Forum Moderators!

[#1]

I would like to know how the moderators here get appointed, to whom they are accountable, and why ordinary members like myself have no say in their appointment or dismisal.
In a democratic society, I have thropugh reading these posts by moderators, come to the clear conclusion that they are a law unto themselves.
The new list of rules is an example of power gone mad.
Its high time plusnet organized free democratic elections of mods who would then truly represent the interestrs and views of the members of these forums.
I am of the view that there is a danger of these mods acting like fascists, doing what they like, when they like, without ever having to consult the members or even being responsible to the members of the forums

In a democratic society, the continuation of this situation should not and can not be tolerated

[#2]

I think they are picked If a lot of members recommend to the mods that someone would be a good mod, People like me or yourself could post to a current mod and say who we think should be one and why, I have no problems with the moderators here, Best bunch I have came across EVER.

[#3]

The majority of the current moderators were elected (all? - I suspect one might have been re-appointed following a break without being elected although I suspect he may have been elected previously).
Elections in the past have been very painful drawn out affairs which in the end attracted pitifully few votes - the average turnout for a by-election for a parish or town counsellor would be extraordinarily successful by comparison.
A couple of those elected in recent years were absolute disasters - one of those left in a huff and wreaked absolute mayhem by deleting loads of his posts before his activity was spotted and he was stopped.
Edit: Correction - due to the failures of the election process two recent moderators were appointed who had been original moderators when the forums were first set up many years ago - they were invited to be moderators by Ian Wild (anyone who has been around for a while will know who he is). They were both highly respected moderators and their appointment was welcomed by anyone who remembered them from their first stints.
Edit 2: I've just been advised one of the two was invited to be a mod by the original mods (he was already a mod when I started posting on the forums).

[#4]

The mods seem fair enough to me, certainly I've been on many forums where the mods were far more power crazed and officious.
Also, Plusnet is not a democratic anything, it is perfectly within its rights to choose or allow to be chosen whoever it wants by whoever in whatever way.

[#5]

txs jelv

[#6]

Another complication in the whole history is that there were originally separate sets of forums for the vISPs - these community forums were a great step forward in bringing everyone together.

[#7]

For clarification, this is a brief history of the moderator selection processes through the ages…

• Initial moderators of portal forums (2003): responded, if I recall correctly, to a call for volunteers from Ian Wild when the original portal forums opened. I am one of these.


• Next few moderators (2003-2005): these were selected and asked by the original moderators, with no public elections. It takes a certain type of member to make a good moderator, and we therefore felt that we were best placed to pick such members.


• 2005–2009*: this is when elections were used. The reason the selection process changed to using elections is because Plusnet went through a very controversial period, which sparked increasing allegations towards the moderators of a lack of impartiality. It was therefore thought that allowing the forum members to pick their own moderators would help reduce those claims.


• 2009 onwards: having experienced a number of issues with elections (which jelv mentioned earlier), it was decided to go back to asking people to become moderators. Moderator elections had effectively become popularity contests; and, again, the most popular members weren't necessarily those who made the best moderators.

* It's quite likely that I've got the dates a bit wrong there – I wasn't actually a moderator during much of that time so I can't remember exactly.

[#8]

ok letme take this one step further.

On the dubious assumption that mods were elected , what is their terms of reference, what is their job/task specification.
How are they regulated to stop them abusing power.
Who controls the mods.
or......once appointed can they do what ever they like?

[#9]

Here's an indication of the level of participation on the elections: http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,73528.0.html
The leading candidate achieved a massive total of 64 votes - not sure how many registered forum members there were at that time.

[#10]

Quote from: thisoldman

ok letme take this one step further. On the dubious assumption that mods were elected , what is their terms of reference, what is their job/task specification. How are they regulated to stop them abusing power. Who controls the mods. or......once appointed can they do what ever they like?

If you read the forum rules you'll find that is all covered.

[#11]

txs jelv  but could you please address the q uestions i posted in last post plz

[#12]

Quote from: thisoldman

Who controls the mods.

Plusnet. They are nearly always happy with what we do, but if they weren't, they would have the ultimate power to do with us as they wished. Which is to be expected, as these are Plusnet's forums. We most certainly can not, therefore, do whatever we like.

[#13]

Quote from: thisoldman

txs jelv   but could you please address the q uestions i posted in last post plz

Out of interest why should jelv address the questions you posted?

[#14]

Quote from: jelv

Here's an indication of the level of participation on the elections: http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,73528.0.html The leading candidate achieved a massive total of 64 votes - not sure how many registered forum members there were at that time.

I'm told it was 10224 - although a number of them will be Plusnet staff.
A 0.623% turnout - very impressive!

[#15]

if you read the rules, you wil find the answers to your question in the first couple of paragraphs, and the link to them is at the botton left of this page