Wranglers can themselves often feel stuck in a similar situation: accountable to users for a huge part of their archive experience (as well as being users themselves) yet caught against the large, slow machinery of the org as it grinds away beyond their direct control.
Yes. It's part of why I stopped wrangling. Only part, but it's a strong part of why I haven't signed up again even though I have more spare time now.
So I can understand where the frustration and negative interpretation comes from. But I continue to think that the key lies in treating the OTW as, well, an organization.
No. Please no. The OTW doesn't have the infrastructure for this. Possibly more importantly, the OTW doesn't have visible progress enough for this.
I can't say how many times I've mentioned on various threads "the OTW *does* want to host fanart and vids; that's been part of the plan from the very beginning." But those who noticed the OTW more recently didn't know that, have no easy way to know that--there is no "here's a recap of our long-term plans" in every newsletter--which means that communication with fans needs to allow for informal and indirect contact.
The personal-connections side of communication is working fine. It's relatively easy to find someone who knows someone who can find out what's up with [project x] or [situation y]. The official communications channels are less effective. And failure to make them more effective, is not the fault of the fans.
It's all about reciprocity: our nascent hierarchy can only be fully effective if people respect it and behave as if it is real.
No. It *does not work that way.* If the hierarchy is in place and effective, people will use it. If writing a blog post complaint gets more direct attention--both notice of action, and feedback about the process itself--than filing something official, people will continue to use blog posts to complain. Some people will *never* put any communications through official channels. But the majority will--or at least, enough will that OTW will be *swamped* with useful and insightful communications--if those methods get results.
Right now, "post meta at personal blog" gets more visible results--from staff and the surrounding community--than anything that goes through official channels. There is no official channel for "I have these thoughts about how some part of the OTW might be improved." (If there is, I don't know it, which is a gap in communications.) There are places to reply to specific announcements, or send notices of specific bugs, but nothing for general meta. Nothing for "I have some thoughts on how headers for vids could work, but I'd to discuss that with multiple people."
There's nowhere official to discuss grievances. There's chat meetings--but those are realtime gatherings, not much good for bringing up ideas and mulling them over. There's nowhere official for fans and volunteers to discuss how the various departments do and don't work together.
no subject
Yes. It's part of why I stopped wrangling. Only part, but it's a strong part of why I haven't signed up again even though I have more spare time now.
So I can understand where the frustration and negative interpretation comes from. But I continue to think that the key lies in treating the OTW as, well, an organization.
No. Please no. The OTW doesn't have the infrastructure for this. Possibly more importantly, the OTW doesn't have visible progress enough for this.
I can't say how many times I've mentioned on various threads "the OTW *does* want to host fanart and vids; that's been part of the plan from the very beginning." But those who noticed the OTW more recently didn't know that, have no easy way to know that--there is no "here's a recap of our long-term plans" in every newsletter--which means that communication with fans needs to allow for informal and indirect contact.
The personal-connections side of communication is working fine. It's relatively easy to find someone who knows someone who can find out what's up with [project x] or [situation y]. The official communications channels are less effective. And failure to make them more effective, is not the fault of the fans.
It's all about reciprocity: our nascent hierarchy can only be fully effective if people respect it and behave as if it is real.
No. It *does not work that way.* If the hierarchy is in place and effective, people will use it. If writing a blog post complaint gets more direct attention--both notice of action, and feedback about the process itself--than filing something official, people will continue to use blog posts to complain. Some people will *never* put any communications through official channels. But the majority will--or at least, enough will that OTW will be *swamped* with useful and insightful communications--if those methods get results.
Right now, "post meta at personal blog" gets more visible results--from staff and the surrounding community--than anything that goes through official channels. There is no official channel for "I have these thoughts about how some part of the OTW might be improved." (If there is, I don't know it, which is a gap in communications.) There are places to reply to specific announcements, or send notices of specific bugs, but nothing for general meta. Nothing for "I have some thoughts on how headers for vids could work, but I'd to discuss that with multiple people."
There's nowhere official to discuss grievances. There's chat meetings--but those are realtime gatherings, not much good for bringing up ideas and mulling them over. There's nowhere official for fans and volunteers to discuss how the various departments do and don't work together.