EnviroLink Forum

Moderators need a separate account to use for their "official business", if they are to participate in board discussions besides carry out moderator duties.

There's simply no way to tell otherwise if non-specific and sometimes vague admonishments and "advice" are being done under the guise of "moderator" or "regular poster". When sometimes heated arguments go on for several posts, and then suddenly the moderator hat is donned...can you not see how that can be resented?

The most well moderated boards I've seen have a system where moderator duties are carried out anonomously....the moderator posts show up labeled simply "MODERATOR". With the result that even moderators themselves, when posting as regular posters, are subject to public scrutiny from the other moderators....thus alleviating the "us vs them" thing.

I vote for that.

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I think it's a brilliant suggestion.

Amongst Wayne, AL, and Venom, I think it'd be pretty easy to tell which one of them wrote it.

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I can have oodles of charm....... when I want to.

Good point.

On the board where I see it work best, that's avoided by having MODERATOR posts direct and to the point. No editorializing or lecturing. In fact, whichever mod writes a post will usually refer to himself in third person, ie: "MODERATOR has determined that you are in violation of the ROE. (Rules of Engagement) You have 24 hours to edit the offending post."

Course, it likely wouldn't work if the mods themselves maintain an us vs them posture. Like I said, on that other board the mods police each other even in the public forums.

Thinking about it more, I ain't sure even that would be enough to have it work here, for a very real difference between the two boards. That other board is a much larger community, and in fact has a sense of community that is lacking here. Some of the posters are known to be mods...but the roster of mods changes somewhat and new ones come onboard from time to time....so there's never the sense that a mod post is definately one of just a couple people.

And maybe there's another reason it wouldn't work here....but if I go into that, it will likely get me on the bad side of some of the mods here. Heh. And I don't want to do anything that will be harmful to the great love and devotion they have for me now.

maybe the title Moderator should be changed to Czar (unless that's a banned word too)...

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RF-

Thanks for your suggestion. I do appreciate it as it seems to have been made in a spirit of actually helping (as opposed to some of the follow on comments). I don't know if it is laziness on my part or what, but we've always avoided having multiple accounts and the phpBB system that we use does not support anonymous posting at all (which is what I think we would need if we had to implement what you suggested). I really don't want to have a Josh-Mod account vs. just the Josh account.

What we have done in the past, which we've slipped away from is to have all "official" statements and actions highlighted in a different color. I think this might be a good compromise, because I do agree that it is difficult to distinguish when I (or any other EnviroLink Volunteer) is speaking officially or not.

So... here's what we'll do for now. Let's re-implement the color scheme thing. All official comments within threads should be separated out from personal opinions and marked with the following:

MODERATOR: This is the official thing I am saying

That's a green color (#008000) and the word moderator is bolded. I think that is a good balance between not wasting Volunteers' time and being clear to users.

-josh

JOSH, do you think MAYBE this stuff is getting a bit ridiculous? I mean the over moderating ( in my opinion) over inappropriate language that is really not. Or over use of emoticons that really is funny and not really overboard? I understand J as I did watch the exchange as it happened but this is getting as if I am back in kindergarden. I realize that maybe you guys ( mods) are trying to make a point ( or it seems so). I understand that your impartiality has been called into question so you guys have drawn a line in the sand so to speak but is this being done for the betterment of the board or simply to show certain individuals who is in charge and what it is like if everything is suddenly black and white?

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I agree. I just hope everything dies down and this would have to come from BOTH sides. This used to be an enjoyable board and the over-moderating is in excess and creates more problems. I can absolutely see moderating when things get out of hand (and they did not get out of hand last night in the cockfighting thread when animal lover prematurely jumped in and said "play nice".) It's insulting and overbearing and yes, like kindergarden.

I'm not seeing where things are getting out of hand. I commented on the "what words are acceptable or not" thread and I didn't realize things were still a problem with that. In terms of the personal attacks coming out in the middle of good discussions, that is an issue that I've decided we should take a pretty strong stand on. I've had numerous people who are normally lurkers here comment to me that they thought that this was one of the more mean-spirited boards they had seen. Things got way out of hand and needed to be reigned in. If the fact that we are not going to allow people to pummel each other here with personal attacks is making it less fun, then so be it. If moderators are over-interpreting my wishes here, then I do need to know about it. We have been discussing the issue and it seemed to me like things are getting better (along some dimensions).

PLEASE use the (! for those of you who don't have images turned on) tool to alert me to posts that you think are inappropriate (whether they be from Volunteers or users). If you don't tell me about these problems and instead things only ever make it to me when they erupt and are out of hand, there's nothing I can really do to help.

-josh

It would only be anonymous to the regular users....not an anonymous posting as a "guest" or something of that order. It would be more like the Josh-Mod account vs just Josh account thing.

Like I went on to say though, I'm not sure it would work here on further reflection anyway. We know what works in one community often isn't necessarily the right answer for another community...and I don't see why THAT is any different in online communities.

Your "green=official" approach is a good thing, I believe.

Oh...and I hadn't even thought that YOU would need to do your moderating under the MOD account in my idea. I look at all your pronouncements as "official" by virtue that it is your forum...it's your child so to speak, and its entire being is a sum derived from your thoughts and inclinations. Not to mention that virtually your entire participation is administrative in nature....you so seldom participate in discussion or argument.