Resolved Moderators

[Mark]

I was considering posting this in the staff forum, but I don’t see why this isn’t something that should be a forum-wide discussion.

We’re all having fun catching up, and I love seeing it, but eventually we’re going to have to get started on building up some forum infrastructure. That’ll eventually mean adding moderators, not necessarily as a means of rule enforcement… but as a means for content generation.

That’s why I’m bringing this up now, before things get stagnant with the existing threads and people lose interest in what we currently have.

As mostly all of us are familiar… GW voted in mods when forums were active enough to necessitate having a dedicated staff member. I’m not sure how things went near the end, but that’s as basic as it got in my time.

For those of you familiar with @Crystal’s former projects or @Cole’s and mine… we did things a little differently outside of GW. We provided some forums with staff members to help generate activity in those respective locations early on so it didn’t look as if all the generated activity came from the admins.

With that said…

When should we begin adding staff? Would y’all like to see it stay as just us 3 for the time being? Or would y’all like to see a few staff members step up and added to either specific categories/forums to help drum up activity?

Either way, for the most part… things will not change beyond activity with either option. We will not be adding so much staff to the point where most of the active members are staff. The entire point behind this isn’t to stick names at the top of forums, but to simply allow those that want to step up and help with a particular forum have their chance to build it up from what is essentially the ground up with the rest of us. For example… Forum-only games. Wanna see it become more active? Step up, contribute to the content, moderate it, get some games going to encourage activity, and do what you can to help promote it here and elsewhere.

 

[Crystal]

I think we should keep it at us 3 until we NEED staff, which will be a little while. Not opposed to adding mods, not at all, if that's the way everyone wants to go, then absolutely!

 

[Mark]

I think we should keep it at us 3 until we NEED staff, which will be a little while. Not opposed to adding mods, not at all, if that's the way everyone wants to go, then absolutely!

That’s my sentiment at this stage as well, because this is probably the second thread I’ve stuck and I’ve moved one. There has been zero need for actual moderation, which isn’t a bad thing, but I’m also trying to be considerate of giving people the chance to get in on the ground level and make certain forums their “projects” if they want to see a particular forum become more active.

 

[Crystal]

That’s my sentiment at this stage as well, because this is probably the second thread I’ve stuck and I’ve moved one. There has been zero need for actual moderation, which isn’t a bad thing, but I’m also trying to be considerate of giving people the chance to get in on the ground level and make certain forums their “projects” if they want to see a particular forum become more active.

That's a fair point, definitely want to encourage everyone as much as possible to join in!

 

[Mark]

That's a fair point, definitely want to encourage everyone as much as possible to join in!

Cole and I went a similar route with RS back in the day… granted… it was mostly friends of ours on staff, but the end goal was still the same. We handled the admin stuff and posting, the mods handled posting and encouraging activity in their specific forum, the members just did what they do. Based on what I can remember, it went pretty well from an administrative standpoint. It freed us up from encouraging activity and allowed us to work other aspects of the community. People tend to take more pride in projects when they’re directly involved in the success of it, and I feel confident speaking for all of us when I say that we want everyone to feel involved in what we’ve got going on here.

 

[Crystal]

That we definitely do!

 

[MRM]

Staff up as needed - nothing kills a board quicker than a top-heavy infrastructure. Plus, once staff is needed, members need to respect the position, and not have the perception it was just given indiscriminately. Not that you guys would do that...just...perception.

Either way, if there's anything I can do to help, just let me know. Would love to see this place reach, and even eclipse, GW

 

[Mark]

Staff up as needed - nothing kills a board quicker than a top-heavy infrastructure. Plus, once staff is needed, members need to respect the position, and not have the perception it was just given indiscriminately. Not that you guys would do that...just...perception.

Either way, if there's anything I can do to help, just let me know. Would love to see this place reach, and even eclipse, GW

Trust and believe, we all have made that mistake countless times. Some of the spin-offs had 4 admins, several smods, and close to a dozen mods before they even hit 100 members.

The only reason this conversation is being brought up at all is the success that we had with putting people in charge of building up the forums they moderated. When the expectation from the jump was “if you wanna moderate it, you’re expected to make it an active forum” the quality of moderation we received was INFINITELY better than just throwing a few people up there that wanted to lock in their spot on a would-be popular forum. We treated it as a legitimate responsibility… if you want this particular forum to succeed, help us and help yourself retain this position by doing your part.

 

[A Maybe Baker]

There's probably going to be very little need for moderators (or additional staff) at all for a while here. Unless of course some special "projects" or plans require them in the future.

The most active bit of work so far seems to be changing my name.

 

[Mark]

There's probably going to be very little need for moderators (or additional staff) at all for a while here. Unless of course some special "projects" or plans require them in the future.

The most active bit of work so far seems to be changing my name.

Exactly… like I mentioned above, I haven’t had to do much of shit in the way on moderating, and only a slight bit more in terms of administration. I don’t even have a purpose or things to do at this point… I’m literally LOOKING for excuses to tweak things in the admin cp as I notice stuff if for no other reason than to learn the software.

 

[Tommy Boy]

I trust the three of you to find effective solutions that will continue to keep this place active. You all have done a hell of a job in the past, the only difference now is you are all wiser and more experienced. I trust you folks to do anything with this place without the fear of killing it off forever.

 

[Mark]

I trust the three of you to find effective solutions that will continue to keep this place active. You all have done a hell of a job in the past, the only difference now is you are all wiser and more experienced. I trust you folks to do anything with this place without the fear of killing it off forever.

That’s because it was already killed off forever. @Crystal just likes to play with those defibrillators too much, and here we are now.

Personally, I appreciate the vote of confidence… but the reality is that all 3 of us are rusty and the landscape has changed a lot with the times. The only sure shot we have is doing stuff like this… bringing everyone in on the major decision making processes. We wanna evolve past the “here’s some forums, let us know if you need anything” approach, and make this go round be a genuine collaborative effort between the staff and the people in it. Sure, @Crystal, @Cole, and I all have our own visions of what a GW rebirth should be, but if it were just left up to us 3… it would just be 3 people trying to line up a satisfactory compromise with no input from the people that actually matter in the end… the ones coming here every day after work, or when the kids go to bed, or whatever the case may be.

 

[Tommy Boy]

That’s because it was already killed off forever. @Crystal just likes to play with those defibrillators too much, and here we are now.

Personally, I appreciate the vote of confidence… but the reality is that all 3 of us are rusty and the landscape has changed a lot with the times. The only sure shot we have is doing stuff like this… bringing everyone in on the major decision making processes. We wanna evolve past the “here’s some forums, let us know if you need anything” approach, and make this go round be a genuine collaborative effort between the staff and the people in it. Sure, @Crystal, @Cole, and I all have our own visions of what a GW rebirth should be, but if it were just left up to us 3… it would just be 3 people trying to line up a satisfactory compromise with no input from the people that actually matter in the end… the ones coming here every day after work, or when the kids go to bed, or whatever the case may be.

I appreciate your transparency, which is exactly why I think despite the rust, you folks will do fine still. I have a feeling this iteration of the forum will be successful based on that mentality, and I'm sure a lot of users are ready to contribute and collaborate. Enough time has passed where I am genuinely curious what people are up to that I'm not directly connected to on Signal, and with the impending downfall of Reddit, the timing couldn't be better. Either way, no matter what style of leadership y'all choose to go with, I support it and support the team.

 

[Mark]

I appreciate your transparency, which is exactly why I think despite the rust, you folks will do fine still. I have a feeling this iteration of the forum will be successful based on that mentality, and I'm sure a lot of users are ready to contribute and collaborate. Enough time has passed where I am genuinely curious what people are up to that I'm not directly connected to on Signal, and with the impending downfall of Reddit, the timing couldn't be better. Either way, no matter what style of leadership y'all choose to go with, I support it and support the team.

Transparency is going to be a BIG emphasis here, and one of the first things we discussed… not only because we’re all way too old for the big secrets, but because we know exactly what goes wrong when there isn’t adequate transparency.

 

[A Maybe Baker]

Transparency is going to be a BIG emphasis here, and one of the first things we discussed… not only because we’re all way too old for the big secrets, but because we know exactly what goes wrong when there isn’t adequate transparency.

I think we're all past the point of being power hungry teens on the internet as well...so nobody will feel the need to be a mod just to be a mod.

 

[Mark]

I think we're all past the point of being power hungry teens on the internet as well...so nobody will feel the need to be a mod just to be a mod.

Which is the wildest part to me… I have a teenager, and she would not sign up to be an online janitor.

 

[Raine]

I would co-sign that you, Crystal and Cole are plenty at this stage. Having too many chefs in the kitchen would be more of a determent than anything; harder to form a consensus, harder to strategize. Plus, yes, one account notwithstanding I don't see any particular reason for actual moderation yet. Sticky threads should be about the extent of it for the time being, so long as you don't let Al take away our edit button or anything heinous like that.

I’m also trying to be considerate of giving people the chance to get in on the ground level and make certain forums their “projects” if they want to see a particular forum become more active.

I've got a four day weekend coming up. As soon as a certain someone stops stealing all of my attention, I'm running amok.

You cannot stop me. I have six ha... two hands and I'm not afraid to use them! There will be bitching, moaning, and the throwing of temper tantrums and you're all going to fucking like it. Or entirely ignore it because our interests don't align in the slightest. Whichever.

 

[Mark]

I would co-sign that you, Crystal and Cole are plenty at this stage. Having too many chefs in the kitchen would be more of a determent than anything; harder to form a consensus, harder to strategize. Plus, yes, one account notwithstanding I don't see any particular reason for actual moderation yet. Sticky threads should be about the extent of it for the time being, so long as you don't let Al take away our edit button or anything heinous like that.



I've got a four day weekend coming up. As soon as a certain someone stops stealing all of my attention, I'm running amok.

You cannot stop me. I have six ha... two hands and I'm not afraid to use them! There will be bitching, moaning, and the throwing of temper tantrums and you're all going to fucking like it. Or entirely ignore it because our interests don't align in the slightest. Whichever.

Editing certainly isn’t going to be disappearing, and if there are any other settings that seem to be too restrictive compared to GW, just let one of us know and we’ll take care of it.

 

[Fool's Requiem]

Editing certainly isn’t going to be disappearing, and if there are any other settings that seem to be too restrictive compared to GW, just let one of us know and we’ll take care of it.

Glad that editing doesn't go away. I fat finger too much shit.

 

[Mark]

Glad that editing doesn't go away. I fat finger too much shit.

The only change that I could see happening is MAYBE a template change to perhaps replace “Report” with edit and move “Report” to the three dot drop-down next to it. Purely for convenience sake, because we’re gonna have more people editing posts than reporting them.

 

[Zell 17]

So long as Alu is moderator I will be reporting every post in Current Events

 

[Mark]

So long as Alu is moderator I will be reporting every post in Current Events

Go for it. We gotta figure out how that bullshit works before we have an actual issue arise here anyway.

 

[Fool's Requiem]

Go for it. We gotta figure out how that bullshit works before we have an actual issue arise here anyway.

Reported. Encouraged people to submit false reports.

 

[Mark]

Reported. Encouraged people to submit false reports.

What’s false if it’s reported that Alu sucks?

 

[Fool's Requiem]

shit, got me there

 

[Nebulous]

There is 6 staff members on my forum (including @Crystal who is an admin). There isn't always "work" for them to do as far as actually moderating the forum since we're pretty laid back. It is always good to have an extra set of eyes on the forum though. A staff member's role there is mainly to engage with the community members and provide opinions / suggestions in our hidden staff forum regarding things like member issues, forum updates & improvements. We like to make group decisions as a staff team (which is more fair) and having different perspectives is always beneficial for the community.

For this forum I think you should promote those core members who are really dedicated and want to make this place the best community possible. Having a good group of people to bounce ideas off of and keep the members engaged is a step in the right direction. I wouldn't pay attention to the stats. I know some people seem to think that small forums should only have one admin and one moderator but I don't agree. It takes a village to raise a child forum. There is no such thing as being over-staffed when it comes to forums in my opinion.

 

[A Maybe Baker]

So long as Alu is moderator I will be reporting every post in Current Events

Fair enough.

 

[Mark]

There is 6 staff members on my forum (including @Crystal who is an admin). There isn't always "work" for them to do as far as actually moderating the forum since we're pretty laid back. It is always good to have an extra set of eyes on the forum though. A staff member's role there is mainly to engage with the community members and provide opinions / suggestions in our hidden staff forum regarding things like member issues, forum updates & improvements. We like to make group decisions as a staff team (which is more fair) and having different perspectives is always beneficial for the community.

For this forum I think you should promote those core members who are really dedicated and want to make this place the best community possible. Having a good group of people to bounce ideas off of and keep the members engaged is a step in the right direction. I wouldn't pay attention to the stats. I know some people seem to think that small forums should only have one admin and one moderator but I don't agree. It takes a village to raise a child forum. There is no such thing as being over-staffed when it comes to forums in my opinion.

The problems we’ve had with similar methods in the past are numerous, that’s why it was better just to get a feel from everyone.

One of the main issues on the administrative side is overlap. If I suddenly decide to… say… edit this forum’s permissions while Cole was editing a specific user group and their permissions associated with this forum and I didn’t know it Cole was doing something… I could fuck up whatever he’s doing. Yeah, there could be assigned areas or whatever, but that’s just not practical when there’s no telling when something would need done. It’s unrealistic to expect any one of us to be available for any one task 24/7, so it’s best to have us all available for everything and we just have to be mindful of what the others are doing when it comes to major shit, and communication isn’t an issue… because none of us feel like fixing broken shit. Prime example… I did some tweaks to the forum organization earlier, I did it because the other two were offline so there was no chance of me messing them up with anything. These same issues could happen on even a thread or post issue, in the event you have two people moderating a forum… one person could be moving a thread while the other is trying to split out irrelevant posts within the thread… next thing you know, you have posts vanishing or broken threads. It all seems far-fetched, but I’ve seen it happen, and one of my personal objectives with this run is to try to make things easier for all of us from the jump.

 

[Cole]

Fair enough.

this post was reported for "low content", please try to make your posts more substantive in the future. I know you're new to forums, but this is unacceptable behavior for a moderator.

please try to correct it or we will be forced to relegate you to modding the recycle bin like we did for shortkut

 

[A Maybe Baker]

I can see that I actually officially have been reported, but because it came from a forum I don't mod I can't know for sure if it was actually that post.

 

[Mark]

I can see that I actually officially have been reported, but because it came from a forum I don't mod I can't know for sure if it was actually that post.

I can confirm that we have a record on file for you, but the contents of that are confidential or confusing… one of those words like that.

 

[A Maybe Baker]

I can confirm that we have a record on file for you, but the contents of that are confidential or confusing… one of those words like that.

The contents are above my pay grade.

Somewhere between the $0 I get and the $0 you get.

 

[Mark]

The contents are above my pay grade.

Somewhere between the $0 I get and the $0 you get.

Wait… you actually negotiated a salary? I was only offered like 1/786,000th of something called an “NFT”…

 

[Zell 17]

I can see that I actually officially have been reported, but because it came from a forum I don't mod I can't know for sure if it was actually that post.

I'll do better next time

 

[A Maybe Baker]

I'll do better next time

Thank you. All I can ask is that we all try our best.

 

[A Maybe Baker]

Much improved, thank you.