Feral Heart

So people, I'm back.

I guess the question at hand is, where are we at? As part of my return I requested a restructuring of the staff, which is something I have been working towards ever since the site came back online. That’s the primary reason I didn’t post as while I had a general concept, I hadn’t sorted the details.

So, what’s new?

Firstly, the teams, I took from what I learned in the second part of the future of Feral Heart thread. Ressy and Sura are running entirely separate teams, they both have their own mod selections, staff rooms, discord channels, etc, etc. Ressy and Sura communicate together, with their own team and with me. The teams also have an 'optional' social area where they can get together if they choose to.

How does this help me?

Going forward, my involvement will return to dealing with my fellow admins, authorising and allocating work. It’s been made clear that I’d like regular updates just to keep in touch with what's going on, even if it's just to drop me a message explaining that "this week, this happened" without the need for me trying to find regular meeting times. If there are any issues they need assistance with, I’ll still be available.

How does this help you?

They say variety is the spice of life. More people, more ideas, more methods. I do believe there's more than one way to do things. Teams may do things differently and with smaller groups of people every voice is heard, nothing is lost. Decisions can be made faster as fewer people need to be involved. I hope to see at some point one team looking at how the other approached something and learning from it. Each team can be much more focused with fewer tasks floating around. You have a choice of people to come to. Not only do you have the MOTS, but you have two entirely different groups of people you can come and talk to should you need.

The drawback and the answer.

There is a fatal flaw in this plan that some of you might have noticed already. If the staff teams are completely separate, how are we ever going to hope for moderation consistency? Well... Moderation is going to have to change. My proposal is to have very short bans placed by MODS. Once a ban is placed, a very small team of people will be notified to look over it. The ban will then be adjusted to an appropriate length. This should solve any inconsistencies. If there are any issues, I'm sure they can be tweaked.

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So that’s the plan. But other things have been going on that are completely separate. I’m going to do my best to fill you in. I don’t like to name names but I might have to in places to keep things making sense for those unaware.

While everything here was shutdown, a podcast was made. This entailed ex-staff members discussing what goes on in the staff. If I’m completely fair to the viewpoint, it's completely false, but there's little things that were missed from it. When you put in all those little things, it stops being a one sided attack and becomes a pretty reasonable situation. Just to give one example: Say you have just had a meeting and someone made a decision on something. For whatever reason you are unsure about what you need to do. You've asked others and they are also unsure. Do you not drop a quick message to the person who made the decision for some clarity? I’m not going to go through the entire thing and pick it apart. But yeah perspective is a wonderful thing.

As you can understand, people/staff this podcast was directed at were upset. Yes, some of them said at the time these people should be banned. It's the heat of the moment when people are angry and upset, this is why in a court of law your victim is never your judge.

I still took onboard all the comments made. But I had my own feelings about the situation. Being that there was such a difference in opinions on what should be done. I took the time to speak to people who had seen the podcast other than the old staff. I gave them all the available options of punishment. I filled in as much information as I could. Then I allowed them to come to their own conclusions as to what should be done. The responses were almost the same across the board. I’d like to make it abundantly clear that the research I did here was the basis for the punishments and not the input I had recieved originally.

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So the four core people involved were Calvary, Wolffox, Jango_Fett and AlphaEclipse.
The resulting punishments are as follows.

Calvary, for divulging information about the internal workings of staff and shedding a very closed one sided light on the old staff, as well as painting them in a much poorer light than they ever deserved. Your apologies were taken into account over said issues and as such your only punishment is not to be permitted return to staff.

Wolffox, for backing up Calvary on her entire statement even though you were not staff for the beginning of it and as such you were technically unable to ratify the entire thing. There was no effort made to limit the amount you agreed with Calvary. Put simply, as an ex global moderator I would have expected you to step in rather than just going with the flow. Your punishment is again, not to be able to return to staff. (However I would like to make a footnote to this particular punishment. It has been said that I wished for Fox to return to the staff. That’s true Fox did some very very good work for the staff. I appreciate it immensely, however before I reached the point of punishments, I had spoken to Fox. She made it clear to me that she would only return to staff if she could work with Ressy rather than under Ressy. This would mean Fox returning to staff as an admin. I simply cannot reward Fox's behaviour in such a way. Based on this they would not be returning to staff anyway so I saw little purpose in placing effort on reducing the punishment.)

Jango_Fett, for providing the space, aiding and even encouraging the distribution of staff information. You were aware of your position as a MOTS and what you were and were not allowed to do with it. When I attempted to negotiate the removal or even just an editing of the podcast, you were unwilling to cooperate. As such you have been removed from MOTS. A ban will be entered on the record your account for two weeks, however you will not have to serve this ban. The ban will simply disqualify you from MOTS for the next two years as per the MOTS Proposal.

AlphaEclipse, for also providing the space and aiding. However, when I re-watch your involvement. I note that you were the only person to say and I quote "Do not attack the staff". Your attempted to rein in the cast to some extent at least. When I approached you for assistance after the podcast, you did your best to aid me. In the knowledge of this, no punishment will be given.

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So I put a much shorter version of this in the staff room with no descriptions as staff had been nudging me as to what was going on. I wanted to speak to each of the individuals above personally and explain. I go to bed. The next morning I wake up to some annoyed messages. At this point I have no idea what's going on. I assumed I could deal with it at work. I get to work and I have a job booked out for the morning. I turn up at said job and it takes all day pretty much. I get back from the job only to discover someone on the staff has leaked what I posted. I’m pissed that after everything that’s gone on, someone is still trying to make my job harder. At this point I leave a snotty message in the staff room for someone to put their hand up and nobody does. Later on, I then kick all the new staff. I know its not the old staff as there's too much bad blood going around. So at this point I know I’ve stopped the leak.

I’m refusing to return any of the new staff to the team until someone puts their hand up and shows me they actually did it. I’m aware some of the staff were planning to leave anyway and are happy to take the fall for something they didn't actually do. Though I cannot believe at this point that whoever did it doesn’t have the balls to step forward. They are booted from staff, their friends are booted from staff. Apparently whoever this selfish person is didn’t give a damn about their team, and don’t assume its because none of them want to come back.

When I kicked the staff off the forum, I missed some permissions for some of them. Staff who are not even presently on the team have been using the permissions they had left to help out with the trolls on the forum and even just general tidying up. All I can say to these individuals is, hats off to you. It really is commendable that even in such a situation you continue on. Such amazing dedication.

As it stands, the offer remains for the new staff to rejoin whichever team they wish. However, I do require the instigator to come forward.

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Ressys new team.

Jumping to now, Ressy has selected a new team to run with; I’ll let them deal with their own introductions. As I said above, some of the new staff already made it clear they were going to leave anyway. In order for there to be a place for them to come back to, we needed at least the basics of a team. As a result, this small team has been formed. Should the staff rejoin, it may become substantially larger. Should they not, at least something is in place.


I hope this answers all the questions people may have. There are still components of this setup being put into place, but for the time being, the old staff will continue to handle moderation. MOTS will be reselected next season.

I think that covers everything.

Raz

The staff problems I caused.

Rewind to October

I’m going to reference new and old staff as its easier.(for reference Ressy is kinda both)

Most of you already know why the old staff left in October. I made a massive post about it at the time and I’ve referenced it above. But lets drop into what actually happened after they left. A new staff team was selected mostly by Ressy who returned. These new staff being completely fresh had an enormous amount of energy. The first thing they wanted to do was the Halloween party in their eyes that would prove themselves a capable team to the community. And they achieved it god knows how it was complete chaos from the angle of the staff discord. I expect it was completed more by sheer will than actual skill.

At some point in this timeline the old staff had realised that they didn’t want to leave. Actually I’m not completely sure they ever wanted to leave. It was more a going on strike but gone slightly wrong. I was trying with this new team to create a democracy. So I provided them 3 options. Not letting the staff back. Letting the staff back in their original positions. Letting the staff back stripped of rank. However with this decision I made it clear that the old staff would be joining their team rather than the other way round.

So the we know how that vote went. In the knowledge of what occurred prior to the old staff leaving and the number of staff we then had that I needed to spit up the team. I seeded and randomised the staff so there was an even number of new and old in each team. Each headed by an admin. I thought I was diluting the potency of the old staff. Instead I had driven the new team in with the old where methods and ideas immediately conflicted.

This conflict I believe stems from a much older disagreement. Red and I always had a very different approach to staffing. Which actually answer the question why retired staff retain their powers. I believe that each staff member as a volunteer should be able to do as little or as much as they wish so long as they are not completely gone and doing nothing. I have a very relaxed approach to training I rather people figure things out for themselves rather than being told what to do. If they wish to ask questions or are unsure about something they can still ask. Its a very relaxed system but people do say I’m fairly chill.

Reds approach on the other hand was to thoroughly educate each staff member as they joined his team. One staff member at a time they were slowly integrated with a tight knit team. He had requirements about work being done. He would very closely manage every project. Nobody can deny this approach works. It was very successful for years. I personally don’t have the free time to achieve this.

Perhaps most of you by now have figured out where this is going. Sura’s team was all brought up on Reds methods. And Sura is an unstoppable force. In fact I suggested long before before she was an admin that she should be because of the endless drive and motivation. She has done an excellent job with her team. This should not be tarnished simply because maps were made that she and her team spent months on. I told them at almost the point of completion did not fit the game. I’m sure that any of you who put so much time into a project thinking it would be a welcomed surprise would be heartbroken when it was rejected immediately.

This fight  I had with them had a second consequence. I broke Sura, and on return she was not the same person who left. I had hit back so hard that she had lost the drive. Not only this she worried about creating anything that I might not approve of. Keep in mind I have caused this.

The new team has been operating pretty much unchecked till they returned I had tried to give them the tools to do anything they need to. Suddenly they had admins who were operating under Reds methods. Things now needed to to be ok’d and a lot of things suddenly needed to be authorised by me (so not to have a repeat of the maps). This caused a huge hang up to working processes as I’m not always available.

As you might understand for the new staff this would be extremely irritating. They felt that couldn’t get done what they needed to do. Everything occurred so slowly. The old staff would be looking at the chaos of the new staff and trying to rein it in and educate them on what they knew. But Red only trained one staff member at a time. This is a whole new group that out numbered the old staff 2 to 1. The system was never designed for this.

To try and remedy this issue I pushed for regular staff calls so I could authorise say a weeks worth of work in advance and get decisions made. This alleviated the issue somewhat. But things were still to slow. It also meant if some work wasn't done within timelines that week was wasted. There were occasions where if something wasn't done when it needed to be I would simply authorise someone else to “just get it done”. Some staff took offence to this stating they were going to get the work done. While they were authorised by me blame was pointed at the old staff.

Other decisions that occurred in the calls got missed by some staff who were unable to make them. Some just couldn’t make the times and as the calls were at set times on set days. It just wasn’t viable for them to be involved. But I myself only had limited times when I could conduct these. Sometimes things which were thought to be sorted in a previous call completely turned around in the next one due to different attending members.

Another issue that unfolded came from the freedom I gave the new staff. Projects were started that didn’t appear to have a goal. More a create this and it can be used “sometime” You can see how when there’s other projects going on some might be annoyed at time spent on such projects when there are other things to be done.

The final issue that stemmed from the mixing of teams was the micromanagement stemming from the days of Red.  A project was picked up that had been laying dead in the staff room for a couple of years. Wolffox offered to take up this large project and I gave her oversight on it. The project commenced and she was getting results. But perhaps it wasn’t perfect the old staff were seeing flaws. They are perfectionists. Where I will allow correctable mistakes and let people learn from them. The teachings of the old staff is to fix first. The pushed for changes in a project that technically wasn’t theirs to change. But they were only looking out for its best interests.

In hindsight I shouldn’t have even tried to combine these teams. If I had allowed them to operate completely independently I’m sure by now I would have had two highly effective teams. I took two incompatible systems and forced them together.

Now a side note about the old staff while some of them have given up they still want that October patch. I understand why and if anything they want it for you.  Its not out of some sense of pride or for popularity. They want it because they truly believe its the best thing for the game. Giving you what you ask for so much. Adapted versions of the original maps. They really do push for what you want. They try to champion your requests. They shouldn’t be hated for this. They shouldn’t be forced out.

A final note in regards to how we got here. There is word going round that xSpirit is being used by the old staff as a bargaining chip. While they do take up discussion with him about things that I have clearly stated will not be happening. It is purely speculation on my part that they could have been influencing his decisions.  I must admit I haven’t been overly happy being challenged on things by a staff member who is so “green” even if they are a developer. The fact of him bringing up the maps was kinda the final straw. In a previous meeting about these maps the old staff dropped the item from the agenda before it was even discussed.

I'm aware the rumour mill is turning once again.

So to clarify. As of last night I no longer feel that I can hold up the commitment to Feral Heart that I have for the last 8 years. For one the role I came in on has changed beyond recognition. I was only meant to look after the servers. But as time has gone on I have ended up wearing many many hats.

I'm not going to start detailing the problems as there are many and I don't really want to start pointing fingers.

The crooks of the matter is now have a short period to decide what to do with Feral Heart. I am on the clock here because I need to either resume the site for the ads to pay for the servers or cancel the servers entirely.

Options being.

1. Re-attempt to carry on with it as it stands. If I can find the energy.

2. Hand the the entire thing onto someone else. Though I don't know anyone else who has both the technical know how and I trust enough with all of your data.

3. Drop the project back to how LKD designed it and pretty much abandon it to run itself.

4. Shut it down and release all the info required to run a blank copy.

5. Come up with some insane new idea about how to deal with this project that I'm not adverse to doing.

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In case I end up with option  2 or 4.

I've got a few things I'd like to say as things may just disappear.

Firstly thank you to all those who helped on this project over the years. Feral Heart has been a better place for it.

Also I'd like to take this chance to apologise for a few things. I do have a few....

Firstly I'm sorry that we didn't have the source when LKD left. He actually offered it for Reds keeping back in the day. I told Red that if we take it now LKD will have passed it on and that would be the end of the updates. I didn't anticipate that he would just leave regardless.

My second regret even though it technically wasn't my job was that I didn't really pay any attention to the 1.15 update. I guess I just took it for granted that it was going to be the right thing. I really didn't look over it until after it was released like the rest of you. Maybe if I had it could have been tailored somewhat differently.

Moving on I feel you should be aware that getting a copy of the source code is not a new thing. In fact I have been sat on a copy of the source for years now even the rest of the staff were not aware I had it. It probably would have remained that way if I didn't feel that the servers needed certain security updates that could only be achieved with alterations to the client also.

The unreleased 1.16. With my lack of attention on 1.15 I knew I needed to to pay more attention to this update. I outline a requirement for this one and i hear work was going on. But even then I didn't pay too much attention to the ins and outs. I heard work was still going on so I let it go on. I hadn't realised work was going on on completely different things. If I had such things wouldn't have been started and the time wouldn't have been wasted.

I haven't treated you the community very well over the years. I still hold a grudge back from when I was hosting IT. Which is why when Feral Heart came in I opted to a background role. A lot of the times when I posted I've been harsh sometimes it was for good reason to keep eyes where I needed them to be. But on occasion I'll admit I was simply doing to to have fun and that was wrong.

On a final note. I'd like to point out while I haven't always agreed with the communities opinion. ( I don't believe just because a lot of people want something it makes it the right thing to do. )  I have always had the communities best interest at heart even if I don't explain my side. Where there has been community wants there has always been alternative ideas to address these issues without generating the problems I see in the idea handed to me.

Well I guess we will see what happens from here.

Should this be my last communication good luck to you all.

Raz

PS Sorry the site looks broken I didn't feel it warrented the fix time.

Hey LoopyLoo

Did you read my post? Don't think you did as the only mention of the MOTS that left was the last line simply saying I've invited the runners up.

In fact reading though I beg to question if you read any of my posts. Did you actually read the MOTS Proposal before making any assumptions?

But if you really want to go good luck to you in your future endeavours.

Raz

Unfortunately the Mod FAQ hardly covers all that a mod does and "The Staff Thread" contains information not for users. So it wouldn't be a useful argument to use to Mod FAQ. I did also mention that the "The Staff Thread" has been updated over the years.

Unfortunately the Mod FAQ may have been a little neglected on the other hand only having staff names updated. It still gives a general jist but its not completely accurate now.

I'd like to point out that I'm not a moderator. But I do have a solution to this little problem we have. I in my official position can state that there is nothing no updates or anything. That way nobody is being strung out waiting for anything. Should things change and something just appears. WOOP something came out fantastic. But the official stance can simply remain as nothing is going on.

problem solved when should I make the announcement?