I'm going to reply to different topics individually because a lot of clearing up is needed.
"Dictator"
The reason why people might say that is because they don't get what they want.
Let's face it... we are not strict in terms of these kinds of discussions. Any admin at another forum would be quick to put an end to it, suspend the person who said it, and not even open themselves up for a discussion. Perhaps the reason why some upset person would call someone a "dictator" is because of the exact opposite. Is TBT too lenient? The members expect to be able to talk about those things, so when something happens they don't like, they blame the person in charge.
According to how a forum is suppose to be ran, the founder/root Admin has absolute control and can do whatever he/she wants. We've made it so the members and non-admins have more of a say. As I said, this could have been our mistake... having them expect less from the Admins. The privileges given to the members have been abused. What people have said is that the power that somebody doesn't even have, but should have... needs to be gone. That's not even possible.
Let's say you open up a shop and it's going good and you have a bunch of customers and then once day one of the customers goes "hey, I think you need to sell socks". And then you go "no, this is a store that sells DVDs, we don't sell socks." So the customer goes "ok, you're being a dictator and I demand that you sell socks"... see, this doesn't make any sense.
Propaganda Man's Sig
Now that it's been publicly posted by Propaganda Man, yes, he was warned a few weeks ago. He was now, however, simply warned for having a sig over the limit. He was asked twice to remove the sig. I finally had to remove it myself. The sig was then added back. This is what the rules have said about this:
Site Work
I noticed a lot of the conversations are about how some people don't want to do work. They claim that people are being forced. They say that someone is being forced to do work, no one has said they were them self though. Why is this? Because it's not true. I don't even know how it would be possible for me to force someone to do work over the internet...
I think that died down a little and people were simply saying that "he's asking", as if that's a bad thing. Some say it's a good thing, but let me tell you something that just shows me that no one really knows what's going on. Not only have I not asked for help in a long time, I've said no to people when they ask. Why? It's all related to what's actually going on:
Some people have already done work and were committed to a particular job. When it's three months later and they still haven't started what they said would be done a long time ago, you need to realize that that's not going to help the productiveness of TBT. For the most part I never even told them they need to finish. I said "I need to know if you are going to finish or not". They didn't say no... people want to have work done, they just don't want to do it. Throughout the entire summer I've been working on TBT projects. I feel insulted when people say they are being forced because if anyone's being "forced", it's me.
(The paragraph above that one ^ is related because I'm tired of wasting time teaching people how to do something and then end up where they don't even try it... thats why we don't need more people helping just yet. Instead, we need the people already working on sections to actually finish. Two sections have been almost done for a long time... it doesn't take much at all for them to go on to the next stage... but don't talk to me about that one. As for me personally, my most recent project is almost also finished. It would have probably been done (fyi, done doesn't mean it's going on the site ASAP though) by now if it wasn't for these things that take so much of my time away. My projects before that involved the other sections. )
New Staff?
The "meeting" in MSN yesterday had to do with the site and new staff. Or I should say that... the criticisms were about those things. The reason why people say we need to promote someone to staff is because they want something new and different. How's that a legitimate reason?
You don't promote even someone to staff because they are simply a good member. You promote them because they are a good "staff member" without being an official staff member. That's why the person would be promoted, because they already have the qualities and they are already doing staff-like things. You need things like leadership skills and you need to be willing to work. It's called "staff" for a reason. It's not a thumbs up or a pat on the back, it's a new job that includes new responsibilities. What we look at are those things and those are the reasons why we haven't promoted someone in a while. To become a staff member, you have to fill the needs of TBT and you need to prove that you will be able to do that. (Not to make it sound worse than it is though... I mean that you do have to work, it's not all fun and games.
I'd also like to point out another statement that shows how people don't understand what's going on exactly. I never said I don't want staff, I do. Just because you want something doesn't mean you can have it. Some day we will have someone promoted... you just need to be patient. If it's you who truly wants to be apart of it, you should work on the qualities mentioned above and after a while it will pay off. Also, the new committees will give people a better opportunity. Instead of making a big step from member to mod, you might go from member, to committee manager, to mod.
Respect and Control
This is probably the hardest part of this long post for me to write, but it's possibly the most important. Anyone should remember that they should give respect to everyone, including the staff. For me, I felt disrespected and unappreciated yesterday. You need to remember that I dedicate A LOT of my time to TBT.... not for personal benefits. It's not like I need a forum about AC and Nintendo... I don't need to write an article about AC Wii, I already know everything known about it. I don't need to code a news site for Nintendo fans... Please don't make me feel like I've wasted all this time. We (bul and I) have even spent our own money for TBT. If you don't agree about something... you can post some feedback of course, but please don't go crazy with it. You need to trust us, we've been doing this for a long time.
Also, I felt that some people lost control of themselves, trying to promote what they wanted or what they heard. I know no ones perfect, but all I can do is ask to... be more careful... get the facts first... don't let your emotions control you... etc.
I don't know who read this, or who's still mad... or maybe even madder. But I think we all just need to relax. That's why we're here. And with the school year coming up again, there's even more of a reason to keep the stressfulness away from here. (Please PM me if you have any comments or questions...)
"Dictator"
The reason why people might say that is because they don't get what they want.
Who's working on those ideas? Myself. How can someone be a dictator for working on something they'd like to have? This is the kind of logic that's used when people insult others like that.
Let's face it... we are not strict in terms of these kinds of discussions. Any admin at another forum would be quick to put an end to it, suspend the person who said it, and not even open themselves up for a discussion. Perhaps the reason why some upset person would call someone a "dictator" is because of the exact opposite. Is TBT too lenient? The members expect to be able to talk about those things, so when something happens they don't like, they blame the person in charge.
According to how a forum is suppose to be ran, the founder/root Admin has absolute control and can do whatever he/she wants. We've made it so the members and non-admins have more of a say. As I said, this could have been our mistake... having them expect less from the Admins. The privileges given to the members have been abused. What people have said is that the power that somebody doesn't even have, but should have... needs to be gone. That's not even possible.
Let's say you open up a shop and it's going good and you have a bunch of customers and then once day one of the customers goes "hey, I think you need to sell socks". And then you go "no, this is a store that sells DVDs, we don't sell socks." So the customer goes "ok, you're being a dictator and I demand that you sell socks"... see, this doesn't make any sense.
Propaganda Man's Sig
Now that it's been publicly posted by Propaganda Man, yes, he was warned a few weeks ago. He was now, however, simply warned for having a sig over the limit. He was asked twice to remove the sig. I finally had to remove it myself. The sig was then added back. This is what the rules have said about this:
Click the rules at the top if you want to see for yourself. He was warned which means a favor was given to him... it was suppose to be a suspension. Also know that you won't even be asked to remove your sig unless it's a good amount over. His was about 120 pixels over the limit. I am accused for insulting him in MSN. In the MSN conversation, I told him he was acting like he did two years ago. By that I meant he wasn't listening, how he was when near when he joined... so it was true.
Site Work
I noticed a lot of the conversations are about how some people don't want to do work. They claim that people are being forced. They say that someone is being forced to do work, no one has said they were them self though. Why is this? Because it's not true. I don't even know how it would be possible for me to force someone to do work over the internet...
I think that died down a little and people were simply saying that "he's asking", as if that's a bad thing. Some say it's a good thing, but let me tell you something that just shows me that no one really knows what's going on. Not only have I not asked for help in a long time, I've said no to people when they ask. Why? It's all related to what's actually going on:
Some people have already done work and were committed to a particular job. When it's three months later and they still haven't started what they said would be done a long time ago, you need to realize that that's not going to help the productiveness of TBT. For the most part I never even told them they need to finish. I said "I need to know if you are going to finish or not". They didn't say no... people want to have work done, they just don't want to do it. Throughout the entire summer I've been working on TBT projects. I feel insulted when people say they are being forced because if anyone's being "forced", it's me.
(The paragraph above that one ^ is related because I'm tired of wasting time teaching people how to do something and then end up where they don't even try it... thats why we don't need more people helping just yet. Instead, we need the people already working on sections to actually finish. Two sections have been almost done for a long time... it doesn't take much at all for them to go on to the next stage... but don't talk to me about that one. As for me personally, my most recent project is almost also finished. It would have probably been done (fyi, done doesn't mean it's going on the site ASAP though) by now if it wasn't for these things that take so much of my time away. My projects before that involved the other sections. )
New Staff?
The "meeting" in MSN yesterday had to do with the site and new staff. Or I should say that... the criticisms were about those things. The reason why people say we need to promote someone to staff is because they want something new and different. How's that a legitimate reason?
You don't promote even someone to staff because they are simply a good member. You promote them because they are a good "staff member" without being an official staff member. That's why the person would be promoted, because they already have the qualities and they are already doing staff-like things. You need things like leadership skills and you need to be willing to work. It's called "staff" for a reason. It's not a thumbs up or a pat on the back, it's a new job that includes new responsibilities. What we look at are those things and those are the reasons why we haven't promoted someone in a while. To become a staff member, you have to fill the needs of TBT and you need to prove that you will be able to do that. (Not to make it sound worse than it is though... I mean that you do have to work, it's not all fun and games.
I'd also like to point out another statement that shows how people don't understand what's going on exactly. I never said I don't want staff, I do. Just because you want something doesn't mean you can have it. Some day we will have someone promoted... you just need to be patient. If it's you who truly wants to be apart of it, you should work on the qualities mentioned above and after a while it will pay off. Also, the new committees will give people a better opportunity. Instead of making a big step from member to mod, you might go from member, to committee manager, to mod.
Respect and Control
This is probably the hardest part of this long post for me to write, but it's possibly the most important. Anyone should remember that they should give respect to everyone, including the staff. For me, I felt disrespected and unappreciated yesterday. You need to remember that I dedicate A LOT of my time to TBT.... not for personal benefits. It's not like I need a forum about AC and Nintendo... I don't need to write an article about AC Wii, I already know everything known about it. I don't need to code a news site for Nintendo fans... Please don't make me feel like I've wasted all this time. We (bul and I) have even spent our own money for TBT. If you don't agree about something... you can post some feedback of course, but please don't go crazy with it. You need to trust us, we've been doing this for a long time.
Also, I felt that some people lost control of themselves, trying to promote what they wanted or what they heard. I know no ones perfect, but all I can do is ask to... be more careful... get the facts first... don't let your emotions control you... etc.
I don't know who read this, or who's still mad... or maybe even madder. But I think we all just need to relax. That's why we're here. And with the school year coming up again, there's even more of a reason to keep the stressfulness away from here. (Please PM me if you have any comments or questions...)
