Team Fortress Wiki:Discussion/Wiki Cap

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Revision as of 21:51, 29 August 2012 by EpicEric (talk | contribs) (It has been a year.)
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It has been a year

One year (and a month) ago, we were finally stablishing the new system that would properly reward editors. While it did serve for quite a long time, new issues started to emerge and currently make it impossible for any Wiki Cap discussion to take place. There have been seven opportunities in a row where a Cap vote could have taken place -- but there were no discussions on candidates. Plus, the list of nominations has more than doubled since. The number of staff members active for cap votes slowly decreased from 7 to 4, even getting as low as 2 occasionally, while our minimum for any decisions was 5. The way things are going, this system won't be of any help.

Of course, going back to the previous vote system is completely out of the question. But there are several flaws that make the current system unoperable. I've created specific sections below for issue-identifying and solution-suggesting; please add to them, or create new ones. Certainly, some of these may seem pretty harsh, but unless we decide something soon, they may integrate the Wiki Cap discussions system.

Also, if you want to make any comments regarding something else, feel free to add it below.  –  Epic Eric (T | C) 14:51, 29 August 2012 (PDT)

Identified issues

Staff willingness

I get this feeling that some staff members don't want to participate in cap votes. That's okay if there were enough mods for Wiki Cap discussions -- except there aren't. Sure, no-one is made of steel and may feel like not-voting one day or another, or are even busy doing something elsewhere, but members of the staff could at least create a list with their opinions on each candidate, plus a verdict, so that other moderators may add it to the discussion. There are also moderators that "idle" in the channel doing nothing, even when they are warned by a stalk word.  –  Epic Eric (T | C) 14:51, 29 August 2012 (PDT)

Lack of loc mods

There have been several situations where a loc mod was necessary to evaluate a certain candidate. One of the most recent examples involved a user for a language that does have a moderator, but he isn't active -- which is a different discussion. For these cases, we have been contacting Steam Translation Server moderators in order to get an accurate description of each candidate's quality. While it helps clearing some boulders, this isn't a practical solution. More localization mods for more languages means more readiness and confiabilityness when evaluating a candidate.  –  Epic Eric (T | C) 14:51, 29 August 2012 (PDT)

Time zones

Being a world-wide website, we expect people from all around the globe to be part of this project. But since the Earth is spherical, people have different timezones and can't all be online at the same time, which means discussions sometimes have to be interrupted so that one mod or another may leave their opinion, specially when it is tie-breaking. Plus, we're probably abusing the European mods, making them stay awake for way too long before Mondays, which is a work day for most people. I know I'm just stating the obvious here, but this an important issue to take into account.  –  Epic Eric (T | C) 14:51, 29 August 2012 (PDT)

Solutions

Vote enforcement

The solution I hate the most, but still a solution: forcing staff members to leave a opinion on candidates. There could be a minimum of how many candidates a moderator should review (75%, dunno), or else they'd be punished. I personally think it's too hard and a bad solution, but it may be our last-resort plan if all else fails, unfortunately.  –  Epic Eric (T | C) 14:51, 29 August 2012 (PDT)

New discussion members

Straightforwardly, adding new staff members as we need them. Another option is to let certain non-staff users from the Wiki community partake in the process. I also don't like this idea, but it can help populate Wiki Cap discussions.  –  Epic Eric (T | C) 14:51, 29 August 2012 (PDT)

Static discussions

Instead of quick IRC discussions, we should have them at slower rates, allowing mods from anywhere to add their comments and verdicts in no rush. The IRC channel would probably be scrapped (or used for quick discussions about one addition or another), while the votes would happen in a shared doc or a shared page or something of that sort. Discussions would take approximately days, but at least more staff members could add into it, plus giving us more time to think about a certain candidate.  –  Epic Eric (T | C) 14:51, 29 August 2012 (PDT)

Whenever there's an opportuniy

At any time 5 or more moderators are available for a Wiki Cap vote, a discussion will take place, regardless of the time or day. Of course some mods willing to participate won't be able to, but at least there'll be discussions. The problem here is, of course, getting these mods over for a vote.  –  Epic Eric (T | C) 14:51, 29 August 2012 (PDT)

Less staff members for a decision

A less drastic solution would be to decrease the number of necessary staff for a vote accordingly. I don't think that less than 5 voters is good for any serious decision, but if there were only (say) 3 moderators discussing, they would speak for the entire staff in their decision. Somewhat painful, but a solution nonetheless.  –  Epic Eric (T | C) 14:51, 29 August 2012 (PDT)