Animation Source Forums

This is directed SOLELY to the webmaster. While I am certain comments will be forthcoming, this is not a "what will/should WE do now", it's a "hey steet, can you please stand up and take action now" kind of thing.

Also, this is not drama-laden, it is not one-sided, and it is not intended as a platform for ME or any of MY friends on here. Any careful, intelligent read of this, rather than some half-baked skimming and jumping to ridiculous conclusions, will prove that beyond any doubt.

That being said...




steet,


The English mirror of your site is at its lowest and bleakest it ever has been. You must be keenly aware of this by now. Certainly MANY members have said it...new ones, old ones, and members originating from different nations who gather here either because they prefer this side to the French side, or simply because they speak English as a second language, and not French. Or maybe they have other reasons. Certainly this site is laden with drama, flame baiting, trolling, and a general malaise resulting from years of mismanagement, staff taking liberties not within the scope of their individual or collective limitations, impossibly-frustrating coding glitches, and a general lack of focus.


You've read it a hundred times, I am sure: criticisms of you which state emphatically that you no longer care, that you never visit this side, that you never listen to the concerns of your members. That you are blithely-ignorant, apparently by choice, of what is going on here. That you willingly knuckle under to the demands of trolls or a few favored members without argument...which makes you look weak and open to manipulation.


Certainly I, as I am prepared to freely admit, have shared in those criticisms of you. I am big enough to admit that. But I am HARDLY the only one. And some people have been far more vitriolic than me. Even some of your staff members (present or past). If we are going to move beyond this (any of us), then we ALL must own up to that and stop pointing fingers and claiming we're clean and free of any culpability.


I am going to outline, below, what I BELIEVE to be absolutely necessary at this particular juncture. The site needs a renaissance. And, at the risk of sounding cliché, it definitely starts at the top. I know I know...I've heard the usual responses (even those people ascribe to you which you may never have actually said):





We all know all of that. No one denies that this site is huge, and that it is quite probably more than one person can handle in a webmaster/admin position...especially with adult responsibilities like either college-level work or a job/career and one's personal life. I acknowledge that, and I think we all can.


But it has to begin somewhere. YOU need to analyze the problems and find a solution. You're at another critical juncture in the English mirror's history. Again. You've just let one moderator go, and brought on a new one. You have had at least one other moderator leave her duties and her profile, because it was hacked into by...someone who has done this before. The permissions for her account were never removed, and the account was only banned. There is a backlog of necessary removals of permissions in old former staff accounts that NEED to be done right away! That certain troll (or perhaps others) will keep manipulating those accounts...especially if he manages to gain friends on your staff who are willing to help him! It HAS to stop. NOW.


Please consider my recommendations in the next post. And hey - I am not asking you to make any of my friends or associates moderators...or anything else. And I am CERTAINLY not campaigning to have myself put on staff. I am saying that now, here, for the record. I've put it to text, online, for everyone to see. I know you and I have had our differences, and they have, at times, been extreme. I know you don't think very highly of me, and I admit that I don't think so terribly highly of you at times. But as I said in private contact with you, there are bridges that can be built. We are both adults, and we can move beyond it. I have with others, I can with you. You ought to be able to show some willingness to try. And try for real...not some half-hearted attempt that fails miserably after one little misunderstanding. I mean real, LASTING resolution and bridge building. On my end, the door remains open to that. Walk through it.


Almost every member of the English mirror wants to see Animation Source thrive. Especially this side of it. We've all heard how "wonderful" things are over on the French side. So...if you have to, get a small committee of members together from the French mirror (maybe staffers too...like Hecate, who is a wonderful resource and has been very sensible in her analysis of the situations on the English mirror for some time now), and task them with analyzing and discussing where things have gone so terribly wrong over HERE, and how they differ from what has apparently remained so RIGHT on the French mirror. Doesn't that make sense?


I will continue below...


--Jersey


Steet, you HAVE to act on this. The site is at another crossroads. The situation you created with the current staffing, you said yourself, was only going to be a temporary fix. That you were going to revamp the structure and get things firmly into place. But that situation has hung in limbo now for two years or more. The site is understaffed, abused, mismanaged, and full of problems. I realize you are busy...we all do. And how tough it is for one person to manage it and to know where to begin. But it is time to GET THAT STARTED. And to FINISH it.

Step up out of the shadows and get it done already. Would you please? There really is no viable alternative to Animation Source for your members to go, but you HAVE had members growing tired of the existing situation, and leaving...or becoming totally inactive. There is a general feeling that you, specifically, don't care. And if you don't, why should anyone else? Why should your STAFF care if you don't? Why should they follow the rules they're supposed to uphold if you're not there to see to it that they are?

Let's first look at the problem areas one by one, as I understand them anyway (and I am also taking into account the views of others...even those who historically haven't gotten along with me):

• DRAMA - A convenient, if perhaps vague term for the ugliest aspect of this site's many problems. Though it is hardly exclusive to THIS site. And only a fool would either believe or state that the petty differences, arguments, flaming and so on can be stopped or wiped away. I am not suggesting that there is a way to stop it. It CANNOT be stopped. But it CAN be managed IF you have a staff of people willing to do so...WITHOUT favoring their friends, or friends of friends, or taking their own personal feelings into account. Rather, they MUST abide by a strict set of rules regarding resolution of conflicts (as the staff did way back in the beginnings of this site), and with dispassion, logic, fairness and complete neutrality. That CAN be managed if there is a commitment TO managing it.
  
  
• STAFF EXCESSES - I'm gonna catch hell for this one, as I always have when I've pointed this out, but I really don't care. I've pointed out to you before that it has been a growing problem since the general view started that "steet doesn't care anymore". Even when I was briefly a Lady & The Tramp Source moderator, I PMed you when I saw staff members discussing or creating new rules that were never presented to you for approval, and you actually acted on that. I did that because, in MY view, no staff member EVER has the right to go over your head and act on their own authority and using their personal views to color their duties...whether alone or with one or more other staffers. These excesses MUST stop.
  
  
• LACK OF CONSISTENT, CURRENT RULES - In various areas. The rules set is out of date, vague in several areas, and inconsistent. At times, it is contradictory to itself. And then there is the problem of rules which have been created without your consent or even your knowledge...some of them not even in writing, which certain staff members have selectively enforced (and the key here is "selectively", not "arbitrarily" or "consistently"...the same can be said for even the legitimate rules YOU created or approved). They NEED revamping and rewriting. Not by a committee or group, but by YOU. ALONE.
  
  
• YOUR ABSENCE FROM THE ENGLISH MIRROR - One of the greatest criticisms against you is your absence here. No one ever sees you...and if they do, it's just seeing your name occasionally at the bottom of the forum as logged in, or appearing briefly in the TSS shoutbox. Very briefly. And yet, Hecate has told me that, on a consistent basis, you meet with the French staff members for a roundtable discussion about the goings-on over there. And how wonderful they believe that to be, and how helpful. Why that does not happen here with your English mirror staffers is a source of frustration that perplexes staff members and non-staff members alike. Additionally, there is plenty of general frustration that you are unwilling (as you have even stated) to look at and respond to messages sent to you...either as PMs, e-mails, comments, whatever. Granted, you receive a TON of them each day I am sure. And it must be very overwhelming. But you CAN sort through the routine, unimportant stuff from what IS important or time-sensitive, can't you? As webmaster, you need to. You have the "contact the webmaster" thing on the site...you can't ignore it if it is there.
  
  
• ABSENTEE OR RARELY-SEEN STAFF MEMBERS - Another common complaint. This is no general criticism of any one staffer or the group, but the fact is the fact: there are MAYBE two or three staff members on the English mirror who are, at best, occasionally active. Barring the recent dismissal, for which you had your reasons, you have generally taken on staff members on this side who seem to be unable to maintain any enthusiasm for their duties, or a willingness to be consistent in making appearances and doing the work. Now, I KNOW sometimes things occur behind the scenes, and out of the sight of the general membership...and I KNOW that every staff member also "has a life outside of AS". But I do not understand why it is so hard for people on staff to make regular appearances. I also don't like (anymore than anyone else does) this litany of excuses. No one expects them to sacrifice personal lives for an unpaid activity they've agreed to do, but I maintain that if they cannot do it consistently, they MUST (not ought to, but MUST) give it up. No matter WHOM they are.

How about suggestions to fix it? I have a few...

These suggestions are not meant to serve my personal purposes (no matter what anyone might say), and they are not intended to flame ANYONE or create ANY drama.

• ADMINISTRATORS - As many have said, you need to bring these positions back, steet. And I think it is important that you NOT REASSIGN previous staff members, who no longer hold positions, to this or any other position. Or put present moderators into those positions. They need to be NEW people. And NOT those who have demonstrated too much leaning towards one side or the other of current or recent drama. EITHER side. Also, they really should NOT be teenagers...or even younger young adults. You need some older, more life-experienced people in those positions. People who are older than, say, 24 years of age. These people need to be willing to manage the daily goings-on of the various sources for you (one for each), and need to be willing and able to be online, and signed into the site, to track site logs and staff activity, and to deal with small-level conflicts, readily and without prejudice or without fear. And to uphold and enforce the legitimate site rules without hesitation or question...even against other staff members. They also need to have some control over the moderators...and, if necessary, the ability to either recommend their suspension or removal to you, or to have the ability to suspend or remove them on their own. These people MUST be willing to handle serious member concerns or complaints (or reports) and not wave them off based upon their personal views and allegiances...and to respond to them on an individual basis. And, I might add, they should not be serving as moderators or admins on any other fan site.
  
  
• MODERATORS - Similar to the situation above, you need to bolster the ranks. You need more blood in the moderator pool, and these need to be people willing to do the time, be online and signed in more than just rarely, and they must NOT be people who have already served in a staff position or be too bent towards one side or the other of the aforementioned drama situations. These HAVE to be people willing to be neutral, consistent, proactive, FAIR, and impartial. Not afraid to act against ANYONE--even other staff members if necessary, regardless of the individual or group of individuals in question. And they need to be totally willing and able to uphold and enforce the legitimate site roles without hesitation or question. AND, as above, they should not be serving as moderators, admins, or whatever else, on other fan sites.
  
  I PERSONALLY think that it would be good if the moderators and admins had to keep an active personal log of what activity they've done, which would then be posted for the other staffers and the webmaster to see. No hidden garbage anymore. Total transparency. And if they failed in that responsibility, then they would be subject to review by their admins for any necessary corrective steps. Even, if necessary, suspension or demodding (as mentioned above).
  
  
• OVERSIGHT - Initially, I think you need to assign a small, and only temporary, oversight committee to look into the problem areas on the English mirror, and have them put together a thorough report and submit it to you. These people would not have enforcement authority over anything. Nor should they be people FROM the English mirror membership unless they are totally removed from involvement in any drama of recent times (on EITHER side). Maybe they can come from the French mirror membership. Since you say things work so much better and more peacefully over there, perhaps you could select some people whom you trust to do that. And they MUST engage in that oversight actively, and get you a report by a specified date.
  
  
• HELP FOR YOU - Everyone has said that they feel that this site is too big for one person to handle. And they're right. They feel you ought to be selecting someone to help co-webmaster for you. Someone who can pick up and carry some of the weight. The fear is that you don't trust anyone. But I think it is clear that you need to look OUTSIDE of the active membership to get that. Even outside of the French membership. You need someone willing to simply serve as a co-webmaster without any particular fan sentiments, perhaps, but certainly without friendship ties or loyalty to ANYONE but yourself. Take recommendations from NO ONE. Find someone and give him or her that authority. That person would need to have the same authority you do, but with the understanding that this is still YOUR site and that YOU are the final arbiter on anything. They need to have authority over EVERY staff member, a total commitment to the legitimate rules, and loyalties to no person on this site BUT you. If you feel managing both mirrors is too much, then there is no question but that it is time for you to look outside of this site's membership (and their own friends) and find someone to pick up that slack over here. You HAVE to. This person would have the authority to suspend or remove staff members as high as admins, and as low as site builders. And should actively monitor their activities and personal logs.
  
  
• CODING - Yes, it's a big site, with a lot of stuff on it. And coding glitches are bound to happen. But glitches happen excessively on this site, and something needs to be done about it. You need to find someone willing to handle coding matters...and that ought to be a person who has NEVER, EVER been mired in controversy or who ever engaged in trolling, hacking or cracking of this site or its member accounts. That obviously excludes a small stable of people who DO actually have coding knowledge. Where you will find that person, I don't know. Perhaps you could, once again, look outside of the membership...post something somewhere in an external forum (which you will not reveal to any member here or their friends) who is skilled at phpbb coding and HTML. It has to happen, steet.
  
  
• SITE RULES - They need an extensive reworking. And updating. I think YOU, and YOU ALONE, need to take some time and sit down to review this stuff. Perhaps after your oversight committee looked into the existing situation here. But there are plenty of "unwritten rules", contradictions, and loopholes which less-than-honorable members (or former members) of the staff have exploited, time and again, to cause misery and drama. And it HAS TO STOP.
  
  
• PERMISSIONS ON OLD ACCOUNTS - You've apparently got some former moderator accounts which still have permissions running. One of those accounts has recently been banned to keep a troll from creating misery for us all (or for selected people). But I think you need to go back over your staff membership for the past few years and remove permissions from anyone who still has them, who ISN'T a staff member currently. And you should recommend to your current staffers to update their passwords to some alphanumeric sequence that is complex enough to frustrate the trolls and crackers.
  
  
• MEETINGS WITH STAFFERS - As I said earlier, Hecate told me (and has told others) that, on the French mirror, you hold regular meetings with the staff there, and talk about issues on the site, concerns, and so on. She speaks very highly of that process, and was surprised to learn that it apparently does not happen here. WHY it does not happen here is perplexing, because it should. You should be checking in with your staff on this side as well, on a regular basis. You have to start doing that again...until, and if, you assign a co-webmaster. One of the big reasons for staff excesses and illicit liberties taken over here is because they believe you don't care and won't bother, and will never see anyway, so why not do whatever they want. Hey, aggrieved members could never prove it anyway, right?
  
  
• WARNINGS AND BANS - This system REALLY needs to be gotten in hand and revamped. This is way out of control, and has been abused by staff members on this side for years. There needs to be some set guidelines in place for WHEN a member can be warned or banned, and a process in place for a warned or banned member to contact an admin or the webmaster to ask about it. And a system in place for resolution if the warning or ban was inappropriate. Hey - staffers are human. They are not perfect. They occasionally make bad judgement calls. There has to be a system in place to deal with those.
  
  Also, and this is critical - if a member has been warned, he or she MUST be told why by the moderator who issued the warning. If the system indicates that so many warnings equal an automatic ban of a certain length, then that member has every right to know WHY he or she has been warned, each time, and what rule has been broken. IF the warning is to stand. Too many staffers have, in the past, warned members simply because they don't personally like something they said or did, and that is not acceptable. Personal issues must never come into play. ONLY the rules.

I think that's it for now.

I think also, steet, at the risk of offending some of your existing staffers and a percentage of the membership (again, NOT my intent here), I really think you MUST STOP giving staff (and specifically moderator) positions to children. And by that I mean teenagers too. MOST teenagers, quite frankly, don't have the life experience, the maturity, the sense of logic and rational control, to be in a position of authority and that level of responsibility. Granted, there are some noteworthy exceptions (but that, by noting them, it would only draw fire from those who feel slighted, so I guess I cannot).


I don't think even young adults under the age of 24 are properly suited in most cases. There is simply too much emotional hypersensitivity, lack of self control, "white knighting" and bad little subversive allegiances to justify awarding these responsibilities to them...again, with some notable exceptions.


You need to start looking towards the stable of older members...whether or not they've been here a long time, for staff positions. People who are less subjected to their emotions first, and who have more life experience and more maturity and self control. Really.

If you just want this to Steet, can I just lock it so no one else can post? Would keep from making drama.

Well it is an "open letter". I wouldn't think people contributing their opinions would be a bad thing. People engaging in stupid, infantile and idiotic drama, flame baiting, finger-pointing, whining and butthurt over recent events would be something that has no business here, and I would hope you and the other mods would not allow it no matter WHO posted it.

I will let you decide what you feel is the best course. You and the other mods. If it gets out of hand though (and really, who knows?), and I request a lock, would you do that without delay? I don't think it is a bad idea for people to contribute their thoughts however...so long as they are ABOVE-BOARD and free of thinly-veiled digs and flame baits.

I think it may just be easier to keep it shorter so IF Steet does ever see this, he won't be turned off by having to read more of the same over and over. Just my thinking.

Perhaps. If you feel you must, go ahead and lock it. I realize that participation by others could compound the situation, and I did try to include as much of the on-going issues and concerns MOST people have had over the last few years.

I just hate to see it locked based on a maybe. After all, I managed to get in what needed to be said within the first three posts. I don't know...do what you feel is best.

Well, if you want to lock it- sure go ahead, but I'm sure there are some people with ideas that slightly differ from the previous posts here. For example: I agree with most of it, but I have made an age-based argument before on a different topic that I believe should be taken into consideration.



^^This was in the Mod application topic. I'm under the conviction that if the person has

1: A good attitude.
2: A good work ethic.
3: A devotion to whatever site they mod.
4: Proven themselves to be trustworthy.

That age shouldn't matter that much.

Hidden text : click to show

It has been a trial and error process sometimes (me with my own site I know that much), but in the past I've hired mods from teenagers to young adults. In a lot of cases the adults were too busy to be on as much as they needed to. The others got the job done, but there were problems as well.

For Admins I'm almost in agreement. I strongly believe the key to having an active site starts somewhere close to there. Get someone qualified for it first off. But also someone who is a big fan of the site they're on. If they actually like the movie, they're going to hang around it more often and put more effort into getting it active. I've seen it in the past. Doesn't always work out that way, but it helps. Age? Well, I know some younger than the adult age who run their own websites. Some can code as well, so it's almost the same argument for mods, but definitely select them yourself.

I'm not really for people suggesting that this person become a mod or that person become a mod. We've seen it in the past, scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. They pick their friends. What I am for is you personally looking at their track record, steet. You have to determine yourself first off if they would be a good addition to the staff. It takes a while, that's for sure. But one thing it also takes: Not avoiding the other sources and the English side like the plague!. I'm not saying always go in as the webmaster either, people can put on fronts whenever authority is around if you catch my drift.

Also, it would be nice to have some of the French go over here occasionally. I mean, learning without an example is hard for some people. I've been on the French side a few times, it's like a day and night difference between the two. Little less active yes, but I saw no petty drama in my time there.

Anyway, that's just my two cents just in case it does get locked.

I respect that viewpoint, Ancient. Like I said, there are exceptions in every age group.