This post is a response to this one on Wizard’s Den’s forums. Specifically this part:

Why is there a “behind the scenes” at all on an open source game?

There are a variety of matters that, at least to some extent, make sense to handle out of public view. Ostensibly, keeping details of some of these things hidden from public view is a reasonable, even morally right option.

With Misconduct

As an example, Wizard’s den has handled multiple cases where someone was reported to have engaged in sexual harassment or abuse. In every case that I’m aware, people have, quite understandably, gone to extremes to keep as much confidential as possible. Final determinations have varied, so it’s easy to see the benefit of restricting information in some cases. It wouldn’t be good to inform people that you’re investigating a claim of sexual harassment against a named person only to discover that there appears to have been insufficient evidence to support that claim.

Unfortunately, allowing certain things to be kept out of view also creates a situation where something that should be done primarily to protect innocent people and remove undue influence from decisions also shields people from reasonable consequences and acts as a tool for bad actors. If someone is removed from staff or from the community for a reason like sexually harassing someone, those details can reasonably be restricted to only a handful of people, creating a situation where time and turnover open the door for a friend on the inside to help work them back in with most being entirely unaware of the person’s past conduct. This applies to many different types of misconduct, this is just one that many understand the desire for discretion.

With Staff Complaints

Another area where this is a double edged sword is staff complaints. Essentially all staff complaints are an allegation of misconduct, and at the time of their creation they are one sided. While not strictly necessary, it is entirely reasonable to have these all begin private, and that is what Wizden does. Staff complaint handling is also only as honest and transparent as the person handling them chooses to be.

As a result, most people have little but trust in leadership to go off of to know that staff complaints are being handled appropriately. With the current system, if a staff complaint is made then inappropriately closed by someone, like say the subject of the complaint, there are few people who would know unless one of them chose to speak out. In theory the complainant always has the option to, but in practice many people who make complaints about the people who handle complaints are fed up enough that filing the complaint is the last thing they do before leaving the community, never following up on the resolution.

Personal Opinion

I’m not going to comment too much here about any changes I think should or shouldn’t be made to Wizden’s transparency and openness. This post is primarily intended to help shine some light on why it’s reasonable for a “behind the scenes” to exist, but also why it’s reasonable for people to have concerns that it does exist. Hopefully everyone can agree that there are at least some pros and cons to having everything public vs not, regardless of what they feel is the ideal. I also hope that everyone agrees that, if there are to be things handled behind closed doors, everyone should strive to have the people responsible for those matters be as far from the kind of person who would replicate the examples of abuse I gave above as possible.