choosing new staff

Gir bot is working over the current staff to choose new staff.  

First, I think one of the policies over at coderanch has made it's way here:  people that ask to be on staff are damn near banned from ever being on staff.   I think that is less strict here at permies, but I think there is still quite a bit of weight on that one.  

I do think it is fair for the staff to share what their selection criteria is.  

1:  have been always nice and helpful in the last six months.  

2:  have completed the scavenger hunts

3:  giving lots of thumbs to others.

4:  received lots of apples recently.

5:  subscribed to the dailyish (girbot is reporting this to us)


Item #1 is probably the biggest.  Our process is a nomination system.  So somebody on the staff will notice a person being particularly helpful to somebody and then they might remember to make a nomination later.   Of course, if they see that same person being unkind later, it pretty much cancels out.  

Notice how nowhere on the list is "magnificent knowledge and/or skill".  

On coderanch we brought some people onto staff that had huge knowledge, but were "a bit rough around the edges" and that, universally, led to disaster.   At the same time, we brought some people in that had very little knowledge, but were lovely people - that has almost always been a winning recipe.


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So, a lot of you might be thinking that being on staff just sounds like extra work, so it would be wise to dodge this bullet.  

First, it's an all volunteer thing - so there is no need to do anything.  People tend to do what they feel like doing.   And you will be asked to take on some chores - but there is no "chore police" or anything like that.  

You get tools to help out.  And you get the inside scoop.  And you also get the opportunity to help push permaculture forward globally.  You get to influence the future of the site ...  I dunno, maybe some of the current staff can talk about the perks.  

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I generally stay out of the process for selecting new staff.  But I do guide the current staff in making their choices - a little.    


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At this time, some of the staff are considering the candidates and thinking a bit about "will that person be upset if we don't ask them?"  Of course, we don't offer any explanations.  But if you don't get chosen, you might take a look at the list above to see what could be improved.  

I think there are a few people that get passed over for really small, silly things.   So I kinda thought I would mention it.

paul wheaton wrote:I dunno, maybe some of the current staff can talk about the perks.  

You get to see behind the scenes.  You get lots of new buttons to click on.  You can give away more apples.  You can make a bigger impact on the world than you were before (hopefully a positive impact).  And it's fun!!!

paul wheaton wrote:I dunno, maybe some of the current staff can talk about the perks.  

The biggest perk for me is the feeling of community. We staff really bond, and I consider the other staff to be my friends. We share what's going on in our life, and support one another. And laught at the poor attempts by spammers trying to sell pimple cream in the hugelculture forum. And, well, I just love the other staff. You're all amazing!

I also love being able to help more. I can help save our planet and help more people grow food by helping permies. I probably could not help nearly as many people if I were not staff. I like to think I make a bigger difference in the world by being staff on permies than I could otherwise.

It's not always easy to moderate. There's some days where I'm nearly in tears from things that went wrong and times I feel like bashing my head on a wall, and times where it gets chaotic (One night a bunch of spammers came and created massive amounts of accounts and posts so that the whole Recent Topic page was entirely spam. Or those times that no matter what we try, we can't get people to play nicely on the forum and then they send us nasty mooseages). But, thankfully, there are so many other lovely staff that we can support each other mentally and emotionally.

paul wheaton wrote:...  I dunno, maybe some of the current staff can talk about the perks.  

For me, it's helping out, and helping others. I find it satisfying to contribute what I can. Each of the staff contribute in different ways, some do a lot of code stuff that I wouldn't know how begin to describe, some others help keep permies running smoothly (which I must say certainly includes those writing code), we stay on top of spam and help keep these forums organized, and for me I do what I've learned so far and know how to do comfortably. We all do what we can with what time we have. I can say there is a lot going on, and with Permies being a global community, the sun never sets on Permies staff.

I like the feeling of community and I like helping out because I have gotten so much from the forum.  

I am sad when some seem to take up the moderators time by not being nice or not playing nice.

I like giving out apples and likes.

I like to squish spammers.

Thanks everyone for making this an amazing place.

Nicole Alderman wrote:We staff really bond, and I consider the other staff to be my friends.

This. It's 2019 and yet I am still amazed that I can be friends with people I've never met in person. It's pretty cool.

One of the important things about becoming staff is the first week is pretty intense.   Not everyone 'survives' but if you can get through that week, then it becomes much easier and you can choose the level of involvement you wish to have with the site.

Becoming Staff suddenly grants you to a plethora of massively scary buttons but also to become staff, one has proven that they are a gentle soul who values niceness in conversation.  Then you see behind the scenes and you realize how much not-niceness and abuse the Staff of this site are exposed to in order to keep this site nice.  It's shocking!  Not everyone can handle it.  It's amazing anyone stays on staff at all.

But, there are some amazingly powerful tools that we can use to guide things towards niceness. Being trusted as staff means you can nudge the direction of the site towards your vision (within certain parameters of course).  You may have noticed an increase in textiles and writing related content over the years...

Once you find your feet as staff, you can choose where to focus your attention.  Some people poke their nose in once a week, once a month.  Others focus on adding and curating content.  Others build relationships with other sites and seek out people who want to promote their stuff by giving away free things to our readers.  Some people focus on keeping things nice.  

Recently, ten invitations went out via PM.  We give people 48 hours to respond.  4 accepted, 2 declined (at this time) and 4 never replied (so their PM was removed - they don't even know they were invited).

Soon, the four that accepted will be "processed" and then announced.  


For those that like the idea of being promoted ....   I kinda wonder if some of them have permies set up with a lessor email address.  


In related news:  gir bot has a massivly improved algorithm for making suggestions for new staff.  Wow!  

paul wheaton wrote:people that ask to be on staff are damn near banned from ever being on staff.  

Sounds like something from a Robert Heinlein novel. I think, “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress,“ where they are tossing around ideas for a new political system. Anyone who wants power over others is automatically banned from ever seeking office.

I am too new here to have much say, and not only am I too new I don't really want to be a person of power.  18 years a a cop and I refused every request to promote, it is just not what I wanted.  That being said, maybe in a year or two, if my life settles down, I would consider it but not only do I not meet the qualifications now, I don't want it.
If you have decent people who have been here a while, who offer some knowledge but do NOT want the job they might be the better choice.   Odds are, anyone who what the job may not be best for the job.  

An fyi - gir bot is demanding new staff again, and harassing the current staff ...

Things I keep an eye out for is a solid understanding of how permies works,
https://permies.com/wiki/34193/

And seeing if candidates are doing anything extra already to help permies grow above and beyond making awesome posts.  Writing book reviews.   If pollinator, are they participating in the daily-ish email?  Taking advantage of the affiliate system for the digital market or start selling stuff there.  Etc.

To put it another way, I look for frodo types who take the ring to mordor even if they don't know they way, but are willing to ask for help (in the right place like the tinkering forum where the people who can help will see it).  

To a lesser extent,  I look for bilbo types who need nudging to get out the door adventuring.  

Both make great adventures staff, but right now we don't have a strong gandalf to do the nudging so frodo types tend to get picked more often.

But all the staff have a hand in the selection process,  it's just what I seek when looking for candidates.

It came up again today. We were looking at the number of staff with Microsoft based emails like outlook and Hotmail.   There are very few and seems to be less and less over the years.

We have know issues with these email providers sometimes  protecting their users from permies emails.

When we send the invite out to join the staff, there is a small window to reply. It's possible if one uses outlook,  Hotmail,  etc, they won't get that email in time and the invite will expire and vanish.

So, if volunteer moderating on permies is a path that interests you,  it might be worth changing to a non-microsoft email address.

The time is neigh and the selection process rigorous.

One thing I look for is content.

Answer questions
Replying to zero reply threads
Starting new threads with questions or tutorials.

But every staff member looks for something different.   I think the common element is being a community member rather than just a user.