Project Tranquility (Revising)

[Loki]

I just want to make a quick post before returning to my hiatus.

I should have relooked at the logs before making the post about Vukasin as I was actually recalling a different incident. I want to make it clear that I completely was in the wrong there and Vukasin DID in fact state they were not an admin after being asked if they were.

I will not make this about me, but I felt like as an alpha I should be involved regardless of my health. This brings me to one of my current symptoms I experienced last night which is confusion. Again I sincerely apologize about this and will be returning on my hiatus.

The only thing I will be further looking into is which administrator is talking poorly about users as well as the claims Cherzi brought forward.

Again, I sincerely apologize for me getting that confused.

[Petticoat]

I'm just going to be straight up and honest here - I've been (somewhat) a part of this community for years and years as an art consumer, more so than an art provider, ever since I was a youngling, so my angle may be different in a way but I wish to voice it anyway simply because I agree with a lot of the points that have been brought up here on this topic and I personally *want* this to get better, if there's any shred of hope that it will. I have fond memories, and not so fond memories, but the fondness is what is keeping me here.

Over the past 5 years or so, I have witnessed this website deteriorate rapidly. Now, this could be down to various factors such as people focusing on things outside of the website, health matters, work, relationships and so forth that have dwindled their activity on here - which happens to any community because the outside world likes to pull us from these things. *However* what has stood out to me the most as a factor of this dwindling activity is the hypocrisy, the wishy washy, the backpeddling and the dishonesty of the administration team, and it's really saddening to see. I'm not saying the entire burden of this websites potential (or already existing) downfall is solely down to the administration team because we users make up the mass majority of the userbase obviously, and not every issue or problem as been down to the administration team, but I am noticing a lot of issues are stemming from there - whether it's past admins coming forward and expressing their feelings, providing logs and proof of wrongdoings, or users that are expressing their concerns for the administrations choices and poor wording, or simply sharing their opinion.

First and foremost, the administration team are volunteers. They are volunteering without pay to keep this up and running, monitoring and producing things for the community during their free time in between everything else they have going on and I respect that, I'm sure many users would agree with me there, however, this post made me feel quite itchy and icky, a little red flaggy. A wolf in sheep's clothing, if you will, because I agree this very much feels like a re-hashed and rehearsed "we're sorry, we'll do better" post which we've had over, and over again. I feel like the replies here from the admins are like very carefully worded, business-man, politician like responses as if Wolfhome is this big cooperate company that are trying to cover their own backsides, rather than being straight up front, blunt and honest, if that makes sense? "We hear what you're saying and we're going to revise our plan" sort of speech, and we've had this on repeat for years, and nothing has come of it, you guys are volunteers, there shouldn't be any need for us to cry out for transparency or honesty, we're asking you to be *human* and own up to your mistakes, be honest with us, so that previous admins, mods and users don't feel as if they have to come forward and slap proof down in DMs as to why they were done wrong by you. This is an art platform and a community, I do not understand why it has to be so complicated and intricate, and maybe it is and I simply don't understand why, and if so, that's on me - I just feel it shouldn't be this hard.

I'm not quite sure if I'm making sense (I hope I am lol) but the amount of times previous mods/admins and community members have come forward, in this post and in the past post who have poured their sweat, tears and blood into this website by coming up with ideas, creative insight and opinions, only to make one small mistake (seemingly) and get rejected or banned, who then come forward with such passion as to why they were done wrong and proof just to be given either a " no that wasnt the case" or a rehearsed "thank you we'll look into this" is mind boggling - especially when people who have ACTUALLY done bad on this website have gotten away for free. This doesn't feel right, this feels wrong to me. You have so many people that care about this website, and all I'm seeing is "he said, she said" and a lot of shady business coming from the admins. I keep hearing about harassment; bullying, whispering and gossips amongst the admin teams from users who have posted such publically in these threads, and 6 years have passed - nothing has seemingly changed. So what changes are you making? Because this seems to be the same fractured Wolfhome with little to no chance of healing.

[VESSEL]

I just want to make a quick post before returning to my hiatus.

I should have relooked at the logs before making the post about Vukasin as I was actually recalling a different incident. I want to make it clear that I completely was in the wrong there and Vukasin DID in fact state they were not an admin after being asked if they were.

I will not make this about me, but I felt like as an alpha I should be involved regardless of my health. This brings me to one of my current symptoms I experienced last night which is confusion. Again I sincerely apologize about this and will be returning on my hiatus.

The only thing I will be further looking into is which administrator is talking poorly about users as well as the claims Cherzi brought forward.

Again, I sincerely apologize for me getting that confused.

I mean this with utmost sincerity that you should be focusing on your health right now and not Wolfhome. You can join the discussion at a later time when you are more readily able to make commentary. The confusion, while I fully acknowledge it is not your fault that you are experiencing it and are just working with what you can do for now, may end up causing increased tension if information that is not factual to issues at hand are shared again, and I'm sure (or at least hoping that) another alpha is willing to assist you at this time and help manage the situation in your stead while you focus on recovering.

[Loki]

I just want to make a quick post before returning to my hiatus.

I should have relooked at the logs before making the post about Vukasin as I was actually recalling a different incident. I want to make it clear that I completely was in the wrong there and Vukasin DID in fact state they were not an admin after being asked if they were.

I will not make this about me, but I felt like as an alpha I should be involved regardless of my health. This brings me to one of my current symptoms I experienced last night which is confusion. Again I sincerely apologize about this and will be returning on my hiatus.

The only thing I will be further looking into is which administrator is talking poorly about users as well as the claims Cherzi brought forward.

Again, I sincerely apologize for me getting that confused.

I mean this with utmost sincerity that you should be focusing on your health right now and not Wolfhome. You can join the discussion at a later time when you are more readily able to make commentary. The confusion, while I fully acknowledge it is not your fault that you are experiencing it and are just working with what you can do for now, may end up causing increased tension if information that is not factual to issues at hand are shared again, and I'm sure (or at least hoping that) another alpha is willing to assist you at this time and help manage the situation in your stead while you focus on recovering.

I genuinely appreciate this so much because I feel like I should be here and I appreciate you acknowledging it for me.

[Hocus]

On another note, I don’t think people need to redeem themselves to the team. They either are good enough by value of their merit to have an opportunity or they are not a person who is suitable for community roles on this site. The admins here emphasize often that they are only human and make mistakes, but it doesn’t seem like that sentiment is extended towards applicants often. It is especially damning knowing some of the priors of the people on the team currently. If the baseline we want to set here is that everyone is human, it should be going both ways. And honestly, these people have less to answer for than the administration currently.

^^^ I would have made a damn good administrator. I never needed to redeem myself in the eyes of the administration: you are not gods.

[pyr]

I genuinely appreciate this so much because I feel like I should be here and I appreciate you acknowledging it for me.

If anything, quite the opposite! You explicitly stated that your circumstances are stress-induced. I would argue that continuing to force yourself to be involved is actively harmful to your health and the quality of your work. Committing to self-care is the most helpful action and is the correct behavior to model for the rest of the community (especially other stressed staff members whose health may be suffering)!

[Refresh]

I'm just going to be straight up and honest here - I've been (somewhat) a part of this community for years and years as an art consumer, more so than an art provider, ever since I was a youngling, so my angle may be different in a way but I wish to voice it anyway simply because I agree with a lot of the points that have been brought up here on this topic and I personally *want* this to get better, if there's any shred of hope that it will. I have fond memories, and not so fond memories, but the fondness is what is keeping me here.

Over the past 5 years or so, I have witnessed this website deteriorate rapidly. Now, this could be down to various factors such as people focusing on things outside of the website, health matters, work, relationships and so forth that have dwindled their activity on here - which happens to any community because the outside world likes to pull us from these things. *However* what has stood out to me the most as a factor of this dwindling activity is the hypocrisy, the wishy washy, the backpeddling and the dishonesty of the administration team, and it's really saddening to see. I'm not saying the entire burden of this websites potential (or already existing) downfall is solely down to the administration team because we users make up the mass majority of the userbase obviously, and not every issue or problem as been down to the administration team, but I am noticing a lot of issues are stemming from there - whether it's past admins coming forward and expressing their feelings, providing logs and proof of wrongdoings, or users that are expressing their concerns for the administrations choices and poor wording, or simply sharing their opinion.

First and foremost, the administration team are volunteers. They are volunteering without pay to keep this up and running, monitoring and producing things for the community during their free time in between everything else they have going on and I respect that, I'm sure many users would agree with me there, however, this post made me feel quite itchy and icky, a little red flaggy. A wolf in sheep's clothing, if you will, because I agree this very much feels like a re-hashed and rehearsed "we're sorry, we'll do better" post which we've had over, and over again. I feel like the replies here from the admins are like very carefully worded, business-man, politician like responses as if Wolfhome is this big cooperate company that are trying to cover their own backsides, rather than being straight up front, blunt and honest, if that makes sense? "We hear what you're saying and we're going to revise our plan" sort of speech, and we've had this on repeat for years, and nothing has come of it, you guys are volunteers, there shouldn't be any need for us to cry out for transparency or honesty, we're asking you to be *human* and own up to your mistakes, be honest with us, so that previous admins, mods and users don't feel as if they have to come forward and slap proof down in DMs as to why they were done wrong by you. This is an art platform and a community, I do not understand why it has to be so complicated and intricate, and maybe it is and I simply don't understand why, and if so, that's on me - I just feel it shouldn't be this hard.

I'm not quite sure if I'm making sense (I hope I am lol) but the amount of times previous mods/admins and community members have come forward, in this post and in the past post who have poured their sweat, tears and blood into this website by coming up with ideas, creative insight and opinions, only to make one small mistake (seemingly) and get rejected or banned, who then come forward with such passion as to why they were done wrong and proof just to be given either a " no that wasnt the case" or a rehearsed "thank you we'll look into this" is mind boggling - especially when people who have ACTUALLY done bad on this website have gotten away for free. This doesn't feel right, this feels wrong to me. You have so many people that care about this website, and all I'm seeing is "he said, she said" and a lot of shady business coming from the admins. I keep hearing about harassment; bullying, whispering and gossips amongst the admin teams from users who have posted such publically in these threads, and 6 years have passed - nothing has seemingly changed. So what changes are you making? Because this seems to be the same fractured Wolfhome with little to no chance of healing.

In no way defending the admins here, but the last time an admin tried to be straightforward, they ended up demoted and removed from the team. So..... take that as you will.

Edit to add: HOWEVER, that excuse really cannot be used here, because we've been told Underdog is no longer involved with Wolfhome / not involved to the degree he was last year. [Shrug]

[Laika-]

If I may be so bold - because I DO want shit to improve here for both admins and subordinate users alike - ... I'm gonna go ahead and state that I feel the WH/CL admin code of conduct is currently dodgy and lacking (uncertain if WH has its own specific protocols that it follows aside from the global COC) and needs to be overhauled *big time*, particularly any subsections pertinent to what will and wont be tolerated when it comes to A) what can actually be disclosed by a staff member without getting reprimanded or kicked off the team completely (like, how is a serious lack of ability to be transparent not counterintuitive when the WH team is making a commitment to user transparency? Where, exactly, is the line drawn aside from personal identifiable information?), and B) Anything having to do with the prevention of double standards. I feel that this has been a significant contributor to issues that have arisen recently.

A COC overhaul also feels like something the Guardians would/should be spearheading, however, as I stated earlier I am currently very doubtful of them altogether for a number of reasons. A lot of what currently pertains to user transparency within the COC is also heavily reliant on Guardian/Overseer authorization & involvement...yet from what I'm personally seeing they are essentially MIA and leaving everyone - admins, subordinate users, and UD alike - hanging and without active support. If I'm incorrect about this then I'm incorrect, but I've yet to see anything to prove otherwise and I dont feel we should have to sit here and feel wary of their existence or afraid of voicing concerns regarding them because of the number of unknown factors here. It's all but a mystery right now. So here we are

[pyr]

I am somewhat confused as to why the Guardians would be required to oversee a local site overhaul. When I was a Guardian that was not within the scope of the position and would have been overstepping - however it has been a few years so perhaps the position has changed?

[Laika-]

I am somewhat confused as to why the Guardians would be required to oversee a local site overhaul. When I was a Guardian that was not within the scope of the position and would have been overstepping - however it has been a few years so perhaps the position has changed?

I feel what I was trying to initially convey may have been misconstrued and if i worded things poorly i apologize! I definitely dont feel they should have a say when it comes to a site's local overhaul (and granted we also dont know what they are doing or not doing at this point in time, which is also troubling.)
The point I was trying to make when I mentioned the guardians specifically is that, per the global COC, Guardians are still currently required to have direct involvement in a lot of situations that have to do with user transparency, and every CL site is, afaik, still obligated to follow the COC.

If this requirement has changed, or if they are unwilling to incapable of following through anymore due to overall unavailability, and/or if requiring their prior authorization before site administrators can disclose certain information no longer holds any benefit (which is how I'm feeling at the moment) then the COC needs to be heavily updated because otherwise that is where confusion starts to become a major issue.

But as I also mentioned in my previous post, assuming WH simultaneously follows separate local protocols, then I feel perhaps
amendments need to be made relating to what a staff member is able to share without running the risk of being demoted & any possible past/current double standards that are currently posing problems (some of which have been brought up here) should be addressed and used to revise administrative protocol.

[Laika-]

edit accidentally double posted bc my service is shoddy and I'm on mobile sorry all

[Lorien]

To be fair, none of this (as we all know and has been said previously) is new. Many People have fought and lost alot of hard time and effort for this site to even get close to where it is now. We couldn't have done it without everyone previously and we sure as hell cannot do it without you all now. I saw first hand how hard Refresh fought for this site, along with many others. They are what still inspires me to keep pushing forward and try my damnest to do right by everyone.

If I may be so bold - because I DO want shit to improve here for both admins and subordinate users alike - ... I'm gonna go ahead and state that I feel the WH/CL admin code of conduct is currently dodgy and lacking (uncertain if WH has its own specific protocols that it follows aside from the global COC) and needs to be overhauled *big time*, particularly any subsections pertinent to what will and wont be tolerated when it comes to A) what can actually be disclosed by a staff member without getting reprimanded or kicked off the team completely (like, how is a serious lack of ability to be transparent not counterintuitive when the WH team is making a commitment to user transparency? Where, exactly, is the line drawn aside from personal identifiable information?), and B) Anything having to do with the prevention of double standards. I feel that this has been a significant contributor to issues that have arisen recently.

A COC overhaul also feels like something the Guardians would/should be spearheading, however, as I stated earlier I am currently very doubtful of them altogether for a number of reasons. A lot of what currently pertains to user transparency within the COC is also heavily reliant on Guardian/Overseer authorization & involvement...yet from what I'm personally seeing they are essentially MIA and leaving everyone - admins, subordinate users, and UD alike - hanging and without active support. If I'm incorrect about this then I'm incorrect, but I've yet to see anything to prove otherwise and I dont feel we should have to sit here and feel wary of their existence or afraid of voicing concerns regarding them because of the number of unknown factors here. It's all but a mystery right now. So here we are

Here is the Wolfhome Code of Conduct! It definitely needs some love, along with our general rules for both the forum and chat. We'd like to get to a place where these three things are straight to the point and not so dang harsh. We also do have rank outlines listed on that link, with what each rank is allowed to disclose! I really would like to start buckling down and working on these changes asap.

The Guardians essentially allow sites to run and form their own rules, all must have some key things obviously but they, for the most part, are really just helping with more serious cases that need that level of authority to handle. I have always been torn about the Guardians if I can be honest here. Some I agree with and some I don't in regards to their existence and what they do.

I am somewhat confused as to why the Guardians would be required to oversee a local site overhaul. When I was a Guardian that was not within the scope of the position and would have been overstepping - however it has been a few years so perhaps the position has changed?

I definitely dont feel they should have a say when it comes to a site's local overhaul (and granted we also dont know what they are doing or not doing at this point in time, which is also troubling.)
The point I was trying to make when I mentioned the guardians specifically is that, per the global COC, Guardians are still currently required to have direct involvement in a lot of situations that have to do with user transparency, and every CL site is, afaik, still obligated to follow the COC.

If this requirement has changed, or if they are unwilling to incapable of following through anymore due to overall unavailability, and/or if requiring their prior authorization before site administrators can disclose certain information no longer holds any benefit (which is how I'm feeling at the moment) then the COC needs to be heavily updated because otherwise that is where confusion starts to become a major issue.

But as I also mentioned in my previous post, assuming WH simultaneously follows follows separate local protocols, then I feel perhaps
amendments need to be made relating to what a staff member is able to share without running the risk of being demoted & any possible past/current double standards that are currently posing problems should be addressed and used to revise administrative protocol

Wolfhome shouldn't need approval from the Guardians with this overhaul! I mentioned above as well, but they thankfully allow sites to run and manage as they see fit. I say this as the recent Demotions & Resignations topic is an example.

[Laika-]

Oh okay so that was posted fairly recently then. Thank you for clarifying and bringing its existence to attention!

Then I will emphasize my initial point and reiterate that would likely be another constructive place to start - revise the WH staff COC entirely (which I'm glad to see you feel it could and will be amended) and really crack down on what is lacking in terms of clarity & what is currently potentially providing avenues for questionable contrasting standards that different staff members - past and current - have been held to

[Takatia]

I've not thought that the Guardian system was a good one, at least, not well executed at it's best. My reasoning for having joined in the first place was so one particular individual, who we are all aware of, wouldn't be the one holding too much power, especially with what information had been coming out at the time. I was skeptical then of how and why it formed, and still am after reading this.

The positive aspects of the Guardian system: communicating across sites about users who have committed serious and concerning offenses, better amicability at a time where all sites were all vying to get Underdog's attention because he was MIA most of the time, and on a similar note, a better chance of getting a response from Underdog when less team members from different sites were reaching out to him, were all great things that were desperately needed, but most everything else about that system was a con. It created unnecessary tension then and still seems to be now. I don't know enough about the current Guardians or anything they've done to say anything specific to that, but if they are truly MIA, that's definitely a sign that the system still needs to be overhauled. I'd rather see the role be treated more like a community spokesperson, with responsibilities similar to a community manager. Individuals who have strong communication skills and can relay information to their respective communities, teams and where applicable, the communities of others so they don't need to learn secondhand. They should not be a stand-in owner (or owner(s)). If Underdog doesn't want to lead the site in the way that it needs to be lead, he needs to hire someone to do it for him. I know that won't happen in the way that it needs to, but that's how I see that system bettering.

[VESSEL]

The majority of people, after December 2021, wanted the role abolished entirely, and it actually makes me very disappointed to see its continued existence. Either that, or replaced with a better more balanced role like Takatia recommended. I do not blame this on Wolfhome though as it's beyond you all and sits squarely with Underdog and his chronic mismanagement of Chatlands.