Okay, lets address some of this, no hard feelings, I'm going to write things how I feel like they are, all cards on the table.

Yes, modding speed is incredibly low at the moment, and honestly, I'm not entirely sure how to fix it properly. Now I assume a lot of you will instantly jump the gun and say "just promote the Jr's to full mod". While that is certainly possible, there is a very distinct reason why I haven't done that. Simply because I don't think they're ready for it. See the thing is with people, or customers (you guys), you're never satisfied and will always, without fail, find the next thing to complain about. We, humans, love to complain about things how irrational it might be. So yes, I could, in theory, promote them all to full mods, but if they keep making the same mistakes that they have made and as a result peoples stuff has to be pulled you get an entirely different shit storm. I wholeheartedly believe that waiting longer, but getting a proper product (good modding) is better, than having it done quick and cheap, only to have it be taken away from you because it shouldn't have been given. Being allowed something and then having it taken away will create a bigger feeling of annoyance, then having to wait longer. It's just speaking from experience if a service takes long people will complain that it takes too long. If a service is delivered poorly, people will complain about the quality. Doesn't matter how much effort the moderator (in this case) puts into it, if they don't deliver a decent product, people will still complain. Willingness and effort to learn and do work is not enough of a reason to promote someone, it's not how life works. If that were the case, Bob that doesn't know how to shit in a toilet could become admin purely because he tries really hard. It's exaggerated, but that's basically what some of you are suggesting. (NOTE: I'm not saying that the Jr's are like that, I'm just exaggerating the example to make my point clear.)

Furthermore, it's a voluntary job, which means a couple of things. Like some of you, when I was still really active as a moderator (even global), I used to think like many of you, where there should be a minimum amount of time spent on your modding duties. In theory, it makes sense, you want status, power, etc. then you have to put in the time and effort to show that you deserve it. But now that I too seem to be in an eternal slump of I can't be bothered to do it / don't have time for it, I understand that the system just doesn't really work in practice. It works, as long as you are active, and keep give someone a kick under their butt if they don't do enough. Which means the moment they fall consistently below the threshold they should be booted because they can't fulfill the minimum requirement. Such system is in place, it's all there written up in the staff section, things like, what's expected of you as a staff member, what's considered bare minimum effort from you as a person from staff and all those things. We slacked on enforcing that for a while because staff numbers had been pretty low, our plan (Andy and I) was to start enforcing them more when we got the new Jr's, because activity should rise again, but I quickly realized that that wasn't going to work. We'd have to boot everyone that wasn't a Jr. because they simply didn't do enough (modding wise), this includes, both administrators. So you'd be left with just the Jr's to run the site. I'm sure you can all agree, that would be far from desirable.

The second thing that comes from it being a voluntary job is that, just like almost all voluntary jobs, it's ungrateful work. You have to create almost all the satisfaction you can get from it by yourself. For every compliment you might get, you get 10 negatives in return. That's maybe a bit too harsh, it's just that, people, in general, don't show their gratitude towards people that are sacrificing their free time so that you can have an enjoyable experience. As I have stated before, people love voicing their complaints about things. Me personally, I find it relatively difficult to stay motivated and to try and keep on struggling through. When things are good, you don't hear anyone, but when shit hits the fan, everyone is sure to let their opinion be heard.

Third, as stated above, becoming a moderator is still the willingness of someone wanting to give up their time. If the person doesn't want to sacrifice their time at that point in time on moderating then there isn't a whole lot to do about it. This isn't a paid job, you do this (in general) purely because you want to help out the community, help to make it grow or just make it become a more smooth/pleasant experience for the consumer. If no one is willing to sacrifice their time, there just isn't a lot to do about it. Kick the people that aren't willing to the modding? Well, I suppose there won't be a staff left to do any modding.

Which segues somewhat nicely into the next thing I'd like to address. People love to complain without willing to do something about it themselves. Our generation and especially the one that comes after ours is growing increasingly lazy. We want everything without wanting to put in any effort at all. Reap all the benefits without having to lift but a finger. This happens in the community, but this also happens within the staff chat. People want changes to happen, but aren't willing to put in any effort towards realizing it, always looking at someone else to do it for them. Why? Because we're lazy. People have been complaining about a lack of events, but for the longest time, we've been saying that you can just create them yourself. If your event gains enough traction, or you propose it to staff before it's even posted and we like the idea, it will get staff backing. The only one who has really been trying that though it Takao, setting up both coming storm and warpath. Every participant incoming storm got a thread which counts as major plot, on top of that they got an additional 10 EP. Where people happy? Maybe in the beginning, but it died down quick, people were slow to reply and in the end, I feel like it left more of a stain. This had no staff influence at all, was purely community-driven, but I still feel like it didn't succeed. Why? I'm not entirely sure, but it seemed to be due to a lack of posting, also known as, not having enough time.

The next thing to address, more mods. As much as I would love to get more people on staff, I'm sorry, but the vast majority of you would all suck at it. See the things is, as we've been rolling out the guidelines, everything has been made easier. Jutsu modding and making is essentially just can you count how many values there are/are the values you are using allowed for your rank. I see the silliest mistakes coming by from both ends, we're human, mistakes happen. But for some people, it's apparently incredibly hard and they just don't seem to grasp the concept. Furthermore, when we publicly opened up staff positions only 5 people applied. Two of those people were hired from that round then and there. Eventually, two more from that round were hired as well, with the fifth person not being on-site anymore, so they couldn't be hired anyway. So from the people that showed interest 3 months ago, everyone has already been hired. There just aren't more people that want to mod.

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Now for a section of my own state of mind and stuff, instead of addressing peoples issues or statement that were brought up. I'm incredibly burned out and somewhat fed up with how things have been going for about the past 8-9 months? Quitting staff has been on the back of mind for the entirety of that period and I've come really close at points, but the thing is, if I don't try, who will? I find myself at least capable from time to time, to force myself onto Saga and try to get things rolling, write up guideline changes, attempt to make the full modding approvals on sections that require it. But that kick under my own ass only works for so long, before I'm completely burned out again.

We've also had an incredible stroke of bad luck, whenever staff did find itself on the upswing, and everyone did attempt to become more active, drama occurred, inside or outside of staff itself, which de-motivated people. People process such things at their own pace, some do it faster than others. I used to be in camp, you're on staff, so suck it up and take responsibility, but having been in this state myself for so long, I've come to realize that being in that camp is just unreasonable.

The solutions that most of you guys have proposed are, in my eyes, solutions that are just bandaids. It's like trying to fix a wound that requires several stitches with a single bandaid. I've been looking hard for something that would be a proper solution, not something that just shoves the problems to the next hurdle, but I'm honestly clueless. I genuinely feel like I'm at a dead-end and the path behind is also gone.

My two biggest gripes with the site are the following.
1) People complain and want changes, but don't work for it themselves, they only want to a solution with no effort from themselves. (Be the change you want to see)
2) Although there is hardly anything to be done about this, it's incredibly ungrateful to be a moderator. It doesn't feel rewarding at all. Unless you'd start paying the mods actual money, there is no incentive you could give that makes it fun to have to deal with all the complaints. So unless there stops being only complaints, this will never change.



Oh, add on;
Having to constantly deal with peoples complaints is incredibly motivationally draining. After having written this I'm kind of instantly drained for the entire day to do anything more.