Turning over the staff

The following story does not apply (groan) here, but it does illustrate how moderators can be affect a forum. I don't have the writing skills to really show how one overzealous moderator, given free reign to do things his way, nearly took down a very active subforum.

I was active on a large forum with numerous subforums. The site founder/owner and moderators let the largest & most active subforum get out of control. Certain groups fought with other groups, individual fought with indiciduals, individuals fought with groups, etc. The snarling was always present, but slowly & surely it was allowed to become snapping, then actual biting. It didn't help that a handful of members decided to share passwords.

An appeasement policy was attempted, but it didn't a genius to see that it wasn't going to work, and it didn't. The owner decided to crackdown. He appointed a 'main' moderator (we'll call him Hammer) for the troubled subforum and gave him free reign to kick ass. Hammer had just came off being temporarily banned for attacking other members, not to mention he had a history of being hotheaded, vengeful, & flagrantly violating the rules.

Hammer came in with a big hammer and immediately starting using it.
The problem members were quickly tossed.
In the process many good members who got anywhere close to crossing the line also got banned (quite a few weren't even that close).
Members who didn't post anything wrong had their posts deleted.
Entire threads would get deleted; all it took was a very slight hint of a problem, real or (often) imagined.
No explanations were offered.
Thinly veiled threats of "Be quiet or you're next" were common.
Direct comments such as "Leave if you don't like it" were frequent. Unfortunately many good long-time members did exactly that and never returned.

It took the owner several months to remove Hammer (he left the site much hated and thoroughly disgraced), but by then the damage had already been done. At least 1/3 of the top quality active members were so POd they left, and very few returned.

 

I doubt anything like that is about to happen here. Moderation is best done with a light (not soft) touch, and the current staff obviously knows that.

 

I'd help with this, but let's be honest here; I would just fuck shit up.

If I ever get around to learning about the backend (hehehe, backend) of TFP, I would be glad to help out with that. Martian and I have talked about it, but never get around to it. I like behind-the-scenes stuff over dealing with people. I have a finite amount of patience allocated for dealing with stupid shit and I have to use all of it to keep from going off on my clients. Plus, Cinn can't kick me virtually like she does when I'm starting to get frustrated with a customer.

 

I'm somewhat tempted to volunteer. I've had some experience as a moderator on other fora.

But the basis for trust has not been established -- no one here has ever met me. For all you know, I'm a bot.

 

I would support the idea of either or both redravin and or Street Pattern Modding. ~Just Sayin~.

 

I'm flattered, but again, I'm only a bot. Or an underage girl. I forget which.

 

(more of an inside joke, but those who get it will appreciate it)

 

This is something I've toyed around with over the past week. It would be something I would be interested in, but I don't know if I have the new topic chops. Plus, like @noodle, I have to deal with all the school shit, there's days I can pop in, but don't have time to participate. Life is hard.

 

@GeneticShift, you'd be a great mod!

 

Thank you! It's something I'm still thinking about.

Current mods, is there a deadline to apply?

 

I vote for @GeneticShift

I can generate topics. I have done that a lot recently with some having more popularity than others. I'll just keep doing that like a good little forum member. You people that like doing stuff should Mod. However, if someone I don't particularly care for becomes a Mod, I will mail dirty diapers to them.