BARBELITH underground
 

Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.


On Fewer Admins...

 
  

Page: (1)2

 
 
Tom Coates
07:09 / 16.09.03
While I don't agree with mod/!/modog/whatever in their actions on the board, I am going to allow myself to be persuaded by the need for some kind of greater transparency. The only reason that there have been five or six admins around the place is that I've not had the time to make them into moderators in each and every part of the site. I've now made a rough stab in that direction. Hopefully seeing who has moderator privileges around the site will make it seem less elitist, and if either ex-admins or other members wish to suggest changes to the specific arrangement of areas to deal with, then they should feel free to do so below...
 
 
Seth
08:59 / 16.09.03
Thanks Tom. Can't say fairer than that.
 
 
Tryphena Absent
11:10 / 16.09.03
Hey can we call them Super-Mod's??
 
 
The Strobe
13:44 / 16.09.03
Polymods, surely?
 
 
We're The Great Old Ones Now
13:46 / 16.09.03
Do they have to have a classification? That implies immediately that they're different from us.
 
 
Tryphena Absent
14:12 / 16.09.03
But Super-mods is a great name. It implies that they have magic powers, can fly, possibly hit things with beams of light that come from their eyes. Hell it implies that they can heat their microwaveable dinners with their eyes. This isn't about classification. This is about what's right, what's good and erm... protecting people from the evil monsters that hide under their beds at night. Yeah.

*Polymods* my backside, your suggestion has been rejected monkeyboy!
 
 
sleazenation
14:15 / 16.09.03
well this is a problem - anyone with abilities than anyone else IS different. We can either give a designation to those with greater abilities opening those with them to criticism as an elite or we can not and open everyone up to suspicion of belonging to a shadowy clique cabal that uses its powers indescriminately.
 
 
Tryphena Absent
14:33 / 16.09.03
Ooh... super-mods has soooo many puns though. Well, two. But I'm sure someone else can find more. And who's going to think they're authoritarian when they have such a ridiculous, punnish collective name? It's like incredibly bad reference land.
 
 
nedrichards is confused
15:22 / 16.09.03
Anna, I'm with you. They need a good team name to fight evil and suchlike. And a uniform, certainly a uniform. But yes, transparency is good - thanks Tom.
 
 
Tom Coates
15:31 / 16.09.03
They're just moderators over more than one forum, by Grapthar's Hammer!
 
 
We're The Great Old Ones Now
15:48 / 16.09.03
Maybe a transparent uniform?
 
 
Tryphena Absent
18:03 / 16.09.03
Nick, I want you to sit down and picture Haus, Ganesh and Lurid standing next to each other in transparent uniforms. Now think about what you just wrote. I will leave you to judge yourself.

Come on Tom-- you can call yourself UltraMod! Don't you want to be him? Doesn't it sound cool? Spandex laderhosen... earmuffs shaped like ladybirds... transparent patches over the nipples?
 
 
Tom Coates
18:16 / 16.09.03
I'd rather eradicate humanity from the face of the earth.
 
 
Ganesh
18:20 / 16.09.03
As UltraMod, you could. In your head, anyway.
 
 
ONLY NICE THINGS
18:48 / 16.09.03
Since we are spread thinly over the fora, maybe we should be modbranes?

Sorry.

I'm pro this - am concocting a partial explanation why on another thread.
 
 
We're The Great Old Ones Now
19:57 / 16.09.03
I'm still having a mental Mazola Oil Party with Anna's list of transparently costumed mods. Call Whisky, she loves this kind of thing.
 
 
Tryphena Absent
20:16 / 16.09.03
You're joking right, it's 10pm, Barbelith Towers is surely watching the West Wing!
 
 
Murray Hamhandler
22:08 / 16.09.03
Maybe it's just me, but do you other mods really think it's okay that these polymods, with powers that we can't even begin to understand, be allowed to just moderate in any forum they like? Next thing you know, they're going to create fora of their own, decrease the posting limit to 5 a day, and try to bring back that damned "column 2" nonsense. Mods, I urge you to join me in stamping out the polymod menace before they start to influence our children. Think about the children!

Stinkin' "poly"s.
 
 
Tryphena Absent
22:43 / 16.09.03
I hate you dericgeneric.
 
 
We're The Great Old Ones Now
23:59 / 16.09.03
Now you wish you'd stuck with the Mazola Oil thing, don't you?
 
 
Jack Denfeld
08:53 / 18.09.03
I was King Mod for awhile. Does anyone remember that? It actually went pretty well.
 
 
Tom Coates
16:25 / 18.09.03
In all seriousness, basically the need for admins/polymods is just that there aren't enough people to vote on everything that goes on on the board otherwise. But if people think that having people as moderators over this many forums is a bad idea, then we can tweak it. Make them moderators of less, make current moderators look after more.

The problem with the newarrangement is that these polymods really aren't going to be able to do the other roles of a mdoerator around the board (ie. inspire conversation and debate)...
 
 
Persephone
17:54 / 18.09.03
How many people do you need? There's thirteen fora --well see, there's your problem right there-- say, five mods per forum? That's 65 mods. Just as an exercise, I've just clicked through to the member page & sorted by number of posts. I just went down the list and wrote down names, and I already have a list of 65 people that I think would make fine moderators. I only excluded five people, because they don't come around the board anymore.
 
 
grant
15:31 / 19.09.03
I'm getting a distictly OCD itch right now -- there's a triplicate topic post in the Creation. Ack! It's right up under my skin!
Somebody tidy it up!

OK, I'll shut up now. Breathing deeply....
 
 
Less searchable M0rd4nt
19:36 / 19.09.03
I notice I'm now a Headshop mod, and Bio K9 has just pointed out that I'm also modding comics. Now, I'm totally cool with this (evil power-junkie, remember?). However, the Headshop makes me all sort of itchy, and what I know about comics and nintey cents will buy me a litre of sangria. So long as you guys just want a warm body to okay your typo fixes, I'm game, but I'd understand if I got replaced by someone who could be a little more hands-on.
 
 
Tom Coates
09:26 / 21.09.03
OK then, here are some recommendations - we'll just do some cleaning around the place with regards to moderators (and this is for current moderators only). If you're currently moderating less than four fora, then feel free to volunteer for others, if you are moderating four or five then feel free to say if you'd like to change which ones you're moderating, and if you're moderating six or more, feel free to name a few that you'd like not to moderate any more (and to switch around which ones you're currently handling).

At this stage no one has to abide by these figures if they don't want to, and I make no promises that I can fulfil everyone's wishes, because it's quite possible that everyone would decide to abandon (say) The Gathering, and we need a decent amount of moderators in each and every forum. But basically, I think we should aspire to around six mods per forum...

In order to make this quicker for me to make these changes (which are slightly fiddly) - could you write your request in the following format:

USER {USERNUMBER}: +{NUMBER OF FORUM YOU WISH TO MODERATOR} -{NUMBER OF FORUM YOU NO LONGER WISH TO MODERATE}

So for example, for me to stop moderating the Conversation and start moderating the Head Shop and The Policy, I'd write:

USER 1: -1 +4 +2
 
 
Tom Coates
21:35 / 22.09.03
Oi! Moderators! Pay attention!
 
 
grant
21:39 / 22.09.03
I'm happy where I am. Uh, am I doing too many? I'll have to count....
 
 
Mazarine
22:11 / 22.09.03
USER 59: +1, +7, +5

If they're needed. Or whatever.
 
 
Spatula Clarke
22:36 / 22.09.03
I think maybe current moderators are a little wary of taking on any more forums after the recent round of accusations, Tom.

I can help out in Film, TV & Theatre if you want. Er, that's

USER 8: +11
 
 
grant
23:43 / 22.09.03
USER 213, -8, -10

Unless I'm needed there.
 
 
cusm
16:05 / 23.09.03
Sure, I'll play. I think this is just about as much as I can handle keeping an eye on.

USER: 512 +2, +7, +11

Knight to queen's bishop 7. Check.
 
 
Regrettable Juvenilia
11:44 / 24.09.03
I think I'm happy where I am. Someone recently suggested to me that people should moderate the fora they play an active part in - which these days would mean me leaving the Head Shop and Switchboard and asking to moderate Music and maybe Comics. But they seem to have enough people, and I only took on Head Shop cos it seemed a little short... So I think I should probably stick. Conversation is the only one which ever requires any real work, and I'm happy with that.
 
 
Lurid Archive
11:23 / 25.09.03
USER 24: -6

I'm now a moderator in the magick, and I probably shouldn't be. Especially if we want mods to be active and stimulate discussion. If a replacement is required, I'd suggest Quantum. He'll do well there and it'll introduce some new blood into the moderator clique.
 
 
Char Aina
11:31 / 25.09.03
Especially if we want mods to be active and stimulate discussion.

i think that may be a part of the problem.
it looks very much like a parental role when people start talking about guiding the board and molding it into what it should be.

and in seriousness, the suggestion of renaming them janitors, or something similarly pedestrian sounding might help.

are mods the fathers/mothers of the board, or are they just there to clean up?

i thought they were merely caretakers; does all that work with no 'reward' feel wrong? is there a lust for power, however small it may be?

i'll do any cleaning up you like, and i promise i will not ever talk down to anyone while wearing a moderator hat, as i feel has been done to me.
 
  

Page: (1)2

 
  
Add Your Reply