Moderation Trial Period & Information on Global Moderation Roles

Hey! I am so sorry if this is lengthy, I wanted to put my thoughts into this as well as address some issues I've already witnessed with this. I'll try to keep it as concise as possible and break it down - but no promises! As a disclosure, though, I have not had any part in the development of this change. This announcement was the first I'd heard information wise - I work a lot so have missed most meetings where it's been discussed. I may be wrong in some things here - and I am sorry if I am - though @Laura and @Kate and those who have had an active part in building this will be able to shed some more light.

So firstly, my personal thoughts: I think it's a great idea. It's clear a lot of thought and effort has gone into this and I can see that you're not doing it for the sake of it. It's to help drive quality and focus regarding moderating on the site - we all know that this can be an issue, I won't sugar coat it. Moderators get stressed, members get stressed at moderators. It can be horrible. This is clearly here to help alleviate some of that stress and give moderators the focus to really get involved with the teams they want to help and are passionate about (which, when current mods applied to be moderators, we were asked what teams we want to focus on).

Secondly, I feel like there's already been a lot of backlash from this from the Mod Meeting when there needn't have been.
I think most issues have arisen due to some all-or-nothing thinking and panicking due to change so the first thing I want to personally address is this:

Change is not negative.
It's a chance for growth and development. It isn't a punishment.

This change isn't happening to deliberately annoy anybody. It isn't here to make anyone's life difficult - it's to help improve the community and the moderator role. A change that I, for one, welcome with open arms.

Which leads me on to my next point: this change does not affect current moderators outside of December. Everyone who is already a moderator will still have their global mod badge unless they opt out of it and want to focus on their teams (anecdote coming up a bit later). If you are not part of the testing groups, you will not be affected to put it as simply as I can. The only change you will see is if you opt in to become a Team Moderator as opposed to a Global Moderator.

ONLY during December will members of the mentioned SCs be put forward for testing. This isn't a punishment as all those testing will be doing it for one month and will be the first line to help make changes, improvements, and alterations. Those testing, for all intents and purposes, are the ones shaping the new locked moderating. The foundations are there - now those testing will help lay the bricks.

However, if you're in a few SCs outside of the ones being tested, you may not be testing. You'll have to PM @Kate I believe and she'll discuss it with you - it's entirely down to the group you're in, etc. If you are in a few teams and one or two of them aren't part of the testing SCs, though one is, and you are locked for the month. That is nothing to worry about.

There are a lot of mods who will have no issues coming with you to help moderate your discussions. Nothing is going to prevent you from supporting your team(s). If anything, the privelege you've got of testing this new change will help you support your team(s) even more.

This leads me onto my biggest point and by far the largest issue I've seen mentioned.

Current moderators will be global moderators unless they choose not to.
This change ONLY impacts new moderators.

Anecdote time and then I'll explain.

John and Mary have worked with Food&Things for 10 years and when they joined, they didn't have to work Weekends - it's in their contract. Recently, however, Food&Things have realized they need to expand their operations to weekend work. So they alter contracts. James starts working and as he's new, he works weekends. However, John and Mary continue not to work weekends as their contract says they don't, however they're welcome to opt in to weekend work if they want. After 6 months, though, James is able to opt out of weekend work, too, if he chooses and his work-standard is good.

This can be translated to the new change fairly easily.

John and Mary are currently mods. James is becoming a mod.
John and Mary will stay as global mods unless they choose to focus on one or two rooms.
James, however, will pick one or two teams when he becomes a mod and those become his focus. After a certain time, James can apply to become a global mod if he wants.

Your tools are not being stripped and your responsibilities are not being taken away.
New moderators joining the team will be joining under the pretense that they'll be focusing on certain teams - so it will not affect them. Nothing is being taken from them.
Current moderators will stay global unless they choose not to. Nothing is being taken from them, unless they want to focus on one area.

This is something I know has been in discussion for a while now and I think it will be a welcome change. It will promote moderator focus, increase our supportive role (we are not police), and help drive overall quality of moderators.

So to surmise:
- current mods will remain global mods
- current mods can opt in to focus on key areas if they want
- only new mods will have to choose a focus
- testing is only certain subcommunity leaders only for December. After which, you'll go back to being a global mod if you want
- If you lead more than one subcommunity as well as the ones in testing, you need to PM @Kate / @Laura et al. They'll discuss it with you.

So I am sorry this was so long, I hope it made sense, and hopefully I've covered all issues! If not, I'll try do to the best of my ability though as I said - I am in no way involved in this change, I'm just a normal everyday BugMod.

what will happen with forum categories and support rooms that are not subcommunities?

I just want to clarify what's going on for the trial.

The majority of mods will carry on as usual, modding in both trialed and non-trialed SCs.

Most of the SCs will have less mods total, because some are no longer global mods.

The few SCs where this is being trialed also have a few less mods (as say the trauma support mods won't be modding in self-harm) than before the trial, but will have more mods than the non-trialed SCs.

What happens to SCs that are not being trialed, but have mods within them that also belong to those that are being trialed? Ie. Mod A is a support session leader in Anxiety and Trauma. Do they still get to mod in Anxiety during this trial period?

If not, has does that affect how they behave if they were supposed to lead a discussion in Anxiety?

How does this trial affect planned events for the non-trialed subcommunities?

I think it will work out fine. Just give it time. I'm not in any sub communities because I can't commit to a set hour each week for a discussion but I'm generally around quite a lot. If you want me to mod for a discussion or event, let me know where and when and I will try my best.

Since I have a Forum Mentor role in the Trauma Support Subcommunity, will I only have forum moderator capabilities in that subcommunity? Thanks!

really am confused about this whole 'Global mod' thing. Since am a forum mentor in Self Harm sub comm, am I only able to mod Self harm chats just now then? As this room is only a pop up room when discussions in, that would limit ability to maintain badges due to new criteria. Very confused about what it all means and how would maintain badges if looked to one room with limited discussions or lesser members in rooms.

I think I didn't quite understand this idea when you first proposed it. My main concern has always been with the rooms and forum sections that already don't have enough moderation as it is, where I don't think this will have a positive impact. Although, following up with this new information, I think it's a good way to go, to start new mods on focusing in a single space to begin with. Because that helps a lot with stability and knowing exactly where you are standing but if the people that are now global mods want to keep doing so - they can.

Following up with this, I think the next step is, as it always has been to have new and stronger sub-coms for the places and forums that still aren't their own sub community to ensure they remain an important place of 7Cups and have the needed moderation.

I would like to make a note though, regarding the teen side of things, specially chatrooms. Right now, most of the teen rooms spend 70% of the time unmodded and most of the times listeners come in the Teen Listeners chatroom asking for ANY mod to join in and help, because there's a hard situation. I think at the most, each teen specific chatroom would have 2-3 active mods with this new update and that would put a huge pressure in those teen listeners to cover 24hrs of the day. (Just doing the maths, 24 hours between 4 mods is 6 hours each! Or otherwise the room is there 'without supervision'. We can probably add maybe... I don't know, 5 listeners who join without being mods? But if an emergency arises, and there's usually conflict in these rooms, they still need support because most -this doesn't mean all- aren't yet as experienced.

So this do not mean at all I'm against this idea, I actually quite support it. Just voicing up some of my concerns regarding the situation at hand on some spaces of our lovely community that I think we shouldn't leave aside. Thank you for the update regarding this and for the space to share our thoughts in a positive way. All the love.

P.S: what I'm saying is a following up to Emily's comment here. The Teen Star Leader role was created quite in a hurry because of our 'pressure' for it. Only three of us got it the first time, for chatroom, quality and community and after that no one else got it ever again. The three of us aged up eventually and the role became a 'ghost' of a thing. This is not totally related to what we're discussing but I think it brings up the necessity of clearer (and updated!) roles for the teen community, just like the Project Agents worked incredibly well!

@Laura it's less of a bad thing <3

*squarshes u*

Before I stated my opinion, I wanted to make a list of the Pros and Cons of Locked Moderation, so here is my list below :D

Benefits of Locked Moderation:

– Moderators will tend to gravitate toward rooms that they have power in, meaning that they will frequent that room more often and as a result, get to know the regulars of the room, the dynamics of the room, and the vibe of that room on a better and deeper level, leading to and increased bond between the moderators and the members, which results in a more positive chatroom environment

– As a result of bonding with the frequent users, moderators will also have an easier time moderating the room in general, and may also learn more about moderation, and gain conflict resolution skills in the meantime

– A general increase in connectivity between the members and leaders in a subcommunity, since the leaders will probably devote more time toward their subcommunity as a result of this update

– Locked moderation will also ensure that moderators and leaders in the forums are experienced in this topic, and will be able to provide the proper support, whether in forums or in the chatrooms

– In addition, when moderators have a specific room to focus on, and don

Still climbing the ladder I