Announcement of the Project Team: Community Coordinator

Community Coordination Team Report

By Michael Clark (Community Coordination team leader)

Our tasks will be :

• responsible for daily administrative jobs
  1. a)removing spam
  2. b)removing profanity
  3. c)removing /deferring personal attack (flames)
  4. d)closing / removing inactive threads & topics
• Provide customer service to all Xoops users and perspective users
  1. a) help users to understand and use XOOPS correctly
  2. b) help users to use the XOOPS official sites properly
  3. c) assist with troubleshooting Xoops
  4. d) Submit for documentation any fixes
  5. e) Submit any unknown issue to the proper area for evaluation and repair. (fixing bugs)

Team leader

KCOMAZ

Team members

1. Sailjapan
2. JAVesey
3. Bluestockings
4. Northern

Future community coordinators will be added by invitation only. Any community coordinator can make a recommendation to the team, the team will vote weather or not to have the member join the team. The project council can veto the nomination. Team leader will be selected by the team, by means of a popular vote, then confirmed by the project council.

Overview

The community coordinators represent the Xoops project and the Xoops CMS.
The Xoops CMS project being all the developmental and support teams needed to make Xoops CMS happen. The community coordinators will be the first contact most webmasters, web designers or or perspective customers will have with the Xoops CMS project. The image they portray will affect how that customer views the project, therefore it is imperative that the community coordinators express themselves in a professional manner at all times, and treat all they come in contact with, either at Xoops.org or other venues with respect.

The Community Coordinators preform two similar tasks for Xoops.org. The moderators maintain the forum areas and provide a suitable environment for the users, the coordinators provide customer service.

General Team rules

• a member being inactive will be losing his/her XOOPS community coordinator identity for not being on-line, missing team meeting or report deadlines for 30 days
• every member shall report to Team Coordinator before the First of each month
  1. a)That they are indeed active
  2. b)any unresolved issues they are work on with the core developers
  3. c)All fixes referred to the communications/documentation team
  4. d)Any topic or threads open or closed or removed. There will be a running moderator / coordinator log or forum to document these events
• The team shall report to XOOPS Project Council on the First of each month
  1. a)Active or inactive team members any complainants and the result of those complaints
  2. b)Open projects
  3. c)anything that may be of interest to the council, Some items may be for informational use only, others require action for the purpose of moderating, request create accounts with username of "Lead moderator, forum moderator1, forum moderator2, etc." with newbb administration permissions; The account will be held by all coordinators will only be used for topic/posts management, like closing, removing, recovering threads and posts. Once a moderators leaves the team, the password on the account will be changed by the team leader / system administrator and readied for a new team member.

Moderating

The moderators are charged with daily maintenance and generally keeping the proper usage of the forums. This includes but not limited to:

1. Removing spam
2. Removing profanity
3. Moving personal attacks off the public forums
4. Closing and/or remove inactive and unneeded topics or threads
5. Assisting the coordinators as needed
6. other duties as assigned

The rules for moderating:

• All moderation actions should be done with the user account of "forum moderatorX". The coordinators should not respond individually to any complaints about moderation actions
• Treat Members and co-members and visitors with tolerance, understanding and up-most respect
• Moderators and coordinators will not harass or personally assault while moderating the forum or while involved in Xoops CMS business
• Moderators even when not on duty must always show respect and pose them selves as ambassadors of Xoops CMS as you represent our services and your actions have an impact on all Moderators and Coordinators and the community
• Do not use profanity or slang
• Always try and answer all questions with the best of your knowledge. If a question does arise that you are not know what the answer is of ask any other Xoops CMS Project member for assistance. Be sure to follow up on all questions
• Attend all mandatory meetings and read all development messages, this way you will stay up to date
• Xoops CMS Moderators and Coordinators are encouraged to chat in the discussion forums with members and enjoy your time
• If a problem arises with a member and you're not getting anywhere, yet the community member informs you that they will file a complaint against you, you must provide them with a contact e-mail address for the forum administrator. or refer them to the moderator complaint forum
• All community members have the right to file a complaint on any Moderators and Coordinator. See the complaint process
• Moderators and Coordinators MUST NOT give any information/usernames/passwords regarding any area of Xoops.com. This includes ftp/websites/sourceforge etc
• Moderators and Coordinators must protect community members personal information, including e-mail address, and any other information you might be privileged to
• The purpose of a Coordinator to open a topic is to collect information about a specific bug or issue, then use that same topic to provide the community with updates how the developer(s) are coming with the issue. Once the issues has been resolved, and the information has been documented. Then that topic should be closed by the Coordinator that opened it

When a community member has a problem with the conduct of another community member, resolve the situation in the following manner:

• Address the issue, always in a professional manner and out of view of other community members. Use PM or E-mail. Always ensure all communication is documented
• If the issue could not be resolved then talk to a senior member of the Xoops CMS staff and ask for assistance and create a log in the 'Moderator Complaint Procedures' board
• Moderators can warn community members for breach of forum conduct. When doing so please point out why they are receiving the warning and post a link into the forum post pointing to which area of conduct the community member has breached. All breaches of conduct and member warnings must be logged for future reference. Three warnings in a rolling 30 day time will result in being banned from the forums for 7 days. upon their return they will be place in a probationary status for 14 days, the next offense, will result in a 30 ban and a 60 day probation, with the next level being 180 day ban

These decisions will not be by a sole moderator or coordinator, we will make them as a group. With one exception:

• If a user is promoting or planning violent illegal activity (i.e. mass murder) that user is to be banned and the thread closed immediately by any moderator or coordinator. notify a system administrator and me immediately. Care must be taken to preserve the logs for law enforcement. Do not delete anything. After consulting with a administrator or myself the moderator or coordinator may move the thread into a private area to keep it out of view of the public.
• Only the project council can impose a lifetime ban on a member. The Community Coordinator team leader will present a proposal to the council along with any evidence supporting the ban. The member will be informed that s/he is bing considered for a lifetime ban and all the evidence supporting the ban, and will be given an opportunity to defend their position before the project council
  1. any bans currently in effect, shall stay in effect
  2. only the project council as a whole may lift a ban
• Forums, topics, threads not relating to the Xoops CMS, and have been inactive for 45 days are subject to being closed. Those topic relating to the Xoops CMS and have been inactive for 60 days are subject to review, if the issue is no long valid, it will be closed
• Moderator or Coordinator will NOT lock or remove a topic/post at the wish of a community member. All moderators are requested to politely remind the community member that unless a serious breach of conduct as occurs then you are not permitted to do such unless requested by an administrator or project council

Moderation compliant process

All members have the right to file a complaint against a community coordinators. A special forum area will be established for complaints. One thread = one complainant, The only moderator allowed to make any changes is the lead moderator/team leader.

The team leader is responsible for investigating, reporting, and deciding all complaints. in the decision the team leader must give any reasons for the decisions, as well as any action taken against a community coordinator or user. The team leader will mark the thread as solved. As a general rule usernames will be removed from the complainant.

Either the complainant or the moderator can appeal the decision of the team leader to project council. The project council may take action against the complainant, the moderator or the team leader or any combination there of. The decision of the project council is finial.

Coordinating

It coordinators main function is customer service. It is the coordinators' job to make sure the customer is completely satisfied with Xoops, and that the Xoops CMS and Xoops Project exceeds their expectations. When a customer shows up with an issue that is not documented, or not being fixed, it falls to the coordinators to take ownership of that issue, and get it to the right people who can resolve it. Not only does the coordinator get the issue the attention of the proper developer, they follow through to ensure the issue has been resolved. To help the next customer who might have the same problem, the coordinator will have the issue and resolution documented by the communication/documentation team.

Ideally the troubleshooting process would work in this way.

The customer has problem with a xoops program.

1.The Customer searches the documentation to see if there is similar issue, and how to fix it.

1. a)if there is, and the customer resolves the issue, there is no need for any other action
2. b)If there is not and or the issue is not resolved...

2.The user submits the issue to the community.
The community provides possible solutions to the the customer. The coordinator will take note of the issue and observe the responses :

1. a)If the issue is resolved, the coordinators will ask a developer if the resolution is indeed a resolution or just a work around. If the resolution is a resolution, The thread will be closed by the coordinator and submitted for documentation If the resolution is a work around, it will be left opened for 30 days. If after 30 days there is not activity, The thread will be closed by the coordinator and submitted for documentation as a work around.
2. b)if the issue is not resolved after reasonable attempts or a reasonable amount of time, or there are several reponses like "me too" it moves to ....

2.The coordinator taking ownership of the issue.
At this point, the coordinator will collect what ever information is missing then refer to the correct area, i.e. themes, modules, etc. If the issue is in the core of Xoops. the coordinator will:

1. a)move the thread to the core troubleshooting forum
2. b)submit the issue to the developers via SF.net bug tracker
3. c)Change the title of the thread title to reflect the SF.net bug tracker reference number
4. d)This thread is to be moderated by that coordinator
5. e)The developer assigned will provide regular updates via SF.net
6. f)the coordinator will relay those updates to the thread
7. g)Once a resolution has been developed, the coordinator will deploy the resolution per the developer's instructions, and confirm the issue has been resolved
8. h)Once the issue is resolved. The thread status will changed to [fixed] by the community coordinator and submitted for documentation.

Currently the only method of submitting items for documentation is through the XOOPSinfo.com web site, helpdesk ticket system. In addition to a summery, a link back to the thread will be provided.

3.Only threads that have been documented may be removed
Not every issue will work in this manner. The community coordinator are granted the flexibility needed to meet the needs of the customer, and still get required information the developers need to fix the issue.

Coordinator may provide web site reviews, suggest modules, etc.

As a general rule, coordinator will refrain from troubleshooting servers, or other issues not directly controlled by the Xoops project. The coordinator can suggest where the problem may lie then refer the user to the proper agency.

The coordinator will assist the moderators as needed and other duties as assigned.

Any other rules or modification to the current rules will submitted to the project council by the team leader for approval.

Terms of Use and XOOPSiquette

From a community review of the current Terms of Use and XOOPSiquette, no changes need to be made. The community is just asking for better and even enforcement of the current rules.

The Community Coordination Team recommends not changing the Terms of Use nor XOOPSiquette. rather charging the Community Coordination Team with enforcement of the Terms of Use and XOOPSiquette as they stand.

The item about reporting criminal activities, will be referred to the individual moderators, meaning they will need to comply with the laws in their area. making logs and records available to law enforcement will be done through due process, i.e. warrants and other legal instruments.