Recruiting for the staff team

Hello All

I wanted to lay out my vision for the future management of the forum.

First of all, moderators.

That will be one of the last times I use that word.  Moderators have traditionally been forum police, there to control content and behaviour and as far as I am concerned that is an archaic way of viewing forum staffing.  I want to get away from the word moderator and from the way that fora are run and managed.  Suggestions for a new word are most welcome.

I intend for us to have one forum member with specific skills and experience to run each sub forum i.e  someone with excellent foraging experience for the "Food for Free" sub forum, someone with Investments experience for that subforum etc.  It maybe that some have multiple passions/skills/experience and will end up running more than one subfora if they so desire.

Now what I need is not only experience and skill in each subforum, but also a commitment of time, to be able to keep topics moving, to be the resident expert if you will.  There will be, as time progresses, disagreements, so there will be an element of traditional moderation as well, but I hope that we can work as a community and keep disagreements friendly.  But above all a drive to share knowledge and to bring new content and topics to this site, to disseminate new ideas and thoughts on how we can live our lives the way we want.  

The current team of AngelinaJellybeana, Wilhelm Von Rhomboid, MrsNesbitt, and Akuma will act as Global Moderators, and be there to cover whole sections (as well as run certian subfora) and will be the people that the individual experts can rely on as arbiters etc.  They each have extensive experience in moderating fora and will be there to guide as needed.  I will continue as site admin and be the final arbiter on disagreements, (but lets try and keep things so that isn't necessary) and may keep the odd subfora as my pet subjects, unless we get a subject expert in those areas.

There is one last thing I want to stress.  In other fora, becoming a "moderator" is seen as a kind of promotion, a rising above the "herd" of other members.  That is not so here, anyone who takes on a resident expert position runs only their relevant forum and no other, there will be no lording over sections/users the way some mods behave in on other fora. (I am not referring to any one forum btw, it is just a general observation from the many fora that I have used in the past).  

So, the question is, do any of you feel that you can offer time, experience and sufficient subject knowledge to run a subforum?  If you do and are interested, then send me a pm detailing what you can offer and remember that I don't expect you to be logged on 24hrs a day, 7 days a week, I'm more interested in skills and experience and commitment to your field than spending all day online.  Passion is the key.

bump

I found this but wasnt too sure about any of them:

Main Entry: moderator
Part of Speech: noun
Definition: mitigator
Synonyms: alleviator, mediator, pacifier, peacemaker, referee, soother, stabilizer

A soother? Bit dodgy!

KGB (Kanny Green Brigade)

That isnt easy.

I am doing exam after exam so time is a problem for me at present.

Badger wrote:First of all, moderators.

That will be one of the last times I use that word. Moderators have traditionally been forum police, there to control content and behaviour and as far as I am concerned that is an archaic way of viewing forum staffing. I want to get away from the word moderator and from the way that fora are run and managed. Suggestions for a new word are most welcome.

There is nothing wrong with the word.
That it has been misused in the past is no reason to give up on it.
We lose too many things because we allow their meaning to become corrupted.

Co-ordinator
Facilitator
Weaver (thread)

Eco Mountie

Eco Butler

Eco Man Friday, Eco Girl Friday

Eco Tom Tom

Eco A-Z

Raunchbuckets and Studmuffins. Mrs N, Akuma and Jelly can be Global Raunchbuckets and I can be Global Studmuffin. Pretty much guarantee it would up our Google hitrate.

Before we get too hung on the name bit, where are the keen volunteers for subforum Akelas? I can think of several people I would like to nominate.

Thanks guys

Will Stick with Go-To Guy/Gal for the time being.

We need volunteers more urgently than names... [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

are we not meant to be pm ing Badger, if interested? am confused now....

Compostwoman wrote:are we not meant to be pm ing Badger, if interested? am confused now....

Yes we were thinking of alternative names to a 'moderator'!!

Sorted though, but it was a bit of fun too!!

Compostwoman wrote:are we not meant to be pm ing Badger, if interested? am confused now....

Yes, but judging by badger's post he has yet to be flooded with responses.

mmmmm, possibly you may be right!

windymiller wrote:

Compostwoman wrote:are we not meant to be pm ing Badger, if interested? am confused now....

Yes we were thinking of alternative names to a 'moderator'!!

Sorted though, but it was a bit of fun too!!

ah! sorry! ..have been out all day at a workshop, then working...so am a bit "not with it..."

Badger wrote:We need volunteers more urgently than names... [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

This is one of those things where I wouldn't feel right about volunteering, but probably wouldn't say no if asked... and I'm probably too argumentative, to get asked, so I expect I'm fairly safe.

Hmmm - requirement for plenty of time to be available. Whilst I can do this now and for the next few months I guess that won't be the case come the summer - unless you want short term labourers Badger?

Mrs C

bumpetty

Oooh sorry. Should I have put my name down in an official way, like? Thought it was a given that I'm happy to help.

So I've heard.

that emoticon curiously apt, in fact.

You think? Then you have things distinctly wrong. Please forget I ever bothered to volunteer.

chickenofthewoods wrote:You think? Then you have things distinctly wrong. Please forget I ever bothered to volunteer.

Probably best if you're likely to be that touchy.

Ah ha, ha ha ha ha.... Funny.

Badger - not sure if you are lookingfor volunteers or will be approaching people - but could you give us some idea of what exactly is involved and how much time it would take?

This

Badger wrote:Hello All

I wanted to lay out my vision for the future management of the forum.

First of all, moderators.

That will be one of the last times I use that word. Moderators have traditionally been forum police, there to control content and behaviour and as far as I am concerned that is an archaic way of viewing forum staffing. I want to get away from the word moderator and from the way that fora are run and managed. Suggestions for a new word are most welcome.

I intend for us to have one forum member with specific skills and experience to run each sub forum i.e someone with excellent foraging experience for the "Food for Free" sub forum, someone with Investments experience for that subforum etc. It maybe that some have multiple passions/skills/experience and will end up running more than one subfora if they so desire.

Now what I need is not only experience and skill in each subforum, but also a commitment of time, to be able to keep topics moving, to be the resident expert if you will. There will be, as time progresses, disagreements, so there will be an element of traditional moderation as well, but I hope that we can work as a community and keep disagreements friendly. But above all a drive to share knowledge and to bring new content and topics to this site, to disseminate new ideas and thoughts on how we can live our lives the way we want.

The current team of AngelinaJellybeana, Wilhelm Von Rhomboid, MrsNesbitt, and Akuma will act as Global Moderators, and be there to cover whole sections (as well as run certian subfora) and will be the people that the individual experts can rely on as arbiters etc. They each have extensive experience in moderating fora and will be there to guide as needed. I will continue as site admin and be the final arbiter on disagreements, (but lets try and keep things so that isn't necessary) and may keep the odd subfora as my pet subjects, unless we get a subject expert in those areas.

There is one last thing I want to stress. In other fora, becoming a "moderator" is seen as a kind of promotion, a rising above the "herd" of other members. That is not so here, anyone who takes on a resident expert position runs only their relevant forum and no other, there will be no lording over sections/users the way some mods behave in on other fora. (I am not referring to any one forum btw, it is just a general observation from the many fora that I have used in the past).

So, the question is, do any of you feel that you can offer time, experience and sufficient subject knowledge to run a subforum? If you do and are interested, then send me a pm detailing what you can offer and remember that I don't expect you to be logged on 24hrs a day, 7 days a week, I'm more interested in skills and experience and commitment to your field than spending all day online. Passion is the key.

ta [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]