Is RB "soliciting feedback" on new policies and rules a "RED HERRING"???
HI!
Many of you will be aware there has been somewhat of an upheaval across this website these past weeks regarding in general – the rules and policies re expected behaviour and how they have been enforced.
In response to this, RB admin and management are working really hard to put together as clear a statement re what is, and what is not acceptable behaviour, and what the resultant penalty for ‘overstepping’ any particular mark should be.
Excellent!!!
They now have an (apparently draft) document on this that is beginning it’s process of ‘solicited feedback’, firstly by having been assessed by RB staff, currently it is available to group hosts to view and comment on, and sometime (soon, I expect) it should be made available to the general RB membership to add their feedback.
This is all a very fine, extremely difficult and confusing (due to the already extremely varied viewpoints expressed) and SLOW process.
I have read the proposed new rules and guidelines pdf document I believe now 7 times, making notes as I go. On the whole, there are a few rather minor issues that I believe MAY be queried re how they are to be defined and enforced, but overall, everything is extremely clear and well set out.
The earlier ‘rules and policies’ (when I finally found them) I ALSO thought were quite clear, well set out and defined.
The one major difference between these 2 documents is that the new one allows for a ‘review process’ for those who wish to activate it, whereas there was no recourse to review before.
This is, in principle, a truly EXCELLENT addition to the rules and guidelines.
So far – all fine and good and excellent??? Yes???
With, in my honest and truly thought through opinion, ONE EXTREMELY SERIOUS OMISSION WHICH IS BEING TOTALLY IGNORED AS EVERYONE (well – only hosts so far) RUSH TO AIR THEIR OPINIONS AND ARGUE OVER THE FINE PRINT IN THE NEW GUIDELINES – AS WELL AS ISSUES NOT IN THE NEW GUIDELINES AT ALL (LOL).......
The primary reason there was a great upheaval and huge anger and disillusionment throughout the RB community was NOT the ‘enforcement of any rule or guideline per se’.
The primary reason for the huge upheavals and the extremely upsetting and destructive arguing in the forums over the past weeks was the PERCEPTION OF UNFAIR AND INCONSISTENT APPLICATION OF RULES AND GUIDELINES.
RB management HAS ADMITTED that, since it’s not well advertised assumption of altered rules in February, it’s application of those rules HAS NOT BEEN CONSISTENT OR FAIR.
Nowhere in this new document, or in any of the information provided to, or solicited (from so far only staff and hosts) does Red Bubble management provide ANY information at all on how they intend to implement not just this new rules and policy document (in whatever slightly edited form it may finally see the light of day), but also on how they intend to firstly make sure that these new guidelines and rules are implemented CONSISTENTLY AND FAIRLY, and, how they are going to be made to BE SEEN TO BE IMPLEMENTED CONSISTENTLY AND FAIRLY.
If the previous rules were unable to be administered consistently and fairly – what reason does anyone at this point in time have to consider that the implementation of ANY format of ANY rules and guidelines will in future be able to be more fair and consistent than to this point in time?
In my honest opinion – an EXTREMELY BIG HOLE in RB management’s response to the recent upheavals.
I would hope this could be addressed well BEFORE any potential new rules and guidelines need be submitted to ANY feedback at all…..
I welcome any and all opinions here on this – my statement of my opinion. However, I will not reply to any comments left here until, at the earliest – sometime tomorrow.
I am, at the moment, extremely tired. I have spent by far the greater proportion of the past weeks on RB policy and procedure issues, with virtually NO time to myself and / or my artwork. For the sake of my sanity, I am now, on posting this journal, going to turn my internet off, and concentrate for a bit on what I should be spending most of my time doing – my photography (as well as resting lol).
I resolve truly to not delete any comments here that may disagree with what I have written – I am interested in fair and open expression for all.
Cheers -
Kallena xx
shanghaiwu
yes/stepping back can be a good idea…....not only you pulling out your hair but am sure they are doing the same….trying to us all happy!
aglaia b
all new news to me, thanks for the info K. ;-) xox
Juilee Pryor
and then there is the elephant in the room…. Helen…can we have her back yet?
Colleen Milburn
Hi K – have you addressed this in the FORB thread and/or written to Peter?
JenniferB
I think we’re more likely to see progress with things being dealt with the way that they are, look what happened last time, the whole scenario turned into a big, mud-slinging match, I agree that some brief, public statement advising Members that our concerns and issues have been noted and are currently being considered as management work towards a resolution, but any more than that would stir people up again and cause emotions to flair, rather than being constructive to the outcome. I’m pretty sure management are taking everyone’s grievances on board and doing all that they can to resolve matters.
transmute
You’re in Melbourne, why don’t you come along to Miss Libertine in the city and talk with one of the admins to find out what’s really going on?
Col Finnie
Roger roger Juilee. A bit of confidence is needed in the ability to resolve problems. Helen should be brought back. Of course people are reminding RedBub about that issue, but it seems it’s in the “too hard” basket at the moment.
I still get the feeling there is a policy mismatch going on. I have little or no doubt RedBub management know the importance of making it a place where all sort of artistic expression should be welcome. But there seems to be a bit of an obsession with trying to make the place nice with all interactions nice. I think it’s seriously unrealistic. I feel they are too influenced by the fragile and the overly sensitive. For mine that forces the benchmark to a place that contradicts a place where creatives can rip and tear. The best idea I’ve seen in the debate is to just give each poster here the opportunity to block someone from seeing or commenting on the posters work. A simple good idea because it doesn’t try and do what I consider to be impossible – manage fair and reasonable exchanges on an art site.
Juilee Pryor
nice is a four letter word
Col Finnie
“nice is a four letter word” ROFL…it truly is! The Fifties equivalent to “make a difference” – subjective, capable of disguising all sorts of intent and consequently an empty word bordering on dangerous. Should be banned from the lexicon.
Lynsye Medalia
Would you like me to post a link to this in the ‘host only’ forum? Peter – the guy heading it up, has a journal about this and ANYONE can go post comments there. Yes, I agree they need to state what the actions/consequences will be….I do like the way they are going about this though – discussing amongst admins, then opening to hosts, then to the general public. Start with the people in charge, then the people who should be moderating, then the rest….I think that’s the most efficient way to get good results.