Electing Moderators

M

Matthew Schenker

Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2007
Messages
2,619
Good Morning,
The subject of moderators has come up here and there in the forum, and I communicate with members offline about it all the time.  It seems the time may be right to get moderators for boards of this forum!

Quick explanation of moderators:
A moderator has powers to manage areas of the forum.  Depending on how it's set up, a moderator can be the boss of one board (let's say "Member Projects") or there can be what's known as a "global moderator" (powers over all boards).  The more common scenario is to have one or more moderators for each board in the forum.  Although I would continue being the administrator of all the technical aspects of the forum and the database, the advantage of having moderators is that decisions about posts and members would no longer just be made just by me.  They would be made by the moderators of each board, and I would respect those decisions.

There are a number of members who I believe would be great moderators for this forum.

I'd like to hear nominations for moderator posts.  What board do you think that person should moderate?  Then we need to hear from the nominees!

Stay in touch,
Matthew
 
Put me down for being happy with just one omnipotent one as being better than a whole bunch of em.
 
It would be great if FOG had some good moderators. Matthew has often expressed his distaste for moderating and has instead tried to keep the forum running smoothly through technical and administrative modifications. It hasn't worked as well as he'd like. Real live moderators could persuade people to cool it when necessary or delete stuff that is simply aggravating.

It would be great if the moderators spanned a broad range of time zones. My pick for the ideal group of moderators are, Forrest, Greg Mann, and Eli. Not that any of them have expressed an interest in taking this on.
 
Michael Kellough said:
It would be great if FOG had some good moderators. Matthew has often expressed his distaste for moderating and has instead tried to keep the forum running smoothly through technical and administrative modifications. It hasn't worked as well as he'd like. Real live moderators could persuade people to cool it when necessary or delete stuff that is simply aggravating.

It would be great if the moderators spanned a broad range of time zones. My pick for the ideal group of moderators are, Forrest, Greg Mann, and Eli. Not that any of them have expressed an interest in taking this on.
Click to expand...

I acknowledge that I've never been comfortable moderating and have always liked bringing the community into administrative decisions.  When this forum was smaller, that worked, and the forum did grow quite well for a while with that management style in place.  It's tough because I like that aspect of the forum, and it's difficult for me to face that it's no longer possible.  Anyway, I believe I've done all right developing the structure needed to have a functional forum.

Yeah, it's probably good for me to concentrate on technical aspects, and bring in a couple of people who are better at putting their feet down.  It's a necessary step and I think it will make a great improvement.

Thanks,
Matthew
 
Matthew, and others certainly; could you describe the qualities you seek in a moderator? I have spent my professional career in Quality Assurance  (which I think makes me very objective) I might be interested.
 
Matthew:

I offer the following respectfully to both you and the entire forum.

This forum needs time to get back to neutral ground.  It has recently gone thru some posts and threads that have been totally against the norm in the community.  Then ther has been the wholde Festool domain issue, then ...

I offer the following advice without any malice to you or the forum because prior to the past few months this forum was the portrait on the wall of what forums could be:

Please stop experimenting.  Hopefully this isn't a social experiment but rather a place for enthusiats to get together.  Leave it alone at this point and let it self level.  This forum will eventually need moderators and even more constant attention.  The karma thing won't work because of the makeup of the community and what many do for a living.  With a few exceptions, the biggest issues have been not what has been siad but how it was said.  That is unfortunately the way of the internet.

To wish for the forum to grow and expand is normal.  You have spent enormous amounts of time nurturing this along and there must be so many feelings and emotions attached that nobody else but the guy you see in the mirror can understand.  To have the participants take pot shots is not fun.  Don't react quickly and want to share the wealth of the potshots.  That's not you.

Electing moderators forces those individuals to the same sort of "enthusiasm" that you have received and forces them to be a virtual prisoner to the computer much as you have made yourself.  Burn out will happen.  It is human nature to test the new guy(s).

In closing,  I have never tried to creat turmoil in this forum and I can tell you that I an worrried about where this is going.  Please walk away for a while and really think about it.

Peter
 
I don't know if I am too new to considered for the honor of being a moderator, or what makes one qualified, but I'll throw my hat in.

Matthew,

Let me know what you think and I welcome anyone else's imput.
 
peter halle said:
Matthew:

I offer the following respectfully to both you and the entire forum.

This forum needs time to get back to neutral ground.  It has recently gone thru some posts and threads that have been totally against the norm in the community.  Then ther has been the wholde Festool domain issue, then ...

I offer the following advice without any malice to you or the forum because prior to the past few months this forum was the portrait on the wall of what forums could be:

Please stop experimenting.  Hopefully this isn't a social experiment but rather a place for enthusiats to get together.  Leave it alone at this point and let it self level.  This forum will eventually need moderators and even more constant attention.  The karma thing won't work because of the makeup of the community and what many do for a living.  With a few exceptions, the biggest issues have been not what has been siad but how it was said.  That is unfortunately the way of the internet.

To wish for the forum to grow and expand is normal.  You have spent enormous amounts of time nurturing this along and there must be so many feelings and emotions attached that nobody else but the guy you see in the mirror can understand.  To have the participants take pot shots is not fun.  Don't react quickly and want to share the wealth of the potshots.  That's not you.

Electing moderators forces those individuals to the same sort of "enthusiasm" that you have received and forces them to be a virtual prisoner to the computer much as you have made yourself.  Burn out will happen.  It is human nature to test the new guy(s).

In closing,  I have never tried to creat turmoil in this forum and I can tell you that I an worrried about where this is going.  Please walk away for a while and really think about it.

Peter
Click to expand...

The old saying, Cooler heads will prevail.
 
Insert Quote
Matthew:

I offer the following respectfully to both you and the entire forum.

This forum needs time to get back to neutral ground.  It has recently gone thru some posts and threads that have been totally against the norm in the community.  Then ther has been the wholde Festool domain issue, then ...

I offer the following advice without any malice to you or the forum because prior to the past few months this forum was the portrait on the wall of what forums could be:

Please stop experimenting.  Hopefully this isn't a social experiment but rather a place for enthusiats to get together.  Leave it alone at this point and let it self level.  This forum will eventually need moderators and even more constant attention.  The karma thing won't work because of the makeup of the community and what many do for a living.  With a few exceptions, the biggest issues have been not what has been siad but how it was said.  That is unfortunately the way of the internet.

To wish for the forum to grow and expand is normal.  You have spent enormous amounts of time nurturing this along and there must be so many feelings and emotions attached that nobody else but the guy you see in the mirror can understand.  To have the participants take pot shots is not fun.  Don't react quickly and want to share the wealth of the potshots.  That's not you.

Electing moderators forces those individuals to the same sort of "enthusiasm" that you have received and forces them to be a virtual prisoner to the computer much as you have made yourself.  Burn out will happen.  It is human nature to test the new guy(s).

In closing,  I have never tried to creat turmoil in this forum and I can tell you that I an worrried about where this is going.  Please walk away for a while and really think about it.

Peter
Click to expand...

Peter has stated this far more eloquently than I could.

Matthew, please give this some serious consideration. I believe that what you have worked so hard to build is on that brink of collapse if we cannot get it turned around.

Respectfully
Jim
 
Everyone,
We're working on it.  Please be patient, and understand that the forum is in a bit of a transition right now.  Like I said above, a certain kind of management style brought the forum a lot of success.  Now that we have reached a certain level, however, I recognize it's time to make a change for the better.

Please try to be supportive of the ideas we're implementing.

John Langevin said:
Matthew, and others certainly; could you describe the qualities you seek in a moderator? I have spent my profesional career in Quality Assurance  (which I think makes me very objective) I might be interested.
Click to expand...

Good question.  I'd say the qualities include patience, assertiveness, flexibility, but toughness.  Maybe there are others, but that's what comes to mind right off.

I'd be interested in seeing John Langevin and ChicagoMike as moderators.

Thanks for your support!

Stay in touch,
Matthew
 
Well count me out as I am disqualified. you see, I have been in the construction field too long and have become very BS intolerant.
 
Matthew:

I am supportive and would be willing to help in the future if needed to possibly moderate based on the yet to be created guidelines and criteria.  I know that I sound like a hypocrite.  I'm not.  Patience is a virtue I have and I hope that this will work out without a need.

Peter

 
I'll soften my prior position and nominate Roger Savatteri. A wonderful craftsman as well as an artful writer with a great sense of humor and wit to boot. ;)
 
Woodenfish said:
I'll soften my prior position and nominate Roger Savatteri. A wonderful craftsman as well as an artful writer with a great sense of humor and wit to boot. ;)
Click to expand...

Completely agree! Glad there is something besides Festools we agree on.
(Hope this doesn't automatically disqualify Roger)

Actually we've been subject to voluntary peer pressure moderation all along but no one has taken the responsibility to use it.

In the recent Karma experiment I received 30 or so negative dings, a surprising number since no one (other than Matthew) has ever written me to complain about a post of mine. That option has always been available and will still be so.  But my Karma rating was the result of a lot of anonymous negativity signifying nothing. If there were real people behind my rating it seems like I would have heard from one of them.

If any of the many people I respect here had ever written me to say I'd gone too far or I needed to change my tone I'd have heeded their advice. With or without official moderators going forward that is still an option.
 
woodtradesman said:
Well count me out as I am disqualified. you see, I have been in the construction field too long and have become very BS intolerant.
Click to expand...

BS intolerance is a moderator requirement. ;D
 
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