Team Insider Operational Guidelines
The following guidelines are meant to outline the operational focus for Team Insider, the volunteer group responsible for helping site members and generally guiding the smooth interpersonal operation of Model Insider.
The TI thread in the forum is for recruitment of volunteers only. There will be no announcements posted in this thread for anything except the need for new members. For general banter and announcement of informal TI information, you may use the TI front-end group or create a new thread in the TI or General forum. Information pertaining to TI as an entity should be run past the current TI coordinator to ensure there is no confusion. If there is a need to get in touch with all TI members you can pm/email the members directly.
Please do not post answers to site questions, especially in the Site-Related forum, unless you know the answer is factual. If in doubt, let someone else answer or ask someone directly before posting your answer. Giving an incorrect answer to a new user is worse than no answer at all. If no answer is forthcoming from a TI member in short order, one of the MI developers will surely come along and answer (and then you will know for the next time).
Opinions are welcome and encouraged. One thing to show new members is that even TI members may have differing opinions and keep things civil. Especially when talking about site functionality, discussion and debate is good. Set the example.
From now on all new members must pass the board and have a job waiting, No single TI Member has the authority to add members to our group with the exceptions of Chris, James and Daniel. This is to prevent the TI group from growing huge with people who just want to have a badge next to their name. Part of the goal of Model Insider is to avoid the need for moderators, gatekeepers and other subjective decision-makers. TI members are seen not as moderators, but as helpers with experience and knowledge. Anyone volunteering for TI should have that experience or should want to learn before stepping up to help.
Chat Room Help Rules
The Chat Room Help will be the duty of the TI. It will be a personal touch that MI has that other sites do not. Chat room help is to be, in general, a one on one situation. Try to avoid having more than one person answering questions at a time, as a new user may become confused from multiple sources of information (even if the information is the same!). In times of heavy use, creating more than one help room is perfectly acceptable. As the site grows and evolves, it's our hope that the need for chat room help is diminished, or only necessary for the most complex features.
Team Insider Duties
Once the site starts getting regular chat use, one TI member should always be in the MI chat. This will encourage its use and keep the site on a more friendly and personal level. This can be as easy as keeping a chat window open while you're doing something else. If multiple TI members want to keep chat windows open even when no users are online, that's perfectly acceptable (though keep the nasty banter to a minimum so as to not scare off the newbies).
We will have set hours for the MI Help Room in the chat. This should be manned by people who are knowledgeable of how to navigate the site and they should be keeping themselves updated with things in Site related.
TI members will be in charge of the thread based contests, Keeping them moving and providing the graphics for the voting as well as vote tabulations and informing the winner.
TI members will leave a welcome on newbie’s walls, and comment on pictures they like. Please do not see this as a mandated requirement, however. Be sincere in your comments and do not comment just to leave something. New members should feel welcome, not patronized.
Contest Volunteer Duties
All Team Members meet with each other and compile info for the member of the week. At least one a week.
TI Chief Coordinator
Coordinates promoting contest, validates entrants and images, and compiles composites for voting, guides chief in their duties.
TI Coordinators
Helps Coordinator where needed, tracks new members and distributes the list among directors. Welcomes new members, encourage them to enter contests, comment on pics, and tag pages, and help out the Chief Coordinators wherever needed.