New Proposal: Introduce a "Community Manager" Role Below Moderator

[lucas4647]

Over the years, Skial’s moderation dynamics have shifted. In the past, moderators were highly active across servers, often present in games to maintain order to make the difficult face-to-face chats required to keep the community together. Today, with many mods understandably less available, player interactions with staff have become rarer. While we don’t need (or want) an excessive number of full moderators, there’s a gap that could be filled by a new, intermediate role: the Community Manager. This is something from a Minecraft community I used to play in called Kreatious that worked very well for the community.

Why a Community Manager?​

• Balanced Authority: A role with limited powers could help maintain server quality without the risks of over-moderation or abuse.
• More Active Presence: Unlike moderators (who are often scarce), Community Managers could provide consistent, approachable oversight.
• Lower Barrier to Entry: Easier to assign than full mod, reducing pressure while still improving moderation coverage.

Proposed Rules for Community Managers:​

• Communication First: Must attempt to engage with a player before issuing a mute (outside of extreme circumstances).
• Limited Mute Power:
  • Max 24-hour mute, with mutes over 1 hour requiring a forum post with justification.
• Kicks as Last Resort: Only if absolutely necessary (open to debate).
• Term Limits:
  • Role expires after 6–12 months unless actively renewed.
  • Must reapply/extend at the end of each term.
• Requirements:
  • Same activity/hour requirement as admin applicants.
  • Minimum age: 21 (maturity matters).
• Lower Trust Threshold: Easier to obtain than full mod, allowing more trusted community members to assist.

Why This Works for Skial​

• No Mod Overload: Avoids handing out full mod privileges too freely.
• More Accountability: Time limits and justification logs prevent power abuse.
• Bridges the Gap: Recreates the active, engaged moderation Skial once had, without requiring 24/7 TF2 no-lifers.

 

[Kiru]

-1 Thats just old skial mods at this point it aint something we need nor want soo yea and all bans and mutes form current admins should need
A forum post with justification.

 

[Winnie]

-1
‎‎
It is a bit to unfold and consider from this suggestion. Some conflicts too.
I am going to the conflicts first. I will start with this statement.

This is something from a Minecraft community I used to play in called Kreatious that worked very well for the community.

That statement just doesn’t hold up with a business context. Just because something works well on another server doesn’t mean it will transfer the same way here. I get that it may have been efficient in that server, but that doesn’t mean it’s a change the Skial community is set for. It will pose more conflicts. The second being:

• The !votereport command.
  This command would immediately be defective if the Community Manager roles were to take effect (since mutes/kicks would no longer be an option, but handed out solely by the Community Manager). This would cause a restricted space for users to speak and be heard. No ability for users to report = Less participation. It should not be an exclusive ability to report whatsoever. Would you think users would enjoy having to approach and wait for a Community Manager to report if they were not present during a violation? They could be assigned to be present in the server, but also would not justify violations if the violator in question were in cahoots with the community manager. Special interests and cronyism are already evident in the server (user by user basis, from my observations), so I am not convinced of implementing this position. You can hold them responsible for being neutral by logs, but not by DMs or outside sources. Otherwise, inclusivity will go out the door and Skial would not have the large playerbase it has now.

• Communication First: Must attempt to engage with a player before issuing a mute (outside of extreme circumstances).

But, I do agree with this principle. Providing clear communication in reports from the USER and not the community manager would be more favorable to optimize before reports are made.
I was a former manager for a few years. When dealing with documentation (reports), it was crucial to verify that the violator was aware of the violation before committing it. If not, then a verbal notice would be issued instead. There should be evidence to provide if the user was aware of the rule being broken before it occurred. It would be less work for the administration if users provided this acknowledgement.

I read this forum and it seems you already discussed it. I think the problem at hand that you are witnessing is the toxicity, as you stated. While the meaning of toxicity is subjective, nothing can be determined about what could be toxic or not. There could be different definitions for anyone. Skial Leadership marked the report to be invalid, so perhaps a lack of trust could be determined from you?

After agreeing, I cannot +1 the suggestion though... I think Community Managers would rather make matters worse. Perhaps an improvement to the report requirements would be a better step in direction.

 

[gala]

Ideally there should be more admin apps, and good ones. But we do refuse most of them because we think they'd cause more issues than benefit

 

[Cream Tea]

You've pretty much described how old Skial admins used to operate including yours truly. I've kept saying that admins need to be engaged in their community and not be these shadowy incels that only appear to ban or mute players and then immediately disappear.

Ideally there should be more admin apps, and good ones. But we do refuse most of them because we think they'd cause more issues than benefit

A bunch of good admin apps were declined because someone was worried that they were "Cream Tea backdoors". That was the final straw for a lot of players and now Deathrun EU is completely dead while Deathrun US is on its last legs.

 

[gala]

Schizo rant?

 

[Feral Angel]

You've pretty much described how old Skial admins used to operate including yours truly. I've kept saying that admins need to be engaged in their community and not be these shadowy incels that only appear to ban or mute players and then immediately disappear.


A bunch of good admin apps were declined because someone was worried that they were "Cream Tea backdoors". That was the final straw for a lot of players and now Deathrun EU is completely dead while Deathrun US is on its last legs.

Pretttty sure we have admins that interact with their community. You just don’t care to notice it. I do on 2fort, used too a lot on vsh until it died. I miss vsh 😔

 

[lucas4647]

Ideally there should be more admin apps, and good ones. But we do refuse most of them because we think they'd cause more issues than benefit

I think we can agree that most admin apps would cause more issues than they would solve. Cmod would also be an interim trial role for people community is on the fence about.

 

[lucas4647]

-1
‎‎
It is a bit to unfold and consider from this suggestion. Some conflicts too.
I am going to the conflicts first. I will start with this statement.



That statement just doesn’t hold up with a business context. Just because something works well on another server doesn’t mean it will transfer the same way here. I get that it may have been efficient in that server, but that doesn’t mean it’s a change the Skial community is set for. It will pose more conflicts. The second being:

• The !votereport command.
  This command would immediately be defective if the Community Manager roles were to take effect (since mutes/kicks would no longer be an option, but handed out solely by the Community Manager). This would cause a restricted space for users to speak and be heard. No ability for users to report = Less participation. It should not be an exclusive ability to report whatsoever. Would you think users would enjoy having to approach and wait for a Community Manager to report if they were not present during a violation? They could be assigned to be present in the server, but also would not justify violations if the violator in question were in cahoots with the community manager. Special interests and cronyism are already evident in the server (user by user basis, from my observations), so I am not convinced of implementing this position. You can hold them responsible for being neutral by logs, but not by DMs or outside sources. Otherwise, inclusivity will go out the door and Skial would not have the large playerbase it has now.

But, I do agree with this principle. Providing clear communication in reports from the USER and not the community manager would be more favorable to optimize before reports are made.
I was a former manager for a few years. When dealing with documentation (reports), it was crucial to verify that the violator was aware of the violation before committing it. If not, then a verbal notice would be issued instead. There should be evidence to provide if the user was aware of the rule being broken before it occurred. It would be less work for the administration if users provided this acknowledgement.

I read this forum and it seems you already discussed it. I think the problem at hand that you are witnessing is the toxicity, as you stated. While the meaning of toxicity is subjective, nothing can be determined about what could be toxic or not. There could be different definitions for anyone. Skial Leadership marked the report to be invalid, so perhaps a lack of trust could be determined from you?

After agreeing, I cannot +1 the suggestion though... I think Community Managers would rather make matters worse. Perhaps an improvement to the report requirements would be a better step in direction.

This would not remove the report command although a Cmod would partially invalidate the use of this tool.

 

[Cream Tea]

Schizo rant?

Just dismiss everything I say as usual while your servers die.

Pretttty sure we have admins that interact with their community. You just don’t care to notice it. I do on 2fort, used too a lot on vsh until it died.

I was playing on deathrun almost every single day until a few months ago and what I noticed was that there were rarely any active admins. What was really annoying was seeing new admins who don't understand the gamemode handing out bans for stuff that may not even be against the rules or if it is it still didn't deserve the lengths that were given and I am clearly not the only one who thinks this. You must see that banning players for half a year over minor offences does not lead to a healthy server environment and I only wanted what was best for deathrun to keep it alive for as long as possible.

I miss vsh 😔

I miss VSH too and you were always good when you were on. I do kind of miss your presence.

 

[lucas4647]

Schizo rant?

I don’t think this is an appropriate commend for a mod to make. I expect more maturity.

 

[Polaris]

Ideally there should be more admin apps, and good ones. But we do refuse most of them because we think they'd cause more issues than benefit

Yeah, like me actively muting players on skial deathrun who bypass slurs and say racist shit on the voice chat, right. You guys turn down active people for some reason, I don't know if it's grudges or whatever. There isn't a worse kind of blind man than the one who refuses to see

 

[Winnie]

That was the final straw for a lot of players and now Deathrun EU is completely dead while Deathrun US is on its last legs.

Just dismiss everything I say as usual while your servers die.

‎
Hello there Cream Tea. I was a regular on the Deathrun EU, counting others before it became dead. There are some graphs to consider before any conclusion can be made. I am still trying to connect some of the pieces, but the server did not phase out with the player count.
‎
Long story short, the Deathrun EU server transitioned to the Deathrun US server to be 24/7. I will put the explanation in spoilers to save space.

Spoiler: Transition of Deathrun EU to Deathrun US

Here are the graphs to prove this transition:
‎
This is the Deathrun EU server during its prime.

‎
I was here when I would get off from night shift to join in. Coincidentally, I transferred from my night job to day job right when the fallout occurred. I cannot determine why this followed suit. I got some clues, but its all I got.
‎

DEATH RUN | US ████

07/09/2025 - 02:41:34 AM

🔗njits23

They dared mention another DR server in chat

‎
They don't make sense though since the bans referred that Sachi (a regular in the EU server) was banned for advertising, but never happened. Njits was also another regular that was spotted in the Deathrun US server.
‎
Besides that, notice the trend here: how the server died off at midnight.
‎
Now observe Deathrun US in the same time interval in February 2025:

‎
This was the Deathrun US server while the EU Deathrun was at its prime. You can detect that there is a correlation that at midnight, the US server was super active. But in the early morning/afternoon hours, the EU Deathrun server would be active instead.
‎
This is the Deathrun US server now:

‎
‎From this, it is evident that the Deathrun EU players moved over. I have done so myself because why join a server with no players? Not only that, there is a new exploit in the ranking system that I am considering as a suggestion to fix because of EU being inactive.
‎

‎

This would not remove the report command although a Cmod would partially invalidate the use of this tool.

‎
Perhaps it could not be removed. I can see where you are heading with this. Would it mean the user is being a Community Manager also if they have the same permissions? I appreciate the formality you bring into this conversation.

 

[lucas4647]

Would it mean the user is being a Community Manager also if they have the same permissions?

I don’t fully understand the statement in question, but I’ll do my best to elaborate.

Current System Proposal (Simplified)
- Regular User: Can initiate vote kicks/mutes and report players.
- CMod (Community Moderator): Same as Regular User, but can also kick, 24h mute, or 24h ban without a vote (with limitations). Certain actions must be logged on the forum.
- Mod: Full moderator permissions.

Preferred Future System:
This isn’t the final version I’d like to see, but here’s my ideal structure for ranks that is more of a pipe dream.

- Regular User: No special permissions.
- Resident (Automatic at 20 hours): Can participate in votes.
- Citizen (Automatic at 100 hours): Can initiate votes.
- Veteran (2k+ hours, 3 added per quarter via community vote):
- Some donor perks.
- Immune to CMod mutes/kicks.
- Status can be revoked for misconduct.

With this (unlikely) system we would also drastically lower the vote mute and vote kicks to 50-55% vote required with minimum vote numbers ie 10 minimum votes.

And thank you for the kind words! Maritime academy and law school really do change a person. If you want a laugh, check out my first post. I keep it up as a reminder of how far I’ve come.

 

[Enraged Blood]

Over the years, Skial’s moderation dynamics have shifted. In the past, moderators were highly active across servers, often present in games to maintain order to make the difficult face-to-face chats required to keep the community together. Today, with many mods understandably less available, player interactions with staff have become rarer. While we don’t need (or want) an excessive number of full moderators, there’s a gap that could be filled by a new, intermediate role: the Community Manager. This is something from a Minecraft community I used to play in called Kreatious that worked very well for the community.

Why a Community Manager?​

• Balanced Authority: A role with limited powers could help maintain server quality without the risks of over-moderation or abuse.
• More Active Presence: Unlike moderators (who are often scarce), Community Managers could provide consistent, approachable oversight.
• Lower Barrier to Entry: Easier to assign than full mod, reducing pressure while still improving moderation coverage.

Proposed Rules for Community Managers:​

• Communication First: Must attempt to engage with a player before issuing a mute (outside of extreme circumstances).
• Limited Mute Power:
  • Max 24-hour mute, with mutes over 1 hour requiring a forum post with justification.
• Kicks as Last Resort: Only if absolutely necessary (open to debate).
• Term Limits:
  • Role expires after 6–12 months unless actively renewed.
  • Must reapply/extend at the end of each term.
• Requirements:
  • Same activity/hour requirement as admin applicants.
  • Minimum age: 21 (maturity matters).
• Lower Trust Threshold: Easier to obtain than full mod, allowing more trusted community members to assist.

Why This Works for Skial​

• No Mod Overload: Avoids handing out full mod privileges too freely.
• More Accountability: Time limits and justification logs prevent power abuse.
• Bridges the Gap: Recreates the active, engaged moderation Skial once had, without requiring 24/7 TF2 no-lifers.

I think having skial moderators are just fine, i don't think we need a head admin

 

[Kiru]

‎
Hello there Cream Tea. I was a regular on the Deathrun EU, counting others before it became dead. There are some graphs to consider before any conclusion can be made. I am still trying to connect some of the pieces, but the server did not phase out with the player count.
‎
Long story short, the Deathrun EU server transitioned to the Deathrun US server to be 24/7. I will put the explanation in spoilers to save space.

Spoiler: Transition of Deathrun EU to Deathrun US

Here are the graphs to prove this transition:
‎
This is the Deathrun EU server during its prime.

‎
I was here when I would get off from night shift to join in. Coincidentally, I transferred from my night job to day job right when the fallout occurred. I cannot determine why this followed suit. I got some clues, but its all I got.
‎

DEATH RUN | US ████

07/09/2025 - 02:41:34 AM

🔗njits23

They dared mention another DR server in chat

‎
They don't make sense though since the bans referred that Sachi (a regular in the EU server) was banned for advertising, but never happened. Njits was also another regular that was spotted in the Deathrun US server.
‎
Besides that, notice the trend here: how the server died off at midnight.
‎
Now observe Deathrun US in the same time interval in February 2025:

‎
This was the Deathrun US server while the EU Deathrun was at its prime. You can detect that there is a correlation that at midnight, the US server was super active. But in the early morning/afternoon hours, the EU Deathrun server would be active instead.
‎
This is the Deathrun US server now:

‎
‎From this, it is evident that the Deathrun EU players moved over. I have done so myself because why join a server with no players? Not only that, there is a new exploit in the ranking system that I am considering as a suggestion to fix because of EU being inactive.
‎

‎

‎
Perhaps it could not be removed. I can see where you are heading with this. Would it mean the user is being a Community Manager also if they have the same permissions? I appreciate the formality you bring into this conversation.

No all the real regulars that played on EU 24/7 or just since the morining to make the first numbers count left on ester hollidays thats what killed EU and other players that just join in the middle of the day like me or you saw 0 players said shit and went to US instead coz if u see 0-8 ppl playing u dont wanna join a empty ass server like that it also aint good that EU players merged to US considering PING is a huge issue meny players with 150 to 300 ping thats EU players alright.

 

[lucas4647]

I think having skial moderators are just fine, i don't think we need a head admin

You didn’t read the post

 

[lucas4647]

No all the real regulars that played on EU 24/7 or just since the morining to make the first numbers count left on ester hollidays thats what killed EU and other players that just join in the middle of the day like me or you saw 0 players said shit and went to US instead coz if u see 0-8 ppl playing u dont wanna join a empty ass server like that it also aint good that EU players merged to US considering PING is a huge issue meny players with 150 to 300 ping thats EU players alright.

I get what you're saying, but in the nicest way possible, I’m just going to leave this here:

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/grammar

 

[Kiru]

I get what you're saying, but in the nicest way possible, I’m just going to leave this here:

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/grammar

I just type fast bro thats my issue + u get my point and this suggestion is alredy at -10 votes soo its a no go end of talk :/

 

[SIS]

Deathrun EU is completely dead while Deathrun US is on its last legs.

Could there also be another killer at work here, if you catch my drift?