After two very fruitful threads of discussion, we're finally to the point of crafting an actual proposal for team structure as well as reformatting of moderation rules for the discord space itself.
Part One: Clarification & Additions to the Discord Rules
tl;dr: Rules have been condensed slightly for similar rules, and rule 7 has been reworded to request the /callmod action rather than pinging individuals or user moderation directly. That being said, 'back-seat moderating' is not explicitly a rule here, as a) if someone is legitimately trying to act in the manner of a moderator (to the point where it's causing issues) then it's already covered under other rules and b) it is not a major issue for the server as a whole currently, as most users are perfectly capable of pushing back against bigoted behavior without crossing the line to staff impersonation. We have also codified the rules against bigoted statements and joke pronouns.
Part Two: Staff Restructure
Several important issues were noted, but most critical are the following:
- Discord Staff is Site Staff, and needs to follow Site Staff structures, expectations, and guidelines.
- Discord Staff is a Disciplinary team, and requires the same transparency and record-keeping measures for violations and bans as Disciplinary.
- Moderation needs to follow set guidelines for rule enforcement and escalations that are enforced as consistently as possible.
- Recruitment needs to happen more frequently in order to minimize burn out and distribute workload properly, and an audit of active moderators needs to take place.
In order to meet these needs, the following is proposed:
- Restructuring of the Discord team to follow the more typical Team Composition:
- Captain(s): Two OS or Admin level staff (one heading Moderation sub-team, one heading Documentation/Bot Maintenance sub team).
- Vice Captain(s): Two or Three OS or Admin level staff, (working as seconds for the sub-teams, in particular Documentation as Yossi really handles the bots directly).
- Members/Moderators: OS-level staff members who have established a clear understanding of the rules and moderator actions. With enough active numbers, Moderators can specialize to one of the two sub-teams but this is not a strict expectation so much as an option for folks who are more comfortable with one role than the other.
- Junior Members/Moderators: JS-level staff members and new recruits who have applied to join the team and are learning the structure and moderator actions. Junior Moderators are expected to support both sub-teams.
- As the server admins currently number more than the necessary captains, there will obviously need to be decisions made to restructure. While I fully admit that I do not have a perfect answer for this process, I do believe that it is a decision to be made by the Site Admins who would normally decide leadership roles, along with (hopefully) input from the active moderation team). This would go hand in hand with the activity audit which I suggest to be a simple survey of individuals (via Discord DM) to see who is still active and willing to continue as moderators, then a monthly check by Captains/VCs to ensure reasonable activity.
- Captains and Vice Captains will work to establish a decision tree guideline for moderation decisions made in the server, although with the understanding that each decision is discussed in moderation chat as situations arise. Any warning, kick, or ban will require at least two moderators signing off (although utilizing mutes to deescalate situations can and should be done by any present moderator), as well as a listing of the rules violated with examples as relevant. While the ban information should be conveyed to the user via Mnemosyne.aic, a secondary record on O5 will be maintained by the Documentation staff for transparency. As it currently stands, no Discord mechanics (permissions, roles, etc) would need to change, this would just be an internal change for the team to have tasks to focus on which would ensure a smoother operation.
- Ongoing recruitment efforts will be engaged rather than keeping strictly to the promotion cycle for site staff in order to bring in enough bodies to moderate a busy server. The open application will follow a structure similar to what Ori describes here and has worked out with Prime, although moderator promotions from Junior level onward will follow the site promotion cycle (as it does with most teams). This will remove the current voting structure for onboarding new moderators, but will allow for server and staff input for promotions moving forward.
While the decision tree will likely take some time to codify completely, a standardization of decisions and transparency in record keeping should go a long way to restoring trust in the team as well as giving the Discord staff a bit of support by establishing a solid procedure ahead of time.
I recognize this is my first attempt at policy, so I'm hoping to get helpful feedback (particularly for places that I may have assumed clarity of purpose but not listed it as carefully as I should have). If there are no further additions or clarifications needed, I hope that we will be able to vote on this in the upcoming weeks, and get this show on the road!