[Amendment] Curator reform

[Elrond]

Over my term as Curator I have thought of a few changes to the position that I think will help to make the job easier and more efficient.

My first suggestion is giving the Curator the power to upgrade members (this is done via group memberships and is not a Administrative power). The reason for suggesting this is simple - it is faster to upgrade someone that it is to pm the speaker plus the Speaker has to upgrade the person anyway. Allowing both The speaker and The Curator to upgrade members means that the first one to go online after the vote finishes can upgrade the member - this provides a quicker result for the new civ. The Curator can already add and remove CdeC members so there isnt a really a security issue.

My second suggestion is removing the part of the constitution which says the speaker must pm successful citizen candidates asking which badge they want - its not done and it is pointless. Think about it - its usually very obvious which [badge they want and if their is doubt the citizen badge can be given and if they dont like it they can change the badge in group memberships.

My third suggestion is clarifying who does what in disciplinary procedures - atm the speaker starts the threads but there is no mention as to who sets up punishment votes and closes finsihed votes - the Curator isnt mentioned in the article. To make it flexible I have added that the Curator may start votes if the speaker is away.

v1.0

Proposer: Elrond
Supporters: Scar Face, Ferrets54, the Black Prince, Thanatos

This amendments would change the Constitution as shown below:

Article 2 - Patronisation

Any Citizen holding their rank for three months can patronise a Peregrinus for citizenship subject to the requirements in Article 1 above. The process of patronisation is as follows.

1. The patron confirms the candidate meets the requirements, OR a candidate meeting the requirements contacts a Citizen asking for patronage.
2. The nominee sends the patron a PM explaining his duties and privileges as a Citizen, and his contributions to the community. The patron forwards this paragraph, along with his own, outlining why he nominated this member, to a CdeC member.
3. The CdeC member opens a thread in the CdeC Forum and the proposed nominee is discussed and voted upon.
4. If the nominee achieves sixty per cent of the non-abstaining votes, he becomes a Citizen.
5. The Speaker of the House or The Curator promotes the member to Citizen, with a Citizen badge, and contacts him as to whether he would like to remain a Citizen, or further self define as an Artifex or Civitate.

If a nominee fails his vote, he is not eligible to be considered again for one month. Members of the CdeC must abstain from voting on members they patronise. All CdeC votes must be concluded within seven days of the thread being opened in the CdeC.

Section 4 - The Judiciary

Article 1 - Citizens Behavior

The suspension and removal of a Rank is handled by the Consilium de Civitates via the following disciplinary process. No Citizen may be subject to more than one process for a single post.

Procedure
If any Citizen receives a staff warning from an Officer of the Moderation Branch their case will be referred to the Consilium de Civitates by the Chief of Branch or the Speaker of the House, who will open a thread and post all relevant user notes of the accused. The accused will then be asked by the Speaker of the House to produce a defence within forty eight hours. At the conclusion of this period, regardless of whether a defense has been received, a vote shall be opened by The Speaker to conclude after four days. The options are

• Dismiss the Case
• Take Further Action
• Abstain

If the CdeC vote to take further action, The Curator shall open a second poll is opened for four days. The options are:

• Censure
• Suspension of rank for 1 week
• Suspension of rank for 1 month
• Suspension of rank for 2 months
• Permanent Removal of Rank
• Abstain

A simple majority of non abstaining members is required for the vote to pass.

If a member is referred by another member, the process is the same, except that the accusation is substituted for usernotes in the thread, and the defendant shall receive an anonymous copy of the accusation from the Speaker of the House.

In the event of the Speaker being unavailable The Speaker may delegate his role to The Curator.

A Rank may not be removed except by the procedure outlined in this Article. Divus, Opifex and Phalera awards may only be removed by a Decision of the Curia or by the request of the rank holder.

[Scar Face]

Odd how no one has posted. Anyways, I support.

[Simetrical]

I would prefer that mention of who does it be left out entirely. Let it be the Curator, the Speaker, or any admin, why not? Which ties back into my Curator abolition bill.

[pannonian]

I would prefer that mention of who does it be left out entirely. Let it be the Curator, the Speaker, or any admin, why not? Which ties back into my Curator abolition bill.

Having a curator as a focal point forces someone to take responsibility for getting the work done.

Oppose.

Of the two, the Curator is the more active participant in the CdC than the Speaker, or at least should be. The responsibility of starting the various disciplinary polls should therefore lie with the Curator.

The last blue bit says that the speaker may delegate his role to the curator if he is unavailable, so that is covered,

My recommendation, similar to what Sim is suggesting but with a different emphasis, would be to state that the curator and speaker can assume each other's administrative work if either is unavailable. Check if this repeats what's already been said though - there's no point in cluttering up the constitution any more than necessary. That the admins can act as further backup if neither is available goes without saying.

[Hotspur]

Oppose.

Of the two, the Curator is the more active participant in the CdC than the Speaker, or at least should be. The responsibility of starting the various disciplinary polls should therefore lie with the Curator.

[sapi]

Oppose.

Of the two, the Curator is the more active participant in the CdC than the Speaker, or at least should be. The responsibility of starting the various disciplinary polls should therefore lie with the Curator.

The status quo of the speaker opening the polls is unchanged by this amendment.

[Elrond]

Oppose.

Of the two, the Curator is the more active participant in the CdC than the Speaker, or at least should be. The responsibility of starting the various disciplinary polls should therefore lie with the Curator.

Evidently someone is following my lead for applying for a job they know little about.

atm the speaker starts both votes or I start the second one - A large proportion of disciplinary votes are due to warnings - The Curator isnt always a moderator (e.g me or tBP) and therefore the Curator isnt always able to start the first vote due to lack of necessary privileges which the Speaker and Staff moderators have.

The particular section of the amendment is meant to make the status quo official - The speaker starts the first vote and speaker may delegate the task if he wants to - ie in the case of a conflict of interest (in which case I get sent a copy of pms sent by everyone for the first part of the proceedings).

The Speaker should be able to fill in for the Curator when he is away and the Curator be able to fill for the Speaker (except with Hex stuff).

The idea of this bill is to make the system flexible - so that the Speaker's and Curators responsibilities overlap so that a new arrangement can be agreed on when a new person takes up on of the positions. People fail to realise that the Speaker - Curator pairing is important and changes with different people - I have more automany with EvM as Speaker than I did when TP was Speaker. It works both ways - EvM was away for a couple of weeks and no one noticed because I filled in for him when I could and asked imb39 to do stuff I couldn't whilst EvM returned just to start disciplinary proceedings.

ATM there are some 'gentleman's agreements' which operate in the CdeC because the currents rules are inflexible and its sometimes necessary to break them - before anyone gets worked up its worth knowing that I (or someone else) only does something if no objects to it. I cant really give an example because I would be breaking staff non disclosure, CdeC non disclosure or both - but its not a case of me simply ending a vote autocratically - I, the speaker or an admin ask if they can do something and if after a certain period of time no one objects then and only then is that action performed (e.g ending a vote early to end a CdeC riot - which has happened once).

No set of rules can proscribe for every possible situation and therefore a flexible system is better.

[Hotspur]

Evidently someone is following my lead for applying for a job they know little about.

Perhaps, but unlike you I actually intend to do the things that shiny badge requires of me (where is the November CdC report?). Now, would you like to continue to go down this path or shall we focus on your bill?

atm the speaker starts both votes or I start the second one - A large proportion of disciplinary votes are due to warnings - The Curator isnt always a moderator (e.g me or tBP) and therefore the Curator isnt always able to start the first vote due to lack of necessary privileges which the Speaker and Staff moderators have.

So I suppose a standing request to the Moderation branch that any warnings accrued by Civs be CC'ed to the Curator is so absurd that it was never considered, eh?

The particular section of the amendment is meant to make the status quo official - The speaker starts the first vote and speaker may delegate the task if he wants to - ie in the case of a conflict of interest (in which case I get sent a copy of pms sent by everyone for the first part of the proceedings).

No, what it does is fob off responsibilities that are properly the Curator's onto the Speaker. The Curator holds the tie-breaker and the veto so clearly his role in the CdC is, and should be, greater than the Speaker's. The Speaker's mandate is as Curial representative to Hex, not to initiate disciplinary proceedings in the CdC.

The Speaker should be able to fill in for the Curator when he is away and the Curator be able to fill for the Speaker (except with Hex stuff).

I have no problem with this, so long as in this particular case the Speaker is the substitute and not the Curator.

[Elrond]

I am not trying to reduce the Curator's work - it should stay roughly the same.

I know that the Curia has a certain view of what the Speaker should do and what the Curator should do but it simply doesn't work the way its supposed to. For instance if EvM is unavailable I have to post people defenses - this isnt my job as per described in the constitution but if he cant do it then I stand in.

The Speaker has started the disciplinary procedures since before I was Curator - it wasnt one of my shortcuts. Its something that the neither of the Speakers during my Curatorship have expressed a wish to hand to the Curator. I never start either displinary votes during TP's Speakership and I only started 2nd votes after EvM became Speaker. I cant start polls after I have posted a thread so I would have needed additional privileges to add polls after the required two day gap.

EvM has been away from TWC for several days and I have needed to part of his job (with Imb39 dealing with upgrading people plus other jobs I cant do) - the fact is that when the Speaker is away the Curator is the only person who can realisticly deal with CdeC stuff. This amendement should enable the roles become more interchangable and flexible depending on what the Speaker wants.

The 'shiny badge' is so that the Curator is easily identifiable - its not to boost my ego otherwise I would have repeatedly pestered Lord Rahl to make it rather than wait two months for him to make it. I am trying to enact the reforms that I believe are necessary now because the next Curator wont be able to if he wants to because it will look like he is trying to gain more powers. If the new curator objects to them then they are of a nature that means that he can stick to the old methods if he wishes to.

EDIT:

I'm sorry, so who helps the new citizen out with choosing between Citizen, Artifex, and Civitate if this were to pass?

According to the constitution the speaker is supposed to - however he currently choses the badge - its ussually obvious which badge people want due to their listed contributions to TWC - some CdeC members have even started the votes with Artifex or Civitate in the title and candidates have used the name of a badge in their application (e.g. I wish to become a Artifex because of...) both of these remove the need for to ask the person. If some one wishes to change the badge then they can ask the speaker if they dont know - but the section in the constitution is surplus to requirements.

[removeduser_487563287433]

I support, the work load of the curator needs to be reduced and simplified.

[the Black Prince]

These, at least, are sensible and logical changes.

I support.

I say in advance, that given i tend to not be around that much, should the proposer wish to get my support for subsequent versions, he PMs me to ensure i am notified.


I'd certainly point out to Hotspur that the Curator is required to be an active participant in all areas of the CdeC, the Speaker's role there is entirely voluntary except with regards to actually promoting citizens and the disciplinary process. The speaker is only a member of the CdeC by virtue of being on the Council, and if he chose to have no part in CdeC proceedings, other than promoting members following notification of their vote passing, and initiating proceedings on behalf of staff, that would be fine.

The Speaker's mandate is as Curial representative to Hex, not to initiate disciplinary proceedings in the CdC.

and as the Curia person on the Council, he brings before the duly appointed curial body - the CdeC - any concerns the moderation branch has with a citizen.

tBP

[Hotspur]

I'd certainly point out to Hotspur that the Curator is required to be an active participant in all areas of the CdeC, the Speaker's role there is entirely voluntary except with regards to actually promoting citizens and the disciplinary process. The speaker is only a member of the CdeC by virtue of being on the Council, and if he chose to have no part in CdeC proceedings, other than promoting members following notification of their vote passing, and initiating proceedings on behalf of staff, that would be fine.

I know, that's the whole point.

[Blau&Gruen]

I support the simplification of the procedure.

[Simetrical]

Having a curator as a focal point forces someone to take responsibility for getting the work done.

I have never seen delays on these forums in tasks that any administrator can easily do, such as renaming users, at least not since we moved to a lots-of-admins system. They're invariably handled within a couple of hours. There are only ever problems getting the work done when it falls to one or two people, or it requires considerable effort.

[Scorch]

I have never seen delays on these forums in tasks that any administrator can easily do, such as renaming users, at least not since we moved to a lots-of-admins system. They're invariably handled within a couple of hours. There are only ever problems getting the work done when it falls to one or two people, or it requires considerable effort.

Between the Admins, Strats and Global moderators, we have around 18 people with powers that could easily share the task, without the presence of a Curator.

[Thanatos]

I'm sorry, so who helps the new citizen out with choosing between Citizen, Artifex, and Civitate if this were to pass?

[pannonian]

I'm sorry, so who helps the new citizen out with choosing between Citizen, Artifex, and Civitate if this were to pass?

The first port of call should be the patron. If the citizenship candidate is so ignorant of TWC norms as to not know the difference between them, and the patron is so disinclined to explain, then one wonders why on earth the candidate was patronised in the first place.

[Thanatos]

Works for me, I'm sold.

I support.

[Simetrical]

Precisely.