User blog:SelenaZephyr/An Open Letter to the Community

Greetings, SelenaZephyr here, though most people just call me Sel. I'll introduce myself by saying that I'm, at the time of this writing, one of the Administrators on the RWBY Fanon Wikia. That's the thing you're reading right now!

11:15, January 20, 2014 (UTC)11:15, January 20, 2014 (UTC)11:15, January 20, 2014 (UTC)11:15, January 20, 2014 (UTC)11:15, January 20, 2014 (UTC)11:15, January 20, 2014 (UTC)11:15, January 20, 2014 (UTC)11:15, January 20, 2014 (UTC)11:15, January 20, 2014 (UTC)11:15, January 20, 2014 (UTC)SelenaZephyr (talk)

Recently, it's been brought to my attention that there has been a growing level of disatisfaction of how things are handled between Staff members, and the RWBY Fanon Community at large. Running rampant are rumors and assumptions about the behaviors of certain Staff members, and the reasonings behind their actions. And the people behind these do not come forward out of fear, with concerns that the Staff by and large will either ignore them, or quash their disapproval or dissent aggressively and rudely.

I wish to clear the air a little about these in a little more detail.

Keep in mind, I only ever truly speak for myself, my behaviors and actions, I can only hope that my peers carry themselves with the same standards as I do.

The first issue, and the main one I wish to address, is concerning the preceived Bias Reviewing staff have towards Reviews. Flat out, this is untrue.

All Reviewers MUST, and ALWAYS conduct themselves with complete unbias-ness. Even if a person likes a character based on some theme or style they have, but has points that would put it as grounds for Rejection, WILL Reject it on those grounds. I myself have gone through many Characters that I have loved, and would have loved to do nothing but Accept simply because of how well made they were. Likewise there's been many characters I've wanted to Reject due to being Mary-Sues or poorly written or simply just having too many stereotypes and bad trends I've witnessed, but sadly, that is not my job.

My job is to Review, and look for any points and details that stick out, and judge the Character accordingly. ALL characters, regardless of owner, content, or any other circumstances that would lean me to prefer to do a certain veredict MUST and always will be put aside so that I can conduct my reviews as fairly for everyone, with the highest level of unbiasness possible.

11:15, January 20, 2014 (UTC)11:15, January 20, 2014 (UTC)11:15, January 20, 2014 (UTC)11:15, January 20, 2014 (UTC)11:15, January 20, 2014 (UTC)11:15, January 20, 2014 (UTC)11:15, January 20, 2014 (UTC)11:15, January 20, 2014 (UTC)11:15, January 20, 2014 (UTC)11:15, January 20, 2014 (UTC)SelenaZephyr (talk)

Which directly leads into the next issue, strictness.

I've heard, from a few sources, that some people are upset due to the strict level of quality control I, and some other, Reviewing Staff conduct their reviews on. They claim that these Reviews in question are stifling creativity, and inserting the Reviewers own personal beliefs into their judgement.

We do not, as Reviewing Staff, try to stifle creativity or otherwise limit the imaginations of our wonderful Community, and the many creations they bring to us that find their way into Pending Review.

Allow me to explain, the reason there is such a high level of strictness in some Reviews, especially concerning a few key matters, is because RWBY as a series so far, is young. There are many points in its Lore, and its themes, that we're simply unaware of. We know there's missing information, but beyond the rare chance we can squeeze something from Monty like a lemon, we simply do not and can not get the answers to them.

Our current knowledge of RWBYs canon extends to what is essentially Four trailers, Sixteen Episodes, Commentary that not everyone is privy to listening to, and an occasional sentence or two from an interview or Podcast. This is VERY little information when you boil it down, and thusly we have very little on what we can truly speculate on when it comes to making highly fitting Original Characters.

To make a comparison, within the First Season of Red vs Blue, we did not know about things like Project Freelancer, or Church and Tex being an A.I. instead of ghosts, and many other things that have been revealed in recent Seasons. This could very well be the same with RWBY Volume 1, concerning many things we are aware we know nothing about beyond what we can safely, logically deduce.

Getting back on track, and summarizing my explaination. Due to the very little information we have on RWBY, we have just as little information when it comes to proper character guidelines. The perceived "strictness" is not, under any circumstances brought on by tight Reviewing Staff, it is brought on by the fact that our boundaries and known limitations are TINY, and that it is better what we create, and what is submitted for Review, and Accepted, fits within these small boundaries.

It's unfortunate, but in order to uphold quality, and to prevent as many retroactive mistakes as possible, it is nessicary.

When future Volumes and Seasons of RWBY come out, what we know about EVERYTHING will broaden, and with this, what we as Reviewing Staff allow will broaden significantly.

Don't lose hope, or cry that things are too strict, for they will not be for much longer I can assure you and promise you with my name as Administrator on the line.

11:15, January 20, 2014 (UTC)11:15, January 20, 2014 (UTC)11:15, January 20, 2014 (UTC)11:15, January 20, 2014 (UTC)11:15, January 20, 2014 (UTC)11:15, January 20, 2014 (UTC)11:15, January 20, 2014 (UTC)11:15, January 20, 2014 (UTC)11:15, January 20, 2014 (UTC)11:15, January 20, 2014 (UTC)SelenaZephyr (talk)

Moving onto the third issue, people have been noticing and assuming that Staff members run rampant, seemingly doing whatever they want whenever they want however they wish.

While these feelings are more than validated, I feel they need to be explained to help clear the air.

A specific example of this, is when a Review Staff member reviews a character and finds it Acceptable, only to have a second Review Staff member see an issue, and correct the veredict to Rejected after Re-reviewing with an explaination.

These events are ALWAYS done with the Primary Reviewers knowledge, and consent. They are allowed to discuss with the Second Reviewer about why they Accepted it even with that outstanding point, or if they simply did not see that point to begin with.

In every case, these corrections are embarassing, and complete mistakes. Unfortunate yes, but keep in mind that Staff members are human, mistakes and errors happen. I'm serious on the human part, poke them a few times. They're all fleshy and squishy and warm. (Disclaimer: Do Not Poke Staff Members, Missing Fingers May Result)

Another example of these, are previously Accepted Characters being forcefully Re-Reviewed and judged. These are never done without merit or reasonings like changes to the Fanons specific rulings, which have happened on issues concerning things like artificial intelligence, and robotics, or things like the Character in question having information added to them AFTER they've been Accepted that could lead to them no longer being Accepted due to any number of potential things.

11:15, January 20, 2014 (UTC)11:15, January 20, 2014 (UTC)11:15, January 20, 2014 (UTC)11:15, January 20, 2014 (UTC)11:15, January 20, 2014 (UTC)11:15, January 20, 2014 (UTC)11:15, January 20, 2014 (UTC)11:15, January 20, 2014 (UTC)11:15, January 20, 2014 (UTC)11:15, January 20, 2014 (UTC)SelenaZephyr (talk)

Moving onto a non-issue related conversation. I wish to highlight just what exactly it means, being part of the RWBY Fanon Community.

As you're likely aware, the RWBY Fanon is divided into multiple sections, we have our Owner, Tsubori, who takes care of delegating important tasks to Administrators and running other Mission Critical devices. Our Chat Moderators, those brave souls who make sure that our Live Chatroom is kept free of unsavory types who would Spam and Flame. (Because nobody likes cooked spam.) Our Reviewers, who assist with looking after Pending Characters, and judge them due to writing quality, canonical accuracy, and against the rules and guidelines the Fanon has concerning Reviews. We also have our Administrators (That's me!) who see to both duties of Chat Moderators, Reviewers, and do many tasks in the background concerning Networking, Bringing in more traffic and publicity to the wiki, and hundreds of other little things you'd never notice. But lastly, we have the most important piece of the RWBY Fanon....

You guys. The Community. The people EVERYBODY above serve. If we did not have you guys' support, traffic and dedication, we'd be running a ghost town. It's through you guys that Staff members even have a reason to BE Staff members. Like it or not, you guys are the most powerful member of the entire Fanon, your voices, opinions, they all matter for it is the Staffs job to make sure everything runs smoothly and contently WITH the Community, not against it.

My hat is off to you guys. For it's through you all that we are given purpose.

The reason I have titled this as an open letter, is that I want to hear the Community speak. All facets of it. Those that see an issue with the current system, and those that do not. I want this pages comments to be a place of respectful conversation, not debate, not arguements, not flames. I want to see the majority, and the minority, all talking about what they like, and what they don't.

Nobody who voices an opinion here, so long as they do so in a respectful manner, will be hated on, singled out, ostrasized or punished in any way. Those that attempt to DO these to commenters WILL, however.

Because if a problem is never brought to anybodies attention, it is never addressed, and a conclusion that both sides of the problem can agree on is never met. This is highly unacceptable when it comes to running a smooth Wikia, and having a Community that is united and content with the system they're under.

~Cheers