I am going to discuss some serious frustration I have with how MFGG has been run for years- this goes beyond the current staff and maybe even way back to the beginning. But I think it needs to be said, we need to look our problems in the face if we ever want to solve them.

I found out Stir was banned for his signature- absurd! He can't poke fun at the political climate of MFGG and his role in it? I can understand taking issue with some of the wording but come on, that's a call for him to be asked to change it- not a year long ban!

It's utterly absurd how much worship former staff get here. They retire, they get a big thread with all everyone saying how much they appreciated their work and how much they'll miss them but is that enough? No! Seems like they need every member to kiss their feet constantly even after they've stepped down. I am not saying the work they did isn't valuable, but the work any other member does is valuable too. There will never be enough ego stroking for you guys.

Stir has put countless hours of work into providing feedback to improve this community. He may not always approach things in the way you'd prefer, but if you're not able to put yourself in his shoes, then I don't think you really respect either the role you have as staff or the role members have as the community. Frustration dealing with staff making bad and harmful decisions is going to be natural- even if you don't see such decisions that way you need to understand that perspectives other than your own exist. It makes it feel like you guys don't value feedback. "Without this faith in people, dialogue is a farce which inevitably degenerates into paternalistic manipulation." - Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed.

The community is essential to MFGG and too often it feels like the community's needs and input are shunned or unwanted. I honestly believe it's the staff that has been keeping MFGG back because of this attitude- it's the community that brought back all these old members and reconnecting with each other. Not the site or whatever else. Yet time and time again, community input is downplayed and downplayed and the staff are somehow baffled at frustration in the community. Maybe people would be more willing to speak out about issues they have if it didn't feel like you had to climb a mountain and have to put in a ton of defenses of your own character if you say anything.

We need to approach the community as an integral part of the site and their opinions not as outsiders trying to disrupt the vision the staff have but as people ultimately with the same shared goal- making MFGG the best place it can be. I feel like community management is just so heavily disregarded as a real skill. You guys can do fantastic work sifting through submissions and keeping the site alive but when it comes to the community I just don't feel like it's ever been anything staff have respected. Famously this lead to the split in the past and I can feel the same attitudes brewing up because nothing was ever truly addressed- problems were just pushed out and you're going to have to do that every few years if you don't change. Remember that Futurama episode where the big ball of garbage was coming to destroy New New York City? LOL

Look, you guys aren't Gods. You can make rules and enforce policies but their effects go beyond your intentions. We're all part of the same world and bound by the same laws. I feel like you guys treat the community as some kind of bank- you deposit News & Updates and hope to collect interest. It doesn't work that way- we're people and should be respected as such and not be thrown out when we fall out of whatever imaginary line you've made to keep things running smoothly for you.

We can change the course of this ship.