Hello all, The staff have come to the conclusion that when submitting a request for a game to be added to the site or requesting to be added as a moderator for an existing game (see here) that we will start looking at your profile to see if you have a social media linked with your account.
This will be effective immediately
The reason(s) for the addition of this rule for the moderation request and game requests are the following.
- Request to be moderator for X game, then verify a run and go inactive
- Request a game and do nothing with the leaderboard for 2 weeks and it requires deletion and re-approval
It would be best to clarify what counts. Twitch, for instance, is a linkable account and has a messaging system, but it's not necessarily any more reliable than getting a hold of someone on this website.
@EmeraldAly Twitch whispers are very easy to use. If someone has all non-friends blocked, then it's not a valid social media link and won't count. If they can be reached by whispers, it counts.
Idk, seems simple to me.
@EmeraldAly I would tier them like this myself: (and this isn't a "you must use the best recommendation", it's just weighted based on their notification system and the general effectiveness I've found when I've used them to contact people)
- Discord
- Youtube
- Twitch
Best to worst. Some people much prefer to not use Twitter though, so stick to Discord and Youtube. In those cases I would recommend users:
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In the case of Discord, allow friend requests and / or enable all messages from users in a shared server + join the SRC discord server. This will easily allow all users of SRC to contact each other on discord without being hit by "no shared server messages", meanwhile having no idea what servers the user is even in.
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In the case of Youtube, check site messages fairly regularly, and enable notifications based around the comment system.
Twitch is, as of right now, worthless as a contact option. Whispers can be disabled and the site message system is no more as it was deprecated March 30th. I also feel going into a user's stream whilst they are LIVE is perhaps the worst way to contact someone regarding game moderation issues.
Personally, I would like to exempt Twitch from counting in this new rule, which would mean you would have to have either Twitter, Discord or Youtube attached, but that would have to be discussed.
I personally never check youtube or twitch, not sure why somebody would choose that over discord. I can understand not wanting to use twitter but that's also probably the easiest thing to use.
I still don't feel like it specifically changes anything. If someone isn't the type to log into things daily to check on them for messages and such then I don't see requiring a social media link on the profile really changing their habits and behavior on how often they check something like that. I would like to hope that in-site message system would take over for majority of contacting issues because just like before, if they don't log into twitter or discord to check messages daily, then it wouldn't matter anyways and would require less of people when wanting to submit a game to the website. If you can't check the website or any social media links (like many moderators already do not) then nothing has changed in this scenario, and you will likely still be removing just as many non-responsive moderators as before.
Logging into stuff daily to check messages isn't required. Usually we will will give several days for a user to respond to a message. If a user isn't checking the site regularly (and in this case we're talking 3+ weeks) and also isn't checking any contact method regularly then in my opinion they shouldn't really be a mod for a game in the first place.
In the large majority of cases I've been involved in since I was made a site mod, especially in cases where a mod has been inactive on-site for several weeks, contact methods have massively helped. Most users had just fallen out of touch with SRC due to personal issues but still regularly checked their social media, for example. The majority of these users promptly responded to me on either Twitter, Youtube or Discord.
The on-site PM system is going to be a great addition but it doesn't help the "user has been offline from SRC for 2+ weeks, what do we do to get their attention since they have no useful contact method" situation that has been faced many, many times since I've been a site mod already. As stated above, majority of those cases where the user had Twitter, Youtube or Discord attached to their account were all fixed relatively swiftly. The on-site PM system definitely should not in any way infer it's then totally okay to not include an external contact method.
The situation just sounds unsavory to begin with. It's great that people can follow up and actually get others attention on other websites but if they aren't checking the website for 3 weeks and then feel forced to check the website after being tweeted about it, are they still even fit to be a moderator? If they respond and clear the queue on their games and then leave it sitting for another 3 weeks, is that better than just handing moderator to an active user that says "Hey this person hasn't logged in for a month can I have mod for this game?". It's clear they don't have the time/attention to stay up to date with the site and it just feels like an unnecessary hurdle. I also don't expect people to check things every day, I'm just noting that if they aren't the type to do it then you will end up running into this scenario often, even after you reach out to them for being inactive and they respond that they'll try to be more active.
It's possible that someone still wants to mod a game, but no active runners have been around for months, so they stop coming back to the site. Given the chance, they may still be up for modding the game. This change enables them to have that chance.
If they get bothered by being asked to mod the game again they can request to be removed (or do it themselves).
Just to illustrate how much your mileage may vary...
I regularly contact mods for games I don't run, since that's my specific role for a speedrunning group with several hundred members. The most successful method of contacting them out of the blue has been Twitch, for me.
My own preferred contact method would be Twitch.
I don't even know how to contact someone on YouTube, other than commenting on their video, which can be disabled just like Twitch whispers, and which most sensible people avoid anyway. Seriously YouTube comments are the cliché worst thing on the internet.
I don't use Twitter. I only have an account so that I'll get notified by email if people try to contact me there.
And if I don't share a Discord server with someone... Well, my first reaction when someone I don't know adds me as a friend is confusion. The new Discord server field on the game page alleviates this issue fabulously, and this might even make Discord my preferred contact.
Steam is probably worse than any of the above.
Everyone is different, so unless there's some sort of universal sitewide message system that can be enforced, (i.e. if we have requirements that mods check their PMs or face consequences, which is reasonable if email notification works properly) then all social media contacts have to be presumed valid until shown otherwise. Ranking them is projecting your preferences, imo.
And it's also reasonable for a moderator to be expected to keep their links up to date. If they don't want to be contacted on one of them, they should remove it.
The staff is asking mods to put up a social media link. If they submit a useless or dead link, then they are unsuitable mods and they are identified as such all the more quickly. Like, @Twan_Jones what this changes is that mods are clearly being told what's expected of them when they take on the responsibility instead of having them find out long after, often when they're inactive to the point of being problematic. At the very least. I get that you're pessimistic about mods, but this is definitely a huge step in the right direction in improving moderation as a whole. If people are going to try to find a way around it, it's a clear disqualification.
Umm... Staff is actively checking whether the links are valid right? If not then forget anything I said :P
As for me, I mainly use Twitter and Discord to contact peoples. Imo for Twitter, the best option is activate private messages for everyone, same for Discord if you don't have common servers with others users.
Twitch whispers is not a great idea because non active users on Twitch will never receive a notification (like e-mail) when a whisper as be received.
@Wipeoutjack7 Twitch used to be a viable alternative, because the messaging system existed. Whilst flawed, it was still a perfectly viable option. This option, however, no longer exists on Twitch for the time being. This means you're restricted to either Whispers or going into someone's chat basically and informing them that way, the latter I do not agree with.
With the nature of how Whispers work, it's not really a reliable contact method to fall back on to at all.
It'd be nice if you could order your accounts on your profile, in order to tell people the best way to contact you. Twitch whispers may get to me, eventually, but not in a hurry.
I decided to try to get... uh... South Bend Fishin' Fun approved? Honestly I just kinda wanted to do a meme game. Not to say I won't run it actively or update it (and generally be a good mod,) but I just wanted a super obscure meme game to submit. I thought it would be hilarious. Is that not acceptable or should I be fine? (Or am I a disgrace and should not be on this website?)
youtube and discord are fine for me :) glad this rule has been put in place tho, ordering social media would be super cool.
@Kerrmunism This is the wrong place to ask about that, but if the only value the game has is as a meme, then maybe don't bother. We already have plenty of meme games, and they tend to get rejected.
Back onto the topic of this, YouTube just announced that they're discontinuing site messages on July 9th (probably because they were useless), which means the only way to contact someone with YouTube is to leave a comment (which I imagine most people ignore, especially if they get a lot of them). Because of this it may be worth considering whether or not YouTube is still a viable contact method.
@ShikenNuggets Alright. I wasn't sure if this was a bad place, but I couldn't find anything better. And about the game :/ oh well. Still cool playing a really obscure game that basically no one has.