Comment on OTW Board Approves Meta Hosting on the AO3

  1. anon (Guest) Mon 18 Feb 2013 12:40AM UTC

    I find your answer genuinely disingenuous considering that a decision was reached similarly without input AGAINST meta and that decision was then tabled due to lack of transparency and community input.

    It is perfectly fine if the board decides that this is solely a board decision, but then I am curious why the decision that would disallow nonfiction writing entirely was not upheld, since it was majority vote of the board.

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    1. FairestCat Mon 18 Feb 2013 07:13PM UTC

      Black and White Cat making with his paws held in the air like an excited emoji \o/

      To answer this I need to get into some of the nitty-gritty of how the Board operates. You're right, the initial vote last term was a majority decision to disallow nonfiction writing, however that vote was then discarded by that same Board because of some procedural issues related to how it was called.

      With the Board strongly divided, several alternative proposals to the Board making the sole decision were discussed and ultimately tabled, as no clear decision that everyone was happy with had been reached before term-end.

      One of the current Board's primary areas of focus has been clarify exactly what is within our purview as a Board and what isn't. When the Board reconvened in 2013, the plan had been to finish carrying out the established plan but we quickly realized that — partly as a result of the Board’s dramatically changed composition and partly because of our new focus on clarifying purview — we no longer felt it to be the best course of action.

      The changing composition of the board meant revisiting the topic with different viewpoints represented amongst us, and some Board members who had previously voted against meta changed their positions with greater time to consider the issue. Since the previous vote had been vacated by the same Board that made it, it was necessary to vote once again on the issue. We held a fresh vote and the result was overwhelmingly in favor of meta.

      We are aware that the Board reclamation of the decision seemed very abrupt, and we acknowledge that more transparency would have been preferable. The Board’s overall workload and, the emotional burnout many of us have experienced as a result of the length and intensity of the meta discussion, were obstacles that prevented us from communicating effectively. We regret our shortcomings in this area and will strive to do better in the future.

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