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Discussion: Wetpaint Central Moderation & Community MoraleReported This is a featured thread

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Baby_Apple
Baby_Apple
Wetpaint Central Moderation & Community Morale
Jun 25 2011, 10:16 PM EDT | Post edited: Jun 25 2011, 10:16 PM EDT
As CryingDove suggested, here is a new thread to discuss Wetpaint Central's growing need for additional moderation, as well as the extremely low morale of the Wetpaint community. I, for one, see no solution to this issue. Wetpaint has taken away everything we depended on them for, stopped supporting our platform in a timely and efficient manner, and milked us as a community for every penny we're worth. I don't think there is any way to bring back the community morale after *this*.

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CryingDove
CryingDove
1. RE: Community Morale
Jun 25 2011, 10:48 PM EDT | Post edited: Jun 25 2011, 10:48 PM EDT
This thread has two main topics to be discussed. WPC moderation and Wikis by Wetpaint Platform causing low morale in the community. I will give my opinion on the Wikiss by Wetpaint Platform and morale of the community.

It seems to me that WP has and continues to use the numbers (members and wikis created) as leverage to lure new investments into their business model. One can go online to read and/or listen to Ben Elowitz message to investors. What he is not telling anyone is that large amount of the wikis that contribute to those numbers are dead wikis. Single one page abandoned attempts at Wetpaint. But who cares? The numbers are only used and can be substantiated, whether the wiki be dead or alive. That is the only purpose for Wikis by Wetpaint platform today. Quote from Elowitz "Usage of old web is SHRINKING as we move to a new, connected web"

New numbers are being thrown across the internet. The Entertainment platform. This is Wetpaint's show-cased product. Specifically targeting women 18-34. Sorry guys you are not part of the demographics here. Also, females under 18, you are not important either. (You don't have any money to buy the goods). OK, enough about background info. How does this translate to the community?
1. The product support has almost fallen off the edge of the earth. The community is not informed of any upcoming changes WP has in-store for us. WP slaps us with the changes (normally right before the weekend) and sits back and waits for a reaction from us.
2. If there is a problem, WP does not respond. It may take them a few days or perhaps a week to intervene (normally right before the weekend). And when WP does respond, they do not listen. They either post in threads or in PM to moderators, to investigate with rudimentary tasks such as deleting cookies or cache,. browser support. To be continued: Do you find this valuable?    
CryingDove
CryingDove
2. RE: Community Morale
Jun 25 2011, 11:10 PM EDT | Post edited: Jun 25 2011, 11:10 PM EDT
This is fine for a novice reporting, but when the seasoned users of WP report problematic areas, it goes un-answered or ignored completely.
3. There is only one voice from WP to us. That is the product support manager Jeremy. I do not care about moderators answers, that simply guess what he may say. I personally think that Jeremy when he wants, is the only person that can answer for WP (normally right before the weekend). Guessing is for novices. Real answers come from duplicating the problem via testing and working out the solution.

3. The community awaits those solutions. Wnen they do not come, frustration and irritability sets in. This is specially true for matters dealing with WP, that only WP can answer or resolve. There is only so many times a moderator can type "Send a message to Jeremy. But realize he is busy and may not get back to you soon." Most in the community will adhere to that message, but when their issues go unattended, who would blame them for venting back on WPC.
4. Another by-product of the lack of support from WP, is the frustration it causes in the moderation team. This can be seen by the absence of active members. Anytime a change is introduced to the community, which is not received well, some of the moderation team goes into hiding, only to return when things settle down. This is not true if the changes are welcomed by the community. Then most ever mod shows up to share in the accolades.
5. Change is always difficult to except. It upsets the comfort zones in most.
6. And one thing a forum like WPC does not need is a radio station where callers cannot call into. That is what the communications between WP and the WP community has become. It is a shame too, because WPC today is far different than what it was 2 years ago. More to come.

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CryingDove
CryingDove
3. RE: Community Morale
Jun 25 2011, 11:10 PM EDT | Post edited: Jun 25 2011, 11:10 PM EDT
If you have any issues with my opinions, please try clearing your cache and cookies. And make sure you are using a supported browser. If that does not fix your problem feel free to message Jeremy_wetpaint/. 2  out of 2 found this valuable. Do you?    
chrisco97
chrisco97
4. RE: Community Morale
Jun 25 2011, 11:11 PM EDT | Post edited: Jun 25 2011, 11:14 PM EDT
It is really, really sad...but Wetpaint is going to do what they want to do. There is really nothing much that we can do in this situation...all though I wish we could. Let's look at the bright side: At least they haven't shut down the wiki platform all together. Do you find this valuable?    
Naru2008
Naru2008
5. RE: Community Morale
Jun 25 2011, 11:14 PM EDT | Post edited: Jun 25 2011, 11:14 PM EDT
"It is really, really sad...but Wetpaint is going to do what they want to do. There is really nothing much that we can do in this situation...all though I wish we could. Let's look at the bright side: At least they haven't shut down the wiki platform all together. "
Who knows how long it is before that happens, Chrisco. 1  out of 1 found this valuable. Do you?    
chrisco97
chrisco97
6. RE: Community Morale
Jun 25 2011, 11:15 PM EDT | Post edited: Jun 25 2011, 11:15 PM EDT
"Who knows how long it is before that happens, Chrisco."
It will be a sad they when it does. :( Do you find this valuable?    
CryingDove
CryingDove
7. RE: Community Moderation
Jun 25 2011, 11:28 PM EDT | Post edited: Jun 25 2011, 11:30 PM EDT
"It will be a sad they when it does. :("
This platform will not shut down. But on the contrary the seasoned voices that have supported WPC WILL. Then WPC will become a true Stepford Wife.

ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stepford_Wives_%281975_film%29 Do you find this valuable?    
Naru2008
Naru2008
8. RE: Community Morale
Jun 25 2011, 11:37 PM EDT | Post edited: Jun 25 2011, 11:37 PM EDT
I honestly don't doubt that it's too far behind. I mean, look at back in 2009, when we could get great/fast support, a lot of active Moderators, and great features, ones already on the platofrm, and ones added.
Then later we started losing features. The To-Do's list, which many used, the got rid of the Droplets.
Then we have the company spliting in half late at night on Sep 5, 2010. The new homepage launched that night, and we all had questions as to why Wetpaint had changed. That's when it was announced that for the Entertainment Platform, the URL: http://wetpaint.com would be the new homepage for the platform, and here, Wetpaint Central, would be the main site for the Wiki Platform.
I'd like to bring up a quote Jeremy posted the next day after the new homepage launched:
"But I can reiterate that Wetpaint does plan to continue to support the wiki platform indefinitely. We are proud of the wiki platform and want to see it continue to thrive for a long long time."
The Wiki platform isn't really thriving anymore, is it? A lot of people left when they started removing features, but when the new homepage launched, as well as the new platform, and all these bugs showed up, even MORE people left. To be continued. Do you find this valuable?    
Naru2008
Naru2008
9. RE: Community Morale
Jun 25 2011, 11:41 PM EDT | Post edited: Jun 25 2011, 11:43 PM EDT
A lot of the Mods here have gone in-active, as Rich said, because of these changes. We only have a total of 11 staff members here on Wetpaint Central. 6, of which, are Wetpaint staff members, and out of those 6, we really only see two active, Jeremy, and when Jeremy is sick and/or on vacation, Jake. The others don't come on, ever. We also have 5 Community Volunteers, including myself. Philip, who is currently busy with the Paint Can Awards, which Wetpaint ALSO partially ruined last year, me, who comes on at LEAST 5-15 times a day, and go on other Wetpaint sites, BA, who has returned after a long hiatus, Naruto87/Andrew, and Matthew, who is busy with Role Play sites to come on here and actually provide "help and support", I say that because it's true, but i'm not trying to offend Matt in any way.
I'd like to bring up the quote from my first post again:
"But I can reiterate that Wetpaint does plan to continue to support the wiki platform indefinitely. We are proud of the wiki platform and want to see it continue to thrive for a long long time."
You failed to mention that you guys wouldn't do as good of a job as you guys were doing BEFORE the Company adopted the new platform Jeremy, but that might not be your fault. It would be Ben's fault. Do you find this valuable?    
!tom!
!tom!
11. RE: Community Morale
Jun 26 2011, 12:46 AM EDT | Post edited: Jun 26 2011, 12:46 AM EDT
I would like to point out that Walrus is a very irresponsible mod. He goes to sites that are the most popular and stays on those sites until they become unpopular again.

You might be reading this right now, Walrus. I never liked you, to be honest. You were the one who sucked up to Wetpaint the most. You even made Jeremy and Jason (remember him?) avatars. (which sucked).

This thread brings back memories. Do you find this valuable?    
bellswebster
bellswebster
12. RE: Community Morale
Jun 26 2011, 1:09 AM EDT | Post edited: Jun 26 2011, 1:09 AM EDT
What I can't understand is why wetpaint can't see the potential of what they have got on the old platforms. It would of been better than anything else on the web and would of kept the ones who left and would have many more if the maintence and features were left on...and a few more added. Then they would need more mods to help with the extra flow of things and morals wouldn't be at an all time low. Ben Elowiz can say the old platforms are shrinking, but they only do so because of the poor service, not because people want some trendy site that limits what members can do. Doesn't this man understand this? 2  out of 2 found this valuable. Do you?    
CaptainSpaz
CaptainSpaz
13. RE: Community Morale
Jun 26 2011, 1:39 AM EDT | Post edited: Jun 26 2011, 1:41 AM EDT
"A lot of the Mods here have gone in-active, as Rich said, because of these changes. We only have a total of 11 staff members here on Wetpaint Central. 6, of which, are Wetpaint staff members, and out of those 6, we really only see two active, Jeremy, and when Jeremy is sick and/or on vacation, Jake. The others don't come on, ever. We also have 5 Community Volunteers, including myself. Philip, who is currently busy with the Paint Can Awards, which Wetpaint ALSO partially ruined last year, me, who comes on at LEAST 5-15 times a day, and go on other Wetpaint sites, BA, who has returned after a long hiatus, Naruto87/Andrew, and Matthew, who is busy with Role Play sites to come on here and actually provide "help and support", I say that because it's true, but i'm not trying to offend Matt in any way.
I'd like to bring up the quote from my first post again:
"But I can reiterate that Wetpaint does plan to continue to support the wiki platform indefinitely. We are proud of the wiki platform and want to see it continue to thrive for a long long time."
You failed to mention that you guys wouldn't do as good of a job as you guys were doing BEFORE the Company adopted the new platform Jeremy, but that might not be your fault. It would be Ben's fault."
It is not that I do not come on, I merely spend my time deleting spam/irrelevant threads since I do not feel I have much to contribute to any of the current discussions. A lot of my recent contributions have been thread post deletions and the IP banning of a persistent user.

I do still monitor this wiki on a regular basis and it is one of my open tabs in Firefox. Do you find this valuable?    
Naru2008
Naru2008
14. RE: Community Morale
Jun 26 2011, 2:09 AM EDT | Post edited: Jun 26 2011, 2:09 AM EDT
"It is not that I do not come on, I merely spend my time deleting spam/irrelevant threads since I do not feel I have much to contribute to any of the current discussions. A lot of my recent contributions have been thread post deletions and the IP banning of a persistent user.

I do still monitor this wiki on a regular basis and it is one of my open tabs in Firefox."
I realize that Philip, but I didn't say you didn't come on or publicly contribute. (To where we can see it, such as deleting replies on a thread, ect.) I said all of us were active, except for Matthew who was on during the Fan Tapper thread discussion and sent both me and Cameron a message, but not contribute, as far as I know.
As for the IP bans, I know exactly who it is, and where they are. Now if only there was a way to report them to someone who would ACTUALLY do something about it. 2  out of 2 found this valuable. Do you?    
Losa78
Losa78
15. RE: Community Morale
Jun 26 2011, 7:48 AM EDT | Post edited: Jun 26 2011, 7:48 AM EDT
I agree with everyone here about the morale being extremely low and not much the community moderators can do (assuming they even come on here) without background support from Wetpaint. Jeremy only is extremely insufficient for that. And I also felt quite betrayed by Wetpaint when they just decided to change formats last September 2010 and not even informing us all about it beforehand.

However, as Chrisco said, I'm still willing to look at the bright side of things and be thankful that this format even exists at all, so I'll certainly be here and help the community in every way I can until the very end, if and whenever that comes. I have invested too much on this format to just quit now. We don't have to pretend this is the perfect place to be right now (in fact, far from it), but we can do our best to work with what we have. If a problem has no solution, just say so, live with it and move on. It's not our responsibility, as we are just community volunteers here and it's a given that we have no leverage in whatever the high-up company suits do or decide anyway.

I strongly believe, though, that despite all the problems and abandonment we've suffered in the recent past months, the overall Wetpaint wikis still represent a very user-friendly format and a nice and enjoyable place to be for thousands of people all over the world. Let us all do whatever is in our hands to try to keep that way for as long as we can. 3  out of 3 found this valuable. Do you?    
chrisco97
chrisco97
16. RE: Community Morale
Jun 26 2011, 8:35 AM EDT | Post edited: Jun 26 2011, 8:35 AM EDT
Yes, I agree with Losa here. We have put way too much time and effort into our wikis to quit now...and if Wetpaint does shut the Wiki platform down, where are we going to go? I mean there is really NO other good Wiki platforms out there. That is what really disappoints me about this whole situation is that they had a good thing going, and then just leave it in the dust. One of my own members have let me know that they have tried to contact Wetpaint on changing the drop down menus on their site (which was months ago), and hasn't got a reply. I, myself, have tried as well and no reply. Wetpaint probably has just ignored the emails. Which is highly disappointing considering the support we used to have.

--
"I strongly believe, though, that despite all the problems and abandonment we've suffered in the recent past months, the overall Wetpaint wikis still represent a very user-friendly format and a nice and enjoyable place to be for thousands of people all over the world. Let us all do whatever is in our hands to try to keep that way for as long as we can."

I agree. If it weren't for Wetpaint, I may have never got into Graphic or Web Design, or learned how to program. The thing that got me started into Graphic Design was when I was looking to get a banner for my site and an ad on the Wetpaint homepage was for Paint.NET. I downloaded it, learned some things, and started getting into it. This led to Web Design, and that led to programming. I have learned so much in the past years thanks to Wetpaint, and for that reason they will always have a special place deep down in my heart (as much as I hate the decisions they have made lately). 3  out of 3 found this valuable. Do you?    
!tom!
!tom!
17. RE: Community Morale
Jun 26 2011, 9:09 AM EDT | Post edited: Jun 26 2011, 9:09 AM EDT
"I agree. If it weren't for Wetpaint, I may have never got into Graphic or Web Design, or learned how to program. The thing that got me started into Graphic Design was when I was looking to get a banner for my site and an ad on the Wetpaint homepage was for Paint.NET. I downloaded it, learned some things, and started getting into it. This led to Web Design, and that led to programming. I have learned so much in the past years thanks to Wetpaint, and for that reason they will always have a special place deep down in my heart (as much as I hate the decisions they have made lately)."
Same :D
If it weren't for Wetpaint, I wouldn't have used Paint.net. If I hadn't used Paint.net, I wouldn't have gotten into gfx. If I hadn't gotten into gfx, I wouldn't have made sigs. If I hadn't had the motivation to make sigs, I wouldn't have used Photoshop.

Seriously, Wetpaint was the start of my internet life. :O 1  out of 1 found this valuable. Do you?    
CryingDove
CryingDove
18. RE: Community Morale
Jun 26 2011, 9:41 AM EDT | Post edited: Jun 26 2011, 10:29 AM EDT
I am glad you posted chrisco97. Your Sherlock Fan Wiki is a prime example on how Wetpaint personnel spend their time on Wikis by Wetpaint platform. Specialized code was written for your wiki.

http://www.sherlockholmeswiki.com/

THE CUSTOMIZED CODE

1. The meta tags are unavailable to the community without WP intervention. (2 lines of code ) This unavailable feature allows web crawlers to easily find your wiki on a search. The community cannot change their meta tags. Also, the noindex, nofollow statements have been removed, allowing your wiki to be found on web searches.

2. The fixed width format is unavailable to the community without WP intervention. (1 line of code)
Forces the wiki to be within a 1024 fixed width display. Only by request to WP.

3. The gnMain coding to provide drop down menus is unavailable to the community without WP intervention. (245 lines of code)
This customized code allows for the drop down menus for your wiki. Again, by special request.

4. The gnPromoLinks coding is unavailable to the community without WP intervention. (35 lines of code)
This customized code was written to allow for links on the same line as the Search Box on wikis.
Not many wikis in the community have this on their wikis.

Your wiki is a prime example of non-partnered wikis getting special attention from Wetpaint personnel. And there are many more and not yours alone. Your wiki looks great and has some great features that the main body of the community is not afforded. Although you may have the capability to write such code yourself, you do not have access to the servers to do so. So Wetpaint had to do that for you.

A note to the community....the next time you here that Wetpaint is so, so busy, this is one of the reasons their time is being taken up.
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walrusworldstudios
walrusworldstudios
19. RE: Community Morale
Jun 26 2011, 12:57 PM EDT | Post edited: Jun 26 2011, 12:57 PM EDT
Well, Tom, you're wrong about me "joining popular sites and leaving them when they aren't inactive anymore". This isn't true; I simply gave up on supporting a company that doesn't support the community's wiki endeavors. There were a lot of warning signs for the complete transition to the Entertainment Platform, however. I wasn't surprising at all, seeing as I used to be an active member of many Wetpaint Fansites on the Wiki Platform. I knew Wetpaint favored the fansite community since the summer of 2009. That was the summer they laid off a great amount of employees, one of those including Michael. I'm afraid to say, but when Michael left, Wetpaint's interest in the community left with him. Everything took a turn for the worst there. The Wetpaint 500 was eventually removed, features such as droplets and the To-Do List were dropped, etc. The rest is history. However, like a few people said on this thread, we need to focus on now. We don't hate the program of Wetpaint, but we hate the decisions the company has made. So, like others have said, take advantage of the Wetpaint program while you still can. Do you find this valuable?    
CryingDove
CryingDove
20. RE: Wetpaint Central Moderation & Community Morale
Jun 26 2011, 1:39 PM EDT | Post edited: Jun 26 2011, 1:41 PM EDT
"As CryingDove suggested, here is a new thread to discuss Wetpaint Central's growing need for additional moderation, as well as the extremely low morale of the Wetpaint community."
To clarify this quoted post. My suggestion was made on another thread because a couple of threads were being taken off-topic with this subject. So my suggestion was to start a fresh thread to talk about morale and the moderation team which was being discussed in the other threads and had no bearing of the topic of those threads.
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