News Team are trusted users hand-picked by the community to write high quality unbiased news and blogs to be featured on the main page. News team members are expected to make their own blogs, regarding interesting topics and discussions that other users will find enjoyable, conduct interviews of other users and staff, research and source all news they discover, and be role models to the community.
Becoming News Team
Apexpedia has no official requirements to becoming a news team member. Anyone can apply regardless of their experience. News team members are expected to have the trust and confidence of the community, however, requests from users who do not have considerable experience are typically not approved.
Before requesting or accepting a nomination, candidates should generally be active around the wiki and be a regular Apexpedia contributor for a few months, be familiar with the procedures and practices of the wiki, respect and understand its policies, and have gained the general trust of the community.
News Team abilities and obligations
- Actively seeking news and information.
- Correct and coherent use of English or be bilingual.
- Proper use of wiki-formatting.
- Maintain an overall friendly, mature demeanor when interacting with other users.
- Writing original content to represent information found elsewhere.
- Sourcing information correctly with references.
Retaining the News Team title
- News team members who have not made new blogs or news updates in exactly 30 days are considered semi-active, and will be put on the semi-active list, until they prove they've made a stable return.
- News team members who have gone "rogue" and have started to write nonsense or profanity will have their News Team rights removed automatically. They can petition to have it returned on the consensus track forum.
- News team members will not lose their rights if they are marked as inactive, although the "orange" coloration of their name and their member tools are indefinitely revoked. To request that a user be relieved of their rights due to abuse, please petition on the consensus track forum.
Procedural removal for inactive news team members
News team members which have not made new blogs or news updates for at least 6 months may have their rights removed. This action may or may not be permanent, or be construed as a reflection on the user's use of, or rights to, the news team tools. The news team member must be contacted on their user talk page and via e-mail (if possible) one month before the request for removing their rights and again several days before the action goes into effect. Removing user rights on grounds of inactivity should be handled by bureaucrats. The summary in the user rights log should make it clear that the action is purely procedural.
Accountability
News team members are accountable for their actions involving the news team tools, and unexplained news team actions can demoralize other users who lack such tools. Subject only to the bounds of civility, avoiding personal attacks, and reasonable good faith, users are free to question or to criticize actions of a news team member. As such news team members are expected to respond promptly and civilly to queries about their Apexpedia-related conduct and their actions and to justify them when needed.
News team members who seriously, or repeatedly, act in a problematic manner or have lost the trust or confidence of the community may be sanctioned or have their access removed. The following is a reference for such cases:
- "Bad faith" news team member (sock puppetry, gross breach of trust, etc.)
- Breach of basic policies (attacks, civility, etc.)
- Conduct elsewhere incompatible with a news team member (off-site attacking, etc.)
- Failure to communicate – this can be either to users (e.g., lack of suitable warnings or explanations of actions), or to concerns of the community (especially when explanations or other serious comments are sought).
- Repeated or consistent poor judgment.