'm just suggesting--but I do think it's a good idea! Especially since we're still in the middle--but hopefully now nearing the end--of a pretty strongly emotional time right now.)
~Zing, who is still pretty busy but seems to be weighing in on things today
Hi,
I had internet issues and missed everything.
I should probably thankful for that.
I wish I could be more of a help, but considering how little I know, I almost certainly won't be.
Best wishes for resolving this issue.
If there is anyway I can help, feel free to let me know.
Considering people love to swarm when I play Damsel In Distress, if this is going to stay as drama-free as possible then I'll stay out of it.
But... that being said, this has potential to backfire horribly to clean the slate, so to speak, and I think it's a good idea. Sending you the best of luck and the mental fortitude you're definitely gonna need for it.
I can only say that I genuinely feel that getting the unresolved problems out in the open at a time when you're in a safe mental state, and can discuss them with some degree of objectivity, would be the best way to resolve them.
(Of course it's going to backfire horribly. It's me doing something in the PPC, that should be your default assumption...)
hS