[Amendment]Formalizing Removal of Chief of Moderation

[Farnan]

Section I - The ExecutiveThe Executive is composed of the Hexagon Members, Senior Staff Officers and Staff Officers, who run the Site.

Article I. The Hexagon CouncilThe Hexagon Council is the overarching governing body of the site. It is composed of Permanent Members and Non Permanent Members representing the needs of the Executive at any given time. All Hexagon Members fulfill normal day-to-day duties and all should discuss and co-ordinate their policies inside the Hexagon Council.



Permanent MembersThere shall be four three Permanent members on the Hexagon Council:

* The Site Owner
* Chief Moderator - Serves as Head of the Moderation Branch
* Chief of Content - Serves as Head of the Content Branch
* Chief Technician - Serves as Head of the Technical Branch

The three two Branch Chiefs shall lead their branch, and be the principal officer responsible for policy within the three two branches. It shall normally be presumed that they shall be selected from within their branch.

The appointment of each branch chief is decided by the Hexagon Council but must be ratified by the Staff of the branch they are being appointed too.


Non Permanent OfficersAn undefined number of non permanent Hexagon members may be appointed by the Hexagon Council as and when necessary. Normally these Hexagon members shall be drawn from the Staff ranks, but other members of the site may be invited in.


Article II. The Moderation Branch The Moderation Branch is responsible for maintaining order within the Site Forum and enforcement of the Terms of Service. Staff Officers of this branch are the only members of Staff invested with general moderating powers.

Senior Staff Officers - Strategos The Strategos are Senior Moderators, led by the Chief of Branch, in charge of moderation within the Forum. They will all have Global Moderation powers, and some may have additional administrative powers depending upon their duties.

Senior Moderators are appointed by existing Senior Moderators from among the Staff Officers of this branch.


Staff Officers - Tribounos The Staff Moderators form the front line moderation force on the Forum. They are drawn from the Citizens and appointed and fired by the Senior Moderators.

The total number of Staff Moderators, along with individual assignments and powers are set by the Senior Moderators.

[Romanos IV]

I thought the Curia had already passed this decision. Hopefully my memory does not betray from that age.

Support.

[Empress Meg]

May want to change these here two words as well, for continuity's sake words too:

The Hexagon Council is the overarching governing body of the site. It is composed of Permanent Members and Non Permanent Members representing the needs of the Executive at any given time. All Hexagon Members fulfill normal day-to-day duties and all should discuss and co-ordinate their policies inside the Hexagon Council.


Permanent Members

There shall be four three Permanent members on the Hexagon Council:

* The Site Owner
* Chief Moderator - Serves as Head of the Moderation Branch
* Chief of Content - Serves as Head of the Content Branch
* Chief Technician - Serves as Head of the Technical Branch

The three two Branch Chiefs shall lead their branch, and be the principal officer responsible for policy within the three two branches. It shall normally be presumed that they shall be selected from within their branch.

The appointment of each branch chief is decided by the Hexagon Council but must be ratified by the Staff of the branch they are being appointed too.


Non Permanent Officers

An undefined number of non permanent Hexagon members may be appointed by the Hexagon Council as and when necessary. Normally these Hexagon members shall be drawn from the Staff ranks, but other members of the site may be invited in.

[Farnan]

Made the changes.

[Augustus Lucifer]

Maybe it's just me, but I don't see the usage of the section that defines Hexagon Officers. Technically speaking, the same person could be bother Head of Tech and Head of Content. Now, that's highly unlikely with the current workload, but it's altogether possible. Currently we have a Site Owner who dabbles in everything, a Chief Technician, a Sub-Chief Technican/Sub-Modding Rep/On-site Server Dude/All-around Go-getter, a Modding Rep who dabbles in Content and Moderation, a newly christened Chief of Content who likely still dabbles in Moderation, etc.

The definition of roles seems kind of odd. There's nothing which calls for a Modding Representative in the Constitution, but there will always be a central point of contact for modding concerns on the council(Aradan currently serves that function primarily, and it's listed where it needs to be). There's always going to be a Chief of Content but whether that person always needs to be on Hex, or needs to be a permanent and separate officer, seems kind of negligible.

The truth of the matter is Hex fulfills a variety of roles and many double or triple-dip, like delicious chocolatey ice cream cones. Chief of Name Changing, anyone? I'll volunteer. But seriously, the roles Hex assume defy a stringent classification, and it's up to the Site Owner if there's any permanent positions, so the Constitution mandating it is rather frivolous.

Wouldn't it be easier just to say something to the effect of: "The Site Owner presides over the Hexagon Council, whose membership consists of a body of admins tasked with the managerial aspects of the site. The number of administrators is contingent upon the needs at the time and the classifications of job are fluctuating at the discretion of Hex. All Hex members designated as a central point of contact and manager of one of the many site organs should be duly listed in the requisite areas for communication purposes."

The End. Seems much easier and true to reality.

As an addendum, if we don't make such a change, do we ratify chiefs of branch? Because the Constitution presumes that we do, and to my knowledge I never got a ratification slip whenever a new CoM or CoC was appointed as a member of the branch. At the very least that section also needs to be removed, but I strongly suggest a wording more similar to what I provided above.

[Каие]

Against. I think we need a Chief of Moderation, and deputy, figurehead.

[Farnan]

Against. I think we need a Chief of Moderation, and deputy, figurehead.

Why?

[Каие]

Why?

Why not? I never really understood the reason why there isn;t one any more beyond workload.

[Farnan]

Why not? I never really understood the reason why there isn;t one any more beyond workload.

Its the workload. They last maybe 2 months before they leave.

Instead we Senior Staff work as a council to head the moderation and spread the work. Its actually pretty efficient and I believe better than the COM because there are more heads working together.

[Augustus Lucifer]

The thing is... this proposal isn't changing the way it is. It doesn't matter if you prescribe permanent and non-permanent members, a CoM, whatever in the Constitution. The fact is that isn't how it works, so all we're deciding with this is whether we want the Constitution to reflect the actuality, or continue to wrongly represent it in this section. And before anyone comes with "The Constitution should dictate the actuality, not the actuality dictate the Constitution", I point out one of the opening sentences in the Constitution:

This document is not absolutely authoritative. It is a compilation of the Curia, written and approved by the citizens, which may become outdated or contain oversights.

This is one of those outdated instances, which needs to be rectified. I recommend a change as I suggested above but I guess any change to make it more correct, if still somewhat wrong, is a good change.

[Каие]

Its the workload. They last maybe 2 months before they leave.

Instead we Senior Staff work as a council to head the moderation and spread the work. Its actually pretty efficient and I believe better than the COM because there are more heads working together.

What's wrong with you guys electing a CoM from amongst you but spreading the work load anyway? The Moderation needs a figurehead and authoritative figure.

[pannonian]

Why?

VoNCs are too difficult to pass, so we elect CoMs instead, and within 2 months they're out of staff.

[Каие]

Who are the Strats, I don;t even know beyond you, Ponti and Farnan.

[Pontifex Maximus]

I don't think having a figurehead would be a bad thing, whatever you want to call it. Call it CoM if you want. The only issue is that the administrative workload that strats have taken on since the position was abolished needs to stay evenly distributed. I don't think the CoM position should have been abolished, simply reworked in such a way that would more evenly distribute the work load.

[Каие]

I don't think having a figurehead would be a bad thing, whatever you want to call it. Call it CoM if you want. The only issue is that the administrative workload that strats have taken on since the position was abolished needs to stay evenly distributed. I don't think the CoM position should have been abolished, simply reworked in such a way that would more evenly distribute the work load.

This is basically what I wanted to communicate in my suggestion above.

[Squid]

Chim and Atterdag, though they're on vacation right now, jim was a strat but got hexed.

[Squid]

The problem is two fold with it. First to keep strats from burning out it would need to be rotated around, which in and of itself would defeat the purpose, and second that I'm willing to be that whoever was in the position would probably try to do too much anyways and we'd end up back where we started.

[Каие]

Well naturally whoever would be in charge would be prevented by a pro-active Senior team from doing too much in the first place.

[Pontifex Maximus]

I don't think burnout would be a factor at all if we all participated to the extent we do now. A clear hierarchy would never be a bad thing, it is simply the need to delegate or other wise spread out the work load that would need to be accomplished for the position to work.

[Empress Meg]

The most recent incarnation of the strat team and the way they run business IS great! I don't want anyone to think otherwise. I love the bond that the current situation creates between the strats to work as a team, one person taking PR, etc. It forces these separate folks to work as a unit to keep the mod team running efficiently. I just feel that having someone to help organize when people are on vacation for example or when a tough call comes up, or to help support them in Hex wouldn't be such a bad thing.

I'm not suggesting that we revert back to the old system where the CoM (or the CoM and co-CoM combo) were ripped of spirit when dealing with the public and the interpersonal matters of the moderation team. A go-between Hex and the strats and someone to help make the final call is a necessary person, call the position a CoM or the Magical Doughnut Man for all it matters.

Devoirs The Empress