From The Otherkin Community

Contents 1 Meeting Duration 1.1 Considerations 2 Staff Website 2.1 Considerations 3 eyeOS 3.1 Considerations 4 Rules & Regulations 4.1 Moderation of "Trolls" 4.2 Deletion of Malicious Posts 5 Experiences Forum 5.1 Considerations

Meeting Duration

Due to the current availability of the members of the Board, as well as staff resources and projected progress of The Otherkin Community, it was decided that the Board meeting interval of two (2) months, as stated within the Bylaws, be amended to four (4) months.

An amendment to the Bylaws will be prepared and presented to the Board during the next Board meeting on the 27th of September, 2009 for adoption.

Vote: 3/0; majority in favor

Considerations

The following considerations were taken into account for this decision:

1. Many of the active projects within the Community are dealt with by other committees and therefore do not need to be discussed in a meeting with the Board of Directors. Therefore, the content of the meetings is greatly cut down, resulting in the need for much less frequent meetings.
2. Due to staff resources and funding, it is projected that there will not be a need for consistently more frequent meetings within the near future.
3. Additional meetings may always be called, if needed, between those meetings required by the Bylaws.
4. It was decided that (a) three months is still too frequent, (b) semi-anually (6 months) is too infrequent, so (c) four (4) months was provided as a reasonable compromise.

Staff Website

There currently exists a staff website based off of the software dotProject where Directors are able to keep track of tasks, todo, calendar items, and timesheets. Organization of this website, as well as usability, was discussed to ensure that the website can be in order before releasing it to other staff (such as moderators).

The organizational structure of the various projects was discussed briefly during the meeting, but it was decided that the discussion would continue within the Director forums, where ideas could be passed around when time permits. In the meantime, everyone will continue to use the website and get used to its features to help provide a more informed decision.

Clodaus will also be writing up tutorials and example workflows when time permits.

Considerations

1. It was stated that the current organization of the website is a bit confusing.
2. The organization must work with how the software is designed. Clodaus made a few suggestions and attempted to clarify the design.
3. Some of the confusion may stem from being unfamiliar with the software, or
4. Some confusion may stem from poor organization.
5. It is difficult to determine what projects are of higher priority.
6. Projects cannot have parents. Color coding was suggested as a means to group them, as Clodaus does not at present have the time to add the feature.
7. This system will also need to be used by other members of the staff, such as moderators.
8. Documentation is sparse and confusing.

eyeOS

eyeOS is essentially an operating system that runs from within the web browser. Clodaus set up a demonstration on The Otherkin Community's web server to show some of the features of the technology. It has potential business uses and may prove useful as a user-friendly interface to common community-related tasks.

Wraith and Nanara agreed that it would be an excellent piece of software to use, especially in place of the existing staff website, if possible. Unfortunately, Clodaus was unable to, at this point, find any viable alternative to dotProject for use within eyeOS. He will keep his eye out, as developing project management software is not an option for the time being due to time constraints.

Wraith and Nanara will also keep their eyes out for some useful software for use on this system.

Another idea was to potentially offer eyeOS as a service to members who make monthly donations. There is at present no further information on this idea and it will be considered in the future after the service is secured and useful for the Board and other staff members.

Considerations

1. Very user friendly
2. Able to access your "desktop" from anywhere in the world, with any modern javascript-supporting web browser.
3. Easy to use (just like any other desktop application)
4. Central area for moderation, administration, etc
5. Useful tools (word processing, calendar, etc)
6. Lacks project management software
7. An active, evolving open source project that will be growing greatly over the next year. Possibly revisit certain areas, such as project management, after the project has had a chance to further grow.

Rules & Regulations

It was brought to the attention of the Board that our existing Rules & Regulations contain moderation procedures in regards to warnings that are different from our decided upon policies.

Another meeting was planned for the 27th of September to address the issues, as well as revisit some of the policies.

Votes: 3/0; majority in favor

Moderation of "Trolls"

A "troll" is an individual who, in the context of our discussion, joins the Community under malicious intent. Recent events with an individual who stated clearly that he/she was a troll brought about the question of how such users should be moderated.

The main argument was that such users may be able to cause "harm" to the Community during the duration that they are under the same moderation as everyone else. The suggestion was that moderators should be more strict on those that are clearly trolls, as there's no benefit to allowing them to post if they have nothing positive to contribute.

The main argument against such was that the existing Rules & Regulations, if applied properly, work equally as well on "trolls" as they do on all other members.

Ultimately, the staff was unable to agree upon a solution to the problem. It was instead suggested that, rather than making an exception, the Rules & Regulations should be phrased in such a way that the concepts behind moderation are applied to cover that situation equally for everyone. The idea of a "troll" should be left out of it, as it is irrelevant. The acts are the only thing that should be moderated. This will be discussed during the meeting on September 27th.

Deletion of Malicious Posts

(This section goes hand in hand with the "Moderation of Trolls" section above.)

Another issue brought up was whether or not to delete posts from "trolls" or other malicious users. As it stands, we have a policy of not deleting any posts or threads unless absolutely necessary, due to legal, cultural or ethical reasons, or some conditions in violation of the TOS (such as the posting of sexually explicit material). The argument in regards to malicious posts by "trolls" was that they have have contributed nothing positive.

The staff came to the agreement that this would fall under censorship and therefore should not be allowed. The members of the Community have been able to defend their positions against malicious users and stand their ground, showing that such drastic action would not be necessary.

Votes: 3/0; majority in favor

Experiences Forum

A member suggested that we provide an area to discuss various metaphysical practices and methods. However, past events have lead to the opposite structure, resulting in the removal of forums such as the *kinesis forums, as well as many Otherkin forums. The Board also has existing plans on restructuring the Otherkin forums to be less race-oriented and be more concept-oriented.

The idea was to have a separate area for practices and beliefs. Clodaus strongly believed that such an addition was outside the goals and interests of the Community. Overall, everyone thought it may be a good addition if done properly, but the concept was flawed. The main issue was that there was no way to moderate it and keep it in line with the Community rules because there is no way to prove that an individual can or cannot do what he/she claims. This would also create a "fluffy" appearance, which the Community is taking steps to avoid in existing content. It would, therefore, be a conflict of interest.

And alternate suggestion was to create an "Experiences" forum, with logical subforums that were vague, yet specific enough to keep things organized. This would allow members to post their personal experiences and practices, but would be limited to just that. Members would not be permitted to post claims that they could not back up, which is in line with the existing rules. If a member did post something that they experienced, he/she should be able to provide some insight or evidence toward it, keeping outlandish claims to a minimum. By allowing constructive criticism, members would be able to develop their practices, be encouraged to think objectively and false content would help to be weeded out.

It was decided that an Experiences forum would be created, that it would follow the existing Rules & Regulations and would not allow malicious content. The idea behind "malicious" is that, if it is comparable to negative content elsewhere that we would not allow, we shouldn't allow it in the Experiences forum (e.g. best way to harm someone with a hand knife vs attempting to harm someone with energy work).

Votes: 3/0; majority in favor

Considerations

1. Allowing the posting of all practices, methods, etc is a conflict of interest for the Community, as we do not wish to state "this is possible", or "this is impossible", without some considerable evidence.
2. An experiences forum would permit the members to post things they themselves have experienced, which is already allowed, and can be moderated under the existing set of rules.
3. Many "fluffy" posts may be avoided by preventing malicious methodology (and it will help to keep the members safe)