Question State of the Cabal, the site, and the Universe

I wanted to take a couple minutes to talk with everyone about the team, the site, and the universe... history, most of you know. A lot of it is written up in neat little summaries on both the WIKI and here in the Backstory section of the site. If you've been here for any duration of time, you'll know that we take a firm but not overly active hand with moderation... relying on the community to police each other and only stepping in when it goes beyond what one person requesting another back off can do to resolve conflict. Everyone knows we invite pointed feedback (about the stories) but that when the evaluation of story structure, characters, and plotlines becomes criticism of the authors... we do what we can to shut it down. We aren't like some sites that won't let you say anything but nice things about authors... but neither do allow anyone to harass our team to the extent that they no longer find enjoyment in something they do for free, for fun. That's not always an easy line to walk and we're not always as successful at staying on it as we'd like.. but we don't claim to be professional web site Moderators.

The present is... doing pretty well, actually. We have had more traffic, more active users, and more content generation this year than at any point in the Whateley Universe's history. Could it be more? Could quality or variation be better? Could there be ice cream socials every weekend? Well... yes. There's always room for improvement. One area of improvement that you can expect in the near future is the removal of advertisements from Google from the site (assuming we meet the patronage goal at www.patreon.com/WhateleyAcademy each month - note that we DO currently have pledges sufficient to cover the site costs, but I won't know until the beginning of each month if those pledges will be backup up with funds when Patreon charges their accounts). Another that I've started work on but put on hold due to some side issues is the restructuring of our menu system to be more 'new visitor' friendly and include walk throughs and explanations on how to access content on the site, as well as finishing up the tagging system. A third area of improvement may be less obvious when it is done, but involves some big upgrades behind the scenes... including a potential virtual server move and more modern foundation software (upgrading PHP, memory and CPU allocations, and a fresh install of Joomla).

For the future?

The future is fun to predict... but its also important to understand that predictions tend to be self-fulfilling. Especially if you want them to happen. You believe you can succeed, you will do anything and everything to work to make something happen... you believe someone else is going to fail but they won't take your word for it, you wash your hands of them and if not actively sabotaging them, you also don't give them your help because you believe the time will be wasted. And finally, if you believe you will fail... then you become depressed or erratic, hoping to take steps to avoid the decisions you would normally make... thus making poor decisions instead of your usually well thought out plans. So, if we want to talk about the future, lets talk about it in the perspective of 'what can we do to be better at what we do'. Because that's something that we can always benefit from.

Our first thought is that we need to put Elrod's home up on stilts and replace his arm with high powered cybernetics.

No... seriously... our first 'future plan' is to resolve a 'behind the scenes' issue that goes back many years. One of the big strains of dealing with continuity and making sure our stories are well coordinated, proofed, and ready for publication is that we authors are also the primary feedback 'front line' for each others work. When the pipeline is mostly drained out and people are stumped on what to do next... we often have time for solid feedback. Or even arguments over what plans are better that other plans. But ultimately (and especially when we're doing this three content per week thing), there's simply too much need for feedback when someone has a canon story ready that cannot be met by other busy authors. To solve this conserve over the years, we have always had a continuity / organizer person. For many years that was OtherEric. More recently, it's been DanZilla (though technically Dan was brought in to do for Gen 2 what OtherEric did for the Original Timeline). And both of these guys help, tons, behind the scenes, as does Warren. But as recent announcements show, we're looking at adding a couple more feedback and proofread people... a pre-release feedback team who could also evolve, eventually, into editors and/or continuity checkers.

Are there other 'future' improvements in the works? More authors? More timelines? More neat stuff for WhatIF authors? Could be. Nothing solidly planned or in motion... what do YOU think we need? Are you willing to help provide the resources we would need to make 'that' happen? Let us know. Of course, remember that everything has a cost in time and money and upkeep... and we have the final say in what can be done/included. And in many cases, limitations ARE going to have a price tag. And not only are some things going to cost Kristin time and money to make happen... some COULD theoretically require hiring someone outside the team. For example... implementing a more graphics/art oriented layout/design. Would require an artist.


One final bit of business.

As many of you know, especially the WhatIF authors who were privy to the threads in the writer section of the forums where much of the policy violation and discussion happened; we site banned a community member named Tristra about a year ago. Tristra has long been in conflict with the site staff and authors over how we choose to run the Whateley Universe and how the copywrite laws apply with regards to what material is or is not made canon and how much or little access non-canon authors are permitted to have to that material. We've made multiple efforts to explain this. Instead of trying to understand it or come to terms with the fact that we're not going to change this just to suit her... she becomes argumentative. She disseminates information to undermine and paint a negative outlook on members of the team... or is outright abusive in public posts. This is what led to her being banned. In the eyes of many involved in the discussion, we gave her a LOT more rope than she needed. But despite all efforts, she simply couldn't play well with others and we (all active members of the cabal in a unanimous vote) made the decision to ban her.

Tristra has recently chosen to post on the WIKI that she intends to return and post her manifesto or predictions of what will happen to the Whateley Universe if the current authors/staff are permitted to mismanage it (her perspective). There are overtones of threats and hacking... obviously, she'll be using a proxy at the very least in order to bypass the ban... and I have discussed this with the other authors/staff and decided that instead of forcing Tristra to resort to hacking or illegal means of visiting the site, I will give her a reprieve on her ban.

This reprieve is conditional, however.

I will lift the ban on Tristra as long as she does not violate the site policy. She is not permitted to be abusive to any member of the community, author or staff member. If she becomes argumentative and I have to step in in 'moderator voice' even once because a thread she is involved in becomes disruptive to the friendly environment of the community, I will restore the ban and wash my hands of the whole matter. If this sounds excessively harsh, I'll admit that my opinions and decisions about this situation are biased by many years of listening to Tristra tell me that I am doing everything wrong and destroying the community and the Whateley Universe. Many people have seen some public evidence of this, but do not realize that there are literally dozens of PMs going back years... many of which I have shared with the other authors and staff as I've worked to try to be supportive and open to feedback from others. I will never claim to be the best administrator, or site designer, or publisher, or author... and I know that the Whateley Universe doesn't live or die at my word. But I AM a caretaker of this material and the community... and there is only so much I will bear from someone who wants to tear that down simply because she can't get control/access just because she wants it.

As fair warning, it is possible that Tristra will resort to hacking or other disruptive means to convey her message. As we all know, the internet environment and security legality ultimately favors the hacker... we could report such a thing, but there being no credit cards (or money involved), me being a part time administrator, the site not really losing any money from a little down time... our priority for criminal investigation would be so low as to be laughable. And absolutely no doubts in my mind that we're hackable. What keeps us from being hacked most of the time is that there's no real benefit to anyone to hack us. IF we are hacked, I'll get us restored as soon as I can... remember that I do have a 'status' page that is offsite, also... so if you can't get on here, try status.whateleyacademy.net ... if there's anything preventing me from bringing things back quickly, I'll post it there.

Along with more parts of "Vegas, Baby, Vegas" (four more parts), Morpheus' "Nerves of Steel" (in three parts), another part of the current Absinthe... and... hmm... wait, that might be all of it. For the moment. I know a number of other things are close to done.

Rose Bunny wrote: you guys are making Foodie bookies a whole lot easier, ya know?

Hah... I've seen how many years of foodie bookie posts. More than half the time, people are making guesses for things that have so little chance of happening that me winning the lottery is more likely. And its not like any of those tasty pastries have ever shown up on my doorstep.

Knowing all the horses in a race and and their performance history doesn't stop people from betting on races, does it?