Member Suggestions Mod Feedback February 2025

We will start with regular suggestions and requests, but we will address a very important concern brought to us at the end, we hope that you will read it!

Q:Hello! Visually Impaired person here. I am suggesting/requesting that the small text formatting that is done by some members and moderators is not done as much! Discord already has a hard to read interface and the small text does not make it any easier! Thank you!

A: Thank you for letting us know! We mods as a team have come to the agreement not to use this formatting for the sake of accessibility on our part, and we encourage other members do so as well to make roots more accessible for everyone!

Q: Member Event role! As someone who makes a lot of member events it can be hard to get everyone's attention through word of mouth in fast moving channels. Being able to use a ping for people interested in participating in member events to reach everyone all at once would be so helpful. Thanks a lot!! Posting this in the suggestion box as requested: I'd asked about it months ago, but it seems like there's multiple members that really think we'd benefit from having a opt-in Members Event role or something so that people can ping anybody interested when they host a member event in the Promoting channel. The channel is so out of the way in the server, it makes it really easy to miss a sign-up period and not all member events are mentioned in the Announcements channel. It'd be really great, hope you guys consider!

A: We've decided that with the popularity of member run events, for ease of access both for both event runners and members, that we are adding a Member Event role! You can find it in #🔔》roles in the server! Please keep in mind that its totally opt-in but it's the best way to be notified from this point on of new member events!

Even organizers can now use this role to both notify members of the initial post, and use it going forward to update participants.

Those were all the regular suggestions we've gotten, now we are going to address a serious concern.

The mod team has received and discussed a concern that was brought up to us through the suggestions box earlier in the month and while we are posting most of the message in full, please note we are only removing the name of the member named here for their privacy but we feel it necessary for transparency sake we show the message in full otherwise.

It reads as follows:

"Hey. Really not impressed by the behavior shown by chari and Mata in relation to [Member]'s blighting. Especially Chari kind of openly mocking [them]. Extremely condescending and petty tone. And just really surprised multiple mods would act this way openly towards a member. We get it, it would be so easy for you to finish the prompt and you see a member struggling and can't relate, so the instinct is to punch down. Not a single helpful thing was said besides basically "just do it". I think keeping your comments to yourself would be more helpful."

As stated, we've discussed this thoroughly and while of course the mods in question had no intent to mock the member, the fact is that it was seen and taken that way regardless and created genuine harm. It also means we still have a lot of work to do to provide a space and energy in which members feel comfortable with us that what was initially meant as a playful poke was seen as hostile and did in the end create a dogpile, and for that we apologize and promise to refrain from such actions in the future.

Apologies were given to the member in question, both by the mods named as well as a collective apology from our mod team for failure to act on it sooner.

We know that it is our responsibility as mods to nurture an environment where this does not happen and we are meant to be leading by example to show other members what is and isn't acceptable behavior, and as well intentioned as we believe ourselves to be we are also learning to grow as a team and mod effectively as well as compassionately. Our only frame of reference to measure if we are doing a good job is through member feedback and it is clear there is still more work to be done, and we thank you for bringing this to our attention and we are sorry for the harm and unease this has caused.

Thank you for reading,

Mod team