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Part of the issue here as near as I can tell, is that most other fora have very different expectations of what is expected of a mod in a forum they moderate.
I don't have any problems with the 'lith having a "mods are just people too" principle [1] but if that is so it really should be explicitly stated. It would stop people fighting with Haus[2], for starters.
I think a lot of the problem comes from the usual expectation of
Also, I think there's a general perception of moderators as being monolithic because they are not the common people[3] - although they're clearly not (monolithic, rather than common). However, this doesn't stop things they say (especially in policy or in fora they moderate) being viewed as having more weight than those of the rest of the board.
As I see it, there are two options
A) Mods are just everyday citizens in terms of expectations. In which case, we need to make a lot (a LOT) more of the everyday citizens mods (after all, they can't exactly go wrong, can they?)
B) Mods are special, and have special expectations of them in terms of behaving well in the fora they moderate - they would of course just be common citizens elsewhere. Those expectations need to be defined - I'd start with something along the lines of keeping things on topic, not inciting arguments and generally acting as a steering and pacifying influence upon the forum.
But that's just me. Some people think mods are just there to fix typos, and if so, good stuff. But that should be clearly outlined, because it seems to me that it's resulting in people having serious misconceptions.
[1] Although I think the "Which is okay because of distributed moderation" is actually a bit inaccurate at the moment, given how far we've strayed from actually getting new mods on board. Moderation is in the hands of the few, which is why the many expect that moderators should actually behave differently. After all, if they're not, shouldn't we simply have more mods?
[2] It being my theory that people are so shocked at being hammered by Haus because it wouldn't happen in other online fora with a mod. Thus they feel they're being ganged up on by the powers that be - because that's how it looks.
[3] Again, this is the difference between the intention of the Barbelith experiment and the practice : with hardly anyone new having become a mod in ages AND with the incredible difficulty in actually getting any changes to the board AND with people suggesting discussions like this should be limited to active mods, there's a definate us versus them atmosphere in feel if not in fact. |
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