Mestiv

Hush, just take the credit and give them the bill for your service

It occurred you me, that we, as multinational community, can have a bit off communication issue. I don't know if it's true for other non-native speakers, but I was shocked when I first saw the word "tribalism" used in this discussion. My immediate interpretation of it was straight out offensive (tribalism -> tribe -> some primitive tribe from before the pyramids -> primitive behaviour) and if it was directed at me I would be very unhappy. Turns out this word simply means us-vs-them mentality, which isn't anything offensive. However, the bad taste after the first, intuitive interpretation remains in my mind. That's why I have a friendly request to everyone, not as a moderator, but as a person whose English skills aren't as good as most of you: be careful with this word, ok?

Hello I hope you'll have a great time here!

You got me thinking about Firefly but Avatar is good too!

I agree with you very strongly on this. I think other staff members do too. I will advocate we create some kind of guideline on how to handle what. When it's ok to do things publicly and when we should stick with PMs. After all, there's this saying that goes something like this: Praise publicly, criticize privately. You are right, that such topics should be accepted and there won't come anything good out of them. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to ensure that. As long as we take part in discussions, there can be some disagreement etc. When we moderate, we can make mistakes, not be as calm as we should etc. You are right that we, as staff, should be an example to other users. That's why I'd like to encourage everyone to actually report posts by staff members if you find them not up to expected standards. Ok, now I understand and I see your point. That was indeed a bit reckless that I split that post into a separate thread without consulting @Dreamstorm first. So, Dreamstorm, if you didn't agree with what I did, I sincerely apologize. I also see why you find the voices of staff supporters counter-productive to the discussion. Personally, I think those voices have their place here too. Staff members are different people, some of us take critique better, some worse. Chaos himself mentioned that he had trouble sleeping because of this thread. He worries that we're not doing good job as moderators team. Other staff members are worried too. We care about this community greatly. We committed a lot of our time and energy to it. Reading even one positive opinion about our work was really reinforcing. No positive opinion made us think that we don't have to change a thing. Those opinions made us more determined to change and be better for everyone. That is an interesting suggestion. Feel free to propose it on the OB board, if it finds traction, I think we can even pin a topic with list of such tags, so people know what to expect where. If the community likes it, I see no problem in making it happen.

I have 4 + 3 separate alarms on my phone and I still can't get up on time sometimes

I'm afraid I don't understand. Probably because English is my second language. Can you phrase it differently? In the discussion that we wanted to start here (the decision to split this into separate thread was a team decision) there are no irrelevant users. And, as a result of that, no opinion is irrelevant. @DimChatz thank you for finding time to contribute to this topic. I know it takes courage to stand up and criticize those with power. What you said was harsh but not offensive, just the way good critique should be. Can you please share with us your opinion on how this situation should have been handled? What would you have us do in the future to avoid those unpleasant situations?

Yes, it does show bias. As I said, we are all just human. We have limited time at our disposal and sometimes just deal with what is in our subjective view, the most urgent problem. However, I cannot agree that new members don't get benefit of the doubt. Whenever I catch a report to handle with anyone being not nice to someone else I go to PMs with them. And so far, it always worked. True, I'm not online when most of the Shard activity is happening, so I don't get to handle that many reports, but still. I don't think that would work. Mods generally hang around parts of the forum they enjoy as users. If they were "forced" to patrol sections that are not interesting for them or were forbidden from normal interactions with others, they would be less effective.

I'm afraid a Larkin would get zapped like a mosquito hitting electric mosquito trap. Larkins probably have less suction power than Nightblood.

We deal with it, by asking the person that was dismissive to apologize. Honest apologies are a cure to many problems. Most older members will recognize that they were wrong or offended someone. Especially if their faults are pointed out by a mod or someone else than the person that feels offended. Now what happens if a new member gets offended/dismissed and lashes out? A mod gets busy dealing with them, because their reaction is far more jarring than the dismissive post that caused it. Also, remember that we're all just human. Most staff members recognize and know the old-timers. We know that they aren't bad people and even if they say something questionable, they don't have bad intentions. It really helps when you (the newer community members) help us notice that something is wrong. The reputation system was added for fun. Many sharders enjoy getting new ranks etc. Negative repuration was disabled because it caused poisonous situations when someone got downvoted. Now I see that positive votes can also cause harm. It's a good thing that there are serious plans to replace upvotes with reaction a'la facebook. Those seem more neutral.

I just want to let everyone know that I have moved @Dreamstorm post and my response to it into separate thread, where I hope we can find some common ground about moderation politics of the 17th Shard. Feel free to go there if you have something to say on that subject, but otherwise let's allow IronBars' topic to get back on track.

I'm sorry to hear that you feel that way. I personally don't really attend book discussion forums as I don't really care about theories etc. I also don't care if someone likes the books or not. I'm here for the community (and to make a cool project - Arcanum). That's why this whole mess is a new thing to me. That's also why I would really like you to know, that all moderators are informed when someone reports something, not only the ones you have bad experience interacting with. Almost every report (excluding obvious spamming reports) is discussed among a group of staffers, before any action is taken. If you find a post that you find offensive or unacceptable in any way, please do report it. The staff team is made up of different people and I assure you, we won't ignore anyone if they feel offended/insulted/attacked, even by the most prominent members of the community. But to get the attention of "unbiased" staff members, you should really report things.

Opinions without arguments are still opinions... I don't know, OB isn't the greatest book Brandon wrote and I really get your complaints. Others just explain why those things don't bother them. Popular or not, nobody is obligated to explain themselves if they don't agree with something.

@Sunbird as always, great photos!

My money is on young Tai-Na.

You are being peer pressured to reveal all your secrets

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Ok, I got it. Thanks for reporting. The spammers are getting more creative it seems.

Yes, @Parttimedragon deserves to be featured

I like this idea. Although I'm afraid that it won't stop the spammers. If search ranking is what they care about, they should notice that their links don't last long here and the chances of being noticed by crawlers are rather slim.

I can confirm that we have solid representation in American and European timezones, which pretty much can handle most of the day. We may have someone in Australia too.

I will punch the snow so hard it'll turn into solid ice!

If you like light comedy I admit it's really relaxing. It's visually very nice and made me laugh quite a bit. Definitely worth a try. The last aired episode had a first a bit more serious moment, but nothing heavy. It has a good rating on My Anime List and many positive comments on Crunchyroll I really enjoy it!

I'm watching: Darling in the FRANXX (for the plot!), Ancient Magnus Bride Dragon Ball Super, RWBY A place further than the universe Food Wars! And I think that's it for now...