I'm a man of a few words so I'll make it brief and to the point. The SOCVR current team needs help on to shape and moderate the room, and I want to help.
- I've been around since September 2015. I was introduced to the room by durron597 right here. First message said to me in chat here. Side-note: on the very next day, I was already reporting spam...!
- Today, the FAQ has no secret from me and I do not hesitate to remind it to the chatters and link to it to new comers. That's actually a task I like to do: this room is under a lot of scrutinity and everytime I can help moderating by answering questions about the room's guidance, pointing out something to chatters or defusing a heated conversation, I feel great.
- As a Room Owner, I'll continue doing those tasks, and more: supervising burnination efforts, coaching chatters, giving feedback on a review, improving the current room guidance...
That's pretty much it: I feel I have what it takes to lead this room with our current ROs, I'm positive I can help drive the room to a better horizon and I want to do it.
As of today, we have to realize that the room has a bad connotation to a lot of Stack Overflow users because it is perceived as a voting ring. There are regularly posts on Meta that are the result of actions made in the room like a closed or a deleted post. I personally think this is the result of a lack of transparency regarding what the room is about. I find the current FAQ a little bloated and not clear enough: it could be restructured so that SO users and room members can quickly read what they want to read. Having clear-cut and easy to read guidance would be a great start.
The "You closed my question!" section targeted at SO users is well hidden and should be expanded and be a whole part of its own, linking to relevant Meta posts, like this one. The general expectations are a mix of unrelated rules, which makes it hard to read, and this is combined with the fact that some rules aren't there but further down (like rules about flagging). There's also no mention in the FAQ about the burnination process, although this is possibly one of activity of the room with the most direct consequence on the site.
I'd also point out that it does not mention any process for handling Smokey reports. It is a fact that lots of room member are privileged users of Smokey. This really means a lot of room members have the power to take down a post and blacklist a user on the entire network. As an external SO user, this sounds scary. And it has happened in the past that posts were spam-deleted when such sanction wasn't entirely warranted. So, one change that I would definitely like to make is to clearly document what is expected of members and RO when a report is posted. A related note could be to only have RO as privileged users.
Regarding off-topic rooms, or all other rooms actually, the current FAQ is also lacking in that aspect. Users active in The Ministry for example are also active in SOCVR. IMO, it needs to be clear that, as far as SOCVR is concerned, those other rooms do not exist: what happens in them is regulated by their own rules and there should be no connection between SOCVR and those rooms. It is not up to the room to monitor and check that none of its members are going crazy in another room. After all, if bad mouthing is allowed there, there is nothing SOCVR can do about it (but I don't think such a room would last long anyway). The room can only be responsible for enforcing its rules to its members, not to members of another room (even if the members are the same).
(And thanks Petter
:) ), no:)), still no. Meh. I'll leave it open and let parsers fail.