@nephyo - I’m posting this here too. I feel bad not coming to your site too; but I want my responses to also be seen on my site as well. It’s a habit I have when I’m saying something very important in reference to my post.

since I didn’t see the original posts or featured post I’m trying to understand the nature of the edits that were done.  Was it that you had indented paragraphs and he removed the indents but did not add line spaces between paragraphs? If that’s the case I see why that would have annoyed you since it definitely would have detracted from the readability of your post.

If you look at how this entry is put together, that’s how I put together the Featured entry. First I post my point in a paragraph; and if I’m going to divert only SLIGHTLY on that point (sub-point) I will put the next paragraph right below.
Like this. This way, It means that I took a “breath”, but want to continue on a slightly same track. This way, the reader can keep up with the conversation, without me sounding like I’m talking non-stop. It’s a more non-overbearing style of writing.

However. HardestLevel changed it so that all my points and sub-points were meshed together into a Wall Of Text format. Meaning that no matter if I stayed directly on the main point or not, it’d be written like I was speaking non-stop. So unless I change topic COMPLETELY, you’re going to have one long paragraph full of text. You, the reader don’t get to breathe as I talk, because I don’t stop talking until I’ve changed topic ENTIRELY. And if you read enough of my entries, you’ll notice that I don’t always change topic right away, but elaborate through sub-topics.

Worse still, is that italics are meant to be used to emphasise things. And I emphasised things in my original article. There’s no point in removing those formattings, but I was willing to concede them; if only to keep the voice of my article intact.

 Still, I’m not sure I would go so far in your criticism. It’s absolutely the case that his communication with you was lacking. It should never have taken 5 days for you to get an initial response. It certainly seemed like he didn’t want to deal with you which might well be understandable given your previous conflicts and possible lingering animosity. But I think when he removed your entry that that was *not* an unreasonable decision in and of itself. He did tell you he was going to do it. And in fact you pretty explicitly gave him permission: “The

format of my post was not correct as per a mistake on the submission page. Please re-review the entry on my HL account site, and change the featured article as per posted. If not, then remove my post from the front page. “

You’re right, I cannot argue with the facts, and the fact is: I said those words. However, the intent was that if he wasn’t willing to co-operate, or at least be diplomatic, then I wanted nothing to do with his site. Since it’s not OUR site; nor does it represent US. Unlike Xanga.com, which promotes the USERS first, and the TEAM second.
HardestLevel’s only noticeable staff is “Joe”. Yet he keeps referring to “we”. He cannot mean the community, because he only featured himself until me and several others called him on being self-absorbed. And I feel that calling him that is accurate, since at the time he was featuring HIMSELF, there were multitudes of people waiting to get Featured off the submission page. There was never a short supply of entries to pick from, but he kept promoting himself.

There’s something DEEPLY wrong with that.

Now, another reason for saying what I did was simply to see if he truly was going to be more professional. He reacted exactly as I expected. He showed no intent to compromise, or discuss. He never even offered a suggestion on where we could agree on the formatting. It was his way, or no way.
That is NOT a quality I want in someone representing me; or this community, and is another reason why I’m calling for his position to be opened.

Banning all your work from being featured altogether is WAY out of line I think. I don’t think such a decisions should be made without some sort of explicit policy backing it up.

$20 says that he’ll tell you I’m nothing short of abusive, and uncompromising. That will be his reasoning. But judging by his behaviour, it’s simply because I’m a proponent of dissent to his method of running things. I don’t kiss his ass, he deletes me. It’s juvenile to say the least; chalked onto my list of reasons why he should be at least laid-off.

 And definitely this whole issue could have been avoided had he communicated with you more directly throughout the process. 

Exactly. Before this, it was agreed upon that the editor(s) would keep a closer contact with ALL submission acceptees. Any changes would be relayed to the original author, and they would have to come to an agreement on what would be altered. All editorial changes would have to have VALID reasons for change; not just simply because it fits the editor’s aesthetics. Especially when their aesthetical preference RUINS the entirety of another’s work.

But I have no problem with the basic concept of editorial “visual preference” effecting featured posts. It’s a business and Xanga has its own interests to serve when deciding what to feature. I just think some effort should be made to be true to the original author’s *intent* especially working with the author whenever possible. And if an author is unsatisfied, *they* should be given the choice of whether they would rather have their featured work taken down or remain up with altered formatting.

I feel that any preference should come SECOND to maintaining the status quo of the author. The editor should be protecting the AUTHOR’s work first, and the EDITOR’s second. Without the author, the editor has no job. Ergo, the editor has a duty, a responsibility to give the author proper credit and respect.
Now, had I been nothing but a jerk right off? I’d agree his behaviour was justified. But as you can see, that’s not the case.

To make matters worse: He already KNEW how I format things, and STILL proceeded to Feature me without addressing my concerns beforehand. He deliberately made this decision. Whether as a slight or not, I don’t know. I’m too angry to lower myself to being paranoid.

I definitely understand your complaint and your position has merit. But I do think you overreacted to a degree. 

I won’t lie, I agree. I’ve overreacted, but if anything because I’ve gone through this nonsense once already. Once is one time too many with this kind of issue. I shouldn’t have to deal with it again… FROM THE SAME PERSON!

There was definitely some un-professionalism on the part of the HardestLevel staff but just as far as my own personal opinion goes, this incident would not be nearly enough to drive me to boycott the site even if it had happened to me. 

That’s fine. You’re mostly known for being able to play Devil’s Advocate, and provide eloquent rebuttals to all points. However, the way in which the site is being run and conducted is losing traffic, and users. His actions are alienating him from a lot of people, and will cost Xanga revenue in the process.
Not only that, but his continued refusal to respect the users of the site merely indicates that he’s not right for his position. At all. He’s abusing the power given to him, and not using it to better the site. It goes as far as Meg pointed out, that now he’s BEGGING for submissions.
Well who wants to submit to someone who won’t listen to their complaints if they should have one?

Nor would I be calling for firings.

HL needs to be run by someone of merit. Someone with knowledge of the community; the editorial process; and how to be diplomatic. Joe has none of these qualities. That is why I want someone else to replace him.
If he continues to run HL, the site will fail. It’s already failing, and it is only going to get worse as long as he continues to refuse to adapt.

All businesses and corporate structures are structured in a top-down non-Democratic way. In a sense that’s “fascist” or totalitarian but in this case I think using the term is an exaggeration that would obviously incite anger in the staff who undoubtedly do not see themselves in this way. Xanga does more than a whole lot of companies to listen to its community.

HardestLevel is not run by anyone on the actual Xanga Team. “Joe” is an intern they brought on. Since day 1, he’s shown complete ineptitude towards featuring entries; towards community conversation; and towards actually writing anything worth reading (which he featured anyway!).
Not only that, but his actions go ABOVE what you’d normally see in corporations. See, I can understand limiting speech in the workplace to prevent anger amongst employees (ie. Hate speech, sexism, racism, et al.); but there’s nothing valid about his “visual prefential” treatment of entries. Especially when it keeps changing the voice of the original entry.
There’s also no valid reason why he banned me from being Featured; other than power tripping.

Then again I don’t really do much with the Xister sites in general so I am not really familiar with how pervasive the problem is or how much ire it has developed. 

Just read the comments being left by others. Specifically, those of us who’ve USED HL and other Xister sites. We’re PISSED.

As for the idea of direct linking rather than copying. I’m curious to know why Xanga chose not to do it with direct linking in the first place. There must be some justification for the decision and I won’t vote for the idea until I understand the logic behind why it is the way it is now. It’s possible reforming the editing process to be more democratic could be an effective method of getting the best of both worlds without having to throw out the system as it is now entirely.

I’m curious too. But Xanga’s method has been far more preferred, and successful than that of the Xister sites (exceptions being Datingish and Autisable). I understand your stance; and hope you get the intel you need to make the decision that’s right to you.
All I can add is that by simply going to Xanga.com’s method of Featuring, all these issues we’re having with the Xister sites in terms of Featuring would be gone. Save for the fact that few are featuring anything GOOD.

I mean, do I really need to know how much one jackass LOOOOOVES Mario?