Conclusions from the recent problems

[Antvasima]

The community is sensitive, and cannot withstand too much conflict and drama without breaking.

If staff members notice any public forums threads or blog posts that risk to cause a great amount of drama among the staff, please immediately delete them, take note of the subject matter and who wrote it, and ask the bureaucrats to handle the issue via private messages.

Do not try to handle sensitive issues when extremely tired, and not able to think clearly.

I have genuinely generally tried to be as flexible, reasonable, and democratic as I can, but am still prone to overreacting when I think that the wiki may be in danger.

Gwynbleiddd did make some good points.

I will try to step back and interfere less with threads that already have a number of staff members handling them, if I do not have anything worthwhile to add to the conversation.

I still think that I have done a fairly good job trying to gradually organise and build the structure of this community, and find reliable people skilled in different areas to help with this task, but now the foundation is largely set, and the wiki is functioning pretty well, with rather limited vandalism, so there may be less work to do for me.

I do not think that it is a good idea for me and Kavpeny to just quickly retire, as I am still helping out as best as I can with different tasks, including recruiting more staff every now and then, and Kavpeny's continuous private advise and support is invaluable for my ability to do my job, but allowing other bureaucrats to handle part of the workload seems like a good idea, and try as I might, I am very tired, stressed out, and cannot do this job forever. Slowly stepping back over a longer period of time might be more reasonable.

Given that LordXcano and Lina Shields retired, Gwynbleiddd plans to do so, and Aparajita and Austrian-Man-Meat are inactive, we are very short on our very valuable calc group members. If you know of any competent people outside of the wiki who might be willing to help out, and acquaint themselves with our calculation instruction pages, please try to bring them in.

The staff in general needs to take care to continuously behave well and be polite and respectful, as we othervise use severe double-standards. This goes for me and Kavpeny as well.

I have also talked in private with Arigarmy and Gwynbleiddd to help straighten out this situation, and also sent private messages to LordXcano and some of the Discord members to apologise for letting my paranoia get the better of me.

One area that I do not agree with however, is that I definitely think that our regulations are necessary for the sustained relative order and stability in this wiki, so abolishing a large part of them seems extremely unwise.

Please do not start more highly controversial discussion in the thread below. Again, the wiki community is very sensitive, and cannot withstand continuous damage to its integrity. We all need to make an effort to take care of it. Your continued assistance to help the community to heal, and to maintain its order and stability would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Ryukama]

Thank you for trying to help straighten out this situation and admitting to your flaws and mistakes. As well as valuing the structure of this wiki.

I greatly appreciate your extremely hard work, and agree with most of the decisions you make.

 

[Kavpeny]

I agree with every part of this post. We need to realize that our community is somewhat fragile right now, and must maintain caution and level-headedness at all times.

Should anyone feel annoyed or stressed for some reason, it would be best to take a step back from the wiki and retire for the day instead of setting of a chain reaction of arguments.

We need to come together as a community, and make sure not to butt heads.

 

[Sera_EX]

Our community has suffered a great loss of staff members. I always stand by the notion that it is imperative for the staff and regulars to both get along with each other and amongst ourselves.

I do not mean to start any controversy, but something that has been bothering Colonel Krukov and that partially led to his retirement was certain people's contributions being valued over others (i.e. certain people get praise while others don't). This is something I want to change for the wiki. For everyone to be praised and honored for their efforts. Please, let's not make this into a competition, we make or breal this wiki together. No one is valued more than the other. No one's contributions are valued over another's.

If we cooperate, our comminity can heal faster and we can get back to our prime. Pages are made by the hour, we'll be at 12k before Fall. In order to ensure the quality of the wiki improves and remain stable, we all have to pitch in and appreciate each other's hard work. After all, we're just one big family in wikispace :3

 

[Antvasima]

Thank you for the support.

 

[The_Everlasting]

I just wish to inform the reason for Aparajita's inactivity.

In that, he's taking care of his sister who was recently in a horrible accident. He'll probably be back, but not for a while.

 

[VenomElite]

Aparajita and his sister has nothing but love and support coming their way. This place will get back in shape. You can count on it.

 

[Matthew_Schroeder]

I also agree with everything you said in your post, Ant, and I am glad that you and Kavpeny have acted to sort things out. We absolutely cannot let drama, in-fighting and old grudges to get the better of us.

Instead, we have to let go of our pride, preconceived notions and biases, and be willing to walk forward with a fresh perspective, and a desire to act in Union for the betterment of the Wiki and its community.

I have sometimes been very arrogant and conceited in the past, and that has led to a lot of problems and conflict. Looking back, I see how stupid I was, and have since done an active effort to change and improve. I only hope that others can do so as well.

None of us are infallible or superior, nor should we let our Egos fool ourselves into believing that. We are all flawed, and we should be willing to see and admit those flaws, and work to improve on them.

I also wholly respect and admire the incalculable good that Antvasima and Kavpeny have done for the wiki, and do not agree with the demands / suggestions for their retirement. If there is a mainstay that supports the structure of the entire Wiki, it's them.

They should continue their work as Bureucrats, while still looking to recruit new ones to manage the Wiki alongside them, rather than just abandoning their work altogether. Don't fool yourself into thinking otherwise, VsBattles WOULD crumble without them.

Now, in regards to personal issues and problems with the Staff: Please, come talk to us. Send us a polite PM listing and explaining your concerns, and it will be read and answered. That would be incredibly more productive than an Inflammatory Open Post.

Unlike what some of you may think, the VsWiki Staff, even the Bureucrats, are not unreachable figures in ivory towers. Antvasima and I have discussions and disagreements all the time, but we do so in PMs, and always attempting to be respectful of each other.

Finally, in regards to Calculators: I would recommend any of you who have Narutoforums accounts to also send your Calc Requests to the OBD Calc Requests thread. Who knows, it might be calced there rather than here.

 

[Lina_Shields]

You should consider moving this to anywhere else other than the staff section, considering that this thread affects not only the staff, but all of the members here as a whole.

Also don't bother sending calc requests to OBD or T5. They are both deader than here on VSB.

 

[SITHISIT]

Is this open to members?

who cares. have my two cents.

I agree with everything you said Ant. I recognized with just that one thread the community is very fragile and just some poorly chosen words could send it into massive dissaray and drama, stronger intent and malice could break it. Most of that stuff should be just forgotten about whilst staff and others try and work on improving the community and keeping most vandalism and rule breaking in check, I see no need right now nor in.. i dont know how long, to begin having massive staff wars breaking out nor attempting to do stuff like that again.

 

[Pepper14832]

Lots of retirements and inactive staff. Sounds worrying. But I'm sure you all know how to handle it.

 

[Azathoth_the_Abyssal_Idiot]

Moving this to News and Announcements, as there are multiple non-staff members I would consider part of the community, and feel this is an important topic for everyone.

 

[Ryukama]

@Ever If you come into contact with Aparajita again, please tell him that I said I'm extremely sorry to hear the bad news. And hope that things turn out alright. Also tell him that I said to take as much time off this site as he need sto. Even if that requires him retiring position indefinitely. This clearly takes far greater importance. Thank you.

 

[KinkiestSins]

This is one the reasons why I frequent this wiki. The staff is both professional and yet empathetic in my eyes.

That is all I have to say.

Also @Ant and all mods/admins I hope you know your reputation in many websites I frequent is very divided.

Dont get too harped up on the haters being just lost in how the wiki does things is all I have to say.

 

[Antvasima]

Thank you KinkiestSins.

I am also sorry to hear about Aparajita.