Over the last several months we have seen several staff members either step down completely or step back from server presence. So, for the sake of transparency, we wish to acknowledge the following departures that have occurred since the last time I posted:
Frumple is on leave indefinitely
As of July 16, 2021, Frumple has taken a leave of absence that he expects to last at least one month (and potentially longer). While he is away, I have invoked the Head Admin responsibilities and will be processing many of his duties in his absence, including moderator veto statuses and final decisions over sanction appeals. I will not be taking over financial or legal responsibilities, so if you have questions about a supporter contribution, rest assured it will still be answered or processed in due course (though may take longer than usual).
Frumple has asked that he only be contacted in an emergency, and even then that such contact should route through myself or another admin whenever possible. If you have something that you need to bring to his attention, please let me know and I will pass it along if it’s necessary to do so.
Frumple’s post in #announcements goes into this decision in a bit more detail, so please read it carefully. I will be discussing some of the operational details at the August GSM, especially for near-term items like re-enabling command blocks. Otherwise, I intend to keep things running as best I can with as few changes as necessary. Please do reach out with any questions, concerns, or feedback.
unjinz suspended for inactivity
Back in May, I announced that we had initiated inactivity review proceedings against two moderators. unjinz was one of the moderators we approached; the other has returned to active status. We do not anticipate any further inactivity-related suspensions at this time.
As always, we are grateful to the contributions that unjinz made during his nearly four-year tenure on staff, and we wish him the best in his future endeavors.
daltdisneyland, kyyl_, VickiTori_, and Vulpicula have stepped down
Between mid-June and mid-July, four moderators (daltdisneyland, kyyl_, VickiTori_, and Vulpicula) have each independently stepped down from their positions. Each of them posted (or shared with us) a resignation letter, which is posted in #announcements in Discord.
These four moderators had a combined 1,787 days of service (nearly 5 years), plus plenty of time as members before then. Each of them built a significant presence on the server in one way or another during their service, either by building a Premier-ranked city, hosting events, having strong camaraderie with the community, or some combination of the three. We are grateful for all of the contributions these moderators made to the community.
New moderators?
As of right now I don’t know whether or not we will promote any of our seven (!!) candidates at the August GSM. I will, however, say THANK YOU to everyone who took the time to submit nominations.
The Ranks page should be up to date with our current voting procedures. For this GSM:
- A majority “Yes” vote (in this case, 5 out of 9) is needed for a candidate to pass.
- A candidate can be blocked with “No” votes from three staff members or 21%, whichever is larger. In this case, three “No” votes is enough to block a promotion.
- Staff will vote in a random order for the initial ballot, and have an opportunity to change their minds during the discussion afterwards.
- A candidate who is approved at the meeting will take office after the meeting is over.
The GSM will begin at 19:00 UTC on Sunday, and we currently expect the moderator candidates to begin being considered at approximately 19:45.
Looking ahead to future months’ nomination cycles (the September cycle is now open):
- Some of the nominations we received this month were borderline or firmly lackluster in quality. Please carefully review the recommendations on the Ranks page for information on what we are looking for. Through a combination of any evidence or testimony you’re submitting, plus your own personal arguments, we should get an understanding of why you are bringing a particular candidate forward. We do not require hard evidence in every nomination, though we do expect some effort to be included. We can generally tell when you’re nominating someone “just to see what happens”, or because you think someone else will also nominate them.
- Re-submitting nominations verbatim generally isn’t a good idea. While we don’t have any direct policies prohibiting this, we would prefer seeing new nominations if your candidate doesn’t get considered or promoted. Some notes on this one in particular:
- It’s perfectly okay to submit the same direct evidence in successive nominations for the same person. Please don’t submit the same “witness testimony” evidence repeatedly.
- If a candidate was considered but not promoted, generally we will ask for a new nomination, or at the very least new arguments on the same evidence.
- There is a fine line between acceptable collaboration/coordination and unacceptable bandwagoning. It’s generally okay to talk with others about who you’re considering nominating, or get some ideas of candidates from others. We did, however, see some behavior this time around that suggested some of the candidates were nominated simply to bring someone above the two-nomination threshold and get them considered, and not because of genuine support for the candidate. In general, it’s best to collaborate on a list of candidates before writing and submitting nominations.
- Candidates need to stay out of the process until they are asked to confirm their candidacy. If you nominate someone, it’s okay to tell them that you have filed a nomination. However, because the list of nominations can change (up or down) at any time, please do not keep track of who has received how many nominations. We did remove some nominations after they were submitted, which could have affected some candidates’ listings. It’s always better to assume that a candidate does not yet have two nominations until the list is published.
- Please be sure to check the member list for preemptive declines and veto statuses. While I have not changed any veto statuses in the last month, that may change in the future, and I may only post them to the member list.
We’ll see you this weekend for the GSM. Stay safe, everyone!
<3, Chief