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Post by WildKnight on Oct 20, 2013 8:53:59 GMT -5
I'm back now and all that good stuff. I apparently need to go check out the new dice roller and get myself competent with that.
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Post by takewithfood on Oct 20, 2013 15:52:15 GMT -5
As promised, WK has been Adminificated. Thank you WK for taking on the responsibility. ^__^
~TWF
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Post by Dhark on Oct 20, 2013 16:40:37 GMT -5
Oh lord...
Detroit just suffered a huge electrical storm in wake of WK's promotion...
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Post by WildKnight on Oct 20, 2013 18:13:54 GMT -5
... I couldn't even have been the new He-Man, rather than the clearly homosexual 80's version?
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Post by Brainstem on Oct 20, 2013 18:41:02 GMT -5
If the shoe fits...
For what it's worth, we have a whole TON of mods because people were given moderator power over their specific game threads (so they could lock, hide, and create new subboards), but there was no real way to distinguish between the moderators of that sort and the moderators of the more general sort. If we want to clear up the number of unnecessary moderators, I would suggest tying one moderator to each Board (General, Write-Ups, Online Roleplay, Resources, and Off Topic). Admins could then do the admin-specific work while the moderators, well... moderate. The Online Roleplay board would likely need a handful of moderators due to the potential workload (opening new games, setting up folders, and locking/moving things when the GM needs it to be done) on whoever runs that part of the board, whereas the others should be fine with one. We had a system somewhat along these lines originally, but the board has become so saturated with moderators that it kind of dissolved. Looking at the boards as they are now, it seems that the admins (Rushlock and i3ullseye) were in charge of General, Online Roleplay (although I also remember a decent amount of implied delegation), and Off Topic, DK had Write Ups, and I had Resources.
Also, would it be possible to add a captcha on registration? That may help to curb the spammers.
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Post by takewithfood on Oct 20, 2013 19:18:41 GMT -5
... I couldn't even have been the new He-Man, rather than the clearly homosexual 80's version? What, you mean this one? For what it's worth, we have a whole TON of mods because people were given moderator power over their specific game threads (so they could lock, hide, and create new subboards), but there was no real way to distinguish between the moderators of that sort and the moderators of the more general sort. If we want to clear up the number of unnecessary moderators, I would suggest tying one moderator to each Board (General, Write-Ups, Online Roleplay, Resources, and Off Topic). Admins could then do the admin-specific work while the moderators, well... moderate. The Online Roleplay board would likely need a handful of moderators due to the potential workload (opening new games, setting up folders, and locking/moving things when the GM needs it to be done) on whoever runs that part of the board, whereas the others should be fine with one. We had a system somewhat along these lines originally, but the board has become so saturated with moderators that it kind of dissolved. Looking at the boards as they are now, it seems that the admins (Rushlock and i3ullseye) were in charge of General, Online Roleplay (although I also remember a decent amount of implied delegation), and Off Topic, DK had Write Ups, and I had Resources. I think the problem here is that you can't really assign a moderator to a specific forum. The way things are set up, if you have GM or Acolyte powers, you seem to have them across the board, regardless of who is assigned to what forum or category. And that setting can't be altered by admins - only the user who created the board in the first place can do that. Not sure if that's Rushlock or i3ullseye. Also, would it be possible to add a captcha on registration? That may help to curb the spammers. This is something I'd like, too, but I don't see a plugin or admin feature that I can enable to make it happen. I'll take a deeper look into the idea, though. ~TWF
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Post by Brainstem on Oct 20, 2013 19:33:15 GMT -5
For what it's worth, we have a whole TON of mods because people were given moderator power over their specific game threads (so they could lock, hide, and create new subboards), but there was no real way to distinguish between the moderators of that sort and the moderators of the more general sort. If we want to clear up the number of unnecessary moderators, I would suggest tying one moderator to each Board (General, Write-Ups, Online Roleplay, Resources, and Off Topic). Admins could then do the admin-specific work while the moderators, well... moderate. The Online Roleplay board would likely need a handful of moderators due to the potential workload (opening new games, setting up folders, and locking/moving things when the GM needs it to be done) on whoever runs that part of the board, whereas the others should be fine with one. We had a system somewhat along these lines originally, but the board has become so saturated with moderators that it kind of dissolved. Looking at the boards as they are now, it seems that the admins (Rushlock and i3ullseye) were in charge of General, Online Roleplay (although I also remember a decent amount of implied delegation), and Off Topic, DK had Write Ups, and I had Resources. I think the problem here is that you can't really assign a moderator to a specific forum. The way things are set up, if you have GM or Acolyte powers, you seem to have them across the board, regardless of who is assigned to what forum or category. And that setting can't be altered by admins - only the user who created the board in the first place can do that. Not sure if that's Rushlock or i3ullseye. ~TWF Right. So what I'm getting at is maybe we shouldn't make a person a moderator whenever they start a game. With the general attrition rate of games on this board, it just makes for a cluttered leadership. It doesn't really have any impact on how we function, but it can create confusion for new members when they see that nearly everybody has mod powers. If there's an issue, then, they'll either come directly to the admins (which really isn't the admin function unless absolutely necessary), go to the wrong person (be that some other random person who is the GM of another game), or they'll fail to report whatever the issue happens to be. When it comes to the Online Roleplay board, in particular (because, let's face it, that's the board that'll need the most moderating), it will also help to curb things a bit. A dedicated group of game approvers will make sure games are approved and set up in a consistent manner. Likewise, having a few moderator or two whose job is to sift through games that have died off (similar to what Janus has been doing, but possibly with more frequency), the board will get majorly cleaned up. When assigning a moderator to a specific forum, I mean more along the lines of giving them mod powers over the boards in each forum and, because these are the only moderators, there should be a mutual understanding amongst them not to step on anyone else's toes. EDIT: You know, I actually just looked at the Staff and there aren't nearly as many as I thought there were.
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Post by WildKnight on Oct 20, 2013 19:47:43 GMT -5
I love that video (and the original version of that song)
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Post by takewithfood on Oct 20, 2013 19:49:40 GMT -5
I think the problem here is that you can't really assign a moderator to a specific forum. The way things are set up, if you have GM or Acolyte powers, you seem to have them across the board, regardless of who is assigned to what forum or category. And that setting can't be altered by admins - only the user who created the board in the first place can do that. Not sure if that's Rushlock or i3ullseye. ~TWF Right. So what I'm getting at is maybe we shouldn't make a person a moderator whenever they start a game. With the general attrition rate of games on this board, it just makes for a cluttered leadership. It doesn't really have any impact on how we function, but it can create confusion for new members when they see that nearly everybody has mod powers. If there's an issue, then, they'll either come directly to the admins (which really isn't the admin function unless absolutely necessary), go to the wrong person (be that some other random person who is the GM of another game), or they'll fail to report whatever the issue happens to be. When it comes to the Online Roleplay board, in particular (because, let's face it, that's the board that'll need the most moderating), it will also help to curb things a bit. A dedicated group of game approvers will make sure games are approved and set up in a consistent manner. Likewise, having a few moderator or two whose job is to sift through games that have died off (similar to what Janus has been doing, but possibly with more frequency), the board will get majorly cleaned up. When assigning a moderator to a specific forum, I mean more along the lines of giving them mod powers over the boards in each forum and, because these are the only moderators, there should be a mutual understanding amongst them not to step on anyone else's toes. EDIT: You know, I actually just looked at the Staff and there aren't nearly as many as I thought there were. Yeah, I'm with you. What I still want to know is what powers the "GM" group has that regular members don't. I guess I'll just have to create some dummy accounts to test it out. Because once a board is made, a GM really just needs to be able to move, un/sticky, un/lock, and delete threads in order to carry on with their game. If basic members can do that, then great, the vast majority of members are fine as they are. I think board cleanup should be in only one person's hands at a time, as it's easy to get wires crossed, screw up, and delete or otherwise lose something accidentally. I hate the thought of a game going up in smoke; anything we can do to prevent/minimize the possibility should be a top priority. Actually, since Janus is away at least for the time being, I don't mind doing some cleanup if everyone's cool with that. I've done it before, and as someone with mild OCPD, I find it rather soothing. lol ~TWF
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Post by Brainstem on Oct 20, 2013 19:58:49 GMT -5
As long as you don't mind doing admin work and mod work, of course!
When it comes to board cleanup, I would think you may only need someone in there in the first wave of checks (in case there are a lot of boards). After that, if a moderator does a quick once-over every quarter, things should be fine. I'm not a huge fan of just outright deleting the games, as they do sometimes hold a lot of memories. I know I've used my mod powers to hide my own games, rather than deleting them, so I can go back and revisit them later on. The way Janus has been doing it is fine (posting in OOC threads for games that haven't updated in a while to see what's up), it may just be helpful to do it a little more frequently. It doesn't take a year to realize your game's gone south, you know?
It would be interesting to see what, specifically, the GMs can do that normal posters can't do. Is there any way to simply create a new class of Staff that would apply to GMs? Something that could give them just the stickying, shuffling, and other such powers? Or is that already what's happening? I haven't actually created a new game board in a while, so I don't really recall, but I do remember putting users' names into a blank space.
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Post by takewithfood on Oct 20, 2013 20:16:00 GMT -5
As long as you don't mind doing admin work and mod work, of course! When it comes to board cleanup, I would think you may only need someone in there in the first wave of checks (in case there are a lot of boards). After that, if a moderator does a quick once-over every quarter, things should be fine. I'm not a huge fan of just outright deleting the games, as they do sometimes hold a lot of memories. I know I've used my mod powers to hide my own games, rather than deleting them, so I can go back and revisit them later on. The way Janus has been doing it is fine (posting in OOC threads for games that haven't updated in a while to see what's up), it may just be helpful to do it a little more frequently. It doesn't take a year to realize your game's gone south, you know? Yeah, the way I do cleanup goes roughly like this: - go down the list and make a list of all the games that haven't had a post in them for at least a month.
- poke around in those games: check the date of the last IC posts, take a look at the most recent OOC posts to get an idea of what, if anything, is going on
- check if the GM is even active
- post the list of games that seem to be stalled in the "Bring Out Your Dead" thread
- PM the GMs to let them know that their board has been flagged for cleanup; ask them what they'd like done with it
- if the GM is AWOL or doesn't respond within about a week, I just hide the board; I also send out PMs to the players to let them know that the game is hidden, not deleted, but suggest that now is a good time to save any game material (favourite posts, CADs, etc)
- if the GM responds and says the game is dead, I re/send PMs to the players with a final reminder that the game is going to go, and it's time to clean out your desks, give it some time, then (carefully) delete the board
It's a lot of work, but I'm picky and sentimental, and really, really hate the idea of stuff disappearing without adequate warning. I've lost some CADs that I would have loved to save. *sniffle*
It would be interesting to see what, specifically, the GMs can do that normal posters can't do. Is there any way to simply create a new class of Staff that would apply to GMs? Something that could give them just the stickying, shuffling, and other such powers? Or is that already what's happening? I haven't actually created a new game board in a while, so I don't really recall, but I do remember putting users' names into a blank space. We can't alter or create new kinds of staff, sadly. But I'll do some experiments when I get a chance this week (with luck, tomorrow) to see if I can figure out exactly what each group can do. And I'll post my report here. ~TWF
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Post by shenron on Oct 20, 2013 21:02:40 GMT -5
Ya, all this sounds good. Congrats WK! I am going to try to be around a lot more and help out where I can. I miss being on here and talking to people and helping with the boards. I think takewithfood has the right idea about cleanup too.
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Post by Manah on Oct 20, 2013 22:52:54 GMT -5
I had a question about this, by the way... Not sure where this is all going (and I don't mind either way), but.... I never saw anything that even hinted at me being able to move/delete/edit anything in the games I'm supposed to be a Moderator of. As I said, I don't mind having the ability or not, but if I do... how do I do it?
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Post by Dhark on Oct 21, 2013 0:01:59 GMT -5
... I couldn't even have been the new He-Man, rather than the clearly homosexual 80's version? Don't forget incestuous (see the He-Man/She-Rah Christmas Movie/Special for some scary ambiguity). I had a question about this, by the way... Not sure where this is all going (and I don't mind either way), but.... I never saw anything that even hinted at me being able to move/delete/edit anything in the games I'm supposed to be a Moderator of. As I said, I don't mind having the ability or not, but if I do... how do I do it? Likewise. I think when peeps first realized who I was when I returned to the boards and created this account, they made me a GM (hence my title) with intent to have such abilities... but I've got zero "powers" at all. I cannot even create subboards in a game created for me by a person that DOES have powers. #useless titles
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Post by Manah on Oct 21, 2013 0:06:28 GMT -5
Oooh, so it's kinda like "Hey... you're our new Official Leading Operatives Officer." "Oh, sweet! What does it mean in terms of changes compared to a non-Official whatever-you-said?" "Well, nothing. You do have a cool title, though." "........"
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