Hi everyone - the Sr.Staff team just wanted to take some time to drop a quick note to go over a few troubling things and explain how we are handling the implementation of the Guidebook Review.
To our members who are here to enjoy themselves, roleplay, and stay out of the drama - we are sorry if this is off-putting or seems to be out of the blue. We hope that you are able to understand that we need to say a few things to help keep things moving forward and to give Sr Staff the ability to grow. Overall, the Sr Staff team will be taking a harder line when it comes to members being disrespectful toward Staff. We want to have open lines of communication with our members and we work hard to work through disagreements, questions, and misunderstandings. We do the best we can and, yes, sometimes we don't get it right or aren't able to explain something the best way - but this should not be used as a way to bully, push, bulldoze over, or try to guilt Sr Staff members.
ALL staff members are doing things in their spare time and are here to help a community and site that they love and care deeply for. We are not here to play favorites, and saying so in an effort to guilt the Staff team into doing what you want will not be permitted. We are looking to foster a community where everyone, staff included, feels safe, welcomed, and able to enjoy themselves. There is no reason that Sr. Staff should feel bullied, attacked, ganged up on, or hated for trying to keep the site going.
We do not want the above to be taken out of context, because we do still want members to come to us with their concerns, questions, and whatever else might be bothering them. We can't help the situation if we don't know what is going on — all that we ask for is respect, grace with timelines, to be treated with kindness, and an understanding that the site is often very fluid and things are not always going to be black and white. We try very hard not to work in “grey areas” anymore, and when something comes up we always try and push it into an update. We have worked VERY hard to be as open as possible and allow as much communication between Staff and members as possible. This has been an amazing way for us to make the site better but it has had drawbacks as well, which we work to overcome and work to make sure that it doesn't affect the community as a whole. We know that this is a lot and for that, we do apologize. We hope that everyone can understand the reasoning behind this.
As for the Guidebook Review, we decided not to enforce anything that was being planned in the interim, given that nothing in it is final until it is posted and because it wouldn't be fair. We also decided to not stop anything that may be changed/gone/better explained because we did not think it would be fair to have members sit in limbo. (IE: if there were changes to challenges; no one would have wanted us to put those on hold until the leadership page was posted). We also know that there are some items that, ideally, members will have wanted access to sooner but we could not in good faith pick and choose. This is why pages are being rolled out in completed batches. We have done the best that we can with this, even though it is a big endeavor. It was never an effort to hide anything, punish anyone, or try to have favoritism toward anyone. We are doing what we thought was best for the site as a whole and are trying to produce a Guidebook that will better suit everyone in the community.
If you have a direct question or concern about this, feel free to reach out via a ticket or PM on-site. We will not take part in gossip or name dropping but we understand that this may come as a shock to some and it may stir up some feelings or concerns that we want to be able to address.
Thank you all for being a part of the site and making it as amazing as it is today. We look forward to many more years with the community.
Sr Staff.
To our members who are here to enjoy themselves, roleplay, and stay out of the drama - we are sorry if this is off-putting or seems to be out of the blue. We hope that you are able to understand that we need to say a few things to help keep things moving forward and to give Sr Staff the ability to grow. Overall, the Sr Staff team will be taking a harder line when it comes to members being disrespectful toward Staff. We want to have open lines of communication with our members and we work hard to work through disagreements, questions, and misunderstandings. We do the best we can and, yes, sometimes we don't get it right or aren't able to explain something the best way - but this should not be used as a way to bully, push, bulldoze over, or try to guilt Sr Staff members.
ALL staff members are doing things in their spare time and are here to help a community and site that they love and care deeply for. We are not here to play favorites, and saying so in an effort to guilt the Staff team into doing what you want will not be permitted. We are looking to foster a community where everyone, staff included, feels safe, welcomed, and able to enjoy themselves. There is no reason that Sr. Staff should feel bullied, attacked, ganged up on, or hated for trying to keep the site going.
We do not want the above to be taken out of context, because we do still want members to come to us with their concerns, questions, and whatever else might be bothering them. We can't help the situation if we don't know what is going on — all that we ask for is respect, grace with timelines, to be treated with kindness, and an understanding that the site is often very fluid and things are not always going to be black and white. We try very hard not to work in “grey areas” anymore, and when something comes up we always try and push it into an update. We have worked VERY hard to be as open as possible and allow as much communication between Staff and members as possible. This has been an amazing way for us to make the site better but it has had drawbacks as well, which we work to overcome and work to make sure that it doesn't affect the community as a whole. We know that this is a lot and for that, we do apologize. We hope that everyone can understand the reasoning behind this.
As for the Guidebook Review, we decided not to enforce anything that was being planned in the interim, given that nothing in it is final until it is posted and because it wouldn't be fair. We also decided to not stop anything that may be changed/gone/better explained because we did not think it would be fair to have members sit in limbo. (IE: if there were changes to challenges; no one would have wanted us to put those on hold until the leadership page was posted). We also know that there are some items that, ideally, members will have wanted access to sooner but we could not in good faith pick and choose. This is why pages are being rolled out in completed batches. We have done the best that we can with this, even though it is a big endeavor. It was never an effort to hide anything, punish anyone, or try to have favoritism toward anyone. We are doing what we thought was best for the site as a whole and are trying to produce a Guidebook that will better suit everyone in the community.
If you have a direct question or concern about this, feel free to reach out via a ticket or PM on-site. We will not take part in gossip or name dropping but we understand that this may come as a shock to some and it may stir up some feelings or concerns that we want to be able to address.
Thank you all for being a part of the site and making it as amazing as it is today. We look forward to many more years with the community.
Sr Staff.