Staffing changes

This is what the game needs!

Chedburn, you have been informed

I do appreciate this info coming out in any way, but I really have a hard time getting worked up about this. Seems like this person we're all talking about is just going to be telling you not to spam trade chat. I don't care what red flags someone has. It should be a pretty easy thing to handle even if all these accusations are true.

It's also a bit unfortunate that the only two here who know the facts can say two completely different things about them. It's hard for the rest of us to have any idea what actually happened.

edit: If Ched is looking for some staff who won't piss off the community, I will volunteer. I promise to never ever use the staff tools so then I can't abuse them.

More importantly.. y u purple!???

Account security is a pretty big thing to have issues with, though....

Even if it was intentional or not, the fact that they had to be retrained 4 times (complete retrains, not just verifies) is incompetence, and they should never have been made staff again.

There is evidence that Diva was involved in all of the 14 accounts, and that those 14 accounts were accessed illegally as a direct result of the actions Diva took. In the real world, this would lead to exactly what happened here, firing. Why Ched and the panel decides to go against what is absolutely common sense that 99% of the community agree with is really quite disappointing.

Re the last point, incorrect, I'm being vocal now, as I was with Ched when I was CM, because I actually want Torn to succeed. I absolutely loved being community manager for the majority of the time I was, and usually always had positive responses from staff about what I was doing. Being staff/community manager before puts me in a unique position to comment on how it (did) works and allow for discussion by the community. Trying to make force me to be silent now isn't going to work well for staff.

I think you're also forgetting, I actually did make a decision on this. Y'know, the one where I destaffed the staff member responsible?

Just because I was staff/CM doesn't give me an less of a reason to discuss this. That's much like me saying to you now that you've no right to discuss it because you are staff.

But when all this happened was before you were put into your new position and you have made it quite clear you don't deal with issues with stuff that happened before you become cm in training. So why did you make an exception for this case?

You are also breaking the rules talking about private discussions and decisions with admin/staff that are not suppose to be shared with torn players, same with making threads and discussions about certain players.

Who even chose to train again after the second time? Surely it'd be at that point you say f**k it and just put them as a helper.

I'm not sure who told you it was before I was made community manager? One of the 4 retrainings and the majority of the account issues happened whilst I was CM.

I've not mentioned any content of any private discussions as far as I'm aware?

Decisions regarding staff/admins are surely a matter of public interest? What do you guys want, more transparency or staff issues to be kept to just staff?

wow this is really heavy.

Not going to give an opinion on this as think things have gone far too out "there".

-and not going to be too vocal about things from now on (which will probably please people anyway).

If the staff member that was re-staffed after being de-staffed had some dignity he/she would have declined Cheddys offer!

I think any members of the staff reading this need to understand that nowhere has Marc gone after the staff team in general. It's easy to get offended and worked up when you're doing your best to do a great job. Really, this comes down to Chedburn. In general, I have a very favorable opinion of most of the team, including many of those who have replied here.

That being said- the path forward here is pretty clear. Just reading Chedburn's initial post about staffing changes, it is clear that there must be a dedicated CM who is given mostly free reign to administer the game. Chedburn has the vision about developing Torn and the responsibility for coordinating the devs. That's huge. But, as could be predicted from his own post, wearing another hat isn't going to work. I don't disagree with relaxing some punishments, but while Ched has done very well planning the game mechanics, PR isn't exactly his forte, and he's usually compensated for that as any good leader would by delegating what's he's not so good at.

As for Marc, he's sort of Torn's Edward Snowden. Some people are going to hail him for airing things that reflect horribly on the status quo, others are going to point out he violated a commitment, written or not, to confidentiality. I can't blame anyone, staff especially, for being miffed about that. Tbh, I have a lot of respect for what Marc was trying to do and for what he's doing now.

Finally, we've been promised more transparency a few times recently. Ched and the committee need to prioritize figuring out what that means in terms of what staff does. Is it making "Federal Jail" viewable again, sans spam bots? I'm sure there are some great ideas floating around. (Making fed public is an example, that might not be practical at this point).

The sucky thing is the person who was re-employed (IMO, wrongfully based upon everything that's been said by all side) would have been much better served if they hadn't been allowed back into the fold. Not doing well at a job doesn't make you a bad person. Having had to fire people myself, there's never ill will, it's a business decision. Now, it's all public and they're really in a bad spot.

Context is a funny thing - here are the posts I was replying to:

bogie: that's what Diva was fired for, hill
bogie: yet she was recently re-instated

Seems that not discussing staff and particularly decisions by Admins only applies to other people.

Part of the job of staff is to support the management of the day; if we find we can't support them we step down from the job.

You found yourself in that position and I respected that you did what you thought was best. I am not sure that you will look back with pride at your current behaviour when you have had a bit more time to regain perspective.

You are entitled to your opinions on what is happening in and to Torn, and pleasingly Chedburn is supportive of such frank debate. I doubt this thread would be still live under previous management. It is less laudable for you to discuss information you gained and decisions you made in order to support your position when it involves being quite so cruel to another player.

I do question your motives on this.

Regardless of who said what and when, a staff member has been singled out. This creates a problem. Firstly, if you are an ethical player who simply wants a question answered and you have a choice of which staff member you could ask, are you going to ask this staff member or someone else? Secondly, if you are an unethical player hoping to leverage incompetence in a staff member, who are you going to go to?

The problem is, a certain type of player will go to this staff member intentionally and other players will go to other staff members. Innocent or not, the odds of this staff member being somehow involved in a future "mishap" are higher just by virtue of being identified. Yes, I know, said member will not have access to account passwords anymore. But there are many ways to scam the game and there are players who will try to leverage this person's difficulty in grasping the responsibilities of the role to their own advantage.

I think the way it seems you regard this, is what's wrong with some Torn staff members today.

1. The problem with transparency started with the past generation of staff and is one that still causes problems now. If the previous head staff had listened to calls to be more transparent with their dealings and decisions, it would have impacted on the way today's staff think and regard players.

2. Being staff doesn't make you better or more important than the ordinary player. The concept of being staff to help make the game more enjoyable is out of the window, as some of today's staff just seem like smug sort that get their kicks out of banning, graving threads and screaming "press the report button" all over the forums.

3. It may seem like a bunch of whiney kids raging over a topic that will die down soon enough, but a fact is set in stone...the average players' faith in torn staff is all but gone and in time, the impact will be obvious.

Its probable that there are many players who seem promising as staff sending applications, still previous members of staff are instantly rehired despite past controversies.

Staff system needs a huge overhaul in my opinion. The interest in new game mechanics won't last nearly as long as the impact of staff actions.

The way staff are rallying around Diva just because she is "one of their own" is a bit disheartening.

If one of my colleagues was shit, I'd call them shit and would hope they left.

That came from bogie, someone who was not staff at the time it happened, and is not staff now, it was cruel of you to confirm who it was. I didn't confirm or deny who it was to anyone before you posted this in global.

Nothing that has happened on Torn in recent weeks is anything that I can be proud of, and I sincerely hope no-one is proud. Torn is going down a dangerous road that I absolutely do not want to see it go down. After playing for 11 years, being staff for 4 and CM for a few months, it would be personally terrible for me to see that happen.

I question how you feel you're able to discuss the situation and I'm not allowed to do the same? No-one else in this thread has been questioned about their motives. Minus the main issue of verifying accounts and retrainings (which were imperative to bring the issue to light about this restaffing), I've not used any information I gained as staff/CM.

The problem is most of the current staff are friends of Divas which is probably why she was reinstated in the first place, too much nepotism.