What do you want in a moderator?

misshart00

I also think that every board, even if it's a slow board, should have more than one mod. Kind of a checks and balances thing.

manateehugger

misshart00 said:

More questions for the crowd:

Should mods have banning power or freezing power? Or both?

Since KP said it in her original post, how do we fell about someone who has gotten a warning in the past (let's make it relevant and say in the past year or so) being a mod?

I'm okay with them having banning power, but kgs can look it over if questionable. Because if we're just relying on KGs to ban, I think some things will never get done or take forever (specifically spam). I'm also okay with people being mods who have received warnings. If KGs want to keep a slightly closer eye on them for awhile, that's fine.

This is kind of my concern with the freezing/banning.

If someone can be unfreezed after a certain period (24 hours for example), I'd worry that a vendor or spammer could come right back because the KG's would get to it on the next random Thursday afternoon.

I suppose of course we could make freezing permanent, but then I don't understand how it's a whole lot different than a banning eligible for KG review.

offensivekitten2

I agree that the warning thing is more of a hinderance than a help.

I know for myself, personally, I am a completely different poster when I have responsibility vs just screwing around in my free time (I am downright reserved and boring as a mod). I have to assume that this isn't abnormal. I think the majority of people given modship would post differently than they did as a non-mod.

misshart00

shrekspeare said:

misshart00 said:

I also think that every board, even if it's a slow board, should have more than one mod. Kind of a checks and balances thing.

I don't feel like this is necessary on the local boards. Maybe on the Offbeat/Vintage/Other obscure boards, but for example, the Utah board only has three active-ish posters, who don't hardly even post on that board. To pull two of us out as mods is pretty useless.

I'll agree there. I was more thinking about the less active main boards.

MairePoppy

RajahBMFD said:

1) Impartial 2) Active 3) Open minded 4) Fair 5) Honest Those are my top 5 characteristics. Everyone else has made really good points. I think we're less likely to get power hungry mods if they are roaming. I feel like past issues have come from mods being territorial over their assigned boards, like how Retread threatened to ban stage is she came on her board, regardless of her behavior on said board.

IDK about that. She frequently threatened that she would ban posters on other boards if she could. The other two ban happy mods had to wait for members to post on CC to ban them. Can you imagine if they had free reign? They would have wiped out the SB and E board, too. 

I think it's unrealistic to expect to have a volunteer mod available 24/7. Having someone that can check in daily would be great, though. Since there are so many members interested, they could put two mods on each board, taking time zones into consideration. I'd like to see long time regs paired with new regs whenever possible.

manateehugger

MairePoppy said:

RajahBMFD said:

1) Impartial 2) Active 3) Open minded 4) Fair 5) Honest Those are my top 5 characteristics. Everyone else has made really good points. I think we're less likely to get power hungry mods if they are roaming. I feel like past issues have come from mods being territorial over their assigned boards, like how Retread threatened to ban stage is she came on her board, regardless of her behavior on said board.

IDK about that. She frequently threatened that she would ban posters on other boards if she could. The other two ban happy mods had to wait for members to post on CC to ban them. Can you imagine if they had free reign? They would have wiped out the SB and E board, too. 

I think it's unrealistic to expect to have a volunteer mod available 24/7. Having someone that can check in daily would be great, though. Since there are so many members interested, they could put two mods on each board, taking time zones into consideration. I'd like to see long time regs paired with new regs whenever possible.

This suggestion gets a big thumbs up for me.

AlexisA01

I agree with the other PP. I think there should be some method of when a thread get's piled on. I also think Mods should rotate boards so that they are able to be on be on different boards instead of staying on the same board. Maybe even have a MOD on duty so whenever something happens, it is easy to know and get in touch with the Mod on Duty because it shows which Mod is on duty for the page.

FiancB

Haven't read the whole thread yet and I'm sure it's mostly been covered. I do think that if TK is considering any sort of secret mod type thing, that's a bad idea. People should know who their mods are. I've been on a number of boards and never heard of secret mods until I got here, and well we've all heard how well that went. I think it also helps to have some mods and overseeing supermod type arrangement. It seems that most boards that have mod team that runs smoothly have some sort of special board for communicating with each other, but that doesn't encourage any cliqueyness. 

But really, the most important thing is presence, and that's what we're severely lacking right now. 

Inkdancer

All I ask for is for mods to understand the communication style of their boards. Getting banned for a sassy sig GIF or being blunt would be very silly.

rajahmd

MairePoppy said:

RajahBMFD said:

1) Impartial

2) Active

3) Open minded

4) Fair

5) Honest

Those are my top 5 characteristics. Everyone else has made really good points.

I think we're less likely to get power hungry mods if they are roaming. I feel like past issues have come from mods being territorial over their assigned boards, like how Retread threatened to ban stage is she came on her board, regardless of her behavior on said board.

IDK about that. She frequently threatened that she would ban posters on other boards if she could. The other two ban happy mods had to wait for members to post on CC to ban them. Can you imagine if they had free reign? They would have wiped out the SB and E board, too. 

I think it's unrealistic to expect to have a volunteer mod available 24/7. Having someone that can check in daily would be great, though. Since there are so many members interested, they could put two mods on each board, taking time zones into consideration. I'd like to see long time regs paired with new regs whenever possible.

My theory is that if they had been roaming, maybe she wouldn't have felt so special and maybe the power would not have gone to her head.

Either way, it was a fucked up situation and there definitely need to be some checks in place if it appears that a mod is following down the same path.

I like the idea of 1 main board with at least 1 co-mod plus 2-3 slower boards. And I like the idea of a few spare mods that kinda surf around and can respond to anyone who needs assistance, in case the assigned mod isn't available.

doeydo

Someone who will relatively quickly remove posts that should be removed.  Someone who is fair and does not favour certain users or bend the rules sometimes but not others.  Someone who is mostly nice.  Someone who won't let the power go the their head.  

pinkshorts27

I'm newer. Hoping to continue to be involved here because you ladies keep me entertained and I've learned a lot about interacting with people and seeing different perspectives from these boards. I've read this thread and don't want to quote everyone, but I'll summarize what I agree with:

-All main boards need a mod, but modding more than one board would be okay. 

-Different time zones is a must.

-Multiple mods per board.

-Very clear rules, communicated by mods, to state what is and isn't allowed. 

-Piling on is hard to define, but someone should not continue to be berated after they agree/change their mind. If I say I'm doing a cash bar and three ladies change my mind to open bar, a bunch of more people shouldn't post about how horrible I'm being. Part of what would prevent that is to encourage OPs to add an Edit to their original post, while leaving original content. Then people could see w/out reading every comment that the OP changed her mind.  (This shouldn't be an enforced rule or anything, random tangent) For example

" Hi I'm thinking about doing a cash bar. What do you thing?

-------

ETA: Oh wow! You ladies opened my eyes. Cash bar would be a terrible thing. Instead I am doing a limited bar. Thanks for the advice!"

-Some newer mods as well as older mods would be a good thing.  Only having one or the other might split the group

-Mods must be impartial and we must have a way to report inappropriate modding and abuse of power, or even absent for too long, so we can replace with more active mods (how long? there should be a system setup so mods can get cover when on vacation). Maybe have some super-mods?

-We could have lower mods with freezing power where they are frozen until reviewed, which the super mods/KP reviews and determines appropriate banning or not. But somebody besides KP must be able to the ban the spammers.

-I love love love the idea of being able to see currently active mods somehow. This should be easy to program, but am concerned about current glitches so who knows if this could be implimented.

-Specific warnings should be private. I know I react much better to private warnings and then people can't use it against you.

rajahmd

pinkshorts27 said:

I'm newer. Hoping to continue to be involved here because you ladies keep me entertained and I've learned a lot about interacting with people and seeing different perspectives from these boards. I've read this thread and don't want to quote everyone, but I'll summarize what I agree with:

-All main boards need a mod, but modding more than one board would be okay. 

-Different time zones is a must.

-Multiple mods per board.

-Very clear rules, communicated by mods, to state what is and isn't allowed. 

-Piling on is hard to define, but someone should not continue to be berated after they agree/change their mind. If I say I'm doing a cash bar and three ladies change my mind to open bar, a bunch of more people shouldn't post about how horrible I'm being. Part of what would prevent that is to encourage OPs to add an Edit to their original post, while leaving original content. Then people could see w/out reading every comment that the OP changed her mind.  (This shouldn't be an enforced rule or anything, random tangent) For example

" Hi I'm thinking about doing a cash bar. What do you thing?

-------

ETA: Oh wow! You ladies opened my eyes. Cash bar would be a terrible thing. Instead I am doing a limited bar. Thanks for the advice!"

-Some newer mods as well as older mods would be a good thing.  Only having one or the other might split the group

-Mods must be impartial and we must have a way to report inappropriate modding and abuse of power, or even absent for too long, so we can replace with more active mods (how long? there should be a system setup so mods can get cover when on vacation). Maybe have some super-mods?

-We could have lower mods with freezing power where they are frozen until reviewed, which the super mods/KP reviews and determines appropriate banning or not. But somebody besides KP must be able to the ban the spammers.

-I love love love the idea of being able to see currently active mods somehow. This should be easy to program, but am concerned about current glitches so who knows if this could be implimented.

-Specific warnings should be private. I know I react much better to private warnings and then people can't use it against you.

This is very well thought out. I love the idea of OP's adding ETA's to help people realize they've already changed their minds. This is something mods could encourage as well to help prevent piling on. Something as simple as "hey OP, consider adding your change of plans to your original post. Many posters will comment before reading all of the comments and/or updates, so they may respond without realizing you've changed the plan". Or something like that.

kmmssg

I really like most of what everyone is proposing.  While I am not sure, I might be the longest one on here (10 years next month - that' is when DD #1 got engaged).  

Things ran much more smoothly with Mods and with the exception of the 2 or 3 ban happy ones we had, it worked really well.

I like the idea of a mod having a main board and maybe be a backup for other mods when they aren't available.  I really like the idea of a regular and newer knottie teaming up.  Perspective through 2 sets of eyes can be a really good thing.

What I think would work well is for mods to be able to freeze a member for up to 72 hours.  That way when the boards blow up on Friday nights, we can keep them out til late on Monday so the KG's can deal with a permanent ban.

I think specific warning from mods should be done privately with the ability to see when the offender read it.

The piling on thing - yeah it bugs me because I feel it does happen.  I also agree that quantifying that is impossible. 

While I think there are MANY people on here who would make awesome regs, I would be a HUGE fan of the idea of Maire Poppy being a Mod on just about any board.  Rock solid advice with a good idea.  Maire Poppy for President.

AddieCake

kmmssg said:

 I would be a HUGE fan of the idea of Maire Poppy being a Mod on just about any board.  Rock solid advice with a good idea.  Maire Poppy for President.

Hahaha! MairePoppy is near the top of the list I'm submitting, too!

kmmssg

On a more self serving note, I wonder if I could bribe a mod to fix my post numbers to reflect the 8000+ posts I lost back in '09 when they changed platforms or whatever the Hell it was that happened.  I went from 8800 posts down to 700 and something.  Not that I hold a grudge or anything.....

JennyColada

kmmssg said:

On a more self serving note, I wonder if I could bribe a mod to fix my post numbers to reflect the 8000+ posts I lost back in '09 when they changed platforms or whatever the Hell it was that happened.  I went from 8800 posts down to 700 and something.  Not that I hold a grudge or anything.....

That sounds like more of an admin issue than a mod issue.

kmmssg

Oh I know, i am just whining about it.

JennyColada

Haha. Fair enough.

MairePoppy

@kmmssg - I'm flattered. Since you're new here ; ) and we live in different time zones,  you could be my partner. 

Seriously, I'd love to see  you, MobKaz, Addie, Maggie, prettygirllost, NYCMercedes as moderators. Magicink would be great for a newbie mod. I'll think of more newbies because there are so many interesting newbies.

sophhabobopha

 I agree with all of yous. I don't think mods should have the same power as the KGs.

AprilH81 said:

PDKH said:

More questions for the crowd:

Should mods have banning power or freezing power? Or both?

Since KP said it in her original post, how do we fell about someone who has gotten a warning in the past (let's make it relevant and say in the past year or so) being a mod?

I think mods should only be able to freeze an account for now.  KP (or eventually a supermod) can do the actual banning...

I say a warning should not eliminate an otherwise good candidate as long as it was only one warning and it was for a "minor" offense.  It would kind of depend on what the warning was for though...

arrippa

Late to the party, but I like most of the suggestions. It's a pretty thorough list. I hope the KG's are open to some of these.

hellohkb

Another newb/lurker here. I agree with @Cookie Pusher‌ about the super mods who are mods for all the boards, and one or two special mods for individual boards. I am a mod for another board and this is how we do it over there. It works really well that way.

I also agree that we should have people mod boards they are active in. I think most people would dislike modding a board they are not interested in. I mod a board I am a reg on, I would be really lost if an admin threw me on a board I never post on. I think the same would go for all the posters on here as well.

I agree with all PPs about what I would like in a mod. An active mod who is actually around to close zombie threads is ideal. I prefer when mods lock threads instead of outright delete them.

Of course I don't have much of a say because I'm a newb. But I just wanted to give me two cents because I actually do like the boards here a lot and would hate to see a lot of the regs leave the board out of frustration from admins (something I have seen happen).

PrincessOfHavoc

New here...

Having lived through another forum train wreck from crazy modding, here's my vote

1 - Fair!

2 - Treat posters like adults. I don't feel that NC-17 posts are needed. But, R rated is fine.

3 - Clear rules with a reasonable basis. It seems like etiquette issues get the nastiest. Use Miss Manners as the base, because I am very new and I'm already frustrated and ready to go beat people because they brag about ignoring etiquette and manners, then start name calling when told hey, follow etiquette.

4 - Consider who is reporting. If it's someone who yells bully, they're not a good judge on violations. If a reasonable, but blunt poster reports - don't tell them to deal or go away without considering what was reported.

5 - Short of vendors and trolls, have it be a fair discussion between multiple mods before banning. But in return, please ban the trolls already!

6 - Sharing of personal information that's not your own needs to be an instant ban on the IP address. That's how I got a stalker.

AddieCake

hellokellybean said:

 Of course I don't have much of a say because I'm a newb. But I just wanted to give me two cents because I actually do like the boards here a lot and would hate to see a lot of the regs leave the board out of frustration from admins (something I have seen happen).

But you do have a say!  That's what we want--for everyone to try to help to make our community what we want it to be. Just b/c you're new doesn't mean your thoughts are not relevant. I wish more new people had spoken up here. 

rajahmd

PrincessOfHavoc said:

New here...

Having lived through another forum train wreck from crazy modding, here's my vote

1 - Fair!

2 - Treat posters like adults. I don't feel that NC-17 posts are needed. But, R rated is fine.

3 - Clear rules with a reasonable basis. It seems like etiquette issues get the nastiest. Use Miss Manners as the base, because I am very new and I'm already frustrated and ready to go beat people because they brag about ignoring etiquette and manners, then start name calling when told hey, follow etiquette.

4 - Consider who is reporting. If it's someone who yells bully, they're not a good judge on violations. If a reasonable, but blunt poster reports - don't tell them to deal or go away without considering what was reported.

5 - Short of vendors and trolls, have it be a fair discussion between multiple mods before banning. But in return, please ban the trolls already!

6 - Sharing of personal information that's not your own needs to be an instant ban on the IP address. That's how I got a stalker.

I love your list. I think it covers all the important components, especially taking the source of flags into account.

SammiNJonni

I remember the drama from last summer so I agree with being able to impeach power happy mods.

I do think having mods assigned boards but being able to float is a good thing. I remember needing to call mods from other boards when the mod on the board being spammed was not currently active.  

Addie I think you need to make a van for your mod campaign  

AddieCake

SammiNJonni said:

Addie I think you need to make a van for your mod campaign  

YES!   

rajahmd

Bumping so this doesn't fall to the second page. Keep those ideas coming!

lovesclimbing

I agree with most of what others have said.

I do agree with there sometimes being a sense of "piling on" but it would be difficult to mod that.

I think mods for local boards should be someone who is local.  Perhaps local mods could only have one board, their local board, and then a couple mods to oversee them all. This would be kind of difficult because some of the slower boards have very few regs. My local board, Alaska, hasn't had a new post in about a year, except for Knot Jackie introducing Knot Porscha. If that were the case, maybe local mods could have slightly less powers: could delete threads, freeze users, but it would all have to be approved by a higher mod, maybe?