WolfQuest Administrators are considered head community members.
They are responsible for keeping the community forum operational and managing the community forums, among other aspects of the website. These members are easily identified by their red usernames, though not all of its members have defaulted to its color. All administrators have full access to the community forums and aren't truly constrained by other permissions.
Abilities
Administrators share moderator abilities, even if they are not members of the Global moderator usergroup. Further details are available in the talk page.
Global Announcements
A global announcement is a topic that appears across all forums, on every page and the User Control Panel front page, the best example of this being Forum Guidelines topic. These are typically reserved for highly important topics. They have no specific forum until the status is revoked.
Announcements
Like stickies, an announcement is forum-specific. These topics are not limited to the first page and will be displayed across all pages that are viewed in their respective forums, but they do not display on the User Control Panel front page. Not many forums utilise this feature due to it being admin-only, though topics created by a moderator or user will be granted this status if it is deemed important enough.
Warnings & Bans
Administrators are able to issue official board warnings to members, though it is preferred to issue an unofficial warning before resorting to an official warning. This is because warnings are long-term; once instated, it be revoked.
Banning can also be performed on an as-needed basis. Some bans are temporary, giving members a break from the forums to think things over before they return. Others are permanent, offering no return with virtually no chance of being revoked after the administrator has decided enough is enough. Attempting to evade bans by creating new accounts will not fool staff and will be met with an instant ban.
Both warning and banning are a last resort because both are permanent blackmarks and neither can be undone without specific webmaster access.
Private Forums
Administrators have full access to all of the private forums across the community without being a member of the named forum's usergroup. The only exceptions are forums that lack permissions.
Current & Former Administrators
As with everything, not everyone can stand against the test of time. WolfQuest's members and staff are certainly no exception, with most of them bidding the project farewell and parting to pursue other things in their lives outside of the internet. It's always sad to see people up and go, but we must accept that they do it with their best interests in mind and wish them luck with whatever they pursue in life!
Former administrators
Former administrators who have resigned willingly or else been forced to drop the job.
- WileE (Steve) - 2007 - 2009[1]
- ZooGuy (Grant) - 2007 - 2012
- WQ Project Coordinator (Michelle) - June 2007 - Oct 2008
- WQ Coordinator (Cana) - Oct 2008 - Jan 2013
- wolf567, retired voluneer - Apr 2011 - Jan 2013
- Kivia, retired volunteer - Dec 2012 - June 2013
- wq_admin (Kristie), MN Zoo employee - Jan 2013 - Nov 2014
Current administrators
Active administrators within the community's WolfQuest team.
- loboLoco (Dave), Eduweb founder/WQ webmaster; 2007 - present
- Rikkuzilla, semi-active volunteer, emergency-only admin; Dec 2012 - present
- Neamara, active volunteer; Jan 2015 - present
How are administrators chosen?
The WolfQuest Team employs administrators for community and forum management tasks. The exceptions to this are wolf567, Rikkuzilla, Kivia and Neamara, who volunteered for the position of administrator to help with spambot banning, community management and other tasks. It is very rare for the team to select volunteer members for this position. As of December 2012, both Rikkuzilla and Kivia were officially granted their red names to keep the community going following Cana's leave which became effective as of January 2013.
The voluntary staff members are keeping the community forums alive and active; without them, it is known that the team would opt to lock the forums down to prevent posting. Account registration for 2.5 multiplayer would remain available and the website would remain accessible to continue game distribution.
Voluntary administrators are not employed by the team and are therefore unpaid members as a 'community management substitute' sort of role in the absence of a WolfQuest Team Member. Invitations to the group are closed. [2]
Multiplayer
Contrary to popular belief, administrators have no power or impact in any multiplayer game; they cannot kick, ban, mute, or otherwise control any aspects of the multiplayer game and are simply regular users in-game. This is mostly due to funding constraints and technical limitations while developing the game; it is not known whether the WolfQuest Team have/had plans to grant this group (or any other group, for that matter) any powers in-game.
Trivia
- There have been significantly less administrators than moderators, with the total coming down to 5 employed members -- ZooGuy, WileE, loboLoco, WQ Project Coordinator and WQ Coordinator -- and 4 volunteers.
- On 1st April 2011, administrators' red names were switched to the gold associated with the Registered Users. The User of the Month had a red name for the day, minus the powers and responsibilities.