Policy Update! Returning Administration

Old announcement of past promotion rounds and updates to Wolfhome.
Locked Previous topicNext topic
User avatar
Fik
Omniscient
Omniscient
Posts: 21781
Joined: Sun May 11, 2008 11:30 pm
Preferred Name: Kay

Pride

Heya Wolfhome!

The administration has made changes to their returning administration policy. Our policy has been in the past that retired admins could return at any time, but at a lower rank, and if necessary, go back through training. Our new changes to this policy are as follows:
Returning Administration
Should an administrator decide to step down, we ask that they take at least 1 month before requesting to return to the team! If they do want to return, they may send in a chat or forum PM to any alpha as a request. Depending on the length of time they've been away, will depend on what position they are repromoted to.

1-2 months away from the team: May return to previous rank.
3-6 months away from the team: Must return to one rank below what they left as, aside from gamma
  • Alpha will return as Beta
  • Beta will return as Gamma
  • Gamma can return as Gamma
7-12 months away from the team: Any rank will be asked to return as AA and go back through at least 2 weeks of training
12+ months aways from the team: You will be asked to submit an application in the next application round instead
Let us know if you have quesitons or concerns about this! Thanks for reading!
☆ A final farewell ☆
User avatar
Takatia
I VOLUNTEER AS TRIBUTE
I VOLUNTEER AS TRIBUTE
Posts: 57539
Joined: Fri Jul 17, 2009 4:36 pm
Species: Fox
Contact:

Pride

I have a few concerns about this. Though overall I think there are some great steps forward here; and do appreciate the transparency from a long time member perspective! (And the return of public explanations for why people were promoted to a department or rank!)

When I was on the team, I do believe there was a 1+ month wait for returning admins. I think that is good to continue and make public. Though I think it should be easier for admins to go on hiatus so they don’t feel forced to temporarily resign and add to confusion that the community has. I do know there is an activity thread that is kept up to date (thanks for that!), but maybe considering adding an additional profile line for current activity status for anyone with a role - administrator, EC, RT or any other dept comes in the future. Especially as a call out for community members who are unsure who to PM about an issue. And perhaps making this a sniff title field for chat use as well. I’m sure there are inactivity limits, as there were when I knew more of the behind the scenes so this isn’t taken advantage of.

I do disagree with some of the assessments here about returning, however. I like the idea of admins who are returning after a long time away going through training again. I think that should be the case regardless and is a great policy to implement. Things absolutely change on the backend and that period of time upon returning should be that individuals chance of catching up with policy changes and the newer team dynamic. But if someone is returning who has been a beta for years, for example, they are more than likely to remember how to catch a ban hopper or remember how IPs work. Those very much defined tools don’t change that much, if at all. While I’m sure a lot of factors here you are basing off of rebuilding trust and knowledge for returning folks, it does feel a little strange to me that someone should return as a gamma with more limited tools for work ups just based on an arbitrary window, especially if they pick up the policy changes quickly during training. Maybe a consideration to base the decision on how well they do in the training period to ensure that knowledge is still there?

My other concern is the need for breaks, and I’m a little worried about how this could be discouraging to potential returning folks. Being on a team is tough, no one is going to deny that. It’s a ton of work. Burnout is very real. And considering some of what has unfolded on CL, both publicly and privately, 6+ months, even a year+ for some, may not be long enough of a window for someone to recover, despite at some point, considering rejoining.

I understand the need to have clearly defined stances and to break down policies that border or cater to favoritism. It’s a much needed change and again, the openness of this information is certainly appreciated and there are definitely points in here I agree with and support. But I think in a lot of ways, administrating and accessibility to tools based on role is similar to a workplace environment, and should therefore have some similar considerations. And if a director level person quits a comms job, for example, and decides to later rejoin the same company (which does happen, and I’ve been at jobs and have seen people return), they don’t return as an associate level position and go back to getting press releases reviewed. They go through training and orientation again, but at the same level usually as when they left.

I feel a bit weird posting this publicly. I personally don’t have plans to ever return, I don’t want my post to read as such. But I understand how real the burnout can get and needing time and space away from CL. And I can understand how that time off can look from a member perspective when it’s not publicly addressed. And I do feel the need to mention that if a person leaves a company and returns, they usually have the same role upon returning. I personally don’t view a decision for someone to return to their original role (given it’s not a leadership - in this case - Alpha - if they’ve been gone for an extended period) as strange or picking favorites. I would love to see more people take breaks and rest. Shits already tough man, we are all surrounded by state of emergencies between the pandemic and the wildfires and the floods. What makes me question an admins return is if they aren’t active or engaging the community much before rejoining or had known reports on their behavior that weren’t addressed. And that they just suddenly appear on the team and it’s not properly addressed. I feel the best advice I could give is just continue being as open as you can be with the community.

Not active here.

Feel free to reach out on Discord: Takatia#8483
Or on Twitter: @thejesterfox
Cider
Adept Protector
Adept Protector
Posts: 1380
Joined: Wed Oct 06, 2010 2:55 pm

I personally don’t see any reason why a person who has not been an administrator for a year or longer couldn’t wait an additional x amount of time to apply to rejoin when the team has open positions. It seems like admins stepping down most often do so due to burnout, so I think it seems reasonable to have them come back into the fold slowly. If, for example, a beta stepped down due to stress, then it makes sense to me to have them return as a gamma to ensure that they won’t be overwhelmed by going right back to the role and responsibilities that drove them to step down in the first place. I value and respect your opinions, Teak and Takatia, but just wanted to share that, to a mostly-outside-the-admin-experience perspective, these policies sound really fair and balanced.
mermaid
Grandmaster - One of but a few.
Grandmaster - One of but a few.
Posts: 14832
Joined: Sun Jun 19, 2011 3:16 pm
Pronouns: they / them
Preferred Name: Colby

Pride

Thanks for the transparency! I do have a question though.
7-12 months away from the team: Any rank will be asked to return as AA and go back through at least 2 weeks of training
After the training, do they climb the ranks as if they had sent in an application? Or, like listed for 3-6 months, rejoin a rank under?
User avatar
Fik
Omniscient
Omniscient
Posts: 21781
Joined: Sun May 11, 2008 11:30 pm
Preferred Name: Kay

Pride

I'm going to try my best to address everything, but I want to say thank you guys for sharing your concerns with us!

We just wanted to outline a quick policy change since one of the concers that came up with administrative promotions like returning admins.

We have actually had the policy in place for administrators on hiatus, that wish to step down from the team, to take a least 4 weeks (1 month) off so it's not too confusing for the userbase. Now that our community is a bit smaller, it may not be quite the stretch.

I understand the need to take a longer break. We (the admins) weren't entirely sure what a good window would be for returning administrators that wouldn't be confusing for others. We're actively trying to add in descriptors on why a person was promoted, so do you guys feel like admins should be able to return at any time? Or that admins within the last 2 or 3 years can return any time? I suppose we could go on case by case for a lot of this, where let's say person A is super active in the community and a big contributing member and decides to return, we could put it to a vote. Where as, person B isn't as active, but has returned and meets our activity policy, and wishes to return to the team, we may ask them to submit an application instead. Does this sound like a good compromise to this situation?

We're not putting this out to disparage users from re-joining the team. I personally would love to see people return (I'm looking at you both :P), we just wanted to clarify and put things in writing not just for ourselves, but for the community as a whole. Let us know how you guys feel!

@mermaid - to address your question, after 2 weeks, they would be promoted to gamma, and depending on activity, performance, etc, they would then be bumped to Beta. As for the other teams (Forum mod, forum admin, ART), usually it's on a request or need basis.
☆ A final farewell ☆
User avatar
Hocus
IT'S OVER 2 9000'S!
IT'S OVER 2 9000'S!
Posts: 18260
Joined: Wed Feb 09, 2011 8:16 pm
Gender:
Preferred Name: hannah
Location: gotham

Pride

Fik wrote:
Wed Sep 15, 2021 3:18 pm
I suppose we could go on case by case for a lot of this, where let's say person A is super active in the community and a big contributing member and decides to return, we could put it to a vote. Where as, person B isn't as active, but has returned and meets our activity policy, and wishes to return to the team, we may ask them to submit an application instead. Does this sound like a good compromise to this situation?
this sounds fair to me. i think i’m in the minority here with feeling like retired admins shouldn’t be able to come and go as they please. i think hiatuses should be implemented more. i just think its kind of discouraging(?) when ex admins resign, disappear for literal months or even years, and then become super active so they can be promoted again, and then their activity falls right back off. this isn’t about anyone in particular, its just kind of a trend i’ve noticed over the years. i would rather a user whose activity never wavered be promoted even if they don’t have experience over an ex admin w experience who isn’t very active or involved.

with all that being said, i do think i like the new system you guys are coming up with. and i definitely like this compromise of it being a case by case basis! thank you guys for really taking the time to look into these things and make changes!
this is me trying
discord: hannessy
User avatar
Guardian
The Last Skyrbender
Posts: 1587
Joined: Fri Nov 03, 2006 10:14 pm
Location: Wolfhome
Contact:

Hello everyone!

The Wolfhome Administration will be discussing and reworking this policy due to multiple reasons. The recent events and changes have definitely put a lot of things into a different perspective and we have been going through a lot of changes.

We appreciate your continued patience, support, questions and more as we continue to move forward.

Sincerely,
- The Wolfhome Administration
Locked Previous topicNext topic