Be Excellent To Each Other

We've been doing an amount of thinking about the way the forum is looked after, and now we have a website too, we've come up with some changes which we think would be a good idea and would like to put forward for some discussion.

Currently, we have 5 moderators, who are in charge of everything - the forum and the site. All five have complete authority over the lot, pretty much, which I'm not sure really makes a lot of sense. We also have Grim..., who has authority by default by virtue of being the owner of the site and the forum.

As a result, we propose three separate roles. In true MafiaScum style:







The overall reason for this is that the current structure of just the moderators doesn't reflect the amount of work people have put into getting the site up and running and contributing content, nor is it a particularly good idea for people whose job it is to keep the forum ticking over to have access to dangerous flashing buttons that can shut down the whole forum. 5 people also seems too many for a forum of this size.

It is suggested that Grim... be the Forum Admin, as he has access to all that stuff anyway. If he needs anyone else to help, he can ask - but that person(s) shouldn't be a mod and shouldn't get involved in any moderating decisions.

The site owner should also be a fixed person, one of the people who has most input to the site right now (not sure who, possibly DocG). Again, that person shouldn't be eligible to be a moderator. That person can appoint extra editors to ensure that we get things up on the site in a timely manner.

(1) Moderating rights should be:
Lock/edit/move posts and threads
Administrate usernames, groups, passwords, and approve new users (although with the new 'manual question', I'm not sure we need registration approval any more)
Banning/suspending users
Editing posts only to change NSFW stuff to links or correct failed spoiler tags.

We also propose that elections change to every 3 months, as 6 months has proved to be a pretty long time in the wonderful world of the internet.

All your opinions are sought on this in advance of the upcoming elections.

Cheers

That sort of thing should be up to the moderators at the time, no?

Or does Grim... have the say in how stuff is organised, then moderators just keep things ticking over. What if we wanted to instate a sub-forum for tomcats? Would that be up to the mods or the admin?

It'd be up to the members.

You mean we'd do that tedious democratic voting thing? Pffft!*


* - Good point, sir.

A dictatorship would be a fuck of a lot less faff.

You're just dropping the number of mods to preserve the power of the ruling elite and stop any dissenting voices managing to nab the fifth position in the list, etc.

Really, though, I'd imagine you mods know best how many mods the forum actually needs and all.

All sounds pretty sensible to me!

If we start having votes over sub-fora I'm going to officially Leave.

Oh.

We're likely to have new faces in the mod team this time around. I, for one, am not volunteering again.

5 is overkill. You only really need 1 on duty at any one time for caretaker stuff, and occasionally a few of differing opinions to discuss anything really big like a banning.

Ditto.

I want to take over the Moaning Agitprop role.

Too slow, motherfucker

Hey, you're up for re-election too, then.

No, I'm going to be the guy that doesn't have to care, who sighs theatrically whenever called upon to do something but not-so-secretly loves being the one that can.

This is just another way of saying "sysadmin", dummy.

I have never known a forum of such size go on about this sort of thing so often.

It's simultaneously terrible and wonderful.

There are officially People To Blame/Thank for this.

All very well reducing the amount of mods, but what happens when some of them are busier, or are away?

I reckon 4 is the golden number + the two runners up having access to the super secret mod forum to ensure shenanigans aren't going on.

Yeah, but we all have terrible repressed memories.

Can I suggest a new forum rule, all lengthy disputes get resolved by the medium of "Square-Go".
Sundays at Noon, Glasgow Green, taps aff! That way any problems get sorted at the end of the week and you'd think twice before starting shit, eh?

For a forum this size, two moderators are enough. We're largely self-policing anyway.

I think 3's more than enough, even with one away. They can happily make decisions unilaterally and get them ratified by the absent mods on their return. In any event, if you're trusted to be one of three mods you should be trusted to make moderating decisions on your own. Otherwise why did you vote for that person?



This will just result in mod business being conducted by PM, though. As with cabinet discussions, they need to be confidential in order for people to express their opinions and have an open discussion.

Let's take an average of what chinny and Gaz think. Oh, three!

I say let anarchy rule and run unmoderated for 2 weeks.

Y'know, for shits and giggles like

Heh, I was just thinking that.

It's a bit like having a formal committee / board structure for a tiny club or charity with a dozen members. The committee structure tends to siphon off the most involved and interested members and bogs them down with politics and the folderol of procedure and eventually makes them run away.

I've seen it happen in real life on at least two occasions.

Hmm, perhaps it's me.

Given the way the forum is dwindling day by day, we'll only need one at this rate.......

3 was chosen because it's high enough to get stuff done, low enough not to be cumbersome, and also an odd number to avoid a deadlock

You keep saying this, but it doesn't become any more true.

Thing is, it'd be fine. We don't do much moderating at all. I'd say we've done none over the last two weeks, other than approving a couple of accounts.

We should decide the mods by lottery. On the first every month the names of the top twenty posters the previous month are put into a hat and three drawn out to be that month's mods.

That'll work flawlessly.

2 or 3 mods would be about right here, I reckon.

Heh -

Let's be honest - democracy, and the attendant whinging, is fucking tedious. If we're not going to have anarchy, let's at least have a dictatorship. All this would require would be a subtle reordering of words in the Rules.

I think Craster should take over as Supreme Dictator. Everyone likes and trusts Craster, so he'd be perfect. He also knows how to fiddle with the back end without irreparably tearing anything open.

Ouch!

All sounds good to me.

That's fine as long as Craster doesn't mind being hung from a lamp post when it all goes wrong.

As with Slain, though, the old mods are put to the sword.

We should take a hint from 'Have I got news for you' and have celebrity guest mods each week.

[EDIT if I develop an opinion on the matter, I'll let you know]

What? You have them now, and the first lot had them before you.

This week:
Next week: Bruce Software Cunt From The 80's


I could see this working well.

jesus fucking christ.

Good one man, aim high! He'd be a great guest mod!

Get Sir Alan booked!

I've had a haircut.

I look well thug now.

Also, I did see what might have used to have been a Land Rover Defender but with the back cut off today.

Err, MOD stuff:

To be honest, I don't really care. I would notice them a bit more if they did edit people's post with hilarious words, but, if people want things like mods and it is AN IMPORTANCE then cool by me. I'll keep posting until I get banned.

Actually, I currently have more hair on my face than I do my head. Oops.

Facebook photos from last night are up. I am in THE TROUBLE.

Bugger it.

Sod elections. Just pick someone. Craster'll do. He can pick his deputies.

Nah - I want to be a deputy. That way I don't get shot.

For what it's worth, I agree; I'd be just as happy if Grim... picked a few people. But given the screaming howling that has come with mod actions like "tell people to calm down" or "move these things from a subforum to a forum", it's my perception that a dictatorship wouldn't be popular.

I don't know, it seems like he might be quite distracted.

dictatorships aren't popular, but they work.

Pick someone Grimster!