[Fan Fiction]Coruscant, we have some problems

Without so much as a word?

Also, sad to note that although things HAD started to change for the better, with the exception of users taking more initative, we seem to be back to Buisness As Usual.

Colour me very unimpressed.

Editted title at DarthBreezy's request

Locked as discussion has moved to Fan Fiction Resource and the focus group.

 

Well, people were starting up their own challenges. So in that sense, there was and still is initiative. But I don't know that anything else is changing or even being discussed.

 

I believe it was de-stickied. I found it on the third page of the forum.

 

Well then it fell PDQ...

And my other grouce still stands. Other than what's been instigated by forum members, it's still buisness as usual.

PS

Don't ask me to list my complaints here, I've sent commentary till I'm blue in the fingers. Now either things will change or they will not.

 

Breezy, sticky threads can and sometimes do fall on their own. Just a quirk of the coding, I believe.

 

Or it could be that it was only set until a few days ago, and then it fell off the first page.

 

It's possible. Fan Fiction has had that happen before.

 

Irregardless, after nearly three years I think I've finaly decided to throw in the towel (I can hear the applause from here thank you very much).

There's Just. No. Point.


Edit:

This is why I'm giving up... It's NOT JUST THE STICKY THREAD!!!


Trying to discuss the real problems is like posting on fan fiction.net... you can post until your fingers bleed but no one seems to listen.

 

Did you actually try to PM any of the Fan Fiction mods your forum question and allow them a reasonable time to respond, yet?

From your initial post here, it sound like you really have an open mind as to what the possible reason(s) may be.

 

Did you actually try to PM any of the Fan Fiction mods your forum question

That would have been the best place to start.

 

Am I the only person who has no idea what this thread is about?

 

Am I the only person who has no idea what this thread is about?


Short answer: A while back the fanfic mods placed a survey up for people to give their opinions of the way the fanfic forums were being run.


This morning, for some reason, the thread became unstickied.

Breezy suspects foul play.


[Edited to conceal poor typing ability.]

 

Well, all that said ... the survey was up for a while, have the mods been listening to the complaints/suggestions/whatever, any discussion going on, any possible changes, etc? Nothing's been said, really. (I think that's part of what DarthBreezy was driving at.) Update, please?

 

The reason the thread fell off was because it reached its expiration date. Apparently, when you put up a sticky, you can have one of those. The default date was March 15, so I let the default in when I put up the thread. Sorry this has caused some confusion, but if anyone was upset by this you were always welcomed to PM me or any of the other mods about this.

As far as response to this, we've had some discussion about some of the issues but you have to give us some time to formulate a formal response. Moderating these boards is a volunteer job, and DRL gets in the way sometimes. Please be patient.

 

Short answer: A while back the fanfic mods placed a survey up for people to give their opinions of the way the fanfic forums were being run.

Breezy suspects foul play.

*takes a *deep breath*

No, Breezy does not suspect foul play, Breezy has come to the conclusion that no matter what people say or do, it doesn't matter.

People have been sending quiet leangthy PM's for months. We keep getting the same reply, 'We'll look into it' and we see your points, thanks for bringing it to our attention.

It took the TF.N equivalant of a howler (Harry Potter refereance) to even get the survey started, and the quiet rumblings are here and there. to quote a post I saw the other day on the Fan Fiction Resource - NOT MINE so put away your torches-

::wonders if there was really a purpose to the fanfic survey other than to pacify people into thinking there was some real communication going on::

I'm not the only one who feels like this, except most of the time it seems that communication takes place 'off boards' where people feel they can be a little more open, and not be accused of picking on the mods as people.

So I guess I'm the only one who's foolish enough to call out the fact that the Emperor is naked in public.

Right. On that note:

Perceptions (I don't nessisarily agre with all of them, this is what I've been told)

1. There is no mod presense outside the "resource forum" in some of the boards
   
   Even with the FAQ, some people percive 'selective moderation', some things allowed to slide by the 'standards' while others are pounced on for the slightest infraction
   
   Of all the boards, (as apposed to 3SA, JCC, Senate, where is heavy traffic yet the Mods are active as USERS ) there is a defiante sense of 'THEM and US'. The Mods are not a part of our Community, but above it, issueing edicts as they see fit.
   
   Communication is virtually non exsistant
   
   People fear that there is inadiquet coverage, especially in the SAGA form, especially with the impending release of E-3. Long term residents, even those who were part of the E-2 influx, fear that the boards will be overwhelemd.

The list goes on, but that's a small sample of the things I hear.

I really resent the lable of 'troublemaker' that seems to be slapped on me, but so it goes.

Edit Clarity, mark up codes.

 

Oh, come on, stop thinking someone suspects foul play just because they have an interest in common good.

 

Moderating these boards is a volunteer job, and DRL gets in the way sometimes. Please be patient.


I'm worried that our Mods say this so much in their responses to us. It could be why that users in Fan Fiction feel that our concerns aren't being taken seriously by our Mods. The lack of communication to our community causes threads like these.

Edit: One person should not be centered out to take the fall.

 

I know at least of two mods that, despite saying this, are unusually committed to actually keeping things running around fanfic. And I agree, Sara, singling out is a vicious practice, which is why I posted here in the first place.

 

The Mods are not a part of our Community, but above it, issueing edicts as they see fit.

Just seems that the surveys made things worse in that the mods are taking them as incentive to go around waving their ban and lock wands. ( A couple of them I should say) I don't think those of us who posted our concerns in the surveys intended for them to be addressed in this manner. My disgust in the way things are going in fanfic has caused me to turn my Obi-Wan thread over to others just so I don't have to deal with it anymore. Sad.

I also thought it was interesting that Lady Padme stated they had already had discussions about the surveys when a PM I just received the other night from another mod stated that nothing had been done with them at all at this point.

 

Ha... I just have to say Ha...and haha about that.

 

Breezy is right. There is a HUGE problem in fanfic, not just some minor trouble areas dreamt up by a few troublemakers. The vast majority of surveys that were posted (including my own) pointed to the problems that were seen and many suggested ways to improve the modding in particular and the fanfic boards in general. Nothing has been done.

Please, please don't give us the refrain of 'we need time'. The thread went up on February 4. There has been a month and a half to start formulating a response to the complaints. (As for the fact that it's fallen, fine. I can accept that it expired and that was a mistake.)

Perception is everything, folks. What the fanfic users perceive is that their concerns and worries don't matter. As I said in my survey, there is a problem, and the mods must begin to address it or there is going to be a huge number of valuable, creative people walking away.

Finally, two last things.

Breezy, please don't leave. While I don't always agree with the things you say, you have the courage to say them out loud and draw attention to the problems you see. We need you (and more like you!) in fanfic.

Herman, your crack about Breezy suspecting foul play was rude and completely inappropriate. If one of us had said something similar on the fanfic boards, we would have been edited. You owe her an apology and you need to edit your post.

Shaindl

EDIT: Thank you, KnightWriter. I didn't realise that. As for it falling to page 3, the mods could have upped it when they realised it had fallen, so that it stayed near the top. Edited due to new knowledge.

 

The question would then be why hasn't it been restickied? The fact it fell was noted yesterday afternoon, plenty of time for it to be replaced at the top of the boards.)

Once a thread is unstickied, it cannot be made into a sticky thread again. It would have to be started from scratch. It's the same reason why existing threads can't be turned into sticky threads.

It's sitting on page three because that's most likely when the last post was, which is what the thread defaults to when it unstickies.

 

Amen, Shaindl. I've known many awesome boarders driven off by this sort of thing. I don't think there is a right to flame, bait, or just be brats because they'll be noticed for it, regardless of colors or not.

 

With all due respect to the mods, the survey has been up for over a month, and the responses were being posted pretty consistently for about ten days with a few others trickling in afterward. That left you (the mods) somewhere near three weeks to respond. If DRL is truly the excuse given for responding, then there are serious concerns.

Are all the mods suffering from DRL? Because as I see it that is a serious problem in and of itself. As of late the Fanfic boards have been relatively well-behaved and little active modding has been required. If only one or two of the mods are suffering from DRL then I don't see why the other two couldn't have drafted a response and only needed the DRL-sufferers to concur. If all the mods are so indisposed then all four need to reconsider their participation in fanfic and at what level.

Truly I don't want to sound unsympathetic - I understand better than most what DRL can do to a person - but there is a price for those colors.

To be fair, Herman, I did PM a mod and asked what had happened to the survey before responding to this thread. I have gotten no response. It would have taken a one sentence reply.

Also, since the fanfic survey has been up I will say that some of the advice has been taken to heart, a lot has not. One of the most notable concerns was the lack of unity among the mods. To date, two mods have tried to step out of their comfort zone and participate. One has declared a board of focus and never ventures beyond a small niche of stories, and another has, for all appearances, completely disregarded fanfic users' concerns. So we, as the readers/users, really can't tell where you stand as a collective unit. If you were ever going to show a unified front, composing and placing a reply to the survey responses, and perhaps explaining why some are acting one way and others another, would have been your best foot forward in the matter.

Over 60 users took the time to reply publically to the survey, I'd wager a few more did so by PM. Some spent a couple hours or so to compose well-though out responses. It would have taken the mods no more time, especially if you had acted as a team and divided the task between yourselves...

~TKeira