Hidden Staff

So another topic that’s come up recently, and has been an issue for a long time, is hidden staff. Why does Derpibooru lean so heavily on hidden staff? Hidden developers, hidden mods, even hidden admins. If you’re actively shaping policy or moderating users/images, then you should be visible and accountable. This isn’t a new thing either, Zippy’s been hidden staff for years. Was it originally a feature to allow staffers to step back and go on a vacation without fully removing permissions that eventually became heavily abused? Or was the intention to have secret police and use it to play politics the entire time?
 
There needs to be a public policy on what the staff page actually represents. Because right now we have one admin and it’s the Furbooru admin. But that’s not what the staff page says. Or is Nebula a real admin now? I don’t know, I can’t know. It’s all lies and intentional misrepresentation to your users. There is no transparency and that needs to be fixed.

Without trust, everything breaks. Transparency helps to build trust if it’s not established already, because moderators have to interact with the userbases somehow and that can work even with invisible discussions. The fundamental issue I see is not the lack of transparency; it’s the lack of integrity that had to be hidden to keep this place together in the first place.  

 
I think for that, it would require the staff to agree on that in the first place, and I don’t see that as given.

@Background Pony #CC43  
Lack of integrity and lack of transparency are intertwined.
 
The staff page needs to be automatic, along with many other things. You have any kind of staff permissions? You show up on the page. You want to not show up? Remove/lock your permissions (with a timeout that only someone with direct database access can override so that flicking is blocked) so that you can’t derpstapo it up.

Would be nice if hiding your profile was an option that anyone could use, so we don’t have to post as Anons.

The staff will never admit they use hidden staff and they will never agree to stop i used to moderate on a site and i was never tagged as admin but if asked i always said yeah im an admin

@capt_lonewolf  
Well, they did eventually admited to thortling connection to the users they find undesirable “China-style”.  
Maybe they will admit who is “brony gestapo” now?

We currently have no active staff members with their status hidden

@Armagedonus  
oh good luck on that but alas here i sit unwilling to leave.

@Luna  
So has Joey actually retired or is he still in staff chat giving platitudes while causing every problem?

@Amm  
He actually retired

SsethTzeentach’s Discord has a very “secret police” moderation system where all users have white names and no moderators are listed. In fact, mods (who are notified of their status by secret email) are instantly unmodded if they tell anyone they’re a mod. On top of this is a bot that randomly deletes messages so that users are on edge and don’t know why their messages are removed. This intentionally creates an atmosphere of paranoia for laughs but I can see Derpibooru doing this seriously.

@Luna  
Cool. So in an ongoing manner, will Derpibooru stop hiding staff from their users? Especially critical staff that are making core policy decisions and directing everything.

@Background Pony #6AC8  
you know admins can still see your account info even on Anons.

@Amm  
That’s the idea, yes

@Background Pony #6960  
All popular youtubers are shit on social media.  
The only reason to seek youtubers outside youtube is to watch streams before they become heavy edited videos on youtube.  
BTW Sseth will have a stream today on dlive.  
Maybe we could go there and post some ponies?

@Luna  
Will that happen only after the staff purge?

@Background Pony #6960  
>sseth  
>background pony  
Hmm

@Luna  
Alright, last question on this topic: Are you an actual admin and will remain such, or are you still just Luna Von’s PR sacrifice?

@capt_lonewolf  
I know

@Amm  
I am an actual admin and I will remain as such for as long as I wish to remain as such. I am presently the highest authority on the site. And I am “Luna von Rainy’” from Discord, in case you were ever confused.

@Background Pony #6AC8  
hence why i stopped using it whats the worse than can happen i get kicked from the site for speaking my opinion.

@Luna  
God dammit. Is the OTHER Luna an actual admin or is she still just your RP sacrifice? Also, can you change your name to Luna Von rainy here so that there’s not two Lunas that are staff. I’ve seen this cause confusion before and it just keeps happening. The ‘Princess’ addition does nothing.

@Amm  
“Princess Luna” (Nebulon) is a moderator that I set as admin to help me handle things and have sufficient authority to handle things. I can change my name to avoid confusion if necessary, but that would need to be discussed internally.

@Luna  
not sure why but knowing Luna is highest admin on the site is both reassuring and scary at the same time.

@Luna  
That would be nice. I’ve seen this confusion happen over the years, and now that you’re both public it’s bound to happen even more often in a time where there’s already enough confusion. Some distinguishment of name that’s not just her canon title that people skip in their head.