A lot of TOG members seem mystified about the workings of
TOG management and are curious to how TOG functions. Here is a cooks tour of
TOGs inner cogs and how it fits together.
TOG Organization
The TOG community is organized into ten levels - or layers. The top layer
being the TOG Founder, Father.
Founder
Father founded TOG many years ago and personally funds the internet server
and internet traffic. He owns the copyright and trademark on TOG, it's logo and
other symbols. He does this with many thanks to TOG sponsors and a team of
dedicated volunteers, of which there are many. Father personally decides on most
of TOGs policy and direction and is the final decision maker on all things
strategic. He dedicates a lot of his time in the smooth running of the forum in
a technical sense. He delegates many tasks to the administrators and moderators.
Administrators
There are currently 8 Administrators who govern TOG policy, help to look
after forums in a high-level capacity and in rare cases, become the final
arbitrator during differences of opinion. Here is a list of some of the things
an Admin will do daily :- admit new members in the barracks, handle requests for
name changes, set forum permissions, add/remove individual member permissions,
add/remove wings for moderators and division captains, read many forums and keep
up-to-date on contentious issues, make polls and sticky posts on request, remove
offensive avatars and sigs as required, respond to site suggestions and
problems, co-ordinate with TOG Engineers, etc etc and occasionally, admins even
get to game.
Moderators
Moderators generally have forum wide access so they can monitor and
moderate threads and posts. Whilst the administrators tend to look after
individual members, the moderators are responsible for keeping the forums nice
and friendly. Every time someone uses the "Report Bad Post" feature of the
forums, an e-mail goes to the moderators and they are trusted to use their
discretion in sorting out any issue in the interests of TOG, the members, and
the TOG ethos. While moderators are responsible for enforcing the AUP and can do
so with complete authority, game related forums are normally controlled by
respective division captains. Moderators tend to be long serving members who
display commitment to TOG and it's principles. They are often drawn from our
growing list of current and ex-Division Captains but this is not a strictly
enforced rule.
Division Captains
It takes a special type of person to volunteer to lead a bunch of diverse
players in the game of their choice and get nothing but personal satisfaction
from the endevour. We call these people division captains and are always drawn
from the pool of players that enjoy that game (obviously). Division captains are
responsible for making game-related decisions that affect the whole division.
They are responsible for their own forum and for managing minor disputes.
Division Captains and moderators share a private forum so they can call on each
other for support and advice where needed. New idea's are discussed within this
forum and the experience of moderators and ex-DC's can be passed on.
Retired Division Captains
 
Also called TOG Advisors. These members have served TOG in the form of
serving as a division captain for a period of time and has since stepped down
and passed the reigns on to other members. They wear the wings of retired DC to
show their commitment to TOG. Those that wear these wings also retain access to
a forum that allows them to interact with Division Captains, moderators,
Administrators and Father. This is so they can do what their title implies, and
that is advise. Both titles, Retired Captain and TOG Advisor are being phased
out slowly. The work of our ex-DC's is appreciated by all, but the size of TOG
and the continually growing number of ex-DC's makes this title hard to sustain.
Squad/Guild Leaders/Officers
 
These members assist the DC in the smooth running of the game. They make
less division wide decisions but often promote new idea's for the division and
act as sounding boards for the DC. They tend to organize and promote most of the
in-game events.
TOG Members
Members are the people that form this great community. There are thousands
and thousands of members and even more members that play with TOG but don't
participate on the forums.
Guests
People visiting the forum for the first time are guests. Guests don't have
automatic membership to TOG and can only see the public forums. After an
application to join TOG, an admin admits them and they can then consider
themselves TOG members.
Engineers
A vital part of the TOG structure are our engineers. These volunteers are
skilled in many things technical. They may be adept at php coding or html. They
may be good with graphics and artwork. It is the engineers that make the forums
look as great as they do and function smoothly. All the stuff you look at and
take for granted was done by volunteers. We give them TOG Engineer wings in
appreciation of all the time, blood, sweat and tears they have spent for our
benefit. TOG is always looking for engineers so if you have php skills, send a
PM to an Admin.
Journalists
TOG Journalists write the great articles you see on the front page. They
write articles about our more public members, about games and game reviews and
even do interviews with software publishers/companies. If you enjoy reading the
articles on the front page, make sure you PM the journalist and tell them what
great work they are doing. If you have an article you'd like published on the
front page, approach a journalist or post in the Submit News forum and they can
make it happen.
There are also a few TOG Journalists that have the title Senior Editor.
The Senior Editors are responsible for the same items that a Journalist is but
have the added responsibility of publishing the articles to the front page of
the TOG website.
This seems overly complicated but it is a mostly linear progression from
guest up to administrator. You'll find most members support the TOG Ethos and
most people are approachable. This is a mature community after all. If you need
to contact any TOG member about an issue that bothers you, or if you just have a
great idea, hopefully this guide will direct you to the right people.
Discuss this
article
|
