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What to do about an inactive owner/staff?


Innocuous Coma
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Okay, so there's an rp forum I enjoy that I've been on for three years, but right now, there's a few glaring problems:

 

-The current staff are very biased, lazy and inactive, and only really look at their friends' stuff- they even refuse to ban a literal pedophile who has publicly harassed a minor in the past
-The current owner doesn't care about managing the site or fixing these issues. The only time they've posted in the last year or so was when I posted a public poll asking about replacing some inactive moderators, and it was only to defend their position. 

-The current owner also refuses to appoint new staff or transfer ownership- she actively vetoes new people gaining administrative powers.

 

I'm not a staff member, but the site is falling apart due to this- nobody wants to jump ship due to memories, rp buddies, etc. Is there anything that could be done in this situation? The host is forumotion, if that helps.

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Honestly, it sounds like a toxic community. You have staff that don't care about their members and hold onto their positions for the sake of holding their positions, you have members publicly calling out staff, nobody's happy with the situation and it sounds like you're all making it difficult for each other. It sounds stressful, frustrating, and all around like a bad time. It's time to get out of there.

 

You can't force your way into staff, and you can't force someone to give up ownership of the site they created. No forum host would allow that. It sounds like you already tried to start a mutiny and that failed. So your last option, the way I see it, is to make a new site. And learn from their mistakes.

 

If I were in your shoes, I would quietly gather all my things and start creating a new site that is similar to the old one - enough so that you can continue stories and still attract some old members - but different enough so staff at the old site can't claim you've stolen their ideas/lore/etc. It's in this instance that I might also put somewhere that the site was "inspired" by the old one if it's niche enough and the community is small. But that's all the recognition I would give.

 

Honestly, if you make something that is within the same vein as the old site and invite your old rp buddies from the toxic site once it's open/super near completion, they're pretty likely to jump over, especially if they recognize the horrible situation like you do. You can even offer them opening incentives (like beta-testing or joining before opening or whatever). 

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1 minute ago, Sage said:

Honestly, it sounds like a toxic community. You have staff that don't care about their members and hold onto their positions for the sake of holding their positions, you have members publicly calling out staff, nobody's happy with the situation and it sounds like you're all making it difficult for each other. It sounds stressful, frustrating, and all around like a bad time. It's time to get out of there.

 

You can't force your way into staff, and you can't force someone to give up ownership of the site they created. No forum host would allow that. It sounds like you already tried to start a mutiny and that failed. So your last option, the way I see it, is to make a new site. And learn from their mistakes.

 

If I were in your shoes, I would quietly gather all my things and start creating a new site that is similar to the old one - enough so that you can continue stories and still attract some old members - but different enough so staff at the old site can't claim you've stolen their ideas/lore/etc. It's in this instance that I might also put somewhere that the site was "inspired" by the old one if it's niche enough and the community is small. But that's all the recognition I would give.

 

Honestly, if you make something that is within the same vein as the old site and invite your old rp buddies from the toxic site once it's open/super near completion, they're pretty likely to jump over, especially if they recognize the horrible situation like you do. You can even offer them opening incentives (like beta-testing or joining before opening or whatever). 

 

Me and three other members from the toxic site have our own site running, and stuff. We were thinking of inviting some people over, but we'd like to get more done.

 

Technically, though, the current owner is not the creator of the site- she usurped it from a previous owner, who was given owner status by yet another previous owner. 

 

And ye Snark, I agree- I read the TOS p recently, looks like its time to jump ship.

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I agree with the above. Sounds like it's time to move on. 

 

I will say "player poaching" (i.e.: asking a group of players from one site to move from that site to your site) is usually frowned upon, especially if doing so will handicap/kill the other site.  So just give a bit of thought to that before you decide whether or not to do so!

 

EDIT: It has been brought to my attention that "poaching" has many different connotations. So it might not apply in this context. ^^; Don't mind me~ 

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Everyone else has already said that, but I'll just say it too. If you're not staff, and staff won't listen, there is literally nothing you can do, other than leave with your friends who want to follow you. I'll also say creating a poll was pretty bad of a move, as you can't force staff to accept other members as moderators. Sure, it would be nice if sites were a democracy, but they're not. They're at best a benevolent dictatorship.

 

So, I'd work on the site you already have and invite those who want to jump ship as well to go in.

 

And if possible cut down on the conversation about (old site) on (new site), so you can all leave the negativity behind.

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  • 2 weeks later...

In this situation, I think the only thing you can do is start a site of your own if you have people who'd be willing to help you. You could see if the folks you talk to on there want to rp on a site like Roleplay Haven, or on a pan-fandom forum like creative freedom or the story teller's circle if you don't want to take on the responsibilities of all the technical aspects of running a forum. I don't think you can really make staff do anything and you're most likely going to cause problems for yourself on the site.

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On 12/12/2018 at 5:54 PM, Innocuous Coma said:

-The current staff are very biased, lazy and inactive, and only really look at their friends' stuff- they even refuse to ban a literal pedophile who has publicly harassed a minor in the past
-The current owner doesn't care about managing the site or fixing these issues. The only time they've posted in the last year or so was when I posted a public poll asking about replacing some inactive moderators, and it was only to defend their position. 

-The current owner also refuses to appoint new staff or transfer ownership- she actively vetoes new people gaining administrative powers.

 

I agree that this sounds like an overall toxic situation and it really sucks the life out of RP. It reminds me of some other forum I finally left last year, cutting ties and running away to write elsewhere, and while I know it can be really, really hard to leave plot lines and characters who care about very much, it's so much better in the end to get out of a toxic relationship, even if it's pretend words. 

 

Boundaries are good, even in play-by-post.

If you and your friends want to continue to write with each other, then it's time to talk about leaving. Start your own forum or find another forum with a theme and a style that you mostly agree on. Anything, at this point sounds like it would be more fun and better for your health in the end. RP is just a hobby, mostly, and it shouldn't be weighed down by that kind of stuff at all.

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