Alrighty, I'll start out with admitting that I haven't been modding much lately. I haven't been on here much to check anything either. If I'm in the 24 hour section it's normally because I hit the wrong bookmark. ^^; I've been on hiatus for reasons dealing with this site only. I have a few ideas for how we can fix what is happening to SR's staff before it's too late. I'd like you to hear me out and my new ideas.

I have some ideas and I'll perhaps list some of the problems I see in staff. SR seems to be doing fine other than the staff issues. Nobody has any complaints about anything other than people on staff and those closely connected to people on staff. I'll let you all know something before the revamp. We used to have a working staff system that even US and other sites were jealous of. I'd like to say we had a golden staff team. For those who are new and those who have forgotten we worked hard to make SR a fun rp site. Everything was modded quickly and with little fuss or arguments. Things were rarely unapproved. People were having fun, plot was going smoothly and was fun for those who participated, people were having fun in the chat. The staff had a working system and yes, SR has ALWAYS had arguments in staff. That will never change. The staff communicated with one another and KNEW that they were working to make the site fun and exciting for all members.

We need to model our staff after that. I don't know about everyone here, but our spirit of roleplaying has died. Or we've just forgotten WHY we are doing this. We're staff so that we can organize things and run things. We are here to make the rping here fun, by making systems that have to challenge the rpers and make things fair enough so that people aren't constantly harassed when they roleplay. Naruto Roleplay... We are fantasizing with other people about how it would be so cool to have a character in naruto! We're taking that fantasy and playing it out with people who have that same exact fantasy!

We as a staff team don't seem to understand that. This isn't about naruto anymore guys and we need to change that or our member base is going to leave because they can't rp. People are fighting like cats and dogs, their apps are being unapproved and reapproved constantly, etc. How can they roleplay like this?

Now everyone who reads this... before continuing... I want you to fantasize about WHY you started roleplaying. How fun was it to first start your character and do your first roleplay?

After you have your moment you'll read what I propose. You may want to prepare yourselves because most won't like it. I'm a hypocrit, I've done a lot of wrong on this site too. Below you'll find I've done some of this too but not anymore.

First... We need to be an unbiased staff team. This is going to be VERY difficult for some of you. It's difficult for me. VERY difficult. I want to give Vito a fucking bijuu, sagemode, SUPER DUPER AWESOME UNBEATABLE MODE but I can't. I have to sit down and say, "I'm a staff member. This is a person who wants a lot of stuff that isn't very fair. I should say, "No you can't have this because... (insert VERY LOGICAL AND GOOD REASON HERE)

The Definition of Unbiased is: free from bias; especially : free from all prejudice and favoritism : eminently fair

Here on staff we have been doing a lot of prejudice and favoritism. BOTH, we're all to blame except for the people who are NEW to staff. Kon, Patrick, Kenny and whoever else. Those who are older are mainly the ones I wish to change with this one. The newer ones should take example of our "fucked upness" and do better than us. I don't know if this was on purpose but two of our most unbiased members have left staff in the past few days, this is due mainly because of our drama. Other factors are involved, like in sly's and misaki's places. We need to stop and fix the problems. Those of you who CAN'T think with an unbiased opinion should be removed. That is from now on if you don't change your acts. (shrugs) Meaning if Shauntay fucks up and gives Trey a missile launcher then she gets the boot. Or if Adam asks Shauntay to go into the admin lounge and to fuck shit up that, if shauntay does it that she will be banned or removed from staff. (Example and funny story about that. XD)

The biasedness needs to stop. Again... if there are further signs of prejudice or favoritism the staff doing that needs to be kicked out.

Second: EDITED OUT

Third: EVERYONE needs to do their own share of work. If you are not doing that work without a good reason you should be removed. Yes, I am not doing my work, I haven't for a while. I don't know if my hiatus post would really count as a good excuse for my not working, but if things change I'll be the first to start modding again.

Fourth: I'll be honest and say this is my opinion, "SR is too strict and the roleplay environment isn't as relaxed as it could be."

Next: Trolling. This kind of revolves around the biasedness but I feel it needs to be said. This problem has been bandaged but it needs to be completely fixed. We need to follow Yosh's system for trolling once another member who is a troll joins. Again, I need to do this too for i failed to use it properly.

Bleeeeeh (too busy thinking and typing to count): Communication - I don't think we can really use skype anymore. When we were the golden team we used it and it worked but now it's just used to talk about each other behind our backs, used to gang up on others, and well, not everyone has skype on the staff anymore. For staff talk we will use the STAFF SECTION! Skype will be used for social only. Discussions about anything on staff should be done here with everyone. People who fail to come and read the staff section to find the latest news won't know what is going on but others will not be left out. We won't be able to have any more complaints about someone not being there at the right time to be in the staff discussion. They can read on here. That clears up the old problem that has been around since before the revamp. XD

(hums star wars theme): As for the new staff members. We old staff members must find what they are good at. XD I know that the oldies are going to pass this site onto the newer staff members so they need to be trained and must find their place in the staff. If someone makes a mistake we'll teach that person. Much like how I started off, Yosh, Vito, and Trey taught me. ^^; Though I'm still not very good.

Good terms: Okay guys, we need to have a friendly staff environment. Without one we'll just fail again. This kind of ties in with being unbiased again but personal problems with other members need to be resolved or pushed down when you click the "staff" button. If Kon does not like Trey's beard and thinks it's the freakiest thing ever then Kon will suck it up and mod something Trey worked on WITHOUT any bias. He will be polite about it and that will prevent further problems. Staff needs to be the ones that show that they can work together with someone even if they don't like that person. It will show the rpers that they should follow the staff's lead. Again, we want a fun environment.

Killing: Okay to prevent any more of, "I don't like this person let's keep killing their character off." Or "Oh noes he's going to kill me must get this person to help me so I don't die!" we need to fix the battle rules. People DREAD having to fight someone in roleplay if they dont' agree to it. This site has a lot of fear because of that. We need to make a rule that states both people must agree to a battle either IC or OOC to battle. Except for Kage's no more of this, hunting someone down crap. Some people just want to social rp or dont want their character to die. What if someone is kage level and the other person is genin? The kage can come in and kill them with one hit. It's not fair to the genin. If he WANTS to fight then it's perfectly fair. If he doesn't then it's not. Again, this site needs to be a bit more relaxed. Besides, what's teh fun in killing someone who doesn't want to fight? When it comes to attacks on villages or other plot then the people who don't want to be involved don't have to. This prevents people who WANT to pick on others from doing so. Some people here have joined or have stayed just to pick on others in character. (I found this out tonight)

This concludes my ideas for the site. I want to be able to roleplay on SR again without having to deal with the drama. The reason why I was on hiatus was because I honestly couldn't deal with it anymore and I felt like a mama trying to deal with squabbling children. I'm wiling to help turn the site around if you are. @.@ Also I'm a hypocrit. We all are, so I'll try to fix it as we all continue to try to help our staff move forward.

Seriousness over

Note: I have nothing against Trey and his beard. XD LMAO

Also I apologize for going off topic many times.

EDIT: Of course I would write that frigging speech about working together AFTER the people causing trouble are removed from staff. -__- (facepalms at self)

Hey guys, long time no chat. Seems my sense of disturbance is working (lol?). Everything I post from here on, please imagine a relaxed, easy going, yet serious tone. I'm not angry at all and I don't intend to make anyone else mad. I'm just sharing an opinion on some things that I feel about.

In all seriousness though, guys, you are all letting this get to you way to much. After everything, if it's been taken to this point where even after we started off with a clean slate and such (which didn't work) then haven't you all noticed something is wrong?

The forum is like a business and as a staff team it should be treated as so within the staff section. If a business held a meeting they would make sure either A] everyone attended or B] that notes would be taken and the people who aren't around are filled in. In a sense there's the CEO, the managers, and the employees. Employees need to know what's going on and it's up to the first two to possess enough leadership to spread the word around. Since this matter seems to fail, I agree with Shauntay about posting on here. What bothers me though is the fact that things tend to get out of hand here too.

Shauntay's right about basically everything she said. I understand I don't "work here" anymore and that I have a hell of a lot of room to talk but come on guys, people change. Everyone cares for something here and those values should be realized, discussed, and worked out between each other. The whole "shutting down" the person thing just isn't right. Like the golden rule, treat people the way you want to be treated and if it's crappy then don't get mad when you get crap back. Also, just because Sue hates Sally and Sally hates Sue doesn't matter in the business world. Everything should be handled in a professional manner.

In short, if you guys are going to treat this forum so seriously to the point you kill the fun, then have the business outlook to back it up. Otherwise relax everyone, it's a website, and you're letting it rule your life. From the sound of things there aren't many members to even rule over anyway. The good team is falling apart and I don't know if it's because everyone's being big headed and feels the need to stand their ground because they're "right", stupidity, or what but please guys, take care of yourselves and each other. Stop letting the drama get the best of you. Like I said, it's just a website. It took me until now to realize that this place is honestly a waste of my time. I wouldn't mind socializing with everyone but I haven't because I don't want to be dragged in or get upset about anything. I'm in college, I've been happy. Socializing should be done outside of business work anyway. No more picking fights either guys.

Now no one has to follow a thing I said and maybe people might get mad, I really don't know but what I do know is that my goal isn't to piss someone off on here or make someone look bad. I just want you guys to see what has happened to SR, yourselves, and how you treat one another. It's a forum with a bunch of coding and formatting, not an episode of Young and the Restless. Just relax everyone and stop allowing this place to get the best of you, please. You all are unique and have your own perspectives, jobs, whatever. Of course some won't get along but don't let it interfere with the business. Again, room to talk, but guys I have changed a lot. So any perspective you have of me at the moment might be very wrong. In other words, don't imagine me as anything when you don't know or understand who I am. All members of staff and the forum should be treated like this.

For example, Iesu, we all know what he did. Even though he did it he would actually pm me frequently with questions and such before I left because I would take the time to hear him out and work with him. I don't know if others have and whatever but this is just to make a point, nobody get upset please.

I'm trailing on and on, but please guys just remember this is just a forum. Not a way of life. It's not your actual job or your school work. It was a place designed by us for the members to have fun. Not for us to be controlling and cause problems. So come on guys, work with each other as a completed mind with all your different perspectives. You need each other to make this all work, not just yourselves. Just please stop letting it all get to you. This goes to all staff/ex staff members and maybe all members on the forum.

Again, not trying to make anyone mad or anything but just please guys.
It'll all be okay.

It seems as we have grown that there have always been two groups of people. Essentially on every site since Mura and arguably before but not NN there has always been a civil war. Just two groups of people fighting one another through messages. If you ask all of the active members here, I bet the majority will not know whats going on. But, we have to assume that people are watching and talking amongst each other. The reason why SR and other sites have lasted so long is because of the new members and the fact that the only people that ever have problems are us veterans. I have to get us veterans to look at one of us specifically.. Josi.

Look at this guy.

Spoiler:

Now that's actually not Josi, but it's pretty much who Josi would be if he was a cartoon imo. Josi has never really caused anyone any issues besides making us all frustrated when he 3k words your 1.5k word post. He's neutral on every situation and only wants to do whats best for the site which is role-play. He does above and beyond in role-playing to the point that we all blindly accept his missions at full credit and never really question anything he does. He creates good plot for the characters he involves himself with and overall is what every person should be like. He's been around for a long time and is like a sort of "mentor" and good friend to most of us. The staff needs to be more like him. It's been said a million times and even though this paragraph sounds like I'm kissing up, most of us (save for new NR staff) know its true. Who hates Josi on here? Don't worry I'll wait.

So in layman's terms I agree Shauntay. We all need to put our biases aside. At this point I don't even care anymore in the sense of whats going. I just want to role-play and have fun. For fucks sake, my character is a female hybrid Tenten/Annie from LoL.


The main issue with staff is what to do when a problem arises even though the steps are about as simple as learning how to poop. If you, under any circumstance have a problem with anyone, regardless if it is Staff or Skype or MSN, here are the steps no matter WHAT it is.

-Review the problem and organize your problem in a unbiased format.

-Message that person whenever you can. If that person does not respond even if they are online, even if they are talking to other people send them a message on the site. Now that my dad is home I have to get up from my computer all the time. He can't move his leg and can't do simple things like get in bed by himself properly and is in a wheelchair and uses a walker. I'm not the only one taking care of someone. The other person may be doing something else or maybe having a wave of diarrhea. If you message someone on the site you can check if they read it because the message moves from your sent box to your out box or something like that.

-If they don't respond then you can bring the issue up in staff.

The problem always is X issue never gets solved with the person who X issue belongs to. Person A, tells B, tells C and D about X issue and then A, B, C, D all "swarm" X person. This is not about the recent situation either, it's happened a million times before. It's gossip. It's annoying as fuck, we all do it to some degree but don't let it bleed over into a situation that affects someone else. If you're going to talk about someone behind their back, let it stay behind their back and not reach their "front." If you think people may be spying on you or anything like that, then keep the gossip away from the IM.


Drama always causes confusion. I had a whole thing planned out for bijuu, organizing new members, picking creation forums to mod, but it was kinda halted by this issue and other things. If we eliminate the drama we are pretty much are guaranteed organization and synergy or whatever that business term is. After drama starts and finishes everyone kinda takes a big "sigh" and takes a small hiatus, which affects the site in a negative way.


About the whole role playing environment being strict. We have to come to a compromise somewhere. This is the initial problem with balance. Remember we are playing a game. Role-playing is nothing but a game. It's akin to a multi-player sandbox game. You do not always have to be fighting or battling. You can have leisure, but balance still needs to be settled. Some people have figured out how to role-play at a high level. Some people have not. We cannot have the good people trumping the others out of unbalanedness. Therefore a system needs to be put in place that allows people to have a chance at high level fighting. The stat system (not even the one that Scott had) had this... The new SC system is not balanced. It allows everyone a chance to be strong, but it allows us all to be OP. The only way to solve it is to get rid of it, or let everyone be OP and continue to one up one another. That's how NN was. Even though we were all vastly OP, we were allowed to be OP. If someone had something that was strong, everyone would gossip about it and then create some shit to one up that person. (Which is why we never had any real drama there like we do here, we all settled it in RP)

So something that is balanced needs to be created. That's another issue as to why drama starts. We're trying to balance everyone and sometimes peoples feelings may get hurt and sometimes balancing people can be handled wrong.


About the infraction system, if anyone needs any clarification then just ask me. It's really simple.


We have to accept the fact that Skype will never be social only. People will still gossip. Everyone will slip up now and then. The thing is, we have to know how to deal with the drama before it gets to the members, or keep it private. Gotta remember, as long as info isn't leaking to members, then the members won't see the problems we have. This is good for us because it keeps internal issues, internal. We can hate each other as much as we want privately, but no matter how much you hate someone remember that the members don't know this and therefore you do have an obligation to role-play. Otherwise it will just look like you came out of nowhere with some drama and started shit.


Killing is fun, I'm probably the biggest kill-whore on here. Me and trey had this wonderful conversation about it which I did share with you (Shauntay). Here's the share it with everyone else
1. The staff (and some people) for the most part know who can battle or not. Essentially, killing on an role-play site is the act of destroying someones work through role-play. It's never "he killed my character!" It's always "now I have to start over after all that effort."

2. The people who can fight should always have a chance to obtain a higher rank than the people who cannot fight so well. This is only fair. This is basically saying that I would get B rank over someones C rank. I'm capable of providing military power to a village or group, if the other person is not then they shouldn't get it. However, the people who can fight are essentially limited in actual combat until something pops off. Basically, even though I get a higher rank, I'm forced to wait longer to be actually useful. The only real exception to that is a missing-nin who can attack at any time, which is limited by staff.

3. We need to establish the fact that killing people will happen in organized or mutual manners. A fight doesn't necessarily constitute killing. Shauntay would have a better chance fighting me if the topic said 'No Killing'. Basically, anyone that knows how to fight is not allowed to just kill everything. I can't just walk up in Kumo and kill everyone intentionally, justification or not.

4. People who don't fight need to accept the fact that higher ranks will be given to avoid drama. If I get B rank over someones C, it's balanced. It's allowing me the rank for my ability and you the trust and promise that I won't kill you until the plot calls for it or you agree that there will be an role-play where there will be no death.

5. Harassment and Manning up. I'm notorious for this. If I attack your village, someone has to come. Someone HAS to come. This doesn't mean you will necessarily die. For instance, Nasa could have killed me in one move in my topic with her because I did not want to fight and I walked on Kumo soil as a missing nin. I have to accept the fact that I harassed her and she could have killed me. Just like a Jounin must accept the chance that there will be something happening at all times. We are roleplaying ninja. Ninja are bred for combat. If we stress that killing will be specified and organized, we cannot let members whine and complain that they could die. Aka, this is the thing when I walk in a village and no one posts because they don't want to fight. If you want power be prepared to lose it.

6. To finish up, the problem is that threats of killing and some battles scare people. As long as we organize death and fight topics with labels and plot events then we're fine. Killing needlessly always brings more harm than good, essentially. However killing should not be non existent, just needs to be organized.

7. Stress OOC battles an small tourneys a bit more.


So I pretty much agree with Shauntay.

[joke]AND EVERYONE BETTER RESPOND. WE'RE ALL BEING PRODUCTIVE AND GETTING RID OF DRAMA BY DOING THIS!!! DO IT OR ILL NUKE YOU WITH TIBBERS!
[/joke]

Im just gonna point this out. I agree with Shauntay yes.

But Shauntay, you honestly dont have the right to pull this out of your ass after what happened recently. Like I said, I agree, but if you are gonna go and post this whole thing, either come back to the site (reasons such as another site are not good enough when you already have a commitment here) or leave the staff and RP. Sorry, but its that simple.

That, by the way, is why you are targeted so much by the members half the time. You dont mod much, go on to other sites to work and forget about this one (case of a bad bookmark like you said), and then come in and post some long topic about staff and responsibilities, etc. Cant do that kiddo. So, while I agree, you honestly cant be like "Guys, heres some ideas to fix staff" if you arent a cooperating member of the staff team to begin with. Then something like this happens.

And, in conjunction with all that, right here is another reason we are failing. Nasa, you left the site, and the staff team, but are still posting in the staff lounge. No offense to you, but if you left you shouldnt be able to come in here because you had, at the time, no intention of coming back. Therefore you shouldnt be in here.


What we need to do is first distance the merge mods from our little inner circle problems. Main point one right there that will kill them, like Kon pointed out. Its like high school, but on a forum.

Step 2: Someone, on staff, that plans on staying here, will need to go through and remod the applications. Just an over view you know whose good and who has trouble for the most part, so that will lead to find more problem apps.

Step 3: Moderate the fuck out of the creation section. Get out of here, quit bitching, and just mod.

Now. This is the way Step 2 goes if they see something wrong. Im putting this here because it wasnt followed with aki and apparently isnt common sense any more.

1). Make SURE the app is wrong.
2). Unapprove the application and specify why.
3). Send a notification to admin on what you did, why you did it, and if you need help.
4). Review the ENTIRE application and character, not just bits and pieces.
5). Continue with moderation

Do NOT wait until youve modded the entire app before unapproving it, like what happened. If its wrong, unapproval should be the FIRST thing that you do, not the last.

Step 4: Moderate the fuck out of creation. Yes, twice. It needs to be more than Kiyoshi, Josi, Me, Trey, and Yosh. We have more mods for a reason.

Step 5: Roleplay. Take missions, do social topics, train, make trey post so we can finish the thread to start the plot.

I kinda agree on bits and pieces. I agree with Vito that people need to mod more, and that people who quit shouldn't have much say unless they come back. But I'm also a little offended by some of the things said.

Vito wrote:

Step 4: Moderate the fuck out of creation. Yes, twice. It needs to be more than Kiyoshi, Josi, Me, Trey, and Yosh. We have more mods for a reason.

I also mod, Lavas as well. I'm pretty sure a few others do as well. But you probably left that out because we're temp mods, but that's forgiven slightly. Still hurt though.

I don't have as much to say as the others, but seriously, people need to chill. I know I'm one who needs to listen to that, especially on days when I'm easily annoyed. Just take a few deep breaths and calmly work through the situation. Rping is a slight issue, what we can do to solve that is figuring out our own personal schedules. Until I find a job, I'm pretty much free up till September 2012. There are days when I won't be online because I'll be with friends or family or whatever. But I come online for around a few hours a day.

I know the staff from both SR and Rev. I know some members and systems, I read through everything that isn't approved, sometimes EVEN approved. I know many others aren't as free as I am, but if they have time to be on staff, they have time to mod and look over things.

Quote :

And, in conjunction with all that, right here is another reason we are failing. Nasa, you left the site, and the staff team, but are still posting in the staff lounge. No offense to you, but if you left you shouldnt be able to come in here because you had, at the time, no intention of coming back. Therefore you shouldnt be in here.

I came in to check on everyone and see how everything/everyone was doing. Although your argument towards me is valid, I still have to argue back that it's not necessarily my fault I can still see staff. The admin should have taken the proper procedure to double check my status and remove anything. For example my icon, it still says I am in staff when I am not. I understand everyone's busy too but I am just clarifying that it's not my fault. In fact I feel that maybe you guys didn't want me to be 100% gone but I guess I'm wrong, I don't know.

In all honesty though, as an old member of staff I feel that any help in figuring out the staff team and it's situations should be considered. I know I haven't been the best mod ever because of my past attitude from being COMPLETELY (not yelling,emphasizing) stressed out but I still was some part of this whole mess. Each and everyone of us is at fault somehow or another, and I know I might have a bigger part because of my actions so I am sorry. I don't have to be forgiven but if I came back I wouldn't make the same mistakes again and that's a promise. Everything's different for me now.

Overall though, sorry I just wanted to help and I will stop posting in staff and the forum, etc. If I will never be accepted back then feel free to remove me from admin panel and such. Good luck to everyone and I hope you all are able to figure out the issue in the staff team. Just remember, please don't take everything here so seriously, don't assume most of all, and relax. Again, I have room to talk and I have changed, but we are all people here who are trying to work together for a greater cause.

Kelcie out.

You dont need to try and make excuses and explain why. Even if you can see staff doesnt mean you should post. You left, you removed your right on your own to be part of staff, even if we didnt follow through. If you cant follow through with your own decision, then... well, I really dont know what to tell you.