Questions for potential mods
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Hisako
消えないひさ&#
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- Satsu, BRIAN BLESSED, MIGHTY AND WISE Junpei Iori: Ace Detective, Maccaffrickstonson von Lichtenstafford Frabenschnaben, Polite Krogan, Robert Baratheon
Answering these questions was surprisingly a lot of fun and felt pretty introspective! I'm not exactly sure how much of a difference I'd make to the forum, but I guess I'd give it my best shot and step down if I fuck up, 
As plenty of people have said, there are times where people in leadership positions just have to step back for a moment. The mods here are a team and work as a team - people shouldn't have to deal with shit alone. My method of dealing with problem customers on a day to day basis is just to lay out the law in the most neutral way possible, run by common sense and defer to people when I get too personal in the matter - and in many situations there's always the danger of things getting too personal. Doubly so for the internet, I guess.
I don't feel like this is as much of an issue in a close-knit fan-based forum than it is in the every day world.
Obviously there are boundaries to be established and respected, and violations of those boundaries need to be dealt with all Priority Number One-like, but most of the time genuine malicious intent doesn't exist, and a mod should be tough because they want the member to stay and contribute.
The resolution of the issue should be the priority - "What are you looking for? Here's what I can do for you. Here are your options, and let's head back to the table if you really don't like what you see."
I guess the main beef all the way back when was transparency, but what little I've seen being dealt with on the surface seems civil and structured enough. I suppose if I was on the inside I'd probably offer more opinion on the matter though
When two members are having a disagreement the worst mistake is having a personal stake in the problem and tackling it alone. Perhaps that might be somewhat unavoidable given how close people are here, but like in any professional occupation, there needs to be a disconnect between personal opinions and feelings and professional judgement. Privacy must be respected, but I think if a mod is ever at risk of being emotionally involved, the dispute needs to be partly handled by a consensus with other mods.
In the pharmacy where I work at, we sometimes invite our customers into the dispensary when they have a running dispute. Often they're disputing whether or not they took something back from their prescriptions on file. Sometimes they want to know why so-and-so medication is being recorded, and they want to know why we're keeping such personal information about them.
We keep records for 2 years, sometimes more - security footage, patient history, everything. Keeping records and having openness at appropriate times is key (and in pharmacy keeps everyone in the clear legally). I imagine accusations of bias or untrustworthiness should be handled similarly.
That isn't to say that everyone needs to know at all times how the sausage is made at the factory (I'm gonna segue into the next question like a boss!), but false accusations should be countered with simple truths and openness. "Hey, here's the chatlog for the decisions behind why you received so-and-so treatment, but if you really can't reconcile this with your emotional involvement in the matter, you're absolutely free to try and reconcile with it away from the forums for a while. Feel free to include this as evidence along with your other claims."
I think sometimes it's easy to draw false conclusions from the way people say things in private. People exaggerate, they overshoot the mark, make retractions, say things they wouldn't say in public, or don't actually mean. A debate in-progress could be misconstrued or assumed to come to a specific conclusion that might not actually happen. Moderation is a serious duty, but a duty that should be audited to improve its end result, not for the minutiae of its procedures.
A person should be given the time and space to separate their personal voice from their professional judgement, and a private section in the forum gives them the opportunity to do just that.
Tentative yes?
Staff should be representative of what other members should aspire to be. That isn't to say that we should police what we say as Forum-tron 2000s - it's okay to talk like yourself, like any other member - just as a member who follows the rules and makes genuine amends where the rules have been broken.
tl;dr, Don't be a dick.
As plenty of people have said, there are times where people in leadership positions just have to step back for a moment. The mods here are a team and work as a team - people shouldn't have to deal with shit alone. My method of dealing with problem customers on a day to day basis is just to lay out the law in the most neutral way possible, run by common sense and defer to people when I get too personal in the matter - and in many situations there's always the danger of things getting too personal. Doubly so for the internet, I guess.
I don't feel like this is as much of an issue in a close-knit fan-based forum than it is in the every day world.
Obviously there are boundaries to be established and respected, and violations of those boundaries need to be dealt with all Priority Number One-like, but most of the time genuine malicious intent doesn't exist, and a mod should be tough because they want the member to stay and contribute.
The resolution of the issue should be the priority - "What are you looking for? Here's what I can do for you. Here are your options, and let's head back to the table if you really don't like what you see."
I guess the main beef all the way back when was transparency, but what little I've seen being dealt with on the surface seems civil and structured enough. I suppose if I was on the inside I'd probably offer more opinion on the matter though
When two members are having a disagreement the worst mistake is having a personal stake in the problem and tackling it alone. Perhaps that might be somewhat unavoidable given how close people are here, but like in any professional occupation, there needs to be a disconnect between personal opinions and feelings and professional judgement. Privacy must be respected, but I think if a mod is ever at risk of being emotionally involved, the dispute needs to be partly handled by a consensus with other mods.
In the pharmacy where I work at, we sometimes invite our customers into the dispensary when they have a running dispute. Often they're disputing whether or not they took something back from their prescriptions on file. Sometimes they want to know why so-and-so medication is being recorded, and they want to know why we're keeping such personal information about them.
We keep records for 2 years, sometimes more - security footage, patient history, everything. Keeping records and having openness at appropriate times is key (and in pharmacy keeps everyone in the clear legally). I imagine accusations of bias or untrustworthiness should be handled similarly.
That isn't to say that everyone needs to know at all times how the sausage is made at the factory (I'm gonna segue into the next question like a boss!
), but false accusations should be countered with simple truths and openness. "Hey, here's the chatlog for the decisions behind why you received so-and-so treatment, but if you really can't reconcile this with your emotional involvement in the matter, you're absolutely free to try and reconcile with it away from the forums for a while. Feel free to include this as evidence along with your other claims."I think sometimes it's easy to draw false conclusions from the way people say things in private. People exaggerate, they overshoot the mark, make retractions, say things they wouldn't say in public, or don't actually mean. A debate in-progress could be misconstrued or assumed to come to a specific conclusion that might not actually happen. Moderation is a serious duty, but a duty that should be audited to improve its end result, not for the minutiae of its procedures.
A person should be given the time and space to separate their personal voice from their professional judgement, and a private section in the forum gives them the opportunity to do just that.
Tentative yes?
Staff should be representative of what other members should aspire to be. That isn't to say that we should police what we say as Forum-tron 2000s - it's okay to talk like yourself, like any other member - just as a member who follows the rules and makes genuine amends where the rules have been broken.
tl;dr, Don't be a dick.
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