Staff Rules of Conduct
1) Actions by the Staff are to be fair, civil, unbiased and according to the following rules of Staff conduct, and the Community Rules and Guidelines. All members of the staff are expected to treat all members of the community with patience and civility.
2) At no time may a Staff member utilize their position for influence or fear to control a situation for personal gain or amusement.
3) Altering of someone's profile shall only be done if one of the following circumstances comes up.
A. The Staff member is requested to by the owner of said profile.
B. The profile breaks any of the general community rules.
C. The owner of the profile has earned a special title or addition to their profile that is not standard.
After an alteration has been made, a post on the Moderation board explaining the alteration should be made.
4) Staff members are to deal with the majority of problems that arise in the area that they operate only. In any area outside of their charge, a member of staff is simply another member. If an issue comes up that the staff member feels they cannot sufficiently deal with, they are to inform a Senior Moderator, or an Administrator, at which point the senior moderator/administrator will give their opinions and offer advice, if the staff member still cannot make a decision they shall hand off the problem to the next highest person in the chain of command.
5) Complaints can be issued by the board members, if they feel the need. If complaints are issued and found to be true, a Member of staff can be removed from their position, and possibly banned from the board depending on the severity of the complaint. The administration reserves the right, at any time, to remove staff members from power with prior notice.
6) Whenever a thread needs to be locked, removed, or deleted the moderator should inform the administration via the minor moderation thread. An offenses severity is decided by the moderator of the section in which the offense takes place. A verbal warning/reprimand is mandated to be sent either via private message or upon the board this too needs to be reported so that multiple reprimands are not sent. A second offense is treated as a new offense but not a continuation of the first, meaning simply that if they have screwed up elsewhere this is not connected and is to be treated as a separate incident, providing the offenses are not so severe as to warrant immediate Administrative intervention.
7) A member of staff is to use common sense in their judgments of minor and major offenses. If in doubt the staff should always ask a fellow staff member or an administrator for their take on the situation.
8) The Staff are encouraged to interact with the community and its members in any form of Role play that suits their own style.
Moderator Duties
The job of a Moderator is to maintain a level of order to the forums for which they were given charge. This includes locking, removal, deletion of off-topic posts, improper content, warning a member when they are doing something that is considered inappropriate in the forums. Another aspect of the Moderators job includes imposing the community rules and guidelines upon their forum. Lastly and most importantly the Moderator is to help members with anything on the board that does not break the Staff Rules of Conduct or the Community Rules & Guidelines.
When removing a post from a forum that has some value, but was posted in the wrong forum said post is to be transferred to the appropriate forum that fits the content of the offending post. As well a warning for posting in the wrong area is not mandated but encouraged to help members learn where certain types of posts are to be placed.
When a moderator comes across a post that holds no value to the community in any form i.e. Spam (porn/medicine/casino site, offending pictures, outright flaming, or anything of similar nature) the post is to be deleted or locked. In cases where the post is offensive in nature to all parties visiting the site, the post is to be copied and placed in the Moderator action archive where the Admin or Senior Moderator shall view the offending post and decide on alternative actions for the original poster i.e. banning.
When a moderator comes into a flaming match that has erupted from a productive discussion or debate, then the action of locking the thread or deleting the flaming posts is up to the Moderator's discretion.
Senior Moderator Duties
The Job of the Senior Moderator is to check on the work of the moderators and make sure they are doing their jobs properly, as well as maintaining greater control over the boards by clearing out improper content where and when a Moderator cannot or has not done so.
The Staff Rules of Conduct, and Moderator Duties & Senior Moderator Duties.
Written on June 28th, 2006 by
Rhysis, Ullery, Mithrandirxx,and NoReasontoRegister.
Revised on April 2, 2007
