SmokeDetector operates a privilege system. That is, before you are able to use a number of commands (most notably the feedback commands), you must be added to a list of privileged users in SmokeDetector’s code.
Please review this page before getting in touch with someone with a request; once you know what you need, see whom to ping.
In theory, anyone can be added to the privilege list. In practice, this doesn’t always work out, so as a general guideline, we look for a few things to indicate how qualified you are.
Reputation
A higher reputation score indicates a higher level of participation on the sites, which is strongly correlated with moderation ability. We’re looking for enough rep to indicate that you’ve been around a little while: generally, 300 on one site will suffice.
Participation
We can also simply look through your various accounts on the network. SmokeDetector scans posts for spam network-wide, so the more sites you have accounts on, the better it is for everyone — more accounts means you can flag spam on more sites. We may also look at how active you’ve been on various sites (and on their meta sites) to determine how able you are to moderate content effectively. Again, we’re not looking for a massive or exceptional record, just enough to show that you know what you’re doing.
Referral
If your request for privileges is supported by a regular of one of the chat rooms that SmokeDetector posts reports to, we’ll look more favourably upon it — we tend to trust people who are already part of the system to make sound judgements. Additionally, if you’ve been around in one of the rooms for a while and have made yourself known, you’ve got a good chance.
These are all general guidelines, rather than hard limits. Really, we’re just checking to make sure that you’re a sane person who won’t abuse the system. We understand that there are cases of users who have little apparent activity who can be excellent at moderation; we’re also aware that the converse is true. Take note of what’s mentioned here, but also remember that requests are judged on a case-by-case basis.
If you’re a Stack Exchange network moderator, you’re automatically privileged with SmokeDetector in Charcoal HQ (and in SOCVR if you are a Stack Overflow moderator). You don’t need to be added to the explicit privilege lists, as your diamond also gives you privileges with SmokeDetector. We assume that moderators are, on the whole, pretty good at moderation.
Moderators can also see additional information on their site dashboard in relation to spammers and autoflagging participants.
There are multiple privilege levels on SmokeDetector and metasmoke, each giving you access to different commands, tools, etc. There isn’t any exact threshold that you have to meet in order to be eligible for many of these privileges; rather the admins will grant them to you at their own discretion. If you think that you should have some of these privileges but you don’t, please contact an admin.
(SD) refers to privileges set in the code of SmokeDetector here, (MS) refers to privileges set from within metasmoke (the admin would then add you using the form on this page), and (GH) refers to privileges set on GitHub.
The process for acquiring these privileges is listed above. Note that this privilege only works per-chat-server, so if you’re privileged in CHQ, you’re not automatically privileged in SOCVR or the Tavern (due to your user ID being different), so you’ll need to contact an admin so that they can add you there as well.
This privilege level allows you to:
!!/stopflagging
. After this, autoflagging can only be re-enabled by an admin.Technically, this privilege is granted in the Smoke Detector source code by adding the user’s numeric account ID to the privileged_users
list for the room in question. When this is in place, the !!/amiprivileged
chat command will cause Smoke Detector to reply “✓ You are a privileged user”.
Everyone who has SmokeDetector privileges is eligible to get the reviewer role. However, this process is not automatic, so you will need to sign up for a metasmoke account so that an admin can grant it to you.
This allows you to:
Everyone who signs up to metasmoke gets this by default. This privilege will be revoked if you abuse the system.
Given to people who have contributed to Charcoal in a non-trivial way (e.g. by giving 60+ feedbacks in 30 day, contributing code, or frequenting CHQ). This signals that you are a core member of our team.
Benefits include:
!!/watch
and !!/blacklist
without approval. Please make sure that you read the blacklisting guidelines before using these commands.!!/approve
, and metasmoke will handle the rest. Note that you will need to be added to PullApprove for this to work properly (which in turn requires you to have a GitHub account which is known to us and added to the Other Awesome People team on GitHub); ping an admin and they will set you up. (note to admin: if things are failing, press the ‘Sync with GitHub’ button here)These people have collaborator access on GitHub.
One of the project’s owners on GitHub will add you as a collaborator to the correct repository by assigning you to the appropriate team on our GH organisation. Note: if you’re already part of the GH organisation, the team maintainer can also add you.
Note that you can still run a SmokeDetector instance without this privilege; however its functionality will be limited without it.
These people get access to lots of administrative tools. They are able to see most data that is usually only visible to its owner, and perform system-level administration and maintenance tasks. All admins are also subscribed to the smokey@charcoal-se.org
mailing list - any email sent to that address will reach the admins.
They can:
Only available to our benevolent dictators Art and Undo. Only Undo can grant this privilege level, by editing the database directly from the console.