So many official posts these days. Bleh.
So there was a bit of controversy about /r/zoophilia's extended staff office... particularly, questions of why from a certain individual. If one person speaks up, then I'm sure others are inclined to agree as well. We personally didn't think it was that big of a deal, but I guess some people trust us less than others.
The inner sanctum as we've called it is a separate subreddit from /r/zoophilia and is basically a private workspace for our writing and engagement staff, where they can submit, review, and collaborate on work with their fellow word wranglers. It's essentially infrastructure for things that wouldn't contribute to the discussion in the main sub and will, in the future, contain discussions about what to include in our weekly guided discussions. It's essentially where all of our "beta" content is, and given how easily we talk about it, you're probably aware that it's not much of a secret.
The main reason for this was to streamline workflow for our extended staff-- it's much easier to collaborate on long projects when you don't have to find the thread in your recent replies or scroll down three pages to reach a particular thread. It's private and out of the way for three reasons -- the first being that we don't really want people randomly coming across the sub when they're doing keyword searches. It's ancillary to /r/zoophilia and your average user won't find any use for the sub or subject matter. The second reason is to avoid spoiling certain things, since we do plan on working on community engagement stuff in there. Many would prefer approaching things like weekly discussions organically rather than hearing about that kind of stuff in advance. The third reason is quality control; people going into the staff HQ need to be aware of our stringent quality standards, especially as they relate to the wiki -- before coming in.
What is NOT discussed are moderation tasks, particular users, or pretty much anything not relevant to the purposes of the sub. We also have a system in place this way that allows us to have many wiki editors without risking damage to the wiki you see on this subreddit.
All in all, it's a pretty boring place compared to /r/zoophilia, but if you want to get a peek into the subreddit, we're pretty much making a habit of giving anyone that asks viewing rights. EDIT: The subreddit is no longer private. Have fun looking at our nothing.
To clarify, when I accidentally posted something there that was more moderation related, it was quickly moved. Thus this controversy.
Also, egoldstein,
I think you misunderstand what I mean by "vetted members."
We're vetted by virtue of having posted for a bit, and maybe having some english skills. That's really about all. When I said pretty much anyone can apply and get in, I meant it provided you don't act like a 2 year old.
Continuing the discussion from the other thread:
Knowing what's going on in there, I can say there is nothing to be suspicious of.
But of course I would say that, right?
I think, given the distrust this is creating, regardless of it's intentions it is best we tear this down now before it gets out of hand, AmoreBestia. It may be harmless in intention, but just the distrust it creates from others "not knowing" is not.
At the risk of disrupting the single voice here, who is the "we" in describing what we personally thought, or what we called it? I don't remember being involved in that discussion... and it wouldn't hurt to have a few days' discussion within the mod team before new groups, new rules, etc., start showing up.
I can see how phrases like "inner sanctum" or "extended staff" may sound a little conspiratorial, but yes, from what I've seen the intent is just a collaboration area more than anything else. I suspect a better roll-out was in the works.
The extended staff and battlecrops constitutes the 'we' in this case. It's really their workspace, more than any of ours. btwIAMAzoophile and I deliberated about the rule system, and feedback from the community was used for that rule as well. It's all been a bit fast, admittedly.
And yeah, the sanctum isn't even finished yet. It's not really ready for anyone that isn't already explicitly aware of the content expectations, and is barely ready for the people in it now. Didn't want to roll it out wholesale for another week at least.
[removed]