Oh boy.
It's been a long time since I got involved in any of the out of character drama that is happening, or has happened. For those that don't know, I was formerly a Team Lead (Munchkin) of the Advocate team, a team of staff at the time dedicated to managing, maintaining and otherwise controlling OOC situations. This included, and most prominently featured, drama. Arguments, potential staff abuse and any reports that came in became a problem for us. I am also the son of Pegasus, Owner of the Site. Though, let it be known now that my acceptance to staff, my promotion to Team Lead and all other variables of me being staff - Peg kept out of them. If I recall, the only consistent party in my acceptance was Basilisk, who became a good friend of mine as I became staff and after we did a long modded thread in which 9 posts or so got done in a single night.
Now, that team was destined to fail in my opinion, and I was one of the supporters of removing it. A group of people (at times, a duo, not even a group) dedicated to handling dramatic situations could get out of hand, and when the Team Lead of the Advocates called Rumour had to leave a long time back, it was incredibly difficult. She was, as anyone who knew her would argue, the best of the best at her job. Firm but fair, supporting but anything but a pushover. Not having her around was tough, unbelievably so.
Now that the Advocate team is gone, I want to bring this thread back and give Kudos to all of staff who handle situations like the ones that our team initially had to handle. When that vote was discussed, everyone was pretty much in agreement that it was gonna be tough at times - and you guys do well with it overall. We're humans, slip ups happen, but as a site collectively I adore the staff team here and have been treated kindly by a lot of them. Yet I know some people on the site feel (or mostly felt, as they are gone) that way.
So let me make a little statement where possible, and explain why I am posting this here.
There are very very few situations on site that I have seen and disagreed with, drama wise. Whether it be a player has used the succession packages, lost their PC and then tried to abuse the staff into giving it back to them (for months, may I add) until they were banned, an ex-staff attempting to claim that work they posted on a
Public Domain is copyrighted by them and they have full rights to it so we should take it down or be sued or players abusing mechanics, breaking rules and acting surprised when they are warned for the fifth time - these situations have much more behind the scenes than many people see. If drama like that is brought up, please do the staff the courtesy of asking politely and waiting for them to form a response, or only acting off of full evidence.
With light of a situation I have seen recently, for those of you that are incapable of googling what a Public Domain is yourself and have decided to cause a scene, I did it for you! Image below:
"the state of belonging or being available to the public as a whole, especially through not being subject to copyright or other legal restrictions." - take notes. You know who you are.
And here is where my Kudos comes in (apologies for the long introduction).
Obviously, I give full Kudos to the staff team, especially those who know exactly which situations I am talking about and have put up with them for months - if not years. You do amazing amounts of work for our site, give us stories that are mindblowingly fun and overall make this site a pleasant and loving place to be.
But my main Kudos is to all of the committed, hard working and talented writers on Standing Trials - staff or not. Anyone I have done threads with has been an absolute gem, especially in the past year or so. You're all incredible writers and I love reading what goes on here. Thank you for all the time you put in to helping this community and thank you for every minute you've spent writing with me. You're all awesome, and I'm sorry that the drama of others has to bring some of you down or damage the work you have done here. I hope people like that realise sooner than later that all they are doing is hurting others, and stop doing it.
So, please make sure this channel gets some use. I know a lot of people that deserve Kudos. Let's give it to them.
