I like Nin's idea about making registration a bit of a hurdle to keep out trolls and spammers, and the idea of the mentor.
I like Alandriel's time-concept for the change of status more than Ethel's, but think it's still too long, like Imp said.
(Btw, wow, Imp, if that's what you compose while you're watching the printer to spew out flyers...
- great post!
)
So, in general I think there are some good ideas, but while reading this I've constantly been putting myself in the position of someone interested in registering and remembering my own early days on TORC.
So, from the view of the truehobbit wanting to register: if after having taken the trouble to register I got a notice or mail saying I'd have to send in a statement next I'd be totally pissed off!
This, IMO, would need to be made very clear before the future member fills in the first box in the registration form! Something like: "This board is meant for free conversation among the members - as much as possible we want to guarantee a friendly atmosphere where members can post without fear of abuse or betrayal. In order to help the whole board to stick with this ideal, upon registering you will be asked to send a short statement concerning your views of this board. When we have received this, your posting rights will be enabled."
Or something like that (I'm also worried that people registering will think that if they say something "wrong" or "not good enough", they won't be accepted, so we'd need something to rest them easy on that account, too.)
Something about the mentor: great idea, but make sure the new member knows they can have a different mentor if they don't get along with the one they are assigned. Let them know
where to go to get a different mentor and that there are no repercussions for them if they want to change their mentor.
The reason for this is that for the truehobbit wanting to register, the idea of being stuck with a "mentor" she doesn't like gives her the creeps!
And about waiting for full membership: I'm with Imp on the dangers of making it too long.
When you start out on TORC you are a "petitioner" for the first ten or twenty posts. I've always thought that during petitioner-status you could be chucked out more easily - I don't even know if that's true or not, but that's what I thought, and I have to tell you that when I was a n00b myself, I was mighty relieved when I had passed the petitioner-status without being kicked out! And that was only for ten or twenty posts! I don't remember how long it took me to get those posts, but facing a period like that for three months would be intolerable for me.
A month, I think, would be ok.
Alandriel, the schedule for admin rotation sounds really good, I think.
Some more things to address, I guess, but at them moment all I remember is Ax's idea, which I find quite interesting.
It does sound odd at first, but this is not only like trusting everybody with an H-bomb (though I agree with Mummpizz that with the people here this sounds quite safe
) - it's a bit the idea that you can't very well grudge anybody else their "powers", or pout about why "that person" got elected in no time and you didn't or something like that (and I think these feelings are only human) - if everybody has the same powers (which in turn are controlled by the community). And with the absence of such jealousies and presence of control mechanism, temptation to abuse the power would be very small.
(I do however think that this might be more difficult than a rotation system, I just wanted to say that I don't find the idea as crazy as it might seem - it's worth thinking about, I think.)
Edit to respond to previous post: yes, that's something that's been bothering me too - some people have made it seem that membership here would require you to take over whatever sort of duty at some point in time. I think this should be voluntary.
What I'm thinking of is making it a negative choice - everybody can be asked to be mentor/jury/troll patrol, but if someone doesn't want any of that, all they have to do is say so.
(Because the other way round - like with adoptions on TORC - the shyer ones would maybe never put themselves forward for such a task even if they'd like it.)