Staff Policy

Purpose

This policy is designed to assist staff perform their duties, ensuring a common, unbiased, standard for community members.

Staff Conduct

• Staff are expected to meet a higher standard of community professionalism with members.
• Staff are expected to resolve member conflicts, administrative problems and perform their duties in an unbiased manner in accordance to community policies.
• Staff are expected to maintain professional isolation between staff duties and community friendships.
• Staff are expected to be open, honest and diligent with staff matters within the staff area only (never collude with other staff in private).
• Staff are to raise all staff matters only within the staff topic.
• Staff are expected to remove themselves from staff duties in the event of mentally or physically unwell days, where they cannot perform their duties in compliance with this policy.

Staff Seniority

Anthony is the MyPTSD founder and administrator.

Moderators then hold seniority in the absence of the above administrators.

Personal Conversations (PC)

Personal conversations are not to be used by any member of staff outside of default system messages that will use the actioning staff members name.

Absence

Any staff member who is away for an extended period should update the 'What's Going On' thread with dates, located in the staff area.

When In Doubt

As staff, whenever in doubt about content, place the content into moderation and begin a discussion in the staff topic. No harm is done to anyone concerned with the content hidden whilst a discussion takes place.

Rules Enforcement

The following procedure is applied to the issuance of warnings:

1. Click the warning icon / link on the applicable content,
2. Take notice that there are four tabs across the top of the popup,
3. Tab 1 (Warning Information) - Check the applicable warning checkbox,
4. Tab 2 (Member Notification) - Check the "Lock conversation" checkbox,
5. Tab 3 (Content Action) - Do nothing unless content is to be deleted, selecting if applicable,
6. (Staff NEVER use public warning on Tab 3),
7. Tab 4 (only applicable if prior warnings) - Review prior warning history for member (As per below process),
8. Complete process by clicking "Warn Member."
9. Edit the content as applicable for site policy conformity.
10. NEVER issue a custom warning to a member.

Staff is to issue one (1) warning per member, per session, of the identical problem they find at that given time. This means:

1. If you have 3 comments by the same member in a post, and all three comments repeat the same issue, then you fix the three comments, issue one warning (providing other staff have not already initially issued),
2. If you go to a new post in the same moderating session and the same member has repeated the mistake, you edit both comments and do nothing further. This ensures no unnecessary distress against the member for repeating a mistake within the same user session, before being warned first.
3. If the member repeats this action on subsequent days after warning, then warn as per item 1, adding a warning per post where repeated after the fact.
4. If the member has 2 comments in a post, and both comments have unique issues, you can issue each comment with a unique specific warning. This helps staff enforce community policy to new members as quickly as possible, with the least ongoing distress.

Spammers

Spammers are to be banned as spam. A spammer is any new member defined to be self promoting / spamming the community with advertising or such.

1. Select spam link (eraser icon),
2. Select to ban posts, comments, conversations and ban spammer,
3. Click "Cleanup" to finalise.
4. This process will remove their entire spamming history in one go.

NEVER select posts, messages and conversation check boxes on established members with valid posting history, other than the ban spammer checkbox when needing to ban a member from the site entirely.

Self Promotion / Advertising

If a member posts relevant PTSD discussion, yet attempts to self-promote or advertise within that content, apply the Advertising warning and edit the self-promotion / advertising from the content, leaving the remainder intact.

Moving a Post

Moving a post requires zero modification to the default options. Choose your destination topic, leave default 24hr redirect notice selected, add a prefix if appropriate (i.e. Introductions) and complete the move.

You can add a reason if you choose (optional), though by leaving the default option checked to notify the member, they will receive a default notification that their post has been moved.

Content must NEVER be moved from a private area, to less private area.

Moving a Comment/s

You can move a comment/s to a new post, or existing post.

New Post - Enter the destination topic, new post title and prefix as applicable and complete the move.

Existing Post - Paste in the posts URL and complete the move.

You can add a reason if you choose (optional), though by leaving the default option checked to notify the member, they will receive a default notification that their comment/s have been moved.

Comments must NEVER be moved from a private area, to less private area.

Content Deletion

Staff do not delete content upon member request. Content is deleted when duplicated, or the staff member believes the entire content contravenes community policy. Otherwise content is left as is, OR, edit only what contravenes community policy, leaving the remainder accessible.

Privacy

The legal policy covers member privacy, however; for the purpose of editing what is considered private information, staff must use their discretion. Posting something about yourself negates privacy laws. Posting something about another without consent, is breaching privacy laws. A member posting their first name, or full name, then choosing to redact it, does not breach privacy laws, thus is at editor discretion. Doing so once or twice may be acceptable to edit, though if the member has shared that information for a longer period, it would be impracticable to edit such content.

Personal Privacy does not apply to public entities, such as business, Government institutions, education facilities and such entities.

Conflict Resolution Process

The primary conflict in a community such as MyPTSD, is conflicting individualistic views (differing opinions). Conflicts will arise, and this process is a guide to resolving conflicts when one or more parties become disruptive within a topical conversation. This is an escalation process as required.

1. Read the discussion and identify the antagonistic member/s and immediately post ban for the default 7 day period. If this solves the problem, no further action required.
2. If either party continues, escalate further post bans and locks as appropriate (permanent if required), including their own diary if they take to continued complaining about the situation in there.
3. When all else fails, create a Personal Conversation (PC) with one or all parties involved, adding all staff, and begin discussing the issue in private. Title the PC with "Conflict Resolution" so all staff are aware for information purposes only (initiating staff member is the only one to participate, it is their conversation after all).
4. See conflict resolution staff sticky for appropriate points how to resolve conflict.

Attacking Content

In combination with the conflict resolution process, members can at times go beyond debating opinions or facts and shift to directly attacking the character of another. Attacks must be blatant, there is zero room for ambiguity. Because a person feels attacked, does not mean another directly attacked them. Examples of a direct attack are:

• You're a piece of shit and can go f*ck yourself,
• Roll over and die scum,
• You're a lying sack of shit.

These examples are blatant character attacks, thus the following procedure is required:

1. Place the content into moderation first, along with any comments that have directly responded to the attack,
2. Edit / delete the attacking content only, any references only in further comments, or counter attacks only, as you deem fit to ensure there will be no continuance,
3. Approve and send live all edited content,
4. Give warnings as applicable for any attacking / counter attacking as appropriate,
5. Enter conflict resolution step 1 for any antagonist within the discussion.