If you're over here in metachat land I assume you've gotten bored with reading about stories and other things that actually matter, and have taken a fascination of some incomprehensible kind with things more internal to the company. If not, then please disregard this post and proceed as you were, with my blessing and more than a little of my envy as well.
For some time, conflicts of an unsavory sort have plagued us, mainly personality conflicts between Rachel Swirsky, Russell Nash, and others. Although I count myself lucky to have worked with each of these hard working individuals, their behavior on our forum has not always made me proud. The incidents of which I speak are hopefully fewer and farther between than I estimate, and maybe you haven't even noticed them. I hope not. It is not too late to stop reading this and go play Picture Association or something fun like that. Go on. Go.
Okay... The long and the short of it is that my desperate wish of the past year, that all of this would just simply get better on its own without some clumsy, heavy handed interference from above, hasn't panned out. The first PodCastle tagline poll, as posted by Zorag/Zathras, was upstaged and eventually shut down. The first flub was thanks to Z's own brilliant indiscretion in posting the entries, many of which were not sincere entries at all but really quite unreasonable insults aimed in PodCastle's direction -- and about which he was talked to by Bdoomed and Heradel both -- the (IMO) least offensive yet most inane of which still made it into the finalists listed in the poll... somehow. Rachel complained about this on the poll thread, people blasted her, someone -- probably Rachel -- edited out the entry and reset the votes, Zathras overreacted and trashed the entire poll, and Russell Nash criticized Rachel publicly for complaining publicly. On the same poll thread.
Not really our proudest moment, all around.
Meanwhile, I've been laid off from my day job and I'm trying to get Pseudopod's production schedule caught back up, procure some legal documents so we can get some sponsorships underway, and generally actually accomplish things. Not that I don't love taking breaks to deal with garbage like this. In fact, in general editors shouldn't have to, and I've told Rachel this; but the sense of ownership and dedication she has, combined with an understandable sense of camaraderie with, and protectiveness of, the contributors just won't let her rest. However, it would appear that in the opinion of, say, Russell Nash (whose own loyalty and protectiveness of EA is completely impeccable and beyond dispute -- albeit with the possible exception of PodCastle and its staff...), she is too heavy handed as a moderator. And frankly, with that general assessment I tend to personally agree. Skillful forum moderating is in no way a trivial task, and like Russell and a (thankfully small) number of other people around here, she may have too much of a tendency to post, etc., before entirely calming down first.
So, I am asking Rachel to let Heradel do the moderating. And with great reluctance, I am also asking Russell Nash to step down as a moderator. I take no pleasure in doing this, as I fully recognize that, like the editors, hosts, and other staff, he's spent an immense quantity of time helping shape the company -- of course, particularly the forum -- into what it is. I sincerely appreciate his considerable past contributions and empathize completely with the zeal he has for seeing the forums run in an appropriate way; and with any luck at all he'll stick around, keep chatting, and report what needs reporting. But I think it is reasonable of me to ask of everyone working with us that they not decry each other mercilessly in public. It is not, and never will be, the policy of this company to suppress someone's opinion from being expressed; but we certainly do reserve the right to tell you to calm your tone, post in a more appropriate thread, or take it to private messages -- at some point there is a limit to what constitutes constructive public discourse at all. In general, given any alternative whatsoever, I personally do not use text communication -- even private messages -- to discuss matters that are likely to be personal and emotionally charged for anyone I'm addressing. And I am definitely going to go to great lengths to avoid having to do such things in a public forum (hence, among other reasons, my extended hesitation to get involved in this matter).
If you haven't figured it out by now, EA is a shoestring operation. No one pays us jack to put in the kind of hours it takes to keep this thing running, and that is no small number of hours for the moderators, editors, producers, hosts -- everyone. We are all essentially just dedicated volunteers who do this because we like it. So let's, all of us, please do everything in our power to maintain the kind of environment that keeps it fun.
Thanks.
