Forum Department Procedures:

Again, this will need to be edited since currently it is (c) Wolfhome administration. Again, these hold nothing specific to any users of WH or that is confidential since you too art Administration- so do not worry abut copied things. They do, however need to be edited as our own. I cannot do all this on my own in a fast manner, so help with this would be nice. (: Before editing this, if one of you does, please save all the original text below so if something is messed up we can easily replace it to edit once again.

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This tool: IP Tracer can be used to do some more in-depth IP tracing.

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ADMIN & MODERATOR PRIVILIGES

Congratulations, welcome, and THANK YOU! For joining the Forum Department When one first becomes a moderator, please read through Section 5 at the bottom of the above website. Feel free to experiment making, deleting, editing, splitting, moving, and etc. in these private Forum Dept. sections with your new tools so you know all about what you're doing. Don't hesitate to ask questions.

When you become an Administrator, you have a new level of trust and responsibility. You now have access to the Admin panel, which is the link at the very bottom of the forum. The entire manual at the above link is now important, so make sure you do read it. You have access to the guts of the forum and all of the users' information. This level of access is given out mainly as a level boost for your forum powers and access. Please, don't change anything about the forum without first checking with us. With that said, thank you for taking on this new level of responsibility!

Our theory: PG-13ish just like the chat. When to moderate? Don't jump the gun. We wait until something is actually done before we take action. We simply cannot act on what could happen as that line could be pushed farther and farther back until the forum turns into a kiddie pool so we don't offend anybody. We act on what happens. This makes it necessary that there are many of us, and that we're all active. The forum must be checked more than once daily, and that's a team effort. We are not all required to check the forum 5 times a day. If we all make it a goal to check the forum at least once every other day, then we should be set.

Another thing we try to do is deal with people personally. At no point should there be public reprimands e.g. pointing out their signature is too big, their language is inappropriate or they are spamming. Send PM's and take personal, confidential action.

USER PROFILES
You should notice you now have two control panels more than you had previously. The moderator and administration control panel. The moderator panel shows reported posts. The administration control panel allows you to manage a user. This page contains key info of a user account. BUT REMEMBER there is some big DO NOTS to accessing this page. It is there for you to gain information only about emails and IPs. You should NEVER edit anything in the manage user page except for signatures and avatars only if it is necessary.

MOVING POSTS

When a post or topic is not in its proper section, as loosely described in the announcement in each section, go ahead and move it. Never leave a shadow topic. If you move a single, lone post, make sure to send a PM to the author with a link to their post's new home letting them know that you moved their topic. If you moved an entire thread, you only have to send a PM to the person who started the topic.



AVATARS, PROFILE CONTENT & SIGNATURES

When avatars or signatures are inappropriate or too big (distorts the viewing area, larger than 175 pixels in any direction), they need to be removed. Every so often look through new member profiles and if anything in there is against our limit, it needs to be removed. Same with signatures.

What to do: When a moderator sees one of these things, immediately leave a note in this section with the person's username and what's the offending material. Send them a warning PM! Administrators, you need to keep tabs on threads made by moderators. It's your job to check that offending material is gone, and if it isn't you need to remove it via the admin control pannel. Send a PM to the user explaining what you did and why, and also a warning if it's merited. If applicable, reply on the original alert topic to let everyone know it's taken care of.



EDITING POSTS

To be used with restraint. Excessive language, threats, and other inappropriate material should be edited out of an otherwise useful post. If the whole post is one big inappropriate mess, just move it to suspect and questionable posts. Do not put anything like "edited" where you remove the material, simply erase it and make it look like it was never there. The only visible mark you should leave is this: at the very bottom of the post, put this:

(italic + a contrasting colour of your choice)
Edited by (yourname) for (reason).
Example: Edited by Bubbles for excessive inappropriate language.

Then, as always, send the person whose post was edited a PM letting them know what was edited, and why, and a little warning if merited. If it was serious stuff, let us know about it by posting about it in the forum warnings section, so if they do this over and over we can place bans on them accordingly. Screenshots or quotes, or even copying the post is useful so we have a definite record of what happened.

Suspected art theft should be moved immediately to suspect and qustionable posts or locked. Screenshots are very useful. Make a post in art theft linking to the questionable thread. Remember to PM the user. You can as a moderator deal with art theft issues but if you are unsure leave it to an ART member. Remember to always send notification of locking or moving.



DELETING POSTS

Deleting posts should only be done in the event of accidental multiple posts. Restrain from deleting things in places like the galleries. Instead use the appropriate archives. Unwanted posts should always be archived appropriately.


LOCKING THREADS

Posts should be locked when they've gone too far. If something is about to turn into a flame war, things are getting heated, inappropriate, or seriously off-topic (for formal, one-idea threads), then post a public reply on the thread with a formal warning/request. If they ignore it and go too far, lock the topic. As a mod, you can reply to locked topics, so then reply to the topic telling everyone why the topic was locked. You do not need to PM anyone in particular, unless you feel that specific warnings are due to specific people. Also, if people send you a PM or post a public request to have their topic locked, and it's their topic and they have the justification, lock it for them and reply to the thread with why it was locked, example: "by request". If "lock" is in the title, you do not need to post stating you locked the post per request.



SPLITTING TOPICS

It's very rare, if ever, that you need to split a topic. Allow them to wander on their way they're people, it's a forum, let 'em chat. But for example, on an official Administration thread for an announcement if people go WILD then split them off, but really, you're almost never going to split topics.



EDITING IN THE ADMIN SECTION

Is to be avoided unless absolutely necessary. Posts can be moved around to appropriate sections, titles can be edited for simplicity (in the warnings area, for example), but we shouldn't be or even need to be editing, deleting, or locking each other's posts.

If you have any questions about what to do when, please don't hesitate to ask If you want to learn how to do something, also ask. The more we all know how to do, the more we can all help to get the jobs done. Make sure to check the house keeping thread so you know a bit more about your responsibilities. Thank you!

The most general responsibility we have is reading through as many posts on the forum as possible, even if you couldn't care less about what it's about, and thereby checking them for language, appropriateness, etc. There are also some threads that need more or less daily upkeep, such as these:

• The Admin-maintained bug list. This is basically UD's to-do list for fixing bugs. When there are new bugs posted in that section, add them onto that list. Since this post gets long, please try to keep it clean by making the links pretty, and grouping new reports of old bugs into one bullet, and etc. When you add a thread to this list, make sure you post a reply to the original letting all the other mods know that you grabbed it.
  
  
• Maintaining the freebie forum! All freebies are posted in the Artwork section and a new topic for each artist needs to be made in the Freebies section--which is now completely moderator-maintained. Make sure to get all of the necessary information (Original artist, modding artist, and permissions as described in that forum's posting guidelines). When you do this, make sure you reply on the original topic, so that the other mods know it's been taken care of.
  
  
• The Perm ban list. Make sure this is kept up to date; when users reach the perm ban level, make sure that their name gets onto that thread. Post a note when you add them so that the others know.
  
  When someone is permanently banned, remember to check if they have a forum account. If they do, the account will need to be banned. Permanently banned users are not permitted to use the forums!
  
  
• Free Services section. This will get busier when the uploader is up and working, and then people will be posting and asking for their topics to be closed every so often.
  
  
• Name changes thread. This is only important for the administrators to keep an eye on. Lookout for inappropriate names being made! This thread is also useful for tracking who is who on the forum/chat.