Staff Changes?

[Kit Cloudkicker]

Just wondering what's up with the staff changes. There's usually a blog post when there are staff changes.

Without naming names, I understand the reasoning for some of the changes due to inactivity, etc. However, I'm confused by the rest of the changes. Any explanation for us regular members?

[Richard]

Coming soon in a blog post!

[Kit Cloudkicker]

...okay. Thanks.

[Richard]

Long version:

http://blog.animorphsforum.com/2010/04/raf-staff-april-2010-changes.html

[Kit Cloudkicker]

Yup. Thanks for the response.

[estrid]

I don't think it's right to demote goom. he is VERY active as a staffer. Anytime there is a concern, he deals with it promptly. He always knows what's going on, and is always making sure to try and keep a thread on topic. He handled the issue in the "post pics of hot girls and guys thread" at 1 in the morning my time and made sure all the inapropriate pictures were removed promptly. He always deals with reports of inapropriate activity as quickly as he can. Mike has been doing a very good job of trying to keep threads on topic, and promptly responding to pms about problematic members. It is not fair to say both of them are not active, when I have seen them being very active. Claire has been busy with traveling around the world, so it would be hard for her to be super active, but i know that she was still on RAF, even while on her trip, which shows her dedication to RAF.

It is your forum of course, and you can do whatever you like with it, but it doesn't seem fair to demote staffers that were being active.

[Horsefan1023 (Seal)]

I agree with estrid, Rich.  I completely understand that this is your forum, you are the founder, but I do not think Goom and Mike should be demoted.  I see them all the time, and they are usually very prompt with dealing with matters.

Just my two cents.

[Kit Cloudkicker]

I third what's been said, although I've already addressed it in aPM.

[Coal Kropotkin]

Alright, I'm not pleased with this decision at all, not. At. All.

This is, of course, your forum, Rich, and you can do whatever you please; however, I would just like to point a few things out:


MIKE:
Mike is exceptionally active, and a great mod, he's pretty much resolved every issue from Ignorance and Discrimination, to the RAFspam Police. IMHO, he's a GREAT mod, and, I think I speak for the vast majority of RAF. And it's not because he doesn't get on to us, he's smote me.

GOOM:
Kevin has devoted more time to this forum than I can even begin to count. He worked his ass off to get Admin status, and he deserved it. He's a great Admin, he's done a TONNE for this place, if I'm not mistaken, didn't he make the PODcasting site? Yeah... That's right, he did.
If any RAFian needs help, they know they can PM him without a second thought, and he's always willing to help with any issue. He's never been rude to any member, but, he HAS done what needed to be done, like what Kat cited, when the Hot People thread was spammed, he took care of that in the middle of the night. Not to frigin' mention, he won STAFF MEMBER OF THE YEAR. -_-

RUSSELL:
Russell's a great guy, and, until very recently, was exceptionally active, he's never been a bad mod, and he's always been willing to help.

CLAIRE:
Claire's frikin' awesome, she's reset my password for me more times than I can count, and she loves this forum so much she went on a WORLD TRIP to meet other RAFians. If she's busy, or inactive of late, it's probably taking care of stuff from that.




Now, about the auditioning to become staff bit:

I think it really sucks that they're not even being given a chance to make up for whatever it is that you believe they've done, or the lack thereof. Which, BTW, I certainly haven't noticed anything!

I've donated to this site, which is an extreme rarity for me, I never pay for anything if I have the option not to. I damn sure wouldn't donate to a site that I thought had subpar staff. And, honestly, I can't say I'm willing to donate any more to RAF, not after this, at least not until it's resolved. I know I've never donated the most amount, and I know I've never come close to donating as much as some, but, I've donated what I could afford, and, honestly, much more than that. I nearly got kicked out when I donated time before last.
I donated before the D-Lounge, because I love RAF, and because I think it's a great cause, and I think it has great mods, and none of them IMO deserved to be demoted. -_-

If the staff have been lacking in something, it's because members like myself neglect to use the report button, NOT a flaw of the STAFF.

[KitsuneMarie]

I have already sent Richard a PM, but I thought I'd put my opinions out here for the rest of RAF to see too.

On several occasions, I have been in RAFchat during a disagreement or fight, and Mike did a great job of mediating the argument so that the disruption was cut short. Mike is a wonderful peacemaker, and the authority he had as a senior staff member helped him make troublemakers listen to him. Also, he's amazing at keeping threads on topic; that kind of attention to detail in moderating individual threads is highly admirable.

Kevin is incredibly invested in RAF; I was very pleased when he was promoted because I knew that he would be a dedicated and hardworking administrator. From catching & banning bots to taking care of all manner of my requests for the RAFcasting child board, I have always known him to be on the ball and super-helpful. He's active in RAFchat, makes blog posts, is basically a friendly encyclopedia full of tips for new members, and he works to enrich RAF in any way he can.

I have no idea what is going on (or not going on) behind the scenes in the staff board, but I want to say that I have seen nothing but hard work and dedication out of these two guys, and I hope Richard decides to keep them on the staff team.

[Alic]

I agree with everyone here. Seems everything I believe has been said

[Kelly]

I'm happy with the current staff. But if you feel a change is necessary, so be it.
I have to admit that Russ and Claire haven't been as active as they used to be though. Nothing against them; that's just life!

A question though..how come Goom was demoted straight from Admin to Junior Staff instead of to Senior? He's always around and he's great. Mike is always really helpful too.

Anyway, I think adding some new staff will be good for RAF!

[Coal Kropotkin]

I agree, if there's a staff problem, adding new staff might be the way to go, but I don't understand why they were all demoted to Jr staff.

[Phoenix004]

Thank you very much for your support everyone, I really appreciate it and I'm sure the other staff do as well. This is Rich's decision though and maybe some new staff is just what we need right now.

[Gumby]

I wonder if Genie9 is up to the task, she's one of the most active members around. Though I think that Goom is doing a great job, active as ever. I do say that Russel and claries activity has dropped noticiably, but not so with Mike and Goom.