1. An explanation as to why there is disconcert between the staff and the community
2. How the reporting and decision making system will be changed
3. Why Ashikoki?
[SIZE="4"]An explanation as to why there is disconcert between the staff and the community:[/SIZE]
First lets talk about the most frequently heard complaint: the moderators. There have been numerous accusations of the staff playing favorites. Allow me to dispel these rumors by showing you how flawed our current system of moderation works.
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When a member makes a report on a post, it is turned in to an automated thread by nationbot. We view these threads, which includes the report, the post in question, and other details. Currently, the moderators simply look at the report, decide if it is in violation of the rules, and take appropriate actions.
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This is where things go horribly awry. In this example, a member of nation reported Lewd (our case volunteer) for being rude. The staff had taken proper steps to infract Lewd, and he now has 5 infraction points that will expire on September. Our vBulletin forum engine will autoban members who have reached 10 infraction points, and assuming that a member is not on a destructive rampage, we do not issue bans outside of this automated infraction system.
To Nation Member A, however, it looks as if nothing has changed. Lewd is still here the next day, and Nation Member A has no idea whether or not his report has been heard. Now it looks like Lewd has gotten away with breaking the rules. But whenever Nation Member A breaks a rule, he is given an infraction. How unfair is it, from that member's point of view? Doubts of the staff's ability to be impartial or not play favorites begins to arise.
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Here is the other problem. A large number of reports, according to our forum guidelines, are false positives. So they are simply ignored. This leave a lot of ambiguity, both for the reporter and the moderators.
The staff aren't incompetent, biased, or playing favorites. They're just without leadership, organization, and have not been communicating to the other members (and to each other) properly. They're really nice people, but being nice has its costs. They were probably afraid to overstep their boundaries or take the initiative. And that's where the admin comes in.
[SIZE="4"]How the reporting and decision making system will be changed:[/SIZE]
The nationbot reports threads can be tagged "IN PROGRESS" and "RESOLVED". This will mean doubling the current staff's work, but I want absolutely every single reports tagged one or the other from this point on, even if the reported post does not break any rules.
The moderator who takes care of a case will log both their reasoning and decision on the thread, and then follow up with the reporter in a private message explaining exactly that. If the moderator decided to take action, we will let you know. If the moderator decides there was no violation of the rules, we will let you know that. If you requested a thread lock, and its obvious that we listened since your thread is locked, you can still expect a private message from us confirming this.
If by any chance you are dissatisfied with the results, you must report the private message sent to you by the moderator and voice yourself. When we receive this, we'll tag the report as "IN PROGRESS", and discuss the decision with the rest of the staff. Remember that not every staff can be always on, so you'll have to be patient and wait about a day before hearing back on the second ruling.
Like I mentioned before, the moderators follow the global rules. They might agree with your opinion that someone is being spammy or a jackass, but if they haven't broken those global rules, the moderator cannot act on it. If you are discontent with the global rules, you can propose those rules be changed in the mabination discussion section. This also goes for staff members. From now on, we discuss rule changes in the open, rather than behind closed doors.
That about wraps up my plans to change nation. They're not actually changes to the community or the community rules, but I'm constructing a system of communication for the staff to better the relationship between the members and the moderators. So far, everything I've proposed here is not set in motion until there is enough positive feedback. You are free to criticize, challenge, and modify these ideas in this thread, and I will take it all in to consideration.