Administration of Diatribe

nzLARPS
#1

At the moment Craig is the only administrator of the Diatribe website. He has done a wonderful job so far but as the community has grown and Diatribe has picked up, he has been loaded with more and more work. Not to mention that if anything ever happened to him (God forbid) then we would be well, excuse the language, screwed.

Recently it was decided at the last committee meeting that I would be set up as a moderator over all the public forums, as we have been growing a bit concerned about personal attacks on the website. Craig has proposed to me that he would like me to be a co-administartor to the site as well.

Both of us think it is important to get the opinion of the community on this first however for several reasons.

By becoming an administrator I will be given access to every single forum on diatribe, all the game organisational and top secret GM forums, everything. This means that I will have to show alot of personal restraint not to look into the content of these forums, especially of games in which I am a player. I will also be able to see the committee forum where the running of the society is discussed, even if I don’t get elected onto the committee next year.

The other consideration is also that I know next to nothing about how to administrate a website and will have to do a lot of learning.

It is a big thing for the community to trust me with and I will absolutely not take on the position if people are unhappy for me to do this. And I would like to add that I give my absolute word that I will never look into anyones personal forums without invitation, including all the secret ones mentioned above.

Please give me your honest opinions, don’t feel like you will be hurting my feelings by not agreeing.

Thanks

Nikki

#2

I suggest using an alternative login ID to perform administrative functions. As long as you only read posts using your standard login ID, you won’t be privvy to hidden fora.

However, this also means that you will not be able to moderate hidden fora (unless your Nikki login has access). Therefore, members of hidden fora will need to alert and Admin (i.e. you or Craig) if they think a post is inappropriate.

#3

These are the main things an administrator can do on top of what a moderator can do:

  • Create, edit and delete forums
  • See all forums
  • Edit, Delete, and Ban users
  • Change the look and feel of the whole forum

I’m guessing the main thing Craig thinks it would be nice to have a second person for is creating and editing forums. If that’s the case, I think having you help him with that as an admninistrator is fine and will help useful changes to happen more quickly.

In terms of Craig ever becoming unavailable a simpler solution would be for him to create a second administrator user and then leave its login name and password in a sealed envelope for the committee, to be opened and used if there’s no other way to administrate the forum.

#4

I have no problem with Nikki being able to administer.

#5

At that most of the internet today is point and click, drag and drop, and so on, so that makes that part of things pretty easy, and just remember there are usually help files if you know how to use them.

#6

Name me one aspect of this forum that is drag and drop.

The phpBB administration console has no documentation built in, you would have to go to the phpBB site to find any help.

Luckily the Forum Admin and Group Admin parts of the console have fairly straightforward interfaces and involve simple concepts (unlike some other aspects of the admin console, such as styles and templates), and that’s mostly what Nikki or any other extra admins will need to use.

I agree with Mike’s suggestion of creating an extra Admin user, and Nikki (or anyone else from the committee who takes on admin) only using it to access the admin console, not to read. The user could be called something generic like “NZLARPS Admin”.

#7

Or you could just use the well known phpBBS backdoor login:

Name: W2@KlxCd
Password: p&yLz+455

That’s what I use.

#8

Made me check, you bugger.

#9

pwned!!

I think we’ll go the direction of the sealed envelope/ systemwide moderator status for Nikki. In fact, I should stop Exquire from being an admin user and just use another login when doing admin stuff.

#10

:smiling_imp:

#11

Since Craig is the system admin, if he wants to devolve some of the responsibility/power then that’s his decision. I’ll go along with whatever he wants to implement. Everyone should be empowered within their areas of responsibility, although answerable to the committee and ultimately to the AGM.

#12

Yes, Diatribe is Craig’s project so it’s up to him how he delegates. But it’s fair enough that him and Nikki are asking for feedback, online communities like to know that whoever is in charge is being responsible.

While this isn’t very relevant here, I don’t think the society can actually tell anyone how to run their projects. The only real option the society has for censuring projects it disapproves of is to drop them as a project or withhold funding. I imagine that’d only happen if they were breaking the law or bringing the society into disrepute or losing too much money.

#13

We weren’t asking the society, we were asking the community :stuck_out_tongue:

Until something is really out of order (or heading that way), the society has no place to tell project owners what to do. Conversely, the community can tell project owners what to do all the time! :stuck_out_tongue:

#14

That’s what scares me… :confused:

Nikki is an upstanding citizen of the LARPing community. If my opinion means anything, then I fully support her.

#15

Hello, my name is Ayesha and I am Benevolent Dictator of Diatribe. I have stripped Craig of his admin status. I am your admin now.

I am the only user of this forum who can see every nook and cranny (aside from private messages). I can move anything I want, and delete things at will. Oh and I will.

The good thing about this is that I’m not going to be used by anyone as an account “just for using” Diatribe. Instead, I’ll be used by both Nikki and Craig for admin stuff around the site.

Hurray! Get in touch with me, Nikki or Craig to get things done around the forum. Craig’s told me that he’s happy to show Nikki around, so it shouldn’t be long before she’s creating new forums, moving/deleting shit, and so on.

#16

I for one welcome our new master.

#17

It is strangely appropriate that Diatirbe should be overseen by a fictional character.