So are there users with mod capabilites unaware of their hidden powers? Do we need some Peter Parker moments?

It's not something that is hidden. Just go to a mod, then look at their profile for the group section, pick global moderators and then hit "go" to show users in that group.

Of course. Like most forums, this one has a private area where admins/mods can discuss issues.
It is used almost daily. ( It has occasionally been the site of vigorous debates )

I don't see that we have a shortage of mods. We are not getting overrun by spam or trolls.
A handful of members have been very diligent about reporting problems ( Thanks, guys, you know who you are ) and we seem to have someone available to handle those problems as they arise.

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How do you square this with the fact that tchan just announced he will quit moderating because he feels overworked?

I propose that the current mods just add 15 new mods or so. No nominations, elections or asking for volunteers, just add some active users you think you can trust.

Well to be fair to the rest of the mods, I'm on the forum quite often and just happen to see many of the things first. So I end up fixing many things but this gets tiring after a while especially when I do not have Solomonic wisdom. And I didn't say quit, just taking a break

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'Overworked' is a relative term. A mod/admin's perception of it may be dependent of how much criticism he receives.

We don't have a shortage of mods. Maybe we have a shortage of happy mods.

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Oh, yes, sorry, I didn't mean to imply you quite permanently, just that you quit "for now".

Part of the problem here may be that you are the only mod in East Asia, so you are probably online at times that most of the other mods are asleep.

I know it's fun to debate theoretical discrepancies, but the actual situation is not that we have too many mods, unless you count the ten mods/admins who are apparently utterly inactive. What we have is 2 admins/mods, one of whom is exhausted from the work/criticism, and another who thinks that there is no need for any more mods/admins and no functionality whatsoever for keeping them in line. In fact the catch-22 situation exists that the TOS asks that complaints about an admins actions should not be aired publicly, but rather in P.M.s to the admins who will then supposedly take care of the complaints about themselves.

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I wouldn't be opposed to a limited access subforum for this reason, with membership open to users with a certain number of posts, say 50 or 100, to ensure that they are active members of the community with a stake in the outcome of the process. Of course, given the existence of this thread, it's clear that some discussion of these issues is tolerated.

I suspect that the original reason for this was to prevent a thread about every bit of moderator action and drowning the forum in debate about the moderation process, to the exclusion of actual content. In addition, by making it public, one could, hypothetically, invoke desires to not be seen as backing down, which may be detrimental to the long term stability of the site.

Please, go players in the same city of a mod: gift them a beer or coffee. They deserve it

On unrelated news, is it just me or the site has been down somewhat often lately? I've seen "server not found" errors more than 3 times (each day) in the last 4 days.

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From previous discussion, the details of mod actions are kept private out of the interesting belief that making them public may be legally actionable. Which seems at odds with the rest of the internet but, eh I know almost nothing about US law.

I'm listed, but don't consider myself a mod. I was given mod access as part of volunteering to do technical work, which I have um.. errr...

I should delete blatant spam instead of reporting it, since that seems harmless, but these days I don't see much of it: someone else must be cleaning it up before I log on.

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So how many people actively moderate? Is it just Tchan and Joaz?

I'm still wondering... Will Svetlana's thread ever be unlocked?
Or did we permanently run off a potentially great contributor from our little community?

What I think is:

1. Inactive mods should not be mods, take away the mod powers.
This way we know how many people are actively doing the work. It is meaningless to have a list of 50 admins if only two of the are active.

2. There should be enough mods so none of them feels too overworked.
So burn-out situations are avoided. I assume good mods are hard to find, and once we have one, we should treat him/her right not expect him/her to work like a horse. This also implies that the community be understanding when the admin needs to take a short break to avoid burnout. Admins need to take care of themselves as well. And I like the beer ideas. Any admins in SD?

3. Being a mod also implies that you are very open to criticism.
You should not be working that much *for* the community as *with* the community, and as such, your work should have a lot of give-and-take and certainly be open adjustment and moderation itself. You have to listen to the input you are given, or you are just a dictator. (This is just a general rule, and I am certainly not talking about any of the admins I know.)

4. It would help to have an admin log I have proposed before.
Like a list somewhere where the major admin actions can be logged. Not every spam removal or whatever, but when a thread is locked (many examples), or active contributor is banned (Jasiek situation), or go-related ad prevented (like the teacher ads.)

5. A limited-access sub-forum for community input would be very nice.
Somebody already suggested that.

--------------------

Still, the issue under discussion here is moderation levels and specifically teachers.
I really believe that teachers should be able to advertise their classes in here, its a perfect place. With emails, prices, and all that!
We already have book ads, software ads, website ads, and whatnot. People announce Go videos, and Go Schools. So why not teacher ads? Because they are more "personal"? I think this is splitting the hair too thin. Teacher adds are a good, go-related content which the community is very interested in. And teachers should be supported, not pushed away, especially pro-level teachers.

If the ads really grate at somebody - create a subforum for ads, teachers or otherwise, and that's that.
Although we already have a teachers subforum, no?
I really do not see what is the problem that.
Use common sense.

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Good question.

I think a personal email should be sent to her, with apologies, and explanation that her post sparkled a lively discussion which led to changes in TOS and opening the door for her and other teachers to post here. This way she will come welcome and hopefully use this forum in the future again in spite of the bad first impression.

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This is A Very Good Idea™!

As soon as the censoring of Swetlana’s post surfaced here I sent her a PM, informing her that the case is being discussed, and I sent her a link to the comment in this thread where her post was mentioned. Hopefully she reads here.


Greetings, Tom

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No. Back when the forum was very slow, we asked for volunteers who knew PHP. One of the most qualified was a complete newcomer. I wanted to be able to accept his help, but there was no way that I was going to give him complete access to our code. So I asked Hyperpape, who had some technical knowledge, and who I felt that I could trust, to be the gatekeeper. He could pass code back and forth.
I don't know what was the result of this. The problem got fixed by some means, and so I never thought of it again until now.
I never considered revoking Hyperpape's access - and since he hasn't abused it, I probably never will.



This is not true. A quick glance shows that Araban was moving a thread to a better location a mere two days ago. Kirby deleted some spam in January. ( And that is just a quick scan of the logs by an old man with bad vision. )



True. And often forgotten.


Thanks. But I travel a bit, so all members are potential donors. I may come knocking.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadistic_personality_disorder#Enforcing_sadist_.28compulsive_features.29

Unfortunately it's this kind of person that tends to stay when others get burned out and leave.
They may listen but they wouldn't be able to change even if they wanted to, they are doomed to repeat the same kind of behavior over and over.
Of course they are not the ones that should be blamed, but rather the "sensible" people that allows them to stay.