Eh, I recall didn't want to give my thoughts on this but if it helps here's my view.
For one, I didn't resign because of the forum. I wasn't driven off by any members or any of the staff. I just didn't want to mod anymore, and I'm moving country and stuff so I just figured I'm best leaving it the rest of the team or someone who could be promoted and be more active than I could be (I'd really hate to be that one mod who does nothing for weeks on end).
Though this doesn't mean certain things didn't contribute to me leaving. To be honest, for months now, I've cared less and less about this site that I genuinely used to really like. Maybe being staff was part of that, but I felt like the site was going downhill. Lack of new members, lack of activity, trolling, constant drama, rivalries etc. It was becoming a burden to try and stay neutral, it was becoming a burden to actually log in most of the time. No fun anymore, literally no point in staying around anymore nevermind modding. I didn't really plan on saying anything at all, I honestly just wanted to quietly slip away and come on from time to time but now I see this ****storm. Face it, things on ZD are not good. Everyone needs to realise this, staff especially. There's no point sugarcoating it. The only two admins who ever did anything on the tech side of things are gone (what's gonna happen on that front now?). And there's little to no Mods and from what I have been told, there's no plan to promote more. So not only does ZD have the same problems that have plagued it for a while now, but an actually management problem that has literally opened a giant rift among the members. There's probably little trust between members and staff now and a bigger divide than ever.
Anyway, here's my view on this debate.
@Mases and whoever else, however you want to put it, Kitsu and Rep have done more for this site in the year they were Admins than anyone else. It's a fact and I will admit them being Admins wasn't controversy free, both are very opinionated and, especially Kitsu, will say something if he doesn't like it. It obviously lead to rash and sometimes bad decisions, but everyone makes them and myself too. I've disagreed with both, had heated arguments with both. Still they're probably the two who care most about this forum out of everyone I've known. It's funny, nearly every bad staff decision, or disagreement, didn't fall on me, Locke (well sometimes Locke), Djinn, Vee, Seth, Batman, Krazy, Jimmy, Garo, whoever else I've been staff with, it was always blamed on Rep and Kitsu. Ok maybe sometimes it was justified if they made a specific error or something but even when it had nothing to do with the them they took the blame. There was a time when I warned someone (yes just a warning) and a giant drama occurred. It was 100% my decision and was blamed on the agenda of Kitsu and Rep. This is just one occasion that sticks out to me because it happened a few weeks before I resigned, but it was a reoccurring thing.
Honestly I don't blame Kitsu for some of the things he did, he was constantly antagonised by certain people and they knew he would react. That's what pisses me off most and especially when Kitsu resigned. He made mistakes sure, but there was loads of times when he was basically full on baited with the no repercussions to the opposing party. What forum actually stands for this? Literally none. We discussed possible punishments and how we should handle future situations like this, but to no avail. Literally a rivalry between two sides has tore this side down, no one's innocent and I've stood up for both parties, but I'm sick of the blame always being on one side. One member who probably cares for the site the most (or at least did) resigned and nothing happened to the opposing party but protection for reasons I still cannot understand.
This stupid agenda to hurt people, demonize people, get people demoted etc. has to stop. There was a situation a few months ago when a member caused a giant argument between two of our staff members which probably added to this whole rift within the staff. Basically one staff member had said something about another in a Skype chat or something. Ok maybe not exactly right on that staff member's part, but the member posted the logs and tried to get said staff member demoted. This was honestly one of the most out right ridiculous and most annoying things I ever encountered as a mod, though I didn't express it at the time. It's something right out of high school, done to cause rifts and distrust among the staff. Both staff members came close to quitting that day if I recall. It could have been handled so much better than it was and it perfectly highlights how some people actively try to hurt the staff and get us demoted. Hell I got harassed on Skype for months and got threatened about getting demoted, 4 others also admitted to getting similar treatment. Point is, things aren't always what they seem and there's frustration in the staff for a reason and probably an outside agenda to cause it; though I'd like to believe otherwise. It's not exactly nice getting this treatment when you're the ones who have to do the dirty work of the forum and get no praise and nothing but hate from both sides whatever decision we make. You know what, thank you to all the members that didn't cause a big drama when they were punished. Thank you to the members who didn't try to get any of us demoted or threaten us. Sometimes I actually laugh, it's a ****ing game forum and I'm saying this sort of ****. Sums up why a lot of the staff resigned really and why I'm glad I'm no longer a mod.
That brings me on to another thing. I'm actually not that surprised that people have stepped down (ok maybe I am that 4 did in such a short space of time). I'm not going to name names, but I think this is worth sharing. There was maybe 4 or 5 occasions where we, as the staff, reached a majority vote. Maybe 8/10 out of the staff and we were denied because Locke and Mases disagreed. I'm ok with having head for figures of the staff, but you guys must see that flat out overruling your staff causes rifts and trust issues. Especially when the staff are the ones who actively manage the forum day in and day out and we got denied by the two who are the least active. This is what I'm guessing made others leave(?). In any sort of decision making, whether it's a business or something as trivial a game forum, I think you shoulf always trust the majority of your staff members because that's what they were "hired" for and getting denied kind of makes everyone feel powerless and completely demotivates everyone. So if a similar scenario happens again, please trust your staff members and don't go off your own intuition. It will cause a similar situation to the one that happened here recently.
Few things for the current staff. First off Locke and Djinn. I actually really like you guys and have had little to no problems with you when I was staff. Though you are both admins and the least active staff members since Wyatt. Members will always look up to you guys as head figures. Sometimes it was awkward when we would take up 95% of the moderation duties and somehow you guys were still admins. I have no problem with you guys in that position as long as you fulfill the duties that come along with it. Especially now, there's so little staff and the forum is relying on you two mostly at the moment.
Secondly, I actually can't believe a petty rivalry has completely destroyed half the staff team. Yes we had arguments and disagreed, but that breeds a good environment in my opinion. If everyone agrees and hardly cares then what's the point? I think that actually brought a lot of us closer together as a unit and we actually got **** done that mod teams in the past maybe struggled with. If both the current staff team and the ones who stepped down could reconcile then maybe, just maybe, ZD could somehow be salvaged. But things need to change, more activity from the higher admins and more communication and understanding with the one who runs the site, Mases. If the staff comes to a majority agreement then you shouldn't overrule it. And most importantly don't let members cause rifts within the staff - this goes out to both sides, it's clearly the biggest problem here and nothing's been done to fix it. Please do something to help the situation and don't let the forum go into the hole it's heading in.