Council of the Stars

Council of the Stars

*Might as well be a Militia playing Clue*

What is the Council?

The Council provides a way for Stars as a whole to self regulate their population through the democratic process, and enables the Warden of the Stars better insight on who to selectively cull.

The Council is composed of only Crew with the Nova Star rank. Staff are not permitted on the Council, nor should they interfere or publicly comment on the Council's process. If this happens, create a Staff Report.

Members of the Council are responsible for deciding if other Stars, including other Members of the Council, should have their status revoked over their behavior, or long term lack of effort / quality.

Members of the Council will handle most of their discussion with their dedicated channel, #star-council-chat. Votes are handled in #star-council-vote.

How is the Council staffed?

Stars enter the Council through a quarterly application call, or through appointment by the Warden. The Council must have a minimum of 11 members to function, ideally aiming towards 25.

Chronically inactive Councilmembers will be retired back to Star Status, to avoid unbalanced votes.

If a rule-break occurs, and the Council is made aware of it, then it becomes a Staff issue and the Warden should be informed or a Staff Ticket created on the Discord.

How does the Council handle Votes?

Votes may not be called if the duration of the process would exceed the remaining tenure of the council.

Votes have three phases:

Discovery and Requesting a Vote, Discussion and Observation, and then Voting.

Discovery and Proposing a Vote

The Council has identified a problematic Nova Star, and with ample discussion wishes to start the Vote process. The Council picks one Member to present a Vote Proposal, where a post with the following template is made and the Warden of the Stars is pinged directly in #star-council-proposal:

@Warden of the Stars - Vote Proposal - Stars’s Name & Discord ID Primary Complaints:

[Details about the complaints go here. Avoid biased language and intonation. Written attacks on any Star's identity or person will result in immediate removal from the Council.

Do not go ad hominem. Explain in clear, structured detail, the points of the Complaint. Keep it as short as is reasonable.]

Evidence:

[Round IDs, Screenshots, Recordings, and any Major Testimonials are described here.

Major Testimonials should be submitted in a .txt file, and be titled: Testimonial - Name - DiscID.]

Vote Proposals without Evidence will be rejected. This is not a ‘Vibes’ process.

If the Warden of the Stars agrees with the Vote Proposal, they will create a Discussion Thread.

If the Nova Star in question is a Council Member, they will be excluded from viewing the Thread.

If a Discussion Thread is created, all further debate about the Nova Star will be kept inside the Thread for the duration of the Vote Process.

Discussion and Observation

This phase lasts from One Week to One Month based on Playtimes and evidence gatheres.

Once the Council has achieved a Discussion Thread, specific conversation about the Nova Star will commence. This should be performed as neutrally and fairly as possible by Members of the Council. Discussion should be professional and objective, referencing specific Policy and Rules, or observations made on Evidence provided or that Members have personally had in gameplay.

Any new Evidence must be labeled as such, and details about the Evidence provided.

Voting

Once the Discussion and Observation phase has completed, the Discussion Thread will be locked and a Vote thread will be created in #star-council-chat as a private thread, with allowed voters selectively added. The vote will last for One Week.

During this period, no further discussion about a Nova Star under Vote should occur. Members of the Council are strongly discouraged from whipping votes in any channel. This can be grounds for removal from the Council.

The Voting Basis is an Entire Membership and 3/5ths Supermajority.  Absentee votes are considered No’s. This means that any members of the Council of the Stars not participating in a Vote are considered a No vote.

Any Vote that results in a close call or tie can be acted on by the Warden of the Stars.

Nova Star Hierarchy

Warden of the Stars

Responsible for hands-on mentoring, moderation, and cultivation of the Nova Star system.

Oversees the Council of the Stars, and handles Star Issues from all Players.

Works with Community Staff to handle internally reported Star Issues.

Council of the Stars

Staff are not permitted on the Star Council, nor should they disrupt their functions.

The Star Council has the power to remove Star status.

They are expected to have a solid grasp of Server Rules and Policy, comparable to Staff.

Community Staff

Responsible for regulating Administrative missteps by Stars, and are the front line for correcting problematic behavior as it happens. Staff handle serious in round concerns.

Issues regarding Stars should be posted to the Nova Star Issues thread on the Staff Forum, and the Warden of the Stars should be pinged directly.

Staff are not permitted on the Star Council, nor should they disrupt their functions.

Staff MUST alert the Warden about any Stars violating Nova Star Policy.

Nova Stars & Crew

Nova Stars are not distinct from Crew on a Hierarchical level.