[Idea] Director Rank

[Nestharus]

I think that it'd be pretty cool to make a new rank for resource sections. The director rank would be like the lead moderator for a resource section. For code resources, the moderator would have to know everything to do with programming for that game. For warcraft 3, it'd include Lua, vjass, jass, wurst, cjass, and zinc as well as some c++ (for working with jassnewgenpack). For SC2, there are only a couple.

The director would be in charge of handling disputes between moderators, moderators and the ratings they gave to user resources, setting policy, and guiding moderators. Their main job would not be to review resource, but rather to lead the moderators in the given resource section. Furthermore, if there is a resource that is too advanced for any of the current moderators, it would be their job to review it.

I think that a director like this with experience in the given field is much smarter than just having general site admins. A director would be able to handle the situation better. It'd also give more direction to the teams of moderators in the different sections, and allow for setting policies more quickly w/o moderators overstepping their bounds.

The director would be above resource moderators and below site admins.

Moderators would also no longer get access to the admin contact forum as directors would deal with settling disputes. The sub forum for direct site admin contact would be used to settle disputes with directors =).

mag had actually brought the idea up a while back and after thinking about it, I think it's a very good idea. Many businesses also follow this model ; ).

Think of the site founder as the CEO, the admins as the execs, and the directors as the team leaders with moderators being the team members.

The director should be nominated by a majority of moderators in the given section + be reviewed by 2 site admins to get the position : ).

Only 1 director per section : p.

We could also have a general resource admin directly above the specific resources directors that handles all resources. That would be a site admin though : p.

edit
I should also note that this position should not be able to be applied for. Moderators would nominate a user to be their director, that user would be reviewed by site admins, then the offer would be sent to that user. The user would become a director if they accept the offer. If they decline it, process is repeated until a director is found. A current moderator can also be nominated to a director, but moderators should not be able to nominate themselves.

edit
ok, perhaps user is nominated by community, then affirmed by moderators and 2 site admins?

a larger crowd = a smarter choice and can also remove bias

 

[sonofjay]

Then I wish that Nestharus to be the director of the jass and spell section.

 

[Nestharus]

As post states, the moderators of a section are the ones to nominate, not the users : ). They decide who will lead them. This nomination is then affirmed by 2 site admins =P, and from there the offer is made to the given user.

 

[Ralle]

The current staff is much more flat these days. The boundaries between admins and moderators are disappearing as we act in a much more dynamic way. Back when we had the director system it did not work properly. Perhaps somebody can elaborate on what went wrong. As I am not good at managing this stuff, having a solid hierarchy would probably slow things down more than what we have in place now.
A director would be able to make quick decisions, but also bad decisions. As nobody here are actually educated in being a good leader, I find the discussions between the staff essential for making good decisions.
Currently, many of the moderators can technically change the rules (by that I mean change the rule pages) and moderate all resource sections if they so desired. This is of course not something they would be doing every day, but it allows them to cover each other's back. Somebody submitted a bad skin and Mag pulled it down. Somebody broke the rules in a random forum and Kael solved that.
I really don't think that a director system would be necessary as we work as a whole and deal with things that way. People will of course not speak about a matter they are not qualified to speak about, but everyone have a chance to speak their mind on any issue.
The reason for this is that almost every person in the staff is friends with the rest of the staff and they talk on a daily basis.
I can't see any change making this anymore powerful except for making them all admins, but that's really not necessary at this time.
Also, almost all staff members can take a leave and their work will be covered by the rest. This works in most cases, but not all yet.

 

[Pyramidhe@d]

if one particular moderator was better or more experiences than the others, wouldnt he/she already naturally be the unsaid leader of those group of moderators? by giving this extra "class" of a more ... elite, i could say, moderators, wouldnt this end up creating needless separation between the mods? not to mention, this just sounds like it only exists for an ego boost.

 

[Nestharus]

It'd exist to give power to recruit new moderators, set policy, and resolve disputes without having to go to a site admin.

If a moderator wants to recruit someone for a moderator position, they do not have the power to do so. If a moderator wants to set policy, they have to affirm it with other moderators first. A moderator can't resolve disputes, that'd have to go to a site admin.

 

[Ralle]

Here are a few excerpts from the chat.
[11-02-58] Ralle: Nestharus, if any moderator stepped up wanting things to change and taking responsibility, his rank would probably rise with it.
[11-26-31] Ralle: Good director people are very rare to come by.
[11-29-36] Ralle: Nestharus, I would rather keep my dynamic structure, but if a good leader person shows up, I would give him the authority.

Very few people should recruit staff without my approval. I take part in ANY recruitment taking place.

 

[Pyramidhe@d]

It'd exist to give power to recruit new moderators, set policy, and resolve disputes without having to go to a site admin.

setting policies/resolving disputes. if you have a singular director who is higher on the hierarchy than the others, it is likely that the director would be able to outright veto or ignore what the lower moderators have have to say. just like how directors before have vetoed and ignored the lower moderators and so on and so forth. the ignoring goes all the way to the very top for all levels. this isnt a prediction of the future. it is a recount of the past.

but if you have moderators of that group on the equal levels, then they would be forced to discuss what they have to say. they would take time to discuss and their conclusion would be of one where the party involved would have solid understanding of the event.

if you take the singular leader approach, the understanding achieved will be very very small and minute. not to mention the information gathered by that one person is hopelessly smaller than the information gathered as a group. if you have more information/opinions/insight, you make wiser decisions. if you just rely on one person's opinion to make decisions, you are just being lazy and, overall, very very stupid.

 

[Nestharus]

Nothing gets done then : \

edit
and we end up having inconsistencies from lack of direction

 

[Pyramidhe@d]

conclusion from the chat was

(not a quote)
the current spell mods are too much of sniveling sheep. they have no gall. they are directionless. they dont dare speak up. bascially they need to man up more.

the option(and i emphasis the word "option") that nest suggested is that have one person chosen that will man them up.

the option i suggest is that the mods do the manning up themselves.

 

[Ralle]

Thank you for the conclusion. I will keep this in mind.

 

[Pyramidhe@d]

dont quote me on that. wait until you have heard nestharus's full reasons as well

 

[Nestharus]

Ok.. how about a workshop for current moderators?

The idea would be to prepare various resources with mistakes and have the moderators spot them. The mistakes would be gone over, the review would be gone over, etc. This would be done with a variety of resources =). This would start to set a standard for moderators to follow in their reviews and ensure that they can all spot mistakes.

From here, we can have skill workshps to raise the level of the moderators.

We can use these assignments for testing new moderators too, and making sure that they fit in with the crowd. Tests would be administered by current moderators. The current moderators would use these tests to train the new moderators ; ).

 

[I3lackDeath]

Can somebody tell me what exactly the issue here even is?

Nestharus, you suggested a change regarding Staff, yet I did not see any reason for your suggestion.

"Man up" Spell moderators? What does that even mean? I catch the drift, but that's just stupid, sorry.
I don't see how any of the current spell mods, or any moderator for that matter, needs to be "forcefully matured"...
Do what you are meant to do with respect for both the people you are doing it for and your work.

 

[fladdermasken]

If a moderator is a gutless sniveling sheep you demote him and express censure upon whoever promoted him in the first place.

You cut or burn loose threads, you don't try and tuck them back in.

general site admins

What is a general site admin? The whole phrase screams of oxymoron. AFAIK you don't give anyone admin privileges if not to deal with specific technical details and managament. In layman's terms, doing stuff you can't do away from the admin panel. I guess it just boils down to trust issues, but you shouldn't give people more rope if their duties can already be handled without any redundant privileges.


And I swear, sometimes popular belief around here seems to be that an admin is just some kind of awesome peep who strolls the forum, looking all cool, and packs more punch than an average -- slightly less awesome than general site admin -- site moderator.

 

[Dr Super Good]

For warcraft 3, it'd include Lua, vjass, jass, wurst, cjass, and zinc as well as some c++ (for working with jassnewgenpack).

This is total nonsense. All he needs to know is pure JASS as that is all WarCraft III can run. All the other are candy people use that ultimatly means nothing to WarCraft III.

You are just trying to promote yourself and as such you are not as good a coder as you think you are.

The problem with the spell section is the moderation process is a pain to carry out. You cannot honestly expect people to spend more than 15 minutes a resource (which is what resource moderators did when I was in the staff) just to review a spell. On top of that moderators make up immaginary standards and try and turn everyone's work into their own. Streamline the moderation process and you will streamline moderators to work more.

The idea of moderator is more to remove unaccepable content than to rate content. Rating content should be left to the users. A time frame per resource should be achieved where each spell is done in say 5 minutes, including downloading, testing and moderation. Obviously a moderator is free to provide feedback on possible improvements as user comments but it is not required as part of the moderation process (optional).

 

[Nestharus]

DSG, everyone wants the system we have now. I'm just saying that in order to maintain that system, the moderators need to be given direction and so on.

I'll ignore your personal attacks as they are unfounded and baseless ;p.

edit
as I stated, a workshop is another possible option

 

[Dr Super Good]

everyone wants the system we have now

No they do not. Some people want the existing system but most people will use whatever system is put in place. Many may prefer a simpler system.

 

[-Kobas-]

Back in a day, ap0 opinion was always respected by both Cweener and me, just like much later, when Kael and others (after merging sections together - resource mods) respected mine related to map section. Fallowing analogy same thing happened in all other sections.

There was no need for separate title, there is no need now.

 

[Squiggy]

We've already had that system pulled up in the past and it got taken down because it didn't work.