How do we get new/different staff members?

[Lilaena De'Ville]

There isn't really a delicate way of putting this, so please don't be offended or take this personally, it is not intended in that fashion.

I think we have staff members who are just filling seats and not doing anything. Miranda/Dani, and Jedi Master Carr are the ones that come to mind. Dani has been busy with work and new family and so hasn't been on the boards enough to post let alone do any staff business. Carr doesn't do any moderating at all, unless I'm missing something, and hasn't for quite some time. Even sticking threads for football pick day would be something he (or any staff member) could be doing, but it doesn't get done.

I'm also very concerned at the lack of admin support from Ogre those days. Do we need to address this? What if he just doesn't show up again?

[Morgan Evanar]

Chris is around, he just does not post actively.

As for Dani and Carr, I feel you make fair points.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

So do we have to vote for removal or...? And new staff members...? In the past I think the current staff sort of picks someone? Should we do nominations (with chances for the nominated to bow out) and then let the staff pick from that list?

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

I do know that Dani has been wanting to come back, but has found herself a bit daunted by the prospect, if that makes sense. She's not sure about how to pick up with her characters.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

So she's an active board moderator then, just not posting IC? I don't think posting IC is a requirement of fulfilling mod duties.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Well it's like you said; she's been busy with family stuff and work, but desiring to come back. I was just giving information that I knew. I cannot speak for Carr, however.

[TheHolo.Net]

A staff refresh/update is probably a good idea, though with the low level of activity I have seen over the last few months I doubt there is much true need.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

One might argue that a fresh perspective on staff might bring more enthusiasm and activity.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Do you have suggestions for who those fresh new faces might be?

[Lilaena De'Ville]

I thought perhaps opening it up for nominations by the membership. The point of this thread was asking how we go about doing it, and/or if other people thought it was a good idea.

[Captain Untouchable]

I think part of the "problem" might be clarity and visibility. A lot of what the Staff does seems to take place behind the scenes: from the outaide observer, it's all too easy for the Staff doing things covertly to perhaps seem like they aren't doing things at all. For all we know, the Staff could be endlessly busy with all manner of complicated things, but all we have to go on is whether or not image claims get processed, and things like that. Communication is a big part of that: the Staff makes carefully worded announcements occasionally, but the track record for keeping people in the loop when issues are being discussed or handled by the Staff behind the scenes is sometimes a little sketchy. Better communication when stuff is done would help with the invisibility problem.

It's also not completely clear what the difference between (for example) Jenny the Admin and Andrew the Mod. It's hard to know if an issue is something that can be dealt with by person A or if it needs to go up the chain to person B. Yes, one can ask, but being clear on these sorts of things is an important part of appearing slick and professional. It's a similar story with Group Mods: we don't have the same faction hierarchy that we've had in the past, so aside from being able to edit threads in that forum, what role are they expected to serve?

This is my inner business process analyst talking, but we might be better served firming up what the Staff is "for" before we decide whether or not more are needed.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

I think the staff is there to make things run smoothly, and also to make sure things are actually running - from a technical and content point of view. Take care of the shitheads/spam, check reported posts...but also RP mods should IMO be doing things like running RPer/RP of the month or coming up with a monthly silly RP "goal/badge" to earn. Stuff like that. A hobbies mod would keep relevant threads stickied and bring in content if needed, as well as taking care of the reported posts and such.

RP of the month threads could be stickied for the month, too, that might be cool. But that is neither here nor there.

Rather than having a staff that says "well just holler at me I'm around" I would prefer a more proactive approach.

[Atreyu]

As a former admin (from 12 years ago - yikes!) I concur with Holly's points. Funny thing is, the 'proactive' stuff that Holly talks about used to be done by the mods/admins all the time back around the late 90s/early 00s - it was pretty much a general expectation of the position. Speaking for myself I used to trawl TFN for interesting SW news and post them here to facilitate discussion - it might only have attracted half a dozen responses or so, but it was one way to try and stimulate activity. Other mods/admins did their own thing like hosting/organise the boxoffice contests etc. On the roleplay side of things, even something as simple as keeping an eye on roleplaying developments and sometimes 'bumping' a half-forgotten discussion to help move things along ("Hey guys, you had a good idea here but seems to have died - are we still keen for this? etc).


'Proactive' is the key word. Having to ask the mods/admins to do stuff as simple as sticking the weekly football thread (Holly's example) really shouldn't be necessary.


Of course as the years have rolled on and the board has gotten quieter whilst we've all gotten older and have more things going on in personal life it's probably understandable that expectations have declined on the mod/admin front, and that's ok. Maybe we just need to reinvigorate the idea that a mod/admin is, you know, and actual 'forum leader' and encourage whoever holds those positions to try and actually fulfil that role, rather than just close threads and stuff (if some are already doing more than that - that's fantastic, keep up the good work. ). Thing's like s'Il's recent thread about revamping the main page are good examples of this - mods trying to lead and give inspiration and discussion to try and reinvigorate the board.


Anyways regarding current staff who may be inactive, my suggestion would be a simple, polite message being sent to them just asking that they're going ok and just asking how they see themselves continuing on in their present positions of the board, and if they may want to retire. In Carr's case I know for a fact he's quite active on another boxoffice board yet hasn't posted here in a few months.






(NOTE #1: I exclude Ogre from the above, as 'Mr Holo.Net' I see him as our main 'tech admin' who's responsibility is to keeping the board software chugging along, kind of the same as the techies at TFN.


NOTE #2: usual disclaimer like Holly's above that none of the above is directed at anyone personally and is only general talk - although I visit here once every week/fortnight or so I've barely posted 3 times in the last year )

[Dasquian Belargic]

Although I definitely like the idea of a proactive staff, and I'm not in any way opposed to a restructure, I am not currently seeing - at a glance - anyone who is currently voluntarily doing the kind of stuff you (Holly and Atreyu) have mentioned. To me, people joined the staff roster in the past because they were already creating content, driving discussions, etc. not vice versa (i.e. they didn't become staff members and then start doing that kind of thing.)

Are there people out there who feel like they can't be proactive and do those kinds of things because they don't have the word Moderator in their custom title?

[Lilaena De'Ville]

I don't see the staff doing it, either, which is sort of the point. Personally I have tried to keep stuff going on around the boards in the past, regardless of what my title is, but in the last year or so I've felt that what I've done was unwanted so I stopped. RPer of the month, for instance. I was told to leave it alone, and so I did, and nothing has been done since then.

[Dasquian Belargic]

I'm not suggesting that anyone on the staff is doing that kind of thing. I'm just questioning whether or not giving someone new a moderator position will suddenly dramatically change their posting behavior.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Obviously people who are not moderators cannot be active in keeping relevant threads stickied, etc. I think that yes, becoming a mod would let a person know they have the authority to do things and push things along, and if someone was nominated and didn't think they could participate like that then I guess they'd say so and out themselves out of the running.

[Atreyu]

Dasq, you're right that proactive staff in the past were probably already that way prior to taking on the position. But honestly, you've got to start somewhere. From the way I'm reading this discussion it seems no one is really responsible for anything anywhere (content wise) ... so nothing gets done at all.

People can do these things (RPer of the month etc) without needing a mod title, but if we decide to make such things an actual responsibility of the mod team going forward there's someone that can be followed up with should it not be getting done. Not to mention that mod powers automatically give a much larger range of abilities such as stickying threads etc.

As for who is going to be a mod to do this sort of thing, we'll only know once we throw open nominations for new mods and see who responds. But I think having this stuff clarified first is important so anyone putting their hand up knows what they're volunteering for.



EDIT: I suppose on a related note, what do current staff think of these ideas (in terms of expanded mod responsibilities)? Is Morg (or whoever) happy if we tell him he's now responsible for RPer of the month etc? Any proposed initiatives are going to effect current staff as well as any new ones.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

No one's really answered the question that is in the thread title.

lol on Morg being in charge of RPer of the month.

[TheHolo.Net]

There is no 'set method'. I say make a case, get the user community behind it, and with enough support it will happen.