Pre-Election "I'm a headmin" Q&A

[Timberpoes]

With the headmin elections coming up next month and this term soon to be over, I figured I'd open up a thread with a bit of a Q&A. I was looking to answer questions that anyone has about what being a headmin actually entails and the kind of stuff that goes on behind the scenes. If the other headmins or any GMs want to chime in with answers or experiences they totally can too. I'll do my best to give better-than-non-answers or, if I can't give an answer, try to explain why.

This isn't super serious or formal or anything, I don't even know if anyone cares.

viewtopic.php?f=38&t=28546 is of course a wonderful starting point that gives a very high-level overview of what headmins do, but I'd wager people probably have specific questions about how we come to decisions, how we organise our time and what kind of commitment being a headmin actually is behind that big list of stuff we supposedly do.

So I welcome questions here - From players and admins both.

[Rageguy505]

Are trial admins eligible to run for headmins?

[wubli]

Are trial admins eligible to run for headmins?

players can run for headmins, there's no restriction as long as you're not banned

[Kendrickorium]

theres a new term already? sheesh

[toemas]

what? hasnt this term just started?

[toemas]

Bro that was literally YESTERDAY.

[Mothblocks]

they used to be shorter

[Imitates-The-Lizards]

I'm pretty sad, the current headmin team has been amazing.

Has anyone who isn't a current or former staff member actually won a headmin election?

[Mothblocks]

No but a lot of people have gotten pretty close--PKP got 2nd place as a player for instance

[Timberpoes]

The realities are that headmin work starts from day -1. I was already integrating into last term during my time as elect, helping out with policy, handling internal admin work like trial promotions and trial extensions.

Any player-headmin would be required to learn every aspect of being an admin and a headmin very quickly, lest all decisions simply be made without them by the other two headmins.

That includes admin training, Discord Jannie work, in-game adminning, understanding rules and policies enough to be able to give meaningful input into appeals and complaints, the ability to RDP into the game servers themselves for whatever purposes the headmin team might need (there's local code overrides, configs, server management, etc.)

That's ignoring the joy of what it's like to be a headmin, which is a constant exercise in diplomacy between players; admins; players and admins; admins and admins; and players and players. Admins can and will tell you to get fucked if they don't like what you're saying and will inevitably drag things they disagree with you saying to a policy discussion. Also throw in maintainers for good measure, that have complete access to admin channels and are an omnipresent part of the admin's day-to-day discussions.

My opinion is that the learning curve for all the soft skills that go into being a headmin in modern tgstation can take you an entire 6 month term to learn even when you get a headstart as an admin.

[MrStonedOne]

No election threads are allowed until after oranges creates the main election thread.

[MrStonedOne]

viewtopic.php?f=38&t=32228