Major issues with the administration team in general

[popecrunch]

Admin Behavior In Cool Zone

When nonadmins in cool zone hear 'we talked to them and they said they wouldn't do it again' only to see them coming back in and doing it again a few weeks later, 'we talked to them and they said they wouldn't do it again' loses all credibility.  The second or third time Huk blundered in hollering bootstraps or 'fire the shotgun into the space around them, you see' or similarly extremely not cool things, 'we talked to them' ceased to have all meaning.  Either actually hold the admin staff to the same standards and consequences for failing to meet those standards as players, or stop pretending you do and admit you are missing either the will or the ability to do so.  This half-measure of 'well, we'll yell at them, but nobody feels like firing them for it and we literally don't have any other tools in the box' nonsense is insulting to the community. If the administration team does not have the structure that would allow them to meaningfully stop people from breaking the rules, that problem is yours to fix.  Please let us help you with that, because you (general you, the administration team) has needed structure for quite some time, and if one of the team was going to get it going, it would have happened by now.

Prejudicial Treatment of Community Members

This paragraph parses as 'yeah ok you caught us railroading her once, but that doesn't mean we ever railroaded her before.'  You'll have to forgive me if I don't find that especially convincing.  (Sidebar: I, personally, have never had reason to believe that you, personally, were being anything less than honest.  However, given the context of this thread and the long-standing issues you admit in your third paragraph exist, I am not comfortable leaving anything to personal trust - especially as these issues effect the entire community, not just people who happen to have a good relationship with you. Okay? Okay.)  If Rats were to give her blessing to these details being discussed, would you be willing to discuss her other previous bans - and if not, why not?  Adhara already admitted that Rats has been treated unfairly in the past, not strictly limited to the biggie video, so I think it's fair to (again, with Rats' permission) press that claim.  If this results in the administration team - either individual members or as a whole - being embarassed at their past missteps, good.  That will serve nicely as incentive not to repeat those missteps, and the health of this community is far more important than someone's ego.

Fundamental Flaws in the Administration Structure

I am surprised and disappointed at this decision.  What does it cost you to hear ideas from the community?  Surely you can't be thinking that it's not possible for people who aren't on the admin team to have ideas worth hearing.  You've had well over a year to do this, you've failed to.  I was around for a lot of that time, so I know the reason nothing much has been done - burnout, infighting, and where-to-startism.  Is your honest assessment that the administration team is less burned out, less likely to give in to infighting, and clearheaded enough to prioritize tasks and stick to those priorities?  I, and surely others, would greatly appreciate some reasoning behind that decision.


I am saddened that the official reply, which apparently took four days to land on, boils down to 'yes, admins are screwing up in cool zone but we're not going to do anything about it we don't already do; we admit that one ban was BS but refuse to discuss any others; and no we're totally going to fix all this stuff anytime now yep just look at us go'.  I hope your plan wasn't 'Let's throw Pope some moderate language and apologize for one of the things he's got us dead to rights on and just sort of no-sale the rest of it' - because I am not going to stop hassling the administration about this until either you make some very profound changes for the better, or someone bans me.  You of all people know how good I'm not at letting things go.

I would appreciate replies to these thoughts, especially the three bolded questions above.  I am of course willing to wait a few days.