Supervisors no longer respond?

[Dace Nicmane]

Four years ago I ran into trouble on the network and filed a complaint via email to the supervisors. On the same day I received a reply from a senior supervisor saying he is assigning my case to one of his team and in a few hours this person also contacted me to let me know he had begun the post factum investigation. On the next day he wrote me again to inform that the investigation was over and what measures had been taken. Though there was some secrecy (he never gave me the other side's perspective about which I was most curious) I remained satisfied and even enjoyed the short interaction. 

Today I learned that this no longer is the case. Supervisors no longer get in touch with the person who filed a complaint unless it is necessary (I take it to mean if they need more information). The reason: privacy. They won't even acknowledge that the email is received. 

Am I the only one who finds it weird that you can't get feedback on your own case? I understand that there will always be some secrecy about the supervisors' work but isn't this taking the privacy considerations a bit too far? What has changed from four years ago?

P.S. I got a short reply now after 4 days but only because I was discussing it on Discord and a supervisor there was kind enough to volunteer to forward my request.

[Mats Edvin Aaro]

Hello again Dace!

I’m a bit confused, I thought I helped you and explained this to you in Discord just a short while ago?

To reiterate:

VATSIM staff, including supervisors, are exclusively volunteers. These people spend a huge amount of time helping the network out in several ways.

The email address you’re talking about is a secondary reporting system for cases happening after the fact (i.e. not on the network at that time) or during times without supervisor coverage. The email address is handled by the Vice President, Supervisors which goes through every email and handles the cases accordingly.

Now, these cases often involve personal, sensitive and sometimes incriminating details, which is why it is handled with discretion. You will therefore not always be notified of the outcome, as you naturally know the identity of the people in question. This is a delicate matter, and we do not want to put people to shame, even when they might have made mistakes on the network.

The case you are referring to has already been handled, as I also told you in the Discord.

Supervisor procedures change, and though you might have been having a conversation four years ago, doesn’t necessarily mean that’s what we do still.

Now here’s my question, why are you so interested - even after I told you it has been handled - to know the outcome in this scenario? The case has been dealt with, I would rest my case there if I were you.

It’s not a matter of «supervisors not responding», but changes in procedures and how we handle certain cases. VATSIM is always improving, and we are a vastly different network today from what we were four years ago. 🙂

[Dace Nicmane]

To be fair, you didn't say with certainty that my case was handled, you said probably.

So what happened to communication and plain common sense? If someone files a complaint, it's logical they want an answer and a satisfaction for the wrongdoing. If the procedures have changed, I don't think VATSIM has improved in this regard.

Edited February 9, 2021 at 09:21 PM by Dace Nicmane