I think that this would be the perfect post to get this community going.
Under my direction as admin of Hexbear I restructured the internal admin/moderator order. A large part of this restructure was to shift the majority of the site decisions to a larger collective of people dedicated to the site.
At the time I also reorganized the new moderator protocol to make it easier for new mods to be added and for those mods to have the power to appoint mods at will based on a vouching system. Only moderators who submitted an application were invited to an off-site moderation discussion room.
This room is where the proposals for the site were made, discussed, and voted upon. After a proposal was finished I would often write up a statement and post it for feedback and approval so that the entire process from proposal to post had as many opportunities as possible for the moderators to give input or present changes.
In light of the most recent decision I am taking responsibility as I established this decision-making process, I drafted the announcement post, I collected and edited the followup statement.
It is clear to me that I was mistaken in the effectiveness of this approach and that a more transparent approach is needed. As well as, creating more opportunities for user input need to be added.
I am more than happy to return to the admin team if the users want me to do so, but I am stepping away from all decision-making at an admin level. I will continue to be involved with Hexbear in any capacity I can and will not be leaving as a user.
Chapo.chat/Hexbear was never my project nor did I ever intend to take it over. My hope was to keep it going another day so the people that spent hours developing, coordinating, organizing, and educating on this platform could continue to do so. Everyone that has donated to mutual aid, organized fundraisers, wrote effort posts, and bad posts have done just as much if not more than I have.
I have faith in all the other admins both new and old to keep this place going and while I am happy to give my thoughts on any aspect of the site I think the best way to self-crit is to accept my mistakes and to let the other admins take the lead.
Thank you to everyone who has sent me kind comments and to those that continuously strive to make this place better.
Either I was invited to this room and forgot to accept the invite, or this was something I haven't received. I know c/parents is a slow comm so I take no offense if I was simply forgotten. Might be moot at this point if things are changing, but if not let me know. I would have given my input if I was able.
I work on a team that makes decisions that impact a user base of about 1.5k to 2k people in my day job. I know how hard it is to try and account for all the different groups of people, and those groups opinions. Its not easy. I've learned lessons like this one in the past as well. People need time to process and accept change, and people need to have their time to provide input before a change is implemented.
Sometimes we have to make changes for purely structural or mechanical reasons, and even then, having that advanced notice allows for communication, even if these changes are happening regardless of input (like implementing 2FA in our org for insurance compliance). It let's you address all the fears, uncertainty, and doubt that come with change up front.
Obviously, these are all things you're learning too.
Changing culture is harder, because then your rubbing up against behavior. This is also something my team has dealt with in the past. Its obviously very different I'll admit, since we were trying to cut down on waste for budget reasons. Culture change takes a long time though, regardless the reason. It also has to be changed with a high degree of certainty.
Looking at a budget, and seeing the cultural behaviors that impact that budget is one thing. You can do the math and make a good case for change. Changing the culture of a place like this requires a lot more investigation, evidence, and consensus. So I don't envy that task. Once the investigation is done and analysed, you also have to be willing to throw all of it away if the conclusion is not what you expected.
All this to say, if I had left after every failed attempt at improving my organization, I probably wouldn't have learned anything. I hope you stay on, because there are lessons in every misstep, and you only improve through learning what those lesions are and applying them to your practice.
Hexbear will be better for it.