Changing How the Team Does Things

[Optimus Prime]

Conquer Club Members,

Today I am coming to announce some fairly big changes to how TeamCC is organized and how they do things moving forward. Over the past six to nine months we've been observing how the team works, how things are regarding consistency, and how the general forum membership views the individuals who are volunteering their time. After doing so the admins decided it was time to make some adjustments that we feel will hopefully improve community/TeamCC interaction, improve moderation consistency, and also help provide the community with a more vibrant, active team.

The biggest change is to how the forums are moderated. Before everyone on the team had the ability to moderate the forums (some in their department only, some across the entire forum) and they all had the ability to use the site's disciplinary tools to hand out warnings or bans as necessary. One problem this caused was a lack of consistency as there were simply so many people involved with moderation and it meant that sometimes wires got crossed or various team members were not entirely up to speed on the situation regarding a member.

To change this we've trimmed down the number of people responsible for active moderation by quite a bit. Now, only the designated leader of each department has access to hand down bans or warnings and is responsible for all moderation needs within their department. This takes our moderation pool from nearly 35 all the way down to about 10. Global moderators remain in their previous roles watching over the entire forum index.

At first glance it may seem that this means there will be less coverage for the forum, however, quite the opposite will happen. Each department such as Tournaments or the Foundry for example is made up of a group of multiple volunteers. From these volunteers one individual is designated as the current department leader. This leader can be a long-term position, or the department can decide that they would like to rotate the leader on a set basis if they wish, it is entirely up to that department. While the department leaders are responsible for the reviewing of individual cases and the implementation of necessary bans and warnings, the entire team of volunteers is responsible to keep a watchful eye on the forums and help make sure troublesome spots or users are identified.

We simply wanted to shrink the number of people making the ultimate decisions because we hope that is going to lead to less confusion and a more consistent moderation style.

Now, because of this change to permissions and so forth we have also reorganized the forums that the team uses to coordinate all of its efforts and because of that we now can add and remove volunteers in a much more streamlined process, which means that we can utilize the eager community much more than before. Now, each department is responsible for determining how big their team needs to be and adding to it or taking away from it as necessary. No longer does there need to be a long and involved application process for every single thing with tons of background research and so forth. Departments can operate independently to get their projects done in a way that best fits their style.

This may mean that some departments stay small, but it may also mean that some departments place callouts for temporary volunteers to help with projects or events from time to time, or that they post callouts to find interested people to join their team permanently.

Also with the team forum reorganization we are able to greatly reduce the troubles with team members and account sitting. Now the only volunteers that need to be careful about account sitting are the current department leaders and admins but the other department volunteers can have whomever they wish watch their accounts. Hopefully soon a site improvement will be installed that will allow department leaders and admins the freedom to have whomever they wish watch their accounts as well.

And finally, the ultimate hope is that with this reorganization we will see the relationship between the community members and the team improve over time. Before it was apparent that the community often saw the team as a group of enforcers trying to ruin their fun, but now because the "enforcement" aspect has been removed from a majority of the team they can enjoy their positions, interact with the community, and become "helpful guides" rather than "enforcers."

We are also hoping that with the new independently operating departments we will see an increase in community activities, events, competitions, and all sorts of other things.

Regards,
Conquer Club Admins

[fumandomuerte]

It's always good to be in touch with the community
Good luck!

[Dako]

Nice update about TeamCC - always pleasure to know something is moving there.

[Ace Rimmer]

Thanks OP! Nice to have the relaxed sitting feature for the volunteer mods.

[john9blue]

Nice... we'll see how this goes I guess.

[Frankly, my dear]

I love you.

[mibi]

smart move, banning tools should be admin only if possible. You can also employ volunteers as 'spotters' who have no mod ability but call dubious threads to the attention of mods.

[ender516]

This plan seems sound. Let's review the results in three to six months to see if the goals are accomplished.

[natty dread]

Sounds good to me.

[Rocketry]

A step in the right direction I think, optimus. I'll be interested to see how effective it is!

Rocket.

[cena-rules]

Does the department leader stuff relate to chat as well?

[Night Strike]

Does the department leader stuff relate to chat as well?

Don't worry, all the chat mods can still kick you out.

[cena-rules]

Does the department leader stuff relate to chat as well?

Don't worry, all the chat mods can still kick you out.

Either way, its really pointless in chat because you can keep coming back. Forumwise its fine, but expect fireworks when chat spammers get wind of this

[Optimus Prime]

Does the department leader stuff relate to chat as well?

Don't worry, all the chat mods can still kick you out.

Either way, its really pointless in chat because you can keep coming back. Forumwise its fine, but expect fireworks when chat spammers get wind of this

Live Chat is a different entity than the forum and all chat moderators still retain the ability to kick people out of chat.

[cena-rules]

Does the department leader stuff relate to chat as well?

Don't worry, all the chat mods can still kick you out.

Either way, its really pointless in chat because you can keep coming back. Forumwise its fine, but expect fireworks when chat spammers get wind of this

Live Chat is a different entity than the forum and all chat moderators still retain the ability to kick people out of chat.

And to ban?

[AndyDufresne]

Live Chat does have some changes to it, but the Live Chat Volunteers will be able to conduct actions as necessary.

smart move, banning tools should be admin only if possible. You can also employ volunteers as 'spotters' who have no mod ability but call dubious threads to the attention of mods.

Right. Essentially, with the Report a Post Feature---we have a whole forum of spotters, and non-Dept Leader Volunteers utilize the same tools and can act as those spotters, and call attention to issues to Global Mods and Dept. Leaders who are impacted.


--Andy

[JoshyBoy]

TeamCC, I applaud you. Great work.

[Twill]

Good stuff!

[lackattack]

Hey, it's Twill !!!

[cena-rules]

Big thanks to lack for taking suggestions from us live chat folk tonight, he really impressed us all. Shows your job is never to big to put you above the public

[mibi]

Live Chat does have some changes to it, but the Live Chat Volunteers will be able to conduct actions as necessary.

smart move, banning tools should be admin only if possible. You can also employ volunteers as 'spotters' who have no mod ability but call dubious threads to the attention of mods.

Right. Essentially, with the Report a Post Feature---we have a whole forum of spotters, and non-Dept Leader Volunteers utilize the same tools and can act as those spotters, and call attention to issues to Global Mods and Dept. Leaders who are impacted.


--Andy

Impacted? ew....

[killmanic]

Speaking as a former mod, this idea is horrible. While I was a mod there were countless occasions where the forum was getting trolled and no mod could stop them, as complete mod powers were different back then, and limited to just a few as it will be now. The best we could do is provide band-aids to the wounds caused by the trolls. This new plan is reverting back to the old system one that harms the customers. The way I see it this is a way for the admins to get more free labor. This way they no longer need to provide many people with the access to the mod forums, only the head mods. By doing so they can allow people with questionable records to become mods as most mods will no longer have any real power or access to secret information. This means that now people such people as jefjef or colton may become the newest mods. Frankly, this seems insane to me that such people would ever have a chance at becoming a mod, and now they do. If you thought that mods abused their power before, it will be worse now that there is no screening for a mod assuming they are good enough friends with the head mod of that area

[Optimus Prime]

Speaking as a former mod, this idea is horrible. While I was a mod there were countless occasions where the forum was getting trolled and no mod could stop them, as complete mod powers were different back then, and limited to just a few as it will be now. The best we could do is provide band-aids to the wounds caused by the trolls. This new plan is reverting back to the old system one that harms the customers. The way I see it this is a way for the admins to get more free labor. This way they no longer need to provide many people with the access to the mod forums, only the head mods. By doing so they can allow people with questionable records to become mods as most mods will no longer have any real power or access to secret information. This means that now people such people as jefjef or colton may become the newest mods. Frankly, this seems insane to me that such people would ever have a chance at becoming a mod, and now they do. If you thought that mods abused their power before, it will be worse now that there is no screening for a mod assuming they are good enough friends with the head mod of that area

Your idea of what will happen using this new organization is incredibly extreme. I believe that the leader of each department team can be trusted not to install new team members that will cause big problems.

[AndyDufresne]

Speaking as a former mod, this idea is horrible..../

Feel like helping out again? That's what all it comes down to. This makes things easier for the Team to have the necessary people to make things function smoothly.


--Andy

[Master Fenrir]

Nice to know. It seems well thought out, and I'm sure it'll work. Plus, a few of the current mods can probably breath a sigh of relieve with the new sitting rule.