Gonna be taking applications for additional mod help

[paulcalloway]

Hey all -
We've decided to put out a call for additional mod staff. I'm going to put up an application app in the next couple of days.

Please be thinking about it - we're looking for folks who are active EBUFU event attenders and preferably folks who are from diverse geographical areas. I've not really put a number on how many we will add at this point but at least 2 or 3.

Thanks for your consideration -

[Mcouioui]

Re: Gonna be taking applications for additional mod help

If you accept the foreigners, even if I come only one time by year or two years in USA for an EBUFU event and my English is not perfect, I am there...

[Auld Pelty]

Re: Gonna be taking applications for additional mod help

My belief is that William would make an excellent moderator. He is a tough soldier with a great attitude that inspires others. And he gets along well with yankees outside the combat zone.

It would be good to have a Brit and a Texan as well. Some folks who are known well and appreciated in the EBUFU community.

[Mike Ventura]

Re: Gonna be taking applications for additional mod help

Paul --

As a Mod-Emeritus from "back in the day," I'm wondering if you've raised the pay? ;-)

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: Gonna be taking applications for additional mod help

Hallo!

"As a Mod-Emeritus from "back in the day," I'm wondering if you've raised the pay?"

Nope, not a penny.

We pay the same rate to be moderators as we always have.

:)

Curt

[Mcouioui]

Re: Gonna be taking applications for additional mod help

My belief is that William would make an excellent moderator. He is a tough soldier with a great attitude that inspires others. And he gets along well with yankees outside the combat zone.

THANKS!!! My charm and my French exoticism??? :) No? :(

It would be good to have a Brit and a Texan as well.

That don't makes many foreigners at the same time?! :)

[Tom Craig]

Re: Gonna be taking applications for additional mod help

This may sound like a dumb question, but beyond monitoring the various folders and posts, what else are moderators responsible for?

Take care,
Tom Craig

[LibertyHallVols]

Re: Gonna be taking applications for additional mod help

Not a dumb question at all.

Identifying posts that violate forum rules and responding to alert notices in threads. Contacting the various offending parties and notifying them of what they did wrong. Figuring out what to do with repeat-offenders. Receiving angry messages and responding politely. Facilitating the resolution of issues that plague both these boards and our hobby (the new adjunct event process is an example of this). Enforcing rules about posting items for sale. Ensuring that sellers do not encroach upon privileges reserved for approved vendors. Pruning threads, merging threads, editing posts.

That's just off the top of my head. "Monitoring" is really the least of it.

...a few other things mods have to consider:
- Its Paul's site, not ours. We're enforcing his rules, not pandering to our own wishes.
- What is said by mods/admins is not for public discussion or for sharing with others. Taking action on folks who break rules is sucky enough without having folks taking moderator discussions and sharing them.

[JimKindred]

Re: Gonna be taking applications for additional mod help

To add to what John has said as a moderator you will have to learn the rules of the road, no so much written rules but past precedents in how the moderators operate and what constitutes a post or thread that needs attention. That will take time but once you get the feel of it your moderating job becomes much easier.

It is a very interesting job working behind the scenes, if you become a moderator you will find that is a world all its own. Dealing with most issues is rewarding work and others sometimes make you want to bounce the laptop off the nearest wall. :)

In the end as John has said this is Paul's website and the moderators are his representatives who are charged with making sure the site operates with the standards he has set for it.

[Yadkin River Rat]

Re: Gonna be taking applications for additional mod help

Paul,

Not trying to cause trouble or be dis-respectable to anyone, but reason would prevail that to be a new or current moderator, one should regularly attend EBUFU events. I agree with your requirement of this on new applicants, but it should also apply to current Moderators as well. Just a thought! I also thank you for your quick reply yesterday.

Timothy Martin
Texas Ground Hornets

[PetePaolillo]

Re: Gonna be taking applications for additional mod help

Paul,

Not trying to cause trouble or be dis-respectable to anyone, but reason would prevail that to be a new or current moderator, one should regularly attend EBUFU events. I agree with your requirement of this on new applicants, but it should also apply to current Moderators as well. Just a thought! I also thank you for your quick reply yesterday.

Timothy Martin
Texas Ground Hornets

I would have to agree with what Tim is saying. If a moderator is not in some way actively involved and engaged with the CPH hobby and supporting EBUFU then I am not sure they should be Moderating discussion of such. They should be bringing something to the CPH table if they are to be considered. This is just my opinion and not a slam on the Forum or it's current moderators. Thanks for all the hard work.

[Old Reb]

Re: Gonna be taking applications for additional mod help

There are some moderators that may not attend EFUBU events but are knowledgeable in other areas of the hobby. Perhaps if they confine their moderating to the areas in which their expertise lies and let those moderators that actually attend EFUBU events moderate the EFUBU area, the need for a purge would not be needed. As I see it, there are two areas that need to be addressed. Many people post in the open forum where those post would be better suited for social groups or pm's. I see no problem for people posting such post in the sinks or in the AAR's for an event they plan to attend or attended, but posting asinine post in areas devoted to research and the such, serve little purpose other than to irritate people. Secondly, if a moderator has a personal agenda, then they don't need to be a moderator! Finally, it is clear that there has been an influx of people with a mainstream mindset into the AC recently. If they have come for information and to improve themselves, then that is good. If they have come to bring their us against them ideas, then they should be sent away, deleted, purged or simply shouted down or what ever it takes. The Authentic Campaigner is for people that campaign authentically and not keyboard types that never plan to improve or attend an EFUBU. They take up space and irritate people who are here for improvement of this section of the hobby.

[Emmanuel Dabney]

Re: Gonna be taking applications for additional mod help

There are some moderators that may not attend EFUBU events but are knowledgeable in other areas of the hobby. Perhaps if they confine their moderating to the areas in which their expertise lies and let those moderators that actually attend EFUBU events moderate the EFUBU area, the need for a purge would not be needed.

Well, I will speak for me (this probably does not apply to other moderators):

I have generally been on the back burner of the hobby for a few years for a host of reasons that are not relevant to post on. However, I have attempted to do exactly what was said above. 1-I RARELY even bother to click on the military forum because it's not that I do. 2-I RARELY moderate on the military forum because it is not why I was asked to be a moderator AND I don't keep up with the latest and the greatest/worst of those affairs. 3-I DO encourage the use of historical documentation in whatever the reenactor problem is because so far as I am concerned it is a historical problem. How do we address X when we don't know anything about X? My answer has been and will always remain research.

The problem with reenacting is that many people are on different levels of the hobby but if you are on this forum then it is my belief that you should be striving to be as true to events, clothes, and actions/reactions when reenacting as if we are people from ca. 150 years ago.

Moderating isn't always fun, but it is a necessity for this forum and more often than you may think you are actually thanked for what you do, even if it isn't popular with a majority or some minority or if you ever even hear it.

[PetePaolillo]

Re: Gonna be taking applications for additional mod help

There are some moderators that may not attend EFUBU events but are knowledgeable in other areas of the hobby. Perhaps if they confine their moderating to the areas in which their expertise lies and let those moderators that actually attend EFUBU events moderate the EFUBU area, the need for a purge would not be needed. As I see it, there are two areas that need to be addressed. Many people post in the open forum where those post would be better suited for social groups or pm's. I see no problem for people posting such post in the sinks or in the AAR's for an event they plan to attend or attended, but posting asinine post in areas devoted to research and the such, serve little purpose other than to irritate people. Secondly, if a moderator has a personal agenda, then they don't need to be a moderator! Finally, it is clear that there has been an influx of people with a mainstream mindset into the AC recently. If they have come for information and to improve themselves, then that is good. If they have come to bring their us against them ideas, then they should be sent away, deleted, purged or simply shouted down or what ever it takes. The Authentic Campaigner is for people that campaign authentically and not keyboard types that never plan to improve or attend an EFUBU. They take up space and irritate people who are here for improvement of this section of the hobby.

Tom...You have yet again brought more wisdom to the table than I have...I should have rephrased what I was speaking of. My concerns are more about the future Mods and where they will be placed. People know where their expertise is. That is where they should be designated. ...I would love for example to see someone like Hank Trent Moderating the Civilian folders.(Is he already? I am not sure)....I was not implying that some of the current Mods do not have the knowledge and expierecne to Moderate ceratin folders based on their event participation. Some are not currently reenacting but have vast years of expierence and knowldege that should not be wasted. There are exceptions to any rule. There are many Retired CPH'ers who I wish would still post and contribute because the new generation like myself need mentors.

[LibertyHallVols]

Re: Gonna be taking applications for additional mod help

There are some moderators that may not attend EFUBU events but are knowledgeable in other areas of the hobby. Perhaps if they confine their moderating to the areas in which their expertise lies and let those moderators that actually attend EFUBU events moderate the EFUBU area, the need for a purge would not be needed.

Tom,

That pretty much happens already. While different mods may specialize in one folder or another, we don't have explicite restrictions on who addresses what. If there's a "dead skunk" in the room, which ever moderator is on-line at the moment will likely take the first steps to address the issue. The restrictions are really more self-imposed, as Emmanuel described. Civilians tend to shy away from military "stuff". If there's an event I didn't/won't attend, as a member I generally avoid posting on posting on planning and AAR threads.

A counter point...
I don't generally attend "Adjunct" events (meaning, I don't think I have ever been to one, outside of Perryville 01 and 02). However, earlier this year, the management of adjunct events, &c became a burning issue. I stepped in simply to see a resolution put in-place quickly and restore "peace and harmony". If we'd followed "area restrictions" too closely in that case, I may have backed off because it "wasn't my area". I guess my point is that the mods and admins have to take a balanced approach, rather than being dogmatic about certain rules, so that common sense is allowed to prevail.

Your points are well put and well taken, however!