Based on the feedback we've received across various threads on the site, we've taken a few steps to help address a few issues that have been brought to our attention.
>transparancy
Based on a lack of transparancy on our side regarding bans, conduct, actions by the mod team, we attempted to address several of these issues a couple months ago. A public ban page, mod name reveal on bans, the post you were banned for, and a Q/A with my predeccesor, the previous Manager. After adding these changes, we let go of a few of our moderation staff, addressed concerns with others, and attempted to create dialogue between 'teens and jannys. However, we also inadvertantly created namefags out of zealous mods which was not our intention with an anonymous mod-naming system, and the Q/A thread was derailed fairly quickly. This did little to help increase total transparancy, but allowed us to hold staff accountable for their actions, which I see as a net benefit overall to the moderation process.
The steps that were taken after this experiment were to bring back the ban reasons, adjust the rules to increase clarity, and allow for multiple appeals to previous bans. I view these as a good start, but I'm always looking for more options for us to choose from in the future to give a better look at the moderation of the site while also protecting a janny's right to anonyminity. If you have suggestions, they may be implemented if they are thought out and well written in this thread.
>lack of jannys
When I joined the team, there was a lot of issues with nightly catalog wiping from different off-site groups and poor coverage for the early morning hours due to a lack of jannys being online at that timezone. We attempted to solve this by holding 2 janny drives, in which we brought the team up to 3 mods and around 10 jannys at the mod team's peak. This boosted our coverage to almost 24 hours of janny coverage, and 2/3rds of the day covered by mods as well. Due to several issues (which I will cover next), some of the staff were let go to ensure janny anonyminity and prevent namefag drama from infesting every thread on the site. Coverage decreased for a brief period of time, but since then we have had a second janny drive and found good candidates within the team to move up to mod status for better coverage.
There are still periods of time rarely where moderation is not spread evenly across the day. These are typically short periods, and we are working to address these as I type. Training has begun for 2 more janitors and 1 moderator, and this will give us full coverage across the day and night once they are finished. If you'd like to apply to join the team, be on the lookout for the next janny drive when it shows up.
>drama
Due to some drama a few months ago over leaks, screenshots, and out of context posts, there was an incredible amount of drama regarding the mod team that consumed the better part of a month and ended in the termination of a couple mods and multiple jannys. This affected our daily coverage and necessitated forced anonyminity on the remaining staff, as well as thoughts of bringing in paid Kolyma staff to plug the gaps until a new community-run moderation staff could be re-implemented. Thanks to the time and sacrifice the team put in, we managed to avoid bringing in Kolyma staff and the team is still completely made of your fellow chuds and soyteens.
However, this gave us an opportunity to change things to limit the impact of drama in the future. Moderators now have anonyminity on the site and in IRC, all new staff are required to pick names they have never used online before, joining party-adjacent chatrooms is forbidden by staff, and a chain of command style system where concerns about the site are reported up the chain is being implemented. There are other changes I'd like to make that will create totally anonymous moderation, but we will do this one step at a time until it is right.
