Please Defend this

[Seeker]

Please.  Someone from staff please, please defend this position here.  I don't want to derail any more threads.  You don't have to betray any secrets or compromise anything about any individual person.  Just defend the official position over the last few years.

<snip> I'm not sure that before the overhaul that is happening now, that the staff rules were necessarily something that was 'supposed' to be shared and all staff agree to not share staff-related information as part of the staffing contract. <snip>

This.

I didn't understand before -  this policy of the rules and guidelines governing staff behavior as being expressly forbidden from being shared with the players.  It was not always like this.  Someone decided to put this in place and to vigorously enforce and defend it.  I want the justification so I get over this and understand.

I am not picking on Usiku.  That quote is just a nice, encapsulated summary.  Someone told him that was the way it was.

I just don't get why staff didn't (or don't) see this position as a problem.  Having rules for your behavior and accountability that are

• not available to the players
• able to be changed on a whim without announcement and
• backed-up by the established SOP of punishing any loud objection by the players when the changes are noticed and deemed unfair after the fact

reeks.

Please, please, please tell me why this mindset and established policy is (or was) wise, fair, noble or necessary.  How it was intended to build trust or improve the community or to enhance the experience of the game.  That should be the purpose of all rules for a game.  Please.[/list]

[Brokkr]

You may view things through a lens of goals you have for the game, but there may be other legitimate goals.

I didn’t make the rule, but it is obviously not for building trust or improving the community or enhancing your player experience. It is for the piece you do not see.  The management of Staff. Yes, stuff like what you are talking about has been posted.  If memory serves, Producers.  If the Producers all decide to do something, or allow someone else to, they can.  They approve the rules and own the game and make the ultimate decisions as regards it.

[Usiku]

I need to clarify that I do not think it was expressely forbidden but simply fell under the same banner of not sharing staffside information by default. There really is no reason for it to be secret, but no new oncoming Storyteller is going challenge that unless it comes up for some reason (like now) because they have a lot going on.

It just took someone to say to Prods, "Hey, why isn't this thing public?" and for them to say, "Oh right, yeah that can be public, no problem."

We inherited a status quo when we came into staff, as other staff before us have done for years. It's hard to bring stuff up for change unless it's causing immediate problems because there's always too much to do anyway.

However I clearly see these rules being discussed between staff and players and players and players anyway, so I assume they have been previously shared? I hope that clears things up a little?

[GreenTransient]

You may view things through a lens of goals you have for the game, but there may be other legitimate goals.

I didn’t make the rule, but it is obviously not for building trust or improving the community or enhancing your player experience. It is for the piece you do not see.  The management of Staff. Yes, stuff like what you are talking about has been posted.  If memory serves, Producers.  If the Producers all decide to do something, or allow someone else to, they can.  They approve the rules and own the game and make the ultimate decisions as regards it.

Staff responses like this, make me want to not play.  "I didn't make the rule."  No, maybe not.  I have one tool to ensure Staff doesn't abuse me and that's not play.  Some staff, clearly have their preferences on their sleeve and nothing I've seen would indicate any kind of change in some lead Staffer's disposition, which IMO probably supported the downward slide of the game, to the general situation we find ourselves in now. 

I cannot think of one good, intelligent reason (GIVEN THE BS THAT'S HAPPENED IN THIS GAME) that anyone in a position of authority in this situation would decide "We won't make ourselves more easily accountable."  Fucking brilliant.  I almost thought things would recover, wishful thinking.

"It is for the piece you do not see." as far as I'm concerned the piece I do not see, is staff being held accountable unless it's going to capsize the fucking game.  This REEKS of future abuse.

[Usiku]

That comes across as something of a strawman if I'm honest, but I'll address it anyway.

There is a rule about not sharing staff-side information but this rule doesn't actually extend to the 'staff rules' themselves. Despite this, many new Storytellers may feel like it does and therefore be careful about what they share and say. It seems that many of the playerbase are well aware of the rules and frequent discussions have taken place about them, so they have been shared openly and thus accountability at the hands of the playerbase has been possible.

There was never a decision to deliberately try and be less accountable. I would only say, in my mind, that the hope and understanding was always that we had good people on staff who would abide by the rules and that staff would always hold each other accountable. This has worked, mostly. But clearly, and unfortunately, not always.

Meaningful change often requires a catalyst. It also requires the right time and the right people. There have been incidents like this in the past and not every staffing team would have jumped on the situation as an opportunity for positive change, this one has. Could we have done it sooner? Maybe? But I think not. It's actually unbelievably challenging to unpick every bit of staff policy and inherited staff culture and it needed the right staffing team to embrace the challenge in the right way.

What isn't super helpful, is folk who will shoot down everything we do now, regardless of what we do, simply because they want to watch the game burn.

[GreenTransient]

What isn't super helpful, is folk who will shoot down everything we do now, regardless of what we do, simply because they want to watch the game burn.

Firstly, I don't want this game to burn.  I 100% beyond any shadow of a doubt want Armageddon to succeed.  Calling out people who don't support your ideals as "wanting the game to burn" is probably a behavior that should be moderated.  I want to log in, and feel protected from the echelon of the Community that is known for it's abusive tendencies and clandestine nature.

I want there to be rules for the people moderating and overseeing the game, and I want those rules public.  So instead of "complaining" about staff I can say very difinitively "staff x did y and z on this date, here are my logs and not be met with "we talked to them about it" and "well they didn't break any rules."  Staff shouldn't need to convene on every interaction to determine if it's good or bad. 

That's what it comes down to for me.  I've read through the complaints it wasn't a solitary situation.  It seems to be a generally pervasive mindset if the pages and pages and pages of feedback are to be believed even a little bit.  From my personal interactions with staff, I can't say I disagree either.  I don't blame anyone that doesn't feel safe here.  Staff, who make the rules, saying stuff like "I didn't make the rule" is...not acceptable because they do, make the rules.

Or at least, don't be surprised when the response you get isn't what you wanted, when the response should have been expected.  You get, what you give.  Keep whatever you want behind the veil, just don't be also be like "why does no one trust us?"

[Calamari]

You may view things through a lens of goals you have for the game, but there may be other legitimate goals.

I didn’t make the rule, but it is obviously not for building trust or improving the community or enhancing your player experience. It is for the piece you do not see.  The management of Staff. Yes, stuff like what you are talking about has been posted.  If memory serves, Producers.  If the Producers all decide to do something, or allow someone else to, they can.  They approve the rules and own the game and make the ultimate decisions as regards it.

Staff responses like this, make me want to not play.  "I didn't make the rule."  No, maybe not.  I have one tool to ensure Staff doesn't abuse me and that's not play.  Some staff, clearly have their preferences on their sleeve and nothing I've seen would indicate any kind of change in some lead Staffer's disposition, which IMO probably supported the downward slide of the game, to the general situation we find ourselves in now. 

I cannot think of one good, intelligent reason (GIVEN THE BS THAT'S HAPPENED IN THIS GAME) that anyone in a position of authority in this situation would decide "We won't make ourselves more easily accountable."  Fucking brilliant.  I almost thought things would recover, wishful thinking.

"It is for the piece you do not see." as far as I'm concerned the piece I do not see, is staff being held accountable unless it's going to capsize the fucking game.  This REEKS of future abuse.

I don't think Brokkr considers himself a Producer. Honestly, I can't interpret what he was trying to say in any other light. I can't understand why he's referring to a group he's a part of in the third person.

"I didn't make the rule" is about the most worthless thing I've heard from someone who does indeed make the rules. I agree with you completely on your opinion regarding his response.

Edit (addendum): He seems very confused and his response was mystifyingly vague. Maybe someone should tell Brokkr he is a Producer and try to answer the question in your original post as to why this policy exists and consider answering why he thinks it should or should not continue to exist? As far as I can tell he is, in fact, a Producer. His response doesn't seem like he's been made aware.

[Usiku]

As much as I would like to be able to go back in time and change things in the past, I can't. From what I can glean from your posts our ideals are actually in line and your desires are the things we are putting into place.

There is no policy barring the staff rules from being shared with the playerbase. This policy already does not exist. The staff rules have been shared with players in the past.

[Brokkr]

I didn’t make the rule.  It was in place before I came on board.  This, I am -guessing- as to the intent of the rule based on my interpretation of it.  If I had made the rule, I would know the intent.

I am not absolving myself of responsibility or accountability.

Every good policy has a clause for exceptions.  While not written down, the de facto exception clause is the majority of Producers approving an exception. It is likely the Staff Contract that was available was such an exception (hard to tell, was before my time, not tracked).

Do I believe some of that should change?  I put up a new board on the GDB for us to move stuff like that to, which is visible to players, and will be the repository for the official versions of what gets posted there rather than the immortal only board. Because I believe it should be.

[Seeker]

I didn’t make the rule.  It was in place before I came on board.  This, I am -guessing- as to the intent of the rule based on my interpretation of it.  If I had made the rule, I would know the intent.

I am not absolving myself of responsibility or accountability.

Every good policy has a clause for exceptions.  While not written down, the de facto exception clause is the majority of Producers approving an exception. It is likely the Staff Contract that was available was such an exception (hard to tell, was before my time, not tracked).

Do I believe some of that should change?  I put up a new board on the GDB for us to move stuff like that to, which is visible to players, and will be the repository for the official versions of what gets posted there rather than the immortal only board. Because I believe it should be.

Thank you for this.  I'm not tickled that "hey, that was how it was when I found it" is the answer, but that is entirely believable and pretty human.

I appreciate the steps that are being taken to move us away from this mindset.  I especially appreciate Brokkr, a Producer, saying that he believes that it should change and highlighting the steps already underway.

Thank you for engaging.