I've read every reply in here, so I won't reiterate too much, but I kind of wanted to present something else. I wanted to walk you guys through how the staff (myself included) came to this decision. I'm just going to say it, but we aren't always the best. In fact, this whole situation is one that I've personally never been so conflicted on. I've gone back and fourth, back and fourth, whined elsewhere, whined to the admins, etc etc.
So for a while some staff (myself included, again) felt that PZC should be more focused on Zelda Classic, and talking about games and stuff. So, what we did was what I'd like to call a hot and dirty fix. I'll admit, I was actually one of the main people pushing for removing currentevents. Why? I'm active in there, right? Well, I was lazy. Yep. Lazy. Did I try to talk to Tim when he posted the thing that got him banned for three days? No. Did I talk to Chris Miller about some of the stuff he posts? No. Have I ever asked Nate/ Toast to tone it down? Never. Did anyone else try to? No, not recently. Did I go and bitch about it elsewhere for the better part of two days? I sure did. I didn't help fix the problem. I made it worse.
So after reading all these replies, this is my conclusion. We may have made a mistake to outright make this new rule prohibiting these discussions without A) presenting an alternative, and rules at the time that are detailed, and B) making it even harder for people to feel like they can talk about stuff. A lot of us are adults, or close to it. A lot of us are friends, and a lot of us have had talks here, in current events, and elsewhere. I think what made people absolutely flip their shit was how this seemingly came out of nowhere. The wording of the OP could have been better, but to be frank, I don't really have any better way to put it. Aevin catches a lot of flack for being the guy who does all this stuff, and while it is ultimately up to him (and the other admins) what changes get made, us other mods could have been more firm, or thought about it more.
But here's the thing, and I think we can all relate to this. The staff are just burned out. Please, Aevin, and Russ, do not take this personally, cause I know you guys care, but I think it is wearing on you too much. I think it is becoming too heavy of a burden, and it is clear that you care, but it's also clear that neither of you seem happy doing this. I've noticed a trend with us staff: An issue arises on discord. Someone brings it forward sometimes, and then we kind of sit around for a few days talking about it until someone does something rash, or until we kind of forget about it cause it happened hours, or days ago, and people have moved on. Within the staff, we really don't have a protocol, or a clear way to deal with stuff. We've talked about it, but that's just it... we talked about it. Nothing has been firmly put in place. So some crazy new thing like this gets pushed through cause we are all kind of jumping on the band wagon cause no one has anything better, or wants to try to think of anything better. I'll be the first to admit, and even quote myself; when Aevin showed the draft of the changes I said "This is like a dream, if I were to make some changes, it would basically be this."
I wasn't thinking it through. I'm not speaking for anyone else with this bit, but I was not thinking it through. I was stressed and worked up a bit about some other off site stuff, and I really wasn't in a position to be thinking about some big sweeping change that would upset everyone so much. I've talked with Shane, Chris, Tim, and a few others, and we did kinda circle-jerk some PZC rage. Won't deny it. Part of why I was mad was cause I felt like I let everyone down. I know, sounds like I'm trying to play the victim, but it's my honest feelings. I was disappointed in myself at how effing PISSED everyone got, so I got pissed too. I saw how upset everyone was, and how badly this was being received. I've been displeased with Aevin at times, but I hate to see a well intended guy being the punching bag for an entire community as if it were only him, when really, we are all somewhat incompetent, and disinterested in moderating the discord.
I don't think I'm fit for this kind of decision making, and I really don't think any of us are, to some degree. I'm not really sure where to go from here, but I will leave you all with this: No offense and please hear me out, but when it was TS, Aevin, and Russ running things with LtM owning the site, it was a little better. We simply had more resources. LtM occasionally did behind the scenes tech stuff, and the admins could focus on running the site events, and the discord. We had a bigger divide of power, and TS was very active in Pure's server, well liked, and charismatic. With now only Aevin and Russ running things for most of the time, I feel things have gone.. stagnant on some policies. No more is there an active admin. And again, you can't force yourself to want to participate. You can try to clean up the community so you may want to participate more, but what happens when that community falls apart, and everyone is even more mad at you? Wouldn't make me want to interact with that community much either so I totally get where they are coming from. I was wrong when I said they are apathetic. Wrong entirely. They are burned the fuck out. There's this "community image" we want, but no one to provide an example. People who use ZC have found other groups, admins included. I feel like both Aevin and Russ have moved on from the PZC discord, and I was one of the few voices saying "do this thing you've wanted to do with this server to make it better" and a lot of our members are kinda in "WTF mode" about it and.. mods gotta deal with that.
I'm not quitting, or stepping down either, but I've considered starting a poll to see if you guys think I should (not here, but as its own thread). This is totally a good time to mention we are hiring btw. I have been here for literally half my life, 15 years this past January. I can count on one (okay, maybe both) hands the amount of people who have been here longer. I may not be the most assertive, or articulate, but trust me when I say, I've seen a lot, and this is probably the biggest shit show since the 2008-10 debacle, or whenever the debate room/ mature discussion was around, idr cause I was uh, banned most of that time. But I still lurked till coming back in 2012. Then again to discord back in 2016. I've become closer with a lot of you, and I hate to see this fighting and stress, and hurt feelings.
I'm just kind of rambling now, and I don't really know what to do. I could talk a bunch of shit about Aevin, and jump ship, but I don't want to do that either. I've said enough, and I don't know what else to do. That's becoming a recurring theme with me. I just ask that we somehow all try to come to some form of reasonable compromise.