Suggestion for new or additional moderators

Rather than just complain about the current state of affairs on OOD, I was thinking of a way to do things going forward that might be more constructive.

What if we nominated and elected moderators rather than having moderators appointed by OOD? Administration could set up a thread for members to nominate other members to be mods, nominated members could indicate their interest after the nomination period is over and accept or reject the nomination. If you have more than one nominated and interested member, you could run an election by PM or something to elect new mod(s).

I realize that interest in moderating has been low and it's a big and thankless job for one person to do. This could bolster interest in moderating if members see that other members would support them if they decided to take the position. It would also present a more balanced platform if moderating wasn't the job of just one.

In the end, if we were to have issues with the moderating on the forum, we were ultimately responsible for electing them.

I have a few names in mind to put forward as nominees if this is something OOD would be interested in trying.

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I think that would be a bad idea, there is already a faction on here who truly believe that their choice of political party rein's supreme and they believe they and they alone represent the collective opinions of hunters and fisherpersons in Ontario. This is in spite of what the recent elections have revealed about our membership on here and their voting trends. If this faction could continue to highjack this forum by voting in moderators of their own ilk we would have a dictatorship on here and dissenting voices would be drowned out and even more members who have been bullied and have left already this would continue.

No I do not want to be invited into an organizations domain and then require them to go along with my demand's its just not right.

X2..................................

Your opinions are appreciated.

Keep in mind the idea is to nominate people with balanced views, maybe even people who haven't been on here long enough to form opinions of others. While many of us are vocal, there is a silent majority who would have a vote.

I do get your points and see that is where the potential flaw would be.

You are both concerned about bias, and that's what needs to be cut out.

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Originally Posted by GW11

Your opinions are appreciated.

Keep in mind the idea is to nominate people with balanced views, maybe even people who haven't been on here long enough to form opinions of others. While many of us are vocal, there is a silent majority who would have a vote.

I do get your points and see that is where the potential flaw would be.

You are both concerned about bias, and that's what needs to be cut out.

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Much appreciated.

Make me a mod. I will implement a rule that you have to make 5 hunting/fishing related threads before you can make one off topic post. I'll ban anyone who does other wise lol. (Kidding, don't need another job)

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I like you thinking GW 11..our forum, our candidate selection to be vetted by the ADMIN.

A simple way to make it better: Make Mods incognito...give them their own Mod account and Avatar and not piggyback on their member's account.

That way they can still participate in the discussions without the 'Big Red' letters telling the world they really are ''not like the others" This will also protect them from being accused of bias or favoritism due to their past history on the forum.

Keep their identity anynmous, and ensure they answer only to the Admin.

Easy peasy !!

One little correction to your post Mikepal, this is "their" forum, not ours. We use it with their permission under their rules or we take our ball and go play somewhere else.
John

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Originally Posted by johnjyb

One little correction to your post Mikepal, this is "their" forum, not ours.

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A forum only exists if there is a membership, the people who contribute to it...no members no forum.

OOD hosts and administrates the forums server space, in exchange for headaches, verbal abuse, and having to babysit old men who like to argue....and of course some advertising space. :)


Clarification: OOD owns the servers and s/w that is the backbone of the forum. However the content of the forum , it's heart and soul as it were, belongs to the membership. I believe that is why OOD has asked that the Moderators be volunteers taken from the membership to police the forum to enforce their rules and moderate the content.

Agree with everything there, but the wife says she never argues, it is called debating lol.
John

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Originally Posted by johnjyb

One little correction to your post Mikepal, this is "their" forum, not ours. We use it with their permission under their rules or we take our ball and go play somewhere else.
John

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Exactly right. To say otherwise is like believing that because you are a guest who has been invited to a party you now own the house in which the party is being held.

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Originally Posted by MikePal

A forum only exists if there is a membership, the people who contribute to it...no members no forum.

OOD hosts and administrates the forums server space, in exchange for headaches, verbal abuse, and having to babysit old men who like to argue....and of course some advertising space. :)


Clarification: OOD owns the servers and s/w that is the backbone of the forum. However the content of the forum , it's heart and soul as it were, belongs to the membership. I believe that is why OOD has asked that the Moderators be volunteers taken from the membership to police the forum to enforce their rules and moderate the content.

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Exactly so. Someone has to be the heavy; our lack of volunteers in the way of moderation is proof of how taxing the job can be. That being said, we've added an anonymous poll at the top of this thread to see if anonymous moderators is something people are interested in.
What do you all think?

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Originally Posted by MeghanOOD

What do you all think?

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I think it's a heck of a good idea. We've had a few cases just recently that made one ponder if you're talking to the member or the Admin/MOD.

As Mods are also members it would be nice to differentiate when they are wearing the 'Mod Squad' hat or are just chilling with their homies..HaHa..

caveat: it would be nice to have the Mods go back to editing posts like they did back in the old days...be required to add the 'reason for editing' comment and/or a follow up PM. Members shouldn't have their posts deleted or edited and not know why.

I don't agree with having anonymous mods. The Mod knows the job- enforcing the rules of the forum....( I'm particularly against verbal abuse of a member by another member , which seems to be tolerated here. That discourages members from posting.)
The members should be able to contact a Mod when they need to and ask whatever questions they want.

PS If you don't mind me saying so, the problem on this forum is INCONSISTENT moderating. I'm a Mod on the Gundog Forum and we rarely have to enforce a rule. Due to consistency, the membership knows clearly what is acceptable and what isn't.

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Originally Posted by Sharon

I don't agree with having anonymous mods. The Mod knows the job- enforcing the rules of the forum....( I'm particularly against verbal abuse of a member by another member , which seems to be tolerated here. That discourages members from posting.)
The members should be able to contact a Mod when they need to and ask whatever questions they want.

PS If you don't mind me saying so, the problem on this forum is INCONSISTENT moderating. I'm a Mod on the Gundog Forum and we rarely have to enforce a rule. Due to consistency, the membership knows clearly what is acceptable and what isn't.

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That could be part of the problem Sharon. Any long time member here who posts regularly has made friends of some and enemies of others in some way or another. Friends will be reluctant to moderate a friend's post, but might happily moderate the post of someone they've had an issue with in the past. Inconsistent.

Anonymous moderators would remove that hesitancy to remind a friend that they're breaking the rules, Helps keep things consistent.

I like the idea that someone could log in as a contributing member or log in as a mod when necessary.

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Well said, however when you become a Mod losing friends is part of the package. Every Mod knows that.

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Originally Posted by Sharon

The members should be able to contact a Mod when they need to and ask whatever questions they want.

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Originally Posted by Sharon

Well said, however when you become a Mod losing friends is part of the package. Every Mod knows that.

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And this idea will hopefully solve both those issues..

I don't believe editing is the way to go; it's a more complicated form of censorship. If we edit your post we're essentially plagiarizing your post, and I believe it would be hard to tell where to draw the line. Moreover it's not on us to "edit" you, what are these, prospective columns? The rules are posted and it's expected that they'll be followed. If we had more moderators, we could be more hard knocks about it all, though that would come with a separate set of complications.

I also don't believe there's a way to log in and have two personas without creating two accounts; everyone has a set scale of access.

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Originally Posted by MeghanOOD

I also don't believe there's a way to log in and have two personas without creating two accounts; everyone has a set scale of access.

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Shouldn't be difficult for the volunteer to have permission to a create 'Mod 1' Mod 2' or 'Mod 3' accounts using a Mod Squad avatar. No need for e-mail capability communication can be done on the PM side.

CalTek and Sawbill and a few other Mods used to just remove the offending parts/words (name calling or the nonsense stuff). If they did, they would leave the reason for the editing. Leave the 'OK" part of the post intact. I don't remember anyone having a problem with that.

I've seen a lot more issues with posts just disappearing or being moved..as we saw recently with the now infamous 'Rabies Vaccine' thread. If there is no feedback from the Mod no lessons are learned.

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Originally Posted by MikePal

Shouldn't be difficult for the volunteer to have permission to a create 'Mod 1' Mod 2' or 'Mod 3' accounts using a Mod Squad avatar. No need for e-mail capability communication can be done on the PM side.

CalTek and Sawbill and a few other Mods used to just remove the offending parts/words (name calling or the nonsense stuff). If they did, they would leave the reason for the editing. Leave the 'OK" part of the post intact. I don't remember anyone having a problem with that.

I've seen a lot more issues with posts just disappearing or being moved..as we saw recently with the now infamous 'Rabies Vaccine' thread. If there is no feedback from the Mod no lessons are learned.

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Well, we can certainly readdress that, if we can recruit more moderators.

https://www.oodmag.com/community/sho...ing-Moderators

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Originally Posted by MikePal

Shouldn't be difficult for the volunteer to have permission to a create 'Mod 1' Mod 2' or 'Mod 3' accounts using a Mod Squad avatar. No need for e-mail capability communication can be done on the PM side.

CalTek and Sawbill and a few other Mods used to just remove the offending parts/words (name calling or the nonsense stuff). If they did, they would leave the reason for the editing. Leave the 'OK" part of the post intact. I don't remember anyone having a problem with that.

I've seen a lot more issues with posts just disappearing or being moved..as we saw recently with the now infamous 'Rabies Vaccine' thread. If there is no feedback from the Mod no lessons are learned.

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I don't really like that way Mike. Not trying to argue with you. :)
Let's say a post has bad swearing in it. I'd rather edit out the swearing and PM the member explaining why. I don't like to say why in the post and embarrass the member , and open up the thread to fighting about the edit.

I thought we were having a good discussion Saron...no one seems to be arguing, nice for a change. :)

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Originally Posted by Sharon

Due to consistency, the membership knows clearly what is acceptable and what isn't.

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Your earlier concern is the exact reason that you're better off showing the reasons (most times) for necessary editing. It works as a tool to show the members that there is consistency in enforcing the rules and see the ramifications for not following the rules.

You have to admit there was very little of the nonsense, like what goes on here now, under previous Mods. When required, some posts need to be edited and removed if it helps maintain some civility between members.

I don't embarrass people publicly.
Yes very little "nonsense" before. Sawbill and Troutslayer did an excellent job as is FFF .
I'm done here. PM sent.

If we want to retain complete credibility,everything must be open,honest and above board. Having anonymous moderators doesn't meet the definition,IMHO. To me,having someone sit in the shadows with the authority to remove posts and threads without accountability,somehow doesn't quite sit right with me.

x2,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

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Originally Posted by trimmer21

If we want to retain complete credibility,everything must be open,honest and above board. Having anonymous moderators doesn't meet the definition,IMHO. To me,having someone sit in the shadows with the authority to remove posts and threads without accountability,somehow doesn't quite sit right with me.

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That's true, and I agree...ergo my caveat that posts edited or deleted by a Mod have to provide a reason, whether in the 'edit reason' function already in the s/w or through a PM. Who the Mod is isn't important, just knowing why you were edited. ??

I think there are far bigger problems in knowing who the member is that is the Mod. And I think most guys know what I mean and that is why so few have stepped forward.

I think everyone agrees that it's not working the way it is and the forum is suffering from it. Something has to be done to entice members to become Mods....and one is not to be hated for doing voluntary service.

Im a very experienced mod on a much larger forum then this one. Ive offered once for sure, maybe twice to moderate here as well and received no response.

Its not an easy job, and definitely makes you look at some people differently. The more clearly defined the rules are, the easier job is, but some will still find ways to be a stick in the mud.

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Originally Posted by blasted_saber

Im a very experienced mod on a much larger forum then this one. Ive offered once for sure, maybe twice to moderate here as well and received no response.

Its not an easy job, and definitely makes you look at some people differently. The more clearly defined the rules are, the easier job is, but some will still find ways to be a stick in the mud.

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Hey blasted_saber, you wanna join us as moderator? Please PM stating so. :)

I've offered to be a moderator before and basically was told no thanks we aren't looking for anyone, Then i see the state that this forum is in and its not hard to see why.
The sporting dog forum is dead, actual dog trainers with decades of experience that I've run dogs with or know people who do chose to go use the time somewhere else rather then give free advice that people pay for in the real world because they get run off here , upland is the same way I've been told that if you question certain moderators on the legalities of some practices they post you are deleted and warned.
Certain long time posters on here giving out advice and I see them with the same user name asking the same question on another forum then preaching it here like gospel.... lol makes me laugh at who actual knows what they are are talking about and have done what they are advising here.

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Originally Posted by trkyhntr21

I've offered to be a moderator before and basically was told no thanks we aren't looking for anyone, Then i see the state that this forum is in and its not hard to see why.
The sporting dog forum is dead, actual dog trainers with decades of experience that I've run dogs with or know people who do chose to go use the time somewhere else rather then give free advice that people pay for in the real world because they get run off here , upland is the same way I've been told that if you question certain moderators on the legalities of some practices they post you are deleted and warned.
Certain long time posters on here giving out advice and I see them with the same user name asking the same question on another forum then preaching it here like gospel.... lol makes me laugh at who actual knows what they are are talking about and have done what they are advising here.

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Were you also told that moderator offered an open invite to the members for a guided upland hunt over his birddog and was insulted to the point where he took down the offer depriving someone the opportunity? That's the stuff mods try to keep on top of to make a better site.
Belong to an upland site that's heavily monitored. There is great participation because the members don't fear being ridiculed by someone with an opposing point of view. Hope to get there one day with more input from members and a little help on the monitoring side would also be appreciated.

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Originally Posted by finsfurfeathers

Were you also told that moderator offered an open invite to the members for a guided upland hunt over his birddog and was insulted to the point where he took down the offer depriving someone the opportunity? That's the stuff mods try to keep on top of to make a better site.
Belong to an upland site that's heavily monitored. There is great participation because the members don't fear being ridiculed by someone with an opposing point of view. Hope to get there one day with more input from members and a little help on the monitoring side would also be appreciated.

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Like Gundog forum.. http://gundogforum.com/

(I'm a mod there and never advertise the site , but come on give me one chance. :) )

Wow, you are an angry man. Time to get some help maybe.
Actually a moderator doesn't have to know anything about the forum subject. They just have to know how to deal with difficult people and make sure the administrator's rules are followed. You'd make a lot of work for a moderator.
(Actually you know very little about my life. Trained my own derby dog of the year. Hunted pheasant and shot them :) Also participated well in NSTRA.++ )

Have a Merry Christmas. :)

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Originally Posted by Sharon

Wow, you are an angry man. Time to get some help maybe.
Actually a moderator doesn't have to know anything about the forum subject. They just have to know how to deal with difficult people and make sure the administrator's rules are followed. You'd make a lot of work for a moderator.
(Actually you know very little about my life. Trained my own derby dog of the year. Hunted pheasant and shot them :) Also participated well in NSTRA.++ )

Have a Merry Christmas. :)

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BINGO!! Right on target as usual. Unbiased,even tempered moderators are exactly what we need. We'd be lucky to have you.

Appreciate the support friends. The "gentleman's" post seems to be gone. Hmmm :)

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Originally Posted by trimmer21

BINGO!! Right on target as usual. Unbiased,even tempered moderators are exactly what we need. We'd be lucky to have you.

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Have to agree with you there brother, I think it gets very tricky if a moderator is to heavily invested themselves in a certain segment, Sharon has been around and is very well respected.

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Originally Posted by Gilroy

Have to agree with you there brother, I think it gets very tricky if a moderator is to heavily invested themselves in a certain segment,

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Ergo why this thread was started in the first place....to protect a member from having a conflict with being both a Mod and an active member.

Thanks for your supporting that concept perfectly...:)

Even though you voted against it...

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Originally Posted by MikePal

Ergo why this thread was started in the first place....to protect a member from having a conflict with being both a Mod and an active member.

Thanks for your supporting that concept perfectly...:)

Even though you voted against it...

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Try reading my post again, its addressed to people like you.

If this faction could continue to highjack this forum by voting in moderators of their own ilk we would have a dictatorship on here and dissenting voices would be drowned out and even more members who have been bullied and have left already this would continue.