User blog comment:JayeMalik'/Going in circles/@comment-1613839-20170125151415

I understand where you're coming from, and as one would expect I agree with some of what you said and disagree with some. I realize this is just my opinion, and it may or may not be shared by others, but I'd like to put it here anyway.

''everyone needs to calm down and back off. Think through your actions and words before you put them into play - 'Yes...a lot of the negative and bad things that happen on this wiki are because people don't do this. They get upset then say things without thinking them through, or that they wouldn't say normally. I've been guilty of this a few times. Decisions made in anger usually aren't the right ones.'''

Policies - '''Yeah, they're there for a reason, and probably should be enforced more. Activity especially. There has to be some leeway for vacations, etc...but those things should be coordinated so people know when others will be gone or when they need to step up to fill other's shoes. Still, I think this should apply to all the policies written and unused...character policies about groups taken from other media, the excessive amount of X that changes (werewolves, vampires, metamorphmagi, animagi, etc...it cycles through) since all those should be rare. The Spell List policy hasn't been enforced in forever...and while that may be a good thing and those policies updated or changed...then they need to be updated or changed, not just constantly overlooked.

Division of Powers - '''This one has always been difficult. My thoughts on it always have been to let those who show they're committed or able take the positions, regardless if they're in the admin team or not. I understand for major positions like Headmaster or Minister that someone from the admin team should probably hold those as they can be held accountable for activity and are trusted community members...but for things like prefects I always tried to give those to non-admin users when possible so they could show their RPing skills or become more involved in the community. We tried making admin members teach classes one year and it backfired horribly as some just didn't want to teach or weren't good at it. Different people have different skills...and I don't think there's an easy answer that just fixes this. I wish I could give something more helpful here other than agreeing it's a problem...and one that won't be fixed easily.

As for OOC power...I know this won't be a popular opinion and I'm ok with that, but The crats are supposed to be people who have been in the community for a while and that are trusted to make decisions. There's a reason that their authority can't be taken from them...only stepped down from: It enables them to make the decisions they see as right without having to be concerned about losing their power. They have other Crats to bounce their decisions off, but honestly at the end of the day they DO have the authority to do what they need to. I know it'll make some people mad, but the power structure of wikia in general and this wiki ISN'T a democracy. Everyone doesn't get an equal vote, and the admin team can do a lot without approval from the users. The crat have ultimate authority. They should listen to the community, the rest of the admin team (admins especially), but at the end of the day they don't have to. There are checks in their power...if one's being completely irresponsible the community can vote for their removal and hopefully they would step down or change things from seeing that...but if not wikia can be contacted to remove a crat who's abusing their power. Short of those sort of drastic misuses however, the crats are in charge.

There have been crats I agreed with and those I didn't...but as I'm not part of the admin team it's my job to support the crats...regardless of if I agree with them on things or not. If I don't, I tell them so, or make suggestions on how I think things would be better...but ultimately it's their job to take or leave my input and run things as they see fit. If a crat decides not to listen you shouldn't take it personally. It's their decision...and ultimately they're the one responsible for that decision. Maybe as a community (or the admin team specifically) we need to be better about holding them responsible for their decisions more...but again that needs to be done in the proper way...not with people yelling, screaming, threatening, or upset about things that are opinions and there are many viable solutions, but you just don't like the one picked.'''

Spokeswoman - '''I don't have a problem with people doing this in theory...but the way it's done here has always irked me. If people have things to say, they need to stand up and say them. The point of the wiki is that things are all out in the open...sure sometimes we have private chats, but everything on the wiki is posted for people to see. I understand separate sandboxes for developing characters and the like, but think it's a bit ridiculous for people to have private conversations and the like about the administration team and everything. If you have a problem, approach an admin/crat about it. If they don't listen, approach someone else. There shouldn't be any reason to be afraid of speaking your mind on things if it's done civilly. When I was on the admin team I felt like unless people said something, and I knew who to work with and what the issue was, I couldn't really do much about it. Someone coming to me and saying "I think X and have a hundred users supporting me" doesn't mean much unless they're willing to also say so because that claim could be untrue. That doesn't mean I wouldn't try to work the issue, but it often feels like on this wiki users just gang up on the administration and complain about things...and then won't come out and say who they are and the issues can't be properly dealt with. Approaching the admin team respectfully with "Hey, I have this issue...can we fix it" is a much better way than "I have fifty unhappy users and you need to fix this NOW". Maybe I'm just out of touch, but I don't know why any user would need to feel afraid of expressing their opinions of stuff. It's not like people are banned for their opinions on here. If they really believe what they're saying, they should have no problem coming out and saying it right?'''

Drama - '''Yes, we see a lot of it on here...and it gets tiring. However, one person's drama is an important issue to another, so sometimes that makes it difficult to determine what's drama and what's a real issue. I just say Carn's post and I agree most of this can be fixed with communication. We used to have regular admin meetings to communicate and I think that helped all around with issues being solved. I hope the admin team can start communicating better and maybe just that will help these issues. Users with problems should be able to bring them to RBs/Admins/Crats (a user they trust) and those people should bring it to the admin team as a whole to deal with.

I know as I said at the beginning a lot of this is just my opinion on things...and I may get flack for that. I'm ok with that as these are my opinions and I have no issue talking through them with other users. If I'm wrong I'll change...and I have no issues with that either. As always, I'm just expressing things to try to get them out there, and hopefully help. If you disagree with what I wrote, feel free to express that and we can talk about it. If not, that's fine too. Like I said before I just want to try to get things out in the open and start the communication to see what needs to be fixed or changed to make things better going forward.