Posted on 09/08/2001 4:56:20 PM PDT by Admin Moderator
Do you have a problem with someone starting a thread about this new (to me) Top 100 articles link?
I think that it could be of considerable value for FReepers to explore which articles are most frequently viewed, and to discuss why.
But I would rather not start a thread that gets pulled. ;)
Do we call you Mr. or Ms. Moderator or is just Sidebar with your number okie dokie?
That may or may not be, but most came to consider those who ran from thread to thread dictating, shouting down, generally abusing JimRob's trust to be part of The Coven. There's one prominent screename left out, but I won't go there.
This moderator thing was way over due. I think anonymity would be the wise choice.
I have no problems with the "moderator thing" as you put it. The forum has grown to such an extent that Jim and John simply cannot handle the monitoring duties by themselves. As long as the moderators act in an impartial and balanced manner there should be no problems.
I do have concerns about people trying to introduce their own personal agenda into the forum under the guise of anonymity. The moderators should be held responsible and accountable for their actions.
Agreed.
"Your 'expose' didn't explain some things. Can you clarify? If you've been doing this for one year, what changed to compel you (all) to come forward? You cite examples to show why FR (Jim and John, really) need assistance *now, and yet you state that you've already been providing this for approximately one year. Shouldn't you already have a handle on this kind of thing by now?
There is some concern about people beyond Jim and John having access to participant's personal information, including email and ISP stuff. Was this already answered somewhere else?
When you state that records are being kept, what kind of records do you mean, and who is keeping them? And for how long? Is each moderator assigned a group of people to monitor, or how exactly does it work?
What constitutes a 'flame' (war)? Is this left to the individual moderator to determine, or are there written guidelines spelling them out, which will/are followed?
I think the idea of various anonymous moderators is a bad idea. Jim uses HIS name which is very visible-we all use screen names that are recognizable. "Moderators" should too, imo. Having said that, since it IS Jim's forum, he gets to choose how it works, and has."
It's not the end of the world, of course--most forums have moderators. Having said that, I think these are reasonable questions-obviously, providing answers is not mandatory....
The coven was what I said it was.
... but most came to consider those who ran from thread to thread dictating, shouting down, generally abusing JimRob's trust to be part of The Coven.
No, the Coven was composed of three witches and whenever they got into a jam, the pimps came running to their defense regardless of the issue. By January 1999, there were many such derelicts.
There's one prominent screename left out, but I won't go there.
Yes, yours.
You are so wrong. I was already on the outs with all those you named because I refused to "kiss the ring" of the high priestess. But then you knew that.
Since you're so highly regarded around these parts, what's your take on the Moderator thing?
"Your 'expose' didn't explain some things. Can you clarify? If you've been doing this for one year, what changed to compel you (all) to come forward? You cite examples to show why FR (Jim and John, really) need assistance *now, and yet you state that you've already been providing this for approximately one year. Shouldn't you already have a handle on this kind of thing by now?
We were acting strictly as sidebar moderators before Jim left on his trip to Texas. The only thing we could do was remove articles from the sidebar, but not from the forum. It was solely Jim's decision to keep our presence hidden as was the decision to announce our presence.
There is some concern about people beyond Jim and John having access to participant's personal information, including email and ISP stuff. Was this already answered somewhere else?
We do not have access to that sort of stuff. The Senior Admin Moderator may have, but he/she will have to speak to it.
When you state that records are being kept, what kind of records do you mean, and who is keeping them? And for how long? Is each moderator assigned a group of people to monitor, or how exactly does it work?
A log is kept for every abuse report. A place is provided for the moderators or Jim or John to make a comment in that log, similar to what you do if you submit an abuse report. There is also a log of actions taken against individual users for us to refer to if we want to know if someone is a repeat offender. I have no idea how long the log files stay available. That's up to Jim and John. We do not each monitor groups of people or threads. We rely solely on abuse reports and occasionally we will see a problem in the course of normal FReeping and act on it.
What constitutes a 'flame' (war)? Is this left to the individual moderator to determine, or are there written guidelines spelling them out, which will/are followed?
A 'flame war' is pretty obvious once you've seen some. Calling a flame war is up to the discretion of the moderator, but all moderators can look at all abuse reports and if they feel strongly enough, over rule a previous moderator.
I think the idea of various anonymous moderators is a bad idea. Jim uses HIS name which is very visible-we all use screen names that are recognizable. "Moderators" should too, imo.
It was Jim's decision to have us anonymous and I support it. What we do may not be visible to the forum at large, but Jim and John can review and change any action we take. So far, they have been supportive of our calls.
Having said that, since it IS Jim's forum, he gets to choose how it works, and has." It's not the end of the world, of course--most forums have moderators. Having said that, I think these are reasonable questions-obviously, providing answers is not mandatory....
I don't think questions about the moderators are unreasonable and will attempt to answer any I see. In fact, they can be beneficial as we modify how we use the powers Jim has given us.
Let me expand a little on this one.
A year or more ago, the sidebars were totally out of control and many people complained to Jim about it. Jim didn't have the time or the inclination to try to deal with the sidebars and was going to do away with them.
Someone Jim trusted volunteered to monitor them and John came up with a program to do just that. That 'someone' recruited a few of us to help out, and that's what we did and continue to do. I guess Jim gained some trust in us by observing us in action for a year or more and now he's given us a little more authority to help him out.
If the conditions you stated are true, I don't know the answer. If you have a specific post in mind, I can look back and see what happened.
Do we call you Mr. or Ms. Moderator or is just Sidebar with your number okie dokie?
I'm a Mr. sidebar moderator and I honestly don't know about the others. We don't know each other.
To page us on a thread, use either 'sidebar moderator' or 'admin moderator'. Those are our screen names which each level of us share. We have assigned numbers to keep each other straight and we're hoping for a better software solution in the future to separate us. It gets confusing logging off and on from sidebar moderator to our normal screen names and monitoring two freepmail accounts and doing self-search on two userids.
I'm sure you didn't mean to infer that you have plans to modify the use of the powers that Jim bestowed upon you , did you?
We can't modify the powers or the guidelines we have. But, we are in constant communication with Jim and John and each other about how we are using them and if we need to change our ways.
I was given the number 4 so that I could identify myself in communication between sidebar moderators. Can you imagine a thread with all from's and to's addressed as 'sidebar moderator? Gets pretty messy. I am not privy to any plan to change how we are identified if there is one. So for now, 1=1, 2=2,...etc. in all correspondence. The flaw in this system is in always remembering to plug the number into our replies. It's not automatic.
As you can see in my reply #134
You'll have to address that request to Jim or John, we have absolutely NOTHING to do with banners or messages posted on the latest posts page.
Please advise AdminMod that while others have asked for direct answers to questions which seem to have perplexed the Moderator Crew, I have merely requested a retraction of Message 79. Perhaps my request in Message 119 was missed since it was so rudely hijacked.
Thank you for your cooperation.
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