Enrolment

Any member at Level 3 can make proposals to adjust the roles of any user, between Levels 1 - 3. These proposals should be made in the dedicated Enrolment channel.

Proposals are only official and binding if they are one of the following:

  • Promotion (by one step) to Level 1, 2, or 3.
  • Demotion (by one step) from Level 1, 2, or 3.

The full details of the Official Proposals can be found below.

Other proposals are merely petitions, and not binding on the admin unless specified.

Any enrolment action can be made semi-anonymously by direct-messaging a moderator or the admin. Only the recipient of your message, and possibly also the admin, will be aware of who made the request.

Generally, vote/vetoes should never be overruled, and the reasons for them may remain confidential, though their existence and their author might not be confidential, depending on implementation. Some exceptions are detailed below.

The Weight of Roles

Demotions should not happen except as a result of rule violations. This is why the barrier to entry for an official demotion proposal is quite high.

Demoting a user when they haven't broken a rule is likely to engender a feeling of trivialisation of the investment of time and energy to gain their status, and thus erasure of the value of the hierarchy, which may lead to abandonment of the community.

Since demotions should be rare or as reprimand, promotion should never be considered easy to undo, or temporary. There is a heavy weight to all promotion proposals, but especially for Level 3, which grant the long-term privilege of singular veto power to the user.

Make sure you trust any user with the powers you are granting them.

This does not strongly apply to promotion to Level 1, since Level 1 only concerns security, and thus the only way such a promotion would be mistaken is if the user breaks a rule, which is a valid cause for demotion anyway.

Overruling Vetoes

The only valid reasons to overrule vetoes are those stated in the Official Proposals below, and they are very minimal.

If you do not like a result, your first instinct should be discussion, not overruling.

All Level 3 users are expected to be mature and reasonable people, who are capable of discussing matters, and potentially changing their mind. This is a requirement of the role, and anyone who doesn't match this should be demoted via an official proposal.

Those capable of this dignified conduct will always respond to disputes by opening discussion, and never with requests for undue authoritarian action.

Unresolvable Schisms

Where conflict cannot be resolved by any civil means, the admin should enact a resolution which tends towards inaction.

Ultimately, the admin has the power to overrule all other concerns, but this should only happen in emergencies, and may come at the cost of community trust.

Returning Users

The admin may apply roles to a user without a proposal if all of:

  • The user is an account replacing an old account which no longer has roles. (Mark it as an alt)
  • The roles being given are no higher than the old account had.
  • This action is logged where Level 3 users can see it.

This may be especially common for accounts banned by the platform, but not by this community, where the ban reason is unjust.

Role Decay

If a user with Level 3 is inactive for a period of 3 months, the admin may remove their Level 3 role.

This may be applied after the account becomes active again, but in that case should be applied within a few days.

This action should be logged, visible to all Level 3 users.
It is advisable to explain this to the demoted user, but that is at the admin's discretion.

Official Proposals

Promotion to Level 1

  • Fails with a single veto (votes in favour have no effect at all).
  • Open for 4 hours by default.
  • Propose this if the user seems to be human, and is generally acting as most users do.
  • Veto this only if available evidence suggests a security concern.
    • Do not veto if there is no specific evidence which suggests a security concern.
    • A security concern is a reasonable suspicion that the user might violate server rules.
    • To resolve conflicts, the Admin may require veto reasons to be stated, and may overrule vetoes if they do not match these requirements.
    • If there is minor such evidence, the proposal can be extended instead of vetoed. In these cases, only extend to 24 hours.
  • Should be granted to most users within 24 hours of activity.

Promotion to Level 2

  • Fails with a single veto (votes in favour have no effect at all).
  • Open for 24 hours by default.
  • Propose this if you think the user is a good addition to Cabal.
  • Veto this only if you believe the user is not a direct net-positive to the community, based on your direct encounters with them.
    • This excludes indirect benefit, such as with useful trolls.
    • Do not veto if you have had no direct encounters with the user.
    • Your evaluation may include the future value of the user (for example, if you suspect they are hiding their true intentions). In these cases, you should state your concerns.
    • To resolve conflicts, the Admin may require veto reasons to be stated, and may overrule vetoes if they do not match these requirements.
  • Include the requirements of Promotion to Level 1 (see above).
    • The user must have been Level 1 for at least a week.
  • Expected to be earned after about a month of activity.
  • Must not be granted less than a week after the user joins.

Promotion to Level 3

  • Fails with a single veto (votes in favour have no effect at all).
  • Open for 4 days by default.
  • Propose this if the user matches all of:
    • A worthy representative of the community.
    • Socially capable, dignified, and respected by a large portion of the community.
    • Clearly capable of being reasoned with, and persuaded by good arguments.
    • Has a consistent, recognisable, comprehensible, and distinct identity (name and image).
    • Frequently active in voice channels (exceptions permitted for users who have been active for more than two years).
  • Veto reasons may remain confidential, but should be made in respect of the above requirements.
  • Include the requirements of Promotion to Level 2 (see above).
    • The user must have been Level 2 for at least two weeks.
  • Expected to be earned after about 6 months of activity.
  • Must not be granted less than 2 months after the user joins.

Demotion from Level 1

  • Requires 3 votes in favour.
  • Requires 2 more votes in favour than votes against.
  • Open until vote counts stagnate.
  • You should only favour this if you would veto a proposal to promote this user to Level 1 (see above).
  • The same standards required to reject a promotion to Level 1 are required for this.

Demotion from Level 2

  • Requires 5 votes in favour.
  • Requires 3 more votes in favour than votes against.
  • Open until vote counts stagnate.
  • You should only favour this if you would veto a proposal to promote this user to Level 2 (see above).
  • The same standards required to reject a promotion to Level 2 are required for this.

Demotion from Level 3

  • Requires 10 votes in favour.
  • Requires 5 more votes in favour than votes against.
  • Open until vote counts stagnate.
  • You should only favour this if you would veto a proposal to promote this user to Level 3 (see above).