I generally don’t agree with what you post, @moz386, but you’ve hit the nail on the head on several of those points, for many interactions I’ve seen in the last year, and they feel that they’re growing more frequent, rather than less.
Many forums fail in this regard, and many succeed. I believe post locking is an acceptable method to end an argumentative streak, or to take a firm stance. But, unless a post is specifically hateful and targeting of a single user (not a staff member, *1), calling for violence against a specific class, or doxxing an individual that uses Wolfery or Mucklet, the post should not be deleted, forcibly edited, or otherwise hidden from the public eye. We all should be given a chance to understand the hatred as best is visible, rather than allowing rumours and gossip to stir the embers of communal dissent.
A final post by a member of staff, clarifying staff’s thought on the topic before it’s locked? Fair and reasonable. This is the platform you lot run, after all. But leaving posts up as they fit your view, or are acceptable by your standards? It’s blatantly obvious in the end, and more often than not, leaves folks to wonder just what you’ve pushed under the rug.
I’ve seen this. I’ve also seen retribution against the victim for a forum post. I won’t drag others’ name into my post, although I freely welcome them to reply to this.
When a user posts on the forum about a negative experience in Wolfery, or asks for/suggests a solution in the same post, there’s no world in which they should be banned from posting to the forum. If someone is willing to go public with a negative experience they’ve had without being a negative influence against others (*2), the staff have a responsibility to dig into it no matter who is implicated.
There should not be a divide between junior staff and senior staff, nor should there be a chain of command that reads like the gods sending orders to their demigods to grab us all by the balls and steer us in their intended direction, dissenters be damned.
Anyone in any way more powerful than the average user should never be afraid to speak out against the acts of a staff member more senior than them. I don’t know if this means a private hotline to Accipeter’s inbox, or an internal affair team, or what else (nor would I attempt to tell y’all how to run the backend of moderation without getting into the weeds myself, and frankly, I don’t want to do that). Covering for one another in any manner is disturbing, and there’s enough eyes watching y’all’s acts that we have seen it happen.
Moz is also bang on the money that many users are targeted for having a character who’s negative, rather than being a negative individual. I’ve seen it myself, hell, one of my characters is routinely disregarded even in relatively OOC areas like the Rep or Station Park. Thankfully, staff haven’t been on that character’s case for any reason, yet. But I know several others who have.
The same also happens with drama between characters. One person will use their plethora of characters to drown and degrade another character’s standing, through the massive network of friends, only for admins to then bow their head to the ‘general discontent’ that comes from a targeted attack by one person running ten characters in a short span of time. Twice now, I’ve had friends who’ve raised complaints about being on the receiving end of that treatment end up banned from the forum for a time, because, “If everyone hates them then it must be their fault.”
I’ve seen this before. It never ends up well, and although it might be the unconscious reaction of two different staff members, there’s still the fact that, as admins or moderators, all y’all should be on the same or similar page for how to treat transgressions (and what defines a transgression, and how members have acted/been punished in the past.) (3*)
I firmly believe that clone characters are a two-faced policy enforcement failure. Where once it was seen as wrong, there’s really no reason I couldn’t have three or four clones of the same character online right now, eh? Why not, since (according to multiple popular figures’ statements here on the forums), I could let my character continue chatting in Station Park, while also having a shag in the Foxhole, while also continuing a couple of long term canons I have going. Think of the possibilities…
Aaaaaaand, back to disagreeing with you, moz386. Urban sprawl, and canonical growth of Sinder and surrounding lands, is why I love Wolfery so much as a platform. Most-everything is linked and laid out to suit the story. For long term character canons, it helps even more. Why not have a date at the Rep for a drink, and then walk hand in hand back to the forest for a nice bottle of wine at the Lake? Why turn it into a teleportation path, and cut off that travel?
Interesting that you deleted your posts here… ‘Furry Chat Platform’, huh?
There are areas that do need to be improved. All outlying areas past Sinder should have some manner of direction to get there. And I do, frankly, love the option of something like @Shinyuu’s Trixens having an automated taxi feature. ((And honestly… yeah, I do want to be able to scream ‘WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE’ with a character while they ride a trixen through something like station park. Call me immature, but that sounds like more fun than putting nipple clamps on a mime. (*4)))
*1 Staff members always should be held to a higher standard than us peasants. If any community is to succeed, it should be able to trust those in power, whether democratically elected or authoritatively instated. (Note: I’m not calling for Wolfery elections here. That sounds like far more drama and hell than we need. Only for any and ALL posts on moderation/staff, or a specific member within, to remain visible for all.)
*2 ‘A negative experience against others’ is a vague term, yes. In this context, I’m stating towards other users. Negativity on the forums is definitely not the most welcoming for new users, but it’s a sign of a healthy community. Out here, we can talk like adults without scrolling, easy to forget text logs disappearing into the night, we can sort out issues before they turn into something that splits the community asunder.
*3 My honest recommendation, from my own time spent moderating a few communities across different generations (Kik, Telegram, now Discord)? A shared Google Sheets document or similar, consistently updated spreadsheet. The names of troublemakers, victims, (and, backend account names for both of them, despite privacy concerns), situation, time, date, and location, are enough for a quick search to turn up any evidence of group-based harassment and/or retribution, both of which need to be snuffed out in a hurry. Obviously, there are privacy concerns about the date being managed like that, but at the same time, it’s the best, simple tool for moderation of more than a hundred individuals.
*4 No, your honour, I have never, and do not intend, to put nipple clamps on a mime.