I have written several articles on individual events on the Zone -
Anti-Zone Behaviour and the heavy handedness of
some sysops in Sysops. In this essay,
I would like to address a wider problem that may go to explain the enigma
that we now know as the Zone.
First, let's look at some of the most prevailing symptons :
The Zone provides no practical method for appealing any Zone official's
actions in a timely manner.
The Zone attacks their own. Witch hunts are performed to find out
which official(s) allowed the truth to come out to the world.
There is no standard procedure for the way that Zone officials should
handle complaints or requests from users. In some cases, the
first assumption is that the accused is guilty, and that it is up
to the accused to prove their innocence. Users, as well as Zone hosts
and sysops, have fallen victim to this uneven practice.
Apparently, Zone officials are allowed to use attack-dog mentality
against Zone critics in public forums (under the guise of a non-Zone
endorsed action), but they are required by the NDA to not disclose
any information that may embarrass the Zone - even if that information
could clear a wrongly accused user, or show that the non-Zone endorsed
postings to be false.
Rule and code of conduct infractions are enforced without any consistently.
Ignoring the offending event, or giving special dispensation to individual
users is common.
"Disruptive behaviour" apparently includes calling someone
a cheater on the main chat, but does not include mild cursing.
If you want to break the rules on the Zone, better you should curse
and crack child pornography jokes on the main chat, than call attention
to a Zone flaw. The former will get you a warning, the latter a gag
or banning.
Known abusers who manipulate flaws in the Zone software to raise
their ratings are left alone. Personal note - one of these well-known
abusers, RedTub, is in the top ten!
The Zone has knowingly broadcast false, misleading, or very suspect
information that could ruin a user's reputation.
Contrary to the above, we have also seen the following encouraging activities
:
In recent months, known cheaters who fake games have been routinely
reset.
In at least once instance, a wrongly accused user's name has been
cleared and his ratings restored.
In several instances, Zone Hosts and Sysops have shown that they
do care about what users think because they have openly admitted that
they have been reading forums, such as the Auntie Zone forum, to see
what is on the minds of the users.
Individual Zone officials have shown considerable courage and conviction
in cleaning up mistakes or misunderstandings in Zone rulings.
>Frankly, I believe that all the symptons above can be explained very
simply - by looking at the Zone Rules and admitting that the... Zone Rules!
The Zone -and by the Zone I mean the organization structure, procedures
and rules - is an entity in and of itself. Just like any organization
or corporate structure, it has evolved to the point that one of the primary
objectives is to perpetuate its own existence.
You don't think so? Take a look at IBM, Microsoft, Congress, etc. Trust
me, this is the natural order of any organization if it wants to survive.
And to survive, several strategies naturally develop. They
are :
Keep a good public image.
Other interpretations include to hide anything that creates a bad
public image, or may be used to create a bad public image (NDA's come
to mind, here)
Second part of the rule is when you are correcting a mistake, never
admit that it was wrong to begin with.
Trashing your critics is always less painful than admitting mistakes.
A sub-rule to this is never admit your mistakes.
Create a set of rules that justify your actions, and always follow
them.
AND... make the rules general enough so that they are open to interpretation
by the entity.
If Strategy 3 conflicts with Strategies 1 and 2, then reinterpret
Strategy 3 so that it agrees with the other Strategies.
Now if you take into account that most of the Zone staff are really
very genuinely nice caring people, then the seemingly contradictory actions
make a lot more sense.
But unfortunately, even the right-thinking Zone staff sometimes are hand-cuffed
by their own Zone Rules (NDA, management,etc).
By no means does this make the bad things that the Zone does any less
bad. Just take a few minutes and think about what you should do
when bad things do happen.
Is there a reasonable, quiet way to solve the problem? If so, then
pursue it.
If this doesn't work, do you have some "inside" friends
that might be able to solve the problem? Then for goodness sakes,
contact them.
If there still is no solution, talk to your friends. Get a sanity
check. Make sure that there really is something bad going on here and
that you are not just over-reacting to a personal experience.
If you have gotten to this point and you and your friends feel there
is something definitely wrong, then expose it! Let other people
know what is going on. And expect a long battle. Entities
like the Zone don't give in easily and will use whatever resources at
its disposal to defend itself. Be prepared for personal attacks,
and also be prepared not to sink to their level.
Personally, I believe people are by nature, good and caring. It's
just sometimes, they need a little nudging :)
Any comments or disagreements? Post them to my forum.
