Staff Guidelines
Fundamentals
The moderation structure of Atharen is hierarchical, meaning most major decisions do tend to occur at the top. However, Moderators are encouraged to be engaged and are given considerable authority over specific areas, tending to work in a structure alongside other staff of varying authority. The point of these rules is to clearly state the jurisdiction and authority of specific ranks, as well as to provide guidelines for all staff. The rules outlined in the ToS must also be followed by staff, and this is not meant to act as a replacement, but an addendum.
Architects
Architects are the leaders of the website, and are all equal in authority, save for the Head Architect (Sovereign). The Head Architect can administer and manage his or her peers, but is expected to do so sparingly, and with good reason.
The responsibilities of Architects tend to include running and managing the meta-plot (main story) of the website as well as the meta-lore, such as Gods, Races and Magics, as well as managing staff. Furthermore, Architects typically oversee the main regions of Atharen, maintaining a cohesive plot and focus for those four regions. Architects have the ability to:
• Vote on key issues, such as:
Lore, history, system and rule development, including reworks and new major submissions
Player issue resolution, including issuing penalties of any level of severity
Global plot direction
Staff changes; adding or removing staff, restructuring, etc
Additional things not listed. Architects do have the right to get involved in situations across the board, and act as oversight in the case of mod or player issues
• Manage and update the website, though typically this is left to a designated server administrator. Despite this, the administrator must bring up all updates and changes to his/her fellow Architects and have majority consent before enacting them. Currently, the server administrator is Sovereign.
• Architects given control over a region have the ability to make unanimous decisions within that region, so long as they do not add previously unprecedented lore elements, inflate or abuse existing lore elements, or infringe on other regions, such as impacting another Architect's region or influencing international relations unilaterally.
• Architects are given the authority to manage the Discord server. They must vote to create/remove/alter channels, as well as to ban players.
• Architects can approve major player plots such as becoming a Draedan, a Dranoch Huntsman, becoming the leader of an important faction, a Patron, acquiring a Lost Magic, etc.
• Architects do have the right to issue major penalties to players in their own region or plots, as well as major rewards.
• Architects are freely allowed to play all entities on the website, up to and including the Living Gods and Corrupted Ones. However, if using them to institute a massive global event or similar things, a vote and review must be done before such plot impacts are made. Actions with effects outside of the Architect's domain should be consulted with the affected Architect(s) first.
Architects are added and changed very rarely. As the core staff of the website, they are selected extremely carefully and based on long-term trust and commitment, as well as their demonstrated behaviors. Architects are not chosen purely based on the quantity or quality of their development submissions; they are leaders first and foremost, as well as managers for the relations between staff and players, as well as staff's cohesion, environment and engagement. Architects can be removed from their position, but only by a majority vote from the Architect team (including their own vote) or by the Head Architect under extreme circumstances.
Senior Moderators
Senior Moderators are those trusted by the Architects, due to their experience and reputation, to take on more delicate roles within the website. Often they may have largely unanimous control over specific cities or nations, though with oversight from the regional Architect. It is also possible in certain circumstances for a Senior Moderator to run a region. Senior Moderators are allowed to:
• Run a nation or city-state, or even a region in rare cases.
• Run regional plots with Architect permission.
• Approve most Support Forum requests, virtually all things outside of major world-impacting requests.
• Approve global factions and other global lore submissions, so long as they are not significantly transformative to Atharen.
• Play Living Gods and Corrupted Ones with Architect permission, as long as they've clearly stated their intended uses for said entities.
• Play entities such as the Elven Gods and other beings of similar cosmic power. Like Architects, they are expected not to do this in a way that infringes on other moderators' regions or affects the global plot significantly without review and affirmation from the team.
• Senior Moderators do have the right to issue major penalties to players in their own region/domain or plots, as well as major rewards.
• Senior Moderators are allowed to, with permission, take on major lore development projects including even the creation of new magics or races.
• Senior Moderators can request that they be allowed to spearhead global development projects, such as new systems, regional or global history, etc.
Moderators
Moderators are the standard staffers of Atharen, having learned how to manage most affairs on the website. They are allowed to:
• Approve Character Sheets and most player submissions, such as anything in the Support Forum that is not too impactful to the plot or the website. Moderators managing a specific city or nation are allowed to approve SF requests impacting that nation, but not ones impacting other nations.
• Moderators can approve submissions in their local community development forums. They cannot approve submissions in the development forums of other cities/nations.
• Moderators can run cities or nations, or regions within nations. They are typically assigned these domains by the Architects, though if a Senior Moderator runs a region or nation, they can take a Moderator under their wing.
• Moderators can run local or national events so long as they have jurisdiction in an area, or receive permission to do so. They can also run fairly substantial moderated threads, with significant rewards or consequences to the players involved.
• Moderators can play powerful entities such as the Elven Gods so long as they have Architect permission and make clear their purpose in doing so.
• Moderators - receiving this ability at this rank - are now allowed to vote on matters brought to the staff.
Junior Moderators
Junior Moderators are mods who are learning their role and learning the functions of being a moderator. They are also any moderator who is under 18, as they have limited access to the website. Junior Moderators require oversight for a lot of what they do, and cannot vote on staff affairs.
• Junior Moderators require oversight for all approvals until they are given permission to do so without oversight, typically in specific fields.
• Junior Moderators must be mentored on how to do specific things such as approving CSes and SF requests before they are allowed to do them. Typically, doing a few with oversight is a part of the learning process.
• Junior Moderators are allowed to review threads without oversight.
• Junior Moderators are not allowed to utilize their moderator powers to remove content or police player behavior unless it is blatantly and unambiguously rule-breaking.
• Junior Moderators are allowed to run local events with permission. They can also run basic moderated threads, without much impact or considerable rewards.
General Rules
Development
• All major lore submissions need to be either reviewed by the Architects or general staff before they are submitted and announced to the website. The things not considered major are: Flora, Fauna, Drugs, Medicine, Locations, non-major NPCs and things of a similar ilk, meaning moderators can self-approve these submissions without required oversight. City/nation moderators are allowed to submit lore to their cities with no oversight, but Architects can reactively ask them to modify their submissions if an issue is discovered. There are some exceptions to this, such as monsters/animals/etc that are so impactful that they change the world around them. These must be reviewed regardless of who is submitting them and to where.
• Individual staff cannot monopolize scores of major development projects. They may be asked to give their projects to other staff if they are considered excessive or stifling to development, or may be prevented from taking on additional projects. The exception to this is with regional or domain (national) moderators, who may develop without the need to delegate or defer projects to others.
• Mods cannot approve their own PC submissions and requests. While they can develop within their guidelines, including with no oversight in some cases, they cannot approve articles or requests submitted by their PC account. If a mod intends to make something solely to benefit their PC, such as a faction they immediately intend to join and lead, this is okay -- but it must be submitted as a PC and reviewed by another mod.
Staff Interactions
• Staff cannot use their position to directly benefit their PCs. While they are allowed to create things that they then go on to use as a player, a player can request that the correlation of these submissions and a staff's PC using them be reviewed, such as if they tend to be very overpowered or overly frequent.
• Staff cannot infringe on one another's domains, such as initiating plots that affect one moderator's city or nation, without their agreement and understanding. Collaboration is key and if a moderator requests an Architect review infringing events, they can be dialed back or even ceased.
• Moderators are allowed to play in cities that they run or help run. They, however, require permission from another Moderator in order to advance in ways that players also require approvals for. They cannot obviously engineer the plot around themselves and cannot use their position to start in a dramatically advantageous position, such as beginning as the heir to a position of power without another moderator allowing them. Mods' PCs can achieve whatever a non-Mod's PC can in an area, up to and including rulership. However, this must be based evidently on dedication, consistency and writing quality, rather than bias and regulating their own plot without oversight.
• Although nation/city Moderators are granted autonomy by the respective Architects and can as such develop lore and make decisions independently, they should follow the guidelines and bases set by the Architect themselves. Unjustified contradictions or plots with no logical or foundational base are to be avoided, and the Architect overseeing their region can intervene in situations they deem fit.
Player Relations
• Staff are not allowed to use their position to abuse, bully, strongarm, or otherwise exploit players. Players have a right to report such incidents to any mods - up to and including Architects - and they must be reviewed in such cases. Staff are just as vulnerable to being banned from the website as players and will easily be removed from their position by a vote from the Architects if they are found to be abusive or toxic.
• Staff are not allowed to bully or ridicule players to each other, even in the private setting of the Staff Lounge. Occasional humor is allowable, but insulting the intellect of a player and other such things - even behind closed doors - perpetuates a toxic atmosphere. This will likely not result in a warning unless it is done repeatedly, but staff should check each other's behavior for promoting toxicity.
• Staff cannot "steal" a player's plot. If a player has been following a major plot to their PC's story for a considerable length of time, a moderator cannot take it from them and turn it into a plot for another PC, nation, region, or a global plot. Staff must be courteous and be sure to include a PC if they intend to expand the scope of a plot they are heavily involved in. This does not exclude the possibility of consequences for a PC up to and including their removal from a plot, or failure to guide its outcomes their way. However, such consequences cannot obviously be enacted in order to remove them from a plot a moderator is interested in.
Discord
• All mods are free to remove blatantly political or rule-breaking content, but for more ambiguous things should at least ask their peers in the Staff or Architect Lounge and wait a few minutes for any objections.
• Before using an @everyone or @here tag, Moderators require a quick go-ahead just to ensure the content is relevant enough to alert everyone in the server.
