Hi all. I wanted to let you know that, aside from Vitus Infinitus, FANDOM has decided to removed the Discussions Moderator rights from all of the mods here effective immediately. Not every mod was removed for the same reason, so I'll cover the two reasons behind the removals:

1. Activity. If a moderator has been inactive or hasn't used their moderator rights in the last 60 days, they were removed because it clearly shows that they are not in need of the tools that come along with being a Discussions Moderator.

2. Moderation practices. Once again moderation here has become heavy-handed, creating a ton of gatekeeping that has led to another downward trend in Discussions activity.

That last part is especially important. As we dove into the data, we saw the number of posts and replies noticeably trending downward while the number of deletions is trending upward a bit. From the very beginning of my time here about 3 months ago, I've made something very clear: there is a direct correlation between the level of deletions and the level of activity. As deletions increase, activity decreases because people don't feel welcome.

This is something that some moderators have tried to dispute, but it is indisputable.

I've noticed a sentiment amongst a handful of community members here, where there's this feeling that there is an overwhelming amount of posts that they don't like and it's hard to keep up with it all. Yet, activity levels are at the lowest month since the end of June. That suggests to me that the sense that there's too much of this content is very much psychological, stemming from wanting this community to be an exclusive place for in-depth, high brow analysis. But that's not what Discussions was built for.

Likewise, the sentiment that's out there now of Read The Damn Wiki (RTDW) represents a fundamental misreading of what Discussions is and what it should be. Discussions was designed explicitly to not be a wiki. A wiki is an encyclopedia. A Discussions space, while connected to a wiki, is a place for conversation that doesn't have to be 100% accurate like a wiki does. Someone can post an analysis and post an opinion that can contain inaccuracies. That doesn't mean it has to be deleted.

To be clear, the RTDW mindset and posts will no longer be tolerated. You are welcome to link people to wiki pages for further reading, but if you’re going to reply to them then you should also be answering their questions. It’s time to stop believing that people are being lazy by asking these questions. They’re not. People ask questions because they trust other fans and want to hear from them, they’re looking for a sense of community, and they’re looking for engagement beyond just reading encyclopedic content. Creating that kind of engagement is one of the fundamental pillars of Discussions.

There's also been a recent trend towards deleting content that most people disagree with. Posts that criticize The Last Jedi or Disney have been removed. Criticism and toxicity have been conflated, and now there's no room for disagreement. If you disliked The Last Jedi for valid, non-toxic reasons, community members and mods here jump on you and tell you that you're causing problems or that you're wrong.

Back in July, I made it very clear through a series of long Google Documents (which we called “mandates”) what the acceptable moderation practices would be moving forward. Those have not been adhered to, and the current practices are once again harming the activity levels of Star Wars Discussions.

The result of that is why we made the decision to remove the current moderation team. This is especially important timing as well because there are major updates coming soon to the Discussions product that, in its updated incarnation, will both allow for a better user interface for posts and replies that we believe will lead to higher quality contributions, and will surface the ability to post to way more people. Once the updates are live, we expect to see many more contributors. If the current moderation team can't effectively and rationally handle activity at its current levels, and if there's a gatekeeping mentality now at the current levels, then the mods and that handful of contributors won't be able to handle it when activity increases. So we decided to do the removal now rather than having it cause problems later.

Moving forward I will officially act as a moderator of the community alongside Vitus. If we identify new candidates in the future who can be effective moderators, we will promote them.

I want to end on this note (and those who have read my previous Google Documents will see this as a familiar ending): Discussions exists to represent the pulse of a fandom, and to capture the excitement, enthusiasm, and opportunities for engagement between fans. It does so by providing a positive space for fans to share their passions. It’s for fans of all kinds, whether they want in-depth analyses, want to laugh about a meme, or anything in between. If you try to force Discussions into being like a wiki, or existing purely for 100% accurate analysis amongst a select few higher quality contributors, you’re fundamentally misusing Discussions.

FANDOM is inclusive. Everyone is welcome.

The important thing is to be a community that doesn’t shut everyone out in an attempt to shut out the toxic few, which is what’s happening now, but to instead be a community that embraces everyone who wants to contribute to a positive fan experience.

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If you’re interested in those Google Docs that I mentioned, here they are:

-June 25, 2018: docs.google.com/document/d/1qP4lrZFlzKiDpKFzreyYXQwDGPFw2guVCYcZZfwbKaw/edit

-July 13, 2018: docs.google.com/document/d/19jvQVeBeSYMEk7FxaRSzIzBuYnSJz8iTxpHzuWeLh30/edit