Greetings. This is going to be a fairly long post, addressing several different things and several different groups of people at once. For the sake of coherency, I am separating out the contents into individual spoiler tags. These spoilers also serve as a 'to whom it may concern' notification. In other words, if their contents doesn't seem to apply to you or references information you had no prior knowledge of, you can safely skip past them and focus on the rest of the announcement.
Beyond their immediate impact, the events on Sunday were a catalyst for a number of different events, most of them positive in nature. Normally I am very much of the 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' attitude when it comes to modifying or adjusting this forum, but as of this announcement, I am going to be taking significant steps forward. Most of these steps are based on either private feedback or public suggestions, and will involve further public votes before being fully implemented.
Many of these steps will involve tangible results for the forum; new threads, rule adjustments, etc. But before any of that, there is a much more ethereal yet relevant concern that must be addressed; the evolution of TVA's culture. When TVA began, nearly 100% of its members were migrants from the Kiwi Farms vtuber thread. I could talk to anyone and be confident they shared a similar outlook to me, and the few exceptions were forced to quickly assimilate or be rejected by the community.
This is no longer the case today. We are at 1.5k+ members, and while KF migrants still make up a large portion of the userbase, they are no longer an unchallenged majority. Many of the most prolific posters here are from various vtuber-related imageboards, or just stumbled on this site by pure accident. As such, I'm going to now address the major groups here in separate but interconnected statements. The purpose of these statements is to unambiguously lay out my intentions to everyone, so that there is no future cause for misunderstanding between me, them, or each-other.
Now that this public address is complete, I want to lay out my plans going forwards. I have resolved to make certain changes to the forum in the coming weeks/months, and this will involve various polls and considerable amounts of community feedback.
Rules & Guidelines
I am going to be conducting an extensive revision and clarification of the forum rules, as well as the code of conduct for members. It has been commented by many that the rules are currently too ambiguous and hard to understand. I personally do not like hard-and-fast rules because they can often leave no room for a moderator to exercise their good judgement when it comes to edge cases. What follows is a list of topics I intend to cover in the next few weeks;
Xenforo operates on a positively 1984-esk system when it comes to warnings and bans. Until recent events I was unaware just how little info users received when they were warned, or even that the interface was specifically designed to disallow regular users from even seeing whether or not a user was banned. In other words, the forum software deliberately tries to keep members in the dark about warnings, bans, etc. This absolutely runs contrary to how I want to run things and I am extremely sorry that people had to live with this as long as they did.
To solve the issue I have implemented a free add-on which does the following;
TVA members have thus far been quite good about donating to offset the not-inconsiderable costs of hosting. However, I have let the guidelines regarding donations & rewards for donating slip a bit and become harder to understand for newer members. I am going to change the donation link in the forum header to redirect to a new announcement that will contain all details about how to donate, and what rewards you can get on the forum for donating. I will also begin including monthly accounting reports, detailing exactly how much this website cost to run and how much people have donated to support it. I am also looking into opening up a Patreon, Streamelements, and potentially other methods that allow people to donate easily.
VTuber Support
When I started the forum, one of my goals was to create a place where small VTubers and wannabe VTubers could come to receive both support and critique outside of /vt/, Reddit or Twitter. Thus far, my efforts towards this goal have been pretty haphazard. However, even with the minimal effort on my part, a small number of people have already confirmed to me they have found the resources available on this forum to be useful. The biggest indicator we could have a real impact on the sphere was during the CyberIdol drama, when users helped expose a pathological liar, scammer and manipulator, and continue to keep tabs on their activities to this day.
I don't expect TVA to ever be working with Cover Corp or Nijisanji, but we already have a level of useful influence on the larger VTuber scene. With this in mind, I am going to be expanding the role of the Workshop and adding extra boards devoted to helping new VTubers navigate the scene, find artists and network with each other.
My goal in all this is to promote the kind of change I want to see in this entertainment medium. We have so far been willing and able archivists of black corporations, scamming artists, corrupt managers and fraudulent legal threats. But now I want to move even further, and work on making this site a place where those in need can find help and support to fight back against these practices. This will be a slow, gradual process, but one I hope will have a positive effect on the industry.
Final Thoughts
I like what we've made here and want to make more of it with you crazy people (and Argentinians). This forum has succeeded beyond my wildest expectations, and I can see that it has even greater potential going forwards. We've had our growing pains, but I'm in for the long haul. So let's make 2024 a year of seething and coping - at our success.
REMEMBER:
On the 12th there was an altercation on the Discord server I set up for my streams. This led to me banning a total of three users; 2 permanently, one temporarily. All three bans have since been rescinded.
My Discord server was originally just for call-ins. However, it quickly evolved into its own thing and began taking my attention away from the forum. Allowing it to drift away from its original purpose until it became an amorphous mess was a major mistake on my part.
In the end, miscommunications became arguments that culminated in me falling out with a number of other chatters and banning three of the most vocal members for various reasons. At the time I felt this was completely justified, so much so I made a now-archived announcement related to it.
Naturally, there was a lot of backlash to this whole affair, which I interpreted as just more evidence I was dealing with inherently disruptive people who needed to be cracked down upon without compromise. As a result, I alienated many bystanders and made a mountain out of a molehill.
Fortunately, I am not alone in this endeavour. After the dust settled, my staff members took the time and effort to have a rational conversation with me about the incident, and gave healthy, sensible recommendations on how to proceed. As a result, I took time to re-evaluate my decisions, pared back the Discord server to restore its original purpose, and started sending out apologies to people.
To my genuine surprise, every single person I made an overture to responded positively. Misunderstandings were cleared up, anger put aside, and resolutions made not to repeat the same mistakes. This could very easily have gone a completely different route, and serves as a very strong lesson for me not to assume intentions without first-hand experience.
My Discord server was originally just for call-ins. However, it quickly evolved into its own thing and began taking my attention away from the forum. Allowing it to drift away from its original purpose until it became an amorphous mess was a major mistake on my part.
In the end, miscommunications became arguments that culminated in me falling out with a number of other chatters and banning three of the most vocal members for various reasons. At the time I felt this was completely justified, so much so I made a now-archived announcement related to it.
Naturally, there was a lot of backlash to this whole affair, which I interpreted as just more evidence I was dealing with inherently disruptive people who needed to be cracked down upon without compromise. As a result, I alienated many bystanders and made a mountain out of a molehill.
Fortunately, I am not alone in this endeavour. After the dust settled, my staff members took the time and effort to have a rational conversation with me about the incident, and gave healthy, sensible recommendations on how to proceed. As a result, I took time to re-evaluate my decisions, pared back the Discord server to restore its original purpose, and started sending out apologies to people.
To my genuine surprise, every single person I made an overture to responded positively. Misunderstandings were cleared up, anger put aside, and resolutions made not to repeat the same mistakes. This could very easily have gone a completely different route, and serves as a very strong lesson for me not to assume intentions without first-hand experience.
Beyond their immediate impact, the events on Sunday were a catalyst for a number of different events, most of them positive in nature. Normally I am very much of the 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' attitude when it comes to modifying or adjusting this forum, but as of this announcement, I am going to be taking significant steps forward. Most of these steps are based on either private feedback or public suggestions, and will involve further public votes before being fully implemented.
Many of these steps will involve tangible results for the forum; new threads, rule adjustments, etc. But before any of that, there is a much more ethereal yet relevant concern that must be addressed; the evolution of TVA's culture. When TVA began, nearly 100% of its members were migrants from the Kiwi Farms vtuber thread. I could talk to anyone and be confident they shared a similar outlook to me, and the few exceptions were forced to quickly assimilate or be rejected by the community.
This is no longer the case today. We are at 1.5k+ members, and while KF migrants still make up a large portion of the userbase, they are no longer an unchallenged majority. Many of the most prolific posters here are from various vtuber-related imageboards, or just stumbled on this site by pure accident. As such, I'm going to now address the major groups here in separate but interconnected statements. The purpose of these statements is to unambiguously lay out my intentions to everyone, so that there is no future cause for misunderstanding between me, them, or each-other.
The support I have received from you has been vital in making this forum what it is. KF users currently make up my entire staff pool, and remain a cornerstone of this community. I want you all to be happy here, and I try my best to weigh my decisions towards outcomes that favor the kind of culture you were instrumental in helping me create here.
However, with all that said, I still have to ask you to accept change when it arrives. This forum is not Kiwi Farms. I do not want to be known as a 'KF splinter site', or 'KF for vtubers'. We should be proud of our heritage and use it as a guiding light for the future, but it should not define us. Remember, the vtuber thread on KF is widely hated by the rest of the site. Null finally snapping and banning it for good would be greeted with cheers at best, mild amusement at worst.
That's why I would humbly ask you not to judge TVA by the standards of Kiwi Farms, or despair that we're doomed to lose our cultural identity as time goes by. Please, forgive my mistakes and work with me to make this the best forum to discuss vtubers on the internet. When you have concerns, please bring them to me in detail, and include my other staff members in the discussion. There is wisdom in many advisors, and I need good advisors to help me build this website.
However, with all that said, I still have to ask you to accept change when it arrives. This forum is not Kiwi Farms. I do not want to be known as a 'KF splinter site', or 'KF for vtubers'. We should be proud of our heritage and use it as a guiding light for the future, but it should not define us. Remember, the vtuber thread on KF is widely hated by the rest of the site. Null finally snapping and banning it for good would be greeted with cheers at best, mild amusement at worst.
That's why I would humbly ask you not to judge TVA by the standards of Kiwi Farms, or despair that we're doomed to lose our cultural identity as time goes by. Please, forgive my mistakes and work with me to make this the best forum to discuss vtubers on the internet. When you have concerns, please bring them to me in detail, and include my other staff members in the discussion. There is wisdom in many advisors, and I need good advisors to help me build this website.
I will start out by saying that most of you have been remarkably tolerable. If that sounds like I'm damning you with faint praise... yes, I am. The imageboards have an extremely negative reputation in the vtuber sphere, and this forum has a whole thread dedicated to discussing the insanity that can be found there.
I am fully aware a large part of this reputation has resulted from the fact there was nowhere else on the internet that allowed frank and open discussion of vtubers in the same way either KF or the chans did until TVA came along. Those of you who do not fit the stereotype have been forced to coexist with it out of necessity rather than choice. I understand that, which is why I have never done anything retarded like try and purge all non-KF members from the forum.
I hope you will work with me in future, rather than against me. I will ask you to do things you're not used to, and probably clamp down on certain behaviours you consider normal. I do this to try and encourage you to act in a manner that allows this space to be seen in a positive light, and as a source of fair critique for the industry as a whole.
Please don't take this to mean that I consider all of you guilty until proven innocent, just that I have a strong vision for TVA that clashes with some of the things considered normal where you have come from. Our cultures are different, and if you decide to post here, I expect you to integrate and learn our ways. If you're willing to do that, I am more than happy to work with you.
I am fully aware a large part of this reputation has resulted from the fact there was nowhere else on the internet that allowed frank and open discussion of vtubers in the same way either KF or the chans did until TVA came along. Those of you who do not fit the stereotype have been forced to coexist with it out of necessity rather than choice. I understand that, which is why I have never done anything retarded like try and purge all non-KF members from the forum.
I hope you will work with me in future, rather than against me. I will ask you to do things you're not used to, and probably clamp down on certain behaviours you consider normal. I do this to try and encourage you to act in a manner that allows this space to be seen in a positive light, and as a source of fair critique for the industry as a whole.
Please don't take this to mean that I consider all of you guilty until proven innocent, just that I have a strong vision for TVA that clashes with some of the things considered normal where you have come from. Our cultures are different, and if you decide to post here, I expect you to integrate and learn our ways. If you're willing to do that, I am more than happy to work with you.
Now that this public address is complete, I want to lay out my plans going forwards. I have resolved to make certain changes to the forum in the coming weeks/months, and this will involve various polls and considerable amounts of community feedback.
Rules & Guidelines
I am going to be conducting an extensive revision and clarification of the forum rules, as well as the code of conduct for members. It has been commented by many that the rules are currently too ambiguous and hard to understand. I personally do not like hard-and-fast rules because they can often leave no room for a moderator to exercise their good judgement when it comes to edge cases. What follows is a list of topics I intend to cover in the next few weeks;
- The behaviour I expect people in this community to demonstrate.
- Our attitudes towards and potential engagement with drama related to VTubers.
- How we treat VTubers who reach out to us.
- How we handle public relations.
- How we treat edge-cases, unusual situations, or ambiguous conflicts with no clear 'right' or 'wrong' side.
Xenforo operates on a positively 1984-esk system when it comes to warnings and bans. Until recent events I was unaware just how little info users received when they were warned, or even that the interface was specifically designed to disallow regular users from even seeing whether or not a user was banned. In other words, the forum software deliberately tries to keep members in the dark about warnings, bans, etc. This absolutely runs contrary to how I want to run things and I am extremely sorry that people had to live with this as long as they did.
To solve the issue I have implemented a free add-on which does the following;
- lets users see their own warnings,
- displays received warnings on posts much more visibly,
- allows users to view the profiles of banned members.
TVA members have thus far been quite good about donating to offset the not-inconsiderable costs of hosting. However, I have let the guidelines regarding donations & rewards for donating slip a bit and become harder to understand for newer members. I am going to change the donation link in the forum header to redirect to a new announcement that will contain all details about how to donate, and what rewards you can get on the forum for donating. I will also begin including monthly accounting reports, detailing exactly how much this website cost to run and how much people have donated to support it. I am also looking into opening up a Patreon, Streamelements, and potentially other methods that allow people to donate easily.
VTuber Support
When I started the forum, one of my goals was to create a place where small VTubers and wannabe VTubers could come to receive both support and critique outside of /vt/, Reddit or Twitter. Thus far, my efforts towards this goal have been pretty haphazard. However, even with the minimal effort on my part, a small number of people have already confirmed to me they have found the resources available on this forum to be useful. The biggest indicator we could have a real impact on the sphere was during the CyberIdol drama, when users helped expose a pathological liar, scammer and manipulator, and continue to keep tabs on their activities to this day.
I don't expect TVA to ever be working with Cover Corp or Nijisanji, but we already have a level of useful influence on the larger VTuber scene. With this in mind, I am going to be expanding the role of the Workshop and adding extra boards devoted to helping new VTubers navigate the scene, find artists and network with each other.
My goal in all this is to promote the kind of change I want to see in this entertainment medium. We have so far been willing and able archivists of black corporations, scamming artists, corrupt managers and fraudulent legal threats. But now I want to move even further, and work on making this site a place where those in need can find help and support to fight back against these practices. This will be a slow, gradual process, but one I hope will have a positive effect on the industry.
Final Thoughts
I like what we've made here and want to make more of it with you crazy people (and Argentinians). This forum has succeeded beyond my wildest expectations, and I can see that it has even greater potential going forwards. We've had our growing pains, but I'm in for the long haul. So let's make 2024 a year of seething and coping - at our success.
REMEMBER:
