Disclaimer: The views expressed in the following post do not necessarily represent those of the management of shrinemaiden.org or anyone involved with it other than myself. I am the messenger of my own message, so I claim full responsibility for what you're about to read.
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Listen up. I've had it up to here with this recent nonsense concerning IRC channels and staff idiocy, and so I'm taking my official stance here and now. I don't care what you think about what I have to say, but I'm saying it now. If you like it, awesome. If you agree, even better. If you hate me for it, you're entitled to that. If you want to leave, your hat and coat are by the door. If you want to be UsuallyDead and claim that I'm an incompetent, immature child, you are completely free to a biased, unreasonable idiot that is still incredibly sore about getting a stupid thread closed. That's all well and good to me. Anyways, let's get started.
Point #1: I want to address the main issue at hand: the IRC crisis.This entire debacle started because of the problem I've been trying to address for months now: CPMC is the most prominent, most viewed, and most used board on the entire MotK forum. Why is this? It's because everyone has formed a nice little community to call home. Now, that's all well and good, and if you're trying to pretty much alienate the rest of the world and remain cozy in your little gated community, you're doing an excellent job. "Letty!" you exclaim. "How can you say such a thing!?" Quite simple, really.
Rule #2 of CPMC explicitly states, in detail, "don't post a thread here that can be posted somewhere else." Why do you think this rule is in effect? You don't know? I'll tell you.
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#1: CPMC is a subforum.You do realize that the CPMC community is actually part of a larger community, yes? The entire shrinemaiden.org community, to be exact. It also turns out that outside of CPMC is this vast world with various places to post about whatever you want. "But Letty!" you exclaim once again. "I want to make a thread that addresses just the people of CPMC!" That's fine! What exactly is stopping the people of CPMC from, say, leaving the board and going to another part of the board to check out your thread? It's actually pretty damn selfish to want to keep discussion in CPMC. Why, you ask?
#2: Access to CPMC is restricted.Some of you tend to forget about that anyone with a "Newbie" title cannot post in CPMC. Arguably good discussion actually does happen in that board, discussion that various <10-post users could quite actively participate in. Maybe one of those threads will be the key to integrating into the community! It's certainly not going to happen with the "Post Your Desktop" thread. However, because, for the most part, the people of CPMC have no general interest in the rest of the board (outside of maybe N-Forza's Japan-shop thread), there is little in the way of expanding the community. When the majority of discussion by the people of a forum is occurring in a board you can't even post in, what the hell is the point of registering in the first place? No new active members, combined with the circlejerk of a clique community, is the first step on the road to stagnation. In keeping everything within CPMC, you're contributing nicely.
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CPMC has become a tight-knit community, so tight-knit that you'd be perfectly happy with never having anyone new and the very thought of anything changing at all frightens and angers you. Thus, we come to the point of the IRC channel, #touhou-meido.
For quite some time, PPiRC has been the official home of MotK's IRC channel, #shrinemaiden. You can form your own opinions about what is good or bad about the channel. I don't really care, because that's not the point, and it really never was. The fact of the matter is that #shrinemaiden harbored the MotK community outside of the forum for the longest time, and TSO has done everything in his power to keep that running. (Sorry to interrupt, but I will be referring to TSO as "he/him" for the entirety of this post. So people like UncertainKitten, do not even bother responding to say that "he" is a "she" is a "he." Drop it.) Because TSO has full power over the server itself, it means that he can do pretty much anything he wants with it, and that includes doing things with that the MotK userbase would like as well. It can make your IRC experience even better, server-side. I'm pretty okay with that, actually, and really, you should be too.
The problem stems from the misconception that TSO's request to integrate #touhou-meido into PPiRC was a whining cry from someone who couldn't control people. I'm not sure how it came to that, but the entire idea was to simply put the channel on the server. Staff would remain the same, and the only power TSO would have is to pull the plug, which he would not do and you all know it. It would make access to #touhou-meido even easier for many, because TSO made a PPiRC web client for accessing #shrinemaiden that could no doubt be used to access #touhou-meido as well. That's pretty useful for people who are bound by certain restrictions and can't access the Dejatoons server via free clients like Mibbit, can't install an IRC client, or just don't understand how to work IRC at all.
Now, it should be made pretty clear that the only reason this came up is the CPMC community has taken it upon themselves to make #touhou-meido the official CPMC channel, and because CPMC is the biggest part of MotK at this point, that really makes it the official MotK channel by association. However, it has been said time and time again that this is not the case and should not be the case by our very own Pesco, the person in charge of it. In case you're unaware, here's an IRC log:
<Pesco> Let's go back to the beginning
<Pesco> AS Trance says
<Pesco> It's a place to do the RP of MeidoRPG
<AtyHime> it slowly incorporated the UGW elements, and then since many people from CPMC went to it, it became a conglomerate of people from CPMC talking about pretty much anything
<Pesco> It is NOT CPMC's channel
<YoseiOnmyoji> I like it the way it is now
<Pesco> It is NOT MotK's official channel
<AtyHime> Nobody and I mean nobody has declared it to be any official channel
<Pesco> Even though nobody declares it as such, it is being treated as such
<AtyHime> 23:55:44 (Pesco) Even though nobody declares it as such, it is being treated as such <-- this is the real issue
<Pesco> Despite my reminders to people not to do that
This is how the CPMC community and their use of the #touhou-meido channel is seen by the person running the thing. People are blatantly turning the channel into the CPMC channel, despite his wishes, and some people have even admitted to not coming to CPMC or even MotK as a whole anymore. CPMC is, either knowingly or unknowingly, attempting to break away from the rest of the forum, and the clique community within it has no intention of addressing it or stopping it.
A number of us have noticed this trend, and as a result, we are watching a community that we have come to love and have been with for quite some time trying to break itself apart and secede from the main forum. TSO's request to bring #touhou-meido to PPiRC was his attempt to try and facilitate the community as best he could and keep it from breaking away, not because he wants to be under his control but because he cares. He maintains this forum from further behind the scenes than anyone else and maintains a server
entirely for the sake of the Maidens of the Kaleidoscope community, and he basically gave all of you an invitation that read "Hey, I like you guys. I'm paying for these things, so come on and use them to your hearts' content." That way, the thing that he keeps for you to use can still be used, and you don't have to deal with people like Link and Suzuran. Pretty nice deal, I think. Instead, he is met with animosity, and eventually, a bigger problem comes to light, which is the second point.
Point #2: You don't like us. We get it.<UsuallyDead> I bascially just told TSO and LettyWhiterock that I think they're incompotents.
<Jana> Eh, I don't dislike any of them,but I don't think that Letty's really the best mod...
It comes to light that part of the reason that people moved to #touhou-meido is because they don't want to be under the "control" of primarily TSO and myself. They felt that they had to censor themselves or face divine retribution from the evil site staff. If that's how you feel, then whatever. You're entitled to whatever you want to feel. However, in all seriousness, what in the world do you think is going to happen? I hope the lot of you understand that while I play the role of a tyrannical moderator, I'm actually pretty reasonable. I may say that I'm going to ban or probate you for seemingly no reason, but very seldom will I ever actually go through with it. And hell, on that rare chance, I might do it for 15 minutes for the fun of it, and usually, when you come back, you've got yourself a shiny new tag. Remember when I banned MJP and triangles after their wedding? When they came back, I tried to give them Idiot Deity status (and couldn't due to the 3 ID rule). Sometimes, I do things for fun, and whoever is unlucky enough to fall victim usually gets something out of it in the end. We don't just do things for the sake of doing them and leave you with a deal-with-it unless we have a pretty good reason for it.
I don't know where we went wrong, exactly, but this entire debacle became an opportunity for a number of individuals to run to their little #touhou-meido home and bash us behind our backs. Edible and Benny seem to be loved by the community, despite the fact that they tend to share some of the same overall feelings that we do, and I seem to be liked by some people, but TSO really just got consistently shit on by the community at large, mostly with claims of power-hunger over the IRC crisis.
I'll tell you right now. Sometimes, TSO pisses me the hell off. There are instances when I do find him obnoxiously whiny at times, incredibly opinionated, and overly critical about a lot of things, so much so that eventually, I just deleted him off my message clients and tried to find a way to ignore him on this very board. Yeah, it happens. However, the people who are claiming that TSO is sore about "not being in charge anymore" are so asinine that it's appalling. Say what you will about him, right or wrong, but he gives a damn about this community and wants to see it thrive by offering his own services for your convenience, be it the IRC server or the forum. If not for TSO's contribution to keeping MotK alive and wanting to turn MotK into what I have repeatedly called "the laughing stock of the Western Touhou fandom." Here's a quote from someone on this very board:
There's a reason Shrinemaiden is the most hated western touhou community, and it's because we pick up all the kids that get shoved out of /jp/ and Poosh by the vitriol of their residents.
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I doubt places like /jp/ or Poosh will ever consider us more than a stain on the internet, but I think we can do more to appeal to users from other sources.
The entire board redesign back in April 2009 was made to fix this exact problem and send the forum into a whole new direction. We staff members got together and did this
for your benefit. So don't you ever say that TSO is in this to feed his own ego, because at any point, he could have said "Well, the forum is pretty much crap now. What say we pack it up and head out?" No, he, along with the rest of the site staff, got together, and discussed what we needed to do to turn everything around. We racked our brains to come up with new ideas and new formats. Hell, nearly every board name and the very concept of CPMC came from me, and they were implemented not because we wanted to feel accomplished but because we wanted to provide an entertaining and thrilling environment for the community we care so much to enjoy.
If you think TSO is a bad leader, that's fine. If you think I'm a crappy mod, that's fine too. If you think Edible isn't actually as edible as he says he is and should be sued for false advertising, have your lawyer call ours. But don't once try to say that we are in this to appease ourselves and want total control over your experience. We have specifically asked for your feedback on multiple occasions, through personal talks or reports, and we listen to what you have to say. Sometimes, we mess up. We're human. Even so, we try and make it right.
Point #3: We are not trying to be Something Awful.<Mima> Not to mention TSO thinks sm.org is goddamn somethingawful or something
Something Awful is not a paradise. It has its fair share of problems, but everything that it does right, it does incredibly right. SA is a forum that a number of us have been a part of for years, and we have come to know how much of it is run. We're fans of some of the things they do. Their staff knows how to run a forum (watch Lowtax's talk at the University of Illinois if you think otherwise). However, while there are various parallels in the way certain things are handled, we have no intention of trying to become a clone board of SA.
We've taken certain ideas from SA, to be sure. My Probation avatar is a near-direct copy of theirs, which featured a caged cat, and our creation of bans and permabans were also taken from there (the original designs for those avatars, before I used Hong, were very similar to SA's as well). My Snowball Challenges are copies of their Moderator Challenges. Guess what? They've been well-received and entertaining to many. We're using a few of their avatars, and even "Deal with it" was straight from their forums. The entire concept of CPMC was taken from their creations of FYAD and YCS, off-shoots of certain main boards. If you recall, CPMC was an off-shoot of Everything Else that eventually evolved to become its own subforum. It was never meant to take away from the rest of the board in the way it does now. This stuff works.
If MotK was ever anything like Something Awful, you'd probably hate it. If you wanted a place like SA to post, you'd probably just post on SA. That's why, while we'll steal their ideas, we'll never steal their ideals. We have no desire to be like Something Awful.
Point #4: If you don't like something, speak up.To the people who frequent #touhou-meido, this may seem familiar. We accept your feedback, and if you don't like us or something that we do, we will not rain fire upon you. The site staff is diverse enough that if something comes to our attention and a few of us agree, we will bring it up with the rest of the team. There is a strict communication policy now to prevent misunderstandings and problems from becoming rampant, and if you don't like what we're doing, tell us. This has pretty much always been an option, and with people like Kilga who fight so hard for neutrality, there is always someone to talk to who can convey whatever you need to whoever you need. Hell, if you don't like how I run things, then tell me exactly what I'm doing wrong. If enough people can get behind that, then I'll either change it or I'll resign from my post. Plain and simple. We want your stay at MotK to be an enjoyable one.
However, there is an exceptional problem with people's complacency. There are users who don't care one way or the other. They won't report problems. They won't address issues. They don't care unless they are taken out of their comfort zone. Suddenly, they're being intruded upon, because we staff members are mind-readers, and we are supposed to know how everyone feels all the time. That's plenty fair. We start making moves, and the people who, as far as we knew, had no issues with anything start telling everyone else that we're doing everything wrong and that we don't know what we're doing.
Speak the hell up. I've reiterated that we take your opinions into account. How about you start giving them?
Point #5: The move of the art threads to Community Fanworks was my idea.A-F, Slaves, and Mode are talented artists. What if new users want to see, comment, and request artwork? Ijiyatsu's move was also one that made a lot of sense. Ijiyatsu was terrible Touhou fanfiction with terrible original characters. However, it is made great by the fact that they are being created as a game with community input. Yeah, it started in CPMC with that group as the set of characters, but again, CPMC should not be the community. It should be a board on MotK where people post sometimes. The move to Rika's Garage makes sense, because it's a fan game, and with the move, it can be seen and responded to by people who stumble upon the board. What if a really skilled danmakufu script writer wants to get involved? He shouldn't have to make 10 posts just to let us know. Again, we have other subforums. We're going to use them, whether you like it or not.
Point #6: I have a few more things to get off my chest.TSO: You took this way IRC thing way too personally, but I don't blame you. Everyone jumped your shit and decided to turn this into an attack against you, because many didn't seem to understand anything about it, despite people like Benny trying to stand up for you. You've got a fair share of problems, and some of them are so frustrating that I want to punch you in the face. People can dislike you for those all they want, but you care about the community, even if they don't care about you. A number of us see that. Take a deep breath.
UsuallyDead: You seriously need to get the hell over it. I don't mean for you to be my little punching bag, but you continue to speak ill of the administration, because you can't seem to get past the fact that I found your thread stupid and did something with it. Should I have handled it differently? Absolutely. If I had to go back and handle it differently, would I? Without a doubt. Would I have still thought your thread was stupid? Abso-fucking-lutely. I expressed multiple times why, and you turned the issue into something else entirely and ragequit your janitor position. It seems like everyone who has a run-in with forum staff like that loves to run off screaming "they don't know how to run a forum!" You seem like you have the capacity to be a reasonable person. Take a deep breath.
UncertainKitten: I explained the problems I had with you in IRC the other day, but something else came to light that really encompasses all of it: UK, please, for the love of god, learn how to shut up.
01:31:33 <UncertainKitten> Oh god
01:31:39 * UncertainKitten reads Feito's thread about touhou-meido
01:31:46 <UncertainKitten> Why the fuck can't she leave well enough alone?
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01:48:03 <UncertainKitten> You do realize how gender deviant the touhou community is in GENERAL, right?
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01:53:05 <UncertainKitten> But then you have to deal with how someone gets therapy for the damage society causes thanks to it? And then where's the "medical justification", already an iffy argument against others, for the needed physical changes?
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02:12:59 <UncertainKitten> But I don't think orientation OR gender identity are something people choose
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02:19:28 <UncertainKitten> People on skype bitching about it because they don't have the guts to actually say anything here
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02:33:33 <UncertainKitten> I find the fact that they are scared of a 20 year old woman on the internetz is hilarious
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03:04:22 <UncertainKitten> You have some...opinions about me you don't wish to discuss to my face?
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03:19:40 <UncertainKitten> Xan spoke of it. But the fact that Kanako did air his greivances about me on a public forum behind my back, instantly makes it a public issue
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03:26:12 <UncertainKitten> Which it isn't. So you are being an evasive coward
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03:30:03 <UncertainKitten> Ok, cite sources. Since when has everything ever called attention to myself?
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03:34:08 <UncertainKitten> (10:34:29 PM) ShiningDrake: ...Amazing. Trying to avoid drama by causing it due to not voicing problems when asked. Priceless.
03:34:08 <UncertainKitten> Basically 
;
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03:40:33 <Kanako> And this fucking argument about gender identities went on for like two hours
03:40:35 <UncertainKitten> Bullshit
03:40:38 <UncertainKitten> One hour
03:40:42 <UncertainKitten> And the argument itself was 15 minutes
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03:46:17 <UncertainKitten> Also, I want to know why you think I'm an attention whore, since that came up
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03:55:42 <UncertainKitten> Either we can resolve the supposed hatred, or I at least know my enemies
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04:01:58 <UncertainKitten> I'll be honest Kanako. You should have just said something in meido rather than bullshitting behind my back.
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04:22:05 <UncertainKitten> SERIOUSLY Letty?
04:22:11 * UncertainKitten facepalms
04:22:13 <UncertainKitten> You know what?
04:22:13 <UncertainKitten> Fuck it
04:22:27 <LettyWhiterock> What did I do?
04:22:49 <UncertainKitten> http://www.shrinemaiden.org/forum/index.php?topic=4796.msg235385#msg235385
04:22:52 <UncertainKitten> Yeah.
04:22:58 <LettyWhiterock> Oh ahahaha.
04:23:00 <LettyWhiterock> That was a joke.
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04:23:15 <LettyWhiterock> I posted it over 3 hours ago.
04:23:27 <UncertainKitten> Ok. So my timing was off. Still
04:23:29 <UncertainKitten> Why me!?
04:23:45 <LettyWhiterock> Would it have been okay if it been, say, Greyn instead?
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04:29:13 <UncertainKitten> And sometimes it's hard to believe Chaore. That people aren't out to get me. I like to think they aren't.
I like you, UK, I really do, but when you spend the greater part of
three hours bitching about one thing after another, you start becoming obnoxious, and yeah, it sounds a lot like attention-whoring. You're not willing to let things go, and you want everyone to focus on you and the problem at hand until it's settled. Even Chaore had to tell you to settle down. Just chill out, and take a deep breath. You'll be fine.
To the rest of you: Behave yourselves. I'm tired of typing up long-winded diatribes, because I come off as a jerk, and despite my reputation as Letty Whiterock the Jerkface Mod, I love you guys and want to be accepted by all of you. If anyone is willing to listen and speak up, it's me. You know that. I, above all, want to see this community thrive, and I will do whatever it takes to help make that happen. If I have to step on a few toes, fine. If people hate me and leave, whatever. In the end, what I want to do for you guys is improve the place for you and for everyone else that will come here. In fact, that's what all of us on staff want. Don't fight us.
Peace.
