- Admin
- #1
Cross-posting this from Community Feedback because it was brought to my attention that my thinking was flawed when I thought those who would be interested in this information would be there. This thread is for information only, discussion and comments are open in Community Feedback. To opt in to that forum, contact your membership admin.
~~~Post content~~~
To the membership of Tar Valon.
In the interest of transparency and openness, I am sharing information here that some of you may have no idea about and others may have vague information on. I am doing this because the biggest things we as a site need to work on is trust and this is the best way, I know of to rebuild that trust. This post has been reviewed by the parties involved and posting has been accepted.
There has been a lot of strife and hurt over the past several months. Most of you are already aware of some of the history here. It started when Alex was suspended for a month based upon reports provided directly to DoMem, Keeper, and Amyrlin. There were a lot of concerns raised about this from various people. One concern that was raised repeatedly by individuals in defense of Alex was the appearance of collusion or coordination. While this is not something that can be proved, and I don’t make assumptions that any one person or group would do this, I can see where that appearance exists. Since the reports were confidential and individuals involved not shared, its even easier to make that assumption. The learning from this incident for Exec is that the chain of command (member to membership admin, to DoMem, to Cordamora, to me) NEEDS to be followed for all issues. If you have a problem with that chain, or don’t think you’re being taken seriously then by all means CC me or drop me a note. If something bypasses this chain and comes directly to me, be aware that my first action will be to delegate it back down to the admin that was hired to address it.
I also think Alex and everyone on this site deserves a public apology from the Exec team. Things got beyond where they should have gotten, part of that was because of real life taking key people away, part of that was because of subsequent changes in personnel. But the real answer is that the issues of the past several months have lingered in the back of a lot of minds and everyone has suffered for it.
Now for the part you may not be aware of:
For the past month plus, the director of membership has been on administrative leave of absence while complaints were investigated. The complaints stemmed from posts that were provided to a third party. The posts that were shared were determined to all be “public” posts, meaning that any human with a guest account could view them. However, it was also determined that this does not meet expectations for the handling of information by admins and exec. Since it is believed there was no malicious intent, the Director of Membership is maintaining their position as such with a period of increased oversight and clear consequences if expectations are not met. However, since there was trust broken with a number of individuals and groups, the duties of the DoMem at this time will not include any access or responsibility for private member forums. I have also reached out to the individual whose posts were shared and obtained their feedback and acceptance of this action plan. The biggest learning from this is that “the talk” which shares confidentiality and other expectations to all admins and execs was identified as a gap that wasn’t always being provided in a clear and consistent manner. I’m working with the Keeper and Cordamora to update this information and insure it is maintained as a R&U sticky instead of a one-on-one conversation.
What does this mean? Activities such as raisings and moderation of Unaffiliated Senior Members will remain as it has always been. Moderation of private member spaces such as Sitting Rooms, Great Rooms, and Chambers will be performed by the Cordamora until such time as trust has been rebuilt. Once that happens, with discussion with and concurrence from the user group(s) moderation of private spaces will be restored. Membership issue will be handled in accordance with the Accountability Guide.
I hope that this action will allow us as a group to move forward, rebuild trust and relationships, and feel safe in a place most of us feel is home.
~~~Post content~~~
To the membership of Tar Valon.
In the interest of transparency and openness, I am sharing information here that some of you may have no idea about and others may have vague information on. I am doing this because the biggest things we as a site need to work on is trust and this is the best way, I know of to rebuild that trust. This post has been reviewed by the parties involved and posting has been accepted.
There has been a lot of strife and hurt over the past several months. Most of you are already aware of some of the history here. It started when Alex was suspended for a month based upon reports provided directly to DoMem, Keeper, and Amyrlin. There were a lot of concerns raised about this from various people. One concern that was raised repeatedly by individuals in defense of Alex was the appearance of collusion or coordination. While this is not something that can be proved, and I don’t make assumptions that any one person or group would do this, I can see where that appearance exists. Since the reports were confidential and individuals involved not shared, its even easier to make that assumption. The learning from this incident for Exec is that the chain of command (member to membership admin, to DoMem, to Cordamora, to me) NEEDS to be followed for all issues. If you have a problem with that chain, or don’t think you’re being taken seriously then by all means CC me or drop me a note. If something bypasses this chain and comes directly to me, be aware that my first action will be to delegate it back down to the admin that was hired to address it.
I also think Alex and everyone on this site deserves a public apology from the Exec team. Things got beyond where they should have gotten, part of that was because of real life taking key people away, part of that was because of subsequent changes in personnel. But the real answer is that the issues of the past several months have lingered in the back of a lot of minds and everyone has suffered for it.
Now for the part you may not be aware of:
For the past month plus, the director of membership has been on administrative leave of absence while complaints were investigated. The complaints stemmed from posts that were provided to a third party. The posts that were shared were determined to all be “public” posts, meaning that any human with a guest account could view them. However, it was also determined that this does not meet expectations for the handling of information by admins and exec. Since it is believed there was no malicious intent, the Director of Membership is maintaining their position as such with a period of increased oversight and clear consequences if expectations are not met. However, since there was trust broken with a number of individuals and groups, the duties of the DoMem at this time will not include any access or responsibility for private member forums. I have also reached out to the individual whose posts were shared and obtained their feedback and acceptance of this action plan. The biggest learning from this is that “the talk” which shares confidentiality and other expectations to all admins and execs was identified as a gap that wasn’t always being provided in a clear and consistent manner. I’m working with the Keeper and Cordamora to update this information and insure it is maintained as a R&U sticky instead of a one-on-one conversation.
What does this mean? Activities such as raisings and moderation of Unaffiliated Senior Members will remain as it has always been. Moderation of private member spaces such as Sitting Rooms, Great Rooms, and Chambers will be performed by the Cordamora until such time as trust has been rebuilt. Once that happens, with discussion with and concurrence from the user group(s) moderation of private spaces will be restored. Membership issue will be handled in accordance with the Accountability Guide.
I hope that this action will allow us as a group to move forward, rebuild trust and relationships, and feel safe in a place most of us feel is home.