I've got a lot of stuff to cover with this announcement.
Reporting Private Conversations (PMs)
First off, there has been a change to our policy regarding PMs since we recently became aware of a new feature in IPB that lets us take them more seriously. Reported PMs will now be treated just as seriously as any other topic. We couldn't do this before since it was impossible to verify if a conversation actually happened or not.
This section has been added to the rules to explain it in more detail:
Note about reporting PMs: If you are reporting a private conversation (PM), please keep in mind that you are also sending a conversation invite to the staff. This means that staff members capable of viewing the report (global moderators and above in this case) can enter the conversation if they find it necessary and they will be listed as conversation participants. This is almost the equivalent of going to "Add" under Invite Participants and adding some staff members from there.
While the staff will keep everything in the private conversation confidential, you should still carefully consider whether you want the staff to become involved with an existing private conversation in a staff capacity or not. Once it is reported, almost everything within the private conversation can potentially be subjected to the rules similar to a normal thread. However, don't let this discourage you from reporting things if there is a serious issue you want the staff to help out with.
Changes to PureZC Staff Ranks
Next, we have changed the staff ranks around a bit in order to both spread some staff out into the database and to better utilize our staff in general.
A few things worth noting that are not noted in the image above:
- Forum Assistant and Database Assistant are trial positions that new staff members are placed in for evaluation. After a certain amount of time, staff members in these positions will be evaluated to see if they should either be promoted or retired based on their performance.
- Forum Assistants and Database Assistants are only hired based on vacancies in Forum Moderators or Database Staff. So it's quite possible we will have 0 people in these two trial ranks at times.
- We're mainly switching up the way moderators work because we've found ourselves in a situation where we have been wasting staff members. Given the relatively small size of the community, it doesn't really make much sense to keep stressing specialized mods and trying to maintain a balance of who handles what forums. There are other reasons for us considering this shift, but I think this is the main one
I'm probably forgetting things, so feel free to ask questions if something doesn't make sense here.
Firing People Promotions!
Congratulations to DCEnygma (formerly Godsmacker), Russ, and Evan20000 for being promoted to Forum Moderators (essentially Global Moderators)! Also congratulations to ShadowTiger and nicklegends for being promoted to Database Staff! They all have definitely deserved this for a long time. 
We're hiring! Applications Closed! Thank you to everyone that applied!
It's around that time again: we're looking for fresh meat to join the PureZC staff team. We are looking for both people to help with the site and people to help with the forums.
Forum Assistants will be responsible for moderating the general forums and the ZC forums.
Database Assistants will be responsible for moderating site comments, help threads, and such (basically the "posts" of the site).
Both positions need to be familiar with PureZC's rules since you will be monitoring the community to make sure the rules are upheld (within reason). You should also be prepared to be a helpful member of the community and you should definitely be prepared to remain civil in heated situations (even if the other party can't see you).
To apply for a position on the staff, create a new thread in the Staff Dropbox with the title "<Your Username Here>: Staff Application."
Your application can be done however you like, but please state which position you would prefer if there is an opening for both positions. We are currently only hiring 1 Database Assistant at this time since the database doesn't get as much activity as the forums, so we will be giving more priority to hiring multiple forum assistants. So if you want the best chance for being part of the staff in general, you should be prepared for either position. But don't be discouraged from trying for a Database Assistant position since you could very well be the 1 person to get it (at least until there are more openings in the future).
Applications will be open for 1 week at a minimum (July 5th). After that, it will depend on how many applications we have as to whether it will last longer than that. Once applications close, it will probably take us a few days to figure out who to hire.
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If you have an questions about anything in this thread, feel free to ask them. Also, once again congratulations to all the people that were promoted!
Now please don't read the PM I send once a year. jk! 
