Moderating is a thankless job in hell.
I only took the SD host gig on AOL because Zotti, Dex, and Tuba were holding my mother hostage. She’s since passed, so that won’t work on me anymore.
I’d have to think about it - would I get to choose which forum I got to mod? Do I get one free, no questions-asked bannination as a welcome gift? Are there vegan jackboot options?
Only one of those is an actual serious question - do the mods get to choose which forum they mod?
Yeah, I would. In return I would want to be granted legendary guitar playing ability.
It went so well last time.
No I wouldn’t. I don’t feel I would be very good at the job. I’m aware of my limits.
I’ve been a moderator on a different board and didn’t do a great job of it. I doubt Ive gotten any smarter (just more heavily medicated.) I’m not a good candidate.
Maybe. How much does it pay?
"If nominated, I will not accept; if drafted, I will not run; if elected, I will not serve.”
Primarily due to the effects it would have on my income tax bracket.
It is not something I have the bandwidth to consider. If I get to a place where I could, I would have to think about it. It seems hard, but I really appreciate the role.
I will say: as part of considering it, I would want to have an explicit discussion about the SDMB. I want to understand more about the…the Strategic Direction (???) of the SDMB:
- Does Management agree that the data suggests traffic is decreasing here?
- Overall, do we have data on whether this decrease is endemic to MOST messageboards, or is it a SPECIFIC issue for us here at the SDMB?
> If decrease is general, what is the thinking about how to manage the SDMB during this ongoing internet evolution which appears to be moving away from mboards?
> If decrease is specific, what appear to be the main drivers? We have seen Bans of high-volume posters, use of Omnibus threads to focus on a topic, and other factors that have led to fewer New threads being started. What’s working, what’s not?
I have thought about starting a thread along these lines, but this thread, with mod attention, feels like a good spot. I hope it comes across that I mean well for the SDMB; I enjoy my time here and would like it to continue.
I like pedantic hash. Especially with a baked egg on top…runny yolk…yum.
I wouldn’t mind doing it but I don’t think I’d have the time.
I don’t have a high enough profile here to ever be asked, but I don’t think I have enough time to do the job anyway. So I voted no.
On the separate topic raised by WordMan (who would make a great mod, IMHO), I am concerned that activity on SDMB is steadily declining. I think some of this is driven by the changing landscape of the web, with social media sites attracting users who in years past would have been drawn to a message board like this. But I also think that the use of banning as a moderating tool has diminished the vitality of the board.
Lots of people have commented on the effect the Google searches have had in the increase of zombie threads. One of the striking things about reading those threads is the number of posters in them with “Banned” under their names, and the post counts of those posters. If we ban enough people with 10K posts, activity is bound to decrease. Some of those banned posters really irritated me at times, but in retrospect I feel we were a more interesting board with them involved.
WordMan also mentioned omnibus threads. I have no idea what effect they have had on board traffic, but they have diminished my enjoyment of the board. I don’t know why, but I just have no desire to follow ten different conversations in one thread. There are several omnibus threads on subjects I am really interested in, but I generally don’t visit them.
You wouldn’t want me moderating, I’ve very little time for most of the whingy moany bullshit that goes on around here, so I’d only do it if I was allowed to tell the serial complainers and the smug know-it-alls to go fuck themselves.
I could do the Pit maybe, but my brain wouldn’t last ten minutes dealing with people in the kitty forums or Great Debates.
I’d accept, seize the chance to access the secret mod forum, download as much of it as I could for offline reading later and then resign. They’d have me killed but I like to think it would be worth it.
No way in hell I’d…
…wait, what? It’s been a year, already?
Well, crap.
I had assumed one was sentenced to being a moderator, not asked.
I don’t know. Do you see any particular correlation between a poster’s (perceived) ideological fervor and their bias and/or popularity in moderating? IMHO, some of the best moderators are quite strongly opinionated as posters, and some of the worst are milquetoast posters.
I wonder if becoming a mod makes you more or less likely to post in your non-mod capacity.
Been there, done that, got the coffee mug.
If I were asked, it would be a sign that there are big problems on this board, I imagine.
But I’d suck at it anyway. I would have a very hard time banning someone or even giving them a stern talking to.