Poor Leadership

did someone mention pie?

I get exactly what I pay for and have no complaints. If I didn't feel that way I'd stop paying and take my business elsewhere. Then again I'm not the kind of person who sends food back at restaurants or thinks that because I've graced an establishment with my presence that they're somehow beholden to my every whim. I don't feel I have a right to tell them how to conduct their business. My rights end at deciding whether or not the service I'm getting meets my needs. We're talking about a forum for fuck's sake, not an ego massage parlor. If LL wants to start moderating their forums more aggressively, that's their business. I only post here. It's not an imposition to be asked to follow some pretty simple rules even if I'd personally prefer an unmoderated free for all. I didn't drink the kool-aid. I just happen to have been raised to be polite. If more people tried it I bet they'd find that they'd actually get their way more often.

The main problem is that the more heavy handed, though still wildly uneven moderation of the forum can result in your ability to use the service being taken away. Hell, you just violated a rule in your post and by rights should be warned. Or did you? It's unclear, because there are not clear rules. There is nothing clear about the rules, nothing consistent about the enforcement of them. I am a polite person too, Chip, but that doesn't mean you can't question things or not stand up to things you disagree with. If LL wants to moderate their forums more heavily, then LL should not be relying on random unelected volunteers to do so, especially when the stakes are so high in terms of what can happen. If they removed the rule about banning from forums=banning from SL, then it would be different, but the two are tied together. You may think that it takes an extreme amount of stuff for that to occur, but now that you have 10 times as many people scrutinizing posts, policing what we say, and Jeska more warn happy than ever, it is different, and a more serious situation.

I more or less agree with you, except that I *AM* the type to send my food back if it's not up to snuff. I am not doing the restaurant or myself any favors by silently suffering poor food then never returning as a customer. I give them a chance to fix it. It's up to them to decide what to do with that chance.

The ResMod program is HARDLY enough to turn me away as a paying customer. There are so many other great things in Second Life keeping me around. But I wont be silent if LL starts making changes for the negative. It's only fair to give them a heads up

"Lindens, the ResMod program does more to turn me off to Second Life than it does to keep me here."

If they are comfortable with that, so be it. Like you said, it's their game. They may add other negatives that eventually compel me to leave. Or they may add positives that are so great I forget what the ResMod program ever was. But at least they will KNOW where they stand with me.

Cristiano, as I mentioned earlier in a thread, voicing constructive criticism and offering suggestions about how it could be better is fine. Going into someone's place of business and hanging a sign on the wall for all their customers to see that says "you're a failure at your job" is just rude. I see mostly complaints born out of ego and a sense of entitlement and very little constructive feedback. Some of the criticism is certainly valid, but I think that was all pretty well covered days ago and I'm not hearing anything new. I guess I'm just a very empathetic person because in Jeska's shoes this wouldn't inspire me to try and do a better job. On the contrary it would make me more inclined to warn first and ask questions later.

I see what you're saying, Chip.

But the trouble is this.



Assuming this isn't a load of tripe, it's incumbent upon the community to level this sort of commentary because that's part of the process. If what Jeska said is just nonsense to excuse the offloading of important work onto unpaid conscripts, well, then I'm not losing sleep over calling out a nude emperor.

In either case, this isn't as cut and dry as "This is their company, they do what they want," because we keep getting this incessant lip service about empowering the community, etc. If that's really what they want, they need to be prepared for the community's honest reaction.

If the reality is "Screw the community. We're going to do what we need to do," that means we all do need to STFU and let them do their thing. It also means they need to cut the namby-pamby, touchy-feely "SL is led by its residents!" line.

Perfectly said.

Aimee, you read scarily fast..

I'm an avid reader...

I participate in several forums that are moderated by community volunteers and I've never really seen a problem with it, honestly. One thing to consider is that so much of what goes on in these forums depends on context and forum history to really understand. What might seem like a personal attack or out of line to someone who doesn't understand the context or history is obviously just joking around to someone who does. If LL feels the forums need more moderation than I can see doing it this way having as many potential positives as negatives. I think the two week term is a mistake, personally. I think if people come along who enjoy doing it and who don't piss a lot of people off then they should be encouraged to do it for as long as they want the job. I'd rather be moderated by a peer than by someone who doesn't understand half of what goes on here. I think people are having a knee-jerk reaction that isn't fully justified by anything that's happened yet.

Way to jump on the grenade, Torley. You do a good job and you are kind-hearted. Hiring you was one of the best moves I've ever seen from LL. Kudos to whomever made that decision.

That said . . . this thread makes me cringe. I used to do a job very similar to Jeska's (for the *cough* competition). More is going on here than is plainly visible and I would bet that a lot of (most or even all of) the blame being placed here is being placed on the wrong person. Anyone who wants to try to make Jeska feel bad over this obviously has no idea how policy decisions are made and implemented at a company like LL, or they're just plain mean.

I understand the reasoning behind the ResMod program. I would have implemented it differently, but there are drawbacks to the way I would have gone about it, as well. I'm very interested to see how LL's approach works out.

*sends Jeska Band-aids and cookies*

Oh, that much is certain. For my part, I tried to make clear that I was only seeing Jeska as the spokesperson or flag carrier. There's a lot more to it, absolutely. Leadership isn't a discrete thing, it's a chain of responsibility, integrity and accountability that flows from the top down. Jeska's certainly not at the top and thus doesn't deserve anything close to the entirety of our ire.

Say, who's that guy at the top again?

But regardless, Jeska did put the finer point on Linden Lab's cluelessness at the moment, so it's her I have to quote.

I think you should blame it on God.

About here is where I'd post a picture of a cute kitten demanding pie if I hadn't lost it in a hard drive crash. But I can still post INTARWEBZ IS SERIOUS BIZNISS and point and laugh.

It's all good. G-Money and me are on good terms since he helped me solve that whole virginity issue all those years ago. If this is God's doing, I'll let it slide.

/me gazes upward with a wink and a finger gun that turns into thumbs-up.

*winks back*

Soda --> Nostrils --> Desk

I'm just glad I didn't spray my LCD.

Just to clarify -- the system is in fact confidential - no Second Life name or other identifying informatoion is shown in the reported posts. Please read this announcement made earlier this week for more information.


To further comment on this topic - I apologize if my post came across as anything less than sincere, I noticed a lot of flack unfairly falling on the volutneer ResMods when it should have fallen, fairly, Linden Lab shoulders. We have acknowledged from the start that the ResMod program is an experiment and, after a little over a week in action, has already and will continue to undergo tweaks based upon the community's feedback. Allowing Residents to assume leadership within the Second Life community will continue to be at the forefront of what the community team strives for.

Jeska, in the past it was generally accepted that Abuse Reports were not subject to the same rules as public posts. For example RL info or chat logs necessary to provide context to the AR were permitted since the Lindens likely had this information anyways.

Is it now possible for a user to unwittingly find themselves in diciplinary trouble as a result of the content they include in an Abuse Report?

I agree entirely with Eboni, Malachi, and Enabran.

1. Jeska has stated that the Lindens don't want to police the forums at all. If LL doesn't want the responsibility for their forums, then they should get out of the forum business.

2. We won't have any kind of self-governance on the forums until the day when we can elect our own resmods and vote on the rules ourselves.

3. We need clear rules.

What are the rules? We don't know. We will never know. We are sitting on a forums that insists on calling itself PG, yet refuses to make it so, while reserving the right nonetheless to issue warnings to people for their use of language when they feel like it. WHILE making the whole thing mean something entirely different in the game.

4. Rules can't be one thing for one person and another thing for another, based entirely on subjective criteria such as "context and history," "perceived intent," or knowledge of and attitudes toward particular posters.

5. The rule that links forum suspensions and bans to automatic suspensions and bans from the game itself should be thrown out.

6. The entire blame for all these problems goes to the Lindens, as Enabran has pointed out, and ultimately the buck stops with Philip, and Philip alone.

coco

i seriously doubt phil, being the bossman, is fully aware of everything... thats why he hires grunts to do it, and file the paperwork, he like any boss has his own part to worry about and has the overall picture to base it all from.

its like i cant really blame Bill Gates, becuse internet explorer 5 had a security hole, but i do expect Mircosoft to fix it.

Part of leadership is good hiring and properly matching the skills of your team against the tasks you need completed. Another part is inspiring a culture of accountability in your team. This is especially crucial when you're dealing regularly with outsiders (customers).

In any case, if Philip is oblivious to the happenings of Linden Lab's primary community barometer, we have more to worry about than the ResMod debacle.

edit: This is not to suggest Philip has made poor choices in hiring. It simply means he is, ultimately, responsible for how things play out in his company, since he picked the team.

Could you kindly elaborate upon this "leadership" of which you speak as I'm a little unclear on the subject. Is leadership comprised of locking threads "pending Linden review"? Thanks for any light you can shed on the matter for those of us who aren't experienced community builders.

Cocanut has agreed with Enabran, myself and Mal(and I can't even disagree with anything she posted). Hell has indeed frozen over. I will now making the following predictions...


Bears will win the Superbowl in 2007
Illini will go to Final 4
Illini will win the Rosebowl
Cubs will win the World Series

Then why not let us have a say in who these "leaders" are, or if we even want this at all. You know what happens when people assume.

Prokofy and I agree on ResMods.