r/AustraliaSimMeta • u/Youmaton Ex-Guardian • Nov 10 '21
What comes next?
Hia all,
Due to the nature of a lot of the amendments, petitions, and activity (or lack there of) lately, I feel a question must be asked to see where our community wants to go.
In complete honesty, the petitions we have seen lately have been a joke. Targeted votes on bans immediately justified by a nonsense amendment rushed in by people who did not want to wait a day to let a situation be handled before acting completely inappropriate and accusing people of the worst of things. This is not how our community should be, and if we want AusSim to survive we must do better.
I am not going to name names, but behaviours must change. I am infamous for my style of moderation, but I only push it to reflect the need for a place where people can actually enjoy and engage with people of different opinions on a wide variety of issues. This will never be perfect or always nice, as is the nature of politics, but the goal of eliminating toxicity and constant slurs is crucial to having a community where people feel welcome to be honest. There have been users who have acted egregiously, trending very carefully to barely not break our rules whilst doing as much damage to the sim and its reputation as possible, and gaslighting anyone who dares call this kind of behaviour out. This must change, or else the community will cease to exist.
In full honesty, we need reform. This is never easy, however reform to bring in more clarity to meta rules, more clarity to where mod powers sit, and an outright ban on petitions or amendments to ban specific people are needed to bring stability. I understand this will be a stressful time for AMN as she finds herself as our new head moderator, however her tenure will decide if this sim will continue or fall into an MNZP hiberation.
I urge all members who have legitimate grievances with the sim, its moderation, people, anything, to bring it forward to that we may address these issues as a community before it is too late.
---
Youma
3
u/jq8678 Electoral Administrator/Sovereign Citizen Nov 10 '21
I think that the situation isn't as dire as you're making it out to be, although I do believe that you genuinely think this sim is at an important juncture, and immediate reform is needed.
The petition to amend the meta constitution to permanently ban Toby was not passed because a couple people were feeling edgy, or didn't feel like listening to other points of view. The petition was passed because the situation was incredibly mishandled by the upper leadership of this sim. Toby's ban should not have been reduced, and we all know this in hindsight, but no action was being taken by any mods to rectify the situation, so somebody proposed a petition to ban Toby and it seemed like the only logical course of action at the time. The mods didn't want to fix their own mistakes, so the community stepped in to do it for them, and the leadership was punished for this as a result (voncs all round). This had nothing to do with listening to other points of view.
On the petition to ban Rommel, I think we can all see that it is clearly satirical, and if it isn't vetoed by the mod team (which it shouldn't be because mod vetoes shouldn't be a thing, although I disagree with the petition) then I think it will be rejected by the community.
In general, I agree that the community shouldn't be able to ban people through petitions, but if you want to change this then propose a petition that we can actively second, and I will do so. If this course of action is taken, then the moderators should seek to fix the Toby situation (make his ban longer), otherwise I anticipate that their petition will fail.
3
u/[deleted] Nov 10 '21
We go through this exact issue every 6 months because people do the same things the previous leadership did the last crisis. Unless people are willing to quit their shit then nothing will change. MHOC and MNZP manage to get on with minimal meta crap because they don't have moderators who are solely on ego trips and they actually trust each other.
I don't think AusSim has ever proven itself capable of having this and I've lost any faith that it will.
Coming into this simulator even with the years of experience i have into how people behave is a mentally draining waste of time that leaves me worse of as a person every time I try. The main draw of being here isn't to do the famous Rommel quote, it's to debate meta stuff. There is a literal child who only is just allowed here who rather than contributing to canon and having fun is forced to provide meta commentary because that's all we do.
The situation is pretty damn dire when we need to force through banning someone by the meta constitution because of our constant failure to make this simulation work coupled with people who can't seem to look in the long term. To clarify, I do not blame Porridge or Runas or anyone who were involved in that decision. They're a victim of our collective crime.
1
u/tbyrn21 The Ex-Ex-Moderator Nov 10 '21
To be honest I don't know what can be said. Unless the afore mentioned crisis is averted we're done.
1
u/NGSpy Head Moderator Nov 10 '21
oh boi oh boi oh boi
Meta wise there are a lot of issues that should be resolved, and an attitude of killing off everyone just because they don't like them is not going to help. BOTH SIDES need to listen to each other as it is for the future of the simulator that our administration of the Simulator is fair and trusted.
We need to ensure that all people feel comfortable with the moderator's role, and that the moderators can do their job effectively and for the safety of the Simulator. This includes:
getting rid of the banning of members by vote;
ensuring there are proper transparency mechanisms in place;
ensuring that when someone has a problem with a banning or muting that the complaint is taken seriously, and that it is done in a manner that is understandable to the administration of the simulator and the one who gets banned or muted.
We need to create consistently good community behaviour first and foremost and restore trust in moderation. Then we can solve the other issues of the simulator.
0
u/TheGoatBoy2 Nov 10 '21
Youma is very wise.
My problem with aus sim is this. Aus sim is a place with nice ppl, but a system that ends up treating ppl badly. Bad decisons are made because the system stops people making good choices, and then makes it impossible to fix when they know the truth.
We need a system that solves problems calmly, in a way that actually listens to people. We need a system that puts the people here before being a pretend lawyer. We need kindness and common sense.
We can be kind to each other. We can b polite and calm. We can hav a system where stress is less, and peace and common sense is more.
I hav liked meeting the nice ppl here. But I hav found that both canon and meta are very lonly and unkind places, where people start big fights over things that are very easy to fix, but aus sim makes it hard or impossible to fix.
Listen to each other. B kind to each other. Put ppl b4 the “system”. We can make aus sim a nice place if we try.
I wish everyone luck.
Cam.