Moderation Team Update - September 2016

[Alena Rybik]

Hello guys,

Time for another mod update. First of all, I’ve evaluated your activity in the last two months and added your your em$ (or Recruit a Friend reward items to those of you who have asked for those instead) for August and September. Enjoy!

Another important thing that I wanted to share with you is that I will be leaving Expansive Worlds at the end of this year It hasn’t been an easy decision, as I care very deeply about the game and community, but it’s time for me to move on. It hasn’t been communicated to the rest of the community yet, and I would appreciate if you could keep this information to yourselves for now. We are already looking for my successor, and I am going to make sure that you will get a great Community Manager instead of myself We will have another three months left together, but I wanted you to be the first ones to learn, and learn it from me. <3

Moderation-wise, I think we are doing ok. Once again, I would like to ask you to be more active and proactive, also when taking decisions to merge, move, split etc. when it’s needed, to make sure it’s easy and accessible to find the information here.

Have I forgotten anything? Or something else you want to talk about? Shoot!

PS: By the way, here is a great little quiz for you to test your moderation skills and compare them with those of professional New York Times moderators. I did it and got a bit surprised with the results (I didn’t manage to score 100%, will share later where I failed ) - you should also do it, and let’s discuss the results here. The examples they give are quite similar to what we have to deal with here too, so I think it would be useful.

[Tanngnjostr]

[TundraPuppy]

Thank you for the mod rewards.

This is very sad news Alena, but I know you're making a decision that is right for you, so I'm glad for you, and wish you the best as always. Please keep in touch and... stay awesome. :)

For the forum quiz: I actually got all of them correct. I was almost tripped up by the third one - about "this isn't marriage", but I came to the same conclusion that the explanation did, which was that even if it was inflammatory, it was using both the common language of people who believe that stuff, that the article itself was about the criticism of gay marriage, and that ethically, I should try and remain neutral and let the conversation flow as long as it was not becoming acutely toxic (which admittedly I could see possible responses becoming toxic). Also the fifth one, which I was initially very hesitant to approve because of what I felt was a misogynistic bias, but then realized they were not singling out anyone, and the "obsession" comment isn't particularly disparaging.

It was an interesting quiz - it really made me feel like my "let people constructively vent, use an almost invisibly light touch until obvious violations occur, then come down hard" approach to moderation style was right.

[killertut]

Thanks for the update and em$
Sad to see you go. Was a great time and i will miss you dearly

[Tanngnjostr]

I needed some time to swallow this... But thanks for the update and the em$.

Sad to hear that you're leaving, Alena. I wish you all the best for your new job - I'm curious to hear what you'll be doing. Promise to drop by regularly and be there for a MP game every now and then. We'll enjoy the last months with you as our boss. Right now I can't imagine the forum without you, but of course we'll give the new community manager a fair chance...

Staying on topic, I had my last day in the office today. I'm happy to be leaving the old job to be honest, the last months were a pain - I'll never work in public administration again, NEVER! On Tuesday I will start my new job as a psychotherapist at a neat little hospital and I'm really excited about it. Wish me a good start...

Regarding the quiz, I was wrong on the third comment. It wasn't the "This is not marriage." part (though it doesn't reflect my personal view), but the use of the word "sodomy" which I understood as insulting. Maybe it isn't and I was lost in translation?

I think I'm gonna visit Val-des-Bois now and let out my feelings over the forthcoming loss. Roe deer beware!

[Tod1d]

Thanks for the loot! I'm amassing quite a cabbage ball, I need to spend some of it. When does that .340 go on sale?

and I am going to make sure that you will get a great Community Manager instead in leiu of myself

Accidental translation error, or intentional humility?? We have a "great" community manager I hope we get another one. We'll miss you
Let us know where you end up. If it's another community, we may just join to heckle you

I got #5 on the quiz wrong. Sounded like an insult to a group to me. i.e. poking ALL of the badgers.

Be Well

[killertut]

question 3 got me...

[caledonianblues]

I'm biased of course, but I agree with Tod about Alena being a great community manager. She does an incredible job which covers many tasks and responsibilities outside of community management. I think if she cared less and was able to detach herself from the customers and the product, she could have carved out a fantastic career at Expansive Worlds, but she cares to the extent that it often makes her job very difficult.

By no means am I suggesting that the other great people at Expansive Worlds don't care. I've socialised with and made good friends with a number of the team and I know they work hard and care, but Alena has to deal with a lot of venom and toxicity that most of us here in the moderation team don't get to learn about which, in my opinion, makes her position very tough. For that reason I'm both sad and happy that Alena has taken the decision to move on. I can also testify to the fact that this was a very tough and emotional decision for her. We both have a soft spot for theHunter, given that this was where we met and first started talking (she totally made the first move and I still have the private messages to prove it). If one day the game disappears, it will be missed by both of us for a different and very special reason. I'm very proud of the work Alena has done during her time at Expansive Worlds, and I also hope she continues to play theHunter and visit the forum from time to time.

Now onto the most important and pressing question. Let's place some bets on this one. How many days after Alena leaves do you think it will take ronMctube to contact the new community manager to ask to come back and explain how Alena hated him and victimised him? My guess is going to be about one day

On the subject of the test, I also got question 3 wrong. I would have moderated it for use of the words god and sodomy - the former having the potential to start a religious debate, the latter the potential to offend some people.

[TundraPuppy]

Now onto the most important and pressing question. Let's place some bets on this one. How many days after Alena leaves do you think it will take ronMctube to contact the new community manager to ask to come back and explain how Alena hated him and victimised him? My guess is going to be about one day :)

On the subject of the test, I also got question 3 wrong. I would have moderated it for use of the words god and sodomy - the former having the potential to start a religious debate, the latter the potential to offend some people.

One day sounds about right.

And I was with you on question 3, but it's the "potential" that let me allow it. It's a good example of the fine line/touch thing. I think a -lot- of posts here have the -potential- to lead to a toxic conversation (look at the hacker thread currently, for example), but I don't think proactively moderating it is the solution because that -really- makes us look like we're censoring stuff and we also risk losing out on possible good conversations.

(Plus, to be honest with you, sometimes it benefits us to let some bait out there and see who it reels in, because that often exposes who is going to be a problem, and the sooner they are out, the better)

Sometimes I feel like we do the opposite here - crack down hard on minor things, while letting problem people stick around too long. Cajunman45, I'm looking at you.

[Tanngnjostr]

So we're not only losing Alena, we'll also be getting Ron back? _poopoo! (That's French, Ron.)

We both have a soft spot for theHunter, given that this was where we met and first started talking (she totally made the first move and I still have the private messages to prove it).

Hmmm... was it like "Mr. Caledonianblues, you look like a handsome furry something in the forum and I like your comps and raffles - how about taking me out for a cookie and a milkshake?" I always imagined you had met Alena in EW's office because you had to help them out with some programming task.