An Open Letter Regarding the Administration of the Discord

[Zealots of Stockholm]

The authors of this letter (including myself) have decided to post it here so further discussion can be had in a more permanent venue.

The demands of the letter are:
(1) That, by September 1st, Kevin Wang appoints one or more co-admins to share equal administrative duties with him.
(2) That a committee, consisting of whichever current mods are willing, convene to assemble a draft of a detailed ruleset.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cK- ... CqyKk/edit.

[KAluru]

I also think that the same points should apply to the moderation of the High School Quizbowl Discord, in addition to Mainqb, since much of the discussion surrounding appointing another admin seems to just be in Mainqb right now.

[Cheynem]

I posted this in Discord already, but my thoughts on this letter:

-The two main points the letter is asking for, i.e. appointing another admin (or admins) and producing a clear ruleset for the moderators to follow, are very good and should be implemented. I would guess that almost like 99% of people on Discord support these points.

-I did not sign the letter because I was personally bothered by the rather confrontational and adversarial depiction of Kevin and his role as administrator. The letter at times seemed to be bogged down in some personal grievances and battles, and seemed to frequently assign negative motivations and mindsets for Kevin's behavior (which I don't think are completely obviously interpreted that way to the outside observer). This tone and vibe of the letter, to me, hurt the letter's overall impact.

My general feeling is that we need more administrative presence (or more empowered, on-the-same-page moderating corps) in the Discord. This is very clear. It is less clear that Kevin has failed or is currently a net negative as administrator (I do not personally feel this way).

[Good Goblin Housekeeping]

Look, I was a straight C student in high school for writing based courses but as Mike points out, given that this is 7 pages longer than it needs to bem it goes from "these are fair points that have been brought up and would have been fine" to "given that 70% of the length of this is screenshots and nitpicking on individual instances there is literally no way to read this letter beyond some number of individuals airing grievances against Kevin"

If anything I'm disappointed in some of the names who have signed it because of it.

[VSCOelasticity]

I generally agree with Mike about the contents of the letter.

If the demands of the letter are not met by the stated deadline, what consequences are there for Kevin?

I ask this because, if there are no repercussions, this seems to hardly differ from similar public requests to Kevin that have been made in the Discord. Except in this case, a thumbs up react has been replaced by signing a Google Form (and I suppose a forums post is more visible to some people/is an attempt for more thoughtful discussion than Discord slow mode allows).

[physicsnerd]

I would just like to note that while I agree the letter is longer than it really needs to be, the main things the letter is asking for are what seemed truly important to me when considering whether or not to sign.