Brantuk Posted April 9, 2013 Share Posted April 9, 2013 A day in the life of a mod: Log on - examine all posts since last login offering help, pointers, or comments where possible. Answer pm's from members asking questions. Contribute to organisation of next meeting at dark site, star party, or organised club trips. Arrange availability of keys where applicable and who will attend. Organise loan scopes and storage when not out. Deal with any technical or member issues that are pending. Organise content for quarterly meetings. Share and prepare presentations with other mods. Then after all that take a skim round classifieds looking for gear for members. Read reviews where necessary so to be in a position of advice for others. Check out other websites to keep knowledge current, offer help to other mods..... it never ends lol Hope that answers your question somewhat.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig Posted April 9, 2013 Share Posted April 9, 2013 as it must only take one to moderate posts This could not be further from the truth. When an individual acts on a situation they can be biased. Their views may be swayed by personal experiences with an individual and they can make mistakes. It's happened on EMS and, I have no doubts, elsewhere as well. When we moderate we may do so in silo if it's simple moderation (ban a spammer, moderate a crude post, remove offensive content, etc) but more often than not it's just not that simple. As a moderator you may be faced with enforcing order by using tools that are not very nice to use, like bans. You might be caught between two persons who each expect you to take their side. In doing so, you constantly risk being seen as biased and favouring somebody else. It's not a nice place to be. As a moderating team we talk. A lot. We talk about posts on the forum, we talk about reported content (like posts, PMs, gallery uploads, etc.) and we come to a consensus on the best action to take. Sometimes we agree straight away on a reaction to a situation, sometimes we don't. Some of the discussions have been very heated. That's a lot of what we do. It ensures we all agree on what action to take, to keep things as fair and impartial as possible. Welcome to moderating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted April 9, 2013 Author Share Posted April 9, 2013 There is nothing to explain, as long as the forum runs smooth and clean, the spam is removed and all our members are having an enjoyable experience, this then tells me that the moderators are doing a good job, everyone should be happy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dawson Posted April 9, 2013 Share Posted April 9, 2013 Can you lot read our PMs?!?!?!? Did you read the one where i told felix his telescope was bigger than mine? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig Posted April 9, 2013 Share Posted April 9, 2013 Can you lot read our PMs?!?!?!? Did you read the one where i told felix his telescope was bigger than mine? ROFL Private Messages can be viewed if they are reported. You will see the report button against the private message. If you push this then a moderator can see the reported private message and add them-self to the conversation. Something I had to remind folks of before on here... private messages are not encrypted. They are stored in the database in plain text. Therefore you should never send anything via private message that is confidential or sensitive (e.g. credit card numbers). Plus, when you post a private message you do so over an unencrypted connection. Whilst highly unlikely, it is possible for a malicious third party to "sniff" this data and decode it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brantuk Posted April 9, 2013 Share Posted April 9, 2013 Craig was refering to reported pm's James - the report button can be used to send anything and all mods can see it's content - but not pm's unless copy/pasted and reported. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig Posted April 9, 2013 Share Posted April 9, 2013 Snap Kim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dawson Posted April 9, 2013 Share Posted April 9, 2013 Ok. Not that i've ever sent anything sensitive i don't think. I do think people forget about the electronic trail we all leave. Luckily i'm quite boring and have nothing to hide. James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig Posted April 9, 2013 Share Posted April 9, 2013 You're right. I've always had a gripe with forum software in that private messages really are not. The word private implies a degree of safety and confidentiality, when in reality this isn't the case. I might try to "skin" in a warning message in the PM area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest swaylight Posted April 9, 2013 Share Posted April 9, 2013 Well thats that cleared up thanks for take in the time to explain this as its not any were on the site and would be helpfull ,if it was posted some where so others could read i found this very interesting ,i now no what mods do makes you seem more real ,and not just robots so to speak Dean Thanks again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig Posted April 9, 2013 Share Posted April 9, 2013 I kinda like the idea of being a robot... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brantuk Posted April 9, 2013 Share Posted April 9, 2013 You're welcome Dean - it's also worth noting that it's all done voluntary for free purely out of our enjoyment of astronomy and for the benefit of all members. We also all have specific tasks like PoTM adjudicator, Treasurer, Elac coordinator, Technical Webmaster, Dark site manager, etc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tweedledee Posted April 9, 2013 Share Posted April 9, 2013 Congratulations John on your new post. ,and not just robots so to speak Perhaps mods are more akin to gods looking down from on high . You all do a great job keeping things under control and making EMS better for everyone. There is nothing to explain, as long as the forum runs smooth and clean, the spam is removed and all our members are having an enjoyable experience, this then tells me that the moderators are doing a good job, everyone should be happy. Mick said it all very well above, which is just how it is, and Kim laid it on a bit thick. I have all on keeping up with the odd observing report and certainly wouldn't want their job. Keep up the good work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest swaylight Posted April 10, 2013 Share Posted April 10, 2013 But Pete ,given the chance you would ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tweedledee Posted April 10, 2013 Share Posted April 10, 2013 LOL. No chance, I don't have enough hours in the day now to do everything I want to do. Sounds like Kim's about to give up his day job to do moderating full time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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