Tannin
Storage? I am Storage!
We are, bit by bit, transitioning from our inital ad-hoc organisation to a longer-term, more organised and democratic form. To begin with, moderation of the forums was left in the hands of the Webmaster, and in fact, so far, there has been no need for moderation. We have been lucky insofar as no forum participant has stepped outside the boundaries of civilised discussion or tried to disrupt the place.
Sooner or later, however, it is inevitable that a disruption will occur, and it is only sensible to prepare for that in advance by appointing people to deal with it, and giving them some guidelines on which to act.
P5_133XL was originally given this resonsibility, and asked Santilli and Flagreen to help him develop a policy. When Mark had to withdraw because of family commitments, I asked Mercutio to step in and complete the task.
Mercutio put the proposed Storage Forum moderation policy to the Admin Team yesterday for approval, and he will (I assume) want to post about it here as soon as a couple of final details are tidied up.
Five moderators will be appointed by the Admin Team, each to serve an 18 month term, and the appointements wil be staggered, so that we have a balance between experience and new blood.
Why five moderators for a forum that, so far, has not needed any? Mainly to ensure that there is always someone around with the power to take action in case of a sudden spam attack, but also to ensure that there is no risk of a personality clash between a forum member and the moderator - and if you manage to seriously offend all five mods at the same time, then you probably ought to be censured!
While it is the Admin Team that is responsible for Storage Forum, all members are entitled to have their say in matters of this nature, which is why I am calling for nominations here, rather than in the private admin forum.
A moderator needs to be a reasonably frequent visitor here, needs to be fair-minded and commited to free speech, wise enough to know when it's best to just do nothing, but still strong enough to take action when it's needed.
There are two vacancies to fill at present: one with a notional start date of 1st January, the other to start on 1st April. I'll call for fresh nominations sometime in June to fill the third slot, and my successor will appoint the final two later in the year.
So that there is someone on the moderation team that "knows the ropes", the first appointment needs to be someone who has worked on the policy so far and is familiar with it: Flagreen, Santilli, P5_133XL, or Mercutio. (I don't think that P5 has time at present though - he will no doubt correct me if I'm wrong.)
The second appointment can be anyone who is suited, be it another one of the guys listed above, one of the Admin Team, or a general member.
(PS: you might have noticed that I am listed as "moderator" of this Feedback forum - this is simply so that I can maintain the site FAQ. I am not a moderator as such, nor as Chairman should I be. It's just that it was the easiest way to tell phpBB to give me edit rights here in Feedback.)
Your nominations please gentlemen......
Sooner or later, however, it is inevitable that a disruption will occur, and it is only sensible to prepare for that in advance by appointing people to deal with it, and giving them some guidelines on which to act.
P5_133XL was originally given this resonsibility, and asked Santilli and Flagreen to help him develop a policy. When Mark had to withdraw because of family commitments, I asked Mercutio to step in and complete the task.
Mercutio put the proposed Storage Forum moderation policy to the Admin Team yesterday for approval, and he will (I assume) want to post about it here as soon as a couple of final details are tidied up.
Five moderators will be appointed by the Admin Team, each to serve an 18 month term, and the appointements wil be staggered, so that we have a balance between experience and new blood.
Why five moderators for a forum that, so far, has not needed any? Mainly to ensure that there is always someone around with the power to take action in case of a sudden spam attack, but also to ensure that there is no risk of a personality clash between a forum member and the moderator - and if you manage to seriously offend all five mods at the same time, then you probably ought to be censured!
While it is the Admin Team that is responsible for Storage Forum, all members are entitled to have their say in matters of this nature, which is why I am calling for nominations here, rather than in the private admin forum.
A moderator needs to be a reasonably frequent visitor here, needs to be fair-minded and commited to free speech, wise enough to know when it's best to just do nothing, but still strong enough to take action when it's needed.
There are two vacancies to fill at present: one with a notional start date of 1st January, the other to start on 1st April. I'll call for fresh nominations sometime in June to fill the third slot, and my successor will appoint the final two later in the year.
So that there is someone on the moderation team that "knows the ropes", the first appointment needs to be someone who has worked on the policy so far and is familiar with it: Flagreen, Santilli, P5_133XL, or Mercutio. (I don't think that P5 has time at present though - he will no doubt correct me if I'm wrong.)
The second appointment can be anyone who is suited, be it another one of the guys listed above, one of the Admin Team, or a general member.
(PS: you might have noticed that I am listed as "moderator" of this Feedback forum - this is simply so that I can maintain the site FAQ. I am not a moderator as such, nor as Chairman should I be. It's just that it was the easiest way to tell phpBB to give me edit rights here in Feedback.)
Your nominations please gentlemen......