Many times forum moderation can be a difficult and challenging journey. Many situations can lead a mod to stress, anxiety and even depression. Things form trolls, moonbats, spam, derailments and even Admins can lead to an overwhelming day for a mod. With this short and simple guide though your day as a mod can go much smoother. All you have to do is follow these short simple steps to achieve your potential as a mod. 1. When you find a situation where someone is trolling it is best to just pm that person and explain what they are doing is naughty. You DO have the power to ban a member but don't over do it. Save those bans for when serious situations arise. 2. If you find that someone has posted a topic that has already been discussed just kindly merge the topics together with a short explanation on what you did. You are a mod that is your job, If you find this to be " time consuming" and stressful maybe you are not cut out to be in your position. 3. Know other sites to direct users with interests not associated with the site you are moderating. Moon Bats can be directed to sites such as http://www.abovetopsecret.com/ 4. Spam - Delete spam, ads, ect........ There is NO internet rule that says you can not hard delete a post. Ban the accounts so no more spam shows up. 5. Derailments can be a tough situation to moderate. Sometimes teh user doesn't realize what they are posting is actually derailing the thread. You have to use extreme caution when moderating a topic that you feel has been derailed. Sometimes the original topic puts an idea in Joe Users head and he/she gets excited and wants to talk about it and thinks that it fits with in teh current discussion. Derailments are not always punishable acts. 6. Admins - Simple, you do your job and they won't have to do it for you. They can be Admins and only that. If you do what you need to do with out complaining about it, its makes and Admins job that much easier. Happy Admins = Happy Mods. I hope you enjoyed this quick and simple guide on how to moderate a forum. feel free to ask any questions.
Good points and well said. However, not to tarnish on your great points, there are some things I'd like to say and ask: First: A guest account user cannot be PMed nor can they PM. What would be a good way to deal with that scenario? Second: Mods like myself cannot ban/suspend, so please don't ask me. Franky, I am thankful I can't. Maybe Global Mods can? I'm not sure. Furthermore, mods like me are limited to only one section of the whole board. So I cannot, for example, move/delete/edit things in AvS because I'm only Moderator for the No Rape Section and that is it. So if somebody is acting trollish in any area other than the No Rape section, I can't do jack. (Technically there is, but it really isn't anything special enough to consider it "modding". ) It use to be that each mod had description of what they moderated (ie:Iranian Mod, AvS Mod, etc...), so I wonder what happened to that? Finally: What if the troll or whomever refuses or answers in troll in pm or (in the case of guest accounts) in thread? Good points. Nothing to say here... Nice. Before, I just directed them to whatis-theplan, Figured they could find more like minded individuals (ie moonbats) there. Will do. However to restate what I said in your first point: I cannot ban and I am limited to the No Rape section. Best thing to do as a member that sees spam posts: Report post. This works best when both Mods and Members work together. If a mod or user says "Lets get back on topic..." would that work and be acceptable? What would happen if user(s) say "No"? Then what? I forgot but: Isn't Sue the only Admin we have active here? We had a couple others but they have gone AWOL... Presuming Sue is the only Admin: Sue is just one individual trying to manage a Message board used by... Well, without any dox for an exact number on hand, I can at least say a lot of people. Sue ain't perfect, but he does his damned best. So I have no nor ever had any bad things to say about Sue.
