I'm going to take a stab in the dark and not speak for other Mods while doing it.
Mike made the right decision. No question.
Here's some bread.
Some of us got stale, intolerant, biased and overbearing. There's no denying that. It was not something we set out to accomplish. Perhaps it was the years doing it, the gazillion times we answered the same questions on how to shave or if ball scratching on parade is allowed, trying to mind read on whether someone is being sincere and stupid or being a sarcastic prick.
Here's some shit.
Holy fuck, be ready for the shitstorm that's coming because a clique of members don't like your decision against one of theirs. Or the vitriol about to come your way, complete with milpoint deductions and 5% warnings, because someone that doesn't even post, just lurks, doesn't like something you said five years ago. Or the armchair quarterbacks that question every single desicion you made and sometimes even condemning you for another mods decision. No matter what the decision was or wasn't, why it was applied or not, if it met with criteria or biased you are the devil.
Here's your other slice of bread, so it's not an open face sammich.
I'm going to identify what I believe may be a big part of what our problem was. YMMV. Refer back to the filler of this sandwich, after a fair amount of years of listening to this, we went deaf. Rather than put every criticism under a microscope to see if it was valid or not, it was dismissed outright and we moved to the next crisis. Somewhere during that move, we got lost. I think another part, but integral, is that this appears to have happened to the staff around the same time. While we debriefed each other, made corrections to ourselves and even when we were contrary to each other for years, we went sympatico into the twilight, not seeing where we were going.
My suggestion(s):
We always had rules as mods on how we would perform, as we got lost we started forgetting some, remembering others incorrectly and then started flying and forgetting.
The new staff should get what Mike decides as terms of employment, acknowledge to the full membership that they understand and will abide by those rules. Every six months. Do it, it's why we drifted and wandered. They'll never forget.
Sanctions on mods will be established. If required, a tribunal of staff and members, 2 each with Mike participating only in case of a tie. It will all be done in a private chat room and separate interview room to hear from all involved without knowing what anyone else says. Mike will pick the two staff and the two members to be picked at random from those having 250 posts or more and active within two weeks of the alleged transgression and no participation in the thread.
Term limits of four years. The first serial will consist of even numbers where half will only do two in order to stagger sufficient new blood every two years.
Keep the forum warning banners but smaller and less brilliant. Stand them in the corner but don't stick a big dunce cap on their head. We're adults.
Everything above is mine and mine alone. They are my suggestions, not hard or fast. If they are worth consideration, they are yours to do as you wish.
I have a couple(?) of others but I need to drown a headache.
I'm not sure if this was the direction Mike wanted his announcement thread to go.
If not, he'll have to split it off himself, renamed the new thread, put it in the right group, yada yada yada. He's the only one with the power now. ;D
op:
