Zandronum

Staff are supposed to be the leaders, preferably community picked.

I agree

Different punishments for different people

This is a MAJOR problem with the administration.
I won't name names, but there's people who hack and get banned.
There're people who have hacked and banned but get unbanned, whereas others stay banned.
There's people who hack once, go into the staff channel and ask to get unbanned and are unbanned and told not to do it again.
There's people who get deals under the table to play under alias and won't get bothered.

While I am in support of less totalitarian ban-everything-kilgore admins that seem to be dominating the scene, I do support when a certain admin gives peoples deals under the table because that particular admin is at least trying to get people back into the game; rather than keeping people locked out. Of course this is not fair and this is just masks the problem.

There needs to be a fair set of rules. Anyone who is against this is obviously part of the problem or someone seeking intentional discord.

How is it that a certain group, who has also ritually proven to be a bad omen for the port, still manages to remain free despite their continued shenanigans and hostile intent?

For anyone who doesn't understand this point:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came_...

So long as there remains a private staff forum, there will never be the true transparency that is claimed by staff

In addition, a private staff and private admin channel, and who knows what else in the background...

Time and time again I've noticed during my short tenure on Zandronum, the staff's credibility is consistently being questioned publicly every now and then. Perhaps if the community is unhappy with the way the staff handles PR, then maybe the option of staff reformation should be considered. Community picked staff? I'm not too sure about that one, however something should possibly be done.

Ru5tK1ng wrote: Time and time again I've noticed during my short tenure on Zandronum, the staff's credibility is consistently being questioned publicly every now and then. Perhaps if the community is unhappy with the way the staff handles PR, then maybe the option of staff reformation should be considered. Community picked staff? I'm not too sure about that one, however something should possibly be done.

Staff leaders should be community picked, however they should be people who are competent and understand what's going on within multiple areas (Competitive, development, community related issues, etc.) A lot of staff that actually did something back before Skulltag had initiated the fork either had been dropped or had been demoted to reserve moderators, while other staff that really had little influence had been given an opportunity to stick around. This first 'staff reform' was really a downgrade of what the staff had that made it efficient and kept forums nice and clean, but at the end of the day the decision was left to the admins and certain mods. Staff today is very disorganized, and I would like to point out that yes, a lot of decisions and moves that staff had made is very questionable. My best recommendation? Another staff reform, but not just a little simple demotions and drops, a serious reform should be considered at this point.

I remember a post long time ago talked about having staff uninvolved in the community, basically acting like a court of judges to eliminate bias as best as possible. Maybe something like that would work

I think staff reforms have been long awaited, some people here are clearly out of their depth.

Samurai wrote: I think staff reforms have been long awaited, some people here are clearly out of their depth.

I can agree with this.

P.S. I don't understand the need for that overly verbose addendum; it seems to be repeating what was already just said.

Hi, just here to psot this as this is related to the thread:

http://skulltagleaks.wordpress.com/

In a neutral opinion, something like this should've happen again.

So then, who do you (the community) think could step up to the plate?
I'm open to suggestions.

If a staff reform actually happens, it could be a democratic vote from the people with nominees suggested and reasons why to avoid bias

Cyber wrote: So then, who do you (the community) think could step up to the plate?
I'm open to suggestions.

Jenova and Ru5tKing

Jenova - He is actually pretty reasonable with his decisions when it comes to moderation. Proof? Look at best-ever's administratorship, it's pretty good.

Ru5tKing - I think he's the most fair person in this port. He isn't biased and knows when to talk when something is out of line.

EDIT: On top of that lets remember the time when two people almost got master banned for posting a comment on youtube; something completely out of their jurisdiction: http://zandronum.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=1944

Decay, but like that would ever happen

I would like to see the admin team focused more around Dynamo, and Razgriz, aswell as getting rid of a lot of the old staff who do nothing

Cyber wrote: So then, who do you (the community) think could step up to the plate?
I'm open to suggestions.

In another forum I was once a part of, when a mass protest of the current administration occurred the mods decided to create a new thread inviting any members to make their case as to why they should be considered as part of the moderation team, where the community was able to vote on their favorite. Of course the moderators still had some discretion over the final pick (as inevitably some troll voting did occur). Something you could consider.

Cyber wrote: So then, who do you (the community) think could step up to the plate?
I'm open to suggestions.

I'd say Jenova, (I won't toot my own horn), would make a suitable staff addition considering all the amount of effort, time and money he's contributed towards the community. Best-Ever server clusters are a large part of the zan community and it's quite obvious he cares about Zandronum. He's not a yes man and he's capable of being un-baised when he's on a serious note.

Catastrophe wrote: Jenova

Jenova is already in #staff on IRC, so I don't think this is too far from reality

Samurai wrote: Decay, but like that would ever happen

I would like to see the admin team focused more around Dynamo, and Razgriz, aswell as getting rid of a lot of the old staff who do nothing

I wanted to downsize the staff group count, for example the Global Moderators and Moderators groups are redundant in terms of raw user privileges. (There's a lot of per-user stuff, for example mifu as a mod for the projects section, etc)

EDIT: Dynamo was a Global Mod but stepped down to regular Mod because of real life stuff and time constraints, if I recall correctly

Cyber wrote: So then, who do you (the community) think could step up to the plate?
I'm open to suggestions.

I'll bite, and retort what I've previously said.

When Dynamo was a moderator and I was a previously active moderator before the first staff reform, the staff actually had efficiency and people had actually worked hard in to at least appeasing both staff needs and community needs. After the first staff reform, what happened? Dynamo was demoted to a reserve moderator, despite the fact that he actually had some great ideas to boost staff motivation and had actively worked for the community. I was forced to leave my position due to very ridiculous drama that should of been resolved and that I should of actually had support for back when Skulltag was still around. Ironically enough, the same person who initiated the staff reform before Zandronum had disappeared and is not currently with us. Take a guess? Zap610. Although truth be told I had no issues with Zap and I actually liked the guy, the staff reform was a big mistake, throwing out mods that were actually active and involved in competition as well, and those left behind are barely active nowadays, if honestly useful as well.

I for one recommend that Dynamo get a higher position in the staff. He deserves it, and he worked for it. He's been in staff for more than I have and without a doubt he would do a lot for the staff and for the benefit of the community. I won't nominate myself, but I don't see myself moderating the forums at this point because I really wouldn't even have the time, but I would be open to it if I could at least serve at a reserve mod.

Rustking is without a doubt unbiased, and is actually a good representive of the competitive community at this point, both in Zandronum and also has shown maturity on a lot of topics. My vote will go for Rustking as well.

Dynamo did have a higher position, but he stepped down because he had Real Life issues to attend to.

EDIT: Correction, he didn't step down, but he was not demoted for any difference of opinion.

These are very real problems in the current affairs that have been quietly developing for years, and it cannot be swept under the rug any longer if we are to think of the long-term well-being of this port. This community and administration need to work as one to approach any given situation, and to choose the individuals that have the best representation of the community.

Personally, I see a need for less admins in general as a precautionary measure against inflexible bureaucracy getting in the way of judgements, and any possibility of staff members acting as vectors for others (whether conscious of it or not) or simply voting with the majority because they don't have a strong enough opinion on their own (whether conscious of it or not).

EDIT: Seeing as how this thread has progressed, I would just like to point out that I basically just believe some simplifying, restructuring and streamlining of the authority here would be beneficial to the port. The port is not massive, thus I think too many people in authority can get in the way of each other's decisions and progress like in many leaderships I have seen. This isn't Blizzard forums where you're managing hundreds of thousands of members, thus, I don't think a large administration team is the most effective approach, seen from personal experience with similar communities. I don't know what the hell else is going on in this thread.

I think we'd be going in the opposite direction, IMO with the abundance of admins there needs to be a reform in the other direction rather than adding more onto this mess.

Qent wrote: Dynamo did have a higher position, but he stepped down because he had Real Life issues to attend to.

Did he? If I recall correctly the reason why he was brought down as a reserve moderator at the time was because his ideas and his suggestions weren't getting through to a lot of the staff members. So...what's going on here exactly? I know Dynamo is busy but I do also know, and even recall, that a lot of the stuff he suggested wasn't getting through to most of the staff and I was there for some of those times. Again...what's going on now here? Someone's not being truthful here.

I'd rather not be voted off the island, but will respect community wishes if that's the case. Just throwing that out there.