We lost our MOD?! (this is mostly a vent about my feelings about TB's recent changes)

Manada

@firstcomeslove2013 --   I messaged you on FB about this, but just saw the official announcement go up here.

I gotta say, that sucks.   As someone who does community work professionally, taking away the link to the people on the ground with lived experience - especially in marginalized communities - is just thoughtless. 

I'm sad about the recent developments here.   I am sad that the communities I came to rely on, and many of the people I came to trust and know their stories, aren't around anymore.    After Tavin and Casey died you guys were so, so, present -- the support you offered blew us away, as did the support that came from the IF and PAIF boards.   Those boards are really suffering in this time, so many of the active oldies on there and on the TTCAL/PGAL boards were either banned outright or have moved in chaos.  The Sticky posts are completely lost - including many of the FAQ's and agreed upon board "norms" that the community set up to keep people emotionally safe when posting in those areas.     I miss seeing people online whose stories I knew, and connected to -- who's experience reflected our own in so many ways, and who were both role models, support, and peers for us.

I feel sad.  And I feel distrustful of the fact that the boards I frequent have just recently lost the few mods left, who were known and tirelessly worked in those communities, - that includes our board.    If I have learned anything in this experience of IF and Loss, it's that people who don't share the experience can't understand enough to lead the community, or at least that part of it.  

The Bump and XO own these boards, and so they're free to do what they will with them..... but it really was the people here who made it good - not the companies -------- and pulling away from those same people who made it good and chose their own Moderators seems like a shitty move.    The LGBT Board may survive here because we're a pretty close-knit community, but I'm not so sure about the rest of those boards that have come to mean so much to me, and that makes me really sad.  

I'm on FB, and mostly lurking in The Other Place now, as well as looking for other people in other boards.......  but I'm around, just feeling distrustful of TB and generally sad about it.

redrockmama

It's ridiculous and they are just lying about what happened. I'm not happy about it at all and I am leaning more towards leaving. I don't want to support them at all. We are the community, not their "professional mods".

ball.and.chain

While I do have concerns about some of the decisions made by the company in the last week/month/year, I will say that I always thought it would be better if moderators were impartial outsiders who weren't part of the community.  I've seen a few situations on TB where moderators were less than impartial and let their personal relationships with individuals on the board override good judgment (not talking about @firstcomeslove2013, for the record!).  I've also seen some amazing moderators -- but it's a mixed bag.

Obviously on boards in which there are sensitive issues coming up all the time (particularly loss and IF boards), there is a benefit to the moderator "getting" the culture of that board, respecting the need to uphold it, and advocating for the needs of that board.  But on many -- perhaps the majority -- of TB boards, that is not actually a huge concern.  Unfortunately, several of us have had reasons to become part of the communities on the boards on which it is.