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Heard it through the grapevine...


WünderBâhr

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WünderBâhr

Since there are people asking questions and not a lot of answers being given out, I've decided to use my announcement to inform members. You may or may not have noticed, but there has been a drastic change to the Admod and Tech Teams. Moderators Faelights, Vorpal Bunny, Arca nine Huggles and Tech SysAdmin Doppel have all resigned from their posts. To dispel rumors and straighten this out, I will now confirm that I will also be stepping down from my post as Administrator.

Team dynamics have been increasingly poor, and many issues and concerns over fundamental guidelines, rules, and protocols were felt to go unheeded and most left unresolved. As a result, several people have had to remain in a very uncomfortable position, affecting their own responsibilities and lives, both within and outside of AVEN. Support, guidance and proper leadership has been severely lacking, leaving little trust between colleagues to getting things done and allow for positive growth. This is not a post/thread to finger point, simply to explain.

I am just as culpable for my part in the whole. I have long felt that I could do better in my job, yet did not know how to address the changes that were necessary or bring to light the issues I knew very well were there. Feeling ill at ease with my role as Administrator and to some part, my place here at AVEN (personal stuff), for some time, it took awhile for me to finally say "it's time." I need to make way for someone who has the energy, motivation and follow through that I remember from my earlier Mod days. But my ultimate concern is that I will leave the team worse off than I came into it, while also leaving those who are new to deal with the same unresolved issues and concerns that have plagued us time and time again. It is from that concern that my decision to step down does not mean that I am immediately leaving the group. As preparations are made for my departure and positions are announced for elections, I will remain on hand to help as I can. This will mean that the team will have an extra Administrator for a short period of time, but only as it is necessary.

So, I hope with this announcement, that it will serve as enough transparency to the members. I apologize for my part in how this has and will affect AVEN with such a drastic turnover. I want to thank those just having stepped down as well as former Moderators Nalle, RandomDent, Henny, +Archetype, Strivna, and GirlDreamer for all that they have done to help AVEN and its members. I am glad to have worked alongside such dedicated people. I am sad, especially with recent events, that it came down to a choice over Admods or ourselves.

To our new moderators and potential future candidates who may have concerns after reading this: It has been said time and time again, this is a thankless job. It is never a picnic, but good can come of it. I know there is genuine discussion for change that has often been requested and eventually demanded. How far that goes or what comes out of it, I cannot say for certain. I just know that once things are in order my time there will be done. The history of what has come to pass will be there to acknowledge and learn from. Do not be afraid to ask questions, and speak up when you feel you have something to say. Find a balance between AVEN and your life, and don't lose sight of why you chose to be an Team member.

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i think after the slots have been filled there is going to need to be a lot of discussing and putting right.

Sad everyones leaving though.

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Guest member25959

It's such a shame that this happened, and unfortunate that it happened so dramatically. =( I guess it's only fair that I offer a proper, public explanation, considering all the curiosity.

Short and to the point; Working with any Internet-based team is never going to be easy, ''poor dynamics'' (as mentioned above) only add to the difficulty of working on such teams. In the end, I felt that I was contributing to the ''poor dynamics'' with my lack of team integration. I dunno what else I can say, hopefully this explains some things.

I'm not leaving AVEN... but I can't speak for my former fellow team members.

To the new mods, Good luck, you're going to need it. And be sure to give this some thought, think about what you may be sacrificing. Give it some proper thought. And keep in mind, no matter what, don't be afraid to bring up your points.

Also, I'm willing to offer any advice or help to whoever succeeds me. Keep this in mind too!

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Guest Invisible Pumpkin

Thank you BB for what you have done, for the time you put on Aven and for been sincere with us. Sadly, this seems to be a good moment to thanks what mods have done, Fae, Sorites, Dopp and the others; I want to use this oportunity to remaind the ones who step down that I (and I bet it will not be only myself but many other members) will be waiting for them to come back.

Hope you are taking the best decision. Sometimes we need radical situation for changes to arrive, sometimes it's the only way to make it, I also hope this lead to the changes we are requiring as a collective and it doesn't take place for personal interest.

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Yeah, I had noticed a few less greens around where there had once been green in the past o.O But I had no idea it stemmed from such problems. I guess I don't pay as much attention to AVEN as I thought...

Thanks for posting this, though. It's good to be kept up to speed with everything. Just gotta hope the future's bright, because it doesn't sound certain :lol:

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The futures certain. Its a bright one.

I'm not going to let AVEN die, its the best thing to happen to me in a long time.

I propose a massive admod meeting with dj too where everyone hashes out there differences, gets everything in the air and agrees to move on. Then when all mod slots are filled another meeting on how to move things forward that is agreeable to everyone.

I also propose a secret thread where you can post what has happened that is bothering you where nobody else is allowed to judge. Then people can work on things without a big explosion.

I dont know, maybe I'm being out of line in my suggestions but Im not sitting around waiting for uncertainty.

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Guest member25959

A message from Fae: She definitely won't be back for a while, but she would like to keep in contact with anyone who's interested. If you're interested, you can email her by using the email thing on her profile.

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I can't see this as anything but sad. The people who are leaving are all wonderful. This is an extremely thankless job; the only time any recognition is given is when someone has a complaint. Every member is a beneficiary of their work; AVEN wouldn't exist without it. :(

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Lord Happy Toast

It's long been known that admods has a high burn-out rate, and that we've lost a lot of good admods over the years because they simply couldn't deal with all the crap anymore, or because they'd lost their initial passion, or because admod relationships became especially tense, or the like.

A piece of wisdom fundamental in my own thinking is this: "Finding problems with the current system is far, far easier than finding viable solutions." I very much hope that structural changes can be made that will help to improve things, because I do not think that the problems can be attributed to the current group of admods (given that they're the same problems that entirely different groups of other very good admods have had).

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Just curious... how many hours per day does a moderator or administrative moderator have to devote to AVEN each day if they have work AND classes? Does it have to be a daily thing or could it be an every other day thing or possibly a weekly thing?

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Just curious... how many hours per day does a moderator or administrative moderator have to devote to AVEN each day if they have work AND classes? Does it have to be a daily thing or could it be an every other day thing or possibly a weekly thing?

Admods have to attend to their duties daily. As for hours per day, there's no set minimum, as it takes people varying amounts of time to get through everything. Personally, I spent anywhere between four and fifteen hours each day working on AVEN when I was a Moderator, and I almost never got to bed on time. That was with both real-life employment and classes.

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Just curious... how many hours per day does a moderator or administrative moderator have to devote to AVEN each day if they have work AND classes? Does it have to be a daily thing or could it be an every other day thing or possibly a weekly thing?

It's a daily thing, the mods are devoted to their respective forums. It's up to them to read through all the posts and make sure there is no violation of the ToS which is also very time consuming. On top of that there are other responsibilities the admod team has like dealing with reports about other members and voting on site policy changes as they come up. So if someone does try and do it every other day or on a weekly basis, they'll have more posts to have to sift through meaning taking up even more time.

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Electric Barbarella

It's sad to see so many people living. =/ Taking care of AVEN really is an awfully tiring job, isn't it? Thanks to everyone who tried! I'm sure they did their best!

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It's been time for new blood in here for years. Let's hope the new mods know what the hell they're doing. :cake:

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There've been regular mod elections in the 5 years I've been here -- more seemingly in the last several years, so I don't think it can be fairly said that new blood has been needed "for years". If anyone wants to be part of the new blood and be compensated with hours of unpaid daily work and a lot of hassles, they're certainly free to run for mod elections.

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There've been regular mod elections in the 5 years I've been here -- more seemingly in the last several years, so I don't think it can be fairly said that new blood has been needed "for years". If anyone wants to be part of the new blood and be compensated with hours of unpaid daily work and a lot of hassles, they're certainly free to run for mod elections.

Just adding my two copper. That is all. ^_^

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GirlDreamer

It's sad to see that it's come to this. But as mentioned, being an admod is a very thankless job and people are very quick to criticise and tell the team what they should do without understanding that it's a long process to do any change to the site. It seems like the site has almost become too big and there's just too much to handle. Maybe it could be an idea to consider to have a policy team etc that only works on that and has no forums to mod to relieve the work amount on the mods? That way the mods can focus on just reading their forums and disciplinary threads. Part of the problem for me was the enormous amount of posts about different projects in the backroom, and there just wasn't enough time to keep up with it all. If I only had to worry about reading my own forum and the few disciplinary threads, it would be a lot easier. Personally I feel that the workload on each admod is just too big to handle, and maybe that's part of the problem and it might be why why people burn out so quickly these days. Don't know if any other present or previous admods agree with me. It's just my two cents anyway.

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Empty Chairs & Tables

Just curious... how many hours per day does a moderator or administrative moderator have to devote to AVEN each day if they have work AND classes? Does it have to be a daily thing or could it be an every other day thing or possibly a weekly thing?

Admods have to attend to their duties daily. As for hours per day, there's no set minimum, as it takes people varying amounts of time to get through everything. Personally, I spent anywhere between four and fifteen hours each day working on AVEN when I was a Moderator, and I almost never got to bed on time. That was with both real-life employment and classes.

It's sad to see that it's come to this. But as mentioned, being an admod is a very thankless job and people are very quick to criticise and tell the team what they should do without understanding that it's a long process to do any change to the site. It seems like the site has almost become too big and there's just too much to handle. Maybe it could be an idea to consider to have a policy team etc that only works on that and has no forums to mod to relieve the work amount on the mods? That way the mods can focus on just reading their forums and disciplinary threads. Part of the problem for me was the enormous amount of posts about different projects in the backroom, and there just wasn't enough time to keep up with it all. If I only had to worry about reading my own forum and the few disciplinary threads, it would be a lot easier. Personally I feel that the workload on each admod is just too big to handle, and maybe that's part of the problem and it might be why why people burn out so quickly these days. Don't know if any other present or previous admods agree with me. It's just my two cents anyway.

Workload definitely sounds like an issue. Is there any discussion in the backroom about possible ways to lighten it? (I would think that almost any individual who would consider running for a position would want to know this.)

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Guest member25959

It's been time for new blood in here for years. Let's hope the new mods know what the hell they're doing. :cake:

You do know that all of the mods and admin that are currently leaving are rather new. Bipolar Bear having become a mod in June 2010, Faeligts in June 2011. Both I and Vorpal Bunny in October 2011. Whilst at the same time, there are admods who have been on the team since September 2004, April 2005 and July 2006.

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1helluvabutlr

BB in the short time that I came to know you, I think you are a bril person, I wish you the best luck in everything. I really don't know a lot of the issues and problems in the past and even the present but this post gives me a tiny bit of an idea either way I hope everything will be well.

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