Broad, general complaints are completely unhelpful. It doesn't help the mod staff look at themselves and see if there is anything they might want to adjust.
Like any job; good, specific feedback helps make the worker better.
If Doc only ever told Rondo "be better" without giving him specifics based on what he sees, how would Rondo have improved to the point he has?
I know with my students, they learn more when I give them specific feedback instead of just a big red X.
The mod staff is not afraid of specific issues any poster might have or see. We will discuss it with said poster and among ourself. We may or may not adjust ourself based on what we think.
I see your point, but the issue I'm bringing up doesn't lend itself to specifics. It's a general concern about the perception of Celticsblog, "perception" being rather hard to break down into specifics, since it's created over time via hundreds/thousands/millions of seperate, idiosyncratic experiences.
Now for the whole "in crowd", certain posters like to joke with each other. They tend to talk a lot more in multiple threads. It is not a case of being "favorites", it is a case of posting more. And, without naming names, their have been more then one run in between so called "in crowd" members and staff. But like anything else, the staff doesn't discuss it, and most members do not discuss it.
You want to be in the "in crowd", get more involved in everything that goes on in the blog. If you just want to talk Celtics and don't care about the "in crowd", keep on posting the way you are. There are posters here that are going to respond. I don't think there is any posters with a significant number of posts that have not had one of their post responded to.
Meh--I don't want to be in the in-crowd, nor do I care about the distinction between in- or out-crowds. I'm talking about the
perception of Celticsblog and how to possibly improve it.
Personally, I'm here because I like the Celitcs, not because I want or need to be loved by other Celtic fans. But thanks for dismissing my concerns by interpreting them as some kind of need to fit in.
So we're doing a hell of a good job, we just need a better PR department?
Yes, exactly.
To set the record straight the thread was set up in the spirit of honesty. Due to some slippage, word was already out that I was PLamb. I then broke the twp username rule as a joke and had to give up a name.
I could have just come back as nickagneta but word was already out that I was PLamb. Without this thread, the crap storm that would have happened would have been much worse. It would have appeared as a cover up that the mods were complicit in and the number of people complaining would have been much larger and vocal.
There has been nothing hidden here and I hope I wasn't treated any differently than anyone else would have been. I'm pretty sure I know for a fact that I am not because I know for a fact I wasn't the first person ever to leave a username for another and I also know for a fact that I am not the only person that was using a different username. If anyone else ever makes the mistake of using their old username, I am sure they will be forgiven as well, regardless of who they are.
I did this with no malice intended.
I did not do it to fool anyone.
I did not do it to increase my Tommy Points(and I find the implication suggested by someone in another thread distasteful).
I did not do it for any other reason than to start over without a title next to my name that some people mistakenly took as my being a staff member and hence treated me differently. And believe me that did happen.
In some way I think some of the stuff being thrown out here is a direct product of people's opinions of me and not necessarily the staff or the enforcement of the rules. I am an aggressive poster with very direct debating style that rubs people the wrong way. I also have some very strong opinions on some delicate subjects and stand tall and proud in my resolve to make myself heard on those subjects.
Don't like that or me? Great!!!
PM me. Tell me. I'm a big boy, actually very big, I can take it. But leave the staff alone in this matter. They did nothing wrong.
Nick, you're a great poster/Celtics fan and I hope you continue posting under whatever name you decide to stick with, but for about the nth time this isn't about you and it's not about me, or what I think about you, or how my relationship with my father might color my perception of authority or whatever new and interesting pop psychology idea somebody wants to throw out there in attempt to minimize and ignore what I'm saying. Your stunt--as I saw it--was another in a long line of things that create the
perception of an in-crowd, out-crowd favoritism on Celticsblog. You broke the rules in a very very minor way, owned up to it, made a thread admitting your mistake and it's all good, so don't worry about it--this isn't about you, it's about the perception of Celticsblog.
***
Since the throngs of Celticblog users have spoken (that is, not spoken) in their non-support of what I see as a perception problem, I'll drop it at this time since
it seems there's not enough community support to continue. Then again, nobody likes talking about things like this and, in my experience at least, the ones who feel the in-crowd/out-crown divide tend to not have enough community concern in the first place to participate in polls/threads that attempt to ferret out whether such a divide exists.
I would urge the mods to consider the subject broached and urge that next time the subject gets brought up that maybe they take the perception concerns a little more seriously, instead of passing them off as veiled passive aggresive attacks on various posters, mods, or Celticsblog itself. Perhaps the reason few come forward with perception concerns is because those concerns are met with defensivenesss and pop pyschology by mods who seem to forget that their perspective in this matter is inherently limited. I'm fairly certain that most if not all the mods here take their jobs seriosuly, but I'd remind them that the first step in giving someone a fair hearing is to recognize your limitations and attempt to look at the problem from both sides. You don't engender the kind of give and take that leads to better tomorrows by attempting to marginalize the other side's viewpoint from the get-go. It's fine to say you don't think there's a perception problem on Celticsblog--it's another thing to sidestep the question entirely and question my motives.