The way mods run the website

It has come to my attention that the way you guys moderate the website may not be as productive to the website as what it would seem like. Sure, it may get things done, but in the end, it may leave many well-intentioned tropers leaving the website in frustration. No, I'm not talking about he ones who really are in the wrong. I'm talking about ones who are leaving because of the way they see the mods.

Truth to be told, there are at least some practices amongst the mods that may leave others in frustration. One such example may be the YKTTW. One of you guys, shimaspawn, used the so-called "mod hat" to force people to try and fix problems of one of my drafts that he perceived before anyone else did. While he did explain his reasonings behind doing that and I did do what he asked, I still got a bit miffed about it simply because he used the "mod hat" for something that did not involve troublesome tropers.

He used it again within another one of my drafts, saying "it doesn't deserve it's own page". The way he was going on about, it seemed to me as if I wasn't even given a chance to appeal and change his mind. When I called him on for it by stating the only difference he has with us normal tropers is his privileges as a mod, he eventually added on that he and his fellow mods had decided under their "collective experience" that it should be so, then theatened to use another "mod hat". To me, this seemed like he's flaunting the fact that he and his mods are "more wiser than me". Displays such as this won't help with reputation, which, in the context of an online internet community, especially one based upon user-submitted content like a wiki, is a very important thing. (In case you're wondering, the trope draft in question is the one I made in responce to the misuse for Genre Savvy).

Note that I don't actually question your leadership, nor do I question your wisdom. It's just that I perceive a potentially serious problem in the way you guys seem to be running the website.

edited 23rd Aug '15 2:47:56 PM by KarjamP

I agreed with canning the YKTTW for Savviness. The concept was too vaguely defined to be a useful trope. We don't go off half-cocked on such things; we solicit each others' advice. The topic was not going to arrive at a successful conclusion no matter how many protests occurred.

edited 23rd Aug '15 3:03:52 PM by Fighteer

If you guys were going to lead off with something like that, then I would've been more understanding.

As I said, I don't doubt your wisdom nor your leadership. Just that I see a potential problem in the way that you're doing it. To tell the truth, now that I think about it, the true problem is "miscommunication".

I got miffed off the first time one of you did it to one of my drafts because you guys only properly explained your reasoning behind getting miffed about the trope suffering with Missing Supertrope Syndrome after I've complained. The same happened now, only, it's the fact that you guys didn't properly clarify why you think "Savviness" doesn't deserve its own page and had instead, stated you decided that "with your collective wisdom".

I think you guys need to be careful in how you run the site as to not cause casualties such as this. As I said, at least one of you is using the "mod hat" for something other than "troublesome users", which may get those who don't know better, like me up to now, miffed about you using it.

Our reasoning was explained in my initial mod hatted post. It was explained again in that same post that you quoted about wisdom. It was the first paragraph actually. It was explained to you by many tropers before that. The only reason I mod hatted in the first place was because you weren't listening.

Also, I'm not a guy.

edited 23rd Aug '15 3:35:48 PM by shimaspawn

You and your fellow mods may had clarified so already, but it wasn't that which convinced me. It's Fighteer saying that we wouldn't arrive at a successful conclusion. I guess the further arguments was just me being in denial about you guys being right simply because I disagreed with everyone else that it's not a trope. Sorry about that.

That's said, flaunting your mod powers like that is still quite risky, since I actually interpreted that as an act of arrogance. Other stubbornness people may also think similarly, or at least believe you guys (and gal) are being jerks. It's the way you had approached it that could be the problem (Gosh, I must stop saying "true problem" and the like, lest I may be wrong). Emotions beget emotions. This is one of the reasons behind me asking you to only use the "mod hat" on the troublesome tropers (the other being it seems to me to be unnecessarily).

Incidentally, I only called you a guy because I didn't know you were a girl.

edited 23rd Aug '15 4:00:06 PM by KarjamP

Note that I wasn't posting this out of anger, but out of concern. While I may be in the fault about Savviness, that doesn't mean you mods shouldn't consider altering the way you approach problems lest you cause unnecessarily anger among us like it did between me and you.

Lock this, if you want to, as I've said all there is to say. (However, I technically created this thread to discuss the topic among ourselves, not to write an open letter).

I don't mod hat because someone is troublesome. I mod hat to keep it clear when I'm speaking as just any other troper and you can ignore me at your leisure and when I'm talking as a mod and there's something that seriously needs to be addressed.