NOTE: This recap was compiled by a team of humans who have done our best to check for errors, inaccuracy, and incoherency where possible. If clarifications are needed or errors need correction, you are welcome to request them and we will try our best to help.
Topic: JS Reforms | 2021/08/18
Summary: Limeyy suggests discussion on reforming the Junior Staff position, to address JS who have remained in their position for years, JS burnout, and high turnover rates. They mention this discussion as a precursor to more staff reforms that will be completed and introduced over the following months.
It is suggested that Junior Staff should return to its origins as a temporary position. Particularly, after a year's work, JS members are automatically put up for promotion at the next promotion cycle, unless they are denied by their captain or they refuse the promotion. Discussion takes place regarding promotion periods and what happens if a member of JS refuses or is denied promotion. Concern is raised regarding JS maturity, as some JS might not be right for OS just yet but have the potential to get there, and these concerns are acknowledged.
A team of staffers is assembled to work further on codifying the JS reforms. All discussion apart from specific details is nearly unanimous in favor of the reforms.
http://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14184971/
Topic: Reserve Staff Quorum Concerns | 2021/08/19
Summary: YossiPossi brings up a previously established rule for discussion as he believes it is no longer in regular practice. Agreed upon in this thread (http://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-2017633/), the rule denotes that reserve staffers do not contribute to quorum when they vote, but instead raise it. Yossi asks whether the rule should still be in practice or not, and present staffers agree it should.
Topic: Inter-Wiki Sidebar | 2021/08/19
Summary: Woedenaz promotes his new policy proposal, which is a customizable interwiki sidebar. The proposal passes with unanimous support.
http://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14171991/
Topic: New Recap JS | 2021/08/20
Summary: The timer for the Recap Team confirmation vote expires and the new JS are welcomed to staffchat.
Topic: Workbench Ownership | 2021/08/20
Summary: Aismallard raises the question of whose purview old workbenches from former staffers fall under, and whether Tech has jurisdiction to delete them. This relates in specific to an old workbench which was causing technical issues with Google SEO. It is broadly agreed upon that the page should be deleted under Tech's purview, and the page is removed.
Topic: Staff Policy Discussions Sticky | 2021/08/20 - 2021/08/25
Summary: Ocuin brings forward a discussion on a sticky thread draft for the Staff Policy Discussions subforum after being prompted to draft one by Croquembouche. It is suggested that the sticky draft expands on the processes for policy-making a little more to contextualise the subforum's purpose, and the draft is edited to reflect that. Present staffers agree the draft is good for its purpose. The thread is posted on the 25th August.
Topic: Adcap Restructure | 2021/08/20 - 2021/08/26
Summary: ManyMeats brings discussion from admins #staff-discussion on a proposal to open AdCap as read-only to mods and restrict it to read-only for non-admin vice-captains. The proposal receives broad support from those active in the conversation, however concerns are raised over exactly what vice-captaincy looks like and how this proposal will affect the position as it reduces the differentiation between moderators and vice-captaincy. Concerns are also raised in relation to what powers it confers within a team and how this contributes to reducing bus factor. A new 05command thread is created to discuss the role of Vice Captains (http://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14172660/). Discussion regarding the existence of adcap follows, discussing whether reaching an idealized version of the channel is feasible, alongside its uses as a staff space. An aspect of the proposal regarding Vice Captains is discussed at length, and it's decided by the participants that this aspect should not be in the initial change, and only amended later if the need rises. The conversation ends with discussions on how to get more opinions from the greater staff body, without having the thread pass by 05command's bureaucracy.
Topic: Published Works Review and Discussion Team Proposal | 2021/08/21
Summary: Limeyy posts a link to a new 05 thread posted to discuss their new proposal regarding On-Site Crit. Limeyy reiterates that this thread is open for discussion for all members of staff. They also post a link to the mirror thread on the main site.
05 Link: http://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14173430/
Mainsite Link: http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/forum/t-14173431/
Topic: Declined Site Applications | 2021/08/21
Summary: Joreth has prepared a boilerplate response for Reddit users whose site applications have been declined, listing all the most likely reasons and telling them how to get in contact with staff for clarification if needed. Zyn and aismallard provide feedback and tweaks.
Topic: Vote of No Confidence Proposal | 2021/08/22
Summary: gee0765 proposes a policy outlining Votes of No Confidence coauthored by OptimisticLucio and aismallard to address concerns of ineffective or misbehaving staff that do not fall under the purview of needing Disciplinary Team attention as is implied in current policy.
Concerns are raised about how to ensure that this new policy is not weaponized out of personal interests and of how it would differ from current policy outlined in the charter. A conversation occurs around how this policy fits into current staff relations and feelings of safety due to recent events. Discussion flows into the responsibilities and roles of the disciplinary team and their connections to current and future cases falling into the realm of this policy, discussion of charter wording to address gaps in what a staff member may be removed for, and discussion of which levels of staff may vote on demotion vote threads.
Topic: Recent Staff Changes and Friction | 2021/08/22
Summary: Zyn and Pedagon begin a dialogue on the internal controversy around the latter's appointment to Junior Staff, which soon involves Rounderhouse in the same vein. LadyKatie, Limeyy and others become involved as the conversation progresses. Both Pedagon and Rounderhouse explain their perspectives on their negative interactions with existing staff, and Zyn expresses concerns about how to move forward as a cohesive body. Topics include accountability for one's actions, respect/trust between new and old staff, expectations for future behaviour, and strategies for moving forward. Respectful and effective communication emerges as a key goal for future group cohesion. Zyn also queries Pedagon about potential forum critiquers in the SCP Declassified Discord server; this leads into the conversation regarding staff shortages and forum crit also summarized.
Topic: Junior Staff in Casual Channels | 2021/08/22
Summary: gee0765 ports over a message from Elenee Fishtruck in a casual channel, asking why certain casual channels are hidden to Junior Staff. This briefly becomes a discussion in which the validity of different casual channels for different staff ranks is discussed, but no clear conclusion is reached.
Staff members raise concerns about personal information shared in the past, which they do not wish for JS to see, so the suggestion becomes to archive the existing channels and create new casual channels viewable by all staff. Other casual channels, such as those for staff game nights, were included in the list of channels to archive, but were too inactive to warrant re-creation. These changes were made later in the day.
Topic: New Forum Crit Members | 2021/08/23
Summary: A request was made for recommendations of possible critique staff and suggestions for improving critique on the wiki. In response, a discussion arose around the possibilities of changing how forum critique is incentivized, how to get more critters in the forums, and how to promote good critique from staff and nonstaff. As well, suggestions were summarized and ported over from SCPD of challenges critters and crittees have with the forums and potential solutions to these issues that may be implemented now or through wikijump.
The discussion covered incentives for critters, possible seminars on good critique, the differences between forum and chat critique, and reasons that critique is challenging for this community in specific. Additionally, there was a short discussion on perceived benefits of being a critter on forums that may be used as incentives such as coauthoring with new writers and getting a shout-out for participating in forums.
Topic: Collaboration with Non-Site Members | 2021/08/25
Summary: Edna Granbo notes that SCP-6223 contains an addendum credited to non-site members. A conversation ensues about whether or not this violates the site's authorship rules. One view is that it might, but if so the rules are infringing on something they were not created to infringe upon and should change — the rules exist to prevent underage or banned users from contributing. Another view is that the spirit of the rule has not been violated, and an exception should be made for this case. The fact that artists who have been commissioned do not necessarily get co-author credit either is also raised.
Topic: Processing Site Applications | 2021/08/27 - 2021/08/28
Summary: Staff discuss the existing process for reviewing membership applications. Topics include: concretizing the internal list of reasons to deny an application, potentially recruiting further admins to help alleviate the applications workload (applications often include personally identifying information, requiring admin-level handling), and further clarifying the on-site instructions to prevent good faith applications from failing on technicalities. The protection of applicants' private information is stressed throughout. Zyn subsequently edits and updates the "Join the Site" page to eliminate ambiguity.
Topic: ProcyonLotor/ChaoSera Non-Disciplinary Record | 2021/08/28
Summary: Limeyy raises a complaint about the wording of the non-disc record posted for ProcyonLotor and ChaoSera earlier the same day - specifically that it was overly conciliatory in tone and did not reflect standard practice for reporting behaviour deemed unacceptable. It is discussed amongst present staffers, and eventually edits to the post are agreed.
Relevant non-disciplinary thread:
http://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14178685/
Topic: Controversial Article Discussion and Non-Disciplinary Record | 2021/08/29
Summary: After a controversial article (https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-6542) was posted onsite, a number of staff were involved in heated conversation in its discussion page. A discussion on the level to which their responses were appropriate took place in staffchat, with many staff members apologising or retracting their comments. As a follow-up, non-disciplinary threads were posted for many of the users involved, including two staff members.
Relevant non-disciplinary threads:
http://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14182053/
http://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14182050/
Topic: Chatstaff Shortage | 2021/08/31
Summary: The lack of chat operators for IRC is discussed. Topics include the absence of existing operators, hours where no operators are awake, individual half-operators forced to moderate the IRC on their own, users having difficulty getting operator attention with a ping when it is required, and the overall need to promote new operators. While recent resignations exacerbated these issues, they are acknowledged to have been worsening for some time. Stop-gap measures have been the promotion of new half-ops, and potentially the promotion of half-ops to full operators, but these do not resolve the underlying problem. No conclusion is reached.