News

Posted on: Mon Apr 4, 2016 9:45pm

Breaking the drama with some pointless question/semi-whining. Any word on premium and why is it so much later anymore than it used to be and than the opening of the month? Didn't they used to do all of it at the same time, or at least within the same 24 hours? ((BTW I get staff has lives and stuff I'm just confused since the Welcome to ____ doesn't tend to happen the 1st anymore anyway why it's done this way now because it feels disjointed.))

Posted on: Mon Apr 4, 2016 9:50pm

ChaosAzeroth (#43055)

I thought was late! Since it said that I got it already I thought I did and forgot for a moment, but I know for sure I didn't claim April's premium item. XD

Posted on: Mon Apr 4, 2016 10:02pm

laff tinsel ive never talked to any of these people a day in my life. I just have two eyes and a brain so I can see that whatever "staff doing their jobs" is supposed to look like, this isn't it.

Posted on: Mon Apr 4, 2016 10:21pm

but this mean art that isn't like aywas work. like portraits or crafts are okay with usd without panel?

Posted on: Mon Apr 4, 2016 10:29pm

ChaosAzeroth (#43055) and ~KrimsonCreature (#55438)

The lateness of the premium item may be due to coding! It'll come, I'm sure of it!

As for the "Welcome to ___" posts - those typically are the responsibility of Eri, however, I think it will become back to being on time as Eri's RL eases up on her and all that.

I implore everybody to be patient and to be understanding. It really is a tough job being staff, especially when it's volunteer, when you have to make time for it amongst RL demands of your time.

No, I'm not a staff of Aywas. However, I've been staff on other places. So I get both perspectives of the users AND the staff.

Truthfully, it's not necessary to bash the staff and make their jobs harder. Why not just simply say something like one of the users earlier did - "hey, wow, this is a tough thing for everybody that was involved. Maybe the staff could make a new newspost that clarifies what's doable and not doable for the panel and update the knowledge base article about it?"

That's a productive statement. It doesn't bash staff. It says clearly an idea for improved communication.

Bashing staff or whoever - it won't get you anywhere except cause a lot of drama and panic.

Because of some of the things that were said by some people in this news post commentary = I initially was confused about what was going on, whether my art commission was okay or not. Instead of panicking in a comment, I reached out to the person that I have a commission with and asked straightforward whether our interaction was within correct parameters.

I'm satisfied with the answer. But I'll say that I'm a little peeved at some of the people here who're "stirring the pot" because oh, yay, drama, let's cause people to get upset! Drama is not useful. It's toxic.

I firmly believe that Aywas is changing, yes - there's no denying that. Just don't get all negative, please. It's really bad for you and for others! I, personally, am looking forward to April. To the summer, to seeing how Aywas evolves as coding fixes are implemented and as things become fixed.

Sure, it does seem that there's a lot of USD stuff coming out as opposed to BP/GP stuff - but you know what? They also put in pretty awesome bonus credit items.

Perception does matter, I'll agree. But have you ever thought about optical illusions? Sometimes what you see isn't exactly what you're seeing? I think this is what is happening right now.

We can't see behind the scenes, so while Aywas "looks" like it's broke, there's coding fixes going on. They're being transparent about what's gotten fixed. Right now, I'll say this: if giving up Easter Painter for this year means a healthier website in the long run, then that's something I'm very happy to do.

There are already signs of the new adventure land coming soon! That's not USD. It also means that they ARE working on the Adventure coding issues, too!

I urge you all to think long and carefully before launching a comment that is purely dramaesque. If you truly like Aywas, then instead of those awful comments - make comments about what you see and why you see it that way. Help the staff see things from the user's perspective.

That being said - I want to note that there are certain things that should be kept in mind.

~ Privacy matters.
~ There's usually a lot more behind the scenes than you can see.
~ The staff are trained to deal with various stituations.
~ And most of all, THEY want to make Aywas the best that it can be - that's why they are VOLUNTEERING their spare time to be staff. Artists get paid, true. Staff, to my knowledge, are not. Mods are not. Remember that, please. Remember that they're all human, too. Even artists.

Thank you for taking the time to read what I have said - I hope it helps people step back and take a deep breath.

To the staff: Thank you for your time and patience!

Posted on: Mon Apr 4, 2016 10:34pm

lmao put a tl;dr on that stuff man

but you DO bring up a very good point: staff ISN'T paid. So as I've said before, I'd rather we have a paid, competent staff than a volunteer group of incompetent martyr complex bleeding hearts that get nothing done and kill the site. Wouldn't you?

Posted on: Mon Apr 4, 2016 10:43pm

I feel like there are ways to express displeasure with what's going on without being really rude about it. If nothing else, can't we all stay civil?

There are clearly issues here that need to be solved, but they aren't going to be solved by blindly attacking everyone on the other side.

Posted on: Mon Apr 4, 2016 10:44pm

I'm on every day, but TBH I haven't been "truly active" in years. I keep seeing crap like this and it makes things look immensely terrible for Aywas and anyone on the Staff team. I don't know much about this instance of drama, but the fact that there is ANY drama related to Staff - and I repeatedly hear about drama, as if it was regular like lunch or sleep - is just... not appealing whatsoever. It's unprofessional. (Not even going to get started on the fact that people have to contact Aywas or Staff in multitudes of methods over multiple weeks for a simple question, concern, bug, etc. to even be SEEN, let alone RESPONDED to...)

Personally, I haven't used this feature - barely knew it existed, and I read the news. So it either appeared during a rare instance of me not being on every day or it was so terribly worded/vague/unrefined (for a USD-related function) that I gave up reading. And now that I read it again, it's one of the most unclear policies and sources of information I've read in a long time that relates to any business/USD transactions and money cuts. Looking at the knowledge base article again, it's much too short, vague, and uses terminology (mainly "derivative work") that isn't defined prior to usage, which is somewhat unprofessional especially considering this is a feature dealing with USD.

I understand the struggle with being and not being transparent - I've dealt with it as a user and as a Staff member for other games and other sites, even in much more dramatic sociopathic- and legally-scary instances. Honestly, what I've been seeing on Aywas is the promise for transparency with almost none. But honestly, it really isn't that hard to find a middle-ground of healthy transparency without causing more problems. (And to a prior comment I saw - yes, if I messed up bad I WOULD want to have my case public and an example. And yes, it is possible to do that without shaming someone. And yes, if people cause problems, you know... do Staff-y things and moderate the problem makers?)

If Staff can't seem to figure out what healthy transparency is, and only see things like this in black-and-white (as they appear to always be in the last year or two), then I honestly don't see Aywas lasting much longer. Heck, I haven't even needed to be engrossed in gossip and drama to notice the HUGE decrease in user count, events, working features, etc. At this point it's all blatantly obvious even to the semi-active/-inactive.

For this particular case, I've seen multiple names thrown around for banned users related to this issue, but I don't really know any details (and I probably don't want to). I fully understand the arguments that people need to read and understand the rules - and don't break them... But with how unclear the article is and/or how long it takes to contact anyone who can answer the question, it honestly isn't even worth using the feature AND really easy to make a mistake. Seeing that someone was potentially permabanned over $4 (even if it was outside of the feature) is just...sad. There has to be some blame on Staff for not attending to Ask Admin and Help threads, PMs, Emails, etc. And the simple fact that despite how unclear the article is, someone might read it and honest-to-god believe they fully understand it. But that isn't THEIR FAULT - that is the fault of whoever are supposed to write an appropriate article. Now sure, if it was for significantly more than $4, do an appropriate punishment. But... $4? Really? Sure, ban - but don't be so dramatic about it and then hide it, acting like it is the secrets to destroy the world or something.

Posted on: Mon Apr 4, 2016 10:45pm

litwick (#7410)

I bite at making tl;dr's - so I don't do them for the most part. At least, it's not a solid text wall, lol.

Personally? I think the current staff is plenty competent just fine. And I think the site is gonna thrive.

But if you wish the staff be paid - then I'd love to hear how that can be done without increasing prices across the board.

Posted on: Mon Apr 4, 2016 11:12pm

Correct me if I'm wrong Ellory (#804), but , ɔɥǝllǝ + bɐɹp (#7310), I think Ellory was talking about HA "fanart" (perhaps not fan art as much as commissions of art that is of people's HA). Not actual HA items.