There are some big changes coming, some small changes coming, some internal changes coming / have already been put in place. This is a bit of an omnibus announcement...the numbered order doesn't imply primacy...just the order in which I thought while typing. The final documents etc will all be posted publicly once complete. All of these will occur during the next week or so. CF will be down on the evening of 3 July so we can make staff changes etc as we have to do each one manually. Most of this was announced to staff a few hours ago.
1) The Appeals system is being reworked to include the removal of infraction appeals. Ban appeals are still allowed. Appeals will be handled independent of the moderating staff by a rewickered Reconciliation Team who will have a stronger oversight process. The focus is going to be less 'Court of Appeals' but 'member services.' More to follow on this point.
2) The number of staff on CF is being reduced. The number of Admins is being cut in half as is the number of Supervisors. There will be some shifts in teams where necessary.
3) Following number 2, staff are going to be expected to be out in the forums actually interacting with people, actively moderating in threads. More time needs to be spent on the public boards instead of being closeted away in the staff forums. This will be reviewed continuously. If is not occurring staff will be removed.
4) There has already been a change, internally, regarding how reports on staffers are handled. Previously they were handled just like a report on any other member. Staffers working reports on other staffers was not working. Admins handle reports on staffers and will follow the staff discipline protocol (found here, section VII). Essentially three strikes...or zero strikes if the situation is bad enough. I'll update the FAQ when I get around to it...
5) The "Ask a Pastor" forum will be changed to behave (permission-wise) like the Suggestions / Complaint Box. The intent with "Anonymous Voice" was to allow members to post questions to our chaplains (all credentials are verified...no "universal life church" abracadabra pastor "certificates) about whatever is on their mind without revealing who they are. Even I can't see who is posting. The forum was left open so the general board could glean information that may help them in their spiritual walks. Unfortunately, it seemed to turn a sort of game (it seems) where people trolled the threads and mocked those that were genuinely seeking advice. This is not appropriate. The new forum will be setup so a user can only see their thread(s) and staff will not have access. While CF is certainly not a replacement for church and personal interaction member have a right to seek advice if they feel the need to do so...in a private manner without having to deal with abuse from other members.
6) Forum Specific Guidelines are being removed. Each forum will retain a basic outline regarding the purpose of the forum. The Congregational Areas will be a given a bit more leeway to include posting a statement of faith / documents about what group x believes etc. Every forum outline and statement of faith will follow a standardized format. After much review (even though I've never cared for FSGs to be honest) it seems that every single forum on the site had a completely different rule-set that staff (and certainly members) couldn't keep straight. This led to some pretty inconsistent moderating across the board, amongst other pesky issues. The only rule-set anyone should be required to follow is the standard set of site rules which applies to everyone equally, in any section of the board. The general complaint that moderating decisions often make little sense is a valid one to a certain degree...while we're certainly trying to improve on that aspect of the board in a whole bunch of different ways...we figured that the easiest was to make the same rules apply everywhere.
6a) The only place FSGs will remain are the Recovery section of the site and in Exploring Christianity
7) Some low traffic forums will be closed / consolidated. These are mainly in the leisure, occupations, hobbies, games, gallery etc sections of the site.
CF used to try / be everything to everybody. The critical mass is not really here anymore to sustain such a broad reach of forums. I think, too, that the site has lost some focus along the way. Pauler's (site owner) vision statement was, to me, a good first step. Some people liked it, some people did not. However, it really is what is driving many of the changes. There has been a certain nostalgia / longing for what CF used to be several years ago...and that has (inappropriately, in some cases) driven many of the decisions on the site in recent times...some of which worked, many of which didn't. Instead of trying to rebuild the past we're focusing on building on what we currently have. We're not trying to roll CF back to the pre-777 days. We, likewise, have rules, policies, functions which are more suited to the much bigger site that CF used to be...we're attempting to streamline those.
We, likewise, have focused for far too long on many of the behind-the-scenes technical aspects of the site and let many of the things that we should be doing get pushed to the right.
Focus areas moving foward (for me, staff, and hopefully members) are (in no particular order):
a) rebuilding some of the amazing fellowship forums we had in the past.
b) we have an incredibly strong knowledge base of Christianity here because of our members and their experiences. I learn something every day by reading the forums. Debates about various beliefs certainly have their time and place...but not to the exclusion of everything else, I think
c) we have an incredibly large number of denominational forums which allow for a greater level of interdenominational interaction than most places on the internet. I'd like to see them prosper. We can celebrated our shared faith in Christ while also embracing our denominational uniqueness.
These focus areas do not require technical changes and have been ignored for far too long. A big thing for me, I think, is best summed up by what was written by someone else in one of the staff areas of the site while all of these changes being discussed:
Will we get everything correct on the first pass? We never do. But we do try.
In Christ,
Matt
For the Advisors
1) The Appeals system is being reworked to include the removal of infraction appeals. Ban appeals are still allowed. Appeals will be handled independent of the moderating staff by a rewickered Reconciliation Team who will have a stronger oversight process. The focus is going to be less 'Court of Appeals' but 'member services.' More to follow on this point.
2) The number of staff on CF is being reduced. The number of Admins is being cut in half as is the number of Supervisors. There will be some shifts in teams where necessary.
3) Following number 2, staff are going to be expected to be out in the forums actually interacting with people, actively moderating in threads. More time needs to be spent on the public boards instead of being closeted away in the staff forums. This will be reviewed continuously. If is not occurring staff will be removed.
4) There has already been a change, internally, regarding how reports on staffers are handled. Previously they were handled just like a report on any other member. Staffers working reports on other staffers was not working. Admins handle reports on staffers and will follow the staff discipline protocol (found here, section VII). Essentially three strikes...or zero strikes if the situation is bad enough. I'll update the FAQ when I get around to it...
5) The "Ask a Pastor" forum will be changed to behave (permission-wise) like the Suggestions / Complaint Box. The intent with "Anonymous Voice" was to allow members to post questions to our chaplains (all credentials are verified...no "universal life church" abracadabra pastor "certificates) about whatever is on their mind without revealing who they are. Even I can't see who is posting. The forum was left open so the general board could glean information that may help them in their spiritual walks. Unfortunately, it seemed to turn a sort of game (it seems) where people trolled the threads and mocked those that were genuinely seeking advice. This is not appropriate. The new forum will be setup so a user can only see their thread(s) and staff will not have access. While CF is certainly not a replacement for church and personal interaction member have a right to seek advice if they feel the need to do so...in a private manner without having to deal with abuse from other members.
6) Forum Specific Guidelines are being removed. Each forum will retain a basic outline regarding the purpose of the forum. The Congregational Areas will be a given a bit more leeway to include posting a statement of faith / documents about what group x believes etc. Every forum outline and statement of faith will follow a standardized format. After much review (even though I've never cared for FSGs to be honest) it seems that every single forum on the site had a completely different rule-set that staff (and certainly members) couldn't keep straight. This led to some pretty inconsistent moderating across the board, amongst other pesky issues. The only rule-set anyone should be required to follow is the standard set of site rules which applies to everyone equally, in any section of the board. The general complaint that moderating decisions often make little sense is a valid one to a certain degree...while we're certainly trying to improve on that aspect of the board in a whole bunch of different ways...we figured that the easiest was to make the same rules apply everywhere.
6a) The only place FSGs will remain are the Recovery section of the site and in Exploring Christianity
7) Some low traffic forums will be closed / consolidated. These are mainly in the leisure, occupations, hobbies, games, gallery etc sections of the site.
CF used to try / be everything to everybody. The critical mass is not really here anymore to sustain such a broad reach of forums. I think, too, that the site has lost some focus along the way. Pauler's (site owner) vision statement was, to me, a good first step. Some people liked it, some people did not. However, it really is what is driving many of the changes. There has been a certain nostalgia / longing for what CF used to be several years ago...and that has (inappropriately, in some cases) driven many of the decisions on the site in recent times...some of which worked, many of which didn't. Instead of trying to rebuild the past we're focusing on building on what we currently have. We're not trying to roll CF back to the pre-777 days. We, likewise, have rules, policies, functions which are more suited to the much bigger site that CF used to be...we're attempting to streamline those.
We, likewise, have focused for far too long on many of the behind-the-scenes technical aspects of the site and let many of the things that we should be doing get pushed to the right.
Focus areas moving foward (for me, staff, and hopefully members) are (in no particular order):
a) rebuilding some of the amazing fellowship forums we had in the past.
b) we have an incredibly strong knowledge base of Christianity here because of our members and their experiences. I learn something every day by reading the forums. Debates about various beliefs certainly have their time and place...but not to the exclusion of everything else, I think
c) we have an incredibly large number of denominational forums which allow for a greater level of interdenominational interaction than most places on the internet. I'd like to see them prosper. We can celebrated our shared faith in Christ while also embracing our denominational uniqueness.
These focus areas do not require technical changes and have been ignored for far too long. A big thing for me, I think, is best summed up by what was written by someone else in one of the staff areas of the site while all of these changes being discussed:
I think that these are good guideposts for us to work on. The Advisors are also drafting a staff vision detailing expectations etc...it will cover less the technical end of things but rather will more fully explain our reasoning. It will be posted publicly after it is released to staff.
Will we get everything correct on the first pass? We never do. But we do try.
In Christ,
Matt
For the Advisors
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