My 1st suggestion

[menk]

Cool name.
Do you need someone to make a cleaned up version of that logo?

Perhaps we could do several different ones as well, and put them on rotation.

[Anodyne]

menk said:

Cool name.
Do you need someone to make a cleaned up version of that logo?

Perhaps we could do several different ones as well, and put them on rotation.

Thanks! That's considerate of you.

By the way, Funk, the art you have in your signature, of the blond and viking, was the cover of a Forgotten Realms book. I was wondering where you got it from?

[menk]

what size banner do you need?

[Dodona Underground]

You probably already have a staff that works well together and there’s probably common sense about the rules. So everything else should fall into line and things can stay casual. But just the same, here’s my generic how-to on administering forums. Print it out. Put it with your bedroom reading. It will cure your insomnia.

• STAFF
  
  
  
  • Establish a kind of “CEO.” That’s usually the founder, the main admin and the guy who pays the bills but it needn’t be. All that’s necessary is that it be someone who is capable of being in charge of policy formation and implementation.
    
  • The CEO should be in charge of the staff which means that he “hires” and “fires.” The staff could take turns at being CEO for a month at a time until someone emerges who is best at it and is willing to take on the role.
    
  • The CEO should delegate as much as possible to his staff. He should act unilaterally as little as possible. In fact, he should only take action when his staff can’t or won’t take adequate action. And he should have the last word only when it comes to staffing, interpreting/modifying policy and resolving staff disputes. In these cases where he should act, he should do so decisively and without apologies.
    
  • The CEO should NEVER allow himself to be drawn into long acrimonious discussions about policy in the open forum. Ignore insults. Offer policy clarifications when requested. Otherwise, stand by your decision and shut up. Delegating and getting as much consensus among the staff as possible will make this easier.
    
  • The CEO shouldn’t be too hard on his staff and shouldn’t throw them to the wolves. He should let them learn to do their jobs and he should cover for them. If they don’t work out, they should be given the opportunity to resign with dignity. He shouldn’t publicly feud with his staff.
    
    
  
  
  
  
• RULES
  
  
  
  • Put together a terms of service statement (TOS) and make it public and prominent.
    
    • Don’t make it too big and make it as clear and specific as possible. You need an atmosphere of candor and you need contributors, even unpleasant ones, so don’t overdo it. Conversely, bannable behavior isn’t necessarily unpleasant or a reflection on the character of the member in question. For example, if a very nice and civil member turns every thread into a lively and fun discussion on yachts, he is probably breaking the TOS of any non-yacht forum and will need to be told that it will lead to a ban.
      
    • It has to cover every infraction that could lead to staff action against members. And it has to specify what the staff may rightfully do about infractions.
      
    • It has to be enforceable.
      
    • Write a good TOS so that it won’t have to be changed very often.
      
    • At the very minimum, every TOS should contain rules against breaking the laws of the country where the server is hosted, rules against spam and rules against hacking and violating the privacy of other members. Other binding TOSs should be hyperlinked.
      
    • Changes to the TOS should be prominently announced. Make it clear to everyone that continued participation in the forum implies consent to the changes.
      
    
    
  
  
  
• ENFORCEMENT
  
  • The job of the staff is to enforce the TOS. Period. In case that’s not clear, it means that staff can’t take action against members without a TOS justification. No one on the staff should be above the TOS. If the TOS is insufficient, change it.
    
  • All enforcements of the TOS should be as private as possible. Staff should prefer to PM those involved. Also respect the anonymity of those who report violations. Whenever you can, be polite and avoid embarrassment to members. There are two exceptions.
    
    • The first is permanent bans. These should be posted in the open forum with the relevant excerpts from the TOS that have been violated.
      
    • The second exception is the editing of member’s posts. The edit should be distinct from what was originally posted and there should be a mention of the TOS justification for the edit.
      
    
    
  • Unless absolutely necessary, avoid discussing a permanently banned member. After all, he’s no longer able to defend himself.
    
  • If IP-bans aren’t possible, re-ban permanently banned members who return under new names. It may seem like a waste of time. But I’ve noticed on other forums that consistently re-banning such characters marginalizes them almost completely. They don’t want to show up for a day, have all their posts deleted and then be re-banned.
    
    
  
  

Sleep well.

[Anodyne]

Thanks for the suggestion, DU. We're going to get to work on it right away. It's an important issue that shouldn't be put on the back burner.

[annienormanna]

If this is going to be an experiment in democratic governance it has to be recognized that there is a Senate. I think DUs framework can be incorporated in a way that that does not disturb or inhibit the realization of underlying principles. As an example a rotating chair rather than a permanent one.

Now get that hemlock away from my ear.

[Funk Monk]

Do you need someone to make a cleaned up version of that logo?

I could do it, but if you want to, you could just find any better version of the image and do it. I don't know about size, but you could make some different ones.

By the way, Funk, the art you have in your signature, of the blond and viking, was the cover of a Forgotten Realms book. I was wondering where you got it from?

I think it was just a random Google search long ago. I had it saved for some time, as it was part of my sig back on one of the Dodonas too.

On rules, I think a fusion of Ilmatar and Dodona Underground's suggestions would be good.