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The Well-Trodden Path - Yep, I've had enough.

Marcato

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I didn't want to make a public thread because some information is a little too person for the entire server to see. Rest assured I made a full massive Marcato-length post in the super secret staff sections~<3

 

So, yeah! I've resigned from Poniverse and the forums as a whole!

 

 

Yeah shit happened.

 

Long story short, I realized I was staying in Poniverse for the wrong reasons. Poniverse and it's staff have become far too business like and every time I try to fix something, or even anyone else tries to fix a seriously problem with how Poniverse is run it becomes all talk and no action.

 

I won't say any names, but I just became too sick and damn tired of the emotionless staff among the group and the fact that 20% of the people do 80% of the work.

 

Truth be told, as "great" as mods and men apparently was (which was generated by just me getting pissed off), my passionate fire kind of died after a few bad happenings within the Poniverse staff communications. I lost a lot of faith in the Poniverse staff and honestly see where some of the previous staff that inspired me before are coming from. They warned me of everything that happened, and they were right.

 

I don't regret my decision to leave Poniverse. Not in the slightest. It's been long coming really. I know that my true friends will remain my friends even beyond Poniverse, and I know that if my words meant anything to the staff at least one heart will be set ablaze. There's always at least one person within the staff trying to find the answer and successfully achieve what their predecessors could not.

 

And what might that be you ask?

 

Fixing the problem cycle and making Poniverse focus on what it was made for: Bronies.

 

P.S. If you'd like to do something, you could always tell the staff how much you love them again. That worked last time right? :3

  • Brohoof 11


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I'm sad to see you go, Marcato. Truly, I am. It's always a shame to see someone on the team leave.

 

I'm also sorry that you're frustrated about how things are handled here, but there are a few points I'd like to raise. Like you said, Poniverse and MLPF have many issues that need to be addressed--issues that are, however, being worked on. For example, we've made a great effort in softening our moderation system in response to user feedback: PMs in place of zero-point warnings, lowering the character limit, going the extra mile to resolve disputes between members, limiting our usage of automatic messages, adopting friendlier tones in our messages, and pushing out a survey for further feedback. 

 

Is that enough? Certainly not, and only the most complacent would think otherwise. Indeed, it's impossible to make anything perfect. There's always room for improvement. Even so, such improvement is made in increments. You can't expect a revolution when the reality calls for evolution. Baby steps, no matter how small they may be, are still steps--steps that are being made. 

 

I get much of my feedback from the users themselves, and not just from yes-men. I've talked to people who have told me, sometimes harshly, the problems they have with the site. Yet, in recent months, almost everyone I talked to (either directly or by proxy, to get more honest feedback) has been incredibly appreciative of the improvements being made. 

 

Either way, I don't think it's entirely fair to say that we haven't been trying to fix things. Yes, sometimes staff can be a bit cold and businesslike, but I'm confident that it will be a lesser issue as time goes on. Tearing down the wall between staff and members, and therefore improve user experience, is a huge priority for us. 

 

Once again, though, I'm truly sorry that you've decided to leave. You've certainly left a lasting impression on this community. Best of luck in your future endeavors, Marcato! :)

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It's about time.

 

Don't have a lot of time to formulate a response, but these issues and many more are the reason why I left and why my interest in this badly run community wanes. People always seem to learn this the hard way and I'm sorry you had to as well. Things will likely never improve to the satisfaction of hard workers like us, so it is best to find environments that actually support that and leave behind the bad. Good luck.

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I'm inclined to agree with Aquila. Strides have been made towards improving upon current administration and moderation issues and we're forever working towards improvement. Expecting to fix an issue overnight isn't the way to go about it. Poniverse isn't being run "like a business" .... There is no profit or product...all money from subscriptions and donations purely goes on keeping the site up and further development. Poniverse is run in a format that has been proven to work in many circumstances where around 50 or more people are involved, which is essential to working effectively Am i saying there are no issues?.....no, I'm not. There are many things we need to work on that ARE being looked at, discussed and plans being made. As I said...expecting this to happen overnight is just....wrong. It takes time, and quitting because you think you are getting nowhere only ADDS to the problem...NOT the solution. I myself will continue to endeavour towards a better Poniverse long into the future. This being said, I'll miss you Marcy, I hope you find yourself in calmer waters~

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Poniverse and it's staff have become far too business like and every time I try to fix something, or even anyone else tries to fix a seriously problem with how Poniverse is run it becomes all talk and no action. 

 

That's how it's been for a very long time, and it clearly only gets worse over time. Even the most important matters are neglected for months and action is only taken when something serious happens and people open their eyes to the potential problems.

 

These forums are poorly run, content that directly breaks the rules is allowed for some reason. Poniverse as a whole is managed terribly and those who run the show are too blind to see the problems, or simply don't care. It's best for anyone who wants to keep their sanity to avoid doing any work for Poniverse.

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These forums are poorly run, content that directly breaks the rules is allowed for some reason. Poniverse as a whole is managed terribly and those who run the show are too blind to see the problems, or simply don't care. It's best for anyone who wants to keep their sanity to avoid doing any work for Poniverse.

To be fair, I do see where the reasoning of Poniverse's business-like system comes from. They've gotten so large that they need to have more organization and structure.

 

Unfortunately, I do think that a lot of it has been influenced by several peoples preferred career interests. There's at least one person who was brought on the team who claimed to be going into business and management as a profession. (To which my reaction was "oh shit")

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They've gotten so large that they need to have more organization and structure.
 

 

There's always a need for organization and structure, but pretending you're a business when your focus is on a group of people who like a girls TV show, you're going too far. Besides, a massive lack of communication (The largest problem even back when I was a mod... with just 10 or so people) can easily cause the entire structure to collapse.

 

 

 

There's at least one person who was brought on the team who claimed to be going into business and management as a profession.
 

 

Glad I missed out on that. I'd hate to have been when things went from "Business" to "Professional Business".

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That's how it's been for a very long time, and it clearly only gets worse over time. Even the most important matters are neglected for months and action is only taken when something serious happens and people open their eyes to the potential problems.

 

These forums are poorly run, content that directly breaks the rules is allowed for some reason. Poniverse as a whole is managed terribly and those who run the show are too blind to see the problems, or simply don't care. It's best for anyone who wants to keep their sanity to avoid doing any work for Poniverse.

Well...no. These forums are only poorly run in YOUR mind. As it currently is, its rather well run, though we do always have issues we're working towards. Its as all larger entities work, takes time to solve the issues at hand, especially when its purely a voluntary staff base.

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These forums are only poorly run in YOUR mind.

 

 

As it currently is, its rather well run,

Well... no offense but you've never exactly been in the moderation Skype groups. :/  You can't claim something is well run when you haven't seen the full scale of it.

 

When a site focused on a childrens TV show starts getting a Public Relations team and begins descending its forums into politics, I don't consider that well run. 

 

The way I see it, well run means "this is what everyone wants and everyone needs" and as far as I'm aware, the excessive business atmosphere is not what everyone wants, and honestly with the amount of non-staff voices that have complained, there's obviously something wrong.

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Well... no offense but you've never exactly been in the moderation Skype groups. :/  You can't claim something is well run when you haven't seen the full scale of it.

 

When a site focused on a childrens TV show starts getting a Public Relations team and begins descending its forums into politics, I don't consider that well run. 

 

The way I see it, well run means "this is what everyone wants and everyone needs" and as far as I'm aware, the excessive business atmosphere is not what everyone wants, and honestly with the amount of non-staff voices that have complained, there's obviously something wrong.

Yet at the same time, those voices are vastly outnumbered by people who enjoy the site. Don't get me wrong though, I know more then you think, and we DO have issues we need to work on...in fact we ARE working on it. Saying nothing is being done is VASTLY exaggerated. Several changes to moderation and the RP world have already been enacted. Poniverse is being run like any large forum. Structure and organisation is key for this. At the end of the day... Poniverse is here for the USER...not for the staff. The staff volunteer for this, we get nothing in return other then knowing we were apart of this.

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Poniverse is being run like any large forum.

I've been on the Homestuck forums of over 60,000 people and they do not run their forum like this. :|

 

Honestly, most of what you're saying just sounds like damage control to me. :/

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I've been on the Homestuck forums of over 60,000 people and they do not run their forum like this. :|

 

Honestly, most of what you're saying just sounds like damage control to me. :/

No damage was done though, so what could I possibly control? I'm saying this because I've been here long enough to form an articulated opinion based on what I have seen and to propose that your view is exaggerated, and frankly... I wholeheartedly believe it is. Poniverse isn't a business in any sense of the word. Poniverse is run like an organisation. Like Bronycon and other such entities.You mention that the staff are emotionless....this is simply wrong. Your idea of emotion is different then others. You are more... Out.... With your emotion,showing passion and other such strong emotions about certain things you feel strongly about. But other's may be more inclusive. I know for a fact that every staff member I've spoken too feel just as strongly as you do...but they all portray it differently. You need to remember that most of these people have jobs or university, thus they will at times be preoccupied , stressed or simply busy, which can seem as though they are being emotionless when in fact they aren't. To me it seems as though you weren't trying to find a reason to stay, but rather a reason to leave,and I'm sorry to see it come to this. I only ask that you think about what I have said.
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To me it seems as though you weren't trying to find a reason to stay, but rather a reason to leave.
 

 

This is the last thing you should be accusing Marcato of. He, of all people, was more dedicated to the forums before he became staff than you will ever be.

 

In fact, he was defending the forums, just as you are now, back when I told him never to accept a position as mod if they offered. He may not have listened back then, but seeing what sort of crap goes on in the mod chat can certainly open your eyes wide up.

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Because when it comes down to it, in this politically correct world, everyone is in the right, and everyone is in the wrong. 

 

Opinion is everything, there is no longer any "fact" in anything. 

 

The amount of time it took you to become a staff member is irrelevant.

 

The amount of HOURS you have on here, is irrelevant. 

 

It's all numbers, don't make the mistake I did in thinking those numbers display how deserved you are of a position. Forgive me, but arrogance is berserk button #3 for me. 

 

I already know that if you respond to this blog again, you are simply going to deny arrogance, and claim that everything you stated is your opinion. I do know you well enough to say that you were accusing me and that you are the one being biased here.

 

Do not try to tell me about bias, when you are coming to me telling me Poniverse is not run like a business.

 

And so, I'm going to drop the famous cure-all phrase "It's my opinion and you can't hurt me!" and promptly get the fuck out of here.

 

Thank you~

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