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The idea never occurred to me on my own, but when it was broached to me it seemed like a novel and common solution to many problems I feel there were on SB and similar forums. Having staff members with their mighty staff tags/titles posting and interacting on the forum superficially doesn't seem to interfere with forum operations but overall I do feel there are several problematic elements with it, whether intentional or unintentional.
Firstly posting under the guise of a staff (especially as senior staff) can have an intimidating effect and it's not one that is not easily obviated by simply adding a disclaimer to every post like it's a pharmaceutical ad. Staff members are often promoted as 'good' or 'influential' posters already and being staff usually magnifies those issues. On SB just having a staff member present could very likely add a legitimacy to an argument or side of discussion or inspire and rally other posters in the discussions, including contentious ones. Oftentimes even with the seeming obvious 'disclaimer' of staff posting as normal posters as opposed to actual official capacity as staffers there statements.... especially if passionate or rantish... tend to be taken just like that or have a chilling or resenting effect on people.
Conversely on the other side, staff members engaged in even normal posting or antagonistic posting could often be cited as somehow being staff impropriety or used as ammunition for perceived bias or rallying points for outrage or a focal point for trolling and discontent even if it's somewhat clear that most of the time staff members are posting just as staff members. Unfortunately staff members just from their authority both implied and real are separated from the normal poster base and could create an Us versus Them mentality. On SB.... especially early on and continuing to today, cults or brigades of personality have often arisen and centered around staff members and in its worse case was ultimately a partial cause of both of SB's 'scandals' IMHO.
Secondly, for a more selfishly practical reason, I was encouraged to assist in developing and administrating this forum with the idea that I'd be using my SB derived username as an Admin and it was suggested that I could use an alt account for normal posting unassociated with all of the baggage of my previous SB identity. Considering the other drama that's happened with the nonsensical declarations and allegations of being guilty of everything from doxxing to death threats, and the threats up to and including death threats, it seemed like a good idea when presented and so after joining the forum and finding out that using a regular user alt was an option, was something I thought was worth considering after most of this outrage dramatics blew over.
Thirdly, and most selfishly of all, people can stop whining about me being glib or irrelevant or other conduct unbecoming of a mod.... or just as bad... farming hundreds of likes per post for being exactly that way whilst ranting some popular message like us staff members used to be able to do on the other forum even if egregious likefarming wasn't the intent.
Plus while there are legitimate concerns brought up about this and other things, there is also a large portion of intentional bad actors on this forum who are still freely posting here, taking advantage of our permissible environment not because they appreciate or support or want to be a part of what we're building here but because they want to destroy us for having wrongthink and want to censor us and worse and are seizing everything in trying to find ways to destroy this forum. However even their complaints at their core and independent of their sad and often amusingly pathetic motivations and character are legitimate on the face of it. And it'll be immensely amusing to think said people wil spend inordinate amounts of time and effort discerning who my alt is... or even if I have an alt when it'll probably be an open secret after a few months anyways if I did make one.
And there are posters including in this thread who are legitimately and passionately bringing up their own similar concerns in regards to transparency and elitism which I do understand and sympathize with and nothing I said here completely obviates those issues. Like many things in life there are tradeoffs. I do feel TS is far more transparent then other web forums we've been to and we've set up TS with its public warning system and open appeals and light footprint in regards to discipline and rule set to be assisting in those issues and unlike other forums, we're not deleting/pruning the criticism and suggestions being brought up.
And if the administration/owner(s) insist on declaring no alts, I'll obviously abide by that.
All of the above.... this is me speaking btw... nothing official. It's pretty easy to blur the lines between official and personal... like I said.
Firstly posting under the guise of a staff (especially as senior staff) can have an intimidating effect and it's not one that is not easily obviated by simply adding a disclaimer to every post like it's a pharmaceutical ad. Staff members are often promoted as 'good' or 'influential' posters already and being staff usually magnifies those issues. On SB just having a staff member present could very likely add a legitimacy to an argument or side of discussion or inspire and rally other posters in the discussions, including contentious ones. Oftentimes even with the seeming obvious 'disclaimer' of staff posting as normal posters as opposed to actual official capacity as staffers there statements.... especially if passionate or rantish... tend to be taken just like that or have a chilling or resenting effect on people.
Conversely on the other side, staff members engaged in even normal posting or antagonistic posting could often be cited as somehow being staff impropriety or used as ammunition for perceived bias or rallying points for outrage or a focal point for trolling and discontent even if it's somewhat clear that most of the time staff members are posting just as staff members. Unfortunately staff members just from their authority both implied and real are separated from the normal poster base and could create an Us versus Them mentality. On SB.... especially early on and continuing to today, cults or brigades of personality have often arisen and centered around staff members and in its worse case was ultimately a partial cause of both of SB's 'scandals' IMHO.
Secondly, for a more selfishly practical reason, I was encouraged to assist in developing and administrating this forum with the idea that I'd be using my SB derived username as an Admin and it was suggested that I could use an alt account for normal posting unassociated with all of the baggage of my previous SB identity. Considering the other drama that's happened with the nonsensical declarations and allegations of being guilty of everything from doxxing to death threats, and the threats up to and including death threats, it seemed like a good idea when presented and so after joining the forum and finding out that using a regular user alt was an option, was something I thought was worth considering after most of this outrage dramatics blew over.
Thirdly, and most selfishly of all, people can stop whining about me being glib or irrelevant or other conduct unbecoming of a mod.... or just as bad... farming hundreds of likes per post for being exactly that way whilst ranting some popular message like us staff members used to be able to do on the other forum even if egregious likefarming wasn't the intent.
Plus while there are legitimate concerns brought up about this and other things, there is also a large portion of intentional bad actors on this forum who are still freely posting here, taking advantage of our permissible environment not because they appreciate or support or want to be a part of what we're building here but because they want to destroy us for having wrongthink and want to censor us and worse and are seizing everything in trying to find ways to destroy this forum. However even their complaints at their core and independent of their sad and often amusingly pathetic motivations and character are legitimate on the face of it. And it'll be immensely amusing to think said people wil spend inordinate amounts of time and effort discerning who my alt is... or even if I have an alt when it'll probably be an open secret after a few months anyways if I did make one.
And there are posters including in this thread who are legitimately and passionately bringing up their own similar concerns in regards to transparency and elitism which I do understand and sympathize with and nothing I said here completely obviates those issues. Like many things in life there are tradeoffs. I do feel TS is far more transparent then other web forums we've been to and we've set up TS with its public warning system and open appeals and light footprint in regards to discipline and rule set to be assisting in those issues and unlike other forums, we're not deleting/pruning the criticism and suggestions being brought up.
And if the administration/owner(s) insist on declaring no alts, I'll obviously abide by that.
All of the above.... this is me speaking btw... nothing official. It's pretty easy to blur the lines between official and personal... like I said.
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