Originally Posted by
Ele
Mhm. It possible to be a nice person and also be a good admin. We've had them before.
We need more people like Bodhisattva (who always treats everyone he deals with with respect), and less people like the 'too cool for school' admins (not naming any names, they know who they are) that treat almost every interaction with users like they're some offensive smell. Basically, admins ought to be less arrogant and more magnanimous. Admins need not be cunty people.
Well in fairness, I've had to eat a ton of humble pie after being such a shitty staff member for like... 5 or 6 years before I grew up as a person IRL. The amount of completely legit (and fire-worthy) complaints posed on me at different points of my TB Staff Career is bountiful.
And I'm still far from as mature as I'd like to be.
But here's a few things I'll say, without leaking any private information that hasn't been discussed in this thread by current and past admins:
1) There's an assumption that staff mindlessly defend staff, and that's super not true. When a staff member of your own group does something dumb, it makes you look dumb for hiring them, so it's the last thing you want to see. I promise you, many private staff conversations start with "Hey [random staff member] wtf is this [links to complaint]" and if it's legitimate, it's handled. Sometimes it's a misunderstanding, sometimes it's a warning that deserves an apology and puts them on thinner ice, sometimes it's people getting fired/demoted/failing trial periods. That's just on staff complaint side.
2) There's an assumption that when any idea pops into a high staff head, it just sort of happens without thought. Generally speaking, a staff representative talks to their subordinates and fleshes out the jist of what they think could be done to improve something, then they present it to smods and admins, and then the much more mature older staff such as skulfuk and suomynona say "Hey that's retarded and here's why" or "Hey, someone tried that 4 years ago, and here's why it didn't work, so let's try this instead" or "Neat yeah I'll add that when I get home". Any one of us who have been an admin, or even a ninja, will tell you that just because you think an idea is awesome, doesn't mean skulfuk and suo won't make you look like an idiot in telling you how bad the idea is. And that's not them being jerks, they are just a lot smarter, qualified, and know better.
3) This staff is
BY FAR the least controversial staff we've had in a very very long time. We practically begged them to make Creati0n the msquad admin despite Skul's great job. There's not a single Clan Squad member close to deserving as Rai for the position once Fear left. I mean really, it's been incredible. Very very little drama. There were times that nepotism was king but man backstage it really is neutral as shit. Sometimes low staff calls out upper staff to say "Hey, your opinion on this guy is dead wrong. I know him personally, I like this application, we should hire him". It's not just "let's suck the tit of the queens of higher power" like it used to be. People who work longer hours get rewarded.
4) It'll never be beating a dead horse to mention that 99% of staff are volunteers. Some of us have graduated college, work careers, maybe have a wife, and even have kids. For us/them to show up for 30 minutes here and there to clean up the messes of a small indie game and make the experience fun for people is admirable.
I love this staff. TB rocks.