Just for the record!!

[Honesty]

Hello everyone

Before I make my final departure from PP, I thought I would let you all know the events that led to my decision to leave!

As you all know it was my idea to start PP and I asked plax to come in with me. We were equal partners in PP and spent several months creating it! It started off as a very happy and relaxed place to be, but, sadly due to the strict rules that kept being placed on everyone, members started to get edgy

The Bird Safety rule that was always in place here was upheld by all of us here and always will be! All staff members were aware of this ruling and very always very vigilant in making sure members did not post pictures that would show birds in dangerous situations!

Unfortunately one of our staff members happened to miss one of these posts which lead plax to put up a notice in the Mod section basically telling all staff members that if they could not stick to the rules on PP in regards to bird safety then they were not welcome as staff members on PP. He asked them to comment on this individually. Our 2 main SMods decided against replying to this, which was their choice. In no way did it mean that they did not agree to this ruling. They had assured plax of this time and time again and did not feel they needed to state it again!

Basically, plax then gave me an ultimatum. If I did not agree to these 2 SMod's having their status taken away then he would close PP. I was absolutely horrified by this and said under no circumstances would I agree to this. IMO, this was blackmail! He went ahead and demoted them anyway He then sent me a message to say he would be closing PP and had an announcement ready to put up about the closure!
While I was waiting for PP to close, I approached the founder of a forum that used to be very active but due to not having the time, he left it. I asked him if he would be prepared to let me take it over. This, he agreed too and I asked the 2 demoted SMods' to join me! plax then decided he was not going to close PP after all, so I decided to stay and see how things progressed. Sadly, plax was never going to let the issue with the 2 SMods drop and went on to say some pretty nasty and uncalled things about them. I was told that I needed to pick my friends more carefully and how I was a bad judge of character! These 2 SMods had done absolutely nothing to deserve this hate campaign against them and they are very dear friends of mine and were always very loyal to us here at PP. All members loved them both! In fact, one of these SMods donated $150.00 towards our "Win $500 for 1000 posts" contest! She was very dedicated to PP and as you can imagine, she was left feeling very hurt over the actions of plax! The other SMod involved was left feeling exactly the same! They were treated appallingly by plax and I decided I could not stay in partnership with someone that was going to treat people in this way!

The version of events that plax has made an announcement about is totally fabricated. This is not how it happened at all!

I hope you can all forgive me for leaving you here, but I simply could not carry on with a partner that was treating people in this way! I hope we can all still stay in touch and I will miss you all.

Goodbye,

WendyX

[plax]

As you all know it was my idea to start PP and I asked plax to come in with me. We were equal partners in PP and spent several months creating it! It started off as a very happy and relaxed place to be, but, sadly due to the strict rules that kept being placed on everyone, members started to get edgy

Only the first portion of this statement is somewhat correct. I have never imposed strict rules upon any staff member at Precisely Parrots. In fact, I have not insisted upon anything other than adherence to our bird protection policy. I will admit that I'm inflexible on that issue... but for a very good reason. Any slip-up in our procedures may end in brutal death for one or more pet birds .

Additionally, for the record, it was I who came up with and registered the domain name preciselyparrots.com. And it was I who have compiled, configured, modified, wrote code for, conducted all of the troubleshooting for, and maintained the site's software since day one. And I am the one who has provided my own web hosting for the entirety of this website from the outset. To her credit, Wendy has been a huge contributor to the success of Precisely Parrots, making many decisions which factored into the directions we chose to take the project. She had originally purchased one third of the forum software licensing (which I have recently refunded to her in full); whereas I paid the remaining two thirds.

The Bird Safety rule that was always in place here was upheld by all of us here and always will be! All staff members were aware of this ruling and very always very vigilant in making sure members did not post pictures that would show birds in dangerous situations!

This statement is false. No staff member here -other than myself, one of our ex moderators who resides in Australia, and one of our current Super Moderators- has ever alerted to any bird-harmful content published on this website since our inception in April of 2013. And the instance at issue was not an inadvertent oversight, mind you. Instead, it was one of several violations by the same Super Moderator member, constituting a pattern within which she repeatedly ignored my communication efforts concerning our bird protection policy measures. That is simply unacceptable here because the lives of birds are at stake!

Unfortunately one of our staff members happened to miss one of these posts which lead plax to put up a notice in the Mod section basically telling all staff members that if they could not stick to the rules on PP in regards to bird safety then they were not welcome as staff members on PP.

I never said this. Here's a verbatim paste of my initial response message for the incident (with the member's post text removed):

Two of you participated in a thread but took no action after the thread starter had posted the following:

(members's post text appeared here)

I've edited the sentence out and PM'd the member with an explanation. And I am not overreacting here; this is an important issue! Please, lets be watchful for, and consistent about this sort of thing in the future.

Thanks

He asked them to comment on this individually.

I only did this after 10 days without a response from the particular Super Moderator member. Our other active staff members were courteous enough to acknowledge my concern.

Our 2 main SMods decided against replying to this, which was their choice.

This is true enough. And it was my choice that their lack of response lead to their removal from our staff.

In no way did it mean that they did not agree to this ruling. They had assured plax of this time and time again and did not feel they needed to state it again!

If I'm unable to attain feedback from a staff member on something as important as our bird-protection practices, then the serious question arises as to whether the staff member will be willing to work with me on equally important matters in the future. If it's not possible for a staff member to work with an administrator on important matters such as these, that staff member becomes of little use to our organization.

Basically, plax then gave me an ultimatum. If I did not agree to these 2 SMod's having their status taken away then he would close PP. I was absolutely horrified by this and said under no circumstances would I agree to this.

This statement is inaccurate. First, it was not an ultimatum. I did not say that I would shut down the site if Wendy didn't agree. I told her that shutting down the site may become necessary in response to her telling me that we would lose all of our staff if the two Super Moderator members lost their status over the matter. And that's mainly because Wendy further said that once we lose all of our staff, our regular members will follow. I didn't make any threats and I didn't want to shut down this website. It was a very difficult experience.

IMO, this was blackmail! He went ahead and demoted them anyway

It was not blackmail in any shape or form. I merely did what I said I needed to do, and I explained why.

He then sent me a message to say he would be closing PP and had an announcement ready to put up about the closure!

This was purely based upon Wendy's claim that we were going to fail if the two Super Moderator members did not retain their positions. Again, I did NOT want to close Precisely Parrots!

Sadly, plax was never going to let the issue with the 2 SMods drop and went on to say some pretty nasty and uncalled things about them.

I said no "nasty things". Everything I said was matter of fact. I didn't use any derogatory terms or insult anyone personally beyond criticizing their failure to accord to, and communicate with me about, our bird protection policy.

I was told that I needed to pick my friends more carefully

This is absolutely untrue!

These 2 SMods had done absolutely nothing to deserve this hate campaign against them and they are very dear friends of mine and were always very loyal to us here at PP.

This was in no way a "hate campaign"! It was entirely a matter of due diligence that was not fulfilled by the ex Super Moderator members.

All members loved them both! In fact, one of these SMods donated $150.00 towards our "Win $500 for 1000 posts" contest! She was very dedicated to PP and as you can imagine, she was left feeling very hurt over the actions of plax!

The two individuals indeed have many good qualities. I'm not disputing that fact. However, the bottom line is this: Every staff member at Precisely Parrots must both respect our bird-protection procedures AND be forever willing to work with each of our administrators on bird protection related issues. Ignoring pertinent communication on the topic is not an option. I don't ask much at all of our staff members. But when it comes to protecting pet birds from predatory animal attacks, I absolutely insist on compliance with our policy!

The version of events that plax has made an announcement about is totally fabricated. This is not how it happened at all!

This statement is as well completely false! Everything I've described is exactly what occurred.

I hope you can all forgive me for leaving you here, but I simply could not carry on with a partner that was treating people in this way! I hope we can all still stay in touch and I will miss you all.

I'm sorry that Wendy has chosen to leave Precisely Parrots. However, I don't feel that I have treated anyone unfairly whatsoever. I've merely been trying to protect companion birds as effectively as possible. Sadly, it was Wendy who repeatedly hurled criticism at me within our admin thread, not the other way around.

What I stated, both herein, and within the global announcement titled 'Staff Breakdown' is the accurate account of events. Apparently Wendy's pain and anger over the matter has distorted her perception. And I'm sorry for that.

[plax]

Friendship / Social Acceptance / Group Conformity vs. Doing What's Right to Save the Lives of Birds


Mechanism of the Inciting Situation

Despite best intentions, the effort and mission of Precisely Parrots has turned into a disturbingly sad experiment. Our policy to protect pet birds from unnecessary attack by dangerous predatory pets has resulted in a social catastrophe among the active members on this message board. Simple and courteous reminders from me directed to some of our ex staff folks (only upon their failure to act on the presence of bird-harmful content) somehow caused them to feel resentful toward me. And said resentment on the part of these folks made them even less likely to act appropriately on the presence of published bird-harmful content. This was evidenced by their progressively increasing refusal to communicate with me concerning the matter after each such failure to act.

The ability of our administrators to approach and interact with our moderator staff folks concerning bird-protection matters (such as the one at issue) is vitally important because any failure to take action when an action is called for, in and of itself, may constitute a genuine danger to a great many birds. As such, a reasonable inference from the described behavior of these staff folks is that their disdain for me was a greater priority for them than doing what is needed to protect as many birds as possible. If their priority were truly bird protection, they would have either taken appropriate action when necessary, or willingly communicated with me upon any oversight - despite any ill will they may have harbored. Unfortunately, they did neither.

For our staff folks to behave in the manner described above while being well aware of our bird protection policy requirements, and in view of the fact that they accepted their staff positions with an understanding that our bird protection policy requirements were an extremely high priority on this message board, their behavior simply had to be an outcome of personal prioritization. Their ongoing refusal to discuss the matter in response to my efforts unfortunately left no option other than demotion.


Response from Members

Unfortunately, many of our valued members have opted to support and follow the three ex staff members involved in the recent bird-protection failure matter away from this message board. I fully expected this to be the case, as I have been aware that many of these folks would likely view me as a villain due to my action upon their friends. Said behavior of these members is really a demonstration of something inherent in human nature that, admittedly, bothers me a great deal. That is, many folks value their human friendships so very much that they tend to conduct themselves contrary to what may be in the best interest of health and safety for others (in this case, for pet birds). The feeling of belonging and being accepted is a powerful thing... sometimes it's in fact too powerful. Many folks succumb to this element each day, and a fair portion of those seem inclined to somehow adjust their conscience to accept the overpowering human friendship/acceptance desire as a justified priority. I, personally, am unable to do that... and I wouldn't if I could.


Considerations

I certainly realize that my statements herein may alienate even more folks from me, and perhaps further deter them from this message board. But I am an honest person who, when faced with important matters, tends to say what I think. That said, please know that I like people and value my friendships. However, with me the bottom line is protecting pet birds, not catering to friendships. If I had to do it over again, my decisions in the matter would be precisely the same.



Note: This thread is closed to comment. However, if you would like to voice an opinion relevant to this issue, or involving any related or unrelated matter of controversy, you may start a new thread within this section. The only thing I ask is that your comments be civil.