Expanding the moderation team?

[PsyzhranV2]

I'm wondering if the site couldn't benefit from a few more mods. As far as I'm aware, there's currently only Morrus the site admin, and then Umbran and Dannyalcatraz who are acting in a moderation capacity. From my experience on sites with a similar level of traffic to ENWorld, I can't help but think that three moderators is too few. Would the ENWorld be open to recruiting more moderators, especially those who can handle timezones outside the American and Western European timezones?

 

[Morrus]

We discuss it internally from time to time, and we've had varying numbers of mods at different times, and if we ever decide to bring on extra hands we reach out privately to folks we think might be a good fit. We have never taken applications.

 

[PsyzhranV2]

We discuss it internally from time to time, and we've had varying numbers of mods at different times, and if we ever decide to bring on extra hands we reach out privately to folks we think might be a good fit. We have never taken applications.

Thanks for the response!

 

[DammitVictor]

As a long-term former forum moderator, I highly recommend taking applications. Most of the time, the people you're going to ask are going to apply anyway. And you get the sheer joy of seeing your forum's worst posters applying again and again and again like they are blissfully unaware of the fact that joining the mod team is not the way to get the mods to stop stifling their brilliance.

Seriously... take your half-dozen biggest asshats and reading their mod applications will almost make up for the fact that you can't just ban them. Yet.

 

[Sacrosanct]

As a long-term former forum moderator, I highly recommend taking applications. Most of the time, the people you're going to ask are going to apply anyway. And you get the sheer joy of seeing your forum's worst posters applying again and again and again like they are blissfully unaware of the fact that joining the mod team is not the way to get the mods to stop stifling their brilliance.

Seriously... take your half-dozen biggest asshats and reading their mod applications will almost make up for the fact that you can't just ban them. Yet.

Phew. At least I know I have the self awareness to never apply, so that counts for something, right?

 

[Morrus]

As a long-term former forum moderator, I highly recommend taking applications.

A saying we've had in the moderation team since the site began -- anybody who wants to be a moderator probably isn't suited for it. It's a truly horrible job most of the time. There's a reason most people only do it for a while.

 

[Eltab]

Find a way to get a couple of "backup moderators" on file, for when a regular mod has scheduled a vacation or just gets sick for a day.

 

[Blackrat]

I remember when each forum section had a bunch of mods Even I had mod access in the old reviews section. I helped with some data entry or something, not quite sure anymore...

It seems to me that current moderation is on a proper level. The less there are mods, the less there are internal disagreements in the team.

EDIT: Went digging in the past. Whoa, that was back in ’08. Where did the time go

 

[DammitVictor]

I was a moderator on a nonpartisan political forum for most of the Bush and Obama years. Wasn't even remotely responsible for my mental health disintegrating, but it left me in a position where
me and the forum alike were no good for each other.

I'm not fit to moderate any forum I'm currently a member of, and I know it.

 

[Umbran]

Find a way to get a couple of "backup moderators" on file, for when a regular mod has scheduled a vacation or just gets sick for a day.

So, that generally doesn't work very well.

You know the "constant vigilance problem"? We have it here. The majority of the time, we only need a couple of moderators, because we only see a couple of reports a day. If we add to the team, then most of the time, the mods don't have anything to do, and quite understandably they move off to things that actually call for their attention, and the team quickly returns to previous levels of staffing.

That list of "backup moderators" then likely becomes stale - if they aren't needed for a year, folks can even forget that they were even on the list, engage with other sites, have kids and changing priorities, or whatever. That backup list would create work to maintain, and the people on the list would get little practice, and wouldn't have much skill when they were needed.

Right now, we are talking over some improved coordination and other techniques to prevent spikes like we saw this weekend.