First of all, I want to thank all of you for answering and participating in this discussion. I know I'm answering late, I had a pretty busy and exhausting day (trying to build a new PC from scratch, which failed splendidly but that's another story), but rest assured, I kept track of this thread closely, and read the many replies that were shared in here. I'm glad to see my post was mostly met well, and I'll try to keep engaging with that mindset and approach in the future. I also thoroughly understand that the backlash was a lot about the way we communicated about this feature, and I'm sorry I didn't emphasize more on this aspect in my initial reply, but I definitely took it into account. We made a mistake not putting up an announcement thread, because we lacked proper planning for it, didn't make the time to create one, and that's on us. Hopefully we can try and fix that kind of things.
We are going to release an update about the tags very soon, and I was honestly wondering about how best to handle that. Part of me wants to go ahead and create a Tag Feedback Thread already, so that people can freely go on it and share their opinions and suggestions (which in turn would also help clear this thread a bit and maybe refocus it on general tech things), or if it would be OK to wait a tiny bit (I think it's a matter of days, but I can't promise anything either?) for us to create it then when the update is released? Rest assured, the feature getting its first update doesn't mean we won't keep on listening to feedback, in order to slowly but surely make it as best as possible Just testing the waters here, I personally feel we could wait until the update, but I certainly do not want to make people feel like they are silenced either, this isn't my goal at all (and in the meantime, users are definitely welcome to engage here still, I'll keep an eye on posts and will answer to them whenever possible too). Whichever path we go on, I'll create a Tag Feedback Thread whenever it's best, and will use a site-wide notification in order to promote it as stated before!
EDIT: When I wrote that paragraph last night, the timeframe of the update was still a bit blurry, but it has now become imminent, so I'm definitely leaning towards the former option. We're currently working on the Tag Announcement/Feedback thread for this imminent update as we speak.
I see the idea of a General Feedback Thread came up often in the answers too. After some considerations, I'm now thinking on it more intently. I do understand the need for a place to exist, for many to be able to express themselves in order to raise concerns. As long as those concerns aren't deeply rooted in unnecessary hostility, I'm leaning in favor for a fair line of communication to exist as well. I'm brainstorming ideas about it, and already gathered some from different people. Some rules would need to be established for it to be its own thread without overlapping nor parasitizing other existing tools like Contact Us form, used for ban appeals, mostly. The way I'm envisioning it, I also will handle it solely, at least at the beginning. That way I can set the tone, and hopefully allow for users to feel safe enough to voice their concerns, suggestions and feedback. I'm absolutely up for suggestions about this, and I have my DMs open for anyone willing to share ideas about how best tackle this in a smooth way, I'll carefully read it all and hopefully come up with a solid enough plan for this to happen. I hope so.
I have seen people expressing doubts and frustration about the Contact Us form, and yes, we are acutely aware of how slow things can be on that end. I must be precise though, that we do read all of them, for sure. Whether we answer them depends on a lot of things, but oftentimes, those mails being answered later than we'd like just boils down to us being understaffed, and therefore lagging a lot behind a huge queue of mails to deal with. This is something we aim to deal with, by hiring new staff that will help alleviate the overall workload enough for some of us to fully dedicate our time to dealing and answering those mails. I'm incredibly sorry that this is frustrating to many, I fully understand, and this is something we intend to improve in the future as well.
Which brings us to a topic that was discussed a lot too, about staff remuneration. I do not know a lot about how much revenue Era does, and that has, quite frankly, never been a huge point of interest of mine in the first place. That been said, the current gist of it all seems to point out that our financial earnings were definitely impacted by Covid-19 in a negative way. That's the extent of my knowledge here. However, it is also clear that Era is nowhere near a big enough website to be able to outsource professional moderation. We very clearly can't afford those, we're not the size of Twitter or Facebook and never will be. Another point here being that whatever money the site makes also would be nowhere near enough to properly remunerate our staff. The salaries would be extremely meager, to the point they don't even justify the heavy administrative hassle of going through the entire process in the first place. Not to mention, and that might surprise some people here, that some in our staff team, even in admin ranks, definitely expressed that they do not wish to be paid at all. Partly because the pay would be so ridiculously insignificant to begin with, and partly because most of us never decided to be part of this team because of money. It's out of passion and love, most and foremost. I know it sounds cheesy, but it is still the truth. Money would be a nice bonus, but it being or not being part of the equation wouldn't impact my will to take on my duties as staff.
Another thing making this fairly difficult to establish would be, how to pay people, how to quantify what they bring to the team, and best reward that? As of right now, we simply can't. Our current moderating style allows for people to partake whenever they want and most importantly can. Whenever they're willing to dedicate time for it. We do not wish to clock people's hours, nor to try to strictly and coldly quantify their input. And if they do need a break or two, they simply just take them, without any judgement for it. We're very laid-back, in essence. Some weeks, my contributions are plenty. Others, it's barely non-existent, because I didn't have as much time or because I needed a break. That flexibility is essential to our staff team in order to be able to take care of each other, of our health and our personal lives, and we do not wish to judge people based on their different levels of productivity (or lack-thereof), and we are not going to start now.
Overall, I'm always torn about seeing people raise this particular subject up. I know for most it comes from a genuinely good place, because they see the work we do, and think it ought to be rewarded. I appreciate that a lot. But part of me cannot help at times to wonder what other reasons there might be. Would being paid make any of the hardship, exhaustion and mental anguish we can go through more justifiable and acceptable? If so, I'm wondering why, genuinely, because I do not think any amount of money would justify it in the slightest. What we do is not so dissimilar to Customer Service most of the times, and I'd like to believe most people on Era who ever had to interact with someone doing customer service, would do so in a fair and respectful enough manner, and not treat them like less than simply because at the end of the day, they're getting paid for it anyway. Yes, getting some financial compensation probably would be nice. But I sincerely doubt it would help me much with the things I have been feeling repeatedly as part of the Era staff team. It would be nowhere near enough a good incentive in the first place, and many people in the staff team feel the same way here.
Upon reading my post draft, @Snormy wanted to share their input on that particular subject, and agreed for me to include it here, hopefully it will help seeing the many layers of this subject:
Obviously each mod is different. I do this job because I hope to see Era improve for our communities. It is something that I do because I care and want to. It is a harsh, thankless job and one that perhaps deserves payment. As is though, the setup works well for me in that there is a priority for staff well being. This is a voluntary job and my desire to help already keeps me awake more than it probably should. I know that when I need to I can step away. With money, there comes obligations and probably guilt. If I'm being paid, should I be doing more? Am I doing enough? What if I want to quit but desire the payment, whatever the figure may be. What if I want to retain the job not because of my desire to see Era improve but for monetary gain. Do I want to be put in such a place? What if I feel a moderator is getting payment who has been absent or mostly inactive. Right now, any help is valued. Any insight, any contribution is appreciated and welcomed. I enjoy working with people who are interested in trying to help Era. Money and payment complicates it. It would require an entire new line of approaching how I view my role as a moderator personally. I have to also consider, if someone is getting paid to do this, perhaps the payment is better for someone who has more hours available for instance. This doesn't even go into the technicalities of paying staff from around the globe.
Rather than payment, more staff who are able to engage and help out around the clock. Relieve those of us who face burnout and help take pressure off our heavy lifters. More hands to lighten the load so to speak. Better yet, solve some of the other personal problems I face outside of Era so that I can commit more to Era happily, without distraction. That would be so nice.
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Lastly, I hope my way of answering to this thread doesn't make people feel unheard. I don't use the quote function because there are so many posts to quote from, at times overlapping each other, that it probably would look like a cluttered mess if I tried to answer each and everyone of you. Rest assured, I read every post, and take notes of which particular topics are being repeatedly raised, often by different users, in order to answer them properly. I do so as well in order not to be overwhelmed by the sheer number of people I have to answer to, but if that is a point of contention, I'll then try to quote more people in the future. Making people feel unheard is definitely not my intention and never will be. Thanks for reading yet another one of my novels, and for taking the time and energy to engage with me. I appreciate that a lot.
