Should the following proposal be adopted as a forum rule?
Yes
No
0voters
Rules pertaining to standards of user conduct or forum moderation, including selection, tenure and conduct of moderators, shall be introduced through the request for comments (“RFC”) process.
Any user may initiate an RFC for a proposed rule by creating a thread in the About Unstuck subforum.
The purpose of RFC threads is to facilitate community input on proposed rules.
The initial post of an RFC thread should describe the proposed rule. Any user may provide input on the proposed rule by posting in the RFC thread.
After an RFC thread has been open for at least 3 full days , any user can request a Forum Administrator to create a poll within the RFC thread to approve the wording for the proposal. Upon receipt of such request, a Forum Administrator shall use the Administrative Account to create a public poll stating the proposed wording of the rule with the choices of “Yes” or “No.” The poll shall remain open for a period of one week . If the poll receives support from a majority of voters , the proposal will proceed to a binding rule vote. Otherwise, debate on the proposal may continue and any user can again request a vote on wording within the RFC thread.
If a proposal proceeds to a binding rule vote, a Forum Administrator will create a new thread in the About Unstuck subforum with a public poll stating the proposed wording of the rule with the choices of “Yes” or “No.” The poll shall remain open for a period of one week . The proposed rule will be adopted if it receives support from at least two thirds of all voters for moderator appointments or if it receives support from at least 60 percent of voters for all other rules .
Until rules regarding the selection and tenure of moderators have been adopted: (1) the current moderators will remain in their roles; (2) the moderators will not permanently ban any user unless that user publicly requests such a ban; and (3) the moderators will not ban any user in a way that prevents the user from voting in an RFC poll or in a biding rule vote poll with the exception of bans issued in accordance with this section.
Something that I feel would be a valuable component of the RFC process would be a recommendation (doesn’t have to be formally required) for some kind of explanation of the motivation for the proposed rule(s). In other words, what are the goals for the rules or what problems are the rules trying to address, and how/why the rules are going to achieve the goals.
This proposal process can be used as an example. I can read the text above and understand how the RFC process will work, but what I don’t see is an explanation for why the process is necessary or desirable.
As a website, there is really only one thing we know for sure. This is a community owned and driven site not a private dictatorship, and that is it. We have voted on some rules that are more or less regarded as valid, but we never even really established a process by which rules can be created or changed. As we have seen in the wake of post-Feud drama, someone can create a, shall we say, selectively worded poll, call it a rule vote, and people are expected to honor the result, even if the selectively worded binary does not reflect the community sentiment in a broader sense.
This is an attempt to codify a rule making process that threads a needle of being community driven, organized, not requiring mandatory participation of uninterested users, robust against malfeasance and self-interest, gives ample time and opportunity to air alternatives, and that pays heed to minority opinions. It may not be perfect, but if we come across a shortcoming, we can use the ratified process to address it. I think that with this in place, and then using it to establish a system of selecting and retaining moderators, and how to deal with complaints about the moderation, will give us a more robust and sustainable system of community governance.
I’m not sure how far this got when it was tried back on the exiled site, but it seems to be going great and it taking a year and half to get to this point is nbd. I think this has a very good chance at establishing procedures for selecting mods and admins and the rules that they are supposed to implement and enforce and it all seems flexible enough that the system can be used to change all of the rules, including those governing the RFCs and how proposals make their way into rules.
I prefer our current system where a mod can see a rule vote that is ongoing, disagree with the side that’s winning, rename the thread to something ridiculous and then lock it
I think the posting rules we ratified not long after moving to this domain are pretty good and very widely respected. What has been clear is that there is not exactly universal respect for our mod selection process (nor does it have much self-consistency on which to hang its legitimacy), and how to deal with mod complaints and those who make them is a glaring hole. I also think the c-word debate showed a lot of shortcomings on how we currently go about adding or amending new rules. I think by shoring up the rule creation process will let us arrive at a widely respected system of dealing with the other two issues, and then we can be done, at least for a while. I almost certainly will be.
To add on to Wookie’s reply, anybody can and should ask whatever questions they have about a proposal during the RFC process (this would typically happen prior to the final vote thread but I guess it could happen later too). That includes, of course, why the proposed rule/change is needed (is a good idea) if insufficient motivation is provided in the OP.
@jmakin now that the voting for best Simpsons season is over, you might want to make a banner for this thread so that everyone can vote if they are so inclined
The first vote is a vote on whether more debate is needed to tinker with the wording more. Someone could vote yes because they want the discussion to end while intending to vote no on adopting the rule.
I understand there’s still 5 days to go in the poll, but 32 votes is pretty pathetic. Anyone here who doesn’t regularly look at “About Unstuck” might not even know this poll exists. Should it be a banner for a day or two?
Doesn’t matter anyway because in 3 days someone will start a new thread demanding a bunch of new hoops to be jumped through that they make up on the spot because they don’t like where this vote is going
