TO MODS: Possibility of having more mods?

[The Pentium Guy]

Hey mods,

I realize you guys are doing a great job managing the trolls, neffers, etc here. And we know how annoying it is to do all of this all at once. I personally feel that it may be benificial if we had mods patrolling the Video and CPUs/Overclocking especailly.

Threads do seem to be getting a little out of hand in there. Forum Issues was created to help you guys with this, however it might help the AT community if more moderators were there. Constant flame wars, flame baits, troll posts, and neffing goes one everywhere here (Not just in OT).

This isn't one of those "AT isn't what it used to be threads". However please keep in mind that the more trolling that goes on, the less users will join our community, possibly being turned off by some of this (somewhat like the Roadfly forums, which is constant trolling back and forth).

Thanks for listening,
-The Pentium Guy

During the summer when school is out it always seems that we have an influx of trolls and idiots. With summer coming to an end and achool starting up again hopefully things will calm down somewhat. However if they don't we definately will be comsidering adding more Moderators to our staff.

 

[Rage187]

The Vacation Mod needs to hurry up and get back.

 

[KarenMarie]

I have not been here as long as many but have been here long enough to see that it goes like this:

there are a handful of idiots that ruin the place for everyone. New ppl join that fall into two groups.... those that think that the stuff the idiots pull is acceptable cause the mods cannot be ever where, all the time... and those who get discouraged quickly by the behaviour of the idiots and leave. But page hit stay high, so there is no huge outcry for the idiots to be banned.

The mods, for the most part, do an excellent job... but there seems to be too few of them and their opinions on what is tolerable varies widely. It would be great if there were more mods, and if there were hard and fast rules that were adhered to.

Just my opinion...not a complaint... i have learned to just not click on a link that looks stupid and hit the back button that doesnt appear so at first.

Anyway... who decides if more mods are needed and is there a nomination system? Or do the mods just pick who they want to join them?

 

[The Pentium Guy]

I'm not sure who the mods would be, but I think the mods would be respectable forum members who don't troll around, and who've been around long enough. Ah well. Let the mods do what they have to do (nomination behind the scenes, etc). I just wanted to bring across this point to the mods so that they could at least find out what its like from our side (....but since they're also regular users.... I dunno).

-The Pentium Guy

 

[Gamingphreek]

Anyway... who decides if more mods are needed and is there a nomination system? Or do the mods just pick who they want to join them?

Yeah. They should do a screening or something And then the people that pass that, try to moderate (under close supervision by the big guys) for an hour.

You guys do a great job, but i think (no offense) you guys are overwhelmed.

As for all of us. Im sure there is stuff we can do to help out. Many of these trolls are simply fanboys with a bad attitude. While at the same time there are the other fanboys who are much more measured and just have their preference. Also, if we can get people to ignore posts. Simple enough. I cant remember if it is still in my sig or not, but "If you feed a troll it grows". If we can get people to stop posting in those threads problem solved.

There is one final suggestion i would like to make. Instead of getting more moderators why can there not be a sort of Board of Users for each forum. Have about 8 members. If there is a problem people PM that account (Video Supervisor or something) and then the 8 of them get together via IM or PM or Email and discuss the problem. ALmost like a jury. Then, depending on the decision they have the power to lock the the thread, not ban or give out vacations. Just have the ability to Edit posts (Such as telling them what they did wrong or something) and locking posts (perhaps stickies too). Any abuse of the power and those people would be thrown out and IP Banned or something. This way the mods still oversee them but then the group of supervisors can deal with all the little problems.

The fact is the forums are too small. Even if more mods were to be hired the problem would still continue. You need people for each forum who can keep it under control and then if something is really wrong then the mods intervene.

-Kevin

 

[KarenMarie]

I think that is a great idea... mini mods...

the mini mods can have the authority to lock threads, but not delete them. The will not have authority to ban anyone... or anything like that. And they can take some pressure off the mods.

 

[RichUK]

Originally posted by: KarenMarie
I think that is a great idea... mini mods...

the mini mods can have the authority to lock threads, but not delete them. The will not have authority to ban anyone... or anything like that. And they can take some pressure off the mods.

i think they already have a system like that were certain mods, have certain permission levels, and thus do not have all of the privileges available

 

[CheesePoofs]

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
There is one final suggestion i would like to make. Instead of getting more moderators why can there not be a sort of Board of Users for each forum. Have about 8 members. If there is a problem people PM that account (Video Supervisor or something) and then the 8 of them get together via IM or PM or Email and discuss the problem. ALmost like a jury. Then, depending on the decision they have the power to lock the the thread, not ban or give out vacations. Just have the ability to Edit posts (Such as telling them what they did wrong or something) and locking posts (perhaps stickies too). Any abuse of the power and those people would be thrown out and IP Banned or something. This way the mods still oversee them but then the group of supervisors can deal with all the little problems.

The fact is the forums are too small. Even if more mods were to be hired the problem would still continue. You need people for each forum who can keep it under control and then if something is really wrong then the mods intervene.

-Kevin

I think that would work great. That way pointless flame bait threads could be locked down quickly, and when bigger issues arise (ie crazed fanboys) they Jury could inform a mod of the problem, and the mod could take action if they deemed it necessary.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Originally posted by: RichUK

Originally posted by: KarenMarie
I think that is a great idea... mini mods...

the mini mods can have the authority to lock threads, but not delete them. The will not have authority to ban anyone... or anything like that. And they can take some pressure off the mods.

i think they already have a system like that were certain mods, have certain permission levels, and thus do not have all of the privileges available

Not really. You have 2 types of mods. You have your basic mod (lol sounds funny reading this) all the rights. Then you have not sure how many i think 1 Anandtech Administrator which is head mod sort of. So while it is kind of like what i suggested it is also a far cry from it.

I dont want to overwhelm them with another thread, but do you guys think that i should add a new thread that discusses this. I can type up a well written proposition, make the thread, and we the users can make some modifications on it. Then when we feel it is good enough to give to the mods one of us can send it via PM.

Assuming that this flies (I hope it does, but i dont know if the average moderator or administrator has the power to do this), we would then have to appoint people to each forum (FI and F/S ; F/T wouldn't have anyone as they deal with problems much more severe than what we are talking. To effectively moderate/supervise if you will, F/S you need all the privelages... therefore should be moderators only there).

So we would need to vote on 17*8 (136 members). Im thinking that is too much power to be given out, but we would discuss this in that thread. If you guys are want i will type all of it out and post it for discussion.

-Kevin

 

[olds]

You guys are missing the big picture. It's easy to ban trolls. It's harder to keep page hits high. They have to walk a fine line and try to do both.

 

[Gamingphreek]

(Disregard my PM Oldsmoboat)

So you are saying that the mods must also keep a steady flow of traffic through here so the site earns money? While a valid argument, i honestly dont see there being that many trolls. Also remember that Supervisor system would not have the privelege to ban. Only to Lock, Edit, Sticky. Any abuse or for that matter if the mods deem it necessary that decision can be overturned.

I never thought that they must keep that line for revenue and hits for the website...

-Kevin

 

[CheesePoofs]

They'd get more hits if the bad threads were locked and the threads in need of stickies were stickied. It'd mean less people would be leaving, and more would be willing to participate.

 

[olds]

Originally posted by: CheesePoofs
They'd get more hits if the bad threads were locked and the threads in need of stickies were stickied. It'd mean less people would be leaving, and more would be willing to participate.

That's my buddies, KM's argument. I agree with her.

 

[KarenMarie]

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat

Originally posted by: CheesePoofs
They'd get more hits if the bad threads were locked and the threads in need of stickies were stickied. It'd mean less people would be leaving, and more would be willing to participate.

That's my buddies, KM's argument. I agree with her.

hahaha!!! I was just gonna say that...

there would be a very small amount of time between when the idiots leave and the good ppl come back, the newbs dont get discouraged and leave and the page hits go back up. The way it is now...

well, it is hard ... cause there is the whole "unwritten rules" thing and many of the new ppl only get bad habits by watching the long term idiots do it. But the mods cannot be every where all the time, and with no sticky at the top, it is all open to ... whatever can be gotten away with. I would guess a lot of ppl doin stupid/annoying stuff would stop if/when they realized it would not be tolerated and the smount of ppl actually leaving would be small.

but yes, I think it would go down for about a day and a half while things got cleaned up.

 

[dug777]

my vote goes to named Mods like most other forums...much more accountable/consistent.

But i know it's never going to happen.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Originally posted by: dug777
my vote goes to named Mods like most other forums...much more accountable/consistent.

But i know it's never going to happen.

Garauntee you it wont happen. These forums are FAR bigger than those forums. To reveal the mods identities would make their job that much harder. It is better that they remain pretty much detached and impersonal/unbiased.

-Kevin

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

mini-mods are an excellent idea

 

[dug777]

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek

Originally posted by: dug777
my vote goes to named Mods like most other forums...much more accountable/consistent.

But i know it's never going to happen.

Garauntee you it wont happen. These forums are FAR bigger than those forums. To reveal the mods identities would make their job that much harder. It is better that they remain pretty much detached and impersonal/unbiased.

-Kevin

why? It's not as if we don't know who most of them are anyway...

I still can't understand why speculating about their identities is a unwritten bannable offence tho...:confused.

 

[SVT Cobra]

Originally posted by: Nik
mini-mods are an excellent idea

:thumbsup:

also a lot of new members are newbies looking for help with their "l33t" 'puters...I agree with more moderation it would be a lot cleaner in general around here and more people would participate...while we would not get such huge pagehits from all the flame bait and trolls i think AT has gotten to a point where it should not matter...I mean i doubt the trolls are clicking the google adsnce ads