Hey all!
With the advent of the site becoming popular enough to outgrow smaller hosting providers, the realization really hit home to me that me being the only staff for the entire site is probably not in the site's best interests. As we grow larger, more and more users are active when I am at work or at sleep, leaving those users with potentially hours until any of their concerns might be addressed or resolved --- assuming I can get to it as soon as it is brought to my attention.
Moreover, any time I spend checking chat, going through feedback, or answering questions, I'm not developing more litphoria stuff!
With that in mind, I am looking to add some more people to litphoria staff. I am also considering having officially-recognized volunteers - who are not part of staff. While you might say they're all technically volunteers, I split the difference in that:
- Staff roles have a daily commitment of time. Staff are responsible for keeping the day-to-day operations of the site healthy and functional.
- Official volunteers are people who are recognized for the contributions they make to the site but are responsible for non-essential site operations, and do not have a daily commitment of time.
Staff Positions
Moderator
An official representative of the site. These people will be able to speak with the authority of the site in disciplining users, and are responsible for keeping the peace in public channels. I am looking to hire one person in an american timezone, and one person in a european timezone.
Responsibilities:
- Respond to disputes between users in a timely manner
- De-escelation of situations in public areas before they get too severe
- Educating users on rules and acceptable behaviors
- Discipline of users who break rules
Requirements:
- At least half an hour each day to ensure that there are no outstanding moderation issues that need to be resolved
- Ability to communicate ideas and rules clearly, calmly, and coherently
- Strong understanding of site rules and expected behaviors
Bonus points:
- Conversational fluency in either German or Spanish
- Previous experience in a moderation or administrative role on other forums or websites
- Previous pattern of engagement in feedback
- People who can vouch for your moderation abilities and personality, who are on this site
Community Manager
These people are here to make sure users do not get frustrated making suggestions, or that suggestions are not ignored for an untimely period of time. In addition, they may think of ways in which we can encourage more growth or activity on the site. These people will also work with me to develop roadmaps so that users don't feel as though their suggestions have gone unheard.
Responsibilities:
- Respond and triage new feedback within 24 hours
- Close, merge, and manage feedback so that the user's ideas are best communicated and not duplicated
- Stirr and guide conversation on feedback as necessary
- Help to formulate plans to balance implementation of user-desired features and necessary site updates
- Think of ways to encourage more people to be involved with feedback
- Think of ways to promote growth of the site and its publicly-facing content
Requirements:
- Ability to respond and triage new feedback within 24 hours
- At least half an hour to dedicate cleaning up feedback
- Additional time to really understand where the 'areas' of feedback are, such as what people feel needs the most work, and what needs the least
Bonus Points:
- Previous pattern of engagement in feedback will be extremely favorable, but not a requirement
- People who can vouch for your insight, creativity, or organzational abilities, who are on this site
Official Volunteer Positions
UX Designer
This person would help with the user's experience on the site, asking questions to see where improvements could be made, especially for new users. Since the site's design has a heavy bias towards minimalism, so should the designer. These people will help to refine existing pages, and any new ones, as well as provide second opinions to my own designs.
Requirements:
- Some examples or a portfolio of shown prior experience with good UX using minimalist or flat design
- Understanding of the site's goals and visions, and helping to reinforce that through the designs
Graphic Artist
We have a lot of artists on the site, but very no art to speak of for the site itself! These people would help to contribute images and illustrations that the site can use to help improve its outward image. These people might help with logos, imbedded illustrations, icons, or whatever kind of graphic materials are necessary.
Requirements:
- Ability to produce digital representations of their artwork
- Previous examples of artwork, especially as it relates to website illustrations
Developer
I am considering having a second developer on staff. This role would be primarily helping to redesign and re-develop older pages that are starting to get a little stale, for now.
Requirements:
- A few years of experience with javascript
- Some experience familiarity with coffescript and livescript
- Strong grasp of MVC, MVVM, and other MV* design patterns (e.g data-binding)
- Some experience with knockout, jQuery, and mithril
- Experience with Git
Bonus Points:
- Experience with ASP.NET MVC
- Experience with SQL Server
- Experience with cloud-based distributed hosting
- Experience with Stylus, Sass, or Less
- Experience with Webpack and Node
Applying
If you are interested and feel you are qualified for any of the above roles, you can send me an e-mail at deliciousfaith@live.com. In case you're wondering why this isn't a litphoria e-mail, the site's e-mail inbox was a causality of the move, and I am still attempting to restore it.
Your e-mail subject should contain the words 'litphoria application'. Your application should indicate why you feel you are good for this position, and provide any required materials to show any qualifications needed. If your requirements are mostly time, it would really help your case to be active in feedback or on the site's publicly-facing areas, to show that you do have that time to spend.
If you are applying for staff, keep in mind transparency is a huge goal of mine. Any actions that require staff authority will be information available to all litphoria users, as I feel this is a critical step in keeping a balanced and respectful staff. I realize this might strain any interpersonal relationships you have with other users on the site, which is why I suggest making a staff-only account. Remember, you'd be there to keep the site running smoothly, not be everybody's friend!
There currently is no due date or deadlines for applications. These will be open until they are filled. You can use this time to build up a track record of participation, if you want.
That is all for now!
WA