"Some questions about the Editors" Topic

I would be grateful if the Editor or anyone else had answers to the following questions;

1. How many Editors does TMP have right now, and what are their names?

2. The number of Editors seems to have been reduced from the number there were last week. Why is that?

3. Are all of the Editors (except Bill) female?

3. Why have none of the Editors commented on the recent controversies?

4. How many of the Editors speak English fluently? If they do not speak or write English fluently, does this have a negative impact on the smooth running of TMP? (is that why they haven't commented on the latest TMP drama)?

5. Are all the staff based in the Phillipines? The reason I ask this is that the cultural differences seem to be quite pronounced at times, for example I always remember when Paintpig was Dawghoused for "Blasphemy" (the exact phrase used by one of the Editors at the time) which caused quite a furore at the time.

I truthfully declare that this is not some kind of witch-hunt on my part. I fully respect the global and culturally diverse nature of the internet and I have no issue whatsoever with inclusive work-forces and methods of appointment. I am just curious, hence the questions.

PUBLIC HEALTH WARNING

Asking questions about the Editors can seriously harm your TMP health.

Avoid the subject for an indefinite period.

Who cares, just let them get on with their job

Shardik said it best. Are you a shareholder in TMP now TW?

+1 Shardik

I'd like to address each of your questions if I may. I believe these questions are every bit as insightful and pertinent as are yours.

1) What difference does it make?

2) Seriously, how does this effect you in any way, shape, or form?

3) Does any of this have any actual bearing on the running of the site or on wargaming in general?

4) Really, what difference does it make?

5) How can you asking such inane questions be interpreted as anything other than trying to stir the pot and create hate and discontent?

and finally

6) Seriously man, what difference does it make?

1. How many Editors does TMP have right now, and what are their names?

You can see that here: TMP link

2. The number of Editors seems to have been reduced from the number there were last week. Why is that?

Not true

3. Are all of the Editors (except Bill) female?

Look for yourself

3. Why have none of the Editors commented on the recent controversies?

They have, both here and on Frothers.

4. How many of the Editors speak English fluently?

All of them.

5. Are all the staff based in the Phillipines? The reason I ask this is that the cultural differences seem to be quite pronounced at times…

All of our current staff (except myself) are in the Philippines. Fortunately, Filipinos are widely exposed to American culture.

…for example I always remember when Paintpig was Dawghoused for "Blasphemy" (the exact phrase used by one of the Editors at the time) which caused quite a furore at the time.

Maybe Julia just had a sense of humor?

I'd like to take a moment out to answer these questions…

1: Do you mean the ones that are living, or the ones that are dead? This would include Little Jimmy Finklestein (aka "Jimmy The Fink"), who wound up on the bad end of a meat grinder in Chicago's lower East Side in 1934 due to the actions of "Big Tony Vezenni". Now we can't prove that Jimmy actually died per se….but the corned beef hash served up in diners across the city for the next few days did have an "unusual" extra flavor to it…..

2: Recent Union negotiation contracts with "Wargaming Website Editors Union Local #305" has made it necessary to change staff levels. Be prepared for long term contract labor disputes, strikes, workplace violence and the governor calling in the National Guard…

3: Due to the recent attack on Archduke Ferdinand and his wife, all of the assistant editors have chose to remain quiet until the situation peacefully resolves itself….
Don't worry folks..Europe will NEVER go to war…..

4: In all seriousness here….I work with a lot of editors in the United States, and many times I ask the same question…."Do you speak English fluently?"….And are you talking "English English", (ie: "Colour", "Armour", "Grey"), or "American-English", (ie: "Color", "Armor" "Gray")…???…then the native dialects, "New Yorkese, Appalachian Hillbilly, Texan, and So Cal Valley Girl" to name a few….

5: They Operate from their secret base near a remote island, funded by the Norwegian Government and supported logistically by "The Conch Republic"….
Sealand handles all of their diplomatic affairs, and Bongolesia handles all economic transactions….for a fee of course….

I hope this provided you the answers you were seeking…

But seriously…..as Dn Jackson says…"What difference does it make?"….

Good day sir!

What Murphy said +1.

Would you go into your bank and ask why they hire people of different cultures and gender? Would you doublecheck to be sure they all spoke English to your standard? No, I didn't think so.

Just mind your own business and enjoy TMP for what it is – a site about wargaming.

"Who cares"

"What difference does it make?"

"Just mind your own business"

inane "+1"'s

and so on..

Have you guys been living under a rock? Or is it that you know the issues but just want to be left alone to paint your models without the nasty, nasty people asking nasty, nasty questions diddums?
There is a geniune growing concern amongst many members that Bill is in some way exploiting these girls and/or that they are using TMP to get to America or something. It sounds ridiculous but then Bill has been locking unprecedented numbers of accounts, preventing basic members from using the talk boards and sniping all links to relevant previous threads. A growing number of members have left the site, including some long standing contributors that I respect very much.
If you don't like the questions go back to painting your models. Your crap jokes and cowardly dodges are not useful in any way.

Thanks for the link Bill, it's well worth a look given the context of the claims.
Personally I have never seen any of those Editors do any editing, which is quite interesting.
So why are all the Editors female Bill?

"Personally I have never seen any of those Editors do any editing, which is quite interesting. "

Given that editing responsibilities including dawghousing people you have seen this, as reported in your first post.

And if you were to go so far as to look at the front page you would see that every news story on it has been edited by one of these editors.

Or did you mean that you have not been standing behind them, watching over their shoulder as they edit?

Hail Hydra!!!!

Hi…

I studied English in elementary, high school, and even in college. Our teachers/instructors taught us to speak English quite well, and differentiated between American English and English English.

If you want, we can talk on Skype. You can definitely understand me. I am fluent in my own language, same as you are fluent in your own language, but I can speak English too. You can ask me anything and I can answer you properly.

Thanks for the clarification Gwen.

How do you feel about Bill locking all those accounts and deleting all those links to other threads/posts?

Typically fan sites for a game or hobby use volunteers from the community to moderate forums, people who are familiar with the general content of what they are looking at because they have been participants. This isn't the only way but it is exceptionally common. TMP has four full-time, paid moderators but as you've said many times, you believe TMP's forums should be largely unmoderated, i.e. Not guiding threads to stay on topic, not editing for content without complaint, etc… OK, that seems a valid standard.

Three questions:

1) How come paid moderators when free volunteers are so common in this role?

2) How come people outside the hobby when so many people available within the hobby are right here?

3) Comparative to other websites with forums 4 FT employees plus yourself seems like a lot of overhead, what constitutes 120-160 hours of work per week to keep TMP going?

One other thing TW asked wasn't completely addressed:

3. Why have none of the Editors commented on the recent controversies?

I'm gonna take his question away from the Frothers thing cause I know that is a hot topic and it is already discussed elsewhere. So redirecting it: How come it is hard to find responses from the other mods/editors compared to yours — by volume I mean, there are four of them FT and one of you but you seem to reply way more posts and PMs as well as post or at least modify way more news items than the four of them combined, can you shed any light on it?

Cheers,

The Bandit

Meanwhile, has anybody seen some great new miniatures lately, painted a cracking new unit, or played some interesting game? Anybody?

One sees why the OP has 400+ stifles.

Musketier, Morrigan, Dn Jackson, Texas Jack, Murphy, Jeffrey and the others,

You are on the wrong board. The TMP Talk board is for TMP talk (clues in the name).
It always amazes me how many people are stupid enough to come here and then cry and winge that people are not talking about painting, basing etc. Its the best indication anyone could have that these people don't have clue what they are doing. Ever.

I hope it's not inappropriate to ask what happened to Julia and Alexa? Did they take on other jobs, Bill? I'm genuinely saddened to see them go, really, especially Julia, since she was the first assistant editor.

And I'm genuinely curious, not doing things frothers style. Or would the lounge (I don't have a membership yet) a better place to ask?

Guf

TW, tone it down ok, I don't want to see you get thumped for saying mean thing eh?

Cheers,

The Bandit

1) How come paid moderators when free volunteers are so common in this role?

I prefer working with paid staff. They follow orders.

2) How come people outside the hobby when so many people available within the hobby are right here?

Not available at salaries I can afford.

3) Comparative to other websites with forums 4 FT employees plus yourself seems like a lot of overhead, what constitutes 120-160 hours of work per week to keep TMP going?

TMP is a very large website. I also give them time to study and improve their skills.

Green feather,
"who cares", "what difference does it make", "go back to painting models" blah blah blah….
Only joking, your questions are obviously very good ones.

Bandit,
Ok LOL, point taken.

Meanwhile, has anybody seen some great new miniatures lately, painted a cracking new unit, or played some interesting game? Anybody?

TMP Talk – the place at TMP for not talking about great new miniatures, painting crack units and playing interesting games…

Cheers,

The Bandit

I hope it's not inappropriate to ask what happened to Julia and Alexa? Did they take on other jobs, Bill? I'm genuinely saddened to see them go, really, especially Julia, since she was the first assistant editor.

Wouldn't really be appropriate to say, but they drop by TMP from time to time.

Bill,

1st – thanks for replying, 2nd – my responses are in-line:

I prefer working with paid staff. They follow orders.

Sure, though volunteers who can be demoted or kicked do too, and it seems to be a working model since it is ultra common. So surely, "because it is my preference to pay random people," doesn't really answer my question.

Can you elaborate?

Not available at salaries I can afford.

Understandable, though a lot of TMP members might do it for free or cheap and as I said, no forum keeps a moderator who doesn't enforce its methods so it isn't like you'd be stuck with them just because they were potentially "volunteers."

TMP is a very large website. I also give them time to study and improve their skills.

I'm trying in a different topic to get my head around the scope of TMP, it is hard being an average participant… but 120-160 hours in addition to your own where what, 12-18 months ago it was still all done by just you? (the question mark is so you can correct me if my understanding is inaccurate) seems like a tremendous amount of man-hours (no sexism intended) to spend on maintaining a site that was until the recent past maintained by one person. Looking at the stats it doesn't appear that things have skyrocketed, it has been a steady increase but not a bubble… so how does it take so many hours (120-160, plus your own, which appears to be a lot) to keep the place running?

And, what does, "study and improve their skills" mean? You said something in another thread about how they go through training – I mean, this is a website and they are posting news items and hitting "disable / enable" on people's accounts right? That's something a teenager can do in a car while eating McDonald's from their phone so I'm not being sarcastic when I say – I'm obviously missing something, can you fill us in?

Cheers,

The Bandit

Wouldn't really be appropriate to say, but they drop by TMP from time to time.

Even vaguely? I mean you tell us why people get banned, sometimes in specific… we're talking about being a website moderator… even politicians say things like, "spend more time with my family…"

Cheers,

The Bandit

I'm genuinely saddened to see them go, really, especially Julia, since she was the first assistant editor.

Breaking news! Editor Julia returns to the ranks on August 1st!

How do you feel about Bill locking all those accounts and deleting all those links to other threads/posts?

I think Bill is doing what is best to protect our privacy.

I think Bill is doing what is best to protect our privacy.

In what way? Could you elaborate?

"many members" = 2

Actually its more like 10, and thats just from the threads that I have read and just the people who have bothered to announce it. And those 10 or so are actually people that contribute some good wargaming content and logical arguments on the discussion threads, and therefore will be missed.
Maybe we'll just be left with the sycophantic fan-boi's?

In what way? Could you elaborate?

Frothers are our haters… they say bad things to bring us down and make us feel bad.

We will not allow them to destroy us! So as long as we can make a way, we will ignore their untrue accusations… We are working very hard, so we are not allowing them to distract us from our work or change our mood.

And I am glad that they cannot come on TMP to hurt us.

TW, if you are really 'just curious', why not ask those
question of Bill in a PM ?

I suspect it's more about attempting to sow discord and
carp than it is satisfying your curiosity.

I've never used stifle, but must admit to a mighty
temptation.

Editor Gwen, what untrue accusations are those?

Why would Bill or the editors need to elaborate on the answers they have already given? (Even though I do not believe they were under any obligation to answer any of the questions to begin with.)

And the OPs original question number three can only have been posted as a bit of petty bull-e.

Thanks,

Pat

Ed Mohrmann could be right. TW if just curious, send a PM to Bill.

Never seen TW as someone who tries to so discord.

Ed Mohrmann,
I tried to tell Bill about something that was bugging me once before and I got no-where. It's not a productive avenue of enquiry IMO. Besides, there are a lot of other people who want to know the answers to these kind of questions (surely you have been reading the other threads?), so a PM would not have been that helpful.

You can believe that the questions were asked from a position of spite, or can conclude that maybe other members have got a legitimate concern, and that they do not want to be associated with a site where wierd things are going on. It makes no difference to me which option you choose though, as we do not know each other and I suspect I would not be able to convince you anyway.

Sexton,
Care to explain yourself? I would have thought question 3 was very relevant, given the latest controversies.
I just read Editor Gwen's response and to be honest, my mind is well and truly blown.

Edwulf,
Thankyou.

I only found about all this the last two days.

Mental.

I really do hope Bandit, General Brock, Mad McGobbo, Telestic Warrior and all the other usual suspects would continue with their proddings, pokings and demanding answers from the Editor whenever they're not locked out because their tiresome tactics are just as likely to work against them as winning them any new converts. Any TMP member who's still sitting on the fence, should he or she be bored enough to read the threads of 'TMP Talk,' are probably more likely to side with the Editor out of sheer pity after reading their posts.

So gentlemen, please continue with your tireless efforts to turn the 'court of TMP public opinion' against Bill.

I'm trying to imagine getting those questions about my staff when I was a supervisor in Social Security. I think my response would have been "Next!"

To all the assistant editors, thanks for your work. Here's one publisher who's glad you're here.

There is no court, there is no attempt to attack Bill. Maybe from the Frothers, but not from the people you just mentioned. If you actually read what the likes of Bandit are saying they just want to make sure they are not associated with a site where anything untoward is going on.
I just wrote in the other thread that I believe and I hope Bill has not done anything wrong except for making a catalogue of bizarre decisions. I am sure that is all it is.

As for pity, after some of the illogical posts you have made lately Fanatik, I would keep quiet on that if I were you. Remember the crazy arguments you made on this thread?
TMP link
"'The OFM' said he saw it in his OP, that's good enough for me." LOL

Have you guys been living under a rock? Or is it that you know the issues but just want to be left alone to paint your models without the nasty, nasty people asking nasty, nasty questions diddums?

Who appointed you to be Grand Inquisitor in the first place? This is a site about gaming and painting models. Some of us would like to see it return to that focus. There is only drama here because people like you and the Frothers are creating it.

There is a geniune growing concern amongst many members that Bill is in some way exploiting these girls and/or that they are using TMP to get to America or something.

How? They are free to find other jobs if they so desire. He isn't locking them in a basement somewhere in Utah and making them sweat over their iPads, tapping and swiping until their fingers bleed. He isn't making them dance naked on camera, call the elderly with scams about Nigerian oil ministers, or pad ballot boxes. By all accounts, he is paying them what is a fair local wage with equitable purchasing-power parity. This is what the 21st century knowledge-based economy looks like, and it appears to be good for everyone involved (except you).

Even if he was "exploiting" them, by your own definition, what would you do about it? Call the Department of Labor? Fly to the Phillipines and get these women to walk a picket line? Seriously, I'm curious as to what you think you would do with that information.

It sounds ridiculous but then Bill has been locking unprecedented numbers of accounts, preventing basic members from using the talk boards and sniping all links to relevant previous threads.

This website is a privately-owned business. Just like the bartender can kick you out of the pub if you aren't behaving well, Bill has the right to kick you out if you're not behaving well here.

And, yes, it sounds ridiculous -- because it is.

Im not sure where I lie. But I'm not feeling pity for anyone but those longtime guys who've been banned, quit or gone AWOL.

I think there's a lot of paranoia and …. question dodging from one side and a lot of confusion and a desire for some clear consistant answers on the other.

Ed Mohrmann,

I suspect it's more about attempting to sow discord and
carp than it is satisfying your curiosity.

TW's been on here for a long time, he and I have often argued, mostly on the Napoleonic discussion page, if he was all about sowing discord then it'd be weird that he just started now.

Ed Mohrmann & Patrick Sexton,

TW, if you are really 'just curious', why not ask those
question of Bill in a PM ?

Why would Bill or the editors need to elaborate on the answers they have already given? (Even though I do not believe they were under any obligation to answer any of the questions to begin with.)

My answers to these two are related so I'm grouping them.

In my case (I don't know about TW), I wrote Bill directly in a PM last week and asked why he was responding to "rumors from another website" publicly at all and urged him not to simply because it begins to impact the TMP community when it didn't before. Thus, for my part, I started by PM'ing Bill and by taking the stance that a website moderator / owner is beholden to no one and should either ignore or remove such things. But *Bill has chosen to address this publicly*.

Why are people asking questions of Bill? Well, I'm asking questions of Bill because Bill has been doing things I can't make sense of and I didn't participate until well after *he* opened it up for discussion. Bill doesn't normally respond as much on the forums, he doesn't generally post many topics on TMP Talk, maybe I've missed it but he doesn't generally say rude things to members (rude was his characterization).

All of this is a unique experience in the ~12 years I've visited TMP (about as long as both of you guys have been here it seems). A lot of reasonable questions are being asked but because of the Frother's controversy the people asking are being flamed, slandered and locked out, sometimes in reverse order. Just because some people are saying or asking mean things doesn't mean all questions should be treated badly.

I'm not asking questions because, "I've discovered a rumor about Bill, wanna here it?" I'm asking questions because someone else *reportedly* said that * on another website* and Bill's actions responding to it don't make any sense to me. They also seems to be growing in how extreme they are. Last night / this morning he banned a guy for what Bill called an "insult" the guy said he thought the website stats could be inflated and revenue down because of all the controversy. Was the guy saying something nice? No, but he got banned for it? That is *really* inconsistent with how TMP was functioning up until the last week.

And the OPs original question number three can only have been posted as a bit of petty bull-Bleeped texte.

I don't know, since Bill is commenting on all of it I don't think that it is all that weird to ask why the people we're told by Bill are subjects of the conversation are largely silent. That said, I can imagine many reasonable answers ranging from the highly specific and personalized to, "Cause Bill was already addressing it I didn't see a need to do so further."

Mad McGobbo,

Editor Gwen, what untrue accusations are those?

I'm gonna try and steer this conversation a little and away from your question, here is why: Bill says the accusations can't be linked to or quoted on TMP and he will only say in massively vague ways what they might have been. Thus, I'm thinking that you asking her to answer directly is just going to get a rebuke from him or a 'decline to answer' from her.

With that in mind:

Frothers are our haters… they say bad things to bring us down and make us feel bad.

We will not allow them to destroy us! So as long as we can make a way, we will ignore their untrue accusations… We are working very hard, so we are not allowing them to distract us from our work or change our mood.

And I am glad that they cannot come on TMP to hurt us.

Something is off here. I'm not talking about methods of expression like: "Frothers are our haters… they say bad things to bring us down and make us feel bad… And I am glad that they cannot come on TMP to hurt us." That sounds weird to me but sure, different cultures, different native languages, I'll chalk that up to those things and not read into it.

But: "We are working very hard, so we are not allowing them to distract us from our work or change our mood," doing what? And I'm trying to figure out how 120-160 hours per week (plus Bill's time) is required to keep TMP going. That isn't a strange, irrational or unreasonable question and frankly, I don't think anyone would be lambasting someone for asking such things if it weren't for the Frother's controversy.

Cheers,

The Bandit

So gentlemen, please continue with your tireless efforts to turn the 'court of TMP public opinion' against Bill.

I'm not seeking to make anyone dislike Bill, I'm trying to understand why things have moved toward extreme in the last week and it appears to all center around Bill and the editors, some controversy started by "The Frothers" and Bill's methods for addressing that controversy on TMP. It is the last item that has taken my attention, not the first two.

Cheers,

The Bandit

It's summer, it's really nice weather in most places. Why not go outside and enjoy it a little, rather than tunneling on virtual controversies that have much less real impact than, say, the eco-policies of the gas company down on the corner?

I find it funny that someone is "concerned" about being part of a website that exploits people when he probably buys and uses products every day made for companies that use foreign factories in countries with very questionable labor practices.

But hey, lets focus on whats really important.

The TMP Talk Board IS for taking so let folk talk. Anything else about miniatures can be found elsewhere on TMP.

Show some respect.