Loomio
Thu 25 Apr 2013 2:34AM

Should we rename group admins?

RG Robert Guthrie Public Seen by 81

I'm soo tired of seeing the term admin around loomio.

It's used in 2 ways: managing the loomio system (accepting new group requests etc), as well as having special privileges in groups.

So I want to suggest we use another term for the latter purpose of facilitating discussions and managing groups - Keeping admin for the system sense.

I see most other communities use the term Mod, short for moderator. So I will suggest we use that. I would like to suggest the term facilitator too..

ANYTHING but admin. please. Your thoughts?

VM

vivien maidaborn Thu 25 Apr 2013 2:44AM

I really like that, I'm a mod I'm a mod mod mod - could be a song!

RDB

Richard D. Bartlett Thu 25 Apr 2013 3:38AM

I'm not against this suggestion at all, I just don't quite understand the problem, or what benefit you expect would come from splitting the role in two.

MB

Matthew Bartlett Thu 25 Apr 2013 3:56AM

I agree having two different sorts of admin is a bit confusing. 'Moderator' is okay. 'Mod' too techie, I think.

RG

Robert Guthrie Thu 25 Apr 2013 4:13AM

@richarddbartlett it's already split in two. Group Admins and (yuck) super admins I'm just trying to get clarity around what people mean when they say admin. Moderator is what is used in some other online communities.

RDB

Richard D. Bartlett Thu 25 Apr 2013 4:34AM

@robertguthrie oh I see! Sorry I misread you, which is a case in point for why we should have two words for the two roles.

For the purposes of this conversation I'd suggest we refer to Group Admins and Super Admins, and figure out a better alternative for one or both of them.

I'm not saying 'admin' is the best word for the Group Admin, but I do feel they perform a more administrative function than a moderating one. 'Moderating' can refer to restricting people's expression, which I don't think Group Admins are doing.

RG

Robert Guthrie Thu 25 Apr 2013 4:55AM

Every time you say super admin, I cry

RG

Robert Guthrie Thu 25 Apr 2013 4:57AM

Thing is, its the group admins who can delete content, remove people, invite people etc.. Sounds like Moderating to me.

Given a few hours to settle I'm kinda ok with Group Admin.

I

iacocoba Thu 25 Apr 2013 7:42AM

@richarddbartlett we need multiple option vote... in Agora Voting we are going to star using VUT ! Enjoy! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_transferable_vote
a)Administrator
b)Mod
c)Moderator

RDB

Richard D. Bartlett Thu 25 Apr 2013 12:22PM

@yagoabati I disagree that we need a poll to answer this question. I don't think we want to identify the most popular option, we want to identify the best option.

I

iacocoba Thu 25 Apr 2013 6:47PM

So @richarddbartlett you dont think the most popular option is the best? And how can we know wich is the best?

RG

Robert Guthrie Fri 26 Apr 2013 12:53AM

Today, I'm pretty happy with the user facing term Admin. Why was my opinion so different yesterday?

AI

Alanna Irving Fri 26 Apr 2013 1:22AM

@yagoabati you really believe that most popular = best? Think about how that works in the real world. I have a feeling you have many experiences where the popular opinion really isn't the best one. By forcing people to wrestle with the options, not just having a poll, as you can see people's thinking evolves. See what happened to Rob's opinion? That's the beauty of Loomio.

Personally I prefer "facilitator" for the group admin role, and admin for the Loomio admin role.

RDB

Richard D. Bartlett Fri 26 Apr 2013 2:16AM

I think currently our Group Admins are doing mostly administration and a little bit of facilitation. They are the only users that can perform administrative functions, so it makes sense to identify them on that basis.

I don't feel good about calling them Facilitators or Moderators, because anyone in the group can facilitate or moderate.

We want to encourage facilitation to be as widely distributed as possible, so I think it could be quite problematic to label a couple of people Facilitator, because the inference is that the rest of us are Not Facilitators.

Potentially in the future we will want to identify a Facilitator for particular discussions, but I don't think it is a role that needs to be named yet.

@robertguthrie if we called the Super Admins 'mechanics' or 'gorillas' or 'execs' or anything, and left Group Admins as they are, would that feel better?

RG

Robert Guthrie Fri 26 Apr 2013 3:28AM

Yep. System admins.

I

iacocoba Fri 26 Apr 2013 10:05AM

@alannakrause i didn't mean I believe that. I think the most popular=best when you have a significant sample of people. This sample of people have to be informed and connected with reality. If you create a Loomio group you have to add people in order to make everything work in this direction.

I

iacocoba Fri 26 Apr 2013 10:16AM

@richarddbartlett This is the ideal situation. @alannakrause Obviously you will never have this ideal situation. In this case i wondering if is better to have a liquid feedback so people who are more informed and better prepared could have a delegation over them so they have extra votes.

DS

Danyl Strype Mon 29 Apr 2013 12:24PM

I think @robertguthrie has raised a good point around the confusion created for the Loomio team. Important to remember though that only the term for Group Admin is a user-facing term. It should be a term that has the same meaning in Loomio as it would in a face-to-face meeting. I agree with @richarddbartlett that the actual mechanics of the role is more administrator than moderator or facilitator. Perhaps "engineer" could replace admin for Super Admins (this phrase makes me cringe too ;)

RDB

Poll Created Wed 15 May 2013 12:11AM

Rename group admin to "Group Coordinator" Closed Sat 18 May 2013 12:16AM

Results

Results Option % of points Voters
Agree 94.7% 18 RG JV JL AI RDB NW MT AT BK MB CWH MS SJ MI FGP IG DF VM
Abstain 5.3% 1 I
Disagree 0.0% 0  
Block 0.0% 0  
Undecided 0% 882 SW JC JG DS G RF N AR AC SZ DB J JT DMA KS KA ML KA JM SL

19 of 901 people have voted (2%)

RDB

Richard D. Bartlett
Agree
Wed 15 May 2013 12:13AM

Admin, facilitator, moderator... all these words have connotations that don't quite fit the role. Talking about a 'coordinator' feels more neutral and accurate to me.

JV

Joshua Vial
Agree
Wed 15 May 2013 12:19AM

I prefer coordinator personally

MS

Megan Salole
Agree
Wed 15 May 2013 12:34AM

Love it.

RG

Robert Guthrie
Abstain
Wed 15 May 2013 12:59AM

No really happy about a 2 word label - but the meaning is captured well. I wonder if we're worrying too much about the meaning when we just want a simple term people already understand. The double use of admin is not user visible so not a big prob

AI

Alanna Irving
Disagree
Wed 15 May 2013 4:05AM

I prefer simply "coordinator"

MB

Matthew Bartlett
Disagree
Wed 15 May 2013 4:26AM

coordinator

BK

Benjamin Knight
Agree
Wed 15 May 2013 5:03AM

'coordinator' is great!

AI

Alanna Irving
Agree
Wed 15 May 2013 5:09AM

I prefer simply "coordinator"

CWH

Chloe Waretini (Loomio Helper)
Agree
Wed 15 May 2013 8:12AM

Yay for coordinator :-)

MB

Matthew Bartlett
Agree
Wed 15 May 2013 8:34AM

coordinator

VM

vivien maidaborn
Agree
Thu 16 May 2013 6:12AM

yeah, just coordinator is great

IG

Ivo Gruner
Agree
Fri 17 May 2013 8:42AM

for it just makes so much sense :)

RG

Robert Guthrie Wed 15 May 2013 1:05AM

Maybe we should do a UX test on this. Something like "Here is a screenshot from loomio - from looking at this, which users would you contact if you wanted to suggest someone to invite, or required someone to remove a comment from a discussion" and look a the results using admin vs coordinator

Or we do what we want.. and teach the users our style/system rather than trying to meeting their expectations all the time :)

MB

Matthew Bartlett Wed 15 May 2013 1:23AM

@robertguthrie What about 'coordinator' by itself?

VM

vivien maidaborn Wed 15 May 2013 3:22AM

Yeah I like coordinator by itself, can we make that change in the proposal @richarddbartlett ?

RDB

Richard D. Bartlett Wed 15 May 2013 5:03AM

Oh yeah that's what I meant. Rather than starting a new proposal, treat it as if it just says "coordinator". If that pleases you please click green!

@alannakrause @matthewbartlett @vivienmaidabornloo

RDB

Richard D. Bartlett Wed 15 May 2013 5:44AM

See how it looks in context:

Imgur