You’re right: there are too many threads for us to check everything. I pretty much just check whatever I feel like reading and rely on reports for the rest. In MPSIMS, I don’t see too many “uh oh, this looks like trouble” threads; if I was modding GD I’d have to look harder for potentially messy threads. But I find that it’s pretty easy to guess which threads are going to turn into a mess - like the thread about the Duggar family a few weeks ago. I knew that was going to turn into an argument, if not a flame war, so I moved it over to GD pretty quickly.
It’s also not hard to spot misplaced threads.
I’m more vigilant about checking for spammers than for rules violations like personal insults. MPSIMS posters (and Dopers in general, outside the Pit) don’t insult each other that much, but there are always barbarians at the gates.
Has my name ever come up in the mod’s forum? Do y’all think I’m cute? I think some of you are cute. Is this an inappropriate question for a middle aged woman to be asking at all? Thought so… (but answer it anyway!)
So to you, I’m basically a man in uniform? Is that what you’re saying?
Mods pitting individuals looks like a bad idea to me. The appearance of bias is really important, particularly in a group like the SDMB, and I think we have to take pains to avoid it. We’re posters as well as “authority figures” and it’d be a bad thing if a normal Pit thread was interpreted as carrying hidden threats, like “If you don’t do what I want, I’ll find an excuse to ban you.” On this board, for whatever reason, we think starting Pit threads is much more significant than participating in them, and the line is drawn there.
Well, for once one of my threads is generating some interest, so… maybe. But overall, no - not in posts I make as a poster. A controversial Mod action can be more controversial than almost anything an invididual poster can say, but that’s a separate category.
Are you allowed to use the ignore function as a Mod or is that frowned upon? I’d imagine it might cause some issues if someone’s causing trouble and a mod has them on ignore.
I don’t know if we have a rule about that. I’ve never used it and I wouldn’t have thought to ask. I’m sure the other Mods wouldn’t use it either for exactly the reason you’re giving.
One interesting side effect of modhood that I didn’t expect is that I’m actually a little more confident in my postings. I think previously I usually assumed people would ignore what I was saying.
How many socks do you (you all) squish each day? Is there a record for the number of socks one IP addy (i.e. person) has created? If you don’t want to respond on these questions that’s understandable.
I won’t answer those, in keeping with our policies about that stuff. But maybe you’ll find this trivia interesting:
I’ve banned about 100 spammers in my two months here, so that’s about two per day on average - usually we get them before they post. I’m not the only one doing it, of course. Czarcasm seems to the most, I’ve noticed, but whoever sees them nails them. Most of the time we don’t bother banning spambots because they can’t get through our registration, but once in a while I’ll do it for a laugh: I couldn’t resist banning Purchase Generic Viagra or Payday Loan Default. Today I’ve nailed three of them- no, wait, there goes a fourth, bye bye!
The little gnats tend to come and go in waves, and my personal record for one day is about 15 or 16.
About how much caffine would you say you go through during your times here on the boards. I’m assuming modding takes a lot of time, and I know after a while staring at a computer screen, I kinda glaze over a bit. In other words… HOW DOOOOO YOU DO IT??
Actually, I don’t drink coffee. When I get the official mug, it’ll mostly be used for water or cider, or occasionally tea. I’m at a computer all damn day anyway - I work at one and then I go home and relax/work on a novel on one, so my computer endurance has got to be pretty high.
Over in ATMB, any question about the operation of the Board is usually answered with “the mods don’t know anything more than you do.”
So my question is, what DO you know beyond what has been revealed to the Teeming Millions? What’s the capacity of the server? When does the Board go free-to-post? How much money is it making/losing? How many active members are there. Is Cecil Adams actually Ed Zotti?
But no, I really don’t think so.