Recruiting for new mods: Voting Stage

Status
Not open for further replies.
Lex

Lex

Administrator
Hi folks, as discussed in the nominations thread, the following people have been nominated for modship:

CrashOuch
Chloe Frazer (Carlie)
Fancy
BforB (B)
Minato (Roger)
Tenny
Shub Niggurath (Mage)
Howl (Withdrawn)
Lith
Kionae
Interslicery (Withdrawn)

@Shub Niggurath I only saw your comment about clarifying whether people are allowed to nominate themselves or not as I was going through the thread to collate this list of names, apologies for missing it. People were/ are allowed to nominate themselves. To avoid holding up the process I'm inclined to continue with the voting now and if people who weren't nominated want to nominate themselves, we can reset the voting - having said that, I'm going to give it til Friday to open voting to the board at large.

VOTING

I still want to go with a points based ranking system with minor negatives so that people can express their views in an impartial way but also give fair representation to everyone on the list.

We currently have 9 candidates, so my proposal is that a single vote might look like this:

Candidate 1 + 10
Candidate 2 + 8
Candidate 3 + 6
Candidate 4 + 4
Candidate 5 + 3
Candidate 6 + 2
Candidate 7 0
Candidate 8 - 1, - 2, - 3, - 4 (or 0)
Candidate 9 - 1, - 2, - 3, - 4 (or 0)


You must list all candidates but may only assign the positive vote numbers listed here once (so +10 can only be given once to a single candidate, same for 8, 6, 4, 3, 2). The negative and neutral votes can be assigned to the rest of the candidates as you see fit.

I know that's a little bit complicated, but it's a robust way to gauge the community feeling for a person, should prevent votes being too close and I think also makes everyone think a little bit about the candidates.

The community may use this thread to pose questions to the candidates - we've done this in the past and it can be a good way to feel out how a person would respond to certain situations, which is obviously an important aspect of the role.

To give an extra margin for people to nominate or nominate themselves, I'm proposing to commence with voting in the next few days rather than immediately as originally proposed.

I should also say that mods/ admin have an unfair advantage in that the votes will be collated and counted in the staff section - we can combat this by having mods/ admin vote first, but I'm not sure how necessary that is. Feel free to discuss everything I've put here for now :)
 
Last edited:
Lex

Lex

Administrator
Shub Niggurath said:
Just popping to say that Inter chose not to proceed with his nomination in the other thread, does that bugger up your numbers for the ballot thingy?
Click to expand...

I've adjusted it now :monster:

Ghost X said:
Are we PMing you our votes, Lex?
Click to expand...

Best case is to PM both me and another Mod/ Admin of your choosing, so people can be sure I'm not inventing numbers and it can be verified. Feel free to send it to as many forum staff members as you like.
 
Lex

Lex

Administrator
I'm going to declare voting officially open - some people already sent votes in, they won't be discounted since in the intervening time nobody else has nominated themselves, so our system doesn't need to change as it stands in the OP.

I'd like to see a good level of participation from everyone so we can get a robust result. GET VOTING!!!!! <3
 
Joe

Joe

I KEEP MY IDEALS
AKA
Joe, Arcana
Prospective mods, a couple questions:

- In the instance of a long-term community member beginning to post in an insulting or derogatory way, what would be your first action?

- A member posts in a way that makes other people uncomfortable or irritated, though not expressly breaking any rules. They respond co-operatively but their behaviour sees no change over time. They still get on quite well with a portion of the community. What sort of action do you think is best?
 
Roger

Roger

He/him
AKA
Minato
Joe said:
Prospective mods, a couple questions:

- In the instance of a long-term community member beginning to post in an insulting or derogatory way, what would be your first action?
Click to expand...

In this case I'd make a post in the relevant thread, kindly ask him or her to tone down the intensity of the conversation. If no changes in behaviour are forthcoming give out an official warning. If I get an angry response, I'd move the conversation to private channels. The posts in question would be deleted depending on just how bad it got.

- A member posts in a way that makes other people uncomfortable or irritated, though not expressly breaking any rules. They respond co-operatively but their behaviour sees no change over time. They still get on quite well with a portion of the community. What sort of action do you think is best?
Click to expand...

Start a dialogue with this member in Private Messages. If he/she does respond cooperatively and yet is unwilling to change, I'd encourage them to find another outlet for this negative energy elsewhere.

In both cases I'd make note that I've taken action in the mod sub-board (or whatever we have) to prevent every other mod from taking similiar action and making this person feel completely ganged up on and so other staffmembers that want to be part of this conversation (as it pertains to a established member of the community in both cases) or advice or better knowledge of what may be going on in the member's personal life, they can let me know there.
 
Carlie

Carlie

CltrAltDelicious
AKA
Chloe Frazer
Joe said:
- In the instance of a long-term community member beginning to post in an insulting or derogatory way, what would be your first action?
Click to expand...

Warn them in the thread where they are doing so to cut it out, then discuss in staff if the member's behavior merits further intervention like a formar warning or an infraction. If this behavior is completely out of character for this member then they should be message privately to see if there's any situation happening in their lives.


Joe said:
- A member posts in a way that makes other people uncomfortable or irritated, though not expressly breaking any rules. They respond co-operatively but their behaviour sees no change over time. They still get on quite well with a portion of the community. What sort of action do you think is best?
Click to expand...

At the point where a member that's aware and had promised improvements but those aren't happening, is still making other people uncomfortable
more severe action needs to be taken. If this behavior is happening in a specific section then access to that section should be revoked for
a time. If it's in the forum in general then that member needs to serve a suspension from the forum for a time. Now how to go about explaining
this to the member and the rest of the community should be discussed thoroughly in staff to make sure it is understood this member wasn't
targeted or treated unfairly. That it was the failure of this member to change time and time again that prompted the severe action that was taken.
 
fancy

fancy

pants
AKA
Fancy
LOL OH SHIT, THIS JUST GOT REAL

Well, generally speaking, when it comes to conflict, I'm very much a low-spectacle, keep-it-between-those-involved, one-on-one sort of person. So I'd take the approach of mediator rather than one who openly condemns, opting to save those condemnations for more severe cases (if someone is threatening the life of another member, fuck their feelings).

Of course, I'd go on a case by cases––I don't think every little mishap that happens between members calls for an ~INTERVENTION!!!!~ but in general, I think I'd just slide into those DMs and ask them to chill and be chill. My reasoning? Being called out in front of everyone is never fun, even if someone deserves it. It provokes ill feelings, I reckon. They might shut up, but they may also feel resentful eh? In the worst cases, the offender might even choose to be more provocative because they see the public challenge as a game. Like, "Oh, you're going to embarrass me in front of everyone, well, fuck you, I'm going to make life even more difficult." Taking the personal approach, I think, softens the blow and give the offender the chance to feel as though they're being listened to one-on-one and, in that intimacy, they might even feel a bit silly for being as provocative as they've been, because suddenly it's just us and we're forced to really focus on the core of the conflict, rather than the spectacle. I'd report to general staff about what I was doing, but keep finer details confidential because I wouldn't want to betray a member's trust.

DID THAT MAKE SENSE??

Anyway, answer time tehehe.

Joe said:
Prospective mods, a couple questions:

- In the instance of a long-term community member beginning to post in an insulting or derogatory way, what would be your first action?
Click to expand...

SLIDE INTO THOSE DMs and ask them what's up and hope that it goes somewhere. If the comment was directed at a specific member (or several) of the board, I'd slide into those DMs, too, and ask them if they're okay and let them know that I'm dealing with their bully. I reckon I would try to trust in my common sense and mediational skills to cool things off, but it if continues to be a problem, then I'd get all of staff involved, seeking guidance especially from an admin.

- A member posts in a way that makes other people uncomfortable or irritated, though not expressly breaking any rules. They respond co-operatively but their behaviour sees no change over time. They still get on quite well with a portion of the community. What sort of action do you think is best?
Click to expand...

This is a difficult one! I reckon that I would, again, talk with the member personally and let them know that their behaviour has proved distressing to a number of folks in the community. If, indeed, their behaviour fails to change over time, I would introduce a strike system to see if they'll feel a bit more motivated to change their behaviour. First warning after that initial conversation free, second warning warrants a soft ban from wherever they're causing the disturbance for a fortnight, third warning is free again, letting them know that they'll be banned for even longer next time, fourth warning is a month's soft ban. If the distress continues even after all of this, I'd escalate it to staff and see where we need to go from there. From that point, I'd be of the camp that votes they be permabanned from wherever (whether its from a subsection, two, or the whole forum––wherever it's happening) until further notice. I'd pull the lever to make the train hit the one to save the five if you catch my drift...

Naturally, I'd let other staff members know what was going down in fancy town.
 
CrashOuch

CrashOuch

she/her
AKA
Sara
(I wanna just apologise quickly cos I'm reading this over and I don't know if it makes sense because I don't feel very well but I know what I mean and I'll try to explain it again if it really doesn't make sense <3)

Joe said:
- In the instance of a long-term community member beginning to post in an insulting or derogatory way, what would be your first action?
Click to expand...

Myself personally, I'd slide straight into their DMs. If this is someone who's been around a long time and who doesn't normally behave this way, I'd wanna ask them if they were okay. I feel like chances are they're having some sort of bad day and I like to lead with compassion. However, it is of course never ever okay to be insulting or derogatory, so I'd remind them of that, something along the lines of 'Hey man, is everything okay? Are you okay? You know you can't say that, though, don't you?' but obviously more professional. I'd also encourage them to apologise to whoever it was they were insulting or being derogatory towards; if it was one or just a few people, I'd suggest they DM them all to apologise, but if it was more than that ideally they could put a brief 'sorry for that' post where they were misbehaving. I'd also DM anyone who'd been personally insulted to inform them that I was talking to this member so they know something's being done and I'd also keep the rest of staff informed on what I was doing and discuss it along the way cos maybe someone else would feel strongly that a stronger course of action was required or something.

- A member posts in a way that makes other people uncomfortable or irritated, though not expressly breaking any rules. They respond co-operatively but their behaviour sees no change over time. They still get on quite well with a portion of the community. What sort of action do you think is best?
Click to expand...

I feel like it's really important to remember that our main rule is to not be a dick cos when you go into any sort of conversation you need to be able to say why it is that you're calling someone on something. If someone is, for example, using particular language that makes someone feel uncomfortable, then they're being a dick. If someone's already said 'hey, you're making X uncomfortable, please stop being a dick' and their behaviour hasn't changed, then they're being a dick. That they're still getting on with people doesn't have much bearing because I know we all want our community to be a safe, inviting and accepting place and if some people can overlook certain dickish behaviour, that doesn't make it okay.

So, anyway, I'd DM them and give them a warning, something like, 'Hey, you've already been told to stop doing that thing, if you don't stop it I'll have to ban you from TLS for a week'. Either they shape up and it's no longer an issue, or they get banned. If they come back from their ban and start up again, they get a similar warning and then a longer ban, so on and so forth until they get banned forever. I'd keep in touch with the rest of staff throughout and agree periods of time for banning etc.

I think having a set of guidelines for a warning to banning process would be a good idea and something I'd like to see regardless of whether I'm deemed worthy of modship.
 
Lex

Lex

Administrator
I've reopened this thread.

So far I only have 11 votes. I would like more. I'm going to put out an announcement.

Five of our nominees have also not voted. Please send your votes when ready. Read the OP for instructions and post any questions here if you're unsure <3
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom