...

[Jomomma]

Sorry for the changes and no explanation.

There have been changes to some and not others but the change will effect all of the retired staff in time. There was a change made to give retired staff white busses in order for them to be more easily identified among the board as a whole. There wasn't a way to change everyone at one time so the change is being made one user at a time. Hopefully, we will be able to get all the retired staff on the same page.

As for the emeritus part, that word seemed to cause a great deal of confusion at times so the name was changed to "retired" which was easier for people to understand

[Jomomma]

There are no other users who carry the white busses. They were originally used for the ombuds crew but at this point the white busses are used only for former staff.

I don't think retired holds any negative connotation. In my head, retired means, served the community and are still respected members though they are no longer responsible for the day to day upkeep of the board as a whole.

[Jomomma]

I decided to look up the word retired and this is what I came up with

withdrawn from one's position or occupation : having concluded one's working or professional career

Emeritus: a professor or minister who is retired from assigned duties

[Chimera]

I'm sorry that you're unhappy with the word retired...it was chosen over "former" or "ex" because for many people, it tends to have a more positive connotation than others. Over the years, we've had many people say that they don't know what the word "emeritus" means, and that has led to several misunderstandings. We've been considering how to address the problem for awhile now, and we made the choice to use the simplest and clearest wording possible in the new ranks. We have to change the ranks one by one, which is why some retired staff have the new ranks and some do not.


Jessica

[Chimera]

There are three options:

1. "Retired forum moderator"/"retired board admin" with the special white busses.

2. "One of us"- this is a static rank that never changes regardless of post count.

3. You can choose to have no special rank selected. This means that your busses and rank title will change and evolve according to your post count.

[Jomomma]

Ok so I get it, like it or lump it because despite it being upsetting, the hand of whoever runs this place these days has spoken. As I said earlier it would have been nice for you to discuss what you were going to do with those affected by it - full scores for people management there.

I don't know what this will mean but I am going to make an attempt anyway.
Do you know how many former staff are currently registered to this board? Had this topic been up for discussion with all of the previous staff members, we would have had to communicate with each and every one of you via pm all the while trying to keep some sort of organized thread going in one of the staff areas so we would all know what each of you had said. Logistically this would have possibly been feasible but difficult and time consuming. In the end, there would have been those who liked the way things were, those who would have liked the word retired, those who think former would have been disrespectful, someone may have thought white busses were discriminatory, someone may have wanted something in a whole other language and so on. The point is, we made an effort to choose a word that was easy to understand, was not disrespectful to a majority of people, conveyed respect and appreciation (at least in my head) to those who had given their time to bus and allowed for easy recognition of those people. This was not meant to slight you nor any other previous staff member nor was it intended to keep you all totally out of the loop.

[NobodyToYou]

I don't think that the staff need to be quite so dismissive of the fact it was a shock and upsetting.

What do you have in mind?
How can we let you know that we understand you being upset, that we realize it was a surprise, and that we know it will take some time to get used to it?

I didn't expect it to be a big deal. To me, it wouldn't have been. But I am not you, and I get that I can't expect other people to react to things the way I would... especially since "retired" is not a negative term to me and clearly it is for you.

The "room for discussion" bit seem off to me. There is plenty of room for discussion both here and in the PMs you have been having. You ARE discussing it. What I think you are saying is that you wanted to be part of the decision-making, and no, that is not an option. There are too many people who used to be on staff and would all have to have input, and decision-making in that way is just not feasible or practical. It would take too much time and drain too much staff energy from the actual running of the board, plus the conflicting ideas would still be there and people's feelings would still end up hurt... it might not be yours, but it would be someone.

It's a whinge against the "collective" because there are enough staff around for it to have been done in a better way. I'm sorry that feeling upset by not being informed at the very least doesn't seem like a fair gripe.

The difficulty is that there is no "good" answer here...no matter what we do, people are upset by it and are going to think that we aren't respecting them or caring about their feelings. There is no term that we have been able to find that isn't negative to some group (retired was one of the less problematic ones and clearly it isn't ok with some). But the current naming system is causing active problems in running the board and had to be changed.
There aren't enough staff members to have talked to everyone (we just added people because we were short staffed...there aren't tons of people sitting around with nothing to do, I promise!), nor would that have prevented people getting their feelings hurt when a term was finally chosen. Even just making the changes is going to take forever, because each one has to be done individually, and perhaps changed if the person wants a different option than the general "retired" one. We are trying to give you options so you can choose what you like best... the "retired" rank, "one of us", or the normal colored busses with different ranks. We are trying to be as respectful of people as we can be. I get that you are upset and feel hurt... I just can't figure out how we can do what we have to do (make changes) without that happening to at least a few people.

I think it would have been better if we had made a general "here is what is happening post"... then it wouldn't have been such a shock. But we didn't... I know I didn't think of it when we were discussing things before, and then I left and wasn't here to help with the change. I suspect (but don't know, I wasn't here) that the people making the changes were focusing on the technical stuff that needed to be done and didn't think of making a post about it. And we can't undo that or fix it or make it better... it was sudden and unexpected and confusing.

What I do want to know is how we can help with this NOW? What are you wanting from us at this point? Is it just a matter of needing time to adjust and for the feelings to settle down, or is there something (other than the Laura request) that you are asking staff to do?

As far as Laura's rank, I think we can discuss it. However, I don't know what the result will be, as I can see some possible concerns right off. Obviously, you want to keep it as a mark of respect for Laura, and I don't have a problem with respecting Laura at all. She gave a lot to the board and her influence is all over this place. But saying she "deserves" a special title implies that others don't deserve it, or that we are disrespecting others by making this change. The changes have NOTHING to do with not respecting people enough to give them the title and everything to do with trying to keep the board running smoothly. And keeping the board running smoothly is something Laura would CERTAINLY have understood and supported... it is what she worked for while she was here.
Leaving Laura's rank might work, because Laura (sadly) isn't active... but for anyone actually posting, the "emeritus" title wouldn't work because it was causing problems.
So what we have to evaluate is NOT whether Laura deserved respect and a respectful title, she obviously did and still does. What we have to evaluate is how the different options would effect the way the board runs. Whether Laura's rank is changed or not, she always has been and always will be highly respected by the staff, as well as by the community in general.

[Green Beauty]

Not to detract from the opinions of others or invalidate them, but i'm certainly pleased that emiritus has been changed, much like the old challenge me name, it may have sounded good but it certainly wasnt clear to some what it meant. And i know there is google, but some of us are lazy as well