Chatrooms and their Moderation 🗂

Hello hello everyone. It's Midna, here to discuss with you public chatrooms, and the moderation for them.

Obviously our chats are for being able to talk with creative individuals. Being able to bond, get/give critique, and even share our work! It's fun and really enjoyable to interact with others!

But with all that fun comes a heavy responsibility, especially when holding one of these chats yourself.

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Today we're gonna go over some proper chat etiquette to follow!

1: Follow all Community Guidelines!

- That's a given. Break them and severe consequences will follow after.

2: Be respectful!

- Meaning treat everyone the way you would want to be treated. Don't be a butt.

3: Follow Chatroom rules set in place!

- That means whatever the says (as long as following guidelines) it goes. Don't do it unless you want to be removed from the chat.

And finally

4: DON'T SPAM!

- Repeating messages seconds after each other counts within this rule. As well as multiple pictures in one sitting.

If anyone breaks these rules, you are free to remove them from your chats. If they are being unruly and extremely disrespectful, proceed to flag/report them, and a will handle the situation thereafter. Nothing more is to be done after this.

Now with all the ground rules known and set in place, I will be explaining how moderating them goes.

Now as you can see, there aren't as many public chats as there use to be and there are multiple reasons as to why that is. A lot of rule breaking, not keeping up with your chat, or anything not related to the community could get your chat disabled. The list I have below are pet peeves that myself, and the rest of the staff have when looking at chatrooms. I will be giving a small description like I did with the rules earlier in the post.

These are the DON'Ts when handling your chat!

1. Inviting the whole community

Please don't do this. It's annoying for the individual, as they'll have no idea why they were invited and they'll most likely chew you out. If they wanted to the chat, they'd on their own. If you're going to do that then don't EXCLUDE the staff from your chat (and yes we notice that). We'd love to see what your chat is about :)

2. Making multiple chats that aren't moderated

If you can't handle the responsiblity of one, don't make multiple. You also can't let one be heavily moderated and the other not at all. Choose ONE to stay in.

3. Not moderating at all

Your chat cannot be a free for all. Set down rules and make sure everyone is following them.

4. Advertising of any kind

YOU WILL BE BANNED IF YOU WITHOUT PERMISSION! Even the mention of your s on other Amino Communities to get people to follow you count. So don't do it.

5. Organizers just leaving

If you don't want the chat, let everyone know before leaving. That's bad management.

6. Inappropriate images and speech/Making others uncomfortable and not changing anything

WATCH your chat . They are under your care. If someone feels unsettled by something that someone did, HANDLE IT.

7. Giving sass to Staff

If we're telling you something you're not suppose to do, don't brush us off or give sass. Trust me. You could easily be in much more trouble then what we're trying to correct you of.

8. Being an attention wh*** (Oh no a bad word. Grow up.)

The chat is not about you. Don't it thinking everyone is suppose to cater to you, and consistently give you pity. If someone is talking, don't 1up them. It's childish.

9. Disregarding others in the chat

Don't do this. It makes others feel unwanted or invalidated. I bet you would be upset if the same thing happened to you.

10. Not letting people know what not to do and being too laid back

Basically not doing your job as . You have to enforce the rules.

11. Letting a chat die and leaving it for staff to clean up

If you don't want a chat, don't make one. If you can't be responsible, don't make a chat.

12. Forcing people to draw your characters/Forcing people to make their character like yours

We have our own characters for a reason. Don't force anyone to make unnecessary character changes just because it reminds you of your own character. That's rude.

13. Arguing with others

You'll just be removed promptly from the chat and you will not be able to back.

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Yeah the list is long, but these are things that have happened consistently here and it gets annoying very quickly when dealt with. The list would be shorter but that's just not how things work unfortunately. We're not out here to stop your fun as staff, we're just here to maintain proper order.

With that in mind, here are some DO's for public chats!

1. Maintain and moderate your chats!

That means keeping everyone active and making them feel apart of the chat.

2. Don't be inactive!

If you happen to be inactive it can be for no longer than 5 days in a row. If your chat is inactive (meaning no one has been talking in it for 5 days) then it will be disabled!

Don't think we won't do it either.

3. FLAG PEOPLE

If they are causing you grief then be rid of them. It's okay to do that, as staff will handle it promptly afterwards.

And as your last resort

4. an available staff member for help!

If something gets out of hand and flagging isn't an option, one of us. That way we can see what the issue is. This is a last resort so follow the above before taking this action.

Well this is all I had to say. Hopefully for 2019 we'll have and continue to have better control of our public chats.

Thank you all for reading through to the end!

~ Midna :leaves: