[Vote] - Provisional Site Conceptual Charter Vote

Summary:

Let the Great Hunt Begin

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[Vote] - Provisional Site Conceptual Charter Vote

DrBleep 04 Jul 2022 22:13

Previous Thread

NOTE: This is not a vote to finalize the charter. This is a vote to provisionally accept it. The charter will likely need small changes during the building of the policy tree. Another vote will be held at the completion of the policy tree to fully ratify the charter.

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Quick summary of significant changes since last time:

• Change in the numbering system to make it clearer which sections and sub-sections of Articles are related.
• Reworded the definition of "Abuse of Power" for clarity.
• Added a definition for "Secondary Site" and changed most references to "The Site" to "The Site and Secondary Sites".
• Removed "in no particular order of priority" from 3.1.
• Added UX elements to 3.1.5.
• Removed "any kind" from 4.1.1.
• Changed "moral" to "ethical" in 4.1.3.
• Expanded 4.1.5 to encompass any harm to users instead of just harassment.
• Added sections 6.1.3 and 6.1.4 to mandate that staff are responsible for the maintenance and monitoring of Secondary Sites (such as the sandbox), forums, guides, essays, etc. Moved the subsections of 6.1 accordingly.
• Clarified that 7.1.1 applies to a free media license.
• Added 9.1.4 to make it clear that staff are to provide news/updates to the community
• Reworded 10.4.1 to lower the burden on staff. "does not cause significant loss" has been changed to "causes minimal loss".
• Reworded 11.1 to make it clear that staff should be recruited from members in good standing.
• Clarified that 16.1 requires both 16.1.1 and 16.1.2 to be met.
• Various formatting changes without effect on the content.

NOTES:

Specifics on all of the following are deliberately not in the charter and will instead be defined by later policy:

• teams
• anything about staff structure (captains, admins, moderators, OS, JS any of that)
• voting systems, including quorum, majority, inactivity/reserve
• exactly what situations democratic decision making is inappropriate in (Article 13.5)
• recruitment as a formal process
• how Article 7 (Collaboration) and Article 8 (Creator Rights) conflict and how to handle that, e.g. what we do if people want to delete articles that other articles depend upon
• most things that are actually detailed or spell out a process. This document is a why, not a how.

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This text is the collective work of:

• Alexander Roberts does not match any existing user name
• DrBleep
• Cassandra_Prime does not match any existing user name
• Jacob Conwell
• Meserach
• OptimisticLucio
• torcsandantlers
• Yossipossi

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THE VOTE

Read the document below carefully in its entirety.

Then answer the following question:

Do you provisionally accept (but not formally ratify) this text as the text of the new charter, and endorse the construction of a policy tree that builds upon it?

||~ YES ||~ NO||
||  ||  ||

This vote is open to Operational Staff and above and will close in one week from this posting:

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CHARTER TEXT

CHAPTER 1: DEFINITIONS

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Article 1 (Definitions)

1.1 The following terms are hereby defined:

Abuse of Power. Violating the purpose and principles as laid out in Chapter 2, by means of staff power.
The Charter. This document, as ratified and amended by staff.
The Community. All individuals who interact with SCP-related media in any meaningful capacity, whether actively or passively.
Contributor. Any creator who posts media, of any format, to the SCP Wiki.
Creator. Any individual who creates media, of any format, about or for the SCP Wiki.
Member, General. Refers to any individual who has a membership on the SCP Wiki, but does not hold a staff position.
Member, Staff. Any individual among the group of volunteers who formally maintain and improve the Site’s functionality. Their membership, powers, responsibilities, and procedures are governed by this document (the Charter) and policy documents.
Offsite Communities. Any community aside from the SCP Wiki or its official chat platforms that centers around interacting with SCP-related media in any meaningful capacity.
Policy. Any written rules, procedures or regulations that contribute to the function of the site, which have been implemented by staff to achieve the goals described in this charter.
Reader. Any individual who reads or otherwise consumes works posted on the SCP Wiki, regardless of member status.
Secondary Site. Any website owned or maintained by the SCP Wiki other than The Site.
The Site / The Wiki. The SCP Wiki, the website upon which works drawing on the shared fiction of the “SCP Foundation”, and the fictional universe around it, are posted, stored, read, rated, critiqued and otherwise interacted with.
Staff Powers. Powers or abilities granted to members of staff that are not available to general members of the site.

CHAPTER 2: PURPOSES AND PRINCIPLES

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Article 2 (Purposes)

2.1 The purposes of Staff are to, through reasonable effort:

2.1.1 …maintain and improve The Site and Secondary Sites on behalf of the Community, as described in Article 3;
2.1.2 …ensure the safety of all members of the Community, as described in Article 4;
2.1.3 …model, promulgate and enforce standards of conduct amongst Staff and Members, as described in Article 5;
2.1.4 …keep the quality of work on the Site at a standard that satisfies the Community, as described in Article 6;
2.1.5 …encourage a culture of collaboration, as described in Article 7;
2.1.6 …assert and protect the rights of Creators, as described in Article 8;
2.1.7 …assist the off-site Community in their activities when such assistance is welcome and proper, as described in Article 9.

Article 3 (Maintenance)

3.1 Maintenance will be conducted regularly by Staff to ensure:

3.1.1 …The Site and Secondary Sites remain functional for users to the best of staff’s capabilities;
3.1.2 …Extant features remain usable to the best of Staff’s capabilities;
3.1.3 …Additional features are added as needed to improve site functionality;
3.1.4 …Defunct/unused features are removed as needed to improve site functionality;
3.1.5 …Staff will strive to improve site function, accessibility, usability, navigation, and discoverability in response to user feedback.

Article 4 (Safety)

4.1 Staff shall strive to:

4.1.1 …keep The Site, Secondary Sites, and Community free of harassment;
4.1.2 …keep The Site, Secondary Sites, and Community free from bigotry and discrimination in all its forms, including but not limited to discrimination on basis of disability, ethnicity, gender, nationality, race, religion, or sexuality;
4.1.3 …protect the personal information of site members, including but not limited to: age, name, and location, in accordance with legal and ethical obligations;
4.1.4 …protect the Community from other forms of abuse (as defined by policy);
4.1.5 …internally monitor its procedures and members to ensure that its systems may not be used to harm users;
4.1.6 …prevent and remedy Abuses of Power by staff through disciplinary systems.

Article 5 (Conduct)

5.1 Staff will facilitate a code of conduct to:

5.1.1 …Ensure all Site Members, both General and Staff, are treated in a respectful manner;
5.1.2 …Ensure proper and responsible use of Staff Power, in keeping with both site policy and the principles of this charter;
5.1.3 …Take measures to improve standards of conduct, via moderation and disciplinary action, when existent conduct falls short of these standards.

Article 6 (Content Quality Standards)

6.1 Staff will work to ensure content quality standards by:

6.1.1 …Implementing and maintaining assessment and feedback systems that allow general members to express their opinions;
6.1.2 …Encouraging and providing a space for community feedback to allow content creators to improve content to meet community standards;
6.1.3 …Providing and maintaining spaces where users may experiment, create, and review apart from The Site;
6.1.4 …Providing and maintaining examples, guides, or essays on how to create high quality content;
6.1.5 …Removing low quality content using accepted staff procedures and systems, guided primarily by the opinions of general members.;
6.1.6 …Encouraging and highlighting high quality content.

Article 7 (Collaboration)

7.1 Staff will enable collaboration and a creative environment through:

7.1.1 …use and enforcement of an appropriate free media license;
7.1.2 …limited overrule of Creator self-determination in interest of protection of the commons.

Article 8 (Creator Rights)

8.1 Staff will uphold the rights of Creators by:

8.1.1 …giving site Contributors wide power to decide what happens to their works, with limited exceptions (as defined by policy);
8.1.2 …enforcement of an appropriate free media license and defense against misuse of site works - e.g. non-attribution;
8.1.3 …ensuring that all content posted to The Site, including the original source of derivative works, is compliant with the terms of the appropriate site license.

Article 9 (Community Outreach)

9.1 Staff will:

9.1.1 …participate in, assist in, and facilitate cooperation with international branches and sister sites;
9.1.2 …cooperate with staff from international branches on situations and policies relevant to both staffs, or requiring the assistance of the other;
9.1.3 …participate in, assist in, and facilitate cooperation with key off-site communities.
9.1.4 …provide information regarding Site events, major Site changes, and changes in Site governance to the community.

CHAPTER 3: STAFF STRUCTURE AND MEMBERSHIP

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Article 10 (Structure)

10.1 The structure of Staff is to be determined by the members of Staff. This structure should be arranged so that it best serves the purposes laid out in this Charter.

10.1.1 Staff powers and responsibilities may be delegated amongst individual members of staff or groups of members to fulfill their roles.

10.2 The structure of Staff is to be:

10.2.1 …regulated by Policy;
10.2.2 …enacted via the delegation of powers and responsibilities to specific Staff members or groups thereof;
10.2.3 …where appropriate, enacted via the application of permissions or roles within software on The Site to specific staff members or groups thereof.

10.3 Staff structure will:

10.3.1 …allow for voluntarily leaving Staff or a voluntary reduction in responsibilities according to policies set forth by Staff;
10.3.2 …allow for the removal of individuals from Staff as a whole, or from any position within Staff structure designated by Policy, in accordance with Policy.

10.4 The structure of Staff should not depend solely upon the knowledge or ability of a single staff member.

10.4.1 Staff should be structured so that the loss of individual staff members causes minimal loss of knowledge or ability in staff function.

Article 11 (Recruitment)

11.1 Staff are to be recruited from amongst members in good standing within the community.

11.2 Recruitment is to be performed by Staff, and Staff Membership should be decided upon by other Staff Members.

CHAPTER 4: DECISION-MAKING

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Article 12 (Policy)

12.1 Policy should be formed, edited and implemented via a mixture of executive and democratic decision-making.

Article 13 (Executive Decision-Making)

13.1 Executive decision-making power should:

13.1.1 …be vested in Staff who have been vetted and approved by democratic process, or delegated to others by such vested members.
13.1.2 …be constrained in scope for each staff member.
13.1.3 …be subject to democratic overrule.
13.1.4 …be accountable, documented, transparent, and held to the highest conduct standards.
13.1.5 …be used in situations where democratic decision-making would be inappropriate (as defined by policy).

Article 14 (Democratic Decision-Making)

14.1 Democratic decision-making should:

14.1.1 …have quorum, majority and time requirements suitable to prevent minority rule.
14.1.2 …have quorum, majority and time requirements that ensure decision-making is done with reasonable speed.
14.1.3 …be accountable, documented, transparent, and held to the highest conduct standards.
14.1.4 …be regulated by policy set forth by staff via previously established democratic process.

CHAPTER 5: RATIFYING AND AMENDING THIS CHARTER

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Article 15 (Ratification)

15.1 Ratification of this charter may be accomplished:

15.1.1 …Following a review period of one month by staff and the community at large.
15.1.2 …By simple majority Staff vote occurring after the aforementioned review period.

Article 16 (Amendments)

16.1 Amendments to this charter may only be made when all of the following conditions are met:

16.1.1 …During the annual review period. This period of review will be from January 1st to January 31st;
16.1.2 …By simple majority staff vote.

Last edited on 04 Jul 2022 22:14 by DrBleep Show more

Re: [Vote] - Provisional Site Conceptual Charter Vote

Yossipossi 04 Jul 2022 22:28

YES	NO
X

Re: [Vote] - Provisional Site Conceptual Charter Vote

Meserach 04 Jul 2022 22:30

YES	NO
X

Re: [Vote] - Provisional Site Conceptual Charter Vote

ManyMeats 04 Jul 2022 22:31

YES	NO
X

Re: [Vote] - Provisional Site Conceptual Charter Vote

Prime Girl 04 Jul 2022 22:31

YES	NO
: )

Re: [Vote] - Provisional Site Conceptual Charter Vote

Zyn 05 Jul 2022 05:28

YES	NO
εїз

Re: [Vote] - Provisional Site Conceptual Charter Vote

WhiteGuard 05 Jul 2022 05:36

YES	NO
X

Re: [Vote] - Provisional Site Conceptual Charter Vote

Jerden 05 Jul 2022 05:40

YES	NO
X

Re: [Vote] - Provisional Site Conceptual Charter Vote

The Pighead 05 Jul 2022 07:41

YES	NO
X

Re: [Vote] - Provisional Site Conceptual Charter Vote

EstrellaYoshte 05 Jul 2022 09:19

YES	NO
Y

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