Difference between revisions of "Member Groups"

Latest revision as of 20:22, 28 October 2019

Not to be confused with Member Ranks.

This page lists the various user groups that you may find on the forums of GBAtemp. The staff groups have a strict hierarchy, meaning all higher-ranked groups have all of the abilities of any groups below them.

To find the currently active staff members, refer to the Current Staff members page.

Staff
Site Leaders / Owners Administrators
Editorial Content Leader Chief Editor
Co-Administrators Supervisors	Editorial Content Managers Senior Editors
Moderating Staff Global Moderators	Magazine Staff Reporters
Moderators	Contributors
Other Former Staff
Non-Staff
Registered Users Members · Newcomers · (Developers)
Infractions Suspended · Banned!

Site Leaders

Administrators

The Administrators are the owners of GBAtemp, its servers, and everything else related to it. They decide the general direction of the site, and as such, make the biggest decisions among all of the staff. It is, however, rare for large decisions to be made without first discussing them with other senior staff members, such as Supervisors. The Administrators also perform the technical maintenance of the site, like managing the server infrastructure, programming new features and site skins, fixing bugs, and more. They also manage everything related to funding, Patreon and sponsorships.

Chief Editor

The Chief Editor is the leader of the Magazine Staff branch of the staff. They are in charge of all editorial content, such as front page news posts and reviews. They are also responsible for reaching out to video game publishers in order to acquire review copies, which are then distributed to the other staff members.

Moderating Staff

The moderating staff is responsible for keeping the forums clean of spam and to serve as arbiters in the various discussions on the forums. They are granted additional tools over other members that allow them to effectively perform this job. Some of their abilities include editing any user's post, deleting posts that have no value, turning threads into "sticky threads" to keep them on top, and more. They also have access to advanced analytical tools that allow them to judge where to prioritize their attention. All registered members on the site may alert a moderator by using the "report" feature available on most content of the site.

Supervisors

As the name implies, the main responsibility of the Supervisors group is to supervise and guide the other (lower-ranked) staff members. As such, users who have a problem with a staff member can contact a Supervisor through private message to resolve the issue. Supervisors are experienced senior staff members, who will assist the Administrators in managing the various aspects of the site. They have limited administrative abilities, and can change user names, ban users, add new forums, change permissions, etc. Aside from this, they may also act as Global Moderators on the forums.

Global Moderators

Global Moderators are moderators that have proven that they are able to make effective use of their moderating abilities for an extended period of time, and are thus granted moderator access to all forums of the site. Although their reach on the forum is global, they may still have increased focus on certain forums over others.

Moderators

Moderators are members of GBAtemp who have been chosen by the current active staff to help maintain the quality of the site. Their moderating abilities are limited to a certain number of sections, in order to both keep them focussed, and to not overwhelm them with work. The exact criteria to be chosen are only available in private to staff, and may change over time, but in general, active members with a good track record will be picked.

Magazine Staff

The magazine staff are the main providers of editorial content on the site, such as front-page news posts, and reviews.

Senior Editors

Senior Editors serve as the main assistants to the Chief Editor to manage all editorial content of the site. They have additional responsibilities over the other magazine staff members, such as contacting publishers for review copies and proof-reading reviews before publishing. They have the same level of access as Supervisors, but generally use their abilities in context of editorial content.

Reporters

The Reporters are a group of members who are responsible for creating the editorial content available on the site. They search the web for news and write GBAtemp-original pieces as well. They also use the review copies provided by the Chief/Senior Editors to write offical reviews for the site.

Contributors

Contributors are creators of editorial content, similar to Reporters. Magazine Staff members will usually start out in this group, which lets them get used to their role, before eventually becoming a full Reporter.

Other Staff

Former Staff

Main Article: Former Staff members.

The members of the Former Staff group are those that have previously been promoted to one of the staff groups, and have contributed a fair amount to the site in that role. In such case, when a staff member decides to leave their position voluntarily for any reason, they will be placed into the Former Staff group as a ways to recognize their contributions. Some of the Former Staff members may choose to keep limited moderator abilities, provided they had them in the first place, and are still active enough to use them. Regardless, these members are not responsible for moderating the site, unlike the currently active staff members.

Regular Users

Members

Once a user of the site posts at least 100 valid posts on the forums of GBAtemp, they will automatically be placed in the Members group. This will unlock some of the site features that are not available to Newcomers: they can access and use the Trading Forums and Shoutbox, and set a custom user title which appears under their avatar.

Newcomers

When a user creates an account on GBAtemp, they will be placed in the Newcomers group to signify them being new to the site. They will remain in this group until 100 posts are reached. In this group, certain features are disabled until at least 5 posts are made on the forums, such as the ability to send private messages. This restriction is lifted automatically once the fifth post is made.

Developers

Developers are members who have been recognized as contributing a significant amount in the development of homebrew or related applications. This group allows these users to stand out from the other members as a way to reward them. The group provides no additional rights on the forum, and any member of this group will also be part of either "Members" or "Newcomers". This group needs to be manually added to a user by a Supervisor. Any user who feels they meet the necessary criteria can send them a PM to get this group assigned to their account.

Infractions

Members who violate the general terms of use of GBAtemp may be limited in their access to the site by a member of the moderating staff.

Suspended

Members who are in the Suspended group have been excluded from accessing the site for a limited period of time. Suspensions are given after repeated violations of the rules, or after a single larger violation. Once the suspension period ends, the user will regain their access to the site.

Banned!

A user can be permanently Banned from the site for various reasons:

Repeatedly breaking the rules, even after a temporary suspension.
Posting spam - This will cause moderators to immedialy nuke the user's content, and set a permanent ban.
By considering or committing ill-intended actions against GBAtemp or its members.
By mistake! It is possible that your IP is similar to that of a known spammer or banned user. In such cases, you may contact site support to get your account unbanned.
For mysterious reasons that the Staff wishes to keep confidential!

Keep this in mind: Having access to a forum is not a right, it is a privilege.

Unregistered

Guests

Guests is not a member group, it is actually the fact of not having any member group at all! Simple visitors who are not logged in are considered as Guests. Since GBAtemp is a community, and values its members above all, Guests are not able to post messages, and can not view some forums. In order to improve performance, they may also be served cached pages, with occasionally slightly outdated content.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 :''Not to be confused with [[Member Ranks]].''
 __NOTOC__<!--Hide table of contents-->
-{|align="center" style="border:2px solid black; background:white;"
+This page lists the various user groups that you may find on the [[gbatemp:forums|forums]] of GBAtemp. The staff groups have a strict hierarchy, meaning all higher-ranked groups have all of the abilities of any groups below them.
-!colspan="2" align="center"|Member Groups
+To find the currently active staff members, refer to the [[Current Staff members]] page.
+{|style="text-align: center; border-spacing: 0; border-collapse: collapse"
+!colspan="2"|Staff
 |-
-!&nbsp;Administrators&nbsp;
+|colspan="2" style="padding: 8px; border: 2px solid #000"| ''Site Leaders / Owners''<br />[[#Administrators|<b style="color:red">Administrators</b>]]
-| [[#Administrators|Administrators]] &bull; [[#Technicians|Technician]] &bull; [[#Supervisors|Supervisors]]
 |-
-!&nbsp;Moderators&nbsp;
+|colspan="2" style="padding: 8px; border: 2px solid #000; border-bottom-width: 2px"| ''Editorial Content Leader''<br />[[#Chief Editor|<b style="color:#255D8F">Chief Editor</b>]]
-| [[#Global Moderators|Global Moderators]] &bull; [[#Moderators|Moderators]]
 |-
-!&nbsp;Magazine Staff&nbsp;
+|style="padding: 8px; border: 2px solid #000; width: 50%"| ''Co-Administrators''<br />[[#Supervisors|<b style="color:purple">Supervisors</b>]]
-| [[#Head of Mag. Staff|Head of Magazine Staff]] &bull; [[#Magazine Staff|Magazine Staff]]
+|style="padding: 8px; border: 2px solid #000; width: 50%"| ''Editorial Content Managers''<br />[[#Senior Editors|<b style="color:#5960B7">Senior Editors</b>]]
 |-
-!&nbsp;Other Staff&nbsp;
+|style="padding: 8px; border: 2px solid #000; border-top-width: 0; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed"| ''Moderating Staff''<br />[[#Global Moderators|<b style="color:green">Global Moderators</b>]]
-| [[#Former Staff|Former Staff]] &bull; [[#.23GBAtemp.net IRC Staff|#GBAtemp.net IRC Staff]] <br /> [[#Podcast Crew|Podcast Crew]] &bull; [[#TV Tempers|TV Tempers]]
+|style="padding: 8px; border: 2px solid #000; border-top-width: 0; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dashed"| ''Magazine Staff''<br />[[#Reporters|<b style="color:orange">Reporters</b>]]
 |-
-!&nbsp;Members&nbsp;
+|style="padding: 8px; border: 2px solid #000; border-top-width: 0"| [[#Moderators|<b style="color: blue">Moderators</b>]]
-| [[#Members|Members]] &bull; [[#Newcomers|Newcomers]] &bull; [[#Validating|Validating]]
+|style="padding: 8px; border: 2px solid #000; border-top-width: 0"| [[#Contributors|<b style="color: orange">Contributors</b>]]
 |-
-!&nbsp;Infractions&nbsp;
+|colspan="2" style="padding: 8px; border: 2px solid #000"| ''Other''<br />[[#Former Staff|<b style="color:black">Former Staff</b>]]
-| [[#Suspended|Suspended]] &bull; [[#Banned!|Banned!]]
 |-
-!&nbsp;Other&nbsp;
+!colspan="2"|Non-Staff
-| [[#Guests|Guests]] &bull; [[#Balcklisted_Traders|Blacklisted Traders]] &bull; [[#Advanced|Advanced]]
+|-
+|colspan="2" style="padding: 8px; border: 2px solid #000"| ''Registered Users''<br />[[#Members|<span style="color:#222">Members</span>]] &middot; [[#Newcomers|<span style="color:#222">Newcomers</span>]] &middot; ([[#Developers|<span style="color:#8bc7c2">Developers</span>]])
+|-
+|colspan="2" style="padding: 8px; border: 2px solid #000"| ''Infractions''<br />[[#Suspended|<span style="color:#A1A1A1">Suspended</span>]] &middot; [[#Banned!|<span style="color:#666">Banned!</span>]]
 |}
-== <b style="color:red">Administrators</b> ==
+== Site Leaders ==
-The Administrators are the owner of GBAtemp, its domain name, its servers, and everything related to it. They make the biggest decisions and do technical work (server administration, domain management, design, coding...).
+=== <b style="color:red">Administrators</b> ===
+<span style="float:left;padding-right:6px">https://gbatemp.net/styles/gbatemp/ranks/admin.gif</span>
+The Administrators are the owners of GBAtemp, its servers, and everything else related to it. They decide the general direction of the site, and as such, make the biggest decisions among all of the staff. It is, however, rare for large decisions to be made without first discussing them with other senior staff members, such as Supervisors. The Administrators also perform the technical maintenance of the site, like managing the server infrastructure, programming new features and site skins, fixing bugs, and more. They also manage everything related to funding, Patreon and sponsorships.
+=== <b style="color:#255D8F">Chief Editor</b> ===
+<span style="float:left;padding-right:6px">https://gbatemp.net/styles/gbatemp/ranks/news_gold.gif</span>
+The Chief Editor is the leader of the Magazine Staff branch of the staff. They are in charge of all editorial content, such as front page news posts and reviews. They are also responsible for reaching out to video game publishers in order to acquire review copies, which are then distributed to the other staff members.
-== <b style="color:#687C9C">Technicians</b> ==
+== Moderating Staff ==
-Technicians are members who have total control over the board and servers, but hold none of the responsibilities that moderators do. When something goes wrong with the board, these guys are usually here to help fix it.
+The moderating staff is responsible for keeping the forums clean of spam and to serve as arbiters in the various discussions on the forums. They are granted additional tools over other members that allow them to effectively perform this job. Some of their abilities include editing any user's post, deleting posts that have no value, turning threads into "sticky threads" to keep them on top, and more. They also have access to advanced analytical tools that allow them to judge where to prioritize their attention. All registered members on the site may alert a moderator by using the "report" feature available on most content of the site.
+=== <b style="color:purple">Supervisors</b> ===
+<span style="float:left;padding-right:6px">https://gbatemp.net/styles/gbatemp/ranks/super.gif</span>
+As the name implies, the main responsibility of the Supervisors group is to supervise and guide the other (lower-ranked) staff members. As such, users who have a problem with a staff member can contact a Supervisor through private message to resolve the issue. Supervisors are experienced senior staff members, who will assist the [[#Administrators|<b style="color:red">Administrators</b>]] in managing the various aspects of the site. They have limited administrative abilities, and can change user names, ban users, add new forums, change permissions, etc. Aside from this, they may also act as Global Moderators on the forums.
-== <b style="color:purple">Supervisors</b> ==
+=== <b style="color:green">Global Moderators</b> ===
-As their name suggests, these people Supervise the Forum and all Moderators. They have access to the Admin Control Panel, allowing them to promote or demote members, change member names, ban members and more.
+<span style="float:left;padding-right:6px">https://gbatemp.net/styles/gbatemp/ranks/global.gif</span>
+Global Moderators are moderators that have proven that they are able to make effective use of their moderating abilities for an extended period of time, and are thus granted moderator access to all forums of the site. Although their reach on the forum is global, they may still have increased focus on certain forums over others.
+=== <b style="color:blue">Moderators</b> ===
+<span style="float:left;padding-right:6px">https://gbatemp.net/styles/gbatemp/ranks/mod.gif</span>
+Moderators are members of GBAtemp who have been chosen by the current active staff to help maintain the quality of the site. Their moderating abilities are limited to a certain number of sections, in order to both keep them focussed, and to not overwhelm them with work. The exact criteria to be chosen are only available in private to staff, and may change over time, but in general, active members with a good track record will be picked.
-== <b style="color:green">Global Moderators</b> ==
+== Magazine Staff ==
-The Global Moderators moderate all the forums on GBAtemp. They have some more privileges than Moderators, like the ability to Edit signatures (rather than removing them).
+The magazine staff are the main providers of editorial content on the site, such as front-page news posts, and [[gbatemp:reviews|reviews]].
+=== <b style="color:#5960B7">Senior Editors</b> ===
+<span style="float:left;padding-right:6px">https://gbatemp.net/styles/gbatemp/ranks/news.gif</span>
+Senior Editors serve as the main assistants to the Chief Editor to manage all editorial content of the site. They have additional responsibilities over the other magazine staff members, such as contacting publishers for review copies and proof-reading reviews before publishing. They have the same level of access as [[#Supervisors|<b style="color:purple">Supervisors</b>]], but generally use their abilities in context of editorial content.
-== <b style="color:blue">Moderators</b> ==
+=== <b style="color:orange">Reporters</b> ===
-The Moderators, also known as ''Forum Moderators'' or ''Local Moderators'', keep the forum clean from Spam, flaming, .... To do this, they can edit or remove all posts in the sections they are assigned to. They can also move, rename and (un)sticky topics.
+<span style="float:left;padding-right:6px">https://gbatemp.net/styles/gbatemp/ranks/news.gif</span>
+The Reporters are a group of members who are responsible for creating the editorial content available on the site. They search the web for news and write GBAtemp-original pieces as well. They also use the review copies provided by the Chief/Senior Editors to write offical reviews for the site.
+=== <b style="color:orange">Contributors</b> ===
+<span style="float:left;padding-right:6px">https://gbatemp.net/styles/gbatemp/ranks/news.gif</span>
+Contributors are creators of editorial content, similar to Reporters. Magazine Staff members will usually start out in this group, which lets them get used to their role, before eventually becoming a full Reporter.
-== <b style="color:#255D8F">Head of Mag. Staff</b> ==
+== Other Staff ==
-The Head of the Magazine Staff decides what news is posted and in what format. He/She also has access to more Staff forums than normal Magazine Staff members.
+=== '''Former Staff''' ===
+:''Main Article: [[Former Staff members]].''
+<span style="float:left;padding-right:6px">https://gbatemp.net/styles/gbatemp/ranks/veteran.gif</span>
+The members of the Former Staff group are those that have previously been promoted to one of the staff groups, and have contributed a fair amount to the site in that role. In such case, when a staff member decides to leave their position voluntarily for any reason, they will be placed into the Former Staff group as a ways to recognize their contributions. Some of the Former Staff members may choose to keep limited moderator abilities, provided they had them in the first place, and are still active enough to use them. Regardless, these members are not responsible for moderating the site, unlike the currently active staff members.
-== <b style="color:orange">Magazine Staff</b> ==
+== Regular Users ==
-The Magazine Staff are a special group of people who are allowed to post news directly to the front page. They share a private forum with the rest of the staff, but do not have access to the main Staff Forum.
+=== <span style="font-weight:normal">Members</span> ===
+Once a user of the site posts at least 100 valid posts on the forums of GBAtemp, they will automatically be placed in the Members group. This will unlock some of the site features that are not available to ''Newcomers'': they can access and use the [[Trading Forum]]s and Shoutbox, and set a custom user title which appears under their avatar.
+=== <span style="font-weight:normal">Newcomers</span> ===
+When a user creates an account on GBAtemp, they will be placed in the Newcomers group to signify them being new to the site. They will remain in this group until 100 posts are reached. In this group, certain features are disabled until at least 5 posts are made on the forums, such as the ability to send private messages. This restriction is lifted automatically once the fifth post is made.
-== '''Former Staff''' ==
+=== <span style="color:#8bc7c2;font-weight:normal">Developers</span> ===
-The Former Staffers are members who used to be active Staff Members. For different reasons, they became inactive and were thus moved into this group. They still have access to the main Staff Forum, and can have moderating powers, but are free of any responsibility.
+<span style="float:left;padding-right:6px">https://gbatemp.net/styles/gbatemp/ranks/dev.gif</span>
+Developers are members who have been recognized as contributing a significant amount in the development of homebrew or related applications. This group allows these users to stand out from the other members as a way to reward them. The group provides no additional rights on the forum, and any member of this group will also be part of either "Members" or "Newcomers". This group needs to be manually added to a user by a [[#Supervisors|<b style="color:purple">Supervisor</b>]]. Any user who feels they meet the necessary criteria can send them a PM to get this group assigned to their account.
-For more information about the Former Staff members, read the [[Former Staff members]] page.
+== Infractions ==
+Members who violate the general terms of use of GBAtemp may be limited in their access to the site by a member of the moderating staff.
+=== <span style="font-weight:normal; color:#A1A1A1;">Suspended</span> ===
+<span style="float:left;padding-right:6px">https://gbatemp.net/styles/gbatemp/ranks/cross_grey.png</span>
+Members who are in the ''Suspended'' group have been excluded from accessing the site for a limited period of time. Suspensions are given after repeated violations of the rules, or after a single larger violation. Once the suspension period ends, the user will regain their access to the site.
-== <b style="color:#528B8B">#GBAtemp.net IRC Staff</b> ==
+=== <span style="font-weight:normal; color:#666;">Banned!</span> ===
-The IRC Staffers are a group of people who moderate the IRC channels linked to GBAtemp. They share a private forum with the rest of the staff to discuss problems in the channel and alert the moderators with problems in the forums.
+<span style="float:left;padding-right:6px">https://gbatemp.net/styles/gbatemp/ranks/cross.png</span>
+A user can be permanently Banned from the site for various reasons:<br style="clear:left" />
-For more information on the members, read the [[IRC Staff members]] page.
+* Repeatedly breaking the rules, even after a temporary suspension.
+* Posting spam - This will cause moderators to immedialy nuke the user's content, and set a permanent ban.
+* By considering or committing ill-intended actions against GBAtemp or its members.
-== <b style="color:#660000">Podcast Crew</b> ==
+* By mistake! It is possible that your IP is similar to that of a known spammer or banned user. In such cases, you may [[gbatemp:misc/contact|contact]] site support to get your account unbanned.
-The Podcast Crew is responsible for creating the [[GBAtemp.net|GBAtemp]] podcast (called [[Tempcast]]).
-== <span style="color:#660000">TV Tempers</span> ==
-These members have access to the [[GBAtemp TV Service]].
-== Members ==
-The people in the group called ''Members'' are those who have posted at least 100 messages on the forums.<br>
-This group has special rights over the ''Newcomers'': they can access and use the [[Trading Forum]].
-== Newcomers ==
-The Newcomers are people who have posted less than 100 messages on the forums.<br>
-They are not allowed to use the [[Trading Forum]], unlike the ''Members''.
-== Validating ==
-The ''Validating'' member group is made of people who have registered, but haven't validated their account.<br>
-When you register on GBAtemp, an e-mail is automatically sent to your e-mail address to make sure that the e-mail address you've entered is valid and belongs to you. If you do not receive the e-mail, then you cannot validate your account and you then stay in the ''Validating'' member group. Like the ''Guests'', this group has very few rights.
-== Suspended ==
-When you are ''Suspended'', you are no longer allowed to post on the forums, and do not have access to some forums.<br>
-Members breaking the rules after several warnings are suspended. Suspensions are in general temporary.
-== Banned! ==
-You may be banned for several reasons:
-* If you keep breaking the rules after a temporary suspension.
-* If you spam the board
-* If you consider or commit ill-intended actions against GBAtemp or its members
-* By mistake! If you are unfortunately in the same IP range as a spam bot. In that case, contact one of the [[Current Staff members|Administrators]].
 * For mysterious reasons that the [[Current Staff members|Staff]] wishes to keep confidential!
 Keep this in mind: ''Having access to a forum is not a right, it is a privilege''.
+== Unregistered ==
+==== <span style="font-weight:normal;">''Guests''</span> ====
+''Guests'' is not a member group, it is actually the fact of not having any member group at all! Simple visitors who are not logged in are considered as ''Guests''. Since GBAtemp is a community, and values its members above all, ''Guests'' are not able to post messages, and can not view some forums. In order to improve performance, they may also be served cached pages, with occasionally slightly outdated content.
-== ''Guests'' ==
-''Guests'' isn't a member group, it is actually the fact not to have any member group at all.<br>
-Simple visitors who are not logged in are considered as ''Guests''. Since GBAtemp is a community, and values its members above all, the ''Guests'' are not authorized to post messages, and can't view some forums.
 [[Category:GBAtemp.net]]
-== Blacklisted Traders ==
-People in this group are members (>100 posts) that have misbehaved in the Trading Forum, and are now locked out of these forums. Members usually don't land in this group, they get banned instead.
-== Advanced ==
-When a member needs Temporary "Staff Privileges" (ability to post front page news, use html, ...), they can be put in this group. They do not have access to the staff forums. Once they are done with what they needed to do, they are put back in their normal group.