02-Nov-2020, 2:33 AM
Further to my last thread CCBBC Survey - Summary of Responses - the following is a formal response to the feedback raised in our recent Discord community survey. This response was discussed with the existing Discord moderator team (which includes me, The Architect, ajm-i-am and ruben) prior to this thread being posted.
Introduction
Overall I received 24 responses from a decent mix of our community, the vast majority of which indicating they use the discord server daily. One group of active community participants I felt was underrepresented in the survey responses is our community "veterans" i.e. individuals who have been part of the Chips community for 10+ years.
There were of course many different concerns highlighted in this survey. In spite of this, however, I do think there is a lot of good in this community and my feeling is supported by the many positive remarks collected from this survey alongside the concerns. Further, I certainly don't think our Discord community is toxic by any definition, especially in relation to many other Discord communities I have been apart of over the years. It is from this mindset that we have examined the feedback received in the surveys.
Key areas of focus
I have previously stated that my preference is to apply as few moderator actions (i.e. bans, mutes, deletions, etc.) as possible in my role as mod so as to not create a hostile, draconian environment - a philosophy also held by all of our current mod team. While this remains our preference and ultimate goal, this survey has also made clear to us that the community is looking for mods to step in more often where they previously may have not. Indeed, it is hard to deny even from my standpoint as a mod that the general environment of our Discord server trends a bit on the mean-spirited side, in part because our mod team prefers to not get involved with minor disputes unless necessary.
In light of this, we would like to take the following items raised in the survey away as areas of focus:
As a subset of points 1 and 2 above, the following were specific points raised in the survey that we'd like to highlight for the community as examples of disrespectful behavior:
If you do not see something you feel is pressing in the list above - don't worry. This is not an exhaustive list, but rather what we identified as the key concerns raised across multiple survey responses and what we felt were the most important points to address with the community as a whole.
Supporting changes
To support our efforts addressing the above areas of focus, the following changes have been implemented effective immediately:
1. The rules have been updated to add a new rule #4:
The role of moderators has also been further clarified in the rules as follows:
2. Our moderator team will be looking to step in with warnings more often on minor rule violations - especially in channels geared to be more serious. Those who accumulate excessive warnings can expect to be temporarily banned from the server.
To support this, it is important that the rules not be used as a meme going forward. Any quoting of the server rules at other members, whether jokingly or not, will be deleted as a violation of our rule against backseat moderating going forward. This includes messages or reactions stating rule numbers.
The purpose of this shift in moderation policy is not to be draconian, but to help re-calibrate our community away from being a mean-spirited place to be.
3. A new #introductions channel has been created under the Server category. All new user notifications will now appear in this channel and we welcome both CC and Non-CC conversations with newcomers in this channel. It is the expectation going forward that #general be only used for CC-related conversations.
Trolling, memes or any disruptive behavior that would negatively impact a new user's experience will not be allowed in this channel and this will be strictly enforced. This includes ragging on specific CC content, packs, tilesets, etc. just for the sake of making your opinions known - everyone is of course entitled to their own opinions, but it is not appropriate to try to impose these opinions on newcomers as soon as they join. Those disregarding this policy will be barred from participating in the channel at the discretion of the staff.
4. The Non-CC category has been restructured into two categories: Non-CC and Casual Hangout (new category). This is in response both to the surveys and prior #meta discussions.
The Non-CC category going forward is to be considered a serious category. Reactions will be disabled in these channels to help foster on-topic, high-effort discussions. It contains the following channels:
The Casual Hangout category is a non-serious category and the new rule about keeping on topic is relaxed in these channels. It contains the following channels:
This restructuring opens the door for further conversations about adding additional channels or perhaps moving one of the existing channels from one category to another. These discussions are welcome and can be raised in #meta if you have ideas.
It is important to note that #random (and the new Casual Hangout category) is not now and never was intended to be a place where no rules apply. Flooding spam, sexually explicit or otherwise NSFW images, hate speech, gratuitous profanity/shock content, etc. are never permitted. We are predominantly a Chip's server and if you're finding these restrictions oppressive, you always have the options of PMing your friends or using other servers instead.
5. Reactions have been disabled in #meta and #introductions as with the Non-CC category to help foster on-topic, high-effort discussions.
6. There will be some additions to the Discord moderator team to help support the existing team. We are not ready to announce additional mods and server assistants today, but there will be announcements in the coming weeks as these individuals are invited and brought up to speed.
If you indicated wishing to serve the community as a Discord mod or assistant on the survey but do not receive an invitation to join the mod team, do keep in mind that this does not preclude you from ever being invited to join the team in the future. Going forward, as we search for suitable staff members we will be keeping in mind those who expressed interest on the surveys. We may also explore bringing some people on board as mods or assistants in a time-limited trial capacity where appropriate.
If you indicated a desire to serve the community in some other non-mod capacity on your survey, I will be reviewing those requests at a later date and will be in touch then.
Conclusion
The above is not set in stone, however our mod team is committed to at least trialing these changes for an appropriate period of time before changing course. Constructive feedback is welcome here or in #meta, however as always please be mindful of the fact that every community member's voice counts for just one. We recognize that there will be differing sentiments about the changes implemented today and we hope that you'll also recognize no single solution can possibly make everyone happy. We are simply doing our best to fairly balance all the concerns raised without catering directly to specific individuals.
At the end of the day, (warning: cliche ahead) it lies with the community and its individual members to be the change they wish to see. The mod team is here to help support this change, but it will not succeed if the community is not engaged and interested in seeing positive change.
Thanks again to everyone who participated in the survey and also to those who work hard to make this community an excellent place to spend time in their own ways.
Introduction
Overall I received 24 responses from a decent mix of our community, the vast majority of which indicating they use the discord server daily. One group of active community participants I felt was underrepresented in the survey responses is our community "veterans" i.e. individuals who have been part of the Chips community for 10+ years.
There were of course many different concerns highlighted in this survey. In spite of this, however, I do think there is a lot of good in this community and my feeling is supported by the many positive remarks collected from this survey alongside the concerns. Further, I certainly don't think our Discord community is toxic by any definition, especially in relation to many other Discord communities I have been apart of over the years. It is from this mindset that we have examined the feedback received in the surveys.
Key areas of focus
I have previously stated that my preference is to apply as few moderator actions (i.e. bans, mutes, deletions, etc.) as possible in my role as mod so as to not create a hostile, draconian environment - a philosophy also held by all of our current mod team. While this remains our preference and ultimate goal, this survey has also made clear to us that the community is looking for mods to step in more often where they previously may have not. Indeed, it is hard to deny even from my standpoint as a mod that the general environment of our Discord server trends a bit on the mean-spirited side, in part because our mod team prefers to not get involved with minor disputes unless necessary.
In light of this, we would like to take the following items raised in the survey away as areas of focus:
- Bullying/lack of respect for others
- Serious or focused discussions being disrupted with memes, jokes and nonsense
- Concerns around the experience of new server members
- The rules being used as a meme
As a subset of points 1 and 2 above, the following were specific points raised in the survey that we'd like to highlight for the community as examples of disrespectful behavior:
- On occasion, a serious discussion will be taking place on the server and running commentary poking fun at the participants takes place in #random. Admittedly there is a fine line here to making some harmless but off-topic commentary in #random rather than derailing the conversation where it is actually happening (this is mostly OK). But we would like to remind everyone that making fun of the participants of a serious discussion in another channel is both not OK and also a deterrent from others joining into conversations in the future. Please be mindful of this.
- Unprompted feedback: The surveys pointed out a tendancy for people to insert themselves into a conversation that does not pertain to them just to state that they dislike the subject of the discussion. This is essentially derailing a conversation. That is not to say you can't maintain an opinion on things, but it is inappropriate to loudly announce your dislike of something/someone at every given opportunity. We know some people like certain tilesets only. We know some people like certain versions of Tile World only. We know some people dislike certain level packs. It is our hope we can move past this compulsion to overstate our opinions as a community and especially make an effort to be objective with newcomers.
If you do not see something you feel is pressing in the list above - don't worry. This is not an exhaustive list, but rather what we identified as the key concerns raised across multiple survey responses and what we felt were the most important points to address with the community as a whole.
Supporting changes
To support our efforts addressing the above areas of focus, the following changes have been implemented effective immediately:
1. The rules have been updated to add a new rule #4:
Quote:#4 - Keep on-topic. Disrupting conversations with low-effort memes is not welcome. See the description in each channel for additional guidelines specific to the channel.
The role of moderators has also been further clarified in the rules as follows:
Quote:Moderators are here to keep things from getting out of hand. They have discretion to make final decisions and will exercise best judgment in removing messages and users who are disrupting the server. You are expected to be familiar with these rules and moderators may apply restrictions, mutes, kicks or bans from channels or the entire server at their discretion without warning if you are not following the rules.
2. Our moderator team will be looking to step in with warnings more often on minor rule violations - especially in channels geared to be more serious. Those who accumulate excessive warnings can expect to be temporarily banned from the server.
To support this, it is important that the rules not be used as a meme going forward. Any quoting of the server rules at other members, whether jokingly or not, will be deleted as a violation of our rule against backseat moderating going forward. This includes messages or reactions stating rule numbers.
The purpose of this shift in moderation policy is not to be draconian, but to help re-calibrate our community away from being a mean-spirited place to be.
3. A new #introductions channel has been created under the Server category. All new user notifications will now appear in this channel and we welcome both CC and Non-CC conversations with newcomers in this channel. It is the expectation going forward that #general be only used for CC-related conversations.
Trolling, memes or any disruptive behavior that would negatively impact a new user's experience will not be allowed in this channel and this will be strictly enforced. This includes ragging on specific CC content, packs, tilesets, etc. just for the sake of making your opinions known - everyone is of course entitled to their own opinions, but it is not appropriate to try to impose these opinions on newcomers as soon as they join. Those disregarding this policy will be barred from participating in the channel at the discretion of the staff.
4. The Non-CC category has been restructured into two categories: Non-CC and Casual Hangout (new category). This is in response both to the surveys and prior #meta discussions.
The Non-CC category going forward is to be considered a serious category. Reactions will be disabled in these channels to help foster on-topic, high-effort discussions. It contains the following channels:
- #off-topic (formerly #serious-discussions)
- #gaming
- #programming
- #politics (new channel) - as a specific channel has been created for politics, we would ask that political discussions be kept outside of #off-topic
The Casual Hangout category is a non-serious category and the new rule about keeping on topic is relaxed in these channels. It contains the following channels:
- #random (at this time, GliderBot will no longer be able to adjust the channel title and topic - as we adjust to the new channel structure, it is important the channel names and topics reflect the actual function of the channel. This may be revisited in the future)
- #sandbox
This restructuring opens the door for further conversations about adding additional channels or perhaps moving one of the existing channels from one category to another. These discussions are welcome and can be raised in #meta if you have ideas.
It is important to note that #random (and the new Casual Hangout category) is not now and never was intended to be a place where no rules apply. Flooding spam, sexually explicit or otherwise NSFW images, hate speech, gratuitous profanity/shock content, etc. are never permitted. We are predominantly a Chip's server and if you're finding these restrictions oppressive, you always have the options of PMing your friends or using other servers instead.
5. Reactions have been disabled in #meta and #introductions as with the Non-CC category to help foster on-topic, high-effort discussions.
6. There will be some additions to the Discord moderator team to help support the existing team. We are not ready to announce additional mods and server assistants today, but there will be announcements in the coming weeks as these individuals are invited and brought up to speed.
If you indicated wishing to serve the community as a Discord mod or assistant on the survey but do not receive an invitation to join the mod team, do keep in mind that this does not preclude you from ever being invited to join the team in the future. Going forward, as we search for suitable staff members we will be keeping in mind those who expressed interest on the surveys. We may also explore bringing some people on board as mods or assistants in a time-limited trial capacity where appropriate.
If you indicated a desire to serve the community in some other non-mod capacity on your survey, I will be reviewing those requests at a later date and will be in touch then.
Conclusion
The above is not set in stone, however our mod team is committed to at least trialing these changes for an appropriate period of time before changing course. Constructive feedback is welcome here or in #meta, however as always please be mindful of the fact that every community member's voice counts for just one. We recognize that there will be differing sentiments about the changes implemented today and we hope that you'll also recognize no single solution can possibly make everyone happy. We are simply doing our best to fairly balance all the concerns raised without catering directly to specific individuals.
At the end of the day, (warning: cliche ahead) it lies with the community and its individual members to be the change they wish to see. The mod team is here to help support this change, but it will not succeed if the community is not engaged and interested in seeing positive change.
Thanks again to everyone who participated in the survey and also to those who work hard to make this community an excellent place to spend time in their own ways.
