=][= GROUPS/TEAMS/ROLES UPDATED =][=

[Brother Tyler]

We've been looking at a number of things that will [hopefully] improve the site usability (in addition to the much-needed improved hosting solution, database fix, php fix, and software upgrade). While the more technical things are beyond my knuckle-dragging intellect (hence the need for sacristans techmarines (see below) and other technical experts), there are some things that I can effect. There are two areas that @Gillyfish and I have been looking at. One of them is still in development, but one area where we developed a solution and ran it by the rest of the staff was in the groups (or teams/roles - terminology depends upon which specific setting is being looked at ). The following changes were put into effect yesterday:

• The ++ MODERATI ++ group has been renamed ++ CHAPLAIN ++.
• The original + LIBRARIAN + group was removed and the ++ CHIEF LIBRARIAN ++ group was renamed ++ LIBRARIAN ++.
• The ++ LIBRARIAN ++ group responsibility was expanded from just the Articles feature to include the Blogs, Downloads, and Gallery features.
• The ++ SACRISTAN ++ group has been renamed ++ TECHMARINE ++.
• The +++ ADMINISTRATI +++ group has been renamed +++ ADMINISTRATOR +++.
• The ++ EMERITI ++ group has been renamed ++ EMERITUS ++.
• The team icons of all staff groups (+++ ADMINISTRATOR +++, ++ CHAPLAIN ++, ++ LIBRARIAN ++, ++ TECHMARINE ++, and ++ EMERITUS ++) have had the servitude studs increased in size.
• The team icon of the ++ CHAPLAIN ++ group has had the crux replaced by a gold crozius arcanum.
• The team icon of the ++ LIBRARIAN ++ group has had the book increased in height and horns added.
• The team icon of the ++ TECHMARINE ++ group has had an augmetic eye added.
• The team icon of the + FRATER DOMUS + group has had a single large servitude stud added.
• The achievement badges for the staff groups have been updated to roughly match the updated team icons.

First, since our original plan for the Articles feature didn't pan out, we got rid of the old + LIBRARIAN + group and changed the ++ CHIEF LIBRARIAN ++ group to simply ++ LIBRARIAN ++. We also expanded their sphere of responsibility to include the Blogs, Downloads, and Gallery features; and they shared core responsibilities in common with the (former) ++ MODERATI ++ group, which is primarily (but not solely) focused on the Forums feature. In practice, many people include the librarians when referring to the "moderati." To avoid confusion, one might refer to both groups as "staff," but that then becomes complicated when distinguishing between the rules-enforcing staff (which also includes the administrators) and the non-rules enforcing staff (the sacristans techmarines). With two groups being identifiable as moderati, it was necessary to change the ++ MODERATI ++ group's name. In this, we returned to the site's Space Marine roots. While the moderators have often been likened to the Inquisition in the past, it seemed much more thematic to use chaplains as the model for that group. The updates to the icons for those teams seemed intuitive. If you look at the Staff Directory, you'll see that these two groups are both considered to be moderati.

 

Changing the ++ SACRISTAN ++ group name to ++ TECHMARINE ++ followed the same logic. When we originally conceived that group, I was leaning towards the latter name. However, discussion with our sole sacristan (at that time) resulted in the former name, which is similar to a techmarine, but which comes from the Imperial Knights faction. Updating the group name to ++ TECHMARINE ++ allowed for all three of the main staff groups to have recognizable group names with strong associations to their responsibilities and the community's original Space Marine theme (and our Legio mascot). As the chaplains and librarians had their team icons updated to more closely align with the imagery, adding the augmetic eye to the techmarines was a no-brainer. We considered making the icon more closely match the machina opus, but the split black/white cog and the additional cables didn't work well at the 39 x 39 pixel display size, so only the augmetic eye was added.

 

For the administrators and emeriti, we changed the group names from the plural to the singular. The reason for this is that using the plural form doesn't make sense in each member's "baseball card." The baseball card is the mini-profile that identifies the member who submitted the content (post, image, blog entry, etc.), providing basic information about that member. To illustrate, here is my baseball card:

 

 

My display name appears at the top. Below that is my profile photo (or avatar), with my rank icon appearing in the lower left corner. Below that is the primary group to which I belong. Below that is the corresponding team icon. When a member has identified their preferred pronouns (I have not), those will appear immediately below their team icon. Members of the staff have their personal titles appearing below their team icons. Finally, the member's post count (or an approximation when they have a high post count) will appear at the bottom of the baseball card.

 

While the plural words (okay, the pseudo-Latin versions we use) make sense when referring to the group, they might be a little confusing in the context of the baseball cards. I am an administrator, and when one is referring to both me and @Gillyfish, it makes sense to refer to us as either "administrators" or, in our pseudo-Latin, "administrati." If you see +++ ADMINISTRATI +++ below my profile photo, however, it looks I'm indicating that I am the administrati, referring to myself using the royal "we" as it were. Likewise with the emeriti - each individually is an "emeritus" while two or more can be referred to as the "emeriti." That plural form just seemed a bit awkward. Switching to the singular just makes more sense when looking at the baseball cards, especially for newer members who might not have caught on to the little bits of theming that we incorporate into our community's culture.

 

For those who don't know, the emeriti are former staff members - members of the community who have served in one or more of the staff roles but who have since "retired." Many remain active within the community and it is very important to recognize their contributions to the community - all staff members are volunteers and the time and effort they devote to the community is time and effort that they sacrifice from more enjoyable aspects of the hobby. All staff members enjoy a bespoke title, but since they have retired, they no longer retain the permissions and authority they enjoyed while actively serving in a staff role. Each has earned the badge(s) for the staff position(s) in which they served.

 

When we first switched to the skull-based team icons (from the icons that were based on the force organization chart), the concept was that current and former staff members would be identified by the red X. The exception to this was the sacristans, who were technical experts but who had no rules enforcement role. When a sacristan techmarine retired (and we currently have one retired sacristan techmarine), then, it wouldn't be appropriate for their team icon to include the red X. Neither the Frater Domus group nor the Frater Novus group (which came later) included any servitude studs on their team icons. We realized that the red X merely indicated rules enforcement authority and that staff membership was really indicated by the servitude studs. In this, the decision was made to remove the red X from the team icon of the emeriti. The problem with the servitude studs, however, was that they were barely visible. The skull icons were shrunk down from a larger image and the servitude studs appeared as single-pixel dots when shrunk. The result would have been that the team icon of the emeriti was barely distinguishable from that of the Frater Domus and Frater Novus members, and that didn't seem to be adequate recognition of their contributions. So we decided to further modify the team icons by increasing the size of the servitude studs from a single pixel to 4 x 4 pixels (actually 6 x 6 when the shading is counted). This makes them much more visible. In addition, we decided to add a single servitude stud to the team icon of the + FRATER DOMUS + group, distinguishing that group from the + FRATER NOVUS + group.

 

It should be noted that we also have a Librarian achievement badge for those members who served in the old (pre-2014) Librarium. These members worked in a different manner, having no rules-enforcement authority, so they have retained the original badge without the red X or horns to distinguish them from the current (moderator) librarians.

 

Some members may be wondering why we didn't switch the +++ ADMINISTRATI +++ group name to something more representative of the Adeptus Astartes. In short, it's because we don't want to be self-aggrandizing (I know some of you may snort at that ). If we used +++ HIGH LORD +++ or +++ CHAPTER MASTER +++ or +++ GREAT CAPTAIN +++ (the latter working best with the Legio them) or something else, we'd seem a bit poncy. In this, we felt it was far better to stick with a group name that clearly indicates our role at the site.

 

The basic progression for the team icons is:

 

Skull > 1 servitude stud (Frater Domus) > 2 servitude studs (staff) > other elements* depending on role + red X (for a rules enforcement role)

* The other elements are thematically associated with the group name.

 

So here are the new group names, their corresponding team icons, and the corresponding achievement badges for the staff groups (each image displays at 20 x 20 pixels, click on the images to see the full-size versions):

 

+++ ADMINISTRATOR +++  

 

++ CHAPLAIN ++ (moderator)  

 

++ LIBRARIAN ++ (moderator)  

 

++ TECHMARINE ++  

 

++ EMERITUS ++ 

 

+ FRATER DOMUS + 

 

+ FRATER NOVUS + 

 

+ UNSANCTIONED + 

You'll only see this when a member's account has been deleted by their request, with their display name replaced by "GUEST" (or sometimes "GUEST [account name]"). Their content remains so that other members' achievements (reactions) and content (quotes/replies) aren't affected by deletion. Actual guests (i.e., unregistered members) are not able to submit content.

 

+ RENUNCIATUS + 

You'll only see this when a member has requested that their account be deleted, and they'll remain in this group for 30 days, after which the account will be deleted and their content will appear as if they are in the + UNSANCTIONED + group.

 

+ EXCOMMUNICATUS + (no team icon)

These are [former] members who have been permanently banned from the community for misbehavior.