Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-33668185-20181229231243/@comment-27263600-20181231203837

Thank you, Annabeth, for getting the thread back on track. In any discussion such as this, the aim should be to demonstrate mature behavior. The likelihood of the feedback being ignored increases drastically if the constructive criticism derails into insults.

I am not in the position to offer specific, technical comments on this issue- other users have logged many more hours in chat than myself, so I will not pretend to be an expert. I do, however, want to expand more on the issue of inactive moderators, which has been a consistent problem since I joined Wikia in 2015. This may not be CCCrew's most pressing issue right now, but is still present, and will likely become more severe as time goes on. CCCrew is also not the only group facing inactivity issues- the VSTF has gone months without enough members as well. Why? They had to wait for the "standard promotion times" or for Staff to notice the problem (usually months after group and community members noticed it). To that end, a few thoughts I had on inactivity and promotion:

1) Mental health comes first- and if stepping down serves one's mental health, it will most likely serve the wiki too. If one loses enthusiasm for a volunteer job, there's no reason to retain it. A mod should not feel extremely averse to stepping down for a long while or permanently, nor should they hold onto rights out of nostalgia, desire to retain power, or lack of confidence in other users taking over the rights. This thread clearly demonstrates the capabilities of a multitude of users that Staff could- and should- consider in the event of a resignation.

Disclaimer: I am not suggesting the entire current team, or even most of it, step down in the immediate future. That's an unrealistic proposition. But there will come a unique point for each current member where it is healthier for both the person and the site to step down.

Granted, I was never a Wikia volunteer. But my yearlong hiatus from Wikia in 2017 turned out to be one of the best years of my life. Does that have everything to do with leaving Wikia? Definitely not- it was a great year IRL. My point is that stepping down should not be something to fear. I regret departing the site and Discord without informing my friends first, but in February 2018 they welcomed me back with open arms despite my wrongdoing. We will miss you, but we will understand!

2) It is not completely the fault of inactive volunteers for holding onto rights. In my opinion, Staff should be more persistent in ensuring the activity of all their volunteers. "So a mod with a busy month IRL should get demoted by Staff?" Absolutely not! But seeing as the active members of Crew can't just decide to promote/demote when more activity is needed, Staff must not leave a few volunteers doing the work of an entire team. I've seen multiple examples of the above in Wikia's history and in my time here, and each time, the poor 1-3 users doing most of the work have eventually burned out. Even if Staff decide not to demote inactive volunteers at a certain time, some active users should be promoted to carry more of the load.

I have been very inactive on all of my sites lately, but I still retain a few privileges such as moderator rights in a group on another site. I have only retained them as a result of the acceptance/desire of other users. If Staff displays this attitude towards CCCrew, the inactivity problem will only increase. CC is many, many times busier than other places such as my group or quieter wikis of the network. Tolerance of inactivity is not one-size-fits-all, and should be less present here on CC.

I do support a revamp of the Crew selection process. But if that is too extreme at this stage, more attention should be paid to the activity of Crew (and all) volunteers in relation to the need of the wiki(s).

As for my comments about stepping down, they are not directed toward any Crew member in particular- they are directed toward every member at the time when they can no longer maintain certain levels of activity and efficiency.

Additionally, I do not mind anyone chilling on Discord and not constantly moderating the chat so long as they examine their individual capability to carry out their duties over the long-term.