Introduction

It's often confusing when joining a forum about who is who and who does what and how things are dealt with. Of course, you can read over the board rules and get the gist of things, but it's also nice to get the gist of what moderators can do and how things are handled on this forum. So here's your introduction to DC and who keeps it running.

Moderators/Admin

• Who are they?

On DragCave forum, moderators are split into section moderators (mods in charge of certain sections on the forum) and global moderators (mods in charge of the whole forum).

Near the bottom of the page is a link to all the moderators, including section moderators, global moderators, and the admin, called "The Moderating Team".

Below each section and subsection, it is listed which mods are in charge of the section.
Help Moderators are in charge of Help and Suggestions/Requests, along with all the subsections in Suggestions/Requests.
Site Discussion Moderators are in charge of News and Site Discussion, along with all the subsections in Site Discussion.
General Discussion Moderators are in charge of General Discussion, Video Games (and its subsection), Multimedia (and its subsections), and Forum Games.
Role Play Moderators are in charge of Freeform Role Plays, Unapproved RPs, Dragon Cave Role Plays, and Other Role Plays. In addition, the Unapproved RPs section is helped out by our RP Approvers. They are not mods and should only be contacted for critique and approval help.
Global Moderators are in charge of every single section on the forum.
The Admin - is in charge of all forum sections and also runs the forum from a coding perspective.

You may also see Chat Moderators wandering the forum. They have no forum powers, only DC IRC (DC's Official Chat) powers. They can help with IRC troubles and questions.
Just as chat mods don't have forum powers, most forum mods don't have chat powers. It is best to contact forum mods about forum issues and help and to contact chat mods about chat issues and help, rather than mixing them up.

If you have any questions about how a certain section is run, the best thing to do is to PM a mod of that section or a global mod and ask them your questions.

• What can they do?

Section Moderators:

Section moderators are a good starting place for most problems. Moderators can open/close topics, move topics, merge or split topics, warn users, suspend accounts, deal with reports, answer questions, and moderate descriptions.
If there are no global mods on and there is a problem in a section where none of that section's mods are on or responding to your report yet, a mod from another section is free to be PM'd to step in and try to control the situation until a global mod or the correct section mod can get on and respond to whatever report you sent. Keep in mind that you should only PM a mod for another section for something that needs immediately taken care of, like a flamewar or drama.

Global Moderators:

Global Moderators are the next step up on the food chain. They can do everything a section moderator can do, but are not tied to any specific section. They also have a few more things they can do, like delete polls. They receive reports from every section, where the section mods only receive reports from their section.

TJ09/Admin:

The admin can deal with everything. However, not everything should be sent straight to him. TJ09 should be your last stop, unless specifically instructed in certain situations. Reasons to contact T.J. directly include: issues with a moderator, technical/site issues, renaming accounts, or anything else that needs higher access to be dealt with/sorted. Please bear in mind that T.J. doesn’t reply to all PMs, though he may still fix whatever problem you PM'd or e-mailed to him.

All Moderators

All moderators/global moderators can deal with specific issues such as: multiple accounts, inappropriate dragon/scroll names, missing dragons, and violations of the site Terms and Conditions. However, in these cases, after contacting a moderator, you could expect to wait around 1–4 days before action may be taken. This is because we have to put it in the system queue to be dealt with. Unless there are extremely mitigating circumstances there shouldn’t be a wait longer than 4 days. It will most likely be faster to contact a GM/Section Moderator than to have your PM get lost in T.J.’s inbox. If unsure of who to contact, feel free to make a help topic or PM any mod and you'll be pointed in the right direction.

• When do I contact the mods and what about?

Moderators are here to help you and they can be contacted at any time for any reason. Mods are here to answer your questions and help solve any problems or issues you might have on the cave or forum or with other users.

Questions about the site and forum are fine to ask the mods, though a mod may have to get the answer from another mod or TJ before they can get back to you. Mods do their best to PM you back in a timely fashion, but your answer may not come right away.

As PMs can't be reported, you can also contact mods about problem's you're having through PMs. Whether it's a member sending you spam or harassing you through PM, it's good to let the mods know so we can take care of it and you can once again have a good time on the forum.

Reports

• How do I report things?

Near the top of every post, near the "quote" button is a button labeled "report". Clicking this button will bring you to a page where you can give a description of why you're reporting the post or thread. It's really helpful to write a quick explanation of why you're reporting the post: "rudeness", "spam", "double posting", "art theft", "drama", "personal attack", "duplicate", "wrong section", ect. We can then quickly assess what we're about to look at and deal with the situation accordingly. The report sends an e-mail to the mods of that section and the global mods that contains the link to the post.

• Why should I report things?

Reports are the most important thing mods can receive from a user. Mods are almost constantly patrolling the forums to help keep them clean and friendly for users, but as much as we patrol, we can't be everywhere at once and we can (and do) miss things. We greatly appreciate reports because it helps us do our jobs and helps you guys have a nicer forum. Without reports from you guys, the forum gets a lot more cluttered and a lot less friendly. We're here for you, so let us know where our attention is needed!

• When should I report things?

If you see someone breaking a board rule or section rule (can be found in sticky's and, in the case of Dragon Requests, linked near the top of the page when browsing Dragon Requests), using the report button is the best thing to do. Trying to take care of the situation yourself will most likely just exacerbate the situation and will probably end up with you also getting in trouble.

If you're not sure if something really needs to be addressed or not, go ahead and report it anyway. It's our job to then decide what to do next. Even if we don't end up taking any actions, the report may helps us realize we need to keep an eye on a certain topic or whatnot, and there are absolutely no consequences for you if you report something and we don't do anything about it.

Even if you think something has already been reported, it never hurts to report it again. Oftentimes we may run across a spam topic where five users have commented about it being a spam topic, but we got no reports and so the thread couldn't be dealt with in a more timely fashion. There are absolutely no consequences for you if you report something that's already been reported. We would rather have multiple reports on something rather than no reports on something.

• Can I report things other than instances of rule breaking, or should I just send a PM?

Yes! People often request thread wipes or thread closures (like if they don't have enough time to run their lineage topic or RP or whatnot) or that a question has been answered or that their dragon request needs to be moved to the completed section. You are certainly free to PM a section (or global) mod and ask them to do these things, but you also have the option to send off a report to get it taken care of. A report doesn't always have to pertain to something bad or rule breaking or whatnot. The report function is also just an easy way to call a mod's attention to something that needs to be done.

• Privacy

With reporting, you also have an anonymity. Mods will never share who they receive reports from. They would never pop into a thread and say "I received a report from user ____ for drama on this thread, and I agree..." Your reports are kept anonymous and safe and no one but the mods even have to know you submitted a report.

Users are also not informed when one of their posts are reported and certainly not informed on who reported their post. When you report, the only person who will know is you and the mods who receive the reports.

When checking to see if your report has been dealt with, keep in mind that we may deal out consequences that you can't see. Just because you can't tell something hasn't been dealt with, doesn't mean it hasn't. That said, also don't assume something has been dealt with. If you see rulebreaking that you haven't reported yet, go ahead and send in a report on it, just in case.

Warnings

• How do I know if I was warned?

Under your username and member information, you can find your current warn level. If you click on the percentage, your warn log will pop up and you should be able to see what you were warned for, as well as past warns you've received. No one but yourself and the mods can see your warn level and mods will never give out your warn information to others. Warns are a private thing and the mods respect that.

• What are warnings for?

As upsetting as it can be to get a warn, the warn isn't because mods hate you or dislike you. The warn is simply there as a reminder that you've done something wrong and should keep it in mind so it doesn't happen again. Low warn percentages will probably not earn you any consequences, either, though higher warn percentages can. Consequences can depends on the severity of infractions, which is why we do not have a set warn percentage = this consequence table to put up for users to see. Possible consequences are posting moderation (your post must be approved by a mod before the public can see it), no posting (you can see the board and send PMs, but are unable to post messages for the public), and suspension (you can't see the board or use any of its functions). These usually only last for a few days to a week.

• Can I discuss my warn with a mod?

If you receive a warning and you don’t understand why you’ve got it, have a problem with it, or don't agree with it, you should check your warn log and/or contact the moderator who warned you for the best explanation. Keep in mind that explaining the situation may not get the warn removed, but may simply help you understand what you got the warn for. If you've discussed your warn with the mod who gave it to you and you still don't agree with it, PM TJ and ask him about it. But keep in mind that even he may also agree with the warn.

• Do warns go away?

Yes, after four weeks if you do not receive another warn in that time.

This post has been edited by SockPuppet Strangler on Feb 12 2013, 04:14 PM