Staff:Guidelines

Our number one goal is to provide outstanding "customer service" to our users. To that end, we only have one rule:

Use your best judgement in all situations.

The information given here is written as general staff guidelines. All staff must answer to their team manager (and/or admin), and because of that, where these guidelines conflict with instructions you have been given by your superior, you should listen to your superior.

Staff Requirements

Being a staff member on DareNET is a privilege, and like most others, it comes with responsibility. There are a few requirements and "duties" for all staff members, which are detailed in this section.

Keep in mind that IRC is meant to be fun. If you don't feel like doing something at a particular time, don't do it (but be polite about it, especially if a user is requesting help from you). However, if you find that you're rarely in the mood for doing "staff stuff", then perhaps being a staff member is not for you.

While there is no minimum hours one most devote to helping out per week/month, we do expect ALL staff to be active on the network and mailing lists on a continuing basis. Staff found to be "inactive" will be asked to resign. Inactive shall be defined as staff who continually are not present or take part in the network's day-to-day operations.

You are expected to:

Help maintain the network.
Help users.
Enforce DareNET's AUP.
Follow the guidelines and instructions given in this guide.
Behave in a fitting manner for a DareNET staff member.
Keep up to date on DareNET matters, rules and policies.
Participate in mailing list discussions.
Not share confidential information with non-staff.

Help maintain the network

You should monitor the state of the network. For the most part, this means watching for netsplits and lag, reconnecting and rerouting servers if necessary. You should look into anything that seems strange or just plain "wrong" on the network, bringing it to the attention of the appropriate individuals if need be.

Help users

All staff should help users. If a user approaches you for help, and you are unable to help him/her yourself for any reason (e.g., you don't know the answer, you're busy, etc.), you should direct the user to #support or try to locate someone else who can assist the user. At the very least you should politely indicate that you are unable to help.

Enforce DareNET's AUP

As a staff member you are expected to uphold DareNET's rules. Use the means available to you to deal with any violation of rules in an appropriate manner.

Do not share confidential information with non-staff

As a staff member, you will be informed of many confidential issues, facts and matters. Whether these are related to DareNET's security, its users or services, it is extremely important that you do not disclose such information to anyone who is not a DareNET staff member. This especially concerns information obtained through privileged sources (e.g., staff mailing list, globops, staff channel, etc.).

Conduct

As a staff member, your conduct on the network reflects upon yourself, your peers, network leadership and DareNET's image. You should act in a professional manner, especially when carrying out network duties. A good question to ask yourself is, "is what I'm about to do going to reflect badly on DareNET in any way, shape or form?" Repeatedly protraying DareNET in a "bad light" will probably cause you to be dismissed from staff.

Interaction with users

The manner in which you present yourself will almost always make a difference in how efficiently and effectively you are able to handle any issue with users. You should remain calm and matter of fact at all times when dealing with users in an "official" capacity. If you become upset or angry, you will be less effective and possibly even unintentionally make the situation worse. If you are unable to remain objective, consider asking another staff member to handle the issue for you. Staff need to work as a team and recognizing our individual strengths or weaknesses is an integral part of good team work. It is better for DareNET to have staff who are able to rely on others for help, than to risk handling a situation poorly.

DareNET staff should NOT look down on users, make fun of or ridicule them. Users should be treated with respect. If you feel that you are above the network's users, you should rethink your view, as it probably won't be long until someone is tapping you on the shoulder asking you to resign. You are staff to the serve the network, and thus, its users.

When handling situations involving users, we've found that the following recommendations allow staff to handle the situation in a good and professional manner. Some of them, obviously, only apply to specific situations:

Be polite and respectful.

Give the benefit of the doubt. If you have had a complaint about a user, ask them to tell you what the problem is themselves before confronting them about their reported behavior.

State the issues clearly, without personal criticism. For example, saying "I received a complaint about someone repeatedly flooding this channel. Do you know what happened?" will open up communication and the possibility of finding a peaceful solution. Whereas, just saying "I /KILL lamers for flooding." will most likely result in an escalation of the problem.

Clearly state the rule or policy that was violated. For example, "Flooding is not allowed on DareNET because it interferes with other users' ability to chat." is not only instructional, but also states the network's position on the issue.

Clearly state what the consequences are. For example, state "You are being warned. If I receive further complaints, you will be disconnected from the network. Any complaints after that may result in a network ban." This way everyone knows what to expect and there will be no need to engage in any debate with the user. Make sure you know what the appropriate action is for a particular violation and do not threaten to take action which goes against the network's policy for a particular issue.

Do not "threaten" an action until you are certain it is what you will do. While it is good to state possible consequences of an action, it is important users know that once we state we will do something, we follow it through. If staff vacillate, it can start to sound like empty threats and users may "test" repeatedly to see if we really mean what we say. It is better to avoid taking action until you are sure there is no other option, then doing so quickly and without further discussion. No profanity or name calling, just state the reason based on the offending behavior.

Do not criticize or ridicule users. Have patience for typos. Avoid embarrassing a user in front of others. Educate, not humiliate.

English may be a second (or latter) language for some users; therefore, some colloquialisms and slang may be confusing or easily misinterpreted. Please try to use correct grammar and punctuation as this will facilitate ease of communication.

Try to be sensitive to how others view the role of a staff member, specifically IRC operators. Control and privileges are easily misunderstood. Being aware of your own feelings in this regard can be helpful in your interactions with others.

Interactions with staff

When dealing with other staff members, how you conduct yourself is equally important as well. In general, it can have a huge influence on the overall morale, for better or worse.

Be polite and respectful.

Help other staff members if they ask for it.

If you think someone is doing a good job and have something nice and encouraging to say, say it. Positive input is appreciated, and can make a big difference.

If you think someone is not acting right, you may try to correct that person in private, POLITELY. Don't make defaming or derogatory comments about other staff members, especially not in public. It only lowers morale and doesn't help to solve the situation.

If you want to make a complaint about another staff member, see the section on Staff Misconduct. Do not flame the person in public, or attempt to "get to" them in other ways.

Staff misconduct

The procedure for registering a complaint about a DareNET staff member is:

Try to resolve the problem by talking to the other person directly.
If there is still a problem, report it to the person's superior. If the issue is related to some team, report it to the team's manager. If the person is an IRC operator and it's a generic complaint, report it to that person's admin. If you do not know the oper's "home" server, report it to the admin of the server they were on at the time.
If the problem remains unresolved after the superior investigated and made a decision, a report can be sent to the Operations team with supporting documentation (including all logs from all the meetings with the person and with the superior).
Any case unresolved by the Operations team may be reviewed by the Executive Board, who will make the final decision.

Possible consequences of misbehavior are decided by the superior of that staff member (e.g., the oper's admin or the team manager, as appropriate) alone or in conjunction with the Operations team and/or Executive Board. The specific action taken will depend on the serverity of the misconduct, which may include:

Demotion for a probationary period.
Personal and/or public apology.
Replacing or reconstructing any damaged records.
Removal of channel access; temporarily or permanently for repeated offenses.
Removal of O-line or staff position.
Removal of services access.
Mailing list moderation or removal.
Refusal of future staff opportunities.
Banned from the network.

Channel ownership and control

DareNET staff are NOT to involve themselves in channel matters, period. I don't think we can stress this enough. Users are free to operate their channels as they wish (provided they do not break network rules) without interference from us, and you are to respect that right at all times.

Matters pertaining to channel registration should be handled by the Support team. If a channel's users or ops complain about how the channel is run, the issue should be solved by the channel's co-owners and (ultimately) by the owner. The owner has full control over the channel and may run it as (s)he pleases.