I recently came to the realization that there is no easy way for Westfinder community to share ideas and communicate as a whole. There are easy ways for the staff to communicate with the community (their own blog, for instance), but there is no simple, widespread way for community members to share ideas and feedback with everyone.
Thus, I decided to create a blog for the community. This is a place to put up ideas, feedback, pretty much anything, to be viewed by the community as a whole.
How does it work? Fairly simple: anyone who wants to can send me an e-mail containing any text they want posted on the blog. I will simply copy-paste whatever is indicated should be in the blog directly into a blog post. I will include the name of the poster, unless you specify in the e-mail that you want it to be anonymous, in which case I will be happy to leave it so.
However, this is not simply a forum to complain. Feel free to (in fact, please do!) include what you like about how Westfinder is doing things! How a bootleg was run, how much you enjoyed a specific workshop, the list goes on. I would rather this not become simply a forum for complaining, but if that happens to be what the community wants to do, I feel that it is important to share it with everyone - after all, if there is a widespread problem with something, then something should be done about it, and this is one way for it to be known about.
In short, a summary: e-mail me anything you want to be put up here, and I will post it directly. I would appreciate it if there was a balance of positive and negative feedback and comments, however. Please keep any criticism constructive.
My email is: notzepenguins@gmail.com
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I like that you're making the effort to expand community feedback, this is cool to see. While I understand that the Westfinder Blog only leaves room for the topics we raise, our subsection on the Wayfinder forums is also a great place for anyone to voice praise / concern.
ReplyDeleteThis blog is a welcome addition to the number of ways communication within Westfinder has been growing. I just hope that it wasn't the product of you or others feeling ignored, overlooked, or unheard. While Staff still has work to do in improving our communication, there are only so many mediums we can provide before YOU have to step up to the plate and let us (and everyone! this shouldn't be a staff/not-staff kind of thing) know what's on your mind.
<3
Greg
Why a blog in a system that makes it very difficult to have large numbers of people with posting access is my question. Why not something like a livejournal community, wherein if you wish to post on it, it's easy to gain access?
ReplyDeleteFor the record, if you'd like to raise a concern anonymously, you're always welcome to set up a separate email address and send an email to the Westfinder gmail account. And if you want to say something anonymously to the community, feel free to set up another handle and post on the Wayfinder forum.
ReplyDeleteWhile I appreciate the sentiment behind this blog, I agree with Riva -- I don't know if it's the most efficient or inclusive way to generate dialogue. I'd personally rather see the existing systems get utilized before we start adding more.
I'm thoroughly with Greg and Riva--a Blog is really not the best way to foster communication or discussion. We kind of have a forum for exactly this purpose already! No sense scattering people further, dividing them between the forum and here. If you've got concerns, raise them on the forum.
ReplyDelete~Duk
I maintain that this should exist (though I will look into an LJ community, forgot about those) for the simple purpose of anonymity. It's really irritating to make a new handle every time you want to post something anonymously, and clutters up the forum system. The more profiles that are actually on a forum, the more needless server space it takes up.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I know I personally don't like the format of the forums, and I'd be surprised if no one else did. One of the other reasons I made it a blog is because too many times on forums I've seen people start editing their posts whenever something becomes controversial, cutting out whatever might actually have been important to avoid any hostilities.
Except that the WFE forums don't allow you to edit your posts after the first few minutes.
ReplyDeleteForums are designed for DISCUSSION--blogs are designed for big dramatic posts. I personally much prefer the format of a forum for discussion, and see this blog as rather redundant.
...Besides, if people want to be anonymous, why not just say they can email you and have you post what they want said anonymously on the forums?
~Duk
(Not to mention that you CAN delete any comments you post on a blog, so your point works against you there...)
ReplyDeleteThe problem with posting annoyances and complaints on the WFE forums is that they're then ON THE WFE FORUMS. Which will, from their responses, only annoy them and possibly piss them off more.
ReplyDeleteI really don't want to have to make -another- email address to send anonymous emails from, and I think that not many other people will be happy to have to make a new email, and sign onto that new email every time they want to post something.
A forum of our own might be nice, and I know some hosting sites, but having complaints on the forums we're complaining about is never a good idea.
~Summer
I was about to say basically the same thing: This blog has the merit of being completely unregulated by any staff, Westfinder or Wayfinder. Like any true media, it works outside of the government.
ReplyDeleteOh, and it's totally something I would've started if I wasn't staff. :P
http://www.forumer.com/
ReplyDeletehttp://www.freeforums.org/
http://www.lefora.com/
Three different free forum hosting sites. Info available on each one via its website.
It... bothers and deeply upsets me on so many different levels that people have this image of Wayfinder as the enemy, who will get angry or annoyed at our discussions...
ReplyDeleteWayfinder are our friends. We should be able to work with them and see them as part of one big community. I want to really actively do anything I can to foster that sense of inclusion, and I'm really hurt by how opposed people seem to be to it...
~Duk
Sorry to pop your bubble, but any large institution such as Wayfinder will have both people with views countering theirs and people within themselves who wish that things were different.
ReplyDeleteWhen a higher-up with GodMode:On tells you that you can't run around with your friends because they don't approve of the legislature that -they themselves are using-, it tends to spark tempers. Yes, I know that 'you can't make everyone happy,' but having a rising minority completely shut down for what seems like a somewhat illegitimate reason confuses, angers, and incites people.
We're not really opposed to a sense of inclusion, but in the community's eyes, it doesn't seem to be happening. Maybe that's just me as a person who hasn't actually -been- to WFE (and probably won't be able to unless they lower their fees, holyshit), but I'm not exactly the only one.
I have a slightly different objection. I don't want to be Wayfinder. Westfinder is something different than Wayfinder, despite the obvious similarities and inspirations, and we need to treasure that uniqueness. Using their forums for everything is making us more dependent on them, and, symbolically at least (and symbols are important), the same thing as them.
ReplyDeleteAlso, on a more comfort-zone note, I don't like the idea of a symbolic Big Brother (which is what Wayfinder has been feeling like) looking over our noses whenever we discuss something, with the power to shut down and/or edit any conversation we actually have. Maybe they wouldn't, maybe they would, but the fact is, they could.
Okay first of all, I wanna tone down the hostility here.
ReplyDeleteThe issue with anonymity here is that everything gets filtered through a single person (on this site, Luke). If you post something anonymously on the forums you:
a) are the ONLY person who knows who posted
b) have the power to edit / delete your post if you feel so necessary
c) have the ability to continue whatever dialogue you've opened using your anonymous handle.
If you post something on the forums and your problem is with Westfinder, then Westfinder will respond. If your problem extends to Wayfinder level, Wayfinder will respond. In fact, you won't even have to go through the Staff filter! Wayfinder will NOT shut you down, they will NOT try and figure out who you are. If there is one thing that Westfinder has carried home from Wayfinder, it's the deep value of creating a safe space, and that extends to virtual spaces as well.
This thread suddenly contains a lot of hostility from both ends. You can post complaints here, and folks (including staff) will read and consider, but I feel like a larger point has been missed: if you have something to say to someone, you have the power to say it. If you have a question for Wayfinder staff, you're *allowed to ask it*. All it takes is going to the WFE forums - and if you need anonymity, I'd hope that you feel it's worth the extra 30 seconds to set up another account.
So, there's no reason to get rid of this blog. But there's a larger issue than what internet medium to post on if you don't feel comfortable expressing your views on the Wayfinder forums. Many of you have never spoken with the Wayfinder office staff, or been to the camp, and I guess I feel kind of hurt that you guys are judging them based only on trickle-down information. Wayfinder is an amazing place that is the product of many amazing people -- and they're the models for why Westfinder is so amazing, too.
<3
Greg
To me, Wayfinder the company feels a bit obnoxious. First, they try to get us to join them, in the end resorting to threats. Then, once Westfinder is officially a part of Wayfinder, they shut us down (temporarily). They did wait until the end of the gaming season, but that wasn't out of courtesy. "I sensed a very strong resistance to potentially ceasing programming out in California and I wasn't up for the "fight"." Really, Wayfinder? Couldn't you be a bit more polite? They should be working with us, not battling us. We share interests. We want to play games, they (Wayfinder the company) want to make money off our playing games (which they will, as Westfinder does technically turn a profit).
ReplyDelete