Hey Fox Fam. This is the initial forum post for creating the Community Moderation Workstream. I’ve taken the liberty of posting in the SCP format. After feedback here, I will move to an official Ideation post.
Summary
Why should people use this workstream? What is it for?
The Community Moderation Workstream will be primarily responsible to support the community and to maintain the integrity of all ShapeShift various platforms such as Discord, The Forum, Boardroom and Notion. Future platforms that the community chooses to implement may also be included. This workstream is used daily to ensure the smooth operation of the ShapeShift DAO.
This proposal is to establish the Moderation Workstream, elect Giantkin as leader and fund the workstream through June 2022.
Abstract
How exactly is this different than the other categories we already have?
Moderation supports all workstreams and all users within each of the platforms it moderates. The first community moderators, Giantkin and Hunt, were hired by FOX Token holders for 4 months, but a workstream was not established. After over 3 months of service and learnings, it’s clear that the need for community moderation is growing and it makes sense to operate as a Workstream rather than a “Special Project.”
As we bring more members into the various platforms, moderators will act as so much more than bot managers and spam blockers. Not only will the moderators set up the verification process, they will be the point of contact for members having issues with the verification process. They will function as the greeters of the DAO, if you will. Our team of moderators will be clearing the path for new members, new contributors and new supporters by facilitating a fluid user experience. Enthusiastic about all things defi and crypto, empowering community members, new and old alike, on their journey to self-empowered entrepreneurism.
Motivation
What is the mission of this workstream?
The mission of this workstream is simple: to help people. Moderation is the workstream you never knew you needed, but couldn’t live without. From welcoming new users to setting up Zoom calls to managing bots. Moderation is here to support the community. This workstream strives to create a space that fosters security, growth and innovation.
A team of trustworthy, confident and enthusiastic moderators will allow for decentralization of community moderation. This may address the point of preventing accusations of vested interest, since only community elected mods have the power to preserve and maintain the DAO culture.
As the workstream leader, I want to make the user feel like they are able to relax. Users are most likely talking from their home space, home usually means they feel safe. I want to keep that feeling in our group
Specification
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Moderators will take on wide variety of tasks, including but not limited to:
Organize user flow via roles, channels and bots
- Provide protection from scammers
- Warn abusers (strike system established by Giantkin)
- Providing Discord support
- Facilitating ‘temps’ for a job, for example, providing the DJ with a role for the event
- Maintain and update server images such as avatars, stickers, emojis, etc.
- Provide moderation support (live when possible) for meetings and community events
- Drive users to the proper channels
- Continually monitoring channels, and other server banlists for potential spam/scammers and adding them into our banlist
- Taking part in Ops triage process by shuttling members requesting support to the proper channels, connecting with self help resources, #support, Zendesk, etc as appropriate
What are the goals of this workstream? What metrics can this workstream’s success be measured against?
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Provide 12 hour moderation coverage to ShapeShift DAO’s community channels, with the eventual goal to provide 24 hour coverage
- Proactively ban 90% of scammers/bots that try to sneak into ShapeShift discord
- Ensure that all community meetings are scheduled on the calendar
The Moderation Workstream is successful when you don’t notice that it’s there.
Will your workstream hold recurring meetings?
This workstream will be in regular communication, as facilitating smooth communication is one of the main jobs. Moderators will be available and accessible as frequently as possible. Regular office hours will not be needed as moderators are almost always watching.
Does this workstream require immediate funding?
Yes. Funding for current proposal ends 11.30.21.
Budget
The funding of this workstream would be requested for funding for the workstream leader (Giantkin) and adding to the moderation team as the needs continue to grow. A Community Moderator will be brought on immediately to help with establishment and duties of the workstream.
Moderation Helpers would be brought on with a staggered start to hopefully better reflect the growth needed within this workstream. The Mod Helper pool allows the flexibility to hire these likely to be part time positions and on an as-needed basis. Any funds not used will be returned to the DAO at the end of the workstream budgeted timeframe.
In addition, additional funds are requested for bots and discretionary reasons. These reasons could range from cross work stream funds, subscriptions, tipping extremely helpful community members, and more. These funds are higher the first two months to include room for test/trial runs of potential mod helpers on an “trial” basis.
Benefits
The benefits to this proposal are too numerous to name. In short, it will allow our Fox family to continue focusing on the incredible work they are doing.
Drawbacks
The drawbacks to the proposal focus around trust. Setting up this workstream means giving power to kick/ban and otherwise punish users. Each moderator must have personal integrity and loyalty to the best interest of the ShapeShift DAO. Moderators must be able to act, accept criticism and offensive responses, without letting those influence action.