'Things are going Downhill'.
Forum Politics.
'Things are going downhill'.
Submitted by FreeSaiyan.
The one universal complaint that can be observed on any message board is that things are going downhill, that they are getting worse. On animeleague, you will find many established members who make such statements. How accurate are they; is it illusion or reality?
Most revealing, it is usually the members who have been on animeleague between six months and two years who are the ones who express such sentiments. Why is it the case that the ones who are here less than six months do not usually complain? And even more oddly, why do the ones who have been here for very long periods of time, of over two years, complain even less?
One factor is the novelty value. When anyone joins a community it's almost like a romantic relationship; the first few months are exciting, new and akin to a rollercoaster ride. The deeper things are often ignored, with the superficial only being thought about. Thus, those who are not ideally suited to animeleague will often ignore the things they dislike the most about it, not through deliberate act, but through being blind. Let's refer to this as the 'Rose Tinted Glasses' effect.
This effect is not a permanent one, and will fade over time. Usually, the fade is so subtle that to the member it seems like the community is changing and going downhill. Suddenly, flaws which they didn't even notice before are brought to their attention. Instead of seeing the glass half-full, they have switched to viewing it as half empty. At this stage, as with any relationship, a nasty break-up would be imminent.
If we assume that a lot of newcomers suffer from this syndrome, then why do the majority seem to stay on regardlessly? The optimistic might hope that since animeleague is one of the best forums online, it's a worthwhile place to stay regardless of not seeing it through rose tinted glasses. A more realistic view would be that we only see the tip of the iceberg of the 'rose tinted effect'. Only the drama-whoring rose tints will make enough noise for their leaving to be noticed. Many more could simply be leaving or going inactive quietly without making some big rule breaking drama or tragic leaving post. This is not good or bad, it is simply the nature of all message boards and has to be accepted, not feared.
If we take this relationship analogy to it's conclusion, the true veterans are the ones who have fallen 'in love' or at least committed themselves to a long term relationship to animeleague. Like a long-term lover, they know the flaws, and just accept them, perhaps even appreciate them as what makes the place different from everywhere else.
So, we have tackled the illusionary aspect of 'going downhill'. Let us now consider when things genuinely do degrade. There are two factors that largely influence how well a community is doing; large circles of friends or peers, and rules or structure.
Regarding rules and structure, animeleague is rarely adverse to changing the ways that things are done. Indeed, this place thrives on change. This usually allows, almost through trial and error, the best ideas to be identified and retained, and the worst ideas to be thrown out and replaced. Over long periods of time, this has seen a progressive improvement in how the boards are run.
However, sometimes, changes can be made that over the short-term degrade and make things worse. Thankfully, these changes are usually reverted. Provided that animeleague is never fearful of change, 'going downhill' will only apply in the short-term or even the medium-term, but never the long-term. We can call this the 'Evolution of ideas' theory, since it IS similar to evolution; it's survival of the fittest ideas, rules and structure.
When looking at circles of friends and peers within communities, we have what is called the 'member hub theory'. This theory suggests that a community (which we shall also call a hub) has a tendancy to elevate certain members to critical positions (hub members we shall call them). These members then interact with other members who are essentially glued onto them.
This theory tends to only work well in a small group. What happens when the group begins to get so large that things start to break down?
Simply put, the single hub gets overloaded. The popular members can not interact with everyone that wishes to speak to them. Since people therefore get pushed out, more hubs begin to develop. Each hub then starts to not be able to keep up with one another. Since hubs of members can develop different ideas, this inevitably provokes conflict and arguement.
We have seen many examples of this happening in animeleague's history. One most notable example relates to the events in 2002. Animeleague was initially one single community that was beginning to expand beyond it's limits. Inevitably the single hub shattered, with arguements raging between members due to many different groups of friendships and peers existing.
The resolution to this was, rather than being fearful of seperate hubs, to embrace them. Rather than trying to strife for one community, to seperate animeleague into many seperate communities. The advent of the head mod system, where each forum or set of forums (about a dozen) was given a leader (or a head mod) was the natural conclusion to this change in philosophy.
With each hub focused around one area or forum, hubs could be kept more seperate from one another, and arguements kept to a minimum. Provided the admins existed to ensure that no one community (now simply a large hub based around one forum) got too far away in attitude from the other hubs, this system would work very well. Another method to ensure the hubs stick together is to have one overlapping hub which draws from the important members of EVERY single hub. This may sound familar. It's called Staff Discussion.
While this is pretty much the only remedy to ensuring a large forum does not tear itself apart, it can cause major problems. Sometimes a community can get so far away from everyone else that it can almost detach itself. Each case of a hub almost detaching has seen HUGE drama and usually people leaving or being banned over it. The 2004 drama with Vlad, RagZ and others largely originated in #animeleague, which at the time was pretty much at it's most rebellious and hostile towards all the other communities of animeleague. This adversely affected the other communities (or hubs), sending the whole board into a tailspin. It was with great difficulty that these problems were eventually cured.
So, we know that animeleague has about 12 or 13 critical hubs or communities to it. We also know the hugely negative impact that a hub trying to seperate from the rest can have on the major body (since the hubs are not entirely seperate, but more interlinked, with members travelling between hubs). A question that comes to mind is, how do hubs age? What happens when critical hub members leave?
Usually, what will happen is that the hub promotes others, officially or unofficially, into the hub member position. Voids are almost always filled in this system.
Can a hub die though in extreme circumstances? What if for whatever reason a lot of members leave that hub at once?
We have a brilliant and recent example of this. On #animeleague (see my last article), a lot of veterans have left. Over time, we have seen newer members filling the voids left behind. Essentially this hub opened itself out and drew on members from other hubs in order to survive. This provoked a change in atmosphere in the #animeleague hub that drew it much closer to the boards. In many ways this is also a mechanism (let's refer to it as the 'hub reallignment mechansim') that again ensures no hub will detach itself from AL. The inevitable cyclic nature of drawing in members, older members leaving, and thus requiring newer ones, will ensure that in the longest term, the hub remains close to the main board values and reasonably active. Only in the short and medium terms do we see problems.
So, the conclusions to draw from hub theory are thus; no member is critical since they will always get replaced (critical members leaving will only damage in the short and medium, but never the long term). All hubs will stay rooted to AL provided they rely solely on AL members to feed them, and finally that all communities move in cycles. In the medium term, we will see ups and downs as older popular members depart, the community shifts, and newer ones eventually take their place. Very often, the last point can give the perception that things are going downhill.
So, we return to our original question. Why do ALers complain about things going downhill, and how accurate are they? In the short and medium terms, they can often be accurate, but this is rarely the case in the longest term. Complaints are usually drawn from:
1. The rose tinted effect where it takes time for the love affair to end
2. Negative rules and regulations that harm and put off.
3. Groups of friends leaving over time due to evolving hubs. What use is staying around if your friends move on? Perception of a place can seem very negative if you lose your friends on it.
4. Popular members, or legendary members leaving. If they represent something about AL that you held dear to you, it can seem that AL is losing it.
5. Conflicts between communities on AL that can cause drama.
All five complaints rarely apply over the longest term. The rose tinted effect always exists and is a fact of life. Negative rules will eventually change back to positive ones through idea evolution. Groups of friends and popular members leaving, whilst degrading your personal experience, will not degrade the community as a whole long term due to hubs moving in cycles. Conflicts between communities, brought about by communities developing radically different values will be resolved by the hub reallignment mechanism.
Thus, the statement 'things are going downhill' should be taken with a pinch of salt. When viewed objectively and over the longest term they rarely are.
Forum Politics.
Submitted by FreeSaiyan.
To the unacquainted, the concept of forum politics may seem rather odd. How can politics beliefs translate onto an online message board? However, to most staff members, these two words will be met by a groan. Like it or not, there is not one universal viewpoint on how animeleague should be run. Indeed, there are largely three positions, each of which have their own philosophies, attitudes, merits, and downsides.
The Forum Liberal
Perhaps about 15% of staff adopt this position. It was a philosophy that was more wide-spread in the beginning of animeleague, during 2002 than it is today. It has several core values:
- Regardless of intelligence, post count, or time spent on animeleague, all members are absolutely equal. Staff are therefore merely members with a job or duty.
- Staff should try and work with members and not against them. What gives a staff member the right to tell off or ban someone when they are supposedly on the same level? This behaviour, in the minds of a forum liberal, will merely provoke the member to misbehave even more. Treat members like adults, and they will act like adults. Treat them like children, and they will act like children.
- Banning a member should be the very last resort when all other actions to try and reform that member have totally failed. A banned member should be immediately unbanned if they can demonstrate that they have changed sufficiently not to wreck the forum experience for everyone else. In other words, banning is not a punishment, it is both rehabilitation and a prevention of the troublesome member taking away other member rights through flaming.
- Flaming, insults, baiting, and all are all highly discouraged. These activities represent closed minded views, prejuidces or even worse people who just enjoy hurting others.
- Spamming is not a problem. If people enjoy posting then this should not be taken away from them. People should have the maturity to overlook spam threads. If someone makes a topic, then they have that right to request that people do not spam in it, since they essentially own the topic.
- There should be no limits in how many members can be on the forums. Indeed, the more the merrier. Since everyone should be viewed as equal, trying to restrict newcomers on any grounds is pretty much being biased against them. What gives a newcomer a lesser right to be on the boards than someone whose already there, just because they have spent more time on it?
- Staff exist not just to prevent flaming, trolling, and hacking, but also to work on improving the boards. They should try and think of ideas, contests, tournaments, site work, schemes and so forth.
The Forum Conservative.
Perhaps about 20% of staff adopt this position. It has been about this popular throughout animeleague's entire history, tending to wax and wane in accordance to the needs of the time. It's core values include:
- All members have an equal opportunity to succeed, but this should not translate into automatic success. Staff members are those who grasped the opportunity through being intelligent, respected, active, or whatever. They should therefore be seen as the first among equals, and respected.
- Staff need to establish a sense of authority over members. We have a forum that has a lot of under 18s who are prone to causing problems. We are not here to be liked, but to control the boards and stop them from sucumbing to stupidity, drama whoring, flaming, spamming, and other activities that either break the rules or utterly degrade it.
- We can not afford to be tolerant on bannings. If you allow a member to continually offend, then you say to the members ' hey look, you can get away with it'. Similarily, if you unban a member the moment they give an apology then you not only show your naiivity at being so trustworthy to someone who essentially pissed over the boards, but you are also encouraging members to offend, knowing that they have a ticket back on at anytime. It removes the fear of being banned.
- Flaming, insults, baiting are frowned upon, but sometimes they can be useful for the greater good. For example, a member is spamming a topic to hell and back. If you publically humiliate him, then it deters them from doing it again. Sometimes a good public humiliation can beat a wussy PM asking them to stop it anyday.
- Spamming is a huge problem and should be tackled at all costs. It infects stupidity across the boards. It can NOT be contained in any one forum, since it encourages bad posting habits. Not everyone is intelligent enough to realise that they should post differently in General Discussion than in Ramblings. Also, it degrades the overall feel of the community. Why have half intelligent, half stupid, when you can have it being entirely intelligent? The fact is, spam attracts stupidity, and this stupidity will repel intelligence.
- Drama Whoring is something that rips forums apart. It is largely caused by stupidity. Those who go around dating several members at once, or post revealing pics of themselves to get attention, or threaten suicide on the boards, or make themselves seem like the ever tragic hero should be told to quit it, and if they don't, should be banned. Forums like AL Journals are a magnet for drama whoring and should be removed.
- Newcomers don't understand animeleague's values, and it takes time for them to adapt, assuming they can adapt at all. Activity should be seen as secondary next to quality and maintaining intelligence, respect, enjoyment and values such as these.
- Projects such as schemes to encourage newcomers to feel at home on AL are generally wastes of time. Mods that mindlessly welcome newcomers instead of actually doing anything are wastes of time. The AL Awards are a popularity contest. Notice a theme here? Staff run schemes are a bad idea. It distracts time away from maintaining our boards values and dealing with trouble makers. Member run schemes are by and large fine, as long as they don't break rules or degrade the boards.
The Forum Centralist
The rest of staff tend to either occupy this position or are near it. It is a pragmatic view. The centralist position largely displaced the previously dominate liberal position in 2004 onwards.
- All members are equal, but a basic standard must be sought. Members with abysmal typing skills, those who insult, or so forth need to be sorted out through a mixture of carrot and stick. Staff and members are equals, but staff should command a basic level of respect. It is necessary for them to do their jobs.
- While a sense of authority is good, staff should be seen as like an older brother, and not as this big intimidating force. You can not bully members to respect you, but at the same time you should assert yourself in a calm fashion.
- Bannings are a tool to prevent animeleague going down the drain. They are not really a punishment, though the perception of punishment can be useful to deter. By and large, if someone says they've changed and want to be unbanned, then it should be viewed logically, calmly, and in an unbiased nature. If they can prove they have changed, then they should be given a chance. However, there should be a limit on chances to prevent the banning system falling into total disrepute.
- Flaming, insulting, and baiting eat away at the boards atmosphere, activity, and respect. It should be reframed from. However, it's alright to flame or insult those who are not part of the boards or have been banned. After all, if you're not signed up, you don't have any forum rights.
- Spamming should be kept to it's appropriate areas. Unlike flaming, spamming is not infectious. By and large members can be trusted to have the common sense to know that they should post differently in different sections. Those who do not, should be taken aside, told, and then dealt with if they continue to not understand. Ramblings is important to animeleague in much the same way as a sewer is vital to a city. It gives a place for spam to be vented. Without it, you'd see the same ammount of spam, but in the more serious forums.
- All newcomers are welcome, and can invogorate the boards. Indeed, they are vital to maintaining activity. However, they should be made aware of animeleague's history and values. While this will not get through to all, it will get through to a sufficient number to maintain them.
There are other viewpoints as well. Forum fascists and anarchists do both exist. Anarchists believe in there being no rules, and no staff, while forum fascists believe in extreme conservative ideals, combined with having absolutely no fear of legitimising flaming board-wide. Generally both these extremes are highly dangerous to animeleague, and serious staff conflicts have occured from members possessing them. RagZ, for example, can be seen as a forum fascist, whereas DPZ can be seen as an anarchist, to quote but two members who have caused major conflicts in the past.
Past Issue Forum Watch.
The Ups and Downs of Roleplayer's Realm.
Older AL members recruitment.
#animeleague, is dying all that bad?