This blog is an updated edition of the original (posted in November 2017 and written by Ursuul, the creator of the Internship system), revised for how the Wiki works in 2021.
Welcome to the Best You Can Be blog series. This is the first of about half a dozen posts detailing how to be the ideal member of the Diep.io Wiki Staff, and of the Wiki in general. Sure, we have rules that tell you All The Things You Must Not Do™, but what about all the things you should do? What about all the ways you can be proactive and help out? That’s what this blog series is all about.
Since you have to start somewhere, we might as well start at the bottom; Interns.
Introduction
What are Interns?[]
Interns are users who have requested to join Staff, but who have only been given temporary rights in a form of trial period in order to prove that they both deserve to have Staff rights, and that the Wiki needs to have them on Staff.
So how do you prove such a thing?[]
Put simply; you must fill a void. Find a way to improve the Wiki, take charge, and be the positive change we all want to see. There are many ways to do that, listed in the following tabs, but you should try to be a little inventive.The Best Intern You Can Be
Proving that you deserve Staff rights[]
To do this, you have to use your rights, so that we can see if your usage of the rights are acceptable. Simply doing nothing won’t do, so go ahead and dig in; just do so sensibly. For example, if you plan to moderate Discord, then do not hesitate to warn or even kick troublemakers, but don’t purge random people just to rack up a kill streak. As our small team battles vandals and keeps discussions orderly, proactivity & responsibility are paramount. If you use your rights and use them fairly, then that shows that you deserve to keep them.
Proving that the Wiki needs you to have Staff rights[]
Proving that you can hold rights responsibly is only half the battle; you have to prove that other people will benefit by you holding those rights. To do this, you need to be productive. For example, take Utkar22; even before he acquired Staff rights, he was working to clean up Fanon namespace pages by moving low quality pages into the User namespace by the hundreds. He was already productive, and giving him Staff rights did the only thing it’s supposed to do; it enabled him to do his job more easily.
Now, moving hundreds of pages may not be your forte, and there are certainly other ways to be helpful around the Wiki, like quickly reverting vandalism. The last tab, as will typically be the case, is the largest; it has a list of practical examples of things you can do to help out directly, but it is by no means complete.Practical Applications
Moderating[]
If you’re an Intern aiming for permanent Moderator rights, then use them in any of these ways:
- Be a helpful influence in Discussions
- As our largest and most vital conversational area, it is the most important place to watch over. Check it each day.
- Create good posts; the more people create, the more users will come to join the conversation, until we reach a critical mass.
- Do not permit nonsense. Discussions is meant to be a place of good-quality conversation that people want to be a part of, so enforce the Discussions Guidelines and delete any spam or incomprehensible posts.
- Most posts will still be acceptable, but they will often not be in the correct category, like chatting about other games in General or discussing Arras.io in Off-Topic. Move them and give the original poster a friendly reminder!
- When dealing with a spammer, go to their profile in Discussions (by clicking their name in a message) and click “Delete all posts” in the menu near the post count.
- Join the discussion! By adding to each conversation, you not only increase traffic, but you are patrolling the posts by virtue of being able to see what goes down in each post.
- Patrol Message Walls
- Message Walls are usually handled by their owners, but if you see harassment, remove the posts.
- Unless the owner expressly permits necroposting, watch SocialActivity for old posters and lock the threads when found.
- Keep an eye on Blogs
- Blog Comments are often neglected, so spam & harassment can occur; remove any you find.
- Create your own high quality blogs and set an example!
- Add
{{Delete}}to low-quality blogs (but do not delete any of their content!).
- Be a leader in Discord
- Encourage productive conversation by, well, talking!
- If you have to keep warning the same person numerous times, do not hesitate to ban them. Discord bans & kicks are much less serious than full Wiki blocks.
Sentinels[]
If you’re an Intern aiming for permanent Sentinel rights, then use them in any of these ways:
- Patrol RecentChanges
- Review edits for their quality and rollback them if necessary.
- Delete spam pages.
- Block spammers & vandals if you discover them becoming active.
- To deal with spam more efficiently, try enabling the SentinelTools gadget in preferences.
- Review Fanon pages
- If they do not meet the Fanon Policies, move them to a subpage of the creator’s user page.
- Categorize them if they are not properly categorized.
- Add appropriate templates where necessary.
For both prospective Moderators and prospective Sentinels[]
Make yourself available, and be a friendly presence!
- Often, Staff will ask you for help with cleanup, dealing with a vandal, or other odd tasks; or request feedback about a suggestion or thing they’re working on. Remember that one of the criteria for becoming staff is being established & trustworthy, so pitch in whenever you can!
- Be helpful; moderating & patrolling isn’t all about keeping people in line, it’s about offering assistance, advice, and helping others to follow the rules. Have the rules memorized so that you can explain them to new users.
- Talk with fellow Staff members, ask them for advice on where you can help out the most. As an Intern, the Community Administrator who offered your Internship is your best point of contact to find ways to help out.
Conclusion[]
There are a great many ways you can get involved as an Intern, and not all of them have been listed here, so just pick whichever you like best and dive in! If you use your rights fairly, and you are actively helping the Wiki, you will get permanent Staff rights in no time.