Not sure what you are calling the main sections, but it would be nice to have one called ‘Curator’s Corner’ or something similar where topics specific to curating can be centralized.
Definitely a good idea. Should it be open to all, or just people who are curators on iNat (looking to see if something like that is possible).
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I would think it best to get feedback from others.
On the one hand there is something to be said for everone being able to read it and contribute. I can also see value in a private section, where certain more confidential things could be posted and discussed(as an example I see a troll we have had trouble with is back on the site today, being able to post to look out for their ‘contributions’ in a private setting has benefits too)
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Maybe the Curator category should be open to all, but then have a separate private category specifically for dealing with people-based/moderation issues, whether the issue occurred on the forum or on the iNat site proper. I would assume anyone who effectively moderates those types of issues as a curator on iNat would be a moderator here as well, so that category could be restricted to site staff and forum moderators. (Many curators want nothing to do with those types of issues.)
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I agree. There have been times when we didn’t want to talk about troll issues on the public forum, for a variety of reasons including ‘troll feeding’ and calling attention to dog piling type issues. There should be, somewhere, a place for discussion of those issues by that subset of people. It kind of points to a larger issue that cassi references where different people are curators for different reasons and don’t do all the curator tasks or need/want all the curator ‘abilities’.
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I’ll add my +1 to both of these ideas, a public and a confidential section.
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I can make a Curator Category, but let’s specific guidelines about what should be discussed or not be discussed there before I do. For example, I would not want discussions regarding specific taxa to occur here - they should happen in a flag on the taxon itself. What types of issues would curators like to discuss in a pubic category here on the forum?
Regarding a closed category: I can also make one for discussing more sensitive issues, and forum users who are a) curators on iNat and b) would like to discuss people-based/moderation issues can let me know and I can allow them to join it. Please don’t tell me you would like to join it now, I’m just trying to explain how I think it’d work. Once it’s created we can get started on joining.
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A search of existing forum topics comes up with a pretty good (not perfect) list of things that would fit in the (open) curator category. Guidelines I would suggest:
- Topics can only be started by curators
- Topics should primarily involve existing or suggested iNat activity or functionality that is not available or meaningful to general users.
- Maybe initiate with a sticky or pinned topic providing general information on who curators are, what they do, and how to get involved.
I see the open category mainly as a way to help “de-clutter” the forum for non-curator users while still keeping discussion open to viewing by and input from any interested user. Topics where such visibility or input would not be appropriate would be for the closed category.
As always, forum moderators (who are also curators) would be in charge of deciding if a proposed topic fits better in these categories or somewhere else.
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Cool, I’ll work on it next week.