The Cafe

The ellipses is there due to uncertainty and every staff member having their own take on things.  This is my own and it's largely based on the squares (which, I haven't said to Keystroke much is why I feel like the fandom doesn't acknowledge social media sites) and everything else in general...Maybe a tad of LoE too.  I've been putting it off too much with work and real life but I have a few minutes of not doing anything so I figured I might as well get this out of the way.

Preface: The purpose of this is that I feel that many people want or need to be staff to help out the community.  From my experience not only has this been a problem but trying to 'fire' people off the old sites was nearly impossible with their structure.  I, personally, don't like having to deal with such matters (it's much harder than banning a user in terms of PR) and carrying the mantle of a mod isn't something that should be taken like a video game.  Yes, I know a few who love moderation as much as kids on Whack-A-Mole and I've had to comfort people and explain that some people are just a bit overzealous with their weaponry.

This list is nothing more than a set of tips that would not only ease the hurdles between users and staff but should try to make the overall experience better in case something were to go wrong.

• Report, don't engage.  This one is actually a rather tricky point but putting it first.  If there is a user that is breaking the rules or harassing someone else it's generally best to report it and leave it up to a staff member to handle.  I'm generally OK if an abiding user can give a little nudge or suggest that what they're doing isn't right but going about being assertive leans too much towards trying to be us.  Don't.   Just to reiterate.  If unsure just report and leave it alone.
  
• Don't take sides in rule-breaking conflicts.  It's hard but sometimes there will be a small group of users that end up getting into some sort of argument.  If said argument breaches the rules it is generally best to either step away or ignore it.  One of the more difficult challenges is trying to figure out who is where and intentionally being in the fray only increases the risk of us having to issue warnings or bans.
• Don't be a butt kisser.  I'll leave it to Keystroke when he wants to add more staff members.  However I will add those that are trying to suck up as 'being an idol' or an 'ideal user for staff' aren't going to be accepted.  This has led to too many problems in the past and the overall attitude of those doing it really looks awkward.
• There will be an unfair ratio of users to staff as well as a finite number of staff.  I don't like mentioning this point but it isn't easy to add staff members per X number of users.  I've found that staff groups larger than 8 tend to be a bit harder to maintain due to us doing it on our free time.  In other words, there are times when we may be overwhelmed but if we add too many we'll end up having a bunch 'not doing anything'.  I never liked contests for quotas.
  
• We have lives.  I've been rather busy for the last few weeks but I try to check in and see what is up on a daily basis.  If something is reported or a private message sent don't expect instant replies.  We know there are things of a dire importance and we will get to them the quickest we can.
• The best help for the site and community comes from responsible users.  I can't say this enough but the best way to help this community is to follow all the rules, be nice to everyone and ignore those that evoke a negative reaction.  We are merely a connection between users and the website's systems and giving too many people access too these systems is subject to abuse.  I wish that, regardless of our target audience, we could practice self-moderation but the internet is far too volatile for that.  The best moderation users can do is to moderate themselves.
• If one has an issue that may create problems is to be careful with social media.  We will try to make the best experience possible but there are times when a site or community is not a good fit for particular kind of user.  I want us all to enjoy this site but there will be times when it is a good idea to take a break and learn how to adjust to the rigors of communities such as these.  I've dealt with many users who have things that make it harder to communicate and it leads to an immense amount of misunderstandings.  Some of these misunderstandings have led to permanent bans because of an insistence to continue what shouldn't be continued.
• Don't get too attached to the staff.  This is point that it irks me that I think about it but putting it out there.  Being best friends with staff will not impede their individual performance.  However I've seen too many instances of one of the friends being staff alongside the other and it reduces the overall effectiveness of those two to just one.  Kind of like a Protoss Archon.  With this said please don't take what we do personally and I'm more than equipped to ditch a friendship if it compromises the integrity of myself or the site.  I want this site to be fun for all and not a game of politics.
  

I will add more eventually.

Thank you Prismatic. I agree immensely with the points you've made.

I have users in mind, but won't always make the right decision. I brought Prismatic on board, because I've worked with him on other sites and find him to not only share an ethical code and virtue of honesty with me but is also very pragmatic and decisive - a strength I believe is crucial to being a fair moderator and a stable de-escalator in complicated conflicts.

I would like to add a major point though. While we do have limitations as humans (Dear Celestia), we will do our best to meet the needs of the community. Especially right now, as the community is still young, I will do my best to respond in a timely manner to concerns. As Prismatic has said though, that may become more challenging as the site grows. Please be aware of this as you watch the growth of the site, and we'll continue doing what we can to provide support to the community.

As far as reporting, please do. If there's conflict between users warranting staff involvement, please refrain from joining in. If you really must, please stay neutral in your comments. Just report content you feel is inappropriate and let us handle it. Finally, report spam is not cool - such as reporting obviously okay content or loading up several reports at once. If a user posts 100 spam comments, report one. Trust me - we'll see the rest. Even if the user doesn't post a ton of spam, I tend to look back a ways to get an idea of users' general behavior - especially if they've been reported several times in the past.

Now. Staff, staff, staff.... staff....

I've actually stopped taking new staff. I'm not sure yet when I'll begin taking more onto the team. I need to fill a couple roles still, but I don't feel the site is yet mature enough to warrant the extra staff. When the time comes though, I'll notify the community here in the Discussions. Users who've already sent me messages pertaining to this, please be patient and you will be taken into consideration when we're ready to expand our team.

For folks wishing to be on staff, I will say this:

• You should have technical aptitude - experience is great, being a quick technical learner is great too.
  
• You should be able to make bold decisions ...without the bold emotions.
  
• You should be willing to put your position before your relations with other users.
  
• You should be an honest member of the community and keep healthy online relationships, so your position doesn't need to conflict with those user relations.
  
• You should have a sense of confidence and self-control. Make decisions without stressing out or going into panic mode.
  
• You should be willing to communicate with other staff members when you are unsure of something.
  

Between the other staff members and myself, I'm possibly the easiest to impress, but I still have my own rigid guidelines - like, at the front gate. To be terse, namely, I take honesty, professionalism, humor, sound judgment, and self-knowledge very seriously. If you lack these, I'm not very impressed.

Yeah, it's impossible for me to be impressed on forums (namely that one game where my successor did set off a few red flags) whereas social media it's slightly easier to do so.  I'd say the experiences between the squares, iBrony and LoE has mostly hardened me quite well.  The primary reason was that the worst staff members were the worst not because of their skill but because being best friends with other staff (and/or users, but generally staff) really compromised them over and over because they valued the friendship rather than ethics.  It's one of the reasons why I felt friendships to be a bit parasitic at times where a lot of people are friends with others but there are so many Terms and Conditions that I refuse to bother.

I should probably add that the difficulty of moderation is really dependent on one's personality and how they handle it.  Many of those who found it increasingly hard did so because of their bullying-like demeanor and continual picking on their community.  I'd wish I could say that any personality would apply in that future time but I cannot exactly put it in terms of black and white (i.e. saying something that would remain rigid).

(P.S.  I'll go ahead and just...Get this out.  Between Legends of Equestria, PonySquare and even iBrony (Not staff, VIP) that I've had major difficulty....Major as in unbearably hard...In trying to rationale with staff members of those sites who have Autism.  It pains me to put this out but between my sibling who has it and my experiences I want to really say to both staffing and helping out the site if one knows they're aware of it to be increasingly careful about social media.  I know how easy it is for things to be not as they appear and I want to try to make the site best for everyone but just keep this in mind.  I'm not saying the same would happen here (as there are many variations of ASD) but if one has the type that they are easily overwhelmed by emotions to please be on your guard)