See subject.
I can’t recall ever seeing one. Is “abjuring all OPs” part of their Oath of Allegiance?
Sure, we start threads. Here are a couple that I started:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=756978
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=747521
I’ve never been a big thread starter, even before I became a mod. I tend to reply to a lot more threads than I start, and that pattern didn’t change when I started moderating. Once in a while I will start a thread, and again, that hasn’t changed since I became a moderator.
There are some message boards where all the moderators do is moderate. That’s not how we do things here. Moderators are chosen from regular posters, and we are expected to participate in the forums that we moderate. That way we know that forum’s culture as well as its rules, and how the rules have been interpreted and enforced in that forum over the years.
Looking over my own posts, it looks like I tend to average a couple of OPs per year, with the exception of 2011 when I started a whole bunch. Other than that, it’s been a handful of OPs each year going back to when I first started here.
I’ve got one in MPSIMS right now.
I don’t start a lot that are unrelated to modding, but I do every now and then.
Idle Thoughts seems to start a lot of threads.
He’s a polling behemoth for sure.
I think the only restriction on mods is they can’t start threads pitting other Dopers. They can reply to Pit threads, though.
I don’t start OPs in General Questions because I already know all the answers.
(Actually, when I think of a GQ-type question I usually research it myself and generally find a satisfactory answer. When I do start threads in GQ it’s for computer or automotive help.)
I don’t start as many as I used to, but that has more to do with my free time in general than with having become a mod. Mine have almost always been in IMHO.
Out of curiosity, have any been bumped to say IMHO because TPTB feel there isn’t a factual answer to be had? In other words, do Mods ever mod Mods when that Mod is just posting as a Poster? I’m betting yes but I can’t think of an example.
I don’t recall any of my threads having been moved from the forum in which it was originally posted, nor moving a thread by another mod. Oddly enough, mods are usually pretty familiar with the rules and where threads are supposed to go.
In the four and a half years before I became Mod, I had initiated about a dozen threads. (An early software glitch makes it look like I opened about twice that number where my post is displayed as the OP and the actual OP post has been lost.) Since I have become a Mod, I don’t think that I have initiated any non-Mod threads.
I am just more of an answer guy than an ask guy.
Or, one might say, an observer rather than an instigator. I seem to be the same. I’ve now tallied up almost 3000 posts and the only thread I ever started was an obscure technical question in GQ. This isn’t so much intentionally contrived as the fact that I always see threads I feel like commenting on but never seem to have burning issues that I feel I have to start a conversation on.
Easy enough to find out by clicking on their profile.
I think I had four or five alone in the last week.
Username/topic alert…