Forum:Organizational structure

Forums: Index → General discussion

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Several people have been asking questions about Orain's organizational structure, such as: Are stewards elected? Who the hell decides things? How can I become a steward? This is a framework we can discuss to eventually have a clear organizational structure.

I would divide the main tasks between two entities:

• Project Leader(s): Traditionally this would be a single person, but it could go up to two co-leaders as well, I think. The Leader would coordinate day-to-day tasks such as wiki recruitment, public relations, marketing, etc. They wouldn't be calling many shots, but rather distributing the work to our volunteer base. They would also identify problems where they exist and submit proposals to the Council (see below) for consideration. They could also directly appoint some relatively minor positions (e.g. IRC channel operators). They or one of their delegates would also oversee technical matters such as site developments and system administration.
• Community Council: It could also be Board of Directors, Board of Trustees, General Committee, etc., but Community Council is my preferred title for now. It would be composed of at least 3-4 members, with the number increasing as the site grows. They would approve the budget, review the Project Leader's work, handle complaints, settle major disputes between members, etc.

Certain other roles, such as Stewards, also require a great deal of trust, but, similarly to how the English Wikipedia ArbCom selects CheckUsers and oversighters directly, I think the Community Council should also select them based on the community's advice. The same would go for local CUs/OSs, eventually.

This is just a draft. I'd love to hear your opinion. Kudu (talk) 20:38, 19 October 2013 (UTC)

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No. ಠ_ಠ to be honest I think they should only be chosen by the founders of Orain because this can lead to anyone acting like a trusted person deeply but then stabs people in the back and abuses their powers. --Tyreek (talk) 01:37, 20 October 2013 (UTC)

The example was given above, of English Wikipedia's ArbCom. I don't have much experience with Wikipedia myself, but is there evidence of such nefarious behavior as Tyreek is warning about, on ArbCom? If so, is it widespread abuse? If not widespread, how was it mitigated? Could we apply the same solutions here at Orain? Sorry, as per normal I pose more questions than I offer answers to. AugurNZ ✐⌕ 16:06, 20 October 2013 (UTC)

All I gotta say is bad idea because Wikipedia has a biased administration who no matter how many reports on them, they never get demoted as well as they even use sockpuppets and bots to cause edit wars.--Tyreek (talk) 21:59, 20 October 2013 (UTC)

I like the idea, but I'm not quite sure the community is ready to elect people just yet. While it's still so small, having the wrong people in positions of authority could cause catastrophic damage to the organization as a whole. I think what I'd like to see happen is that the current members of the steward/staff team become the community council because you guys know what you're doing (and obviously are doing it right), and then as the wikifarm grows and becomes more established, bring more people onboard. I think co-project leaders is a good idea because it prevents one person from having total control (even though that's not even what that role is supposed to be, I know). It also allows them to divvy up tasks and better manage the organization based on the skills they have. Anyways, just my two cents. -- Joe G. (Talk) 22:56, 20 October 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for your input, Tyreek and Joe. If you read carefully above, you'll see that I purposely didn't address the question of elections for the two main positions. The reason for this is that, like Joe suggested, I'm planning to appoint the current stewards to the Community Council until the community is mature enough for its votes to accurately reflect the community's needs (law of large numbers). Kudu (talk) 23:29, 20 October 2013 (UTC)

I see no real issue with the proposal to be honest. John (talk) 23:44, 20 October 2013 (UTC)