I totally support it.

If members are setting a good enough example to become members then why can't they trust even a select few with kicking privliges?

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_{Come know me in a different light now.
Come know me as god.}

I agree as well, though "mods" wouldn't need the ability to ban, usually a kick gets the point across well enough. But blantant disregard of rules in #devart has gotten to a new level meaning that something needs to be done. dA is a community that's always changing and the chatrooms need to change to accomodate the needs of the community.

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innuendo...

I agree that at least some members need to be allowed to kick or ban. People just keep on breaking rules and no one is there to do anything about it. It's not fair that members are left to deal with them, or find an active admin.
The only problem is that the member would have to be very trustworthy.. So they wouldnt abuse the kicking/banning system, or they might forget to warn first.

Great article

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<sub>¤·.¸¸.·*×» Sarah Jane «×*·.¸¸.·¤


Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody's going to know whether you did it or not.</sub>

From what i understand, the rules have been laxed in #devart to create less of a police state.

Chix0r has her reasons for bringing on who she does to the mn@; they arent always #devart related, but we need to trust her judgment.

That said, i'd like to see some regulars in the room promoted over those who never come in. I think that more of an mn@ presence would be good, especially those that actually do something expect idle in there, which happens far to often.

Though i do agree that the vast majority of the time some form of action needs to be taken; i dont agree with giving members that ability.

The mod idea isnt so bad, i mean we have forum mods afterall, so why not?

the idea should have been noted to $chix0r and perhaps to $lolly aswell in hopes of getting any change done, a news article isnt exactly the place for it.

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go to hell... in style
[`mirrorkills]

i like the idea of having mods.... but not the idea of giving members the ability to ban and kick out..... there are too many members to figure out who would take it seriously and who would abuse this ability and just go ban-wild.

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Whenever it seems like everything in the world sucks, remember... Cocoa Puffs don't suck.

Naturally there would be a system for accountability with the users given the ability. MN are chosen and are reliable and hopefully if changes do happen the people chosen will treat it just as well.

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innuendo...

A note has been sent, however a link to this shows that there are people that agree with us, and hopefully it will have more of an impact than just a note.

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innuendo...

First of all, allow me to clarify some points here. Bear in mind that I already responded to your note, and your forum thread, and gave a clear indication regarding no ban/kick privs for anyone other than MN@.

I'm a Member in #devart. Before recently I invested a lot of time into the room

Invested? You go there voluntarily.

But of late, I've noticed an increase of blatent rule breaking, spamming and the works.

Just wait til all the kiddies get their new comps for xmas

(Or lack of Admin action.)

I can assure you when MN@ are active and in #devart, action is taken where and when required. Perhaps you mean to say that MN@ haven't been around as much lately, and yes, that is the case. Exams, families, jobs and medical conditions do tend to impact on a volunteer admin.

And being a Member, it is my responsibility to at least try to control this to best of my abilities.

Incorrect. We don't want our Members in #devart controlling anything. Far from it infact. Perhaps you have an unrealistic and incorrect understanding of what being a 'Member' in #devart is.

Being a Member means that you have been selected to 'be a Member', due to your attitude and helpfulness. It doesn't mean you are one step away from being MN@, nor does it mean that you have the right to make demands upon any newbies who come into the channel. Infact, if you find #devart such a chore then perhaps we need to review your channel status.

But, having no real power, simply a higher position on the user list, doesn't accomplish much.

Power? Accomplish. Come on...
#devart is the main Official channel for chatter on dAmn. For many people it is their first experience of chat. We want it to be a friendly, and welcoming environment. Not a regime where people are kicked out for every time they say HI HOW ARE YOU, because they forgot to turn their caps off, or post a few extra emotes in their excitement at using dAmn for the first time.

And yes, we are supposed to go to #MNAdmin to try and grab an MN@ to help. But due to the fact the MN@ have no set schedules, I've seen times where MNBot is the only one in there, or chix0r's in, but she's been idle for 21 hours. Leaving #devart to the dogs.

Harsh.

I was up late last night, as always - working for deviantART. You never came into #MNAdmin and asked for any assistance ( it's logged ) and if you had highlighted my user name, you would have grabbed my attention, since I was up til 2am. I got back up at 5am again. Excuse me for having a few hours sleep

I also know that at least 2 MN@ were available last night (UK Time) as I can see quite clearly that they assisted people in #MNAdmin.

Give the Members (after of course filtering a select few out) the ability to kick/ban.

Absolutely not. This is the role of the MN@, and not even other volunteer staff on deviantART have this ability.

I'm looking for a small amount of support behind this in order to get some momentum and knowledge, and then start a full-on petition. If you are in support, leave a comment here or toss me a note.

Whilst I appreciate your concerns, I really would appreciate it if you took a step back for a minute and considered the following points.

Chat, by it's very nature, is in an unpredictable environment. No amount of MN@ can predict, nor prevent spammers from entering the channel. We can act upon it afterwards, but as awesome as the MN@ are - being psychic is not one of the skills which they possess.

MN@ are selected by their experience in a chat or technical support environment and are all very well briefed on how to respond to situations. Bear in mind that along with #devart, these guys support and moderate in #mnadmin, and #help, along with a team of excellent helpers - many of which are Members in #devart too.

It is a completely voluntary admin role.

You are right in saying that there has been a drop in the presence of MN@ lately, but the reasons for that are just as I said. Life gets in the way, just as sometimes Volunteer Gallery Directors activity drops a bit, and then perks up again. MN@ are the only team on deviantART who have their administrative abilities demonstrated in real time and I do think that this is somewhat unfair of people to call into question.

However, I do hope these points allow you to put things into context. I could go on here and detail all the other additional things which go on within the MN@ Team, but I think my point has been made.

You can be assured though, that you will see a return to full team presence over the next few weeks. That is, when everyone has finished their exams, stopped working overtime to pay their extra christmas bills and recovered from illness.



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_{Director of Community Operations
deviantART, Inc.
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Sunlight coming through the haze.}

No offense, but if they have time to hang out in #mnadmin, then they should probably be in #devart as well.

Sometimes just the show of force is enough to quell the stupid.

It's the same thing we are having in #help, we always have a butt load of people hanging out in there, but only one or two actually helping people.

And just because people don't have a @ doesn't mean they can't invest time and energy in to making dAmn a better place for everyone.

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When you've got nothing to lose, then baby you've got it all.