Rate The Administration

Come here to voice your comments, concerns, and questions with the mayor and their aides!

Does the ToO leadership system need to be changed?

Poll ended at Sat Dec 31, 2005 11:09 pm

Yes! - The system is not working!
13
26%
No! - Things are being run just fine!
37
74%
 
Total votes: 50

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Shadowpaw
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Rate The Administration

Post by Shadowpaw »

Everyone,

As a followup to a private message exchange I've been having with a member, I've decided to poll everyone as kind of a silent rating system of the administration. As many of you know, as owner of the board I serve as a guide for the elected administration and help them along with administrative duties and such. Today we had an incident where an inappropriate message was posted (though thankfully removed within the same hour) which sparked a debate about the inadqeuacy of the leadership here to deal with problems as they arise.

This thought never entered my head, and I've always held the belief that the team of mods and admins we have has worked amazingly well, considering our 650 posts per day and over 350 users. Today's incident was quickly rectified by disabling guest posting and banning the problematic IP address. However, the member who contacted me indicated the leadership here is too inadequte to deal with the problems that arise and we don't have enough manpower to efficiently address problems. There is also, apparently, a lack of faith in the leadership... being so close to the issue, I certainly have never thought there was a problem. So I would like to know how the members feel of the system we have in place here. Does it need to be changed? One suggestion involved appointing more permanant administrators. Is this necessary? Or is this not as big of a deal as I fear? This poll is anonymous, and I have no way of knowing how people vote... but if there is a problem in our administration and the system needs to be changed, please, vote and let me know!

Thanks for your time and I hope you're having a great holiday! :)

PS The poll will run for three days.
Last edited by Shadowpaw on Wed Jan 18, 2006 12:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Eugene Blackgaard
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Post by Eugene Blackgaard »

In my opinion, I love the electoral democratic system we have here. Giving the members the ablility to elect officials to rule over them is quite an amazing set up Shadowpaw has provided, and we are quite priveledged. Catspaw and Bmuntz have been amazing admins, and I can't speak for myself but I've been told Top and I did pretty good ourselves. ;)

However, I believe that it would be wise to put in place perhaps one or two extra people who would not be in quite the decision making position as the elected admins, but merely be issued in place so that their are extra hands able to aide the board in situations like today's for example. An effort by myself and others was orginized to remove the board of that message, but to no avail. We lacked what it took to take care of the problem. I believe that an increase in staff would be a wise thing, not issuing dictators upong the members of the board, but merely servants of the people, ready and willing to help should any sort of problem arise.

I believe that is a sensible choice. :)
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Post by Elf of Rivendell »

I don't fully agree with either option on the poll. Allow me to specify: I do think the system is working wonderfully, but a few changes would probably improve it.

For the most part, I think the current admin/mod system has worked well enough thus far. Everything's been running pretty smoothly. However, today it did take a while for the post to be dealt with. Although it's great that it was deleted within the hour, it still was up long enough for many of the members to have seen it. And since none of the admins were on, the members and mods who saw it...well, they couldn't do much.

So...having backup admins isn't a bad idea. I've heard this suggestion in some detail, and I agree with much of it. They don't have to be regular admins. They could just have admin powers in case of emergency--such as today, when none of the regular admins are on. I don't know...I just think it would be a bit more efficient.
Last edited by Elf of Rivendell on Wed Dec 28, 2005 11:27 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Post by STRYPER »

I think the system works extremely well. Sure it's not perfect but an organization run by non perfect beings is bound to get that way.

The problem with this setup is that it ultimately falls upon one person who is never re-elected: you. Thankfully, however, this is not a problem because I would hold you, Corey, in the highest regard and would not prefer anyone else to be in your shoes. If you were not a man of character and did not take criticism humbly (like right now :D) then everything would fall apart. But because you fear God and strive to deflect leadership and attention to others, God has honored this system and it works - in my opinion - wonderfully.
Shadowpaw wrote:One suggestion involved appointing more permanant administrators. Is this necessary
Not permanant but more would probably be good. I was thinking of this earlier today. Even though we have a lot of admins and mods here, most of them do not log on daily or several times a day. Bmuntz, David, Laura, dancer, Trent. They just don't post quite as often.

This isn't to say that moderators should only be elected if they post a lot (by no means!!). I am not complaining that those who don't post as often as I do (which would be everyone but Cowboy ;)) shouldn't be a mod. But I think more mods might help solve some of the issues raised.

Then again, more mods might cause more problems I am not thinking of so I'm open for criticism :D
Last edited by STRYPER on Wed Dec 28, 2005 11:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by JesusFreak777 »

First of all, I think the administrators thus far have been excellent, and I don't really see htem as the problem. However, what is a little frustrating is when things like this happen and the only people that can fix it aren't online and we cant get a hold of them. I'm not suggesting there be a bunchof admins added, but maybe there be a special mod or something who can take care of these "special forums" just in case no one else is around. Or maybe even have an extra "hidden admin" or something to help fix things that go on in the backgroud etc.

That's my two cents :)
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Post by Eugene Blackgaard »

The temporary admins could be appointed as well.
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Post by STRYPER »

Or just make them the former admins, we will have four soon...

This way, the special admins will be people that were voted in at one point
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Post by Eugene Blackgaard »

Does that include Top and I then? ;)
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Post by STRYPER »

it would ;)
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Post by Shadowpaw »

Eugene Blackgaard wrote:The temporary admins could be appointed as well.
Well if we did go this route, they certainly wouldn't be appointed... elected would be the only way I see this system working.

As far as adding more admins though, rather than appointing a hidden admin or one with temporary power, we could expand the team of 2 into a team of 3 (and down the road maybe 4) running for office. One of the nice things about having an elected administration is you often get people who are active during that period of time. If you elect (or appoint) an administrator on a permanent basis, you run the risk of having the same problem, where that member's interest wanes and they don't visit the board as often as they once did. Having a new administration every four months lets the people who are are active during that period of time be the ones holding the power... does that make sense?
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Post by The Top Crusader »

Yeah, I see a few reasonable possibilities... I don't think EB's suggestion is a bad one... another admin or two who basically just have the ability for emergencies, but aren't part of any campaign or whatever... they just are there to save the day when the need arises. :)

Or maybe with the elections, a group of 3 or 4 could run as a team?

I don't know, I certainly don't consider the current system broken or anything... and I certainly don't want to fall into the 7admins of the TH situation again...
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Post by Shadowpaw »

And I've always thought the idea of appointing former admins as permanent to be a bad idea... for one thing, the numbers will increase to the point where we have far too many people that hold a position of power and the allure is lost. Also, if you have a bad administration you are obligated to keep them forever on staff.
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Post by Elf of Rivendell »

The Top Crusader wrote:

I don't know, I certainly don't consider the current system broken or anything... and I certainly don't want to fall into the 7admins of the TH situation again...
Agreed... x7.

3 people running together would work...but I think 4 may be too many.
Last edited by Elf of Rivendell on Wed Dec 28, 2005 11:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Jennifer Doyle »

I don't see a problem that adding a few additional people to make sure that posts aren't inappropriate will not solve.
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Post by Me »

For the most part, I must agree that the system works remarkably well. However, in the case of tonight, I'm not too sure about a few things. Most of the forums I'm on are extremely active, with a number of members who junkie and are there all day. In such a case, offensive material is usually dealt with in about five minutes. I'm not sure, however, if this is the rule, or the exception. I'm not sure what the normal response time is for something like this. I do know, however, that on a board such as this, where comments such as those made in the thread in question are totally inappopriate, and the majority of the constituants are rather young, such things must be dealt with as quickly as possible, especially as there are many parents who monitor this board, and upon seeing such a comment would not let their children come back. The very nature of this board seems to demand that we be extra responsive in situations like those experienced this evening.

But realistically, for the size of the board, the response tonight was very quick. The post was visible for less than 45 minutes. For a post of that nature on a board like this, though, the wait was uncomfortably long. I think that perhaps the best solution would be to make the global moderators truly global, in that they would actually be able to moderate all the public forums. Even though there are only two global mods, having such abilities would nearly double the number of people who could respond in such a situation, especially as (at least at this point), there is almost always either an admin or a global mod online. If there isn't, There are ways of easily reaching one or more of them. But I ramble....

Essentially, I think it boils down to two simple concepts:

1. Global mods need to be able to mod all public forums (not necessarily factions).
2. The global mod position needs to become a permanent position on the board. Selection processes would be based loosely on the current procedures for picking mods, with time online taking a slightly higher emphasis than it does for a regular moderator.

Other than this, I believe we have a wonderful system of government here that encourages community and participation on the board. A unique and effective solution to issues that have been experienced on more dictatorial boards.
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Post by Eugene Blackgaard »

I ment elected, I'm sorry. 0_o

Anyways, I disagree minorly because I believe the elected officials, the mayor and COP should be expected to be around constantly, answer PMs, and serve the people at all times. It's why they were elected. Not because they had the coolest sigs or avvies, or how popular they were, we hold these elections to find out who is most qualified to co-run the ToO. At least, that's what I thought the elections were about.

I believe it would be wise to elect back up admins not to serve the function of mayor and COP, but merely as a back-up plan for things that go wrong, plus and extra hand behind the scenes when regular admins aren't around. The backups would not take the role of elected officials, they would just be there to help. Qualified and capable people willing to help and offer and extra hand.
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Post by STRYPER »

I'll join a campaign looking for a 3rd member :D
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Post by COWBOY OF TEXAS »

I like how the system it running now, I just think that there should be more mods. (And there really should be an admin on at all times, but there are other issues that go with that as well.)

I don't mean to sound dictator-like, but what if all those elected to the admin position by the people retain some of their power? Like being global mods like Top and EB? That way, those who are elected by the people are in charge. But even though they are out of office, they will not have the full admin privleges as Shadowpaw and the Mayor/Cop.


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Post by The Top Crusader »

COWBOY OF TEXAS wrote:I like how the system it running now, I just think that there should be more mods. (And there really should be an admin on at all times, but there are other issues that go with that as well.)

I don't mean to sound dictator-like, but what if all those elected to the admin position by the people retain some of their power? Like being global mods like Top and EB? That way, those who are elected by the people are in charge. But even though they are out of office, they will not have the full admin privleges as Shadowpaw and the Mayor/Cop.


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Nah I think that's best left just to Top and EB... >_>
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Post by Jennifer Doyle »

Eugene Blackgaard wrote:I ment elected, I'm sorry. 0_o

Anyways, I disagree minorly because I believe the elected officials, the mayor and COP should be expected to be around constantly, answer PMs, and serve the people at all times. It's why they were elected. Not because they had the coolest sigs or avvies, or how popular they were, we hold these elections to find out who is most qualified to co-run the ToO. At least, that's what I thought the elections were about.
The mayor and C.o.p. cannot be here 24/7, they shouldn't be expected to, period. People have school and jobs outside of this message board, we can't really expect them to stay here all the time making sure everything is perfect.
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