Two things first: One, I love your posts, and I learn things every time I read them, and I always feel less like giving up on the OTW after I read one.
ETA: Three, what follows sounds a bit snarky in places. I'm not aiming it at you, but at the organization that has done things that I think deserve some snark.
So, yes, I agree with your main theme that critique works in a culture of respect and that it is a symbiotic relationship. I also agree that the framework of "fannish project" is not the best way to look at the OTW or its projects
But...
First to the framework issue. I reject your dichotomy, or at least reject it in part. While it might be valid for the internal organizational structure to be viewed as fannish project vs. (or &) non-profit, there are also relationships that are much more like service provider and customer that dominate the OTW's interactions with outsiders.
Those customers or users of the AO3, Fanlore, TWC, etc. live in a world where customer service is often deliberately made difficult to access, where service providers don't want to hear feedback of any kind and largely ignore it, and where increasingly the only way to get heard as a customer is to complain loudly and obnoxiously on Twitter to the world at large.
The OTW doesn't get the luxury of ignoring this reality. It's all very well to place expectations on users to find the avenue of communication the OTW prefers and to use it in the tone that feels like constructive criticism to the OTW, but that's not what experience will have taught users. And no, those tens of thousands of users of the AO3 don't read meta on Dreamwidth about the OTW. Lots of them have never heard of the OTW, many of them don't know what a non-profit is and they see the AO3 only as a service they want to use and have expectations of.
Second to the issue of people like me who do read meta on Dreamwidth and have been observing, cheering, despairing and hoping for better from the OTW from day one.
Yes, communication and respect is symbiotic. I love that way of phrasing it, and yes there are constructive ways to critique and non-constructive. Somebody has to start the feedback loop going in the right way.
But, I think the ball's in your court not mine.
I'm blunt and honest and I've had a lot to say about the OTW and its projects over the years. I've spent a great deal of time trying to track down the correct place to send feedback through the channels the OTW wants me to use and I've never been anything but constructive in tone.
The results have been:
* Utter silence when using the OTW website contact form for serious issues of concern, with one memorable case of total and utter misunderstanding of my point with no opportunity to correct the failure to communicate since I found out too late.
* One experience on the Fanlore community was the single most frustrating effort at communication in my entire life, where reams of thoughtful, critique from a host of users was stonewalled and derailed by wails of how bad the committee chair felt because she can't handle conflict and there weren't enough positive comments.
* A great deal of positive experiences on the Fanlore community when issues discussed were confined to the level of editor brainstorming.
* An exceptionally positive experience filing bug reports on the AO3.
* An uncomfortable and mostly futile experience leaving feedback via the AO3 support form as it is always filtered through the support staff (who are always excellent, in my experience) in a way that feels obstructive and opaque. This is the design of the process that is never a dialogue, rather it's like shouting up to the guys on the castle wall who then relay your suggestion to the King, and well, we all know how that "conversation" ends don't we?
And then there's the time the OTW board member messaged me with private information about a Committee chair that was none of my business as a way of getting me to shut up and stop criticizing the committee's progress. It was done in a way that ensured I could not respond to her directly to tell her how not okay that was.
I see a pattern in all those experiences that's very telling.
There's a point at which requests for us all to step up and be respectful and constructive and to use the official channels in professional ways sounds uncomfortably like half of a good cop/bad cop routine.
I can only speak for myself here, but I want to see some good faith coming from the OTW that's real and tangible; and sorry, but thousands of words of dense posts that often leave out the real story of what's going on spread over a blog and a pile of mirrors ain't it.
no subject
Two things first: One, I love your posts, and I learn things every time I read them, and I always feel less like giving up on the OTW after I read one.
Two, what
ETA: Three, what follows sounds a bit snarky in places. I'm not aiming it at you, but at the organization that has done things that I think deserve some snark.
So, yes, I agree with your main theme that critique works in a culture of respect and that it is a symbiotic relationship. I also agree that the framework of "fannish project" is not the best way to look at the OTW or its projects
But...
First to the framework issue. I reject your dichotomy, or at least reject it in part. While it might be valid for the internal organizational structure to be viewed as fannish project vs. (or &) non-profit, there are also relationships that are much more like service provider and customer that dominate the OTW's interactions with outsiders.
Those customers or users of the AO3, Fanlore, TWC, etc. live in a world where customer service is often deliberately made difficult to access, where service providers don't want to hear feedback of any kind and largely ignore it, and where increasingly the only way to get heard as a customer is to complain loudly and obnoxiously on Twitter to the world at large.
The OTW doesn't get the luxury of ignoring this reality. It's all very well to place expectations on users to find the avenue of communication the OTW prefers and to use it in the tone that feels like constructive criticism to the OTW, but that's not what experience will have taught users. And no, those tens of thousands of users of the AO3 don't read meta on Dreamwidth about the OTW. Lots of them have never heard of the OTW, many of them don't know what a non-profit is and they see the AO3 only as a service they want to use and have expectations of.
Second to the issue of people like me who do read meta on Dreamwidth and have been observing, cheering, despairing and hoping for better from the OTW from day one.
Yes, communication and respect is symbiotic. I love that way of phrasing it, and yes there are constructive ways to critique and non-constructive. Somebody has to start the feedback loop going in the right way.
But, I think the ball's in your court not mine.
I'm blunt and honest and I've had a lot to say about the OTW and its projects over the years. I've spent a great deal of time trying to track down the correct place to send feedback through the channels the OTW wants me to use and I've never been anything but constructive in tone.
The results have been:
* Utter silence when using the OTW website contact form for serious issues of concern, with one memorable case of total and utter misunderstanding of my point with no opportunity to correct the failure to communicate since I found out too late.
* One experience on the Fanlore community was the single most frustrating effort at communication in my entire life, where reams of thoughtful, critique from a host of users was stonewalled and derailed by wails of how bad the committee chair felt because she can't handle conflict and there weren't enough positive comments.
* A great deal of positive experiences on the Fanlore community when issues discussed were confined to the level of editor brainstorming.
* An exceptionally positive experience filing bug reports on the AO3.
* An uncomfortable and mostly futile experience leaving feedback via the AO3 support form as it is always filtered through the support staff (who are always excellent, in my experience) in a way that feels obstructive and opaque. This is the design of the process that is never a dialogue, rather it's like shouting up to the guys on the castle wall who then relay your suggestion to the King, and well, we all know how that "conversation" ends don't we?
And then there's the time the OTW board member messaged me with private information about a Committee chair that was none of my business as a way of getting me to shut up and stop criticizing the committee's progress. It was done in a way that ensured I could not respond to her directly to tell her how not okay that was.
I see a pattern in all those experiences that's very telling.
There's a point at which requests for us all to step up and be respectful and constructive and to use the official channels in professional ways sounds uncomfortably like half of a good cop/bad cop routine.
I can only speak for myself here, but I want to see some good faith coming from the OTW that's real and tangible; and sorry, but thousands of words of dense posts that often leave out the real story of what's going on spread over a blog and a pile of mirrors ain't it.
It's your serve OTW.