PSA: Recent Discussions and Changes

At times a decision will be made that may leave some confused and/or concerned as to why it occurred and wanting a better understanding. When these situations occur, we want to hear from our , just as we did this week. Without communication we cannot work to find a better solution. We always strive to be fair, unbiased, and do the best we are able when making decisions that will affect the community, but we also understand it may not always be easy to understand how a decision was made to the circumstances that lead to how certain aspects were considered. Many of the changes that have occurred within this community came from speaking with us about concerns and complaints, and this most recent issue is no different.

When this chat was created, the purpose of it was to be a chatroom where of the community could have an open forum to come speak with us. This includes casually chatting and get to know us, coming to speak with us about some concerns, or even ideas may have for the community. Please allow us to clarify a huge misunderstanding that developed.

The purpose for this chat has not changed. It is and will remain a place where can come speak with the mod team.

After an unfortunate incident occurred several voiced their concerns about the chat not having a Mod Team member as the chat organizer and wanted to know why we had allowed this is the first place. At the time we discussed the topic of the chat organizer aspect of the Mublic had followed after that member of the Mod Team had requested to step down, but requested to remain at the chat organizer. At the time we had decided to allow this since all of the Mod Team were apart of the chat so we were still able to oversee, respond, and monitor. After the incident and the complaints that followed, a Mod Team member is once again the organizer over that chat and it will remain that way moving forward.

Please know, if you are not comfortable coming to speak with us in the Mublic, you are welcome to send a PM to any of the Mod Team, or you can even use the Suggestions Wiki. We truly care and want to know if there is a problem or concern. If you do not come to one of us directly, we may not be aware there is an issue, or to the severity of the issue that is occuring.

There may be occasions when a member will come to speak with us in the Mublic and we will shift the conversation to PM. This is not done to silence anyone, we promise. Depending on the circumstances of the situation may depict why we will make this choice, the goal of speaking with the member(s) will always be the same; if you come to us, we want to hear your thoughts. We want to make sure we understand what your concerns or issues are and try to work on a fair solution that is reasonable. Sometimes this can become difficult if others attempt to speak on our behalf.

With that said, we also ask for not to speak on our behalf. We know you may have the best of intentions, but if a member has come into the Mublic to speak with us, then allow us to speak to them.

If someone is not available, we will respond as soon as someone is. Also, please do not demand the member(s) take the message to us in PM. If we feel that needs to occur, then allow us to make a decision. Mini Moding is not allowed per the [Guidelines] and proof of why this rule is in place occurred recently and made what was a difficult situation escalate as the impression became we were trying to silence the when we were trying to speak with them. We cannot apologize enough for what occurred, but we do appreciate that the who were involved and had complaints were willing to continue speaking with us after the incident. Because of that we were able to learn all the concerns they had which were valid and some just needing clarification, and we were all able to find common ground for ways we can improve moving forward.

Also, please when you come to us to be respectful. We understand at times you will be upset and it can make it more difficult to calmly talk with us, but if you are out right disrespectful, attempt to intimidate us, or threaten us and/or the safety of this community we have the right to no longer respond and in the latter offence may cause us to action with a strike or possible ban as it is stated in our [Guidelines] threats will not be tolerated. We do want to hear your concerns, truly we do, but trying to intimidate, harass, or threaten us or this community is not the way to make yourself heard. We want to help, we just ask for you to be respectful towards us as we will be towards you.

There was much confusion over the curator application requirements. Though these requirements have been the same for the past two recruitments, and even in our last recruitment there were still very new to the community selected, this time there was concern. First we would like to clarify how these requirements came to be so everyone has a clear understanding. In the past the curator applications had always been done via Google Docs until three recruitments ago. That was the first and only time to date in this community that the applicants posted their applications in the community instead of Google Docs. There were many concerns and complaints that came from that process from in the community.

Many expressed how they were uncomfortable posting their applications in the community, especially considering those who have/do lead or curate in other communities had to submit a link to their s in those communities. There were also many complaints from along with it being noticed by the Mod Team that would edit their applications after posting if they saw someone post an application they may have thought was better than theirs. These actions are dishonest and unfair to the applicants who did not alter their applications. It was due to these complaints and valid concerns that we did as the community asked and returned to hosting the application process via Google Doc restarting that way with the previous and most recent recruitment.

After hearing the concerns from those who spoke with us, we agree that there does need to be more transparency in the process and all do have a right to see the applications for all who apply moving forward. Since there was a big issue with editing applications after they were posted we are looking at fair ways for all applicants to apply and for the community to be able to see these applications, but know we will ensure no matter what the community will see all applications from a recruitment moving forward. If anyone has any ideas or suggestions for this you are welcome to recommend them!

The second main concern from this recruitment was having a level requirement instead of length of time here requirement. After the recruitment where all made posts for their applications, there were many who complained over the length of stay requirement. They stated they felt it was unfair as a member could be here for over a year, but not truly be active and underqualified could be selected over a member who is active and present in the community with more qualifications. Many who complained suggesting it to be changed to level requirement as many communities, several larger than us do. After looking into this as we ourselves are apart of other communities, some larger than our own, we did find that many did use a level method opposed to length of stay. Because of this we agreed to make the change as was requested of us by many of our . This resulted in newer being selected two recruitments ago, and during this most recent selection.

After hearing the concerns of all who spoke to us, we have agreed that moving forward we will revert back to the length of stay requirement. It is a reasonable request and one we can . Because of though, moving forward we will instill that requirement once more.

Now that discussions have ended and a common ground that is fair has been reached, we ask everyone to please give a fair chance to all new curators. We ask this due to the simple fact that all selected were chosen under a process created from the voices of community expressing their concerns and opinions. For the sake of being fair, it is not right for us to demote someone who met all the requirements that came to be because of what the community asked of us, but we are also not dismissing your concerns. Please keep in mind that the training process for all new curators is a two month long process in which we are monitoring all they do during that time. If we feel they are not able to handle the responsibility, they do not meet the mod task requirements all mods are required to meet weekly (this is monitored during their final phase of training), or we ultimately feel they are not a good fit then they will not be cleared as a full curator. When this training period ends it will have the member that many have questioned about very close to a three month mark. This also gives an opportunity for the community itself to meet all new curators and get to know them.

It was also during these discussions that questions were raised as to why we did not make an announcement about the new recruit being promoted. This is a valid question we agree, and moving forward one we will strive to ensure we do. In the past when these situations occurred, we had never made announced like this, nor had it ever been voiced to us that this was a concern. This is not the first time that a member selected to become a curator did not complete their training and was demoted. In the past when this occurred, just as how it was done this time, the top alternate from the selection we voted on is promoted and begins their training. With this situation, originally we had not planned to promote when one of the originally had to step down. Two days later we had another curator step down. It was then that we made the decision since we had lost two and had not even cleared two weeks since we hosted the recruitment to promote the applicant that was the top alternate.

Please , as we explained in the PSA, though not all selected, the top alternates from the applicants, along with a previous Mod member who had stepped down themselves less than a month ago were apart of the “WeeWoo Team” and would assist us in monitoring chats. During this time, the applicant who ultimately got promoted showed a clear understanding to the community guidelines, and performed well in assisting us. When the first reactions to the promotion occurred, it was barely hours after we had promoted. From then we only knew of a small group who had come directly to us. It was not until later a few days later while we thought we had taken care of the issues brought to us that we learned there had been more and they had apparently been voicing their concerns, but none of that information was brought to the Mod Team for us to truly know that had been voicing concerns until the incident that occurred in the Mublic. This is why we stress again, please, if you have a concern or an issue, please come talk to a Mod Team member. Since then we agree we should have made an announcement. We had honestly never thought about this since this situation of promoting during a training period had occurred before without announcement, but it was valid points made that it gave a dishonest impression to the community which we will and use moving forward.

From all that was brought to us we have been able to learn and grow from this. All parties involved do it mistakes were made on both sides, but we learn and grow from these to make a better future. At this time we would like to introduce you to your newest Curators! Below for each you will see their application that was submitted and an introduction for all three. Let’s show them some love and as they work hard through their training.

Hello I’m Nikki, not to be confused with our wonderful leader, Nikki, and I’m one of the newly chosen curators for this community! Some of my hobbies include editing, playing alto saxophone, singing, and writing! I’m very involved int this community as I’m part of multiple clubs and even the leader of the Editistry! :blush:

I absolutely love this community and I would love to see it grow and become more active! One of the ways I was thinking we could achieve this would be to create an official Instagram for this Amino! I’ve seen other communities do this and it could really help us grow!

I’m so exited to be even more involved here as a curator! I can’t wait to begin working with all of the mods and I hope you all wish us luck! :revolving_hearts:

Nikki’s Curator Application

Hi, my name is Mads, I’m 18 and currently working part-time. I love partaking in various activities if online on Amino or irl (eg sports, drawing,...).

A friend suggested to me to watch Yuri!!! on Ice, because there was a rumor going around that it would actually be about the genre Yuri. I’ve watched the anime more than 15 times, because I still can’t get over the fact that it’s so awesome :heart_eyes: . When I ed YOIA I was amazed as to how many people actually love YOI like I do and are willing to share their love and ion for it.

The reason I applied to become a curator was to try and help the community to grow and help the to become more interactive with each other. I wish to help the current leaders and curators in creating even more original idea for theme weeks and crossovers in switching things up with characters, other animes, different topics and more. It’s not just the theme weeks I wish to help with, it’s also coming up with new challenges and events for each month (eg the last month’s Murder Mystery). I would also like to ask the of this community to give more suggestions on what we can do for theme weeks and possible challenges, so that everyone is more involved.

I have also recently ed the NEIS so I can give help and advice to of YOIA that are in need of it as we are such a big community.

Mads Curator Application

Hello everyone! I’m Merlin, but most people call me Mer for short. I’m 17 years old, and a junior in high school. I love to chat with people who have similar interests as me, especially Yuri on Ice, and I’m hoping to make this community a more welcoming place for others. For future development, I have many fun challenges like collaboration challenges, and maybe a competition between teams. I also have a video editing club in mind so stay tuned. :blush:

I had originally found Yuri on Ice a couple years ago through a few real life friends but I didn’t the community because the member count back then intimated me since I was still new to the app and it’s mechanics. Out of boredom, I decided to continue the series a few weeks ago and I fell in love with it. That was when I decided to this community as well! When I first ed, I was so moved by everyone because of their kindness and generosity they had for everyone. I’m really looking forward being a curator in this community and I will do the best of my ability.

Merlin’s Curator Application