What do all the titles mean (Gardener, garden master, master steward, etc)?

Hello wonderful people, I just saw the post about our new Gardeners and it makes me wonder what all the titles mean.  I see the gir bot promoting people from Steward to Master Steward.  What's that mean?  I see Pollinators, Gardeners, Garden Masters, Master Stewards and many folks like myself who don't have a title.  Maybe I've missed it but is there a summary of the levels, what they can do, if they're moderators, etc, etc, etc?

Thanks!

The titles are for volunteer staffers. The different titles means they have more ability to keep things running smoothly, deal with spam, publish the Daily-ish, do book reviews, fix broken links, etc.

You have to be invited to join staff and you can decline if approached. Different levels can also hand out apples, more as the levels increase.

Pollenator is the first level. They get to try some things, and learn some things. They can give out apples to deserving posts.

Gardener is an invitation extended to some pollenators. They can do more things and hand out more apples.

Steward is an invitation extended as well. They can do even more. They also do projects that need doing to keep the forum going. They can hand out even more apples.

Master Gardener and Master Steward have a few different qualifiers and those are decided by the month. The most active in doing what needs doing, gets the promotion.

A few others have special titles, they are usually Master Stewards as well.

They are all volunteers and sometimes someone asks to resign, as it is voluntary to serve.

Be a good member of Permies, make good posts, share good pictures, and you may be approached to join staff someday.

Thanks Deb, that's very helpful and makes much more sense than what I was imagining

Mike Jay wrote:Thanks Deb, that's very helpful and makes much more sense than what I was imagining

Yep, it's just the way we sort out who can do what. All staff is voluntary as well.

Glad it helped.

More info about Pollinators, Gardeners, and Stewards here: https://permies.com/t/40562/receive-apples#315948 (Note, Gardeners used to be called "Volunteers", like a volunteer tomato). Some relevant quotes from that thread:

paul wheaton wrote:Pollinators are able to give away an apple a day.

Volunteers are able to give away three apples a day.

Stewards are able to give away unlimited apples a day.

And,

paul wheaton wrote:Staff can pick pollinators. Basically, it's a title upgrade that comes with some small benefits.

"Volunteer" is like "volunteer tomato". A volunteer is selected by the staff and has staff superpowers, which includes the ability to delete posts and approve name changes.

"Steward" has all of the volunteer superpowers, plus a bunch more system superpowers. A steward is selected by current stewards making suggestions to Burra.  

Burra is our Mother Tree which pretty much means she helps guide us all. She's right up there with Paul in keeping this site going. She's like a Stewardx10.


As for the "Master" designation, those are pretty new titles. Every month, the most active Gardeners get to be made Master Gardener for the month, and the most active Stewards get to be Master Stewards for the month. As far as I know, the "Master" part doesn't confer any actual extra powers, it's just there to applaud those hard workers. Here's the thread from when those titles were introduced and the Master thing came about: https://permies.com/t/58630/staff-titles-volunteer-gardener. And quote from it:

paul wheaton wrote:The staff title of "steward" will remain.

The "volunteer" title has the primary meanting of like "volunteer tomato" that would show up in your garden.   It never seemed like a great title.  

After a great deal of discussion, the volunteer title will be changed to "gardener".

Further, a new software upgrade has brought us a new feature where on the first day of each month, several of the staff will be selected by the forum software to have an upgrade.   Some of the stewards will be given the title of "master steward" and some of the gardeners will be given the title of "garden master".  

I hope that helps! I was also really confused when I joined, so you're totally not alone!

Edited to add: So, yeah, Gardeners and Stewards are the forum moderators, with Stewards having more ability to do things than Gardeners. Pollinators are not moderators, but they're usually really helpful and knowledgeable contributers here, AND they get to give out an apple/day to whatever post they like, which is really fun to do!

Thanks Nicole, that helps a bunch as well.

Could I ask one of those empowered folks could add this thread to the "How Permies.com works - links to useful threads" list?  

Thanks!!!

It looks like one of us just moved this thread there--Congratulations, you've made it to the "How Permies Works" thread

I will ask here. I just joined. As I can't find a FAQ link.  I can't reply to some posts due to having no apples?  I saw mention of apples above, yet still don't fully understand.  Thanks

Hi Jane! Welcome to Permies!!

These 2 links contain a wealth of information. They say it much better than I could try to here.

Universal Welcome Page

How Permies.com Works

Glad you're here. Hope to see you around.

Thank you, Karen.  I missed these links.  Greatly appreciated.

You are very welcome. If you'd like to formally introduce yourself to fellow Permies (totally optional), you may do so here. You can also add information that will appear with your name in posts you make by clicking on My Profile at the top of this page.

I made a table, complete with how many apples each title can give out per day

Title	Meaning	Apples/day
Pioneer	Anyone who completed the pioneer scavenger hunt! It's the one title you can earn	0 apples
Pollinator	A non-moderator person that moderators think is helpful and nice.	1 apple
Master Pollinator	Title granted monthly by Gir Bot. A really active Pollinator that gir bot loves	3 apples
Gardener	A volunteer moderator/staff person	5 apples
Master Gardener	Title granted monthly by Gir Bot. A really active Gardener that gir bot loves	15 apples
Steward	A volunteer moderator/staff person with extra scary buttons	Infinite apples
Master Steward	Title granted monthly by Gir Bot. A really active Steward that gir bot loves	Infinite apples
Mother Tree	A Steward who holds us all together and we love dearly	Infinite apples

I just realized this thread didn't cover the "author" title. This is a title we bequeath on people who do book promos with us.

AND, we now have a shiny title for those who do gear/product giveaways with us: "eco-innovator"!