Thread Closed
I seem to be prefacing with this a lot, but I'm new. I'm new to the site, to the community and to FFXIV.
That said, I'm a former moderator for the Guild Wars 2 Roleplayers community site, a former member of a guild run by one of its administrators, and a guild leader for one of the larger guilds on the Tarnished Coast server. In other words, I have a perspective that could serve to be helpful for this topic.
Honestly, it's weird to see anybody making a public post asking for people to provide honest criticism, negative feedback and rumors about their guild, promising that they can be totally honest and expect no reprisal or grudges. Does that ever work? And no offense, but such threads come off as defensive, and so do responses to the criticism by the OP.
Granted, you folks in Crystalline have done a good job not seeming crazy, and providing answers that I suppose are helpful to people who may have been confused about your policies.
Still, it looks much better publicly to do more private personal inquiries with folks in the community who are in the know. You know, ask around a bit. This kind of thread is just two steps away from airing dirty laundry, either in the posts or the responses. One has to tread cautiously.
It makes the thread all the more troubling when it is posted/responded to by an admin or friends of admins.
The fact that I feel I must preface this post by saying I hold no ill-will toward Crystalline or the admin staff, no do I intend to, nor do I have any real criticism or comment against Crystalline, is already a discouraging sign. Posting here is a conflict of interest for most members, and providing any useful feedback is potentially worse. It is not that I don't believe that you aren't good folks--you seem cool enough, and have been friendly. But it's the condition of things. There are admins who have very publicly represented Crystalline, and one of them has already popped into this thread.
That may be a part of the misconceptions surrounding your guild.
See, on GW2RP, the mods were instructed to never represent their guilds, not with banners, not with sigs, not with avatars, not with advertising their guild or posting for their guild or even posting in their guild's thread. The site's admin even adhered to this rule, despite being the leader of an active, recruiting guild.
The result? People criticized the mod staff for "unfair" decisions, for vague biases, for pandering, for being all matter of nasty things that nobody cares about.
But nobody ever brought up our guilds. And for a time, the admin, a community manager and one of more active mods shared the same guild. Yet guilds were never a topic of critique, because we had a rule that above all else we were to present ourselves as unbiased in every possible way.
As a result we were treated as if we had no feelings by angry people, and we were sometimes not even treated like people. However, none of that compromised the integrity of our mod staff, or of the site. And most importantly, it didn't compromise our guilds and the fun we had in them and in-game.
I believe that the admins here and that the folks in Crystalline are good people. You've stuck by this game for many years, held together this community site, and have been helpful and welcoming to newcomers, fostering what I feel is a positive overall community atmosphere.
However, you guys have a responsibility, as moderators as well as guild leaders. Having responsibilities can sometimes mean sacrificing personal freedom, and I say this as a guild leader myself. Abstain from even the appearance of any wrongdoing, and you will serve your purposes all the better.
That said, I'm a former moderator for the Guild Wars 2 Roleplayers community site, a former member of a guild run by one of its administrators, and a guild leader for one of the larger guilds on the Tarnished Coast server. In other words, I have a perspective that could serve to be helpful for this topic.
Honestly, it's weird to see anybody making a public post asking for people to provide honest criticism, negative feedback and rumors about their guild, promising that they can be totally honest and expect no reprisal or grudges. Does that ever work? And no offense, but such threads come off as defensive, and so do responses to the criticism by the OP.
Granted, you folks in Crystalline have done a good job not seeming crazy, and providing answers that I suppose are helpful to people who may have been confused about your policies.
Still, it looks much better publicly to do more private personal inquiries with folks in the community who are in the know. You know, ask around a bit. This kind of thread is just two steps away from airing dirty laundry, either in the posts or the responses. One has to tread cautiously.
It makes the thread all the more troubling when it is posted/responded to by an admin or friends of admins.
The fact that I feel I must preface this post by saying I hold no ill-will toward Crystalline or the admin staff, no do I intend to, nor do I have any real criticism or comment against Crystalline, is already a discouraging sign. Posting here is a conflict of interest for most members, and providing any useful feedback is potentially worse. It is not that I don't believe that you aren't good folks--you seem cool enough, and have been friendly. But it's the condition of things. There are admins who have very publicly represented Crystalline, and one of them has already popped into this thread.
That may be a part of the misconceptions surrounding your guild.
See, on GW2RP, the mods were instructed to never represent their guilds, not with banners, not with sigs, not with avatars, not with advertising their guild or posting for their guild or even posting in their guild's thread. The site's admin even adhered to this rule, despite being the leader of an active, recruiting guild.
The result? People criticized the mod staff for "unfair" decisions, for vague biases, for pandering, for being all matter of nasty things that nobody cares about.
But nobody ever brought up our guilds. And for a time, the admin, a community manager and one of more active mods shared the same guild. Yet guilds were never a topic of critique, because we had a rule that above all else we were to present ourselves as unbiased in every possible way.
As a result we were treated as if we had no feelings by angry people, and we were sometimes not even treated like people. However, none of that compromised the integrity of our mod staff, or of the site. And most importantly, it didn't compromise our guilds and the fun we had in them and in-game.
I believe that the admins here and that the folks in Crystalline are good people. You've stuck by this game for many years, held together this community site, and have been helpful and welcoming to newcomers, fostering what I feel is a positive overall community atmosphere.
However, you guys have a responsibility, as moderators as well as guild leaders. Having responsibilities can sometimes mean sacrificing personal freedom, and I say this as a guild leader myself. Abstain from even the appearance of any wrongdoing, and you will serve your purposes all the better.