CM-SS13 PSA7OCT23
Public Service Announcement
I, forest2001, am writing this in an effort to address recent developments within the community and to provide what information I am able to alongside my own thoughts and input. Whilst this will hold my official standpoint on all I reference it by no means represents the formal position of the CM Management team nor any others.
I do not expect many of my positions made within this announcement to be particularly well received, at least by one group or another, and that is fine. What I do insist upon however is that anyone and everyone who may discuss this document remain polite and respectful. This community has undergone an enormous amount of drama in the past and it is rare that it goes without many people becoming entangled and distressed by the conduct of community members involved in ‘discussions’ of said drama.
Now, as may be expected the primary discussion point of the more recent development to the community has been, and likely will remain for a while, the departure of one of our Maintainer Managers, Morrowwolf which likely caught most people by surprise.
Morrow has been pretty forthcoming in public regarding reasons for departure however; it is my assessment that this has also been tinged with intentions beyond provision of information. I cannot speak on behalf of Morrow, nor anyone else involved in this situation however I will endeavour to outline causes I am aware of directly, and why this culminated in a relatively dramatic outcome comparable to what could have been.
Perhaps the greatest of causes was a distinct lack of trust, or faith, in the leadership of Frozen and myself. This was sourced by the perception of exclusion from relevant conversations relating to the codebase and other regions that fell under the oversight of the Maintainer team. I have spoken with Morrow regarding this and expressed the same sentiment I will reiterate here; no discussions were held - that I know of - that related to the codebase or server operation itself and did not include the Maintainer managers.
Morrow presented a concern to myself and Frozen regarding oversight of the codebase, and the feeling that we - or I in particular - were preventing/limiting the exercise of Maintainer freedoms to develop and operate the codebase. I have attempted to address this however the only known example I have of this relates to a follow on point, whitelists.
Oversight of the codebase and what is and is not up to scratch remains at the discretion of our Maintainer team however; the hosts retain intervention rights where deemed necessary. While my memory is not infallible and I concede it’s entirely possible I have missed an example of this, but to my knowledge the only direct invocation of those rights relates to the following section.
There is significant, and in certain cases well founded, belief that the Whitelist Councils as a concept is failing. This is not a belief held exclusively by Morrow but it is one point that was raised as a needs-to-change.
This discussion was not entirely specific to all the councils however as each operates differently and it would not be appropriate to discuss them all as the same.
The predominant concern in regards to whitelist councils was that the Yautja council in particular favours a lax approach to reports and that a majority of cases are dismissed due to a lack of explicit Honour Code breaches irrespective of the Spirit of the Whitelist clause.
Further it was raised that there is a lack of leadership presence within the whitelists resulting in my direct involvement beyond a degree expected of the Vice-Host. Whilst there are multiple reasons for my direct involvement in the handling of Whitelists overall it is not in dispute that I am more present than I should be owing to a lack of overall presence by others. That said, it is important that this not be interpreted as an accusation upon others who are in the chain of leadership for Whitelists as I do not believe this to be a result of poor intentions, only preoccupation with non CM related things.
It was raised to me that there are concerns relating to me specifically in regards to corruption and personal bias in favour of friends. There are few instances of potential circumstances where I can see this accusation being made, but I think it would be rude of me to refute any potential bias towards a select few people, be that positive or negative bias.
All I can say on the matter - as it would be poor etiquette for me to just argue and say it’s all lies considering all that will do regardless of accuracy is reinforce the allegation - is that I make effort to ensure that I do not involve myself in official decisions relating to people who I hold a bias of. There are exceptions to this standard however, those being where situations are open-shut and there is little to no disagreement on solution or where I am obligated to input due to my position.
I also must stress that I am open to discussions should people have concerns.
The effects of Morrow’s departure are by no means insignificant. I do not believe it to be a particular secret that the work of Morrow and Harry as Maintainer Managers has led to a wild increase in development/PRs and a marked increase in overall server performance.
With Morrow’s departure from the power sharing arrangement with Harry there is a significant amount of stress on Harry to operate the Maintainer team and act as the unofficial lead for System Admins & generally operate the server box. As a result, Harry has elected to step down.
Morrow gave a suggestion for his own replacement and at present this is being deliberated.
Within the shared position of Maintainer Manager, Morrow was chiefly responsible for Game Design/Direction and has led changes to the game flow since the original appointment as Development Project Lead prior to the reshuffle to Maintainers and the combining of his and Harry’s roles.
With his departure therefore Game Design/Direction alterations or progression are currently unguided and will likely be halted for the time being.
PRs will not be prevented, restricted or otherwise impacted by this, beyond where overall balance or game direction will be immediately affected.
There have been some other departures from the Maintainer Team following Morrow departing which has left the team undermanned and thin on the ground, particularly in the case of Mapping. This is something that I hope to be able to address or resolve in the future.
Another major reason for Morrow’s departure, and indeed the reason it was so abrupt, was due to - for want of a better term - an attempted coup.
To sum it up, Morrow approached Frozen with various of the points I have discussed above and told him to fix them or he’d oust Frozen as Host. Needless to say this did not go over well, nor was it an appropriate action to take by Morrow.
I have not been privy or directly involved with much of the discussion on this topic, which sadly is a recurring issue. Whilst I remain Vice-Host, I am all too rarely approached by people, staff or players, regarding internal or external concerns/problems. Much of the time it all goes directly to Frozen and as a result I’m unaware of many issues until they become serious issues and it’s almost too late.
That said, I was privy to some conversation, including a bickering fight between Frozen and Morrow. As I included in my disclaimer, some or most of my points will not be well received by some group or other. This is most certainly one of them, and I’m going to be far more direct and speak now to Frozen and Morrow.
I am disgusted by the both of you. Both have some good points in what has been said, and both have utterly shamed yourselves in how you have behaved and represented your cases.
I have spoken with Frozen within my capacity as Vice-Host regarding reported conduct on the discord as I assessed this to have broken staff expectations of professionalism.
I do not appreciate being informed one way or another of the sheer degree of cloak and daggers being attempted in lieu of this mess as an attempt to strike out at people. This is a community and so far I’m not seeing many people acting like it.
This goes to staff, players, maintainers, anyone and everyone regardless of your positions and opinions. If you cannot treat people respectfully and allow the situation to be resolved properly - get out. Just get out. I have been here for years and every time there is drama people swarm like sharks in a frenzy. It is disgusting. This is a game. It’s not real. There is no reason for people to be playing politics and backroom backstabbing.
So. Where do we go from here?
A good question. And unfortunately not one I have a clear answer for.
Whilst the event I created on Discord will be used to bring attention to this document, I will be holding a Q&A / AMA session within the next 7 days barring a change in circumstances, to allow for people to raise and discuss concerns with me in a more formal setting.