Admin Meeting Notes - Part 2 - Membership and Moderators

[Eleyan Al'Landerin]

Department of Membership

-We've been using an Excel spreadsheet to manage membership data for a long long time. It is unweildy and no longer well suited given our community's size. The Department has been given the go-ahead to look for and implement a soft-ware solution.
- Ajah and Company "Slush Funds"... As we are a 501(c)7 (non-profit social organization) rather than a 501(c)3 (non-profit charitable organization), we actually have a little more wiggle room than we did when we put our current policy into place (that policy was "No."). I will quote the Keeper, because if I try to paraphrase, I will undoubtably screw it up.

Currently some membership groups maintain separate bank or paypal accounts that are used for various things such as sending birthday cards to members or creating shawls for new Aes Sedai, etc. Whether or not this is something your group chooses to do, we will be issuing an official policy that fundraising or requests for donations to these accounts may not be done anywhere on TarValon.Net’s official channels. They cannot be mentioned in forums, via PMs, in our chat rooms or via @tarvalon.net email addresses. If you want to request donations for these types of activities, you must do it via non-TarValon.Net methods. Something along the lines of “If you want to know how to contribute to our Shawl Fund, email me at my personal address” is fine but that’s pretty much it. The reason we are taking such a harsh stance on this is that our legal advisers have told us that the site could potentially be held liable for any fund mismanagement or disputes between members if we appear to promote or endorse or even tacitly allow these things to be done via our message boards, PMs, chat rooms or official emails.

- Oh Heck, I'll quote her on the following too. (She wrote darned good notes!)

Guests in forums. We discussed at length whether or not Ajahs and Companies may invite anyone they like to share their private forums (i.e.: having a Gaidin who is not bonded into an Ajah in the Ajah’s Sitting Room, etc) or whether there are restrictions on who may be in the private forums. As of this time, we decided not to change our current policy. So that there is no confusion, our current policy is that only the following people are allowed in the membership groups’ private forums:
---Senior Members of that group
---Persons currently bonded to Senior Members of that group
---Aspirants of that group
---Junior members who are visiting the group as part of our formal Guesting process for Accepted and Soldiers.
---Executives and Officers who have access to all site forums

This was a very hotly debated issue and it is one we will definitely be looking at again next year.

I will second that this *was* a very thorough (and somewhat heated) discussion, despite the fact that the question was brought up by a limited group of people. Why we have those forums, their purpose and how they serve it, and our justifications for current permissions were really examined (and in some cases scoured). I think we were all agreed that this topic needs to be discussed again, though with more preparation and membership input.

Department of Moderators
- Festival chat events will be held in #oldewarderandhen (that's what it's there for )
- Dept will develop a training manual for Chat Ops
- We reviewed Director's current moderation rights (there was a question about their current level vs. universal moderators), and determined that their current permissions are sufficient.
- More information about the special interest forums:

Special Interest forums will be public forums viewable to and able to be posted in by all visitors to the site (with the exception of Current Events). Hopefully this will help people get a feel for us and want to stay. It should also help make it easier for new folks to get their 25 posts for Citizenship without spamming Introductions and Site Announcements. The Special Interest forums will be composed of the following:

- Current Events (to move to this group from its current location)
- Entertainment (includes current Tech & Media forum and will expand to add games and gaming)
- Home & Garden (will cover cooking, gardening, entertaining, pets, home improvement, etc)
- Creative Endeavors (will cover topics currently handled in Tailors, Artisans, and Gleemen and will also include writing, fine and performing arts as well as similar type discussions)
- Education & Employment (will cover topics currently handled in Professors Guild & Job Hunters forum)
- Health & Fitness (self explanatory)
-Sports Fanatics (self explanatory)

 

[Malein Basolaine]

oh cool! I"m really excited about the expanded special interest forums

 

[Jeffan Caliarthan]

I love this. The Special Interest forums will seriously add a lot to the community, and fill the gaps that have sorta been there in the past but weren't really that evident. I especially love that they're going to be open to guests. My only real concern is that we get a lot of people in there who have weird names (jack9888) or something, which might... detract from the community feel of it, but overall I think it's a good idea.

Question! Will General be grouped with these forums, or will be remain a private forum only available to citizens and above?

 

[Vivianna L'antreau]

as of now I believe we're keeping General to citizens + If that changes we'll let you know!

 

[Jeffan Caliarthan]

Awesome!

 

[Isarma Maracanda]

My only real concern is that we get a lot of people in there who have weird names (jack9888) or something, which might... detract from the community feel of it, but overall I think it's a good idea.

QFT
But then I suppose that jack9888 will still have to change his name to a WoTish name if he intends to become a citizen ?

And I'm really happy with the Membership notes Especially the part with Excel spreadsheets

 

[Morrighan Daghdera]

:fistbump Big Sugar Daddy & Legal on the slushies

 

[Nyarin al'Batera]

Nice to see Creative Endeavors coming back, I missed it.

 

[Jeffan Caliarthan]

Seriously. <3 It's just such a fun sounding forum.

 

[Alyssa Letherio]

Good good changes!

*sneakily loves on Leora Sedai and her legal skills*

 

[Pip al'Dealys]

You've let us all down.

 

[Fee Nicoin]

You've let us all down.

Mother is stepping down Pip, She doesn't care about us anymore

 

[Pip al'Dealys]

I can assure you the feeling is mutual. :mdd

 

[Kerna Shedrian]

Education & Employment (will cover topics currently handled in Professors Guild & Job Hunters forum)

Is Education and Employment forum still going to be viewable by guests? I only ask as currently Job Hunters requires special permission to access so it's not even viewable by all members.

 

[Dralyn Montsier]

That's because it currently sometimes has very private information in it, such as resumes. The intent is that it won't have such information in it when it changes, so there's no need to have it private.

 

[Xylianna Paladina]

- Festival chat events will be held in #oldewarderandhen

With any of the OE (er... OA) staff have ops for this channel so we can run those events? Or will specific ops be chosen for that channel? Just wondering how that's going to work.

 

[Jadira Paerael]

With any of the OE (er... OA) staff have ops for this channel so we can run those events? Or will specific ops be chosen for that channel? Just wondering how that's going to work.

I am sure that there is something will be taken care of in that way, but there are already specific ops for that channel.
and I am slightly confused as to why a person specifically needs ops in the channel to run a game or an event?

Yes I have been to the channel and participated.
I'm just curious about what "extra" permissions outside of a regular user, one needs to run a game or live chat that isn't covered already by ops already in place?
Not trying to step on anyone's toes and such, or make a big argument or anything, I am however genuinely curious about this.

 

[Xylianna Paladina]

I really don't know to be honest. Chat isn't my strong point. I know that in #onlineevents we have a trivia bot some of our team developed. I also would just want to know we would have an op around in that channel when needed to change topic/kick someone unruly (not that it happens often)/etc. So I guess as long as its staffed in general it doesn't matter if its OE folks or not. Like I said, I was just curious.

It's no big deal, like I said I am a chat n00b.

 

[Aavyn Eirinon]

I've thought a little, and while I do like the the idea of the Special Interest forums (though they seem generic in comparison to the idea of Guilds, basically you could see these on any random forum) the part I'm not so much a fan of is that they will be open to Visitors. The Guilds were nice and intimate, and the folks able to see them had at least a level of involvement, whereas now anyone will be able to crash the party. Then again, maybe that could be a good thing as the Guilds can be a bit slow...I don't know, I guess we'll see how these new forums feel

 

[Leese Sulan]

Oh thank god, you're giving Poonam & Raam a Sports forum. Thankyou. <3