I can only agree, I miss Harold too. And no, I don't take that as criticism of how I am as a moderator.
I can only talk for myself, but being a moderator was a lot easier before I became one. :wink:
It is a hard path to walk to keep a forum together without killing the discussion. Either you go down hard on any violations and you scare away new members and the forum turns into a club of old members that soon run out of discussion points. Or you let anything slip and the forum goes up in flames from constant wars. To keep the forum in the middle where new members feel they can ask a stupid question without being scolded as well as stopping bad behavior before it gets out of hand isn't always easy.
Some cases are easy to handle, as nike spammers or Africans selling 100 kg gold per month. But then there are those marginal cases that takes a lot more work.
Often you get an impression of a member and it will stick, even after quite some time have passed. Just as we ask for some cool and levelheaded responses from other members when we debate refining and other issues, I feel that is something a moderator should also use when moderating. To take a decision while you still are angry from reading a post is not a good way to do it.
So before taking a vote on banning a member or not I usually go back and look over the posts the member have made the last year or more. Maybe the thread just hit a nerve or maybe it is a more persistent behavior. This takes some time and no one sees the work done by all moderators when we discuss issues.
And it seems like the situations occur whenever I have least spare time. This week I have had two 16 hour days and barely any sleep. A lot of work hours are good for my economy though. :mrgreen:
There are some perks of being a moderator. We have large message boxes, basically gold member status for free. Then the glory of it... well, that's about all.
In the end, moderating a forum is steering somewhere in the middle, so when half of the people is mad at you for being too lax, while the other half is thinking you should allow more leeway in the discussions, that's when we are on the right path.
I hope that Jim would reconsider his decision to leave. I would hate to have him leave. We are trying to keep the forum together, not driving people away.
And Jim, you are always welcome back whenever you feel for it.
Göran
I can only talk for myself, but being a moderator was a lot easier before I became one. :wink:
It is a hard path to walk to keep a forum together without killing the discussion. Either you go down hard on any violations and you scare away new members and the forum turns into a club of old members that soon run out of discussion points. Or you let anything slip and the forum goes up in flames from constant wars. To keep the forum in the middle where new members feel they can ask a stupid question without being scolded as well as stopping bad behavior before it gets out of hand isn't always easy.
Some cases are easy to handle, as nike spammers or Africans selling 100 kg gold per month. But then there are those marginal cases that takes a lot more work.
Often you get an impression of a member and it will stick, even after quite some time have passed. Just as we ask for some cool and levelheaded responses from other members when we debate refining and other issues, I feel that is something a moderator should also use when moderating. To take a decision while you still are angry from reading a post is not a good way to do it.
So before taking a vote on banning a member or not I usually go back and look over the posts the member have made the last year or more. Maybe the thread just hit a nerve or maybe it is a more persistent behavior. This takes some time and no one sees the work done by all moderators when we discuss issues.
And it seems like the situations occur whenever I have least spare time. This week I have had two 16 hour days and barely any sleep. A lot of work hours are good for my economy though. :mrgreen:
There are some perks of being a moderator. We have large message boxes, basically gold member status for free. Then the glory of it... well, that's about all.
In the end, moderating a forum is steering somewhere in the middle, so when half of the people is mad at you for being too lax, while the other half is thinking you should allow more leeway in the discussions, that's when we are on the right path.
I hope that Jim would reconsider his decision to leave. I would hate to have him leave. We are trying to keep the forum together, not driving people away.
And Jim, you are always welcome back whenever you feel for it.
Göran
