Mea Culpa

[Ozymandias]

Ozymandias dusts off his trusty soapbox and carefully places it in the middle of the Cabaret before mounting it, face grim.

 

I stand before you today, a sadder, but hopefully wiser man.

 

The matter that brought this up? Our guilds.

 

As some of you know, and many do not, while I was not one of the conceptulaizers of the guilds, I was instrumental in their approval, and added my own loose, but hopefully tight enough definition to them so that they would best help us grow and learn as a community.

 

That definition was simply: The guilds should be a place where any member (with the matter of *when* people would be admitted being quickly decided to be best left in the Guildleaders' hands) of The Pen is Mightier than the Sword may go to get an increased, even intense study of their chosen writing genre (Poetry, Storytelling, and/or Roleplaying).

 

To wit: the guilds would each be solely focused on the improvement of their members in their 'home genre'.

 

How was this to be done? I gave the Guildleaders sole jurisdiction and authority over how things were done/created; myself and Gwaihir retaining final say.

 

 

The more time passed, the more my schedule fluctuated (as usual), and the more I heard complaints and general ill feeling coming from outside observers and guildleaders alike.

 

I figured that if I was needed, I would be called. I thought that everything could and would be settled equitably in a short enough period of time.

 

As it stood at the end of last month, at least (that having been followed by a monthlong period of quiet, at least on the boards during May) things had not been settled, and misunderstanding, utter lack of support for our fellows, ugly feelings and words still ran thick and high, with little apology or constructive thought offered at all.

 

It had gotten to the point that I was both embarrassed and very angered at the petty, vindicitve, and seemingly determined narrow-minded conduct of many of the members of our community involved in the situation, or who simply "gave their opinion".

 

It got to the point, literally, until this morning that I was ready to at least metaphorically take a pretty damn big hammer to a lot of skulls to finally lay the matter to just rest.

 

Until I took a few hours, and read back through all the backlog of discussion threads on the 'guild purpose' lines of thinking and thought very hard on what I read there.

 

I realized I had been not only an idiot, but one who was arguably the FIRST who ignored the real status of our guilds, from conception to present and made his own comfortable, completely uninformed decisions, and feeling very righteous in those thoughts indeed.

 

I've been an utter asshole, and the one ultimately responsible for every misunderstanding, every hurt, every bit of anger, just or unjust on the matter.

 

I gave the go ahead, gave out the mission statement and paid little enough attention to be no attention to everything else that happened up until the past two or three weeks.

 

Like it or not, I AM the final authority on this site. I am the Loremaster, The Administrator, the Founder, whatever you want to call me.

 

I did not come up with the idea, as I said, but I got the guilds started, and as such, could have quite easily just done some reading and stuck to my guns: The guildleaders are in charge, answering in the creation and running of the guilds to myself and Gwai.

 

They are also barely even a year old yet. The Pen itself, as a website, is well over three, and I'll tell everyone this: We the Elders are still figuring out what it is exactly we're doing here.

 

Keep that in mind when/if you go to criticize this new venture.

 

Instead of doing even that minimum, what did I do? Hid myself away behind all the aspects of my responsibilty to the Pen that I was more comfortable with.

Confusion, anger, pain, and frustration reigned as a result.

 

To all the guildleaders, I am sorry.

 

To everyone else who honestly tried to help and got lost in the shuffle one way or another, I am sorry.

 

For reasons I'd like to keep private for now, I have decided against stepping down as Loremaster because of this.

 

However, if anyone would like to move for that, please say so, and I and the other Elders will put it to discussion immediately.

[Peredhil]

If I had a vote, I'd keep you as Loremaster.

 

Technically, while I'm pointing out minor details...

 

The only say in the Loremaster position is the Loremaster and the Elders...

 

And the Elders pretty much advise. This is one thing that helps prevent the position from becoming a popularity contest, and allows the Leadership the opportunity to learn from mistakes and become better leaders - which is a nice learning feature of the Pen.

 

This isn't to say that everyone isn't free to make all SORTS of "feedback". Just be polite and constructive.

 

Someone has to have the final decision making ability. That the Loremaster is human and fallable is inevitable. That the Loremaster is capable of admitting that fallability and adjusting to a new future instead of clinging to pyrrhic pride, isn't inevitable and is a pleasure to see.

 

"Two-Cents from the Muppet's Curmudgeon Old Guys Gallery" Peredhil

[Ayshela]

Ayshela realizes that, being all too prone to human error herself, and current circumstances being what they are, that she cannot even speak to this. That being the case, she can but sit quietly and offer her support.

[Salinye]

*hugs her Ozzy friend*

 

You know my vote. :0)

 

~Salinye

[Solivagus]

Morlas smiles cynicaly after reading the Loremasters post.

 

"Truly, the problem with being human is that humans seem doomed to make mistakes. But then again, does any human truly wish to be infallible? How dull it would be, to always be right. How unpopular it would make you, and how lonely it would become. May humans always have something to fail in, and may I stay in my philosophical mood for just a short while longer. Speaking on behalf of all the various aspects of Solivagus, I can think of no one else I would rather have as Loremaster."

 

Morlas's smile shifts, his eyes twinkling with amusment as he turns back to his exploration of the Mortal Plane

[Zadown]

Errare Humanum Est.

[Canid]

I don't see it as your fault at all. There's only so much you can do to govern without running everything firsthand - and methinks that is rather too much work for any of us.

Besides which, when work has gone into things, criticism is often taken with great resentment. It is very hard to avoid hurting feelings when a change is required.

 

It was an understandable decision to try to let the guildleaders and members sort things out for themselves.

[Lady Celes Crusader]

Ozy: You definatly have my vote to stay as a Loremaster. It takes a lot of humility and leadership to take upon yourself alone all the blame. I do accept your apologies as well as I am no less faillible than you.

 

Mistakes happen so we can learn from them. That is a crucial part of being a human being. Instead of being grudgy about the guilds, let's learn from what went wrong and let's work with this new knowledge.

[Appy]

You know, I think almost anything I would/could say has been said by others, so you'll just get a hug and a tut for thinking we wouldn't have you the way you are okay?

 

*hugs and tuts Ozy in no particular order*

Edited June 3, 2004 by Appy

[Merelas]

Merelas scoffs

 

I'm going to do something very rare, which is to admit that my father was right in anything. In sports, when we'd lost a game or anything, I would always pick out my faults and tear myself up, mostly because I saw it as the most sensible thing to do. I couldn't change anyone else's mistakes, so I looked at mine and automatically felt that I had cost the team the loss.

 

He was incredibly adept and stating and restating that I was not the only one who had made mistakes, and that in the game of baseball, you can never pick out just one mistake that would have changed the course of the entire game. There was always more than one person who could have played better, and that to blame just one--either them or myself--is just plain unlogical.

 

We favor logic in my family. As you can see, I haven't quite taken to it as well as hoped

 

Ozy... I'm not even going to address the thing you said about stepping down as Loremaster... the people who've spoken here should have put away any and all doubts about your capacity to lead.

[Rune]

I just wanted to apologize that the guild idea seems to have caused so much harm to the pen. I never really imagined the suggestion would become such a turning point for so many negative feelings... and so many obvious changes.

 

*bows courtesy to the lore master*

 

Please forgive and do not give up hope.

[Yui-chan]

An idea isn't at fault for what comes of out trying to implement it, Rune, nor is the person who offers it. If we all believed that, then it would never be worth the risk to put forth a new idea or make a simple suggestion. Don't blame yourself for what others stir up.

 

Besides, the Guilds are teaching us all some important lessons. 'Harm' in the form of hard feelings may happen now and again, but as we work through those issues and learn how to deal with them and still create a successful system, we are improving both ourselves and our organization. They are a blessing to the Pen. Don't you worry.

 

Now, to both you and Ozy, I say: No more of that silly stuff. We don't pin blame on individuals, here. We work together, talk together, write together and learn together, and when we take blame, we take it as a group or not at all.

 

Two cents,

~Yui

[Ozymandias]

Thank you.