Proper use of medal system

**Silver Guard** · August 09, 2007, 06:06 AM

Damnit, this is not where this post was supposed to go. If Ragabash accepts this should be merged with his thread.

At present the medal system is ridiculous, we have a medal for uber people (divus) for uber modders (opifex) as large medals. Then we have the medium medals, for staff, content and tech group. And finaly the small ones for member awards. When I read the constitution I found this honestly surprising.

Only the hard-core beurocrats can claim that Opifex is not a modders award, it simply is, it has been for a year and will continue to be. So we have an award for modders, fair enough, they deserve it. But then again... we also have awards for content and funniest member!

That there are member award medals, and not CC medals astonishes me. People like eventhorizon and ferrets are excellent CC posters, along with those like Zenith and Siblesz. And what do they get? Not a jot. Can you realy imagine any of them gaining a opifex nomination, let alone the vote? Of course not, only modders get those (with two, only two, notable exceptions). As such we need a new medal, one on par with opifex, to replace the sadly lost philosophers robe I also want to place the moderators mace in the large medal section, as it is worth it.

Persapiens Bill

Large Size

DivusTo achieve apotheosis and Curia vote, the nominee must be supported by three fourths of non abstaining elected members of the Consilium de Civitate. The nominee must have served as a Council Officer (or previous equivalents), made a clear and distinguished contribution to the community and provided exceptional service to TWC in their capacity as an administrator. They cannot be nominated within three months of resigning their Officer Position.

Any Citizen can nominate a former Council Officer and does so by PMing a Consilium de Civitate member. The Consilium de Civitate will contact the nominee and ask if he or she will accept the nomination. If the nominee should decline, or fails to respond within one month, no further action need be taken and the nomination declared null and void.

If the nominee should accept, the Consilium de Civitate will create a thread within the Consilium de Civitate Forum to investigate the legitimacy of the nominee’s accolades. The Consilium de Civitate has the right to request any and all relevant material from the Staff Officers to ascertain this, with the approval of the Council. The Consilium de Civitate will discuss the nominee and his qualifications for at least a week before the vote is held.

Should the nominee receive the support of three fourths of non abstaining Consilium de Civitate members, the Curator shall create a discussion in the Prothalamos lasting at least three days and then move the nomination to vote as per the procedure in Section 2 Article 3. The vote shall last one week and the nominee shall require a two-third majority of non-abstaining votes to become Divus. A nominee who fails the vote is not eligible to be nominated again for a six month period.

OpifexTo qualify as an Opifex, the nominee must have served the ~~Total War Center or~~ Total War Community with exceptional input to any of the boards or mods in any capacity other than that of a Staff Officer. A member of any Rank is eligible to receive an Opifex award, but must also meet the criteria to become a Citizen. His nomination must also be seconded by an elected member of the Consilium de Civitate.

Qualifying nominees shall have their nomination posted in the Prothalamos and will be moved to vote as per the procedure in Section 2 Article 3. Once moved to they shall be voted upon for a period of one week and require a two-third majority of non-abstaining votes to achieve the award. If the nominee was not already a Citizen, this Rank shall also be conferred upon them if they pass. A nominee who fails to pass his vote is not eligible to re-nominated until three months have passed.

Persapiens To qualify as an Persapiens, the nominee must have served the Discussion and Debate forums with exceptional input to any of the forums therein contained. A member of any Rank is eligible to receive an Persapiens award, but must also meet the criteria to become a Citizen. His nomination must also be seconded by an elected member of the Consilium de Civitate.

Qualifying nominees shall have their nomination posted in the Prothalamos and will be moved to vote as per the procedure in Section 2 Article 3. Once moved to they shall be voted upon for a period of one week and require a two-third majority of non-abstaining votes to achieve the award. If the nominee was not already a Citizen, this Rank shall also be conferred upon them if they pass. A nominee who fails to pass his vote is not eligible to re-nominated until three months have passed.

Moderators MaceThe award is divided into three classes. The Bronze Mace is awarded to any member who has served as an official Staff Moderator for over three months. The Silver Mace is awarded to any moderator who has been promoted to “Senior Moderator”and served for 3 months or Served as “Staff Moderator” for 6 months. The “Golden Moderators Mace” is awarded to any Moderator who is deemed to have provided the site with exceptional service for over 1 Year in areas of Moderation and Moderation Policy, Senior Moderator who is deemed to have provided the site with exceptional service for over 6 months in areas of Moderation and Moderation Policy and any Chief of Moderation who has served for 3 months. All the Mace awards are awarded by the Administrative Council.

**Enemy of the State** · August 09, 2007, 06:09 AM

I support this. The CC needs a medal.

**iudas** · August 09, 2007, 06:13 AM

I also support. The name is kinky.

**makanyane** · August 09, 2007, 06:22 AM

Yet again a reason to hate all these bloody things arises...

cue who should get a bigger medal debate/...............

whilst on the subject of who should get a bigger medal, which bright sparks actually think a moderator who's spent 6 months shunting the odd lost thread out of the tutorials sections, should get a bigger medal than the technicians (eg Sim and Mim) who actually keep the whole site running? Or was that just an oversight?

All you've left in in-between category is Scribes Quill and Technicians Screwdriver, is there any logical reason why they should be lower than anything else?

**jimkatalanos** · August 09, 2007, 06:24 AM

I find something wrong moving the Moderators Mace in the large size

**sapi** · August 09, 2007, 06:33 AM

Someone explain to me why exactly we're bothering with medal 'sizes' anyway?

**iudas** · August 09, 2007, 06:35 AM

Indeed, Mak has a point.

But I suggest both screwdrivers and maces to be enlarged, a.k.a. moved to big, so we're all happy...

OR I suggest removing this whole size thingy...

**makanyane** · August 09, 2007, 06:49 AM

the size thingy came up in the other streamlining proposal as some people (not me) objected to Opifex and Divus having only same prominence as other medals, I suspect that argument will probably be making an appearance shortly......

Other factor was ex staff ranks wanting to be higher than site awards...

..that last side probably has some merit. I'd rather see site awards section as something more freely given out to normal members who participate in good but minor ways that need encouragement (like uni classes - which is getting discussed in curia main) and keeping a distinction between the two levels might make that easier to sell.

Though I wouldn't mind everything showing as equal (or getting scrapped entirely as am personally completely fed up with whole discussion!), I suspect other people will want at least two levels of distinction.

**pannonian** · August 09, 2007, 07:53 AM

Originally Posted by makanyane

the size thingy came up in the other streamlining proposal as some people (not me) objected to Opifex and Divus having only same prominence as other medals, I suspect that argument will probably be making an appearance shortly......

IMHO it's not the size of the medal that matters, but what you do with it.

Originally Posted by makanyane

..that last side probably has some merit. I'd rather see site awards section as something more freely given out to normal members who participate in good but minor ways that need encouragement (like uni classes - which is getting discussed in curia main) and keeping a distinction between the two levels might make that easier to sell.

Is it possible to have individualised reason boxes for a common medal? At the moment, each silver mace has the same reason, albeit with different dates. Is it possible to have a scroll medal which, when one looks at the person's profile, has all the courses the person passed listed in the box? If that's possible, and extendable to other areas, we might even be able to streamline the medals system even further.

**Tom Paine** · August 09, 2007, 06:56 AM

I don't care for the size thing, so if we abolish that I'd be a strong supporter - the medals say what they are for, why make them different sizes?

I also don't care for the idea of a separate D&D medal. Why? How does contribution to the D&D area not count as contribution to the site... as covered by, well, by Opifex? To make more medals seems pointless, when we have perfectly servicable medals extant, as advertised by (eg) Lord Rahl?

**iudas** · August 09, 2007, 07:45 AM

So if I (or Eclipse for that matter) propose a great debater for opifexship, will he be voted? Can you guarantee that? If he's a great debater, he's got to deserve it...

**Tom Paine** · August 09, 2007, 08:42 AM

Originally Posted by SirPaladin

So if I (or Eclipse for that matter) propose a great debater for opifexship, will he be voted? Can you guarantee that? If he's a great debater, he's got to deserve it...

No, I can't guarantee it. Can I guarantee that a great modder would be given opifex? Equally, no.

**iudas** · August 09, 2007, 08:46 AM

Hm, yes, I used a bad word. But there are many great modders with the rank of opifex. I don't think most citizens even know that opifex can be given to non-modders.

**Tom Paine** · August 09, 2007, 11:53 AM

Originally Posted by SirPaladin

Hm, yes, I used a bad word. But there are many great modders with the rank of opifex. I don't think most citizens even know that opifex can be given to non-modders.

So maybe you need to propose someone for Opifex for CC contributions as a debator? because if you don't think anyone is worthy, then you won't think anyone is worthy of this meaning we'd have... an empty, pointless, wasteful medal.

**Muizer** · August 09, 2007, 10:37 AM

If you ask me, the difference between different tiers of awards is fairly simple:

First tier awards: Handed out after nomination and a plenary vote in the Curia.
Second tier awards: Handed out automatically based on fixed criteria.
Third tier awards: Handed out by the membership in the site awards.

Personally I was in favour of swapping second and third tier, btw.

So, really, if anyone wants to have technicians or moderators in the first tier, all they have to ask themselves is whether there is a point to specifically nominating an individual, making a case for them and having a plenary vote.

**Perikles** · August 09, 2007, 11:22 AM

Originally Posted by =Eclipse=

At present the medal system is ridiculous, we have a medal for uber people (divus) for uber modders (opifex) as large medals. Then we have the medium medals, for staff, content and tech group. And finaly the small ones for member awards. When I read the constitution I found this honestly surprising.

Only the hard-core beurocrats can claim that Opifex is not a modders award, it simply is, it has been for a year and will continue to be. So we have an award for modders, fair enough, they deserve it. But then again... we also have awards for content and funniest member!

No, Opifex is for any contribution outside staff, this includes the CC and modding. Hard-core bureaucrat? Quite the opposite, I'd rather refer to myself as 'bestower of common sense'. Are WBK and Lord Rahl modders? No. Were Garb and Evariste modders when they were proposed for Opifex? No. People should just nominate CC contributors for Opifex more, this medal will achieve nothing. It will achieve more 'shiny baubles' for the Curia to pat itself on the back with though.

That there are member award medals, and not CC medals astonishes me.

Absolute crap, read above.

People like eventhorizon and ferrets are excellent CC posters, along with those like Zenith and Siblesz. And what do they get? Not a jot. Can you realy imagine any of them gaining a opifex nomination, let alone the vote? Of course not, only modders get those (with two, only two, notable exceptions). As such we need a new medal, one on par with opifex, to replace the sadly lost philosophers robe I also want to place the moderators mace in the large medal section, as it is worth it.

Yes they can, propose them now. You have no idea if they would pass or not and I'd support fully if they were proposed.

To propose a medal on the basis of some hypothetical assumption that CC members will not pass the Opifex vote is absurd. Propose them and see if they fail, then tell me they wouldn't pass.

**Muizer** · August 09, 2007, 12:01 PM

Originally Posted by Perikles

this medal will achieve nothing. .

There also was nothing stopping people from putting forward modders for the citizens badge before the Artifex badge was created. Yet I dare say the creation of the rank (despite being completely equivalent to "civitates") did quite a bit to promote the patronisation of modders. Regardless of the original intent Opifex was created with, a lot of people now completely associate it with modding.

It will achieve more 'shiny baubles' for the Curia to pat itself on the back with though.

I don't think Curia contributions would even qualify a person for the proposed medal. (I don't think it should anyway). The moderators mace is by comparison a whole lot closer to curial self-indulgence.