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Only Terry, ThoseMedallingKids, KITCH, Ares and Clue Master have access to this thread.
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Only Terry, ThoseMedallingKids, KITCH, Ares and Clue Master have access to this thread.
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and well...
its going to get hard for me on a weekend...
THX has taken himself out of all "GOD" rights
Just like you guys, I thought it was going to be as simple as having host powers to yank some idiot fucking around in the threads. We found out it's not that cut and dry. Especially when it involves 'regulars'. I want to start something for the crew and Nick because I don't want to wait until Monday.
Some very strong viewpoints were conveyed and taken into account when coming to a conclusion in this matter.
edit away mods
thanks for writing this up!!!
CC Mod:
Most of you have been aware of the ongoing issue concerning Wicked Nick, TMK and Cocorosie.
Due to some information presented to us moderators from the Able Minds forum sysop, we decided to revoke Nick's privilege to post in the Cooler Crew Refugee Camp discussion threads.
After much debate and a majority vote, Nick will be allowed to post here once again. (I would insert here whatever the stipulations are or will be for any continued privileges if that is what we plan to do – though now that this is public knowledge and not a more private situation, perhaps this would need to be decided by other users of these boards and not just moderators.)
This vote involved a type of situation in which we, as moderators, never thought we would need to be involved. It was way beyond the scope of what we each anticipated the position of moderator entailed.
Some very strong viewpoints were conveyed and taken into account when coming to a conclusion in this matter.
Yup
suggest that we work on a policy
Yup
I'll have more time Monday. Off to Owatonna now.
 :smile:
Becoming a moderator is relatively easy, depending on what type of forum you are interested in and what your background can add to that forum. Being an effective moderator is a bit trickier. Anyone can become a moderator on the internet, after all there are more than enough forums to choose from. But once you are chosen, how do you proceed? Do you suddenly become a maniac with a delete button showing your personal distaste for members you may not care for? ItÂ’s not a power play, if thatÂ’s what you are looking for, your position will not be available to you very long.
So what is a moderatorÂ’s main purpose? Your main purpose is to support the forum you are associated with and quietly enforce the rules without turning into the Internet Police. Understand that whatever actions you take; be it deleting a post, or editing out unacceptable language, someone, somewhere is not going to like it. After all, do you like being censored?
Being consistent is the key to a good moderator. Learning to place your own likes and dislikes in the deep freeze while you are on the board, will help you find the flames easier. You may not like a certain member, but guess what? That member probably doesnÂ’t like you either. Engaging in a power play, singling out this certain member will eventually demean you in the eyes of the others on the team and on the boards. Your job is to keep the forums running smooth and even though you arenÂ’t getting paid for your time, you need to show up for work on a regular basis, otherwise others will have to pick up your slack, creating more work for them.
Being a moderator is a thankless job. You even give up your membership to a certain extent, once that decision is made to come on board with the Admin team. It doesn’t matter if you are the most popular member on the planet; once you cross over to that Mod Forum the other members place you on a different level than before when you were one of “them.” It’s sad, but that is just how it works out.
Your age will factor in as well, depending on which forum you are associated with. Most forum webmasters want their moderators to act maturely and use common sense, courtesy and diplomacy, which is not easy to do in some cases. Especially when that poster who makes you groan inwardly posts another inane thread about how “Tofu matters!”
Each forum comes with two separate rules of conduct, one for members, and one for moderators. You want to be sure you can follow these rules and that you are interested enough, or have enough knowledge behind you to want to try.
On the board where I have moderated on for several years our rules are simple:
1. Be a team player
2. Be fair-minded
3. Be diplomatic
4. DonÂ’t let personal issues get in the way of moderating
5. Show up when you can for the job.
I gotta admit...4 has been tricky lately.
Until recently, we had other rules such as, the ability to keep a thread active and interesting. But as the board grew in membership, and more threads had to be read (or at least skimmed) the decision was reached to nominate a non-mod team of people. Their duties would be to take over some of the basic moderatorÂ’s duties, including a Mentor Team to welcome new members, Community Leaders who can introduce fun new topics, and Specialists in the field of cat care that would be able to provide coherent and practical knowledge to threads requesting immediate help. Since this team has been implemented they have provided great assistance, allowing the moderators to keep their focus on other issues, such as troll patrol, handling complaints, moving posts, deleting unacceptable content. The team also provides more experienced eyes on the board to report posts headed for trouble. Also within the moderator team are Forum Admins. These are selected people that can do various tasks behind the scenes allowing the whole system to flow better.
I like this....we alrdy "kinda" do this ....
Once you join a moderating team, itÂ’s a good idea to ask questions. Take a quick look at the Moderators forum, going back a year or two and read the posts to learn how the team reacts, feels and responds. Make sure that you will be able to hold confidences because anything discussed behind the scenes should stay there. Also be sure and read the rules of the boards and familiarize yourself with them. If there is a moderator who has been on the board for quite awhile, contact that moderator and ask her for guidance.
Do I possess all the qualities I speak of above? No, I do not. These are characteristics that I have observed within the team I am fortunate enough to work with today. These qualities are what I strive for, and I have my own personal weaknesses and strengths among them. Part of what keeps me a strong moderator is the area of knowledge I am able to share with everyone. I have been told I am a good moderator. I strive to become more effective.
hmmm...looking back..ya we've made mistakes...but we are growing from them.
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...but still need to tweek. ...somehow I need to include "live messages" in this...
I like Cooler Crew Code of Conduct.
:ooh:
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(its the posters fault then if they get caught...not mine)
I posted that more as a point of discussion and for making sure we thought of all we should be including - or not.
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if it ever did go to court...good luck taking from the poor. :smile:
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I wanted it to be somewhat free like we have it now...
its something I love about here.....its hard to be over the line.
I do think we should include language like this:
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I'm not sure I like "for any reason", but it would cover anything we haven't thought of or could happen.
I don't like "any time -any reason"...I just don't want people to freak saying you can ban me because you don't like my shoes???
I'm ok with this line...
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 4 min ago - 14 Nov 2005 7:08 am New
From:
 THX 1138[2fc0f9e]
 To:
 KITCH
Subj:
 You're gonna hate this
But I think you moderators should create an "Ask the moderators" thread.
It doesn't have to be RIGHT NOW, with all that's going on, but I think it should happen.
See, I got shit from all sides when this Nick thing blew up. Wondering what was gonna happen, who was deciding, when we were deciding, who decided who the deciders (Moderators) were.....
On the same note, we might want to consider having some sort of election of moderators.
heh...he leaves us...and then gives me a list of things to work on :ooh:
In thinking about this and discussing about JT, here is what I feel. There has been discussion about who is moderator and how we came to be. But I think that if we come up with a code of conduct, that our jobs will be a lot easier. We'll have a set of guidelines to use in enforcing things. There won't be as much discussion because we'll actually be able to go to rule # whatever, show that it was broken, and act. Plus, beyond this whole incident, what was there really? During the hunt there's problems, yes. But outside of it, there has hardly been anything. I know that we're coming up with a code of conduct. What I think is that we open it up to the forum as a whole. We are a community, we should let the community help make the code of how we want things to be. If they set the guidelines as a whole, all we do is enforce them. If there's a larger issue, like the one we just had, we can certainly open that discussion up to the forum too as far as what people think should be done. But if the community decides on the standards, then we as moderators basically just enforce them, and don't have really as hard a job. Can people be upset with us as moderators if we're enforcing the rules and standards that the people set?
One of my thoughts with this "code of conduct" is its like the constitution...its a work in progress and can always be tweeked.
The way I have it set up now isn't that bad...it just simply states play like your parents would be proud of you.....
But...I wanted to write up something HERE that could be tweek first...then given to the rest of the crew...let them give us ideas on more tweeks and ideas...who knows maybe we missed something or have something to ruling.....
beyond that...IMHO we need another female....
also TMK is exactly right...
Right now voting would be a nightmare....
voting for one person would be o.k.
but voting for all of us would be a disaster.
when you look at the core group that THX picked with Terry's help its amazing it is the differnt views and groups...he did a good job.
As far as a structured framework, I think we should be careful in how we present it. There may be some who take it as we've come up with something and want them to say it's okay. They may be take that a wrong way. I'm not sure. I think though that a separate thread needs to be made. Give some time for discussion. Have it up there for a while, so that people can go back to it to reference, so we know what's been discussed, people can see how we came about on things. Plus we could always later, at some point, bring up other things to discuss, add amendments, etc.
ya know, i really don't find it difficult. there are people with whom i don't necessarily get along, but that doesn't mean i can't be fair when dealing with them.
on robert street they are build a homedepot 2.
I think once we have settled this issue, I would like to see another female join this group. I know me2 has been mentioned and I would concur with that.
If anyone thinks or wishes me to bow out of this group, I would be fine with that too without any hurt feelings.
Different people are here for different reasons. When we first came here, THX asked for my opinion on who would be good because he didn't want to do the moderating alone anymore. We chose people with different strengths, for various lengths of participating, for the different times that some of you can be here, and for various other reasons that I don't even remember anymore. I think we did a good job of getting people from across the spectrum.
I can't be here during the day and often there may be things that need handling then. I can't be consistently here in the evenings either so there may be someone better suited. I think the sole reason I was asked to be here is for the history...but I don't need to be a moderator to provide that if asked.
My opinion is that we should get the Code of Conduct finished and posted. If there is good reason, after others read it, to change some of the language or add something, that's fine.
Oh, and voting would be a nightmare indeed. The thing I don't think that people understand is that contrary to the way things have been handled in some of the threads 'out there', we have stayed civil and fair with each other in here ever since it's inception. Which does say a lot for yours and JT's choices of moderators Terry.
she's always had a good voice of reason as far as I'm concerned...
and TERRY I won't let you go..its bad enough that JT backed out.
what did you do the the *cough* men's club thread..
sorry terry...
:wink: :wink: