Totalfreedom Ownership Change Policy (Final Draft January 26th, 2019)
The purpose of the policy described herein is that in such a situation that the server finds itself needing a new owner, a formal process to pick a new owner shall begin. First we must establish under what conditions this policy will come into effect. The description of ‘needing a new owner’ must match one or more of the following scenarios:
Scenario 1
The current owner has voluntarily decided to step down and hand off ownership to someone new. The owner does not have the right to appoint the next owner–that is a decision to be made by the public. Stage 1 will begin when the owner makes a public announcement that they are stepping down.
Scenario 2
The owner has been grossly inactive, neglected their duties, and has not stepped down.
Scenario 3
The server has gone down due to a lack of funding. This does not include technical errors or temporary measures, but instead a permanent dissolution of the server.
and
The owner has not communicated their intentions to aid the server.
In scenarios 2 and 3, a unanimous vote to remove the owner will need to be collected from all current full status (Not assistants / similar) executive admins on the server. Executive admin's are defined as per the Executive admin policy found here - https://forum.totalfreedom.me/d/6-executive-policy/ . Each executive admin listed will have one week to respond to a vote. If they do not respond, their vote will be assumed a ‘yes’. After (and only after) a unanimous vote is received, a poll will be posted in the Super Admin Lounge with the title “Owner Voteoff.” If 80% of the poll agrees to get rid of the current owner, the owner spot will be vacated and Stage 1 will begin.
Stage 1
The first stage will be a public announcement by the current Executive Admin Officer that the Ownership Policy shall be put into effect. Following this thread’s creation, a separate thread shall be made in the Senior Admin Lounge. This thread shall be titled "Ownership Preliminary Candidate Selection" and shall consist of the following text:
“With the current lack of an owner, any who wish to take over this leadership position shall post here stating why they should run the server, and attest to the fact that they will perform their duties, including, but not limited to:
- Making sure the server is paid for.
- Maintaining reasonable activity.
- Stepping aside if they cannot continue to fulfill their duties."
Stage 2
Following this two day period, a second thread shall be made in the Senior Admin Lounge. The purpose of this thread shall be to determine the best candidates who will end up being presented to the entire admin population. The thread will consist of all individuals who stated their intentions to run for Ownership in the "Ownership Preliminary Candidate Selection" thread, and shall be named "Ownership Senior Voting". The individuals with the most votes shall move on. The number of candidates that move on will be determined by the number of candidates that applied in the first stage.
Five and under ='s 2 candidates moving on
Six or Seven ='s 3 candidates moving on
Eight or Nine ='s 4 candidates moving on
Ten and Up ='s 5 candidates moving on
If multiple candidates are tied for a spot to move on, all candidates tied for that spot will move on to the next stage. This only applies if ties for candidates that received more votes are settled and there are still spots available.
This thread shall stay up for two days before being locked. The winning parties will be announced and moved to the final stage of voting.
Stage 3
The final stage will be a vote held in the Super Admin Lounge. It will be a thread containing the winners chosen in the "Ownership Senior Voting" thread. Along with the candidates, a ‘None’ response will also be listed. If the majority votes ‘None’, no owner will be chosen, this policy will cease to be in effect, and the Executive Admin Officer cannot put the policy into place for another month. This thread will be titled "Ownership Selection" and will be the moment at which all admins choose the candidate they believe is best fit to run the server. All admins are open to vote in this stage.
If there is a tie between multiple candidates, the tie-breaking process will be put into effect.
If there is only one candidate proceeding from the second stage, the poll will be a yes/no vote. If the majority votes no, no owner will be chosen, this policy will cease to be in effect, and the Executive Admin Officer cannot put the policy into place for another month. If the yes/no vote is a tie, the Executive Admin Officer will hold the tie-breaking vote.
The “Ownership Selection” thread shall last for a period of three days, after which the thread will be locked and the winner (if there are no ties) will be chosen.
The decision made through this process will be final, and the winning candidate will become the new owner.
Tie-breaking Process
In the event there is a tie during the final stage of voting, the candidates tied for the most votes will be included in another thread with a poll. It will be posted in the Super Admin Lounge with the title “Tiebreaker: Ownership Selection”. A tie-breaking round will last for 2 days. New tie-breaking rounds will be created until a single winner is found unless:
No candidates are eliminated in a tiebreaker round.
and/or
There have already been 2 tiebreaker rounds.
In either of these two events, the current Executive Admin Officer will hold the tie-breaking vote.
Temporary Server Host Role
The Executive Admin Officer may appoint a Temporary Server Host at their discretion if the owner spot is vacant. The Executive Admin Officer should seek counsel with the other executives before this appointment, but the Executive Admin Officer has the final say. The purpose of this role is to keep the server up, should it ever go down for an extended period of time. The Temporary Server Host will hold absolutely no additional decision making power and will not be permitted to make changes to server files like the permban list, admin list, or blocked commands list without seeking approval from the appropriate authorities first.