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How to become a moderator

Postby TheEagle » Thu May 26, 2022 5:56 pm

If I'd like to become a moderator on this forum, what criteria would I have to fulfill, what's the procedure and how much time should I be able to spend on moderation tasks daily ?
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Re: How to become a moderator

Postby S&J » Thu May 26, 2022 7:02 pm

Should a moderator have strong opinions or be neutral ?

Do you think someone that believes a person shouldn't have an opinion if their work hasn't been flown is a suitable candidate ?
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Re: How to become a moderator

Postby TheEagle » Thu May 26, 2022 7:18 pm

S&J wrote in Thu May 26, 2022 7:02 pm:Should a moderator have strong opinions or be neutral ?

Well, a moderator has the right to have his/her own (even strong) opinion and also say it out - but only in his/her function as a normal forum member. When moderating he/she should be neutral, and aim at resolving any conflicts.

S&J wrote in Thu May 26, 2022 7:02 pm:Do you think someone that believes a person shouldn't have an opinion if their work hasn't been flown is a suitable candidate ?

I think any person may say his/her opinion - whether his/her work has been flown, or whether he/she has done any work (I guess you mean aircraft) does not matter.
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Re: How to become a moderator

Postby Thorsten » Fri May 27, 2022 9:41 am

This forum is run by Curt Olson (who is also admin) and basically you become a moderator when Curt asks you and you say yes.

[Should a moderator have strong opinions or be neutral ?


By definition a moderator should be neutral (that is what the word 'to moderate' implies) - but that is not a relevant criterion in practice, see above.
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Re: How to become a moderator

Postby Hooray » Fri May 27, 2022 10:25 am

Actually, it's mainly "run" by Gijs - Curt isn't really handling most of these things himself.

If you are interested in becoming a mod, it's best to reach out to other mods - there's an internal moderator-only sub-forum (not public), where other mods will discuss such issues.
In general, it helps being polite/professional, and if you do hold strong opinions, you are better off being courteous and having a certain reputation, e.g. of being well-aligned with the project as a whole.

The general idea is that there's a sufficient number of [b]active{/b] volunteers to help with things like managing the forum/wiki - it is quite normal for a project like this to suffer from a certain attrition rate. For instance, Gijs, bugman or Johan are currently no longer as active as previously - Stuart also seems to be busy with other things.

Overall, mods/wiki admins are ideally "well-aligned" with the folks running the project behind the scenes (aka core devs), as most core devs are not really interested in helping with things like the wiki or the forum (many of whom are not even contributing to the forum/wiki respectively).

If in doubt, offer your help with the forum/wiki via the devel list or reach out to other admins/mods behind the scenes beforehand.

Ideally, the project would regularly re-evaluate its number of volunteers involved in these areas, to get volunteers involved more easily - as a matter of fact, there could be annual poll to nominate new volunteers - to get some kind of "routine" going. Compared to other domains, like e.g. core development, getting involved in the forum/wiki is a rather simple way of helping the project, i.e. you don't need "commit access" and you also don't need to be a core developer.

best of luck !

PS: If you're looking for a "role model", look up Gijs' introductory posting to the devel list early ~2007 (?), when he introduced himself and offered to get involved in helping with some of the more tedious chores. Another role model, would be Stuart, who is the rare exception of being a core developer and admin/mod on both, the forum and the wiki. If you can emulate/replicate their behavior (as in acting in the best interest of the project as a whole), you would surely be considered at some point :wink:
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Re: How to become a moderator

Postby TheEagle » Fri May 27, 2022 1:55 pm

Thanks for the info ! Actually I was mainly interested in helping with spam and suchlike.
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Re: How to become a moderator

Postby Kugelfang » Sat May 28, 2022 4:00 pm

Even 'back in the day' when I was a moderator here, Curt rarely got involved with moderation. Admin, yes, moderating, not so much. My motivation was to keep the forum clear of pornography--it was a real issue back then--but I found that even though my goal was limited, moderation tends to suffer scope creep. I also found that moderators giving their opinions on anything other than moderation tended to simply add fuel to fires. Best to keep them to yourself.

I think Stuart joined as moderator shortly after I did and I think Gijs joined shortly after I left. If my memory is correct (admittedly it's quite hazy), Stuart and Gijs must be two of the longest lived forum moderators on the Internet!
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