Chat Admins

Chat Admins

thedeadlymoose 03 Mar 2015 04:27

So, as most of you know, our current chat structure can be somewhat less than ideal, with a mass assortment of ops with identical responsibilities and one owner at the top who has power over everyone.

I think that used to be a great idea and hasn’t been now for a long time. It stopped being a good idea halfway through Waxx's tenure, really; in fact, he realized this and used myself and Roget to fill an unofficial in-between role. But when I was given chat, I didn't place anyone in my old role.

I'm creating a new role in chat: Chat admins. If I (as the owner) am the highest court, or the president, or whatever, and ops keep the peace directly, admins fill the role in between. (Thank you to TroyL for that metaphor.)

Here's the explanation of the position, which is gonna go on the ChatOp Guide:

• Super-Op/Admin:
  • Admins will assist/advise the chat owner directly in creating policy and dealing with ambiguous situations.
  • Admins will deal directly with issues involving chat operators.
    • This also includes the chat owner, and individual admins. If there's a problem with the chat owner, go to a chat admin. If there's a problem with an admin, go to another admin or the chat owner.
  • Admins can quickly, by "fiat", promote permanent half-operators (subject to review by other ops and the owner).
    • Presently, this will work like this:
      • Admin promotes half-operator
      • Admins and ops together conduct initial review of the new half-operator after 2 weeks
      • Admins and ops together conduct a final review of the new half-operator after another 2 weeks, at which time the half-operator can be promoted to full operator.
  • Admins will take higher-level appeals for serious or ambiguous chat issues.
    • Note: There's no need to go to admins for appeals if things are clear-cut; e.g. a newbie who explicitly trolled. If it's clear-cut and an appeal is obviously not warranted, it should not be referred to admins.
    • If chat policy needs adjudication on the fly, please go to admins first. Admins will let other admins (and the owner) know. This is a shift in policy from the standard of "hang tight until you can talk to the owner".
      • Note: It's still perfectly valid to simply discuss amongst two or three chatops and come to a situational consensus.

All of this may shift and/or expand if necessary in coming weeks. (This thread's version shouldn't be used as reference — the Chatop Guide version is what we'll update as things change.)

Something I should make clear: This does not take away any power that chat operators presently hold. This draws from power that the chat owner presently holds.

For example, the chat admins are a constant & consistent group specifically existing (1) to approach the owner with issues, and (2) for the owner to seek advice from.

But chat ops can continue to advise the chat owner on policy issues just as they do now, either in a PM, in secret staff chat, or secret ops-only chat. (This opens a new official avenue, though; if you don't want to go directly to the owner, you can PM an admin instead.)

Except where specified, this is an addition to current policy, not a replacement for it.

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The current list of chat admins:

+ show block

• Crayne
• Dr_Kens
• Kaktus
• Light
• Pig_catapult
• TroyL

We are also considering one other addition at this point.

Initially this list was half the length, but I was advised — and came to agree — that a larger number of admins would be helpful in ensuring "full coverage". It also allows us to promote more ops, because if there's a serious problem, it doesn't always have to be Moose dealing with it.

On Choosing Admins:

+ show block

These are mostly drawn from people who are less able (or have less need) to actively op (with the obvious exception of Kaktus), but who still have the experience and knowledge of chat. This was intentional. "Time and ability to deal with this" was a major consideration.

Notes:

• I've based these choices on recommendations from the admins we knew we'd definitely pick, starting with an initial list from TroyL, and using each new admin addition to narrow the list down.
• I did not personally veto any chat operators for inclusion, and I didn't personally pick any of them except for TroyL, Kens, and Light.
  • Both Kens and Troy have confirmed that both of them are able to handle the additional responsibilities (IE, they weren't grandfathered in).
  • Light is probably the most unusual choice here, but she came highly recommended. She's only been a half-op so far, but we chose to directly promote her to chat admin due to her extensive experience (she's a longtime ex-op and ex-admin who's recently returned to a high level of activity) and possess a dependably good perspective.
• In the future, we may add or remove chat admins as necessary.
• If you wish to be a chat admin, send me or any current chat admin a message about the position. If you express interest, you will be considered; essentially, I'll have present chat admins vote on your inclusion.

Last edited on 03 Mar 2015 04:34 by thedeadlymoose Show more