Do we have our new moderator team? Who's on the list?
Was there a vote process that I missed, or were they simply appointed? If so, by who?
I see a couple of people with the title, but I didn't see any kind of news about it, other than a post in ATS, which didn't really give any kind of details on time frame or how it was going to be processed.
Ath made an introductory post here:
https://gdb.armageddon.org/index.php/topic,59147.0.html
More details are still being worked on by the new Moderator team, but the decision was to implement the new moderators immediately, and let the staff stop moderating. One could wrongfully call it "working agile".
First, why was my thread thrown into this one? I kept it separate for the specific reason of not wanting it to be associated with the out-the-gate flippant negativity of the OP in this thread and because I wanted very specific information that would be available for everyone to see at a glance, because as of that time there was no information made available if you aren't hanging around in the Discord. There was no reason to moderate that thread in any way, but here we are. I'm really curious about the who / why my thread was moved, given there was no name associated with the moderation, or reason given.
Second, based on the information in that thread posted by Ath (
https://gdb.armageddon.org/index.php/topic,59147.0.html), you were chosen (by staff) to work with Ath (the staff in charge of this -- sorry, "liaison"), to hand pick the people you two want to be on the moderation team, without input from players at large. Staff can volunteer to join the moderation team and are, of course, to be interviewed and decided upon by you (chosen by staff) and Ath (staff "liaison"), possibly with the input of the other people you two hand picked to join the moderation team.
From what I can see, players will be unable to see these interviews or weigh in on them at all, nor do players, save for those specifically chosen by you and Ath, have any real voice in who they would be comfortable having the power to take their voice away, on a whim, no less. There is no preview of transparency and everything surrounding moderation lies behind closed doors, in the hands of staff and those chosen by staff, without real input from the general player base.
Moderators and Staff:
1. Community members may be timed out, or banned, temporarily or permanently, for breaking the rules.
2. Bans are usually the result of escalated, repeat, or egregious offenses.
3. Do not discuss the specifics of another person's ban or moderation in the
general channel. Provide any feedback about moderation using the modmail feature. (NOTE: this is a Discord feature, we're investigating how to report for GDB concerns.)
4. Moderators have the authority and responsibility to make judgment calls on issues that arise.
5. Please do not repost or quote any comments that violate our guidelines. Doing this encourages continued violations. Instead of engaging, please ping @Community Moderator or send a message through @ModMail (NOTE: Once again Discord features, please utilize the report feature in the GDB to report posts you feel break the rules, and please reference the rule(s) you feel are broken.)
6. Do not @Staff, @Armageddon Producer, @Armageddon Admin, @Armageddon Storyteller unless it is a game-breaking situation. Please respect their time, they are people too.
Literally nothing has changed, except now staff can blame players for the heavy handed moderation. After all, this is the
player moderation team, Ath is just the
liaison, right?
The goal is to allow for players to self moderate the community with staff empowering them as best we can.
I'm going to be completely honest with you, Mansa. This entire setup is identical to what we had before, with a new coat of paint and a change in language.
Staff are still dictating who can be moderators, staff are still moderating the forums like they always were, with the entire process is kept behind closed doors (no logs of interviews, no player input on who is/isn't on the team, no disclosure on actions taken, etc) and based entirely on the whims and interpretations of those with the power to take away peoples voice. We have threads being moderated without name/reason behind the moderation actions (literally see my first point)... I can go on, but I feel like that would unnecessary, given what I've got is already more than enough to make my point.
You're playing a part in perpetuating the problem that lead the community here in the first place, Mansa. You're either being duped, or you're happily going along with it because now you have the authority to make executive decisions on other players and their opinions on things. I'd love to say I'm surprised by this entire thing, but we're just repeating history again.
We've been here before. Aren't you all tried of the same old song and dance?