Hi everyone!

As you all know, staff always checks the comments and concerns form for feedback and wants to make sure that all of these concerns are heard and address when appropriate

There has been a submission expressing concerns with me being picked for staff, including worries about staff bias, and toxic culture. I asked to be the one to address this directly, since it is about me, and was a question that came up in my staff interview before I was added to the team.

I'd like to share my thoughts on both of the concerns, as they are something I have thought about before joining the team, thinking about my previous times on staff, and during time away from the site.

Staff Bias - I was not the first person staff approached about the position. Another user was asked and did not accept. Before joining the team, I had to go through a staff interview and answer any questions that the current team had for me. One of the ones that came up about the idea that thoughts of bias would come up. I have attached my answer for that below.

Spoiler:

When asked about the fact that this concern would come up, my response was that I absolutely expected it to. As of right now, there is no formal and publicly available regulations or system for staff structure or selection. Naturally, it is easy to assume pure bias because, well, that is really all there is to go off of aside from considering activity levels and experience. While I don't believe the current staff team is one to institute bias, it is essential and planned on to add formal markers for staff selection and make those publicly known to avoid any instances of personal bias impacting instances where it shouldn't.

Toxic Culture - Similar to the above, Staff also lacks any formal system for internal regulation. As of right now, there is no code of conduct for staff, or enforced guidelines on how to handle site changes, rule breaking, etc. For a long time, staff has operated on the general consensus of whoever is on the team at the time, meaning opinions change on how things are handled between teams. By renovating the rules and creating structure inside and out, there will be measure in place to avoid anyone from creating a toxic culture. Or, if that happens, grounds for when removal is needed.

There have definitely been issues with favoritism and abuse of power spanning many teams. These are things me and the rest of the team have noticed overtime. I have seen it in my time as a member and on staff, and I think recognizing this now, gives us the space to be able to make the changes needed to break the cycle.

Part of the reason I was brought on was to help fix these things is because of my historical knowledge of the site, so in working to fix these issues, I can help to ensure history does not repeat itself. I have recently had the free time to start working on suggestions to bring forward, with help from Kieer whose experience with forum administration is invaluable, which I presented to staff and planned to help them with regardless of whether or not I had a role on the site.

That being said, and part of the whole reason I am here, is that staff is working on making sure these measures for accountability are put into place and adding in clean structure to the site. As these changes are made, the site will be informed and rest assured a good number of staff support will be involved (looking at you Beta Testers).

As for me personally, I've asked the staff team as a team and as friends to hold me accountable to the site's general code of conduct and keep me in check. I have already felt in this current team that we are able to disagree, and call each other out, in a healthy way. If it weren't for having that trust in knowing this team is for the site and for improvement, I would not have been open to returning to a staff position and it is something I had not entertained at all since leaving.

If anyone has any concerns, feel free to reach out directly. If you are uncomfortable chatting with just me, I am open to group conversations for feedback as well. Personally, I don't think that I can improve myself without the input and feedback of others, which is why I am always open to hearing opinions that differ from my own, or perspectives I might not understand.

The whole of staff is working on planning great things to improve the functionality of the site and I am super excited about what the future has to bring!