QAT Engagement
This was one of my biggest concerns in the last years - the suppression of the QATs by holding them back for the solely purpose of moderating and not interacting with the BNs on bigger projects at all to make them less dependent on the QAT. This caused however many of the already problems people mentioned in this thread which is probably also one of the reasons why this has been losend up in the past several months. I'm not exactly sure about osu!, but that definitely happened for Taiko, and BNs as well as QATs tried to stay in contact nonetheless because of concerns people raised. Because of this I'm happy this gets lifted.
Transparency
As mentioned above, BN and QAT from the mode Taiko were somewhat in contact, however, when it's a matter of transparency, then information have hold off for some time till it was certain what is going to happen and I would rather go on with that way to avoid any confusen or spread false information. Same goes for topics that influence the BNG in itself where I would discuss it first internally as the staff has more insight about certain processes and can filter out obstacles right at the beginning before opening a raw discussion to the BNs - what I basically say is that we would just be a filter for a better flow of discussion.
Dissolution of the current BN tiering system
It's basically the same we had in the past with the MAT/BAT system and which worked quite good. I can agree with this change however, I think it makes more sense that the probation period should always be 2 months. During this time BN should prove themselves without any big incidences. In this time people get used to them too and they get used to to system itself which goes in the direction of the golden rule "wait 1 week before you bubble anything". It also shows if they can actually hold their activity for at least 2 months and would be an indicator to how they might go on in the future. I also oppose the idea of adding new BNs within less than 2 months because of the question how to determine when one is ready to become earlier a BN than another.
Full members may be reduced to the probationary level at any time by QAT consensus if their conduct is deemed unacceptable, or they repeatedly make large mistakes or oversights is something I fully agree with but then the QAT must become stricter in such cases. Currently most of us do not moderate at all and discussions about misconduct from some BNs do not happen either. It even goes so far that most QATs do not have mod privileges in disqus which is contadicting in itself. What I am saying is simply, the QAT must start from itself becoming more active in this matter and maybe even go so far to work with the BNs together in this matter for a more open environment (the taiko group does it somewhat in this way at times and it seems to work).
QAT rewards
I can agree with this as well as with the BN rewards. What I would like to suggest though is to have a similar right as the long-serving BN (>1.5 years) [who] will qualify for a special title which they may choose to have applied to their account when they retire. It leans toward the right to choose whether you want to go with the osu! Alumni title or osu!(mode) Alumni. This suggestion rather comes from own preference to be honest since myself always worked for the past 5 years only for osu!taiko so it makes sense to be labeled as such. Maybe other QATs feel the same. Maybe not. But felt like mentioning it.
Returning agency
The top scoring aspirants will be considered the de-facto QAT leadership, though they may number no greater than two. I just want to ask for clarification: Does that mean there can be two QAT-leaders? That's how I understood it right from the beginning but #qat discussions lean towards one leader so far.
Overall I didn't said much as I planed to in the first days since I voiced up most of my concerns in #qat before which are pretty much mentioned in this thread by other members already. As for the whole change, I give it my greenlight. It's the right step in the right directions which has been suggested by many staff and community members for several times in the past.
This was one of my biggest concerns in the last years - the suppression of the QATs by holding them back for the solely purpose of moderating and not interacting with the BNs on bigger projects at all to make them less dependent on the QAT. This caused however many of the already problems people mentioned in this thread which is probably also one of the reasons why this has been losend up in the past several months. I'm not exactly sure about osu!, but that definitely happened for Taiko, and BNs as well as QATs tried to stay in contact nonetheless because of concerns people raised. Because of this I'm happy this gets lifted.
Transparency
As mentioned above, BN and QAT from the mode Taiko were somewhat in contact, however, when it's a matter of transparency, then information have hold off for some time till it was certain what is going to happen and I would rather go on with that way to avoid any confusen or spread false information. Same goes for topics that influence the BNG in itself where I would discuss it first internally as the staff has more insight about certain processes and can filter out obstacles right at the beginning before opening a raw discussion to the BNs - what I basically say is that we would just be a filter for a better flow of discussion.
Dissolution of the current BN tiering system
It's basically the same we had in the past with the MAT/BAT system and which worked quite good. I can agree with this change however, I think it makes more sense that the probation period should always be 2 months. During this time BN should prove themselves without any big incidences. In this time people get used to them too and they get used to to system itself which goes in the direction of the golden rule "wait 1 week before you bubble anything". It also shows if they can actually hold their activity for at least 2 months and would be an indicator to how they might go on in the future. I also oppose the idea of adding new BNs within less than 2 months because of the question how to determine when one is ready to become earlier a BN than another.
Full members may be reduced to the probationary level at any time by QAT consensus if their conduct is deemed unacceptable, or they repeatedly make large mistakes or oversights is something I fully agree with but then the QAT must become stricter in such cases. Currently most of us do not moderate at all and discussions about misconduct from some BNs do not happen either. It even goes so far that most QATs do not have mod privileges in disqus which is contadicting in itself. What I am saying is simply, the QAT must start from itself becoming more active in this matter and maybe even go so far to work with the BNs together in this matter for a more open environment (the taiko group does it somewhat in this way at times and it seems to work).
QAT rewards
I can agree with this as well as with the BN rewards. What I would like to suggest though is to have a similar right as the long-serving BN (>1.5 years) [who] will qualify for a special title which they may choose to have applied to their account when they retire. It leans toward the right to choose whether you want to go with the osu! Alumni title or osu!(mode) Alumni. This suggestion rather comes from own preference to be honest since myself always worked for the past 5 years only for osu!taiko so it makes sense to be labeled as such. Maybe other QATs feel the same. Maybe not. But felt like mentioning it.
Returning agency
The top scoring aspirants will be considered the de-facto QAT leadership, though they may number no greater than two. I just want to ask for clarification: Does that mean there can be two QAT-leaders? That's how I understood it right from the beginning but #qat discussions lean towards one leader so far.
Overall I didn't said much as I planed to in the first days since I voiced up most of my concerns in #qat before which are pretty much mentioned in this thread by other members already. As for the whole change, I give it my greenlight. It's the right step in the right directions which has been suggested by many staff and community members for several times in the past.