I’m going for a more informal style for the meeting minutes this term, so I’m doing away with the Encadre box and some of the formal language.

We’ll see how this goes over.

I’m including some people who contributed via text, though may not have been on the call.

Council Attendees

• BiopunkOtrera
• Derpmind
• Omicron
• Exponent
• Ralson
• Ultrackius
• StarSingerBlue

Staff Attendees

• Ford Prefect
• Lisafication
• Horngeek
• VeteranMortal
• Logos
• LilyWitch
• Redshirt Army
• Pawn Lelouch
• CallMeIsmail
• Exposure
• Skippy
• Datcord
• Shinaobi
• Squirtodyle
• Gravitas Hunt
• Laplace
• ORE
• Ironanvil
• CmptrWz
• Potato Anarchy

As the meeting began, Redshirt Army did routine tagging and categorization while informing everyone present, which is usual practice for him.

The meeting properly began at 7:02 PM with Lisa posting some introductory information for Councilors as part of the onboarding process.

At 7:08, Ford Prefect welcomed the new Council while explaining a few details about Community Council, Sufficient Velocity Administrative Server, Administrative Tribunals, and the attendant commentary threads.

Specifically, Ford outlined how the report queue worked, along how Councilors could approach Moderators and other staff about moderation issues and information.

He went on to stress the importance of Councilor activity and engagement before explaining the function of the #in-camera channel in the SV Administrative Server and the importance of confidentiality.

(The #in-camera channel is meant for the Council and staff to interface on site operations and management. It also serves as the text channel for Council meetings.)

Subsequently, Ford briefly touched on how Councilors can make proposals and the importance of doing so skillfully, ending with the possibility of providing pointers for Councilors detailing how to do so. Furthermore, Ford explained that there is a budget and funds for Council proposals (and for site activities in general), though emphasis was placed on fiscally responsible proposals that may be inexpensive or free.

Councilors were then given advice on handling tribunals and their attendant commentary threads.

Around this point in the meeting, I asked for permission to post drafts of the minutes for approval by site administration before publishing them here, and received it.

(There is an in-camera subforum that is used for Council and staff discussion about site operations and issues, as well for Council proposals and communications.)

This segues into discussion about what matters and material should remain confidential.

Ford mentions that This Week At Perihelion comes out tomorrow.

I raised the need for meeting alternatives such as a text-based channel for a rolling conversation between Councilors and the staff (that could or could not replace meetings), having multiple meetings for the American and European timezones (which is already been worked on), or moving the time meeting time. Consideration for the text-based channel is temporarily put aside, though we may have multiple meetings. The matter is still under discussion.

Outstanding questions were solicited.

The need for some planning for Sufficiently Spooky events was noted. (They’re a surprise.)

There is clarification about the significance of Councilors prompting User Reviews during tribunals.

This was addressed towards the end of the meeting. Paraphrasing Datcord, Councilors requesting User Reviews or tribunals has factored into previous User Reviews and tribunals, but that hasn’t been the sole determinant. Generally, it’s been the case of Councilors reviewing a user’s posts and bringing it to the attention of the staff.

User Reviews are not Council facing because they are quite often resolved in ways excluding the Council such as subforum bans, temporary bans, or warnings, and the like.

A Council-prompted User Review may lead to one of those options, a permaban tribunal, or none of those options.

All chatter on the ends. I’m the penultimate one to hang up.

Last edited: Sep 14, 2025