We all have real lives and complications that can affect our participation in this hobby — That is understood, and not a problem. However, as someone in a position of leadership on the site, you are expected to generally abide by the following:
If you have any sort of personal stake in an issue, please "recuse" yourself and pass it onto another mod or admin.
Write with a variety of players, and absolutely do not ignore your other threads in favor of boomeranging a favored thread. This is both rude and sends a message that cliquishness is okay. We all have our favorite people to play off of, but holy shit is this off-putting.
Please note that admin and moderators are not eligible for contests in which rewards are limited. These are done for morale, and it's a bad look for the people in charge to be winning.
In short, be friendly and chill enough that people not only like you, but feel comfortable coming to you with questions and concerns. This is how we foster an active, entertaining, and respectful environment, which is the foundation for success in any RP.
On a similar note, please do not be pedantic. If a discord conversation has drifted and the subject does not align perfectly with the channel's theme, it's okay to let that go. Same thing if someone has gotten a minor historical detail wrong in play. If there is a consistent pattern, then pleasantly and PRIVATELY explain the issue to them, but do not nit-pick. We're here to have fun.
We are adults and this is not a baseball game where you get three chances to be shitty before you're out. Members get a maximum of one chance to curb their behavior. If someone is purposely causing severe upset, they don't even get that much.
If a member is disruptive and an admin is available, please grab one of us to handle it. This is so that you don't have to bear the weight of being seen as a disciplinarian. From experience, we can tell you that it can intimidate members no matter what you do.
However, if we are not available:
You have the ability to place disruptive members in time out on discord. Please only use one hour unless you think it's ban-worthy, in which case use one week so we can handle it later. If the offense is bad enough to time out for longer than an hour, it's probably bad enough to remove them from the game. Put all second offenses on one week. If you have to time out someone, please also post ASAP to the Mods channel with @moderators and include details, links to messages, and given consequences. On the site, please also go to the MCP and add a warning to the user's account. Please keep the reason brief, eg "Discord disruption."
If they disrupt the SITE in any way, such as posting spam or rude messages, that is automatic removal from the game, but please leave that to the admin. You may place them in the Probation group until we're able to step in. Please soft delete any problematic posts, document everything in the mod forum, and @moderators about it in the Mods channel.
This may seem like a lot to expect, but this is something we've done in the past and these meetings, even if they're short, can be really helpful in taking the temperature of the game, staying ahead of needed changes, and overall crafting a really successful place to write!
Model positive behavior.
A lot of times modding can be a very thankless job. But to maintain a safe space for our players, it's important we stay positive and upbeat. If you need to correct someone, please do so in a pleasant, straight-forward manner. When possible, do so privately. Do not be passive-aggressive, even if the discussion is private. That shit festers and spreads.If you have any sort of personal stake in an issue, please "recuse" yourself and pass it onto another mod or admin.
Model consistent and fair activity.
You are a mod; you don't have to be winning the top poster of the month, but you should be consistently exceeding the AC when there are not external forces at play.Write with a variety of players, and absolutely do not ignore your other threads in favor of boomeranging a favored thread. This is both rude and sends a message that cliquishness is okay. We all have our favorite people to play off of, but holy shit is this off-putting.
Please note that admin and moderators are not eligible for contests in which rewards are limited. These are done for morale, and it's a bad look for the people in charge to be winning.
Be engaged, helpful and friendly as a rule.
If a new player comes into the discord, make it a priority to make them feel welcome and assist with anything they need. Participate in chat discussions in general, and initiate topics of conversation.In short, be friendly and chill enough that people not only like you, but feel comfortable coming to you with questions and concerns. This is how we foster an active, entertaining, and respectful environment, which is the foundation for success in any RP.
On a similar note, please do not be pedantic. If a discord conversation has drifted and the subject does not align perfectly with the channel's theme, it's okay to let that go. Same thing if someone has gotten a minor historical detail wrong in play. If there is a consistent pattern, then pleasantly and PRIVATELY explain the issue to them, but do not nit-pick. We're here to have fun.
How to deal with disruptive members.
If someone has become disruptive in the discord, send them a DM advising the need to curb their behavior or risk being placed on a time out (they are still a member but cannot do anything in the server) or removal from the game.We are adults and this is not a baseball game where you get three chances to be shitty before you're out. Members get a maximum of one chance to curb their behavior. If someone is purposely causing severe upset, they don't even get that much.
If a member is disruptive and an admin is available, please grab one of us to handle it. This is so that you don't have to bear the weight of being seen as a disciplinarian. From experience, we can tell you that it can intimidate members no matter what you do.
However, if we are not available:
You have the ability to place disruptive members in time out on discord. Please only use one hour unless you think it's ban-worthy, in which case use one week so we can handle it later. If the offense is bad enough to time out for longer than an hour, it's probably bad enough to remove them from the game. Put all second offenses on one week. If you have to time out someone, please also post ASAP to the Mods channel with @moderators and include details, links to messages, and given consequences. On the site, please also go to the MCP and add a warning to the user's account. Please keep the reason brief, eg "Discord disruption."
If they disrupt the SITE in any way, such as posting spam or rude messages, that is automatic removal from the game, but please leave that to the admin. You may place them in the Probation group until we're able to step in. Please soft delete any problematic posts, document everything in the mod forum, and @moderators about it in the Mods channel.
Mod Meetings
We have weekly mod meetings in the #mods channel in Discord. Please do your best to attend, and let us all know if you have a conflict and need to skip. During these meetings we bring to the table any news, thoughts, ideas, etc. that we ourselves have come up with, or we've been told or noticed from members. We also brainstorm and plan upcoming events and procedural changes, do event post-mortems, and anything else that's good to discuss. You are encouraged to keep note of things you think of or notice throughout the week.This may seem like a lot to expect, but this is something we've done in the past and these meetings, even if they're short, can be really helpful in taking the temperature of the game, staying ahead of needed changes, and overall crafting a really successful place to write!
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