Discussion Thread
socksva for Voice your thoughts here
1 Verification Badge
2 Pro Section
3. Anything else on your mind.
This is my audio without any editing to the sound. I edited out a lot of silence and ums and ahs, but this is my audio without any noise reduction, EQing or anything else.
I'm really sorry about what you went through and that I couldn't provide a better response to the situation, hopefully something like this won't happen again. Realizing there was over 400 Pro profiles to look at I was lazy and that was wrong of me. In regards to the difference in our audio quality, the reason that the site doing something weird to the audio was even a possible factor I considered and mentioned to people during the decision making process was because when I went to grab one of my auditions as an example of clear audio; I found out that they had all been compressed to hell for some reason to a much worse quality that what they are off site (the algorithm is being fixed). We definitely do hold the mods to the same standards we hold everyone else, just at the moment (unless the issue is already fixed) sometimes someone's audio quality may not be what it appears to be (that's why I look at a handful of past auditions rather than just once since it's less likely that all of a person's auditions were affected).
First of all, shame on you for trying to defend your actions and not immediately apologizing to everyone. Shame on you for not apologizing profusely to Buford and the other mods. Because you decided to become ModGod you've doubled their workload as they scramble to fix the mess you have made. How dare you not take responsibility for your actions. How dare you you try to place your blame elsewhere. There is no amount of excuses you could come up with, and I've read your comments on other people's auditions, that could justify your actions. It's not just me you've caused unnecessary stress for but countless others and you still have the gal not to write a formal apology and take responsibility? The site didn't cause this, you did. You alone are responsible for all of this.
Woah, I get that you're upset, but that doesn't mean you can't act like an adult (like everybody else had been doing) and calmly air your concerns. I was apologizing to you, I wouldn't have commented if I didn't care, I wouldn't spend countless thankless hours helping to moderate the site if I didn't care. Contrary to what you're saying I haven't made any excuses about the situation and I've apologized both publicly about this and to the moderator team. And whilst the Casting Call may not mention this, we talked about this before it was done and I was given the go ahead to do all this and was working with the mod team on this while it was being done (we had discussions the whole way through). But obviously it could have been handled better (me sending out more messages). And whilst I'm sorry this whole situation happened, honestly more good may come out of this then bad since afterwards we'll now know what we actually want out of the Pro section and might end up taking our verification process a new much better direction (something the whole community wants rather than our best guess). And if that's the case honestly I'll be very happy this happened, it'll have been worth any hate thrown my way if it means the site is better off. But if that's not the case then of course I regret it and of course I'm still sorry.
I am calm, I am an adult. You're the one who isn't actually apologizing for the situation, or taking accountability. I'm going to simply post the responses I've heard back from Buford himself. When I first was de-verified I sent an e-mail and the situation was corrected. This was the response I recieved "Hey there, Here's what happened. The first week or two we had mods, the mod team didn't have standards in place for what being a Pro member was all about. Since then, they've come up with a strict set of guidelines. Basically, they want Pro members to be as professional as possible, so that when a casting director picks through the list of these VAs, they know what to expect and they're not wasting their time with a profile without much information. That said, revoking access without sending you a PM is not ideal. Since your profile was a special case, we should handle it with special care. If you link me your ccc profile, I can help put you on the right track as to what is missing that they are looking for. I reviewed your profile just now and it appears as if one of the mods went trigger happy. I've reinstated your verification. Sorry about that!" Situation handled, I was verified. Then it happened again, I was not only deverified but rejected twice when asking for verification before you PMed me. During that time I had sent another e-mail and heard back this: "Hey Katherine, Major miscommunication. I had re-verified you and they were still going down the list to unverify people. For now, I took the power away to unverify from the mods. They have to PM people, explain what's going on, and after you reply, then they can unverify. Sorry about the mess. If you see this happen again, let me know. I've also added a check to see which mod unverified who, and will potentially remove them from being a mod if it becomes a problem." What you did only brought attention to yourself and your actions. Please stop trying to justify them. You are in the wrong, and everyone here deserved a proper apology. Please don't reply to this message if that's honestly all you have to say for yourself. I never said you didn't care, I said you need to apologize for all the harm you've caused. When you realize that, and deliver a real apology, then we can talk. Until then, I hope to hear back from Buford on his take of this entire mess you created.
You're entitled to your opinion and free to choose to behave however you want; simple as that. But I would prefer you leave out the attacks and the lies; just calmly air your concerns
Are you KIDDING me??!?!? "So sorry about what you went through and that I couldn't provide a more detailed response, hopefully something like this won't happen again. " THAT is the closest you came to an apology here. You did not take personal responsibility. You shifted blame. Whether or not the website changed the way the audio sounded, it was YOUR responsibility as the Mod who decided to go full cowboy to inform each and every person you removed pro status from as to what you were doing and why. DO NOT use the fact that you had to mess up 400 people's days as your excuse why you messed up 400 people's days and couldn't tell them what you were doing or why. YOU made that choice. I'm sure you thought you were being very helpful to the site, and that's great, but when it was pointed out that you ruined a lot of people's experience here, and shook a whole lot of your user's confidence in this site, you should have dropped to your knees, prostrating yourself before the users and begging forgiveness. Instead, you're blaming the site. Yes, I know it's hard to be a mod. Yes, I know it's a thankless job. Should we show the mods some gratitude for their hard work? Hell yes. Should you get a free pass on this massive SNAFU because "Mod is hard"? No. Buford is doing EXACTLY what you should be doing. he's taking ownership of the situation, he's taking personal responsibility. You're shifting blame and giving half assed fake apologies. Now, IF you actually give a damn about this site, and the users, Give out some REAL apologies. Ones that include things like "I am sorry for what I did and how I handled the situation." "I am sorry I caused you undue stress" "I'm sorry I handled this situation so poorly". No one feels sorry for you but you, Kyotosomo. Now, Apologize to SocksVA for treating her badly, like SHE's the bad guy, because let's be real. You're acting like a child, she is handling this like an adult.
+1000.
I don't know what to say other than I wasn't doing any of the things above you were accusing me of. I get that you're upset, but that's no reason to act in the childish manner you're acting. Talk to me like one adult to another and let me know what you think I did wrong so that I can not repeat the mistake. Freaking out and having a hissy fit does nobody any good.
Quit this backhanded BS. You have no right to try and play the victim here. Just take your medicine and quit trying to get pity for people being understandably mad at you. Apologize to SocksVA. SPECIFICALLY to SocksVA for your gaslighting bullshit. And then grow up and start taking responsibility for your actions.
As said I'm not asking for anybody's pity and I'm not making any excuses (I'm certainly not playing victim). And I very clearly have apologized for this (definitely to Socks). That being said I don't think what I did warrants the kind of rude comments you and Socks are leaving (you're definitely overreacting), but as said I do understand why you're upset.
YOUR ORIGINAL COMMENT BEFORE YOU EDITED WHAT YOU SAID WAS: "As said I'm not asking for anybody's pity and I'm not making any excuses (I'm certainly not playing victim). I don't think what I did warrants the kind of rude comments you and Socks are leaving, but as said I do understand why you're upset."
YOUR ORIGINAL RESPONSE WAS: "There's no excuse for what I did and I apologize for what I did, obviously it was a mistake. Not much I can say other than that. I understand if anybody is upset and wants to fling any harsh words my way. Regardless of whether or not it's childish; it's within anybody's right to do so."
YOU'RE EDITING YOUR RESPONSES AFTER PEOPLE REPLIED!!!! WHAT THE FUCK?!?!??!!
Take screen caps. I've already taken 1 so far for my records. CTRL + PrtScr and then paste into Windows Paint. Boom.
I'm saving all the reply e-mails i've been getting with the contents of his original replies. :)
I received the exact same message, minus the "If you link me your ccc profile, I can help put you on the right track as to what is missing that they are looking for." line. With so many members apparently affected, a form letter is not surprising, though I'm a little surprised that a form letter would tell multiple people 'yours is a special case' which just somehow feels weird to me. I also received a message talking about potentially removing a mod, though I can't recall if that one was word for word as well or not.
I have no clue what kind of message people were sent when they were removed or what they were told. When I moderate I have a set of options. Most cases were "Incomplete Profile", but some were "Good Audio But Not Quite There" and "Poor Audio Quality". I assumed the emails sent would be explanatory enough and as soon as people got them they could just fill out their profiles and quickly be re-verified. That's my bad if the auto emails were lacking in the necessary information (I should have known they would be lacking in information).
I'm afraid I'm going to have to stop you right there, Kyotosomo. You're in the wrong here. Now, if the other moderators and/or Buford share the blame for this situation, that's fine. That's between all of you to figure out and then (hopefully) disclose. But I'm afraid it's just not appropriate for you to respond to a member by accusing them of acting like a child just because she told you directly what her opinion is. Secondly, you ARE making excuses. "I'm sorry BUT there were so many profiles." "I'm sorry BUT the site compressed the audio." And worst "I'm sorry ABOUT this happening" rather than "I am sorry that I..." Again, I won't judge whether those excuses are justified or not, but when you include them in your apology, and when you apologize about a situation instead of directly for your actions themselves, it comes across as backhanded and insincere. I'm not going to get into your intentions -- only you would know that. I can't say how you mean to come across, and though you can claim whatever motives, it's still true that at the end of the day only you will really know for sure. I would like to take the time to point out that you have clearly been trying to put a... shall we say, tortured online past behind you, and I think that the way you've responded here (so similar to those old responses to "trolls" on your YouTube channel, etc.) are not painting a good picture of you at all. It does not show personal growth. Frankly, it doesn't even matter if what the member said was mean and uncalled for or not -- it still looks bad on YOU when you react that way and call them childish. Also, I'd love to be linked to your public apology, since I don't know where to find it.
As said above there's no excuse for what I did and that's why I apologized. Not much I can say other than it was a mistake. And I don't think you can accuse me of acting in a childish manner (especially compared to the people above) when you're calling in to question my character which is really uncalled for.
I don't believe I'm making personal attacks. I've purposely gone out of my way to avoid it, in fact. What I did say was that your behavior was inappropriate in the situation, and talked about my opinions on how you come across to others. That's very different from an accusation against your motives/character which I've carefully avoided.
All we can do is agree to disagree. I think my comments were very fair and polite, especially considering how rude the comments I was responding to were. And I think my apology in the audition section was open, sincere, and did a good job elaborating on things. Whilst I think what I did is definitely a reason to be upset, I don't think it's a reason to be rude. I spend countless hours almost singlehandedly managing verifications for a site with almost 50,000 users, so you have to understand it's very disheartening that the second I finally make a big mistake hates start raining upon me meanwhile I never get any sort of a thanks for any of the work I do. I'm just trying to do the best I can to handle verifications for the site, all I can do is my best.
You should quit.
You're totally entitled to your opinion. I mean you ARE ignoring the fact the verification system would essentially be non-existent if I hadn't been singlehandedly running it all these months, but as said you're entitled to your opinion. But I do think the vast difference in maturity in this discussion has been very clear to any outside parties.
I'm not ignoring any facts. You should quit. Get your life together. Focus on your degree. As far as our apparent maturity based upon our writing styles, I write plainly, because I'm not the one in a position of power who should REALLY be concerned with Public Relations. I'm just a guy who HAS worked PR before and can see through what you're saying to what you mean. Let's be real though, YOU know how you really feel, and YOU know what you really mean. You don't have to tell me, but just ask yourself, how much do you REALLY care about any of this other than how it might theoretically further your own career?
If I valued my career over the community I wouldn't moderate ANY sites because it's a thankless job that just puts you in situations where you can satisfy everyone and people walk away unhappy and with you on their enemies list and all it takes is one person to do a ton of damage to one's reputation (and I've individually helped hundreds upon hundreds of people so it's a list that's probably really piling up). I do it anyway though (granted to be fair I'm not sure why, it's definitely foolish to do). You can deny it but you very clearly have been ignoring the facts (and I highly doubt a company would ever hire you for PR based off your behavior currently).
If I were acting as PR right now, you're right, no one would hire me, but i'm not. This is me being me. You can lie to us all you want, but not you yourself. You know the truth.
Whatever you say buddy
You may see this as an "attack", but I really think you're biting off more than you can chew, and then blaming the food. Moderator on CCC, on VAC, running your own Discord, and trying to actively pursue YouTube as a time-consuming hobby if not an eventual career, plus who knows how many other responsibilities. You aren't Atlas, you aren't Hercules, and you need to set boundaries for yourself for your own good at least 100 times as much as it would be for anyone else's good. Maybe it's not such a bad idea to look at letting one or two positions go, since you've mentioned repeatedly being burned out and having a terrible strain on your time. I'm not your mother, and we may be virtual strangers meeting online, but I'm sorry; I can't help my maternal instincts. (Towards both you, much as I'm not necessarily fond of you as a person, AND the public you interface with when rushing.)
I don't disagree in the slightest, hence why I've been planning on taking a break for a few weeks from the voice acting community (was planning to start today but then this whole situation arose unfortunately, although I might start today anyway). In regards to feeling attacked, it's not necessarily that I feel attacked (excluding the two above who I understand are upset but in my opinion that's not an excuse for the remarks above) I think almost everybody has been very pretty mature and forgiving of the whole situation and I really appreciate that because obviously I did royally fuck up (and I'm deeply sorry for that and the stress I caused anyone). I have no issue with people being upset nor airing their grievances with me, I take full responsibility for the situation. I'm just dissapointed the fact I've been singlehandedly running verifications for almost fifty thousand people has gone completely unnoticed but the second I unverified about a hundred Pro accounts without warning (which of course was wrong of me to do) everybody notices that. But luckily as a result of this situation we'll be able to turn the Pro system into what the community wants after hearing everybody out, I will no longer being doing verifications all on my own (half an hour out of each of my days will drop to five minutes), and I will be taking a vacation from it.
I suggest you use part of your time during that break tp strongly consider permanently stepping down from one or more moderator positions altogether. I think you have too much drain on your time, and frankly, I think you are holding too much power. Not everyone can be liked by everyone. Where would someone who disagrees with you go WITHOUT turning right around to see you on the mod list, really? People need personal space online, too.
And I do plan on contemplating that. That's also a fair point, I could understand why me being a mod on three of the sites (I stepped down as leader of the Discord though), possibly soon to be four, could feel a bit like a "Big Brother Is Always Watching You" situation.
I'm sorry, weren't you ousted from power on that Discord? Not to stir shit up here, but if you're gonna say something, say the truth.