[Charter] Third and Final Draft Discussion

Summary:

Third time's the charm

[Charter] Third and Final Draft Discussion

torcsandantlers 14 Jun 2022 17:34

O5 Mirror

Previous Thread

Quick summary of significant changes since last time:

• Acknowledges official chat platforms are not offsite communities in Article 1
• Clarifies that "abuse" in Article 4.4 will be defined by further policy
• Clarifies that in Article 6 (Content Quality Standards) we are primarily guided by the opinions of general members and not staff members
• Clarified that limits on Author Rights in article 8 will be defined by policy
• Acknowledges sister sites along with international branches in Article 9.1
• Changed that recruitment in Article 11 can be from anyone in the community, not just site members
• Clarified that the definition of when democratic decision making is "inappropriate" in Article 13.5 will be defined by policy
• Specifies in Article 14.1 that we will also use time requirements to prevent minority rule

NOTES:

Specifics on all of the following are deliberately not in the charter and will instead be defined by later policy:

• teams
• anything about staff structure (captains, admins, moderators, OS, JS any of that)
• voting systems, including quorum, majority, inactivity/reserve
• exactly what situations democratic decision making is inappropriate in (Article 13.5)
• recruitment as a formal process
• how Article 7 (Collaboration) and Article 8 (Creator Rights) conflict and how to handle that, e.g. what we do if people want to delete articles that other articles depend upon
• most things that are actually detailed or spell out a process. This document is a why, not a how.

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This draft is pretty well complete, but we didn't want to put it up for a vote at the same time as promotions. And it'd be nice for the potential new OS's to be able to vote on it, since 2/3 of them were involved in the drafting. Unless there are major concerns with this draft, this will be the final discussion thread before we move onto a vote. Discussion time will run for one week.

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Again, again, this text is the collective work of:

• Alexander Roberts
• DrBleep
• Cassandra_Prime
• Jacob Conwell
• Meserach
• OptimisticLucio
• torcsandantlers
• Yossipossi

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CHARTER TEXT

Chapter 1: Definitions

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Article 1

The following terms are hereby defined:

• Abuse of Power. Any use of staff powers that violates the purposes and principles as laid out in Chapter 2.
• The Charter. This document, as ratified and amended by staff.
• The Community. All individuals who interact with SCP-related media in any meaningful capacity, whether actively or passively.
• Contributor. Any creator who posts media, of any format, to the SCP Wiki.
• Creator. Any individual who creates media, of any format, about or for the SCP Wiki.
• Member, General. Refers to any individual who has a membership on the SCP Wiki, but does not hold a staff position.
• Member, Staff. Any individual among the group of volunteers who formally maintain and improve the Site’s functionality. Their membership, powers, responsibilities, and procedures are governed by this document (the Charter) and policy documents.
• Offsite Communities. Any community aside from the SCP Wiki or its official chat platforms that centers around interacting with SCP-related media in any meaningful capacity.
• Policy. Any written rules, procedures or regulations that contribute to the function of the site, which have been implemented by staff to achieve the goals described in this charter.
• Reader. Any individual who reads or otherwise consumes works posted on the SCP Wiki, regardless of member status.
• The Site / The Wiki. The SCP Wiki, the website upon which works drawing on the shared fiction of the “SCP Foundation”, and the fictional universe around it, are posted, stored, read, rated, critiqued and otherwise interacted with.
• Staff Powers. Powers or abilities granted to members of staff that are not available to general members of the site.

Chapter 2: Purposes and Principles

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Article 2

The purposes of Staff are to, through reasonable effort and in no particular order of priority:

2.1 …maintain and improve the Site on behalf of the Community, as described in Article 3;
2.2 …ensure the safety of all members of the Community, as described in Article 4;
2.3 …model, promulgate and enforce standards of conduct amongst Staff and Members, as described in Article 5;
2.4 …keep the quality of work on the Site at a standard that satisfies the Community, as described in Article 6;
2.5 …encourage a culture of collaboration, as described in Article 7;
2.6 …assert and protect the rights of creators, as described in Article 8;
2.7 …assist the off-site Community in their activities when such assistance is welcome and proper, as described in Article 9.

Article 3 (Maintenance)

Maintenance will be conducted regularly by Staff to ensure:

3.1 The site remains functional for users to the best of staff’s capabilities.
3.2 All extant features remain usable to the best of staff’s capabilities.
3.3 Additional features are added as needed to improve site functionality.
3.4 Defunct/unused features are removed as needed to improve site functionality.
3.5 Staff will strive to improve site function, navigation, and discoverability in response to user feedback.

Article 4 (Safety)

Staff shall strive to:

4.1 …keep the site and community free of harassment of any kind.
4.2 …keep the site and community free from bigotry and discrimination in all its forms, including but not limited to discrimination on basis of disability, ethnicity, gender, nationality, race, religion, or sexuality.
4.3 …protect the personal information of site members, including but not limited to: age, name, and location, in accordance with legal and moral obligations.
4.4 …protect the community from other forms of abuse (as defined by policy).
4.5 …internally monitor its procedures and members to ensure that its systems may not be used to harass users.
4.6 …prevent and remedy abuses of power by staff through disciplinary systems.

Article 5 (Conduct)

Staff will facilitate a code of conduct to:

5.1 Ensure all site members, both general and staff, are treated in a respectful manner.
5.2 Ensure proper and responsible use of staff power, in keeping with both site policy and the principles of this charter.
5.3 Take measures to improve standards of conduct, via moderation and disciplinary action, when existent conduct falls short of these standards.

Article 6 (Content Quality Standards)

Staff will work to ensure content quality standards by:

6.1 Implementing and maintaining assessment and feedback systems that allow general members to express their opinions.
6.2 Removing low quality content using accepted staff procedures and systems, guided primarily by the opinions of general members.
6.3 Encouraging community feedback to allow content creators to improve content to meet community standards.
6.4 Encouraging and highlighting high quality content.

Article 7 (Collaboration)

Staff will enable collaboration and a creative environment through:
7.1 …use and enforcement of an appropriate licence.
7.2 …limited overrule of creator self-determination in interest of protection of the commons.

Article 8 (Creator Rights)

Staff will uphold the rights of creators by:

8.1 …giving site creators wide power to decide what happens to their works, with limited exceptions (as defined by policy).
8.2 …enforcement of an appropriate license and defense against misuse of site works - e.g. non-attribution.
8.3 …ensuring that all content posted to the site, including the original source of derivative works, is compliant with the terms of the appropriate site licence.

Article 9 (Community Outreach)

Staff will:

9.1 …participate in, assist in, and facilitate cooperation with international branches and sister sites.
9.2 …cooperate with staff from international branches on situations and policies relevant to both staffs, or requiring the assistance of the other
9.3 …participate in, assist in, and facilitate cooperation with key off-site communities.

Chapter 3: Staff Structure and Membership

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Article 10

10.1 The structure of staff is to be determined by the members of staff. This structure should be arranged so that it best serves the purposes laid out in this Charter.
10.1.1 Staff powers and responsibilities may be delegated amongst individual members of staff or groups of members to fulfill their roles.

10.2 The structure of staff is to be:
10.2.1 …regulated by policy;
10.2.2 …enacted via the delegation of powers and responsibilities to specific staff members or groups thereof;
10.2.3 …where appropriate, enacted via the application of permissions or roles within software on the Site to specific staff members or groups thereof.

10.3 Staff structure will:
10.3.1 …allow for voluntarily leaving staff or a voluntary reduction in responsibilities according to policies set forth by staff.
10.3.3 …allow for the removal of individuals from staff as a whole, or from any position within staff structure designated by policy, in accordance with policy.

10.4 The structure of staff should not depend solely upon the knowledge or ability of a single staff member.
10.4.1 Staff should be structured so that the loss of individual staff members does not cause significant loss of knowledge or ability in staff function.

Article 11

11.1 Staff are to be recruited from within members of the community.
11.2 Recruitment is to be performed by staff, and staff membership should be decided upon by other staff members.

Chapter 4: Decision-Making

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Article 12

Policy should be formed, edited and implemented via a mixture of executive and democratic decision-making.

Article 13

Executive decision-making power should:

13.1 …be vested in staff who have been vetted and approved by democratic process, or delegated to others by such vested members.
13.2 …be constrained in scope for each staff member.
13.3 …be subject to democratic overrule.
13.4 …be accountable, documented, transparent, and held to the highest conduct standards.
13.5 …be used in situations where democratic decision-making would be inappropriate (as defined by policy).

Article 14

Democratic decision-making should:

14.1 …have quorum, majority and time requirements suitable to prevent minority rule.
14.2 …have quorum, majority and time requirements that ensure decision-making is done with reasonable speed.
14.3 …be accountable, documented, transparent, and held to the highest conduct standards.
14.4 …be regulated by policy set forth by staff via previously established democratic process.

Chapter 5: Ratifying and Amending This Charter

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Article 15

Ratification of this charter may be accomplished:

15.1 Following a review period of one month by staff and the community at large.
15.2 By simple majority staff vote occurring after the aforementioned review period.

Article 16

Amendments to this charter may only be made:

16.1 During an annual review period. This period of review will be from January 1st to January 31st.
16.2 By simple majority staff vote.