Camellia Server Staff Guidelines

Camellia Server Staff Guidelines

A Brief History
The Staff Guidelines were implemented for a general view of
guidance, advice, and staff quality. Parts One and Two of these
guidelines were written and established on October 24, 2022. Since
then, users have had concerns regarding our decisions and stances in
particular situations. As a result, the Staff Guidelines were made
public on July 25, 2023, as evidenced by this document you’re
reading. All staff decisions are based on these guidelines. While we
attempt to have high moderation standards, we sometimes make
mistakes.

Following these guidelines helps avoid mistakes in the future. If not,

the guidelines are updated to resolve mistakes we have made in the
past.

Any significant instance of drama, discussion, and feedback is

considered when writing these guidelines. If you would like to be a
part of the staff team, you must follow these guidelines to a degree.

💡
If you would like to contribute, that’s great! Leave your feedback in
# server-direction where it will be considered. If you would like to
apply for Helper, refer here.

Have fun reading~

Document Guide
 2

Part 1: The Dos

Part 2: Expectations

Part 3: General Advice

Moderation of content that falls into a “grey” area
Cross-Banning Users
Handling situations that could be overwhelming
Disciplinary actions and what happens after

Part 4: Moderation Terminology and AutoMod

Common terminology
Wick’s AutoMod

Part 5: Events and Announcements

Events: What’s considered
Events: Important events to create
Events: What’s not considered
Announcements: Tone of delivery
Announcements: Keeping consistency

Part 6: Promotion Process and Roles

Secondary Roles:
Probationary and Trial Roles
Auxiliary Staff Role
Challenges Judge Role
Minecraft Helper Role
Event Organizer Role
nges Judge Role
Minecraft Helper Role
Event Organizer Role

Promotion:
Promotion: What is considered
Demotion:
Demotion: What is considered
 3

A reminder that anything said in the staff chats is to be kept in the

staff chats unless stated otherwise by an Admin. Failure to do so will
lead to demotion.

Part 1: The Dos

1. Punish people accordingly if they break the rules. The template

for punishing someone is VERBAL WARNING -> INFRACTION ->
TEMPMUTE -> KICK -> 8-DAY BAN -> INDEFBAN. The template
may vary based on how severely someone is acting. Use good
judgment when punishing someone. If staff members cannot
decide on a consensus for a member, a verbal warning should
be given by default.

2. Try to be nice. This place is supposed to welcome everyone

regardless of who they are.

3. Try not to be an arbitrary person or make arbitrary decisions in

a situation; doing this is not ideal.

4. Try not to be arrogant and avoid brown-nosing. Doing this

makes you look stupid and does not fall within the ideals of the
staff team. Remind yourself that we are all one!

5. Treat others how you want to be treated, and try to be

approachable to other members.
 4

6. Before making server changes or creating events, please

mention it to other staff members so it can be noticed!

7. Contact another staff member if you're feeling burnt out and/or

you need help with moderating. The staff team looks for
consistent contribution, not overloaded. Make sure to contact
another staff member if you need to.

8. Try to mention your actions and anything relevant regarding a

particular member and/or punishments. This is for
transparency's sake.

9. Listen to the room in certain situations; forcefully changing a

sensitive topic in a channel will only leave people confused and
the situation unresolved. Your job is to please all parties. Only in
extreme cases should sensitive topics be forcefully shifted.
10.Listen to the room in certain situations; forcefully changing a
sensitive topic in a channel will only leave people confused and
the situation unresolved. Your job is to please all parties. Only in
extreme cases should sensitive topics be forcefully shifted.
11.

12. Political/religious talk is not allowed on the main channels. This

server has many people with differing opinions. If anyone is
talking about political situations, redirect them to #serious-talk.
If anyone is hateful toward a specified group, please use the
FAQ commands on bigotry (?bigot) or punish them accordingly.
 5

Part 2: Expectations

1. You are expected not to take server rules and guidelines lightly.
Always remember to refer to these guidelines and look in the
server rules if you need a refresher. Remember, you have a
significant influence on members and outsiders.

2. You are expected to know basic moderation commands (For

Discord). For using John Wick, basic commands are <!warn>
<!timeout add> <!purge> and <!kick>.

3. You are expected to know basic FAQ commands pinned in

#mod-commands. Please read them!

4. You are expected to help people when implied or asked (but

don't create too much noise!).

5. You are expected to use your best judgment when it comes to

punishing someone or warning them.

6. You are expected to be civil in and outside the community's

central server. (This includes neighboring servers, other
platforms associated with Camellia, etc.) Do not play middle,
either! This ruins staff credibility.

7. You are expected to look at the suggestion channels and

suggestions in general. If a member suggests something for the
server, please repost it in the suggestion channels or bring it up
in the staff chat to be noticed.
 6

8. You are expected to help lead the server in the best direction for
you and its members.

9. You are expected to be present when needed.

10. You are expected to be cool. (Be cool!)

Part 3: General Advice

I have noticed staff members complain and some people being afraid
of becoming staff members due to how large this server is. Never
fear; this part of the guidelines will guide you on certain things!

Moderation of content that falls into a “grey” area

1. The posted content is illegal (i.e., drugs, potential piracy).

2. The posted content is reported in the ticket channels.

3. The content being posted violates Discord's TOS or Community

Guidelines.

4. The content being posted implies anything that breaks the

server rules in a malicious tone.
 7

Cross-Banning Users

In extreme circumstances, we may ban individuals for their actions in

other communities even if they have not breached any rules in this
server. This will only happen if all of the following conditions are met.

1. The user has broken Discord’s TOS or Community Guidelines.

2. The Admins are confident of any evidence sent regarding such

behavior of the user.

3. The user is not currently on the server but poses a probable risk
to the server environment, or the user is already on the server.

Handling situations that could be overwhelming

Given how people are, when taking action against something, it's
possible to get targeted for harassment. If handling the situation
becomes out of hand, you should consider one of these options;
remember to use good judgment on what to do!

1. Contact other staff members about the situation and provide a

chat link to give insight and possible backup. If you’re unsure
how to handle a situation, contact someone higher up.
 8

2. Ignore the perpetrators, and try not to engage in unneeded

arguments or discussions without reason.

3. Try to de-escalate by reassuring people that this action was

needed or is being re-evaluated.

4. Listen to what people say and tell them what they want to
hear(unless otherwise). Try to be patient with them so they can
feel comfortable with what's happening. By doing this method, it
should be easier to diverge a heated topic/discussion and talk
about something else.

Disciplinary actions and what happens after

When people don't listen, you need to take action. Here's how to
make yourself look less 1984 and more like Mad Max (a more
respected kind of staff member).

1. Always put a reason for anything. This includes warnings, bans,

and kicks.

2. If members have questions about their punishment, try to make

messages short and straightforward on why they were
punished, and avoid arguments if you can!

3. If someone complains about their punishment not being listed in

the rules, remind them about reading the room/common sense.
 9

Alternatively, ignore them (I really like doing this one

personally!).

4. If someone doesn't listen after an infraction, time them out for

10 minutes minimum.

Part 4: Moderation Terminology and AutoMod

This is to ensure clarity between staff members during staff

discussions.

Common terminology

Using @John Wick, the moderation bot, there are a couple of

commands. These commands are: /warn /kick /ban, and /infractions.
More are to be added soon. We want to generalize terms we use
when referring to moderation in general, so keep these in mind:

[Warn/Infraction]: A server warning issued by the bot to keep track

of how many infractions somebody has. The bot will punish a member
automatically based on several infractions.

[Verbal]: This refers to a verbal warning; verbal warnings could also

be called "soft warnings" and are issued before severe action is
taken. FAQ Commands are included.
 10

[Restriction/Restricted]: A restricted user cannot use a specific chat

category or channel. These are issued when users can't stay on topic
or provide unwanted discussion/noise.

[Timeout/Mute]: Users that cannot speak in chats for a specified

time.

[Noise]: Could be used for people talking too much. Example: "Stop
creating noise, please." This could also be used instead of saying,
"Shut the fuck up."

This list will be added to eventually.

Wick’s AutoMod

1. Each infraction given by John Wick is a total of 5 warning points.

2. 15 warning points give 1-hour timeouts. 25 warning points give

1-day timeouts, and 35 warning points kick members.

3. AutoMod also has a heating system. Each rule is defined with a

certain percentage of heat before it warns a member. For
example, if a user is spamming similar messages, heat is added
by 22%. A member needs to send approximately 4.50 messages
before getting punished, and so on.
 11

Part 5: Events and Announcements

Creating events should be easy to do. Keep in mind, though, it's ideal
to have specific events hosted when a new Camellia song premieres
or an event Camellia is featured in.

Please be sure to mention any event handling so it could be under the

radar! Events should also be scheduled days before so more
members can notice something is happening!

Events: What’s considered

1. Server game nights

2. Server watch parties (for Camellia streams, sets, etc.)
3. Server milestones, challenges, etc.
4. Q&A sessions

Events: Important events to create

1. Camellia song premieres

2. Camellia sets
3. Music fests featuring Camellia
4. Anything involving Camellia!
 12

Events: What’s not considered

1. Joke events (rare expectations)

2. Sets that don't include Camellia
3. Other Discord events
4. Staff-related events

When creating announcements for any *important* reason, these

guidelines must be followed. Before posting, make sure the post is
approved by several staff members, and do a self-check here.

Announcements: Tone of delivery

1. Posts must be neutral to the reader. No bias should show or any

favoring to specific topics. Only on rare occasions should this
rule be voided.

2. Grammar and styling should be consistent with previous posts.

When creating a post, be sure to check grammar with built-in
text editors.

3. Posts must be easy to digest and understandable for readers.

Be sure to avoid any complex or abrupt sentences.

4. Be sure to preview your posts in any of the staff chats before

posting. Make sure it's good enough!
 13

Announcements: Keeping consistency

1. All posts are to be written in United States English. Different

spellings for different words will occur, so be mindful of spelling.
Terms included but not limited to are: color, center, skillful,
analyze, etc.

2. Posts regarding challenges, contests, and Camellia Monthly

must follow RFC 2119. It is also encouraged to use proper
markdown for posts.

3. Trademarks must be correctly typed, including games, media,

music, etc. Examples include YouTube, Discord, etc.

4. Dates must be followed with a specified time (if possible). Dates

could be written with Discord integration or with HH:MM
TIMEZONE. Avoid using GMT; use UTC for ease of use. Date
formatting should follow something like June 5, 2022 (00:40
UTC-5).

Part 6: Promotion Process and Roles

As a part of the staff team, it's essential to note how the promotion
process works, from Trial Staff to Probationary Staff to full Helper.
Welcome in and read on!
 14

Secondary Roles:

Probationary and Trial Roles

1. All new staff members will start with the Helper and designated
secondary roles. These roles are called Trial Staff and
Probationary Staff.

2. Trial Staff will be given to staff members who would normally

be denied in the application process but are given a chance to
prove themselves to the Admins. Trial Staff is also used as a
learning experience for new staff members!

3. Probationary Staff are given to competent individuals who have

proven their readiness to join the staff team. This is a way to
evaluate performance before fully committing to their role.

Auxiliary Staff Role

1. This role is given to members selected from the Auxiliary Staff

applications.

2. Auxiliary Staff functions as stand-in staff members. When

there’s a staff position open, Auxiliary Staff will take the open
position when needed.
 15

3. Think of this as a wait-list for becoming a staff member!

Challenges Judge Role

1. This role is only given to members who have contributed to

production events.

2. As the name suggests, it’s for production judges. Their purpose

is to judge song submissions during production events.

3. Production Judges also function as a minor helper for the

production channels.

Minecraft Helper Role

1. This role is only given to members who have contributed to

anything Minecraft-related.

2. This includes builders for the server, programming contribution,

and server moderation.

3. Staff members may have this role if they consistently contribute

to Minecraft-related stuff.
 16

Event Organizer Role

1. This role is only given to members who have contributed to

server events.

2. This means any event that comes into mind, with the permission
of creating events as well.

3. Staff members may have this role if they consistently contribute

to event creation.

Promotion:

Promotion occurs when the Admins notice a sense of competence

from a staff member. Promotions will usually take from weeks to
months. Before major promotions, such as Helper to Moderator, staff
members are notified in order to check for interest in the position.

Promotion: What is considered

1. Being helpful and engaging with server members.

2. Showing competence in managing behavioral situations.

3. Learning how to work individually and using teamwork.

 17

4. Having a sense of self-awareness and professionalism.

5. Knowing the consequences of acting unprofessional in a public

space.

6. Following and using basic staff resources such as the staff

guidelines, bot commands, and FAQ commands.

7. Leading the server in the best direction for the sake of Camellia
and server members.

Demotion:

Demotion occurs when the Admins notice bad behavior. Before

demotions occur, a warning message from the Admins will be sent to
a staff member in question. Warning messages are sent with Dyno
and may be sent as a warning for staff members who are on the path
of getting their position removed.

After two warning messages, it's guaranteed demotion on the third!

Demotion: What is considered

1. Extreme inactivity.
 18

2. Uncooperative/immature behavior during staff discussions.

3. Not treating others as you wish to be treated.

4. Leaking any confidential information from the staff channels.

5. Multiple breaches in the Staff Guidelines and Server Rules.

6. Being incompetent and showing no respect for the community

and staff members.

7. Bypassing AutoMod and its features. (Banned topics do not

apply).

Any questions? Bring them up in the staff chats!!

To users who are reading this publicly, thank you for reading. We
hope you have some more insight into what happens behind the
scenes. We try to keep our transparency, and we hope you come to
an understanding of our guidelines.