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Ballmedia, formally the Ballmedia Foundation was a non-profit organization associating ball wikis.
Structure
Board of Wiki Representatives
The Board of Wiki Representatives was an organ of the Ballmedia Foundation. The Board of Wiki Representatives primarily consist of local staff (sysops, bureaucrats and wiki owners of all member wikis). All local sysops, bureaucrats and the wiki owner will be automatically added to the Board of Wiki Representatives upon the wiki successfully entering the Ballmedia Network.
Local Staff
Membership
For wiki to be requested in Ballmedia, it must follow these requirements:
- The user who is requesting wiki membership must be an admin and/or bureaucrat of that wiki.
- The wiki must have Polandball-esque characters as their main basis of their community.
- The topic of that community doesn't contrast nor share any similarities to another existing community in the network, to prevent confusion between wikis.
- The bureaucrats of the wiki has accepted and ratified the terms present in the Charter of Ballmedia.
Once the wiki is requested:
- The wiki will be decided upon by the Board of Wiki Representatives upon recommendation by the members of the Network Council. (Refer to Chapter II of the Charter of Ballmedia.)
- The wiki will also go under review by the members of the Network Council for any mischievous intention, active administration and bureaucracy, etc.
- Wikis with no active bureaucrats and/or admins will have an election held on-wiki, so a steward can assess the election properly.
Your wiki may be suspended or expelled from the network or membership if the wiki:
- Doesn't fulfill all the requirements.
- Has any mischievous activity involving the community and its users. (e.g. plans on raids on other wikis)
Once your wiki has officially become a member:
- Permissions of the Network Council members will be added and given to those that are members of the Network Council.
- All local admins and the wiki owner will be admitted into the Board of Wiki Representatives.
Netzwerkrat
The Network Council was an organ of Ballmedia which controls the Ballmedia network. The members of the Network Council were:
- Network Consuls, which have access to all wiki tools, but can only act with community consensus.
- Network Director, the head of the Network Council and CAO of the Ballmedia Foundation. Although the Network Director is the highest position in Ballmedia, they have no complete control over the below members.
- Network Sysops, which have sysop permissions across the network, but they can only use them to clear vandalism.
Netzwerkkonsuln
Network Consuls were users which are members of the Network Council, who have access to all wiki tools across the Ballmedia network. Although they have all the abilities a bureaucrat and administrator would have, they may not act without community approval or in cases other than those defined in this policy.
Network Consuls' responsibility is to mediate and resolve any issues across the Ballmedia network. They also work with wikis that lack an active administration in moderating them until an active administration can be established. Consuls may also act in emergency situations where local admins have not responded within a reasonable amount of time and may exercise any of their powers. If the community believes any action made by a Consul was done in error, they must inform the Network Director and must avoid wheel-warring.
To become a Network Consul, a user must:
- Have had an account on Miraheze for at least 3 months.
- Have 2FA (2-factor authentication) enabled on their account, as they may be targets of bruteforces.
- To enable 2FA on your account, click here.
- Have contributed to a Ballmedia project in a significant way.
- Request the right on Requests for Consulship.
- A user may also be nominated on that same page but is still subject to all other applicable rules.
- Allow at least 2 weeks to pass.
- Receive at least 10 unique votes from accounts which are not sockpuppets.
- Receive a support ration of at least 60%.
The Network Director may exercise discretion and override community consensus to avoid a Consul from being appointed. In these cases, the Director may be overridden if a majority of 60% of Consuls votes to override the Director.
A Network Consul may have their rights revoked if:
- They misuse their rights.
- They are excessively rude and uncivil.
- The Consul has not contributed to Ballmedia significantly in 3 months.
- The community starts a vote of no confidence.
- Consuls as a group may initiate a vote of no confidence. While a vote of no confidence created by an ordinary user would not result in immediate effects, a vote of no confidence made by the Consul group as a whole would result in immediate demotion while the process runs its course.
The Network Director may exercise discretion and demote a Consul for any reason stated above but may be overridden if a majority of 60% of Consuls vote against the decision.
The community may start a vote of no confidence against a Consul for any of the reasons stated above on Requests for Consulship. For a vote of no confidence to be successful:
- At least 10 unique, non-sockpuppet users must vote.
- These users must have contributed to any Ballmedia project for at least a month and must have at least 50 meaningful edits.
- A threshold of 50% votes in favor for demotion must be reached.
A Network Director may decline to demote a Consul if they believe the vote has been done in bad faith or improperly.
If a majority of Consuls decide to start a vote of no confidence, the Consul in question will be demoted until the vote of no confidence finishes. Votes of no confidence started by Consuls are in no way different than regular votes of no confidence except that the Consul in question is demoted. Votes of no confidence made by Consuls are subject to the same rules outlined above and may be voted by all Ballmedia users.
Ballmedia Consuls are responsible of resolving any issues between wikis or users within the Ballmedia network. If a dispute between users can be handled by a local administrator, then the Consul should leave it up to the local administrators. If an issue cannot be resolved locally, the issue may be forwarded to the Consuls.
Consuls are also responsible of enforcing community consensus. If any local community expresses desires for a certain thing or action to be taken but the local administration refuses to do such thing or action, the Consul may enforce community consensus and do said thing or action. This should be done only in extreme cases and with the approval and consent of other Network Consuls.
In cases where no local (or active) administration exists on a Ballmedia project, Consuls work to moderate the wiki until the wiki has enough admins and bureaucrats to effectively self-moderate itself. Consuls may promote and demote users across the Ballmedia movement but should do so with explicit community or consul consensus.
Ballmedia Consuls may also act in emergency situations where local administrators have not acted within a reasonable amount of time or the damage that may occur to a wiki is urgent. This includes but is not limited to: demoting compromised users, temporarily closing wikis, redacting information, blocking users, changing site layout if a malicious thing has been done, reverting excessive vandalism, among other things.
Consuls are granted most bureaucrat and sysop rights but may not use them to get involved in local matters unless they are asked to by the community or any of the situations outlined in this section occur.
In the case in which the local administration or community believes a Consul has done an action in error, local administrators may revert it once and inform the Consul why their action was reverted. If the Consul decides to redo the action, they must provide a reason why in their edit/log summary and inform any administrator who left them a message stating why the Consul's action was reverted (if applicable). If the administration or community does not agree with this action, they may appeal to the Network Director but may not revert the action and engage in a wheelwar. The Network Director will then decide whether the action was appropriate or not.
Network Director
The Network Director was a user who is the head of the Network Council and the CAO (Chief Administrative Officer) of the Ballmedia. Although the Network Director is currently the highest position in Ballmedia, they have no complete control over the members of the Network Council, as they are equal.
The Network Director's responsibility is to make decisions regarding the Network Council and Ballmedia. They can appoint new staff members, which are Network Consuls and Network Sysops for the time being.
Network Sysops
Network Sysops were Ballmedia users who are tasked with clearing up vandalism across the Ballmedia Network. They have the same amount of rights generally granted to administrators (excluding changing user rights) and may only use them to clean up vandalism across the network.
To become a Network Sysop, a user must:
- Have had an account on Miraheze for at least 3 months.
- Have 2FA (2-factor authentication) enabled on their account, as they may be targets of bruteforces.
- To enable 2FA on your account, click here.
- Have contributed to a Ballmedia project in a significant way.
- Request the right on Requests for Network Rights.
- A user may also be nominated on that same page but is still subject to all other applicable rules.
- Allow at least 2 weeks to pass.
- Receive at least 7 unique votes from accounts which are not sockpuppets.
- Receive a support ration of at least 60%.
The Network Director may exercise discretion and override community consensus to avoid a new Network Sysops from being appointed. In these cases, the Director may be overridden if a majority of 60% of Consuls votes to override the Director.
Network Sysops may also be appointed by Network Consuls if at least 60% of the consuls agree.
A Network Sysop may have their rights revoked if:
- They misuse their rights.
- They are excessively rude and uncivil.
- The Network Sysop has not contributed to Ballmedia significantly in 3 months.
- The community starts a vote of no confidence.
- Consuls as a group may initiate a vote of no confidence. While a vote of no confidence created by an ordinary user would not result in immediate effects, a vote of no confidence made by the Consul group as a whole would result in immediate demotion while the process runs its course.
The Network Director may exercise discretion and demote a Network Sysop for any reason stated above but may be overridden if a majority of 60% of Consuls vote against the decision.
The community may start a vote of no confidence against a Consul for any of the reasons stated above on Requests for Network Rights. For a vote of no confidence to be successful:
- At least 10 unique, non-sockpuppet users must vote.
- These users must have contributed to any Ballmedia project for at least a month and must have at least 50 meaningful edits.
- A threshold of 50% votes in favor for demotion must be reached.
A Network Director may decline to demote a Network Sysop if they believe the vote has been done in bad faith or improperly.
If a majority of Consuls decide to start a vote of no confidence, the Network Sysop in question will be demoted until the vote of no confidence finishes. Votes of no confidence started by Consuls are in no way different than regular votes of no confidence except that the Network Sysop in question is demoted. Votes of no confidence made by Consuls are subject to the same rules outlined above and may be voted by all Ballmedia users.
Network Sysops are tasked with the responsibility of helping combat vandalism across the Ballmedia network. While they are granted most of the rights a local administrator has, unless they have local rights, they may not use their rights to intervene in local debates and to resolve local issues that are unrelated to vandalism.
Network Sysops must forward all requests that fall beyond their scope to the Network Consuls who will resolve the issue.
In the case in which the local administration or community believes a Network Sysop has done an action in error, local administrators may revert it once and inform the Network Sysop why their action was reverted. If the Network Sysop decides to redo the action, they must provide a reason why in their edit/log summary and inform any administrator who left them a message stating why the Network Sysop's action was reverted (if applicable). If the administration or community does not agree with this action, they may appeal to the Network Consuls but may not revert the action and engage in a wheelwar. The Network Consuls will then decide whether the action was appropriate or not and render a decision within no more than 24 hours.
Suppression Policy
Suppression is the act of redacting any log action/edit through means of the netsuppress
user group on all Ballmedia wikis. It is used to temporarily hide potentially sensitive information from all users (excluding users with the deleterevision
right). Depending on severity, most requests for suppression are automatically forwarded to Stewards for oversight though some may not if not severe. Across Ballmedia, suppression is a special right only usable by Network Consuls. It can be requested in private by contacting any Consul and requesting it.
It should not be confused with Oversight which is a special right only usable by Miraheze Stewards.
- A user has accidentally posted private information (image, address, name, etc.).
- Information about a user was revealed without their consent.
- An administrator disclosed too much information on a case.
- Confidential information was disclosed accidentally.
There may be more use cases for requesting suppression. If in doubt, please contact a Consul and they will assist you.
Consuls should not abuse suppression to hide unfavorable information on them or if unjustified. If a Consul abuses the right, they are subject to immediate demotion.
Across Ballmedia wikis, the following rights are only granted to the netsupress
group: deleterevision
, deletelogentry
, deletedtext
and deletedhistory
. Some wikis may have these rights assigned to local sysops within their default toolset.
When needed, a Consul will assign these rights to themselves with the following log summary:
- If redacting information on request: "Removing/redacting information per request pursuant to the network Suppression Policy. Consul action." (
Removing/redacting information per request pursuant to the network [[mh:ballmedia:Suppression Policy|Suppression Policy]]. [[mh:ballmedia:Network Consuls|Consul]] action.
)
- If redacting information found by the consul themselves: "Removing/redacting information pursuant to the network Suppression Policy. Consul action." (
Removing/redacting information pursuant to the network [[mh:ballmedia:Suppression Policy|Suppression Policy]]. [[mh:ballmedia:Network Consuls|Consul]] action.
)
- If checking logs: "Checking deleted logs in course of an investigation pursuant to the network Suppression Policy. Consul action." (
Checking deleted logs in course of an investigation pursuant to the network [[mh:ballmedia:Suppression Policy|Suppression Policy]]. [[mh:ballmedia:Network Consuls|Consul]] action.
)
Once suppressed, the revision will look like this:
History
Pre-Ballmedia (12 sep, 2021 - August 2023)
On September 12th, 2021, Denatidum suggested an idea on the Polandball Wiki Discord Server about a network of wikis similar to Wikimedia. Polandball Wiki bureaucrat and Miraheze wiki creator File:Agent Isai-icon.png Agent Isai agreed with the idea of a network unifying all ball-related wikis. Denatidum also came up with the name for the network, which is to be Ballmedia (Ball, signifying anything related to Polandball and -media, as used in Wikimedia, to make it similar to Wikimedia).
Denatidum wanted a common images wiki, like Wikimedia Commons. File:Agent Isai-icon.png Agent Isai had already made a common images wiki before their idea, at the time called Polandball Commons.
On October 3rd, 2021, the Charter of Ballmedia was completed by SchizoACC, which is inspired by the Charter of United Nations. October 3rd will be marked as the creation date of Ballmedia.
As October 2021, 13 wikis joined Ballmedia at first, with the most notable wikis are Polandball, Polcompball, etc.
Ballmedia Central on Miraheze and Ballmedia Discord server are created shortly after October 3rd. The organization structure was basically completed when Agent became the first Director, Denatidum and SchizoACC became the first staff of Network Consul.
On October 5th, Polcompball joined Ballmedia. conflict arose but it was solved by Ballmedia staff.
On October 12th, due to skirmishes and misunderstandings caused by Polandball Wiki staff and the spontaneous raiding by rogue users from Spanish Polandball wiki, the Hispanic Union (Alliance of Spanish ball wikis) almost got kicked out of Ballmedia. Thanks to diplomacy and negotiation, the Hispanic Union reconciled and continued to be a part of Ballmedia.
On the same day, Ballmedia helped Chromeball Wiki staff take back their wiki by organizing an bureaucrat election. Janx became the first Network Sysop.
On October 19th, a member from the Miraheze Stewards called "Dhemus" have to intervene in Polcompball wiki due to multiple Code of Conduct violations. Carpenter family get blocked for 18 hours as a result. To prevent the wiki from getting shut down or being take over by Counter Vandalism Team, Ballmedia have to shutdown the comment section temporarily before an abuse filter was set up.
On October 22th, Ballmedia restored comments on Polcompball after the abuse filter had been settled up.
Starting November 2021, Polcompball Anarchy wiki become an issue of Ballmedia. The staff decide not to intervene and let the wiki decide its own fate.
On November 11th, 2021, Polandball Polska and Polski Mapping Wiki joined Ballmedia.
Ballmedia Archives discord server was evacuated and merged with the official Ballmedia discord server.
SchizoACC decided that the former Polish Polandball staff's authority over the new Polish Polandball was obsolete and unjustified.
It's Because:
- The former staff stopped any attempts of reviving the Polish Polandball wiki.
- The former staff offended, insulted, muted, kicked and banned any users who tried to rebuild the wiki.
- The former staff lied to new users that the wiki is dead, But actually there was a new wiki on Miraheze with imported files and waiting to be reconstructed.
- The former staff have no authority over the new Miraheze wiki, and the only user who requested wiki creation, file importation, edit and hold admin/bureaucrat privilege is DualPlay.
=> Considering this behavior as dangerous and a threat to the interwiki cooperation and stability, the official Polish Polandball wiki owner is DualPlay. The former staff will only be seen as normal users. Any action that threatened to Ballmedia and interwiki stability will be met with force. This is the warning from Ballmedia to the former staff.
On November 13th, people in now-defunct Ballmedia Archives discord server migrated to the official Ballmedia discord server. The Archives server has been deleted few days later.
On November 14th, the Director appoints Dmehus as honorary Consul to give local jurisdiction on top of existing Stewardship.
On November 15th, The Mapping Wiki collaborated with Ballmedia as partner. This is the first recorded time that ball wikis have cooperate with mapping wikis.
On November 17th, Japanese Polandball joined Ballmedia.
TheAnimeMapper2020, admin of Companyball and Companyball fanon requested Ballmedia staff to help them with wiki skins problem. It was solved and Companyball wikis had their skins changed to Cosmos (Based on Fandom's Oasis)
On November 19th, Janx (Network Sysop) was demoted and banned from PBW and consequently, he was fired from Ballmedia staff.
On November 20th, Polandball Wiki leave Ballmedia because "...it is full of Polcompball users..." and decide to run against Ballmedia in the LGBallT bureaucrat election. Agent migrate PBW images from Commons back to the wiki using maintenance script.
On November 21th, Denatidum and SchizoACC resign and the new Consul election started on Polandball Wiki Discord server
November 28th, The old Consuls return to the position of power. The departure of PBW shows that Ballmedia is a young, insecure and weak organization, with the undemocratic decision-making of a few privilege individuals could paralyzed the whole organization and the decentralization proves to be inefficient and unable to intervene and completely solve disputes. From this lesson, the staff has wrapped up a plan to fully utilize Ballmedia's potential. A new era for Ballmedia will come.
Starting December 2021, PCB and PCBA are addressed by Miraheze operatives for global policy issues. The wikis double their efforts and attempt to remediate the issue as Ballmedia works to recapture the spark of its founding and pursue the new era.
On December 9th, PCB comment got turned off again due to toxic and CoC violation comments from an user called "Kemalist Enver Pasha", which is another sock puppet a ban evader called "TVRK TVRAN BVLL". After discussing this wiki a few wiki creators, Global Sysops and Stewards, we've all come to the agreement anarchy wikis should never again be accepted. PCBA is continued to operate as long as they do abide Global Sysops' warning.
In January 2022, the organization went hiatus for nearly a month until SchizoACC set up a partnership with several Discord servers like PCBF, recruit old members like Janx, etc. Many activities are being done in order to bring the organization back from suspension again. January 29th, 2022, SchizoACC comprises the data of all Ballmedia members in order to devise a plan that will restore the activity and influence of Ballmedia.
On February 14th, 2022, The Valentine Schism of Polcompball breaks out. Due to internal disagreement on the way the subreddit, the wiki, and the discord server are run, the staff of Polcompball began to split into 2 factions: Kevin (who control the subreddit) and SomeDude (who control the discord server). Both sides seek Ballmedia for assistance but Ballmedia have to stay neutral since the Charter only allow Ballmedia to intervene if the situation is worsened and spread to other memberwikis, otherwise they have to solve the disputes on their own.
Ballmedia staff reached Agreelandball, Computerball, Companyball, and Companyball Fanon for membership. Several reorganizations and the set up of proper local rights and permissions have begun.
On March 2022, The Polcompball Civil War is over. KEVIN is unbanned on Ballmedia discord server. The former official Polcompball discord server become semi-officially part of the "greater PCB Community". In context to r/polcompball, the former official server become the officially linked community server - not the chief server related to the subreddit, or polcompball comics exclusively. To summarize, "Polcompball" server is a seperate entity, with total autonomy, only related to PCB.
"Polcompball Union" become a new discord server focused on the subreddit exclusively, changed into "r/Polcompball", and "Polcompball Forums" become the wiki server, exclusively focused on that.
March 13th, 2022, the former official server of Polcompball is shut down by Discord due to TOS violation, the server owner of Polcompball got banned due to hate speech, that lead to the entire server got deleted, thus KEVIN and his staff control both the discord server and the subreddit of Polcompball. The old staff went hiatus.
On July 28, 2023, DualPlay wanted to change the front from Free Polcompball to Polcompball in Ballmedia chat, because there could be a risk of legal consequences regarding copyright.
Fall
Since Agent Isai and elections drama that happened on Late 2023, the Ballmedia became abandoned. The Discord got deleted. SchizoACC wasn't active in that time.
PCB Cold War Pretexts
This time, when Polcompball and Free Polcompball were rivalizing, Ballmedia became strategic again. Free Polcompball was worried that Kymiliane and their staff could take control of Ballmedia and make Free Polcompball destroyed and make independent wikis less important. on April 20, 2024, DualPlay and Idrinklisterine thought that Ballmedia should be adopted by them first.
Revival
On April 29, 2024, the group chat was created, Besteybeetophile joined In the same day, BrandonWM helped with adopting wiki. Polcompball and Chromeball were invited, but first one refused on the next day. The Revolutionary Council had been raised.
On May 2nd, 2024, raidarr helped with Ballmedia renewal. In the same day, Borker was invited, making Free Polcompball de facto the Ballmedia member, but still they rejected any membership with them.
On May 3rd, 2024, the new Charter on Ballmedia was planned, but unfortunately it wasn't fully realized. The Council agreed to change the logo of Ballmedia.
On May 4th, 2024, Individualball Wiki was invited, but they refused again. the new logo was finally proposed. It was based on MediaWiki one.
On May 5th, 2024, the logo had finally been approved by vote. Also, Artel Gang joined Ballmedia, the first non-wiki member. It's representative was MrNonSense. Also Quark with Polcompball Minarchy was invited, but quickly refused. JustAWorker was appointed to contact with Wikiball. There was some hope Polcompball to join, since Athena suggested to the council, but quickly it was rejected, making Athena leave Polcompball for while. So, finally Free Polcompball was recognized as official in Ballmedia.
On May 6th, 2024, it was decided that Polandball template icons would be abandoned, since there was no Polandball in Ballmedia yet. r/Polcompball was invited and they accepted. Also HEW did a drawing for the council. at the same time, WMS had been hired to make contact with the Chinese community. MrNonSense suggested that there should be a server for Ballmedia, so it was created. The embassy for Non-English wikis had been found. There was Russian, Chinese, Polish and Ukrainian led by Memna Imperia.
On May 7th, 2024, IamSeamonkey joined, they were hired to publish Discord stats. He added Ballmedia members to the list, . the Stellarballia Project had been found to Create a roleplay multiverse.
On May 9th, 2024, Videogameball Wiki was invited to Ballmedia.
On May 10th, 2024, Polcompball finally told why they refused. It was because of Free Polcompball membership in Ballmedia.
On May 16th, 2024, there was some plans to do an Wiki Farm, but it never went to plan.
On May 17th, 2024, Konstantina's server was invited to Ballmedia, but they told that they didn't want to be Countryball-related, so they refused.
On May 30th, 2024, Videogameball had finally joined Ballmedia.
Downfall and Integration into GCO
On June 15th, 2024, proposed to be an PCB-Ballmedia unofficial ambassador. The goals were set, Ballmedia is only for Free Polcompball, and Polcompball will find the new alliance, which lately happened to be Global Countryball Organization.
On June 16th, 2024, there was some explaination about Kymi being pedo. It happened that the proofs that was done by Borker, were manipulated by time and context. Borker didn't appeal to this.
On June 18th, 2024, Taxcymus, the Polandball Hispana owner, joined the Ballmedia server. He didn't want to be an Ballmedia member, because of being a member of Global Countryball Organization.
On June 19th, 2024, Taxcymus did some negotation with Ballmedia owner, DualPlay. This is a start of forming Ballmedia Unification Treaty.
On June 22th, 2024, the BallmediaDex was formed, but I wasn't realized.
On June 28-29th, 2024, LGBallT Wiki stopped being an member of Ballmedia, instead it was an Ballmedia Affilate.
There was moment, when Ballmedia collapsed. On July 1st, 2024, got banned from Free Polcompball potentially for calling them "pedos" in Philosophyball Discord server. The official reason was "asshole". Shortly after that, Free Polcompball got kicked. The domino effect has been activated. Artel Gang shortly after left. Ballmedia didn't have any previous purposes anymore.
The end of Ballmedia existence has come. On July 3rd, 2024, Unification Treaty has been finally formalized and it came into force. Ballmedia has been integrated with Global Countryball Organization. Discord got archived, and wiki got closed.
Afterfall
Shortly after Ballmedia being an integral part of GCO, Chromeball and Videogameball also joined Global Countryball Organization. LGBallT refused to join at the moment, because one of the Polcompball councillors named Nguyenreich is accused of being toxic, racist and even being accused of pedo (at least from Free Polcompball side). If he got replaced by someone else, then LGBallT would join.
On July 9, 2024, wiki got closed. It said:
"The Ballmedia Wiki is defunct. The succeeding Discord group, and with it the last official authority of Ballmedia has merged with GCO. Ballmedia no longer claims or holds jurisdictional rights over wikis unless they make a new agreement with GCO. This project remains visible as an archive until approximately the turn of the year.
Content can be saved/mirrored at your discretion, attributed to ballmedia.miraheze.org.
Thank you for your understanding. --raidarr (meta talk) 21:05, 9 July 2024 (UTC)"
On September 8th, 2024, Artel Gang joined GCO, making it to one of many ex-Ballmedia members who joined organization and of the first members which don't have an separate wiki.
On September 9th, 2024, LGBallT Wiki finally joined GCO. Agreeing to the deal that Vizdun isn't mod anymore.