Starting from Scratch- Breathing a new life into an older board

[Anonymous 234]

So long story short, our site went private for what was supposed to be only a short while so that we could revamp and rebrand our site. It unfortunately has taken a lot longer than intended because of the current pandemic and everyone's lives being turned upside down. But we're getting close to a stage now that we can think about reopening after making a bunch of changes and trying to target the problems that were brought up to us before.

 

In the past, we made mistakes, I'm a big enough person to admit to it- but what I'm afraid of now, is reopening and continuing to have a bad name for ourselves even though I have done everything within reason to try and change this. Is this something we could ever recover from or is a bad reuptation just going to follow us forever?

 

All I want to do is reopen and enjoy writing again and not have his OOC drama follow us. Any advice?

Anonymous poster hash: 43ee8...82b

[Belle 53]

The biggest issue I tend to see with drama so big that it spills out into the bigger RP community and actually gains your board a reputation is that the conversation tends to be controlled by those hurt by it in the first place. It really doesn't matter what changes you put in place to address the problems if no one outside of the staff is aware that's what you're doing. Boards are constantly evolving (at least, the ones that last are) and changes in process/documentation/whatever tend to get lumped under that reasoning.

 

So I would say the most crucial thing to do would be to draft up a reopening announcement that actually addresses the board's negative reputation and history and outlines everything you've put into place to make sure meaningful change takes place. That way, you get to outline your vision for the board and the community, and it doesn't look like you're trying to sweep your previous mistakes under the rug with a rebranding that does nothing to acknowledge that things were handled badly in the past.

[clipsed 231]

Some negative connotations are easy to shake, while others aren't. If it's something you're committed to, I would definitely work at it!

[Grimscythe 181]

From your post, it sounds like you’re passionate about your site. I wouldn’t give up—it can take time to recover from something negative, especially with cancel culture being as bad as it is now.
 

I 100% agree with Belle about acknowledging previous mistakes, but I don’t know if I fully agree with the method. For some people, it works. For others, it could be a potential deterrent. If the first thing I see when joining a new site has to do with drama, it makes me weary. 
 

Perseverance may also be key in this regard. Recovering could take time, but patience is necessary. I hope your reopening goes well!

[DivineRabbit 64]

I actually was part of a revitalization ( Affliction ) but it was merely changing the name of the same place and revitalizing it. The forum is still Seattle. But we needed to make a mental division in all of our heads about what was and what could be. We rechristened it and determinedly wrote and perservered to remove the stain that OOC drama of others had  done, ( those typists were gone thankfully ) and we were able about six months in to have great writers wander in through word of mouth.

 

There is I think no tried and true way - all the above suggestions are awesome because you have to hold your ground and not let it get bad the next time because lets face it - drama happens. The degree is how your admin crew works as one and handles it calmly and with a bit of humor. Because we are all people and everyone is very different.

 

However I think when you begin to reopen make a hard core agreement in staff to keep things to staff and have checks and balances in place via rules and warning levels proactively to keep it from repeating in the new opening.