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Excellent. Over the weekend I'll put together a couple of vote threads. One of those will be for people who are interested only in certain forums, such as "only fiction" or "History". The other vote thread will be for general Mods.

I've heard from Lonestar via PM; he has accepted his nomination (hopefully he can post his availability and prefences soon). I have yet to hear from Simplicius and Ma Deuce, but I did send them PMs.

If I don't hear from them I will include them anyway-- but if they decline, then the next most popular runners-up can replace them. DW, Pablo Sanchez and Dalton have been alerted to this thread as well so the command staff has a heads-up in case they weren't monitoring events (although Pablo has posted here). Hopefully we can start filling in the needs for more, active Moderators.

Bear in mind if you, or your favorite pick, doesn't get selected, that does not mean the matter is sealed. There may yet be more Mods needed, depending on how things pan out. I pulled the number "8" out of a hat, so to speak, as a good starting number so we don't overwhelm the board with an army of new Mods all at once. There may be another round of elections, yet.

Do you have a roadmap in mind for how many moderators - and where - you will add? Haphazardly adding people by popular vote to whatever forum they like most is sub-optimal.

And I will put a small blunt note. This will be over a course of a few months. And as such, I will just let that out for people. It's nice to see vigor but there are a couple things the admins want to see and try first before we fill the ranks per se.

One issue that was resolved was a need for more eyes, so to enact that the moderation staff add four new supermoderators from said staff. Adding new staff members is going to be a far more delicate issue and one that is and has been put on the table before. Also just as a note, Pablo leads the Supermoderator...or did. That subgroup has changed into Mike's and the admins hands.

I'll tentatively nominate myself for G&C and PST, since there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of interest in either of those at the minute. I appreciate that my post count is really pretty low for someone who's been posting on a fairly regular basis for five years, but I like to think I'm pretty versed in the board's culture.

Timezone is GMT; I currently spend just about all my time at my desk drawing and animating stuff, so it's trivially easy for to switch over to my browser and check the forums for five minutes. I actually check the forums quite a lot as it is.

The two I mentioned are the two I'd feel most comfortable moderating, although I could also do OSF, OT, AMP or, at a stretch, SLAM. Looks like we have interest in those ones though.

I put myself down for as mod for the History Subforum.

Why? Because I love history. Thus endeth the subject. I really could care less about the other forums. Just keep me fed with essays on the Red Army's organization on the outset of Zitadelle and I'm happy.

Coyote wrote: 1. Your interests. Please be specific--list all forums and how much you participate in each one. Also, tell us if there is a forum you absolutely do not want to moderate, or (this is critical) one you feel you cannot or should not moderate.

I accept the nomination in the spirit it was offered. Some comments in regards to forums:

ST vs. SW: I would not mind being a mod there, as I lurk there often enough. I do not post a whole heck of a there, and do not know if that would be taken into consideration.

Pure SW: Same as the above, especially because of my hate towards Travissties. Again, I don't post a whole lot in that forum. In fact, were it between me and Publius(In fact, between Publius and anyone else) he should get a modship there.

Pure ST:Much the same as the above, although I think there are more qualified ST folks than me to be a moderator(Uraniun comes to mind).

Fanfic:Sadly, I don't Frequent it except for a few specific fanfics...I would be ill-suited for this role.

Other Scifi/Fantasy: The fiction forums I most often frequent, I would be glad to help in moderating these forums.

OT: I'd do this, but it seems to be pretty good at self-regulation.

N&P:I think I would be a poor choice for this forum, as I would butt heads with the other moderators frequently and let my ideological viewpoints influence me. Coyote or Ender would be a better choice.

G&C:I'd love to mod this forum, specifically the STGOD forum, which I frequent. To be honest, it(the subforum) is in need of moderation.

2. Your availability. This is obvious.

Evenings between 1600-2100(pending classes), sporadically during the day at work. My job makes me travel a lot, so sometimes I end up online a lot more or less than usual.

3. Your time zone. Ideally, the most active forums will have moderation most of the day.

Eastern, but my job takes me as far West as Korea(I guess that would be "East") and as far East as Germany, so again, it fluctuates.

Stark wrote:Do you have a roadmap in mind for how many moderators - and where - you will add? Haphazardly adding people by popular vote to whatever forum they like most is sub-optimal.

Yeah, but at the same time I feel that people kinda need to be motivated to mod a forum they'll be in. It makes sense to me that if someone is trying to be mod of, say, the Fiction forums, they'll be well-known quantities there-- recognisable names, and denizens there will vote for them. Hence the reason I'm seperating them from those running for general moderators.

I see 8 new general mods total. Some of the people looking to run minor or specialized forums are essentially running unopposed, which seems, to me, to reflect the traffic level in those forums.

It is indeed a flawed and imperfect system, to which I am more than open to any helpful suggestions. One of the things that cannot be quantified, for example, is any guarantee that the people that will be governed are even monitoring the events here! But, I am one of the people growing tired of haggling and inaction... new mods are a pretty obvious and universal call and a very fair criticism thus far is that we're all nodding our heads but, until now, haven't made any moves.

EDIT-- I just saw Ghost Rider's post above mine, here. The higher command has an idea where they'd like to fill certain slots, and I've no doubt they have other things in mind such as personality suitability, too. I have warned before that at any time DW could step in and veto anyone selected at any stage, being as it's his board...

PS-- something else to consider might well be a round to determine who would make good Horsemen... but again, one thing at a time, and we've got a full plate now.

GR's suggesting that some subset of the admin staff is doing the thinking around this, which is great (if about as non-transparent as you can get, lol). I had a concern that board administration had become the stuff of popular vote, which is no way to run a forum. So long as someone, somewhere has a plan!

Ghost Rider wrote:One issue that was resolved was a need for more eyes, so to enact that the moderation staff add four new supermoderators from said staff. Adding new staff members is going to be a far more delicate issue and one that is and has been put on the table before.

In fact proposals for expanding the staff have been floating around for some time, something that I'm definitely in favor of, but decisions on this matter come from the top down. This thread is useful in that it shows people's availability and interest in case the decision is made to add new moderators, but nobody should expect anything out of it.

Also just as a note, Pablo leads the Supermoderator...or did. That subgroup has changed into Mike's and the admins hands.

I weep for my lost powers, I really do. I think I promoted all of TWO people the whole time I had that.

I'm really just interested in being a Horseman or a Testing Mod. Really the Moderator part doesn't interest me so much as being a Horseman would. The idea of getting to mercilessly flame the living hell out of the dumbasses makes me all warm and fuzzy on the inside.

Mr. Coffee wrote:I'm really just interested in being a Horseman or a Testing Mod. Really the Moderator part doesn't interest me so much as being a Horseman would. The idea of getting to mercilessly flame the living hell out of the dumbasses makes me all warm and fuzzy on the inside.

You'd be uniquely suited to be a Horseman. You have a flair for it that I can only envy.

I'd really think I'd work best as a Horseman or in fanfics myself, as well as ARSE. All are areas I can be genuinely useful in. I could in history, too, but, really, Thanas would be better for that, and he's eminently responsible, so please put him there, good sirs; and the same is true for SLAM, except with Publius, who has the detached sang-froid that would be perfectly suited to that forum.

I would also like to nominate Big Steve for Fantasy, since he has a very big interest in comic books which I understand are covered by that forum, and his record as a supermod on SB.com was impossibly exemplary, he really is a shining example of good mod-ship.

Probably, then, I'll put Marina and Coffee in as Horsemen contenders, as if for a 'forum-specific' type nomination. I think you guys would do quite well there.

Stark has a particularly acerbic wit to him that would do well in that arena, were he interested.

To be honest with everyone-- I would actually consider it to be a mark of success if "more Moderators" became so successful and pro-active that the House of Commons and Senate became little-used meeting halls. It would mean that the right choices were made.

That said, pretty soon I'll start divvying up the nominations into 'general mod position contenders' and 'specific forum contenders'. I'll have the two different vote plans up by, say... Sunday. So by Saturday evening, 6pm GMT, let's close the nominations. That'll still be in the morning/noon time for me, so I can start compiling a list by general/forum specific.

As Pablo Sanchez pointed out, this is being viewed by staff as a way to gauge candidates and see what choices there are. They'll also be screened according to whatever standards Mike and the rest of the Command Staff have considered important.

Good luck to all contenders!

Edi wrote:

Mr. Coffee wrote:I'm really just interested in being a Horseman or a Testing Mod. Really the Moderator part doesn't interest me so much as being a Horseman would. The idea of getting to mercilessly flame the living hell out of the dumbasses makes me all warm and fuzzy on the inside.

You'd be uniquely suited to be a Horseman. You have a flair for it that I can only envy.

I can second that. The man is like an idiot savant when it comes to roasting people alive.

Also, though it'd be a cold day in hell before it's likely to happen and I find it tacky to do so, I'd like to throw my hat in the ring for N&P mod. I can be fair minded and put grudges aside and I think I've improved as a poster over the last year.

I'd also like to be in the forum specific for ARSE and fanfics, Arik.


I also agree that it would be a mark of success if adding a lot of moderators made the Senate a dead letter. Nothing would make me happier than for the Senate to turn into a ceremonial social club.

The Duchess of Zeon wrote:I'd also like to be in the forum specific for ARSE and fanfics, Arik.


I also agree that it would be a mark of success if adding a lot of moderators made the Senate a dead letter. Nothing would make me happier than for the Senate to turn into a ceremonial social club.

And really, this seemed to be its original intention. I think it's rather a shame that conditions have decreased to the point that the Senate is discussing policy on such a regular basis. Though not a member, I feel that our esteemed senators are working much too hard for too little reward.

I am wondering, how many mods do we really need altogether?

5 more? 10 more?

Since I've been nominated anyway, I suppose it would be the height of hypocrisy to withdraw after asking for more moderation myself. Never ask for something you're not prepared to do yourself and all that.

I'm most active in PST (though I have to say that I'd be very happy to see Gandalf added as a mod there), somewhat less in places like OT, OSF, G&C and StvSW. I wouldn't touch N&P with a ten-foot pole, that forum needs the cream of the crop. SW I read but don't contribute much too. My timezone is UTC+1, Western Europe; I'm usually available from around 5PM to around 12PM, pending other commitments, and sporadically during the rest of the day.

Lonestar wrote:

Coyote wrote: 1. Your interests. Please be specific--list all forums and how much you participate in each one. Also, tell us if there is a forum you absolutely do not want to moderate, or (this is critical) one you feel you cannot or should not moderate.

G&C:I'd love to mod this forum, specifically the STGOD forum, which I frequent. To be honest, it(the subforum) is in need of moderation.

I'll second this, and throw in my hat as well for STGOD sub-Mod. Aside from locking and restarting game thread when they reach the "thread size too big" threshold, I think it might be handy to have some stickied reference thread with links to various important threads for the various active games, updated as needed. Which would probably be simpler than scrolling on down to find the Map threads, OOB thread, Diplomacy thread, etc for any given game. Essentially a glorified minimod.

EDIT: To clarify, I'm only requesting STGOD subforum modship here, rather than G&C as a whole. I wouldn't necessarily turn down something else, but I won't nominate myself for anything above a specialty subforum (principle of the thing, I suppose ). If somebody else feels I'm worthy of being nominated for other forums, then I'll sound off if/when it happens.

And as those in the Mess know, creating such "reference threads" is something I tend to do as it is. Whether or not they appreciate that I don't know.

Just as an aside, I think most of an STGOD subforum mod's time would probably be janitorial. Any in-game arguments would probably be resolved whether through the player appointed "mods" or through player consensus. Though if there's no end in sight I suppose they could appeal to the subforum mod(s) for a final decision. But that's just my personal philosophy.

Coyote wrote:2. Your availability. This is obvious.

Usually the afternoons through evening Sunday through Wednesday, then evenings and mornings the rest of the week. Except for those rare times I have a life outside the Internet.

Coyote wrote:3. Your time zone. Ideally, the most active forums will have moderation most of the day.

Eastern (US). Granted it's the same as Lonestar, but since it's fairly low moderation it shouldn't be much of an issue, especially if the job is largely "janitorial" anyway.

I also nominate Stas for History Subforum Moderator.

I'd go further and say I want Stas to stand for N&P and Offtopic, if he'd be willing.

Let Stas go pretty much wherever he wants. He's improved a whole hell of alot since the days I remember him posting (mostly in PSW and stuff) and I can't think of him posting in any place nowadays (where he's interested at least) and doesnt contribute something worthwhile.

I also forgot to add a few others who I would consider worthwhile, if they'd be willing to do it:

Hotfoot (I know he's already involved here, but he could be good in N&P)

and ImperialOverlord (Whose impressed me both with his writing and his debating skills, and I believe he tends to visit various parts of the board, both nonscifi and scifi) would make a good mod choice.

I almost hesitate to mention this because it'll probably summon flaming, and maybe the administration is already thinking of this. But some of the names I'm seeing tossed up for moderation (particularly among those volunteering) are people with pretty toxic personalities and/or a lot of history of personal conflict. Do we really want folks with histories of stirring up emotions to be in charge of managing them, in light of this whole idea of trying for a more "positive board culture?"

In a somewhat related vein, should people who are heavily active in a given forum the best choice for moderation? I'd think you'd want to make sure the mod would be interested in the forum, obviously, but if a candidate is one of the most active members in a given forum, that might make their lives more difficult when it comes to moderation.

(BTW: for what it's worth, I think that Broomstick would be a good choice for an ARSE mod, as would Stas for pretty much anywhere.)

Depends on the forum; GnC and ARSE and Fanfic aren't about 'debate' so there's no sides to take. There's just 'right' and 'wrong'.