What do I need to think about before accepting a mod position

In My Humble Opinion
1

On a different board, of course. (Never in a million years would I be asked to mod at the SDMB, nor would I want to. Y’all complain too much :D)

But a much smaller, cozier, and more limited board that I take part in has asked me to be a moderator. Frankly, my first thought is “RUN! RUN FAR! AND FAST!” because moderating seems like a thankless task. I’ve turned the invitation down before in other times and places.

However, I’m pretty committed to the board in question (they perform a valuable community service), I’m reasonably au courant with respect to board rules, culture, and denizens, and they probably need me, so…

Anyway, what questions would you ask before accepting a moderator position?

People with experience modding - what do I need to be aware of?

2

How much time is a moderator expected to devote to the board?

Are there times of the week/month/year when problems are extra likely and it would be good to not be away?

What are the expectations of moderator behavior?

How much time is dedicated to doing stuff that is mostly invisible to the average message board user?

Is it a problem if I decide to go on vacation and not check in online for a week or two?

3

I don’t have any advice other than stay the same way you are on this board. You’re level headed and interesting.

4

I’ve been a mod on a small, now defunct website for female gamers. I was the admin for my guild board back when I led a guild in Everquest, and for over 2 years I was a mod on the official Everquest boards, so I’ve had experience on both large and small messageboards.

Here’s some things I wish I had known before I started modding.

You’ll need a thick skin. People get really irate when you move/lock/edit posts and threads that are against the board rules. You’ll probably get called every name in the book if you mod long enough, either through posts, emails, or private messaging.

Also keep in mind that when acting as a mod, you have no friends on the board. You have to make sure you’re not playing favorites with certain posters that you like, while making sure you’re not being extra hard on the posters you don’t like.

Know when to let the members bend the rules. Sometimes the best thing you can do as a mod is to do nothing at all.

Leave a short, concise reason why you edited/moved/locked a thread, with a link leading back to the post containing the rule being referenced. Nothing upsets people faster than seeing a mod take action, but not knowing what that action was.

Never quarrel with another mod where the general public can see it.

Always be polite when dealing with the posters when your mod hat is on.

If you’ve had to mod a thread, try not to participate in that thread as a regular poster too.

That’s all I can think of off the top of my head. I’ll post more if I come up with anything else.

As for things to ask before taking the position; what are the rules for mods? Who do you escalate problems to if you and another mod come in conflict over one another’s actions? Is there a private forum section set up for mods/admins to discuss things? Is your regular account flagged as a mod, or do you get a second account just for modding? Are you allowed to participate in a thread if you’ve beeing modding it, and vice versa?

5

You’ve been seeing other boards behind our back! :eek: Why would you betray us like that!

StG
Off to the Chronicle of the Horse boards…

6

I’ve been a moderator on a sports-related message board for over a decade, and it can be a pain in the neck. As a poster, I can walk away from some of the ugly stuff. As a moderator, I have to dive in head first.

It obviously isn’t so terrible if I’ve been doing it for 11 years, but I’m starting to think about turning in my jack boots.

7

Excellent post, very helpful.

8

Speaking broadly, I’d recommend focusing on behavior rather than content. It’s easy to get caught up in who’s “right” and lose sight of who’s behaving badly. Also, I often find that if I read the disputed text and then go out of the thread for a little while and come back to it, it’s more clear what needs to be done. Rarely is acting immediately necessary and your course of action is a little clearer if you give it just a little thought. At least, that’s what I’ve found for me!

9

Thanks everyone (by singling out Mr. Accident earlier, I didn’t mean that the other posts weren’t helpful too - they were!) - it’s helped me to make a decision. I’ll probably agree to do it for a year and see how it goes. Wish me luck.

10

Good luck. :slight_smile: It can be a hard, thankless job at times, but I’ve never regretted being a mod in the past, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat if it were offered on the right board.

11

A former Mod on a big-ish board says, ask if you can have an anonymous Moderator ID instead of having to use your day to day ID. I had a problem with a woman who decided we were besties and I’d use my Mod powers to back her up everytime she got into an argument with other people.

I’ve also had people think I was a softie and would ban/suspend someone who was considered a bit harsh in their postings.

And if you’re given edit other’s posts privileges, for gawd’s sakes be careful, a lot of boards have the edit button right next to the quote button and you end up editing when you meant to quote or vice versa. Which is another reason for having a separate Mod ID.

If there’s a hidden forum that’s Mod’s eyes only, don’t give the game away to everyone else on the board, you’d be surprised (or perhaps not) at how many people are paranoid that they’re being watched or talked about.

Enjoy!

12

Realize that you aren’t going to be a moderator forever, and that you should leave the position before things get so bad that you don’t even want to be a poster anymore, let alone a moderator.

13

My husband was a moderator for a poker room board for a while, and it sounded like this was one of his biggest complaints - the owner of the board didn’t want to alienate anyone, so things were allowed to go unchecked for far too long, to the point where they were losing members because they couldn’t stand the behaviour of the other posters. Plus, her cronies were allowed to get away with anything (because again she didn’t want to come down on anyone, especially her friends).

Awww, we still love you, Czarcasm. :slight_smile:

14

I’ve seen quite a few boards go down that way. It’s hard to stay objective as a mod, but it’s imperative to have mods that can make fair and reasoned judgements without playing favorites.

It’s one of the reasons I like the SDMB, I haven’t seen much evidence of mods playing favorites or going after particular posters.

15

It all depends on the board. I’ve moderated several smaller boards in addition to this one, and even some dial-up bulletin board systems back in the old days. Look at how your personality fits with the board:

If you want to be casual and loose, don’t sign up to moderate a board with ten pages of rigidly-enforced rules. It’ll drive you nuts. Similarly, if you prefer a structured environment, don’t go for a board where the staff all fly by the seat of their pants.

Sometimes, the board takes on the personality of an active owner/administrator, and you’re just there to do the grunt work. On a board like that, you’d better enjoy stomping spammers, moving threads, editing titles, changing names/titles, and handling the day-to-day mechanical part of moderation. The admin will be making all of the decisions anyway.

Look at the size of the staff, and ask what kind of time commitment they expect of you. Here on the SDMB, every forum has multiple moderators so if one of us goes away for a few days it isn’t a big deal. On some other forums, they want someone there at all times to approve newbie posts, check spam queues, and so forth.

Look at the amount of authority the existing mods have. If the admin/owner is constantly overturning their decisions, or they can’t sneeze without asking permission first, it makes for a difficult environment to volunteer.

Some of the most fun I ever had was moderating a product support section of a CompuServe forum. I was given pretty much free reign to take care of my customers and I only had two or three rules. If anyone caused trouble, I just locked them out.

16

I really like the idea of having a separate moderator ID. Don’t know how feasible it is, but it’d solve some problems.

17

Good luck!

Some other advice: moderating can be frustrating at times, but don’t make judgment calls when you’re frustrated or angry. Think carefully and trust your judgment, but don’t be afraid to take a deep breath, re-evaluate, and admit you were wrong if that’s what the facts say. Defend yourself if you need to, but don’t pick fights. And sometimes you have to let people have the last word no matter how wrong they are. :wink:

18

Should be doable, there isn’t really any board software (that I’m aware of) that will prohibit people having more than one login, AFAIK that’s a setting the admin activates.