As announced previously by a news, I'm changing the staff on Animation Source to a smaller, easier to manage and more neutral one.

But first, I want everyone to know that I have updated the rules to reflect my current sensibility on the problems that occured on the site these years.
I have made rules less « strict » and more leaning on common sense.
I think it's important that EVERYONE listens to MY « RULES » on the sites. There's been so many people making their own rules and spreading them, even visitors, that it's caused the site a lot of conflicts.

Especially, the big changes are :

- Multi accounts are tolerated, but can be banned if one of them behaves incorrectly.
- Signatures maximum width is now 1000px instead of 600px. This is to reflect the bigger screen resolution used now, when compared to 7 years ago...
- I've changed the "DO NOT" rules to "AVOID". I've never meant that breaking one rule would immediately result in a ban.
- Sexual talks will be banned as soon as a few people report them. (or immediately if it's CLEARLY an attempt to offend people, eg posting nude pictures)

The only VALID rules to follow on the site are these ones :

- This topic is the global rules for the whole site (including shout boxes) : /board/rules-read-before-posting-t832.html

- As for fan creations, the only valid rules are the ones displayed when sending fanarts / fanfics / etc

ANYTHING ELSE has not been validated by me and should not be taken as reference.
 

Secondly, this is the guideline I have sent to the new staff. I'm posting it here so that everyone knows about it :

- Be lenient on the rules. For example, someone posting some SMS words on shout box does not even need a warning! You need only to react if someone is behaving badly on PURPOSE, or is DISTURBING the other visitors. Focus on the MOST IMPORTANT!

Another example : I don't mind people double/triple posting or even more in a row, on the shout box or the forums, as long as it's to post real information.

When it comes to political, sex, religious talks, etc...it's the same thing. If no one is annoyed by the messages, then let it go. Otherwise, try to advice (not warn, advice!) the user that some other members are annoyed and to please change topic. If the member reacts badly, then it deserves a warn, and a ban if it persists. I advice : two warnings in the 24 hours, then a ban.

Another example from Skul recently...
"I was wondering two things. First, is "Sweet Jesus" being said on the shout boxes, considered against the rules? Jesus Christ is a swear, and Jesus itself is religious talk, so I was wondering, why not?"
Here is my answer : => I would say it depends on the person attitude : if the person is clearly saying that to offend people, then yes, you can take action. If it's just an expression but the person has a coherent/interesting talk involved, then I have no problem with that.
There's part of subjectivity in that - but it cannot work any other way. Otherwise, it's 1984 all over again. (I mean the Orwell book)

- Be helpful. Moderators are here to moderate (captain obvious, here I come!) but also to help the visitors. Be nice to them!

- Multi accounts : tolerated, do not warn or ban multi-accounts unless someone is behaving badly, or the username/profile is clearly intended to offend people.
- Same thing for the fan creations : if it's not something offending (= not too bloody, sexual, religious, stolen art etc...), and it respects the other rules stated on the respective send page, then you can activate it.

- Keep the rules simple. Use common sense. Please, please, no nonsense like making lists of "the allowed and the forbidden SMS words"!!! No one is ever going to read these.

Do you get the general feeling? I won't make a more detailed list of rules - you only have to understand THIS. As long as someone isn't being OFFENSIVE to other people, there's no reason to act. It's THE global rule.

- No one should be added to the staff without me approving it first.

Moderators rules : if someone is breaking one of these rules, and it seems necessary to take action :

- If the same member has already been warned/banned many times previously about the same thing, mods can immediately ban the member.

- If the situation requires immediate action, such as member who is clearly provoking the other members by posting "LOLOLOLOL" on the shout box repeatedly, posting porn pictures (these are examples), immediately ban the member.

- Otherwise, send a warning PM/email to the member. Try to be formal, with tact : you should HELP the member, not criticize him. Invite him to change his attitude by being nice. If the member still continues to act badly, send another warning. If it happens again  (even if it's days after the first warning), you can ban the member.

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Thirdly, here is the list of the members who are part of the new moderating staff :

Kirada, Jazzywolf, Moss, Flitzalys, Roi Doberwolf

This is for a start. I'll probably add more later, but finding the right persons is a lot of work.
They will be Global Moderators on all the AS sites. And that's how it should be : members are cross-sites, the moderating should be too.
Also, all mods will be EQUALS, meaning they can moderate all the sites and have the exact same permissions.

I didn't mention it, but for now, I'll be in charge of managing them.

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Fourthly, the previous moderators have been made Site Builders. For now I have only added the admins, and here's the list :

Kirada , UK                        Spirit Source builder / news
Penny, Rebelness           Oliver & Co Builder / news
Mohammad, Deni            ADGTHS
Skulblaka_Shurtugal        TSS
Draco                                   BS
Penny                                   Cats don't dance
Paxis                                    TLKS
Jordan.                                 P&TF
Draco                                   Mulan
Anubis                                 Anastasia
Mohammad                        Brother Bear
Anubis                                 Aristocats

As you can see, I have decided to clearly separate the permissions linked to « moderators » (which are people who activate or deactivate the fan creations, and who watch what gets posted and intervene if necessary by giving warning/bans with the help of reports) and the permissions linked to site building (adding pages on the site, posting news, polls, changing the graphics, adding links, webranking etc...)

So, I have decided that some of the former mods could become site builders (which actually is kinda a promotion, considering it's more fun, and less stressful / tedious than doing the moderation side!), while the moderation staff would be composted of fresh new members (mostly), so as to get the new start for the sites I talked about.

The word « site builder » may not be 100% appropriate though. The point is that a fansite is never truly finished : there are always things to add when it comes to a film /series. For example, almost none of the sites have lists of merchandise released ! Also, site builders can post news, so they can choose good fanarts to show to everyone, and they should also be the one adding polls regularly, and bringing new topics on the forums. So yes, the part of the job of a site builder is to keep looking for new stuff on external sites (Google, Ebay are some of your friend) for the fans to enjoy !

Finally, site builders can make new styles for the sites ; I have corrected the bug that wouldn't make it possible for the french and english sides to use the same styles ; and I'll add soon the possibility for a user to switch between different styles on the same site ! Oh, and don't forget that most of the sites still don't have forum styles.

Please note that I have only added some of the former mods on sites building. If other former mods are interested in site building, please tell me which sites you're interested to work on. I haven't kept an exact list of who did what, and besides, many weren't anymore active. So, just tell me.

More members could be added to the site builders progressively. To be accepted as a site builder, you need to show me an example of your work (an example of layout if you're good at graphics, an example of pages or characters descriptions if you want to do the information part)

That's all, folks!