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Paizo.
Please consider you might have made a huge mistake in promoting the current person to Director of Community.
Imo the current director has been doing a terrible job of bringing the community together. Thier complete lack of communication is disheartening. They seem like a over zealous moderator at best. The stories I have heard from others interacting with this person from people involved with OPF is also concerning. I feel they don't take the communities concerns to heart and only care about Paizos corporate interests.
Aaron Skanks has been doing a much better job bringing the community together, and it is not even his title.
Please consider this decision again, and who might be a better fit for the postion
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To be fair, it is quite possible that the company attorney has instructed some/most of the staff, perhaps even specific people to keep their mouth shut. It would not be the first time a Paizo staffer was instructed not to engage community, or certain parts of it. Certainly that would be odd with respect to the Director of Community, but we just don't know. If Paizo has learned one thing over the years, no matter what they say, there will always be a portion of our community that will pick apart their language and accuse them of poor decisions and/or bad behavior.
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Moderation is good. The issue is how the moderation is carried out and against whom.
Also: Aaron is a solid dude. He's been doing the work and balancing his job with his labor solidarity can't be easy.
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You know who would have been vital during these times of turbulence in keeping people level headed?
Sara Marie.
But had she not been fired, and Diego quitting in protest, I doubt that all of the issues currently being brought to light would be in the spot light right now.
It's almost like had they not knocked that domino over the community would all be rolling initiative together instead of ripping the party apart.
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Director of Community
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Since my silence is something that is causing concern, I wanted to respond.
Response to the current issues is being driven by the leadership team. I'm not a part of that group. I'm also not part of the press release/announcement staff chain and usually find out just before anything is posted. This means I don't have information to update. I appreciate Aaron coming in and providing the information he has, as part of the Marketing team. I appreciate his assistance.
As for whether or not I should be Director of Community. I appreciate you taking the time to post your thoughts. I'll make sure to discuss them in my end-of-year review that is fast approaching. It may be the case I'm not the right person for the job and there is someone better to take it on.
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I miss Sara Marie.
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Thank you for your response Tonya.
I apologize if I seemed rude or malicious in any way. The radio silence did have me bit concerned.
Your response got me thinking that maybe I might be confused on what your title actually means and what you do.
Can you explain what the Director of the Community postion entails? What your responsibilities are? What you do from day to day?
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Since my silence is something that is causing concern, I wanted to respond.
Response to the current issues is being driven by the leadership team. I'm not a part of that group. I'm also not part of the press release/announcement staff chain and usually find out just before anything is posted. This means I don't have information to update. I appreciate Aaron coming in and providing the information he has, as part of the Marketing team. I appreciate his assistance.As for whether or not I should be Director of Community. I appreciate you taking the time to post your thoughts. I'll make sure to discuss them in my end-of-year review that is fast approaching. It may be the case I'm not the right person for the job and there is someone better to take it on.
While it's completely understandable that many of the major issues must involve the powers that be to formulate a response, I think a lack of public response into the allegations made specifically against you has been cause for concern from many in the community. Particularly given that every other individual named in the catalyst event had given one or more formal statements.
I am not saying that a lack of defense, or rather, continued silence is a sign of admission; however, a left splinter may fester. Many community members are still left to struggle with a lack of understanding in how your position interacts with various subsets of us, and currently resides in a place with broken trust, and no future promises that whether or not some of these actions took place, they won't happen as we move forward.
TLDR: While you can't speak on larger company issues, it's disappointing that you have still not addressed specific allegations made directly against you, and been transparent with your community so that we can work to heal, progress, and prosper together.
That may be due to legal reasons.
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Director of Community
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Since my silence is something that is causing concern, I wanted to respond.
Response to the current issues is being driven by the leadership team. I'm not a part of that group. I'm also not part of the press release/announcement staff chain and usually find out just before anything is posted. This means I don't have information to update. I appreciate Aaron coming in and providing the information he has, as part of the Marketing team. I appreciate his assistance.As for whether or not I should be Director of Community. I appreciate you taking the time to post your thoughts. I'll make sure to discuss them in my end-of-year review that is fast approaching. It may be the case I'm not the right person for the job and there is someone better to take it on.
While it's completely understandable that many of the major issues must involve the powers that be to formulate a response, I think a lack of public response into the allegations made specifically against you has been cause for concern from many in the community. Particularly given that every other individual named in the catalyst event had given one or more formal statements.
I am not saying that a lack of defense, or rather, continued silence is a sign of admission; however, a left splinter may fester. Many community members are still left to struggle with a lack of understanding in how your position interacts with various subsets of us, and currently resides in a place with broken trust, and no future promises that whether or not some of these actions took place, they won't happen as we move forward.
TLDR: While you can't speak on larger company issues, it's disappointing that you have still not addressed specific allegations made directly against you, and been transparent with your community so that we can work to heal, progress, and prosper together.
I understand the desire for me to speak out. I really do. I'm answering as best as I can in the situation I'm in, after receiving guidance. At this point, that is the best I can do.
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I understand the desire for me to speak out. I really do. I'm answering as best as I can in the situation I'm in, after receiving...Since my silence is something that is causing concern, I wanted to respond.
Response to the current issues is being driven by the leadership team. I'm not a part of that group. I'm also not part of the press release/announcement staff chain and usually find out just before anything is posted. This means I don't have information to update. I appreciate Aaron coming in and providing the information he has, as part of the Marketing team. I appreciate his assistance.As for whether or not I should be Director of Community. I appreciate you taking the time to post your thoughts. I'll make sure to discuss them in my end-of-year review that is fast approaching. It may be the case I'm not the right person for the job and there is someone better to take it on.
While it's completely understandable that many of the major issues must involve the powers that be to formulate a response, I think a lack of public response into the allegations made specifically against you has been cause for concern from many in the community. Particularly given that every other individual named in the catalyst event had given one or more formal statements.
I am not saying that a lack of defense, or rather, continued silence is a sign of admission; however, a left splinter may fester. Many community members are still left to struggle with a lack of understanding in how your position interacts with various subsets of us, and currently resides in a place with broken trust, and no future promises that whether or not some of these actions took place, they won't happen as we move forward.
TLDR: While you can't speak on larger company issues, it's disappointing that you have still not addressed specific allegations made directly against you, and been transparent with your community so that we can work to heal, progress, and prosper together.
Thanks for your response, are you allowed to speak as to what Director of Community means as mentioned a couple of times above.
Jib asked very plainly: “Can you explain what the Director of the Community postion entails? What your responsibilities are? What you do from day to day?“
@Jib916 & NicoleH (& others who may be interested):
In the link are some posts where Tonya has engaged with the community a bit (beyond moderating), particularly earlier on, mostly in 'The Community is Hurting' thread.
Carry on,
--C.
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You know who would have been vital during these times of turbulence in keeping people level headed?
Sara Marie.
But had she not been fired, and Diego quitting in protest, I doubt that all of the issues currently being brought to light would be in the spot light right now.
Regardless of the wisdom of the choice, they are not coming back. So re-litigating this incessantly seems pointless and childish. There is a union in place now, and if it does its job, that sort of thing will not happen in the future.
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Director of Community
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Thank you for your response Tonya.
I apologize if I seemed rude or malicious in any way. The radio silence did have me bit concerned.
Your response got me thinking that maybe I might be confused on what your title actually means and what you do.
Can you explain what the Director of the Community postion entails? What your responsibilities are? What you do from day to day?
Thank you for the apology. I appreciate it. At this point, things are as they are and I'd just like to find a way forward.
DoC probably isn't the best title that could have been given, though it does touch on the varied tasks of the position. My position is an amalgamation of several sets of tasks that got pulled together. Some are operations tasks, like CS oversight or convention organization, that used to belong to the Operations Manager/COO. Some are Org Play tasks that don't fall under the Org Play Coordinator or the Digital Adventures teams (which mostly comes down to institutional memory of the programs, as I've been involved with them in some way since 2010, and strategy). Another group involves team coordination/process development/project management tasks involving members of different internal teams. The last big category is analysis & strategy-related tasks. So lots of items that relate to different communities, but not as many boots-on-ground involvements as may be anticipated given the title.
For my part, I see myself as a facilitator, getting groups and teams the tools they need to be effective, then getting out of their way. Right now, the community needs answers. I'm trying to keep communication flowing so that the parties that can give answers have the means to do so.
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Removing this thread without comment would have been easy, and entirely justified. Responding politely instead, and acknowledging that the OP may have a valid point, shows a level of humility and courage that not everyone is capable of.
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Since my silence is something that is causing concern, I wanted to respond.
Response to the current issues is being driven by the leadership team. I'm not a part of that group. I'm also not part of the press release/announcement staff chain and usually find out just before anything is posted. This means I don't have information to update. I appreciate Aaron coming in and providing the information he has, as part of the Marketing team. I appreciate his assistance.As for whether or not I should be Director of Community. I appreciate you taking the time to post your thoughts. I'll make sure to discuss them in my end-of-year review that is fast approaching. It may be the case I'm not the right person for the job and there is someone better to take it on.
That is probably correct, you're more likely not the right person for the job.
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Establishing a position of Director of Community and at the same time triggering a chain of events that leads to that very community falling apart is some solid late capitalist irony.
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Thank you for your response Tonya.
I apologize if I seemed rude or malicious in any way. The radio silence did have me bit concerned.
Your response got me thinking that maybe I might be confused on what your title actually means and what you do.
Can you explain what the Director of the Community postion entails? What your responsibilities are? What you do from day to day?
Thank you for the apology. I appreciate it. At this point, things are as they are and I'd just like to find a way forward.
DoC probably isn't the best title that could have been given, though it does touch on the varied tasks of the position. My position is an amalgamation of several sets of tasks that got pulled together. Some are operations tasks, like CS oversight or convention organization, that used to belong to the Operations Manager/COO. Some are Org Play tasks that don't fall under the Org Play Coordinator or the Digital Adventures teams (which mostly comes down to institutional memory of the programs, as I've been involved with them in some way since 2010, and strategy). Another group involves team coordination/process development/project management tasks involving members of different internal teams. The last big category is analysis & strategy-related tasks. So lots of items that relate to different communities, but not as many boots-on-ground involvements as may be anticipated given the title.
For my part, I see myself as a facilitator, getting groups and teams the tools they need to be effective, then getting out of their way. Right now, the community needs answers. I'm trying to keep communication flowing so that the parties that can give answers have the means to do so.
Thank you Tonya for your responses. I do greatly appreciate the time and effort you have made to gather and communicate your thoughts.
Can you give examples of how you have demonstrated effective facilitation, that has empowered and enabled the teams?
There have been reports of some obstruction and delay in the past, can you give us your ideas on how you plan to mitigate this in the future?
Thank you for your further efforts to explore, cooperate, and report on this fantastic game all the great people at Paizo have put together.
- Jacquelene Steele VL Louisville KY
That is probably correct, you're more likely not the right person for the job.Since my silence is something that is causing concern, I wanted to respond.
Response to the current issues is being driven by the leadership team. I'm not a part of that group. I'm also not part of the press release/announcement staff chain and usually find out just before anything is posted. This means I don't have information to update. I appreciate Aaron coming in and providing the information he has, as part of the Marketing team. I appreciate his assistance.As for whether or not I should be Director of Community. I appreciate you taking the time to post your thoughts. I'll make sure to discuss them in my end-of-year review that is fast approaching. It may be the case I'm not the right person for the job and there is someone better to take it on.
Or at the very least a new title reflecting the inward focus of your job as the title right now seems to imply you'd engage more with us, the general public, rather than the internal workplace community, which is more of a collective than community as a workplace is more insular on account that not everyone can show up at your offices and put in a hard day's work.
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Inspired by something Sara Marie pointed out to me, Paizo has a tremendous number of communities: freelancers, staff, distributors, retailers, customers, forum members, social media followers, press, conventions, organized play volunteers, licensed partners, charities, and content creators off the top of my head. It takes a team and honestly that team was spread thinly even when we were at full staff. It should be obvious to everyone that there is no slack in the system here. I don’t think there ever has been.
We have created a new sales/e-commerce position and Mika is already making a positive impact. We are the process of hiring a new human resources manager and a new marketing coordinator. And of course we are down a customer service manager, who was also our community manager, and a veteran customer service employee. I think there are vacancies in other areas, but those don’t impact our communities as directly.
If recent days have taught us anything it’s the importance of our communities. We all regret that your experiences as community members are not what we want them to be. But no one at Paizo can do this alone. We will continue to work together as a team to make them better. As a union member I can attest to the staff’s commitment to that. As the Marketing and Media Manager I can attest to the leadership team’s commitment as well. Although, absolutely, the wheels turn slower than any of us want them too.
Tonya and I have a good working relationship. I invite you to think of Tonya‘s position as Director of Communities, plural. Mostly, other people like myself communicate directly with all the different groups named above. Her new position has the potential to be internal connective tissue to help make all of our jobs better. But we won’t know that until we’re at full capacity again.
That said, there are things that only the Paizo leadership team can do now to bring the community together. Paizo Live Spoiler: More to come, soon.
Adventures Ahead!
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I hope we can get some communication on the allegations of transphobic policies soon; we’re coming up on two months since an initial statement that addressed hotel rooms without any of the reasons that policy is part of the current discussion, and each passing day of silence is another day that particular wound festers.
Tonya and Aaron, I know those answers aren’t yours to give… but please, tell those you can that this is an issue that cannot wait any longer. It feels like a betrayal of your queer fanbase that such a thing ever happened, and to have it be talked around hurts.
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I hope we can get some communication on the allegations of transphobic policies soon; we’re coming up on two months since an initial statement that addressed hotel rooms without any of the reasons that policy is part of the current discussion, and each passing day of silence is another day that particular wound festers.
Tonya and Aaron, I know those answers aren’t yours to give… but please, tell those you can that this is an issue that cannot wait any longer. It feels like a betrayal of your queer fanbase that such a thing ever happened, and to have it be talked around hurts.
I know I have requested more communication regarding the topics of #PaizoAccountability, including those related to transphobia, on several occasions and I'm hopeful we will have more words from the top soon!
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Don't forget Jeff's doxxing.
VP of Marketing & Licensing
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I hope we can get some communication on the allegations of transphobic policies soon; we’re coming up on two months since an initial statement that addressed hotel rooms without any of the reasons that policy is part of the current discussion, and each passing day of silence is another day that particular wound festers.
We are working on this and hope to release an update soon.
-Jim
Appreciate the replies, Tonya and Jim.
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Director of Community
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Thank you Tonya for your responses. I do greatly appreciate the time and effort you have made to gather and communicate your thoughts.Can you give examples of how you have demonstrated effective facilitation, that has empowered and enabled the teams?
There have been reports of some obstruction and delay in the past, can you give us your ideas on how you plan to mitigate this in the future?
Thank you for your further efforts to explore, cooperate, and report on this fantastic game all the great people at Paizo have put together.
- Jacquelene Steele VL Louisville KY
Given the current circumstances, I'm going to answer your question with generalities. Also, while I have 30+ years of customer service, project management, and people management experience, I'm going to answer from the perspective of my six+ years at Paizo.
The truth of organized play is that it touches every department in Paizo, which means plenty of coordinated projects. Some went really well, some less so. Even when a project didn't work out, I learned lessons from doing it. As for obstruction, the more people/teams involved in a project, the more chances for hiccups. There's also the eternal need to balance the allocation of resources throughout the company. As a middle manager, with oversight of a program but not employees (the first 4.5 years) or the company, I worked to advocate for the program with other teams and upper management.During this time, there were both successes and failures, satisfaction and regrets. There were negatives (years of 60-80 hour work weeks, extended periods of crunch time, missed vacations, and several years of family separation) and positives (meeting many community members, expanding into SFS and PFS2e, seeing storylines come to life, writing RPG material, learning I have Anxiety and how to live with it). All of it contributed to a journey of learning, growth, and self-discovery. I hope these lessons make me stronger and help inform my actions moving forward.
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) “…learning I have Anxiety and how to live with it…”
Welcome to the club no one asked to join! But, I will say, with the right focus, sometimes the anxiety can be a good thing - it can really push you to succeed (because failure is super-anxiety inducing!). So, I’m sorry you have it, but am glad you know you do, and know how to live with it. That’s the key. For me, once I found out I had it, it was like, “ooooooo, that explains so much about me!”
It turned out to be a super positive development for me. I hope it works out that way for you, too!
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Director of Community
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) “…learning I have Anxiety and how to live with it…”
Welcome to the club no one asked to join! But, I will say, with the right focus, sometimes the anxiety can be a good thing - it can really push you to succeed (because failure is super-anxiety inducing!). So, I’m sorry you have it, but am glad you know you do, and know how to live with it. That’s the key. For me, once I found out I had it, it was like, “ooooooo, that explains so much about me!”
It turned out to be a super positive development for me. I hope it works out that way for you, too!
Huge hugs and support to all those in this club! It is a mixed bag at this point. It is great to have a term for what was happening (and what caused the concerning physical symptoms), but I am currently looking for a new therapist. My original one and I've exhausted the coping tools she had in her toolbox and I'd like to see if there are other tools I could try. Finding someone and establishing rapport takes time and energy. While I can find the time, the energy is a bit more problematic. Entering the 20th? month of pandemic has left me with few reserves to draw on outside of just getting through the day. So I can see a day where it is better, but that day is not today.
Don't forget Jeff's doxxing.I believe this is on the list to address too.
Grazie
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Huge hugs and support to all those in this club! It is a mixed bag at this point. It is great to have a term for what was happening (and what caused the concerning physical symptoms), but I am currently looking for a new therapist. My original one and I've exhausted the coping tools she had in her toolbox and I'd like to see if there are other tools I could try. Finding someone and establishing rapport takes time and energy. While I can find the time, the energy is a bit more problematic. Entering the 20th? month of pandemic has left me with few reserves to draw on outside of just getting through the day. So I can see a day where it is better, but that day is not today.) “…learning I have Anxiety and how to live with it…”
Welcome to the club no one asked to join! But, I will say, with the right focus, sometimes the anxiety can be a good thing - it can really push you to succeed (because failure is super-anxiety inducing!). So, I’m sorry you have it, but am glad you know you do, and know how to live with it. That’s the key. For me, once I found out I had it, it was like, “ooooooo, that explains so much about me!”
It turned out to be a super positive development for me. I hope it works out that way for you, too!
One thing I really like about the name Pathfinder, in the real world I can't just go for a walk and find dungeons or dragons, but I can always find a new path to walk or hike and feel like I'm Pathfinding. Sends you a Wayfinder to help you find your path to that better day. The work you do here keeping us in line is greatly appreciated.
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Huge hugs and support to all those in this club! It is a mixed bag at this point. It is great to have a term for what was happening (and what caused the concerning physical symptoms), but I am currently looking for a new therapist. My original one and I've exhausted the coping tools she had in her toolbox and I'd like to see if there are other tools I could try. Finding someone and establishing rapport takes time and energy. While I can find the time, the energy is a bit more problematic. Entering the 20th? month of pandemic has left me with few reserves to draw on outside of just getting through the day. So I can see a day where it is better, but that day is not today.) “…learning I have Anxiety and how to live with it…”
Welcome to the club no one asked to join! But, I will say, with the right focus, sometimes the anxiety can be a good thing - it can really push you to succeed (because failure is super-anxiety inducing!). So, I’m sorry you have it, but am glad you know you do, and know how to live with it. That’s the key. For me, once I found out I had it, it was like, “ooooooo, that explains so much about me!”
It turned out to be a super positive development for me. I hope it works out that way for you, too!
As another member of this club, I hope you're able to find the support you need. Medication plus Cognitive Behavioral Therapy have helped me keep my anxiety manageable (and almost completely prevent panic attacks), but the anxiety is always there. I've also been fortunate that I can talk to my bosses about my diagnosis and how my anxiety manifests, and get support rather than judgment. Since you're sharing here, hopefully you're able to get support from your colleagues. *Hugs*