Dear Ralph,
It has recently come to our attention that Michael O’Connor (Words of Ivory), the webmaster of Final Fantasy Extreme, is damaging the ethics, integrity, and activity of the FFE Forums. We, the former and current staff and members of FFE, wish to express our disapproval of his attitude and behavior, and thus formally request that he be removed as webmaster.
We believe his removal will allow FFE to thrive and continue to grow, whereas his unpopular policies and questionable actions have cast the FFE Forums into a quagmire of bickering, confusion, and immobilizing drama. Among the most severe of his flaws are his ambiguity, hypocrisy, grudges, immaturity, unwillingness to discuss issues, and prohibition of dissenting opinions: grievances we will expound upon in detail as to leave no question of his deficiency as webmaster.
Hard-Deletion Makes Staff Operations Difficult
First, it is critical to understand Michael's main method of dealing with problems: hard-deleting posts. A hard-deletion completely removes all traces of a post, whereas soft-deletion, the more acceptable alternative, removes the post from view but leaves the evidence behind. Michael has hard-deleted dozens of posts that go against his skewed standards of behavior. Some of the deleted posts contained questionable transgressions; we were not able to reach a conclusion about the appropriate actions to take because Michael deleted our evidence. This is not good practice. Staff procedures have been repeatedly muddled and confused due to this lack of evidence. Yet more posts were hard-deleted in the actual staff forum because of Michael's inability to accept suggestions, criticism, or any discussion or opinions other than his own.
The Staff Are Prohibited from Helping
Michael views suggestions as a type of insult; any advice, he feels, questions his superiority and threatens his militaristic grasp over the forums. For instance, he recently decided that too many users were abusing the reputation system by giving others negative reputation that they did not deserve. He informed us that he was going to completely reset the reputation system. Aaron Freed (The Man) in turn offered that a simple MySQL query could remove only the negative reputation. Michael, clearly offended that someone would offer a suggestion, cryptically responded that the situation had “already been addressed.”[1]
Ambiguity Killed the Forum
Upon question of the meaning of that statement, Michael refused to “reiterate” what he “already said,” despite the fact that neither Aaron nor any of the staff knew what Michael was referring to. He is known to make vague statements often and considers himself to be under no obligation to alter this behavior on the principle that, as a superior, he is not obligated to inform his staff team of his actions. This clearly dissolves any notion of teamwork, an element that is necessary to administer forums. Michael began deleting any staff response about the reputation situation, and all subsequent responses about the confusing deletion of posts. Michael has stated that “I do not need to explain every single little action I take to you, or anyone else.”[2]
Grudges Cloud Judgment
However, upon further discussion, it became clear that Michael’s actions were the product of a grudge held against Aaron from events that occurred long ago on other websites. As Michael explains to Aaron, “If I gave you an answer, you would spend the next twenty posts disagreeing with it; If I didn't give you an answer, you would spend the next twenty posts looking for it.”[2] (It stands to point out that after Michael finally explained what was actually being done, which was not substantially different from what Aaron had proposed, Aaron accepted it immediately). He also dubbed the incident “a common occurence [sic] by Mr. Freed who have [sic] often times sucesfully [sic] managed to keep some forums alive purely through the act of telling people how they're wrong for 10 pages straight.”[3] These bitter remarks directed at Aaron indicated this was the result of a personal grudge. When this was pointed out, Michael responded, “I would have said the very same thing regardless of who was doing it and who it was aimed at,”[3] despite the fact that he had just spent the majority of his previous response personally attacking specific supposed traits of Aaron’s character. This is but one instance of Michael’s shameless hypocrisy.
Issues Cannot Be Discussed
Michael also fails to see the point of discussion. He has hard deleted many posts simply because they were posted after his “final word,” which seldom resolves the matter at hand. A staff forum simply cannot function if discussion is prohibited. Furthermore, his attitude in response to members’ indignation is often rude and unprofessional: “If you don't like staff decisions, go back and bitch on a forum where they're actually stupid enough to argue with you.”[2] He will often flaunt the supposed infallibility of his personal “staff orders, which are not up for discussion.”[4]
Opinions Are Prohibited
Michael’s disdain for discussion may stem from his inherent rejection of all dissenting opinions, or, as he states, “the deluded belief that you actually do have the freedom to express whatever opinion you want.”[5] Aside from hard-deleting many discussion responses, he has also hard-deleted many opinions both in the staff forum and in the shoutbox. Regardless whether his actions are right or wrong, he refuses to hear anybody’s opinions on the situation. A staff member proclaimed “I can voice my opinion all I want,” to which Michael responded “No, Trav, not here you can't.”[6] This staff member was soon removed from staff.
Immaturity Makes the Site Look Bad
Professionalism seems not to be a concern for Michael. On many occasions, Michael has resorted to petty slander and foul language to get his points across. After his forum girlfriend received neutral feedback on a picture she posted of herself, Michael responded with a flurry of insults: “dip****,” “****head,” and “offensive prick.”[6] These are in clear violation of his own rule, the “one unwavering rule … that clear insults, personal attacks, baiting, and flames are deleted ON SIGHT.”[7] He has displayed no regard for forum rules or common courtesy, nor does he practice what he preaches.
Injustice to Hardworking Staff and Members
A vast number of longtime staff members have been unjustly removed, former staffers been unjustly denied access to the staff forums, loyal members been unjustly banned, or longtime staffers simply been driven to quit as a result of Michael's mismanagement of the forums. An exhaustive list of why people were removed or gave up would be superfluous. However, among the people driven to leave at various points have included several super moderators, three administrators, and one of the forum's most active news reporters; another has disappeared from the forum since Michael’s instatement as admin, and one of the forum’s most active content writers has resigned from that position as well, with the result that progress on the frontsite has slowed to a mere fraction of what it was before his adminship. In addition, Michael has removed several people from the staff forum, or the staff altogether, simply for disagreeing with him and asking that he address their arguments. He has also given out warnings and then punished people for behaviors completely different from those they were warned for. He also refuses to discuss warnings with members, even going so far as to refuse to give clarification on the nature of the warning or what he considered the member to have done wrong. The result of this is that a member who earns Michael’s displeasure is assured of no reasonable means to avoid escaping punishment, and it damages FFE’s ability to be a thriving, open community full of reasonable discussion.
Closing Remarks
In conclusion, Michael has proven to be far less than adequate as a webmaster. He has demonstrated a history of bringing down activity when placed in that position, and his very nature has proven destructive to forums. He is well known and infamous among other sites that he frequents. If he is in power at those sites, activity dwindles. If he isn't, he frequently influences those who are to do his bidding, which often has a detrimental effect on the well-being of the forums. If this isn't enough proof that it was a mistake to make him head administrator, simply ask owners of sites he has previously administered what the results of giving control to him were, or simply look at the activity of the site itself. We, the undersigned, agree that Michael's gross injustices should no longer be tolerated. His removal will mark the beginning of a new era of activity and prosperity. Please remove him as webmaster immediately. Thank you.
Sincerly Signed,
- Abes
- Ashley
- Drifter
- eXo
- Exodus
- Freudian Slip
- Jak
- Jay
- Lawliet
- Lennon Legend
- MistaRob
- Obsidian Tides
- Red Panda
- Suikolove
- The Dark Messenger
- The Doctor
- The Man
- Tom
- Travnia
- Yop
