Boat Loads of Moderators

[Zoop 8,384]

As most of you have no doubt noticed (and commented upon already, in many cases), we've recently added somewhere around eleventy zillion new moderators to the forum. I'd like to take a moment to discuss why that is, and hopefully offer some minor assurance that we haven't gone completely insane. Yet.

 

Prior to this change, the staff consisted of one Feld0, two admins, and six global moderators. For a while this was a comfortable number of folks to keep things in hand. Feld0 would typically spend his time dealing with (among other things) the technical and financial side of things, the admins would most often spend their time doing supervisory work, and the moderators would go through reports and hammer their way through them.

 

From a reactive standpoint, this setup worked pretty decently. Stuff would get reported and dealt with, and everyone is happy, right? Somewhat.

 

With the forum hitting anywhere between 3,000 to 4,000 posts per day, a lot of stuff was going unreported, and subsequently unnoticed by the staff. On more than one occasion, I've heard reports of bias stemming from the fact that while we've moderated one thread, while another similar thread went by with no action taken against it due to nobody having reported it, resulting in it not being noticed by the staff.

 

With that in mind, we've decided to try an experiment of sorts. Each of the new moderators we've added today is responsible for a specific section of the forum, to the tune of two-three moderators per section. While super moderators are meant to be reactive, the goal for the new sectional moderators is to be proactive. Sectional moderators have been given domain over portions of the forum that they are already most active in, allowing them to closely monitor their sections without putting too much strain on them.

 

While the number may seem a bit high, keep in mind that most of the staff consists of people with full-time employment and/or education, in addition to healthy social lives. They're not being paid, so they can hardly be expected to dedicate the entirety of their free time to the forum.

 

With that out of the way, the current staff assignments are as follows:

 

Aureity - Roleplay World

Devin McCourty - Beyond Equestria

Ezynator - Octavia's Hall

Little Miss Fluttershy - Octavia's Hall

NewCalamity - Beyond Equestria

Scootacool - Beyond Equestria

Thereisnospoon303 - My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

Tom The Diamond - My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

Torneko Taroop (King K. Roop in disguise) - Beyond Equestria

Vexx3 - Octavia's Hall

 

We'll be keeping a close eye on things to ensure that everything goes smoothly in the coming days; as always, if you feel that any action taken by a moderator to be inappropriate you can bring it to Swoop or I for review - we'll be all too happy for an excuse to bully the newbies should they slip up on accident.

 

At any rate, try not to be too intimidated by the horrifying ocean of purple user names - they're here to help you. Really.

[Nas 2,863]

 

Seriously, this crudload of extra mods is just all the help we need! The more the better.

[Doctor XFizzle 8,651]

I respect the decision and intent behind it, but I can't say I'm too enthused by it. I feel like the heavy amount of moderators online will intimidate people from posting as they will believe they're constantly being watched (which is justifiable considering what poor posting can crop up from time to time, but not constantly justifiable)

 

I guess what I'm trying to say is, I would like my experience here to be not completely lawless, but comfortable enough where I don't feel I have a moderator breathing down my neck waiting for me to make a questionable post.

Edited June 26, 2012 by Doctor XFizzle

[Tom The Diamond 1,828]

http-~~-//www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DPZYKY_up0

On a more serious note, I'd just like to go ahead and say it is an honor to be serving as a mod here, and I hope to be able to help keep the pony board I have domain over clean and free of spam, blemishes, or boils, and hopefully make your experience much more pleasent.

And don't worry, I'm not gonna go mad with power, and mandate Trixie worship from my Trixie warship like some of you guys worried... YET

[Crispy 5,563]

I feel like the heavy amount of moderators online will intimidate people from posting as they will believe they're constantly being watched (which is justifiable considering what poor posting can crop up from time to time, but not constantly justifiable)

 

We were constantly being watched before. Now there's just a few more eyes on us.

 

I don't think it's a big deal. Most of us are fine regardless of how many/few mods there are.

 

Gratz to all the new mods and such.

[HomuraBL 851]

I'm happy for them and I'm happy for the explanation...

 

Though there is something in my gut and mind that has a slight dislike to this...

 

I can't explain it, its just this weird feeling. I fell slightly uncomfortable with this to tell you the truth. Also more of my fav. members becoming mods never feels good to me. I know they are not different...but I do feel mod status has change some people.

 

Like I said I'm happy for the people. And I'm about 80% on board with this.

 

I guess I"ll just see how it goes.

[Fox 5,330]

Being placed as a mod was a choice from higher authority, and should be respected. Just because you ain't a mod doesn't mean there better then anyone else (except Zoop). If you haven't noticed the sin of jealousy probaly got the best of you.

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

What i said before, but I would like for everyone to read this, because this is how I understand how things are. Please quote me if something was left out and is concerning you.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

To the people concerned about a moderator acting differently... The person who is elected, their attitude will change only because they have to act for the job, but doesn't mean their personality will change.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

I've read the mixed feelings about having the new founded moderators. I'm not against it, but it's going to have to getting used to. It's been just a day and people have gotten very upset. A very touchy subject, consequently I'm feeling a little wierd like some members of the forums about it(DoctorX Fizzle). However, I can see why people are outraged by these new mods.

The new moderators probaly do share different view points, and not share the same as others on the forums, but that's like any member on the forum, and Shankveld did mention deletion of posts, if it had some vulgar language, but wasn't hurting anyone. Deleting it is kind of an overkill... A moderator maybe abusing their power just a little bit because they were experimenting, but subconsiously not intentional I don't hope. We would have to readdress the conditions of why some posts were being deleted, and have to review if it was appropiate, or not, or maybe some happy new mod fun.The thought of the mods having too much power might be true, but isn't it a little early to judge? Like I mentioned, it is the first day.

 

I would like to point out the 700 members a month thing isn't really trustworthy statistic, because how many of them become active members? The sudden addition to the moderating team was intimidating to some. I, flabbergasted. I think the Admins should have introduced the moderators a few at a time, then just a whole bunch jump into the small MLPForum Moderator car. I welcome the new moderators with curious precaution, except I'm just undergoing the stress as others reading the topic, concerning the everyones thoughts about it. I'm sort of disturbed how we as the MLP Forum community are welcoming our friends into ModHood. I don't think anyone has taking consideration on how others that were given the privledges to join the moderating team were here for making a better community. The new Moderators are feeling unwelcomed due to peoples dislike in the extension of mods. That's not a way to greet new people in a friendly community.

People are worried about being watched? If your not doing anything wrong then what's wrong with being watched? :S The addidtion of mods will make it easier to attend trolling problems, if one occurs or lack of contented subjects. Like Feldo said,

 

"10 Section Moderators

The best analogy for a section moderator that I can think of is a janitor. Section moderators only have basic moderation tools available to them in a few specific sections. If MLP Forums was a school district, we would appoint a few janitors to each school to keep them clean. It's much more practical than giving every janitor the responsibility of keeping every school clean. These moderators have been appointed to sections that they are already active in, mostly for the purpose of increasing the percentage of content that is actually even seen by us. They cannot warn or ban members - if they feel direct action against a user is necessary, they must ask a super mod or admin to do it for them, which greatly limits the extent of both their power and responsibility."

If a moderator is treating you unfairly, then go talk to an Admin, or Super Moderator. What's that? You don't trust them with your problems? Everything has it's problems, but you can communicate with others that might be dealt with "unfair justice," and unite with other members to address a problem together that might be concerning you to higher authority. They've been trying to solve MLP Forum users problems in the past to the time of right now. Like Zoop stated:

 

"We'll be keeping a close eye on things to ensure that everything goes smoothly in the coming days; as always, if you feel that any action taken by a moderator to be inappropriate you can bring it to Swoop or I for review - we'll be all too happy for an excuse to bully the newbies should they slip up on accident. They are worried about what people will think of the new moderators, and are worried for them welcomed poorly."

 

In conclusion, for the upcoming future, this site may combust randomly with newly attracted users. However, would you rather Feldo make random Moderators when that sudden increase happens? Or test them before and see which users are qualified for the job?

Edited June 26, 2012 by Fox

[Doctor XFizzle 8,651]

We were constantly being watched before. Now there's just a few more eyes on us.

 

Very true, but for someone who is newer to these parts or is very self-conscious about their posting activity here, seeing 3 mods online can make them feel a lot more at ease than seeing 7-10 online at once. I'm just playing devil's advocate and bringing to attention a potential intimidation factor.

[Lady Rarity Pony 4,892]

It's not like I've ever posted anything inappropriate that went unnoticed.

 

 

 

Ten new moderators seems like overkill to me.

 

[HomuraBL 851]

Being placed as a mod was a choice from higher authority, and should be respected. Just because you ain't a mod doesn't mean there better then anyone else (except Zoop). If you haven't noticed the sin of jealousy probaly got the best of you.

 

...Um...Are you talking to me by any chance?

[Twilight Sparkle ✨ 8,520]

I respect the decision and intent behind it, but I can't say I'm too enthused by it. I feel like the heavy amount of moderators online will intimidate people from posting as they will believe they're constantly being watched (which is justifiable considering what poor posting can crop up from time to time, but not constantly justifiable)

 

I guess what I'm trying to say is, I would like my experience here to be not completely lawless, but comfortable enough where I don't feel I have a moderator breathing down my neck waiting for me to make a questionable post.

 

Very true, but for someone who is newer to these parts or is very self-conscious about their posting activity here, seeing 3 mods online can make them feel a lot more at ease than seeing 7-10 online at once. I'm just playing devil's advocate and bringing to attention a potential intimidation factor.

 

That's a pretty legitimate concern. I think an effective way of combating it is to force all staff to be hidden from the list of online users, which I just did after seeing your first post. That should lessen the intimidation factor a fair bit.

[Shankveld 4,945]

I respect the decision and intent behind it, but I can't say I'm too enthused by it. I feel like the heavy amount of moderators online will intimidate people from posting as they will believe they're constantly being watched (which is justifiable considering what poor posting can crop up from time to time, but not constantly justifiable)

 

I guess what I'm trying to say is, I would like my experience here to be not completely lawless, but comfortable enough where I don't feel I have a moderator breathing down my neck waiting for me to make a questionable post.

 

Only been here a day and I already feel like that. ~

*sigh*

[Doctor XFizzle 8,651]

That's a pretty legitimate concern. I think an effective way of combating it is to force all staff to be hidden from the list of online users, which I just did after seeing your first post. That should lessen the intimidation factor a fair bit.

 

They don't have to all be hidden, because that can open the floodgates to fringe users being like "Woohoo mods are asleep, post NSFW!" I think a healthy middle-ground is 3-5 heck I'll even go 5-7 that way people know there is a presence there, yet it's not overwhelming.

Edited June 26, 2012 by Doctor XFizzle

[MrL0LZ 866]

New Moderators...

My past experience on forums dictates that when people become moderators they exert a lot of.... douchebaggery......

I hope that doesn't happen here.

If it doesn't, then I'm happy that we have more law.

Edited June 26, 2012 by Almighty Tallest/GLaMOS

[Crispy 5,563]

I think an effective way of combating it is to force all staff to be hidden from the list of online users, which I just did after seeing your first post.

 

Oh lord.

 

Feld0 spent the 150 minerals/gas to research mod cloak.

[Shankveld 4,945]

but I do feel mod status has change some people.

 

 

I've seen this too :/

it's all business and no fun anymore with them.

Edited June 26, 2012 by Shankveld

[MVC NVMXD JVRXD 2,406]

I must admit, the new moderators kind of scared me initially. Hopefully, though, this'll work out.

[Shankveld 4,945]

I'm afraid some of the new mods are going a little for lack of a better phrase "mad with power".

Multiple posts that are a month + old are being deleted, even posts that don't deserve to be deleted.

*sigh* it's all very depressing.

~

[Tom The Diamond 1,828]

It's not like I've ever posted anything inappropriate that went unnoticed.

 

Ten new moderators seems like overkill to me.

Remember that this forum is growing at a very fast rate, and we're not even close to season 3 yet. 10 new moderators might seem like a lot now, but just imagine that number in a few months, and compare it to the number of users that'll be here. Also remember that the mods and admins can't dedicate their entire life to this website. And don't forget to consider timezones too.

 

And to the ponies who are concerned about some mods becoming drunk with power, it's not like everyone who is a mod is some secret Russian spy who's name you don't even know how to pronounce. They're all still the same user you knew just yesterday. And no one who's a Mod joined because they wanted power, or money, or fame, or women, they did it so they could help the site and make your experience here better. Heck, no one who's a mod even asked to be a mod, so its not like any of us were on some search for power

[Lady Rarity Pony 4,892]

I've seen this too :/

it's all business and no faun anymore with them.

 

Really?

 

I find some in particular have been just as arrogant and obnoxious as they were before becoming mods. No changes here.

 

 

Uhh I mean...

 

[insert I love mods message]

Edited June 26, 2012 by Lady Rarity Pony

[HomuraBL 851]

I'm afraid some of the new mods are going a little for lack of a better phrase "mad with power".

Multiple posts that are a month + old are being deleted, even posts that don't deserve to be deleted.

*sigh* it's all very depressing.

~

 

Hopefully its a first day on the job thing. I don't want more people to change.

 

*Sigh*

[Finesthour 7,284]

I'm afraid some of the new mods are going a little for lack of a better phrase "mad with power".

Multiple posts that are a month + old are being deleted, even posts that don't deserve to be deleted.

*sigh* it's all very depressing.

~

 

My issue exactly.

 

In every single forum I have been in (About 30 in 8 years) the second new mods are created, they think they have become the pokemon master, and that they must do everything in their power to destroy things against them.

 

I've had random posts on threads be deleted for reasons I guess for saying "shit", while Chiggens among other users said the exact same thing, but their posts are alive.

 

I just don't want to see the mod positions here turn into a quest of power for people.

[MrL0LZ 866]

Wait.. if the mods are becoming like this....

ABANDON FORUM.

Last time that happened, I left the forum for a month to join this forum.

[caesar15 231]

I'm afraid some of the new mods are going a little for lack of a better phrase "mad with power".

Multiple posts that are a month + old are being deleted, even posts that don't deserve to be deleted.

*sigh* it's all very depressing.

~

 

 

Thats why i need to be a mod, i ll show them how bad i can be and it will seem like there good.

[Fox 5,330]

...Um...Are you talking to me by any chance?

 

No, I was just talking in general. I woulda quoted you, but I somewhat feel the same way as you. Just different, but I can get used to it. Feldo's website, his decisions. #respect #yolo