fechter said:
Yes, you should be a moderator. I'm too busy to read everything these days and so is Knighmb.
I am working on a set of "rules" that will hopefully make dealing with the flamers easier. I don't feel it's right to take action against someone unless they have broken the stated rules. Right now the rule set is pretty thin.
I also don't like to censor what people post (unless it's spam).
Somebody want to draft a set of new rules? I was thinking something along the lines of anyone getting 3 reports on a post earning a one week ban for the first offense, with increasing ban lengths for repeat offenses. Just an idea. No personal attacks is another good rule. If nobody reports a post, then I assume nobody has an issue with it. Anyone can report a post in the present setup.
I agree, the first thing that needs to be done around here is create a policy for all the members. Right now, the Endless-Sphere is suffering from "growing pains" and it is suffering badly.
You don't need to re-invent the wheel. Every large forum has rules and you can adopt a set you kind of like and then tweak it to your satisfaction.
Once you have a policy, you will get all the mods you want, because they will then know how the forum is supposed to run and they know if they want to support the policies.
Putting out a public request for mods at this point, is frankly, putting the cart before the horse and you are just throwing gas on the fire. You should hold off. It would be VERY HARD to mod the forums here at this point, without getting your ass kicked in the PM department.
Having said that, you could recruit folks to help you create policy in a special Staff sub forum (invisible to the members). The group can be made up of key members and it can even be a temporary position, that is dissolved after the job is done and they go back to being regular members if they wish. Once everything is hammered out, some could become mods if they wished.
Once you do make a policy, then you must support the policy 100% of the time. You may decide to create a sub-forum that only the staff can see, that is an area to move threads that are "questionable" until you all can decide what to do. You can call it the "Doubtful Threads Forum". That way, you can discuss what action to take if any and it's a good place to work things out for the staff.
Finally, another suggestion. You say you are busy - and this is a problem for anyone trying to mod foums. Select mods that fit the section. Maybe someone is very good at Battery Technology- make them the mod there. they will be in there anyway as this is what they like. Some others are more social, put them in the General Discussion area, etc. Also, folks can report a bad post to that mod as ii is their section. It's great to have an "expert" to overssee a technical sub-section. It is not critical- it's just nice.
Each mod can be named for their section of responsibility and can even be listed as such on the forum section. This is much more efficient, as they only have to keep an eye on their section and not read every thread. The same person can mod over just one-or several sections whatever you want. Or, sometimes, in a busy section, you can have more than one mod. This is especially handy for international forums, as you wil need around the clock supervision to stop crap before it gets out of hand.
After the rules are in place, and everyone understands that they must abide by them, suddenly, the "problems" dwindle way down. In addition, you don't have to feel bad for supporting the policy, as you are wrapped in it. The only awkward thing is creating one and grandfathering folks in. Some wont like it and they may leave, but all new members will have to agree to the policy upon registration, so even that bump in the road soon goes away.
In the end, the forum is better off for it as people will have to treat one another with respect, and those that do not can be purged from the system, knowing from the get go - this is their own doing.
The forum becomes more useful, as you are not wading through 50% flame wars and repetitive confrontational comments, grandstanding etc, to get to the valuable information. You, as a member, can suddenly use the notification tool to see the latest on what is happening in a thread you are interested in without being disappointed by reading childish remarks instead.
BTW, you can also use a redirect in the admin panel when you move a thread so folks don't have to wonder what the heck happened to a thread they are reading, when it goes from Battery technology to the Selling area after a week of flames. I thought the darn thing was deleted for a while, until I found it again.
