(Jun 27, 2016 06:41 PM)Secular Sanity Wrote: [ -> ]Quote:Basically there are only 5 people keeping the place alive on any kind of regular or semi-regular basis (including Stryder the owner). By "alive" I mean just preventing it from having the abandoned look of those forums where the most recent post was several weeks to a half year ago +.
I’ve been hiding out in a forum that I used to frequent about 5 years ago. The owner banned me, but he eventually let me back in. Probably because it was his fault. You know what learned, though? To keep it alive, they have socks and create conversations between them. They even read all of your PMs. Something that I should have assumed, I guess. I much prefer CC’s and Stryder’s method.
Something strange happened to me at Sciforums, though. I discovered Tiassa’s creation of several sockpuppets, but that’s beside the point. Anyhow, I was getting bored with Tiassa’s and Bells’ shenanigans. So, I wasn’t participating as much. GeoffP sends me a PM saying that Bells is losing it and attacking him. In a thread about atheism, derailed by abortion, I made a facetious comment about favoring abortion after meeting Tiassa and his crony. Bells then says that I’m the type to wish her dead and cheer on her rapist. I didn’t even know she was raped. I looked through all of her posts and couldn’t locate any mention of it. I asked GeoffP about it thinking I may have missed it somewhere. GeoffP then tells me the whole story before she even posted the information. I asked him how he knew thinking maybe through a PM or another forum. He said she mentioned it on Sciforums and shrugged me off. She hadn’t. I don’t know. There may be some other explanation for it, but it was odd.
http://www.sciforums.com/threads/a-reque...6/page-104
Data Integrity (Respect) on this site:
Currently as a sole operator (Admin, Webmaster, Complaints Department, Man of many Hats) I would think it poor etiquette to read private messages (PM's/emails), it's not that it's impossible for me to do, it's just something that I would never do without a good valid reason. (If there was evidence suggesting a member was plotting an attack, or involved in disseminate paedophilia via this site etc)
There are steps that I could use to further the integrity (Setting the site into using SSL [which incidentally is something planned if we gain more numbers], Using Cryptology in storage of such messages, purchasing and running my own assets at a data centre rather than leasing one etc) but even with those it would never completely rule out someone snooping something when the information is sent between you and the server.
If/when the site progresses to having Moderators, that Integrity shouldn't change any, however there would likely need to be articles and training in how to handle some things to maintain that Integrity as a company/cooperative (non-profit or otherwise). It would probably make sense to keep private messages as their name sake, for private messaging between members, not members to moderators/staff. (This would require having a "dropbox" method for generally contacting staff. Perhaps a random rotational method so no staff member is personally conflicted with what needs handling etc)
Moderator acts should be conducted via public announcements, but even then those announcements should be over-viewed by a Manager (and/or oligarchy voted in by members) to make sure that it's polite, that the team is unified and the decision was fair. There should of course then be a way to appeal a decision within a set time frame, as to whether that would be public or private would be down to whatever caused the decision to be made originally. (Some things might cause smear persons character and electronically haunt them forever if not dealt with clemency.)
As you can guess I've considered these points and more should this humble site we have here grow exponentially in size.
Currently though it's small and it's growth isn't spirally out of control (for the time being...) so it doesn't need that level of complexity (yet). When we reach (There is nothing like a positive spin
) hundreds/thousands of active members on a day to day basis, I can assure you that we will need to look at this in-depth and publicly. (I'd need people on board aiding with drafting it, we'd likely need blogs, mailing lists, the twitter account doing more than sitting static, lawyers, logotypes, letterheads, twenty-one days a year holiday, healthcare etc.)
So for now, it's simple and we'll keep it that way for as long as we can.
