by GOOSE STEP » Sat Jun 15, 2013 7:41 pm
Let me try to clear some things up here, too
I believe the reason why some of the moderators find Maoman's posts promoting Taiwanease on Forumosa so annoying is because they are privy to the way Anthony left Forumosa to relaunch Taiwanease. It wasn't pretty or smooth and it wasn't cool. In fact, for me, it was unnecessary, because Taiwanease was always envisioned as a complement to Forumosa -- including the Directory project and the iPhone App that immediately pre-dated Anthony's departure from Forumosa. This is why it's a shame.
Where it gets awkward is that it was not enough for Anthony to simply leave to build the app and the directory. He had to have forums then, too. Which had to have the same topics! And he wanted the same moderators. Then, when it seemed that some moderators were content being moderators on both forums, he insisted that they make a choice.
As I said, I never thought ANY of that was necessary. It didn't shock me that he would want to have forums on Taiwanease, but it was disappointing that he couldn't see the forums on Forumosa as a worthy partner (back then). I did not expect him to insist on there being the same topics -- that's kinda weird -- but I was more interested in moving forward and figuring out who would take care of Forumosa from that point, so I wanted to avoid a protracted break-up negotiation (unfortunately, those talks dragged out for about month -- which I recently reminded him was a waste of time from my point of view), this is why there are copies of some Forumosa threads up to September 2011 on Taiwanease.
But it's how Anthony dealt with the moderators which was really interesting to watch, because, remember, he originally personally invited many (probably most) of them to help out over the years. I had not met most of them - I had already been living in Shanghai for 6 years at that point, so I wasn't even in the country when many joined the moderator team. But we approached these people differently when he and I agreed to go separate ways.
For me, the first step after the break up was clear - assure everyone that Forumosa was not coming to an end, ask for suggestions on what to do next since a dominant and highly visible forum admin was leaving, and check if they were going to stop moderating on Forumosa. I also had a few ideas on how to fill the gaps Anthony left behind. Anthony did A LOT here: he personally hosted the Happy Hours and all those events -- these were really *his* thing, being the guy upfront welcoming everybody to the island; as well as banning people: being where the buck stops (it was great that Anthony always seemed to relish that role). I had no intention to fill those shoes - not because I didn't want to (and, for the record, I did NOT want to), but because I had committed myself to other things unrelated to Forumosa.
I counted myself lucky that all but 3 moderators said they would keep moderating on Forumosa. One of the 3 said he was resigning out of loyalty to Anthony (I didn't challenge him, but I sincerely thought that was silly because, well, Taiwanease was supposed to be an App not a major rival, right? Ha!) and the other 2 said they had been wanting to stop moderating for a long time but didn't know how to break it to Anthony. It was during the one-on-one calls and appointments I made with each moderator that I discovered that they had been approached to moderate on Taiwanease. What else could I say but, "that's cool with me"? I mean, hey, they are great people who've been volunteering all this time -- am I in any position to make demands of them? I figured I should only be grateful for ANY time and attention they could give to Forumosa.
That was the first backlash that seemed to happen. People seemed to regard the invitation as under-handed. Some told me that they thought it was weird to be invited to moderate in a forum that seemed to be intended to "replace" Forumosa. I would simply say, "I don't know anything about that, but I do know that Forumosa needs you - it really needs moderators". Most would simply explain, "Anthony's a good guy, and I don't expect there to be a lot to do there… at least for now" as a way of downplaying why they would be involved with both sites. No arguments from me.
The second backlash happened the following summer, almost a year later. By then, maybe half of the moderators on both Forumosa and Taiwanease were "Dual Mods". Both sites have private moderator forums, so occasionally, there seemed to be some parallel chatter on both sites. And God forbid someone brings up Anthony's name in Forumosa's private areas (ironically and invariably related to him posting on Forumosa in the first place -- I did a topic search last week of the number of times "author = Maoman" and "Taiwanease" appear on Forumosa since Aug 2011, and counted 41 topics; there may have been 2 Forumosa events posted on Taiwanease, but this is like 2 Taiwanease promotional threads on Forumosa every month since), because then there's hair-pulling and soul-searching about the gossiping and how "he's not here to defend himself" sort of things. You want to talk about topics that sound like they came out of high school detention? Read those. Then I heard that Anthony was contemplating asking moderators to choose sides, I mean, sites. That was awesome! I thought 2 things at the same time: on one hand, this would put an end to those endless finger-pointing discussions in the moderator forum; and on the other hand, what a spectacularly offensive way to insult grown women and men! I was glad I never thought of that - even though I recognise why Anthony would be concerned enough to think about it.
So if a moderator today rolls their eyes whenever they see Anthony or anyone promoting Taiwanease on Forumosa, I can't be surprised. For you Jeremy Lin fans, remember when another "king" decided to take his talents to South Beach a couple years ago? It's a little like that kind of resentment. TaiwanHo, CAPT, ORIENTED, and even Internations were not founded to look or act like Forumosa the way the forums at Taiwanease were founded or organised. Seriously - I actually have a piece of paper that literally says it's OK for Taiwanease to look like Forumosa! And though that wasn't my idea, I agreed to sign it. I figured Forumosa will continue to evolve anyway, so no big deal.
Now, by the time of the 2nd backlash, some longtime heavy using Forumosans had either left, been banned (which is something of an accomplishment since we 99.9% of the time we only ban spammers), or simply moved away from Taiwan. The banter culture began to give way to new posters who ask questions and give answers. To me, this is evidence of evolution. This is how I understand the drop in average page views per user and visit duration times accompanied by the record levels of new and overall visitor traffic that resumed by CNY 2012. I agree with some who have pointed out that some of those who left Forumosa for Taiwanease seem like they indeed had been discouraging people from participating in discussions all these years. It was an in-club of posters above the rules after all. And I believe some of them are actually back here smurfing (and that's O-K with me!). Well, at least, this is wishful thinking.
I will confess to you that Forumosa has been less of a priority for me. Those who know me personally know what I'm talking about -- and don't begrudge me for it. But maybe the biggest reason why Forumosa fell a few rungs in my to-do list is because as of Nov 2011, I stopped paying for it. Or at least, it feels that way. I will always be grateful to engerim for proposing and then executing on the move to the current web server where Forumosa resides, because in one stroke, this website got faster, more stable, and plummeted in cost to a fraction (1/10!) what Anthony and I were paying every month for the previous 10 years. Indeed, that move put Forumosa in the black because the affiliate income from Forumosa Friends alone more than covers the bill.
If you've read this far -- thanks! I wouldn't say that Forumosa is against fun activities. Instead, I believe that Forumosa -- maybe more than ever before -- is returning to its roots about supplementing YOUR life in Taiwan (y'know, like "it's about "U" in Formosa" -- hmmpf, that slogan never works). Forumosa is a heavily trafficked site. It's growing, too. There are a lot of ideas on what Forumosa should do. I want them to happen, but I don't have the time to take the lead on them. I am interested in hearing ways to make Forumosa more accessible and easier to use - so please PM me, I would like to hear if you are interested in benefiting from this traffic that Forumosa enjoys. If I agree your ideas will help introduce the forums to new people, then I'll support you.
Today, I am deeply grateful to Tempo Gain and Forumosa's moderators who work behind the scenes -- usually quietly -- to keep order when they can. They rock. I think they have been doing a great job without the drama or irony
