Hey all.
It's been a little under three weeks since we launched the #WolfGetsReal campaign. And after many varied responses to it, we had some reflecting to do. Thank you to everyone who responded with constructive feedback, whether in support or criticism. Every piece of good faith feedback was taken on board and heard, and helped inform our response here. These are the conclusions we've come to.
I think one of our biggest takeaways is that social media is not something our team is equipped to manage. In an environment where saying or not saying the right thing in the right way can get your whole message mis-read, and where companies profit from anger driving engagement with their platforms, none of our team members are equipped to handle that work. We have tried in the past to bring on specific social media management, but it hasn't worked out so far. Which leads us to the next point:
We're just not a big enough team with enough energy to keep up with what we've built up for ourselves. We had bigger visions, but quite frankly they just haven't practically worked out. Our skeleton crew of 6 disabled systems/people, all with busy lives, is not big enough to keep up with what we used to. We try recruiting new volunteers, but have yet to see many applicants when we do.
We also can't help but feel like there's a number of bad faith critics who responded to us not with constructive criticism, but attacks. This is part of a bigger problem of only ever recieving feedback as a group when we do something "wrong," but never getting engagement on the projects we do start that people share and seem to like -- and even ask for. One criticism asked why we don't do writing or discussion prompts like the 30 Day Otherkin Challenge, and I think people forget that we once did this. Years ago, we tried doing this and almost never got engagement. It ended up being more stress and effort to run than it was worth, because absolutely nobody participated. Similarly, our Wikipedia editing initiative was outright mocked for "failing" when ... that relies on y'all. If it failed (and it did not) then it would be because the community did not respond to the call.
We did get helpful feedback during this, the first of which was an anonymous modmail message letting us know more about why there were suddenly issues around zoophiles being brought up on one of our staff member's posts (that was not made as a whole staff response). Once it was explained that a handful of animal abusers were particularly vocal in some communities we weren't really aware of, we responded quickly on Twitter. I think the criticism of us being suspicious in not having spoken up yet was levied at us in bad faith, when it had never been asked of us before now. When it has come up in the past on our server, we have addressed it the same way. For instance:
We were also told that perhaps if we aren't on social media enough to manage it, don't do a hashtag campaign. And you know what? Fair! Lesson learned. We could sit here dissecting all the things we did right and wrong with this (and have in the staff room), but frankly with this being our main lesson I don't think it would be productive to future projects. The one thing we acknowledge is that we could have collected more public feedback for longer on how to do this. Some of us wanted to push this in part because we have a history of dragging things on unnecessarily long by asking for too much feedback, so we overshot. Oops. We will adjust.
But what we plan to do from here will first and foremost be looking for a platform off Tumblr. Our general ability to handle managing a social media presence aside, Tumblr has been a uniquely toxic environment for us. We'll be keeping our Twitter for the purposes of networking and announcements only. Where we'll go is uncertain, though our Discord, forums, and website will all remain right where they are.
We're also dissolving the LTD. It's been $200/yr almost entirely out of staff pocket for various business expenses, and it's giving us a corporate feeling that we don't really want and might be holding us back at this point. This will involve shutting down the patreon as well - the remaining $40ish in the account will go toward site hosting until it runs out. Along with this, we will be narrowing and re-focusing our scope to work on pamphlets and very ground-floor advocacy work like we were initially. The Wikipedia editing initiative will also continue as usual.
This has been stressful for us. It's also been a big learning experience. Ultimately, we feel pretty confident that we'll do better things going forward (and do better by our own mental health at that). If you'd like to continue to follow along with what we're doing, and you haven't already, do consider joining the Discord or the forum. That's also where you can go if you've got feedback about this post - we won't be responding to things on Tumblr. You don't have to have been verified on the server to use the modmail, if you'd like. You can also reach out to us by email at staff@alt-h.net
~ Aster (The Flock)
