That's bullshit. Various personalities perform well.
What is REALLY happening is that "like people" are being made mods. They often have similiar idealogies (or it at least appears that way). Meanwhile, people who have been here for years (and I'll exclude myself so there is no misunderstanding here) who have shown a vested ineterest in the boards never become mods. Usually, because they have different opinions or styles.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Uh, no.
It's easy to imagine that we have similar ideologies because most of us don't wear them on our sleeves (I certainly try not to). But I'm positive that, over the course of my career as a moderator, there have been mods and admins over the full spectrum of political ideology (because that is not relevant to the task), and moderators who approached their roles differently. There are some things that I feel are constant, however: You have to have a degree of humility that is a check against the additional power you wield; on the other hand, you have to firm when need be. You have to have a particularly thick skin. You have to be able to set your own beliefs aside - or at least keep them in perspective - when you put your moderator hat on. It helps if you can speak with some authority on the subject, because people rightly or wrongly take the words of Moderators more seriously. That allows for a great deal of latitude in terms of what personalities can be moderators. Frankly, I don't know most of the moderators that well, so I can't say that their full-fledged personalities matter all that much.
If you can cite, or if you come across, an example where a moderator closed a thread or similarly acted on political or ideological reasons, please don't hesitate to point it out. That's not supposed to happen.
[quote]<strong>As far as long term membership and number of posts, I think those are quite relevant.</strong><hr></blockquote>
They're not irrelevant. However, there are qualities that I feel are more important, and my experience bears that out (gEEk).
I won't dispute that we have probably overlooked people who would make perfectly good moderators. There haven't been that many moderators, historically, and there are a lot of good people on this board. The nomination process is neither exhaustive nor scientific. However, as long as the result is a team of capable moderators I don't see a problem.
[quote]In any event, it's back on now- all we ask is that, if you use this feature, to please note the change in your signature for a while so as to prevent confusion.
I remember when you did it, psantora, and I was like, who the hell is Paul?
<hr></blockquote>
I'd like to change my name but it does not let me. Any way that I can do this?
Comments
<strong>
That's bullshit. Various personalities perform well.
What is REALLY happening is that "like people" are being made mods. They often have similiar idealogies (or it at least appears that way). Meanwhile, people who have been here for years (and I'll exclude myself so there is no misunderstanding here) who have shown a vested ineterest in the boards never become mods. Usually, because they have different opinions or styles.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Uh, no.
It's easy to imagine that we have similar ideologies because most of us don't wear them on our sleeves (I certainly try not to). But I'm positive that, over the course of my career as a moderator, there have been mods and admins over the full spectrum of political ideology (because that is not relevant to the task), and moderators who approached their roles differently. There are some things that I feel are constant, however: You have to have a degree of humility that is a check against the additional power you wield; on the other hand, you have to firm when need be. You have to have a particularly thick skin. You have to be able to set your own beliefs aside - or at least keep them in perspective - when you put your moderator hat on. It helps if you can speak with some authority on the subject, because people rightly or wrongly take the words of Moderators more seriously. That allows for a great deal of latitude in terms of what personalities can be moderators. Frankly, I don't know most of the moderators that well, so I can't say that their full-fledged personalities matter all that much.
If you can cite, or if you come across, an example where a moderator closed a thread or similarly acted on political or ideological reasons, please don't hesitate to point it out. That's not supposed to happen.
[quote]<strong>As far as long term membership and number of posts, I think those are quite relevant.</strong><hr></blockquote>
They're not irrelevant. However, there are qualities that I feel are more important, and my experience bears that out (gEEk).
I won't dispute that we have probably overlooked people who would make perfectly good moderators. There haven't been that many moderators, historically, and there are a lot of good people on this board. The nomination process is neither exhaustive nor scientific. However, as long as the result is a team of capable moderators I don't see a problem.
[ 07-11-2002: Message edited by: Amorph ]</p>
I remember when you did it, psantora, and I was like, who the hell is Paul?
<hr></blockquote>
I'd like to change my name but it does not let me. Any way that I can do this?
<strong>
I'd like to change my name but it does not let me. Any way that I can do this?</strong><hr></blockquote>
This facility seems to be turned off at the moment. I remember Jonathan saying it was a bug in UBB which keeps reverting the settings.
Amorph/Jonathan, you know better than me!
J :cool:
If at first you don't succeed, try, try again... <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" />
<strong>I take it that you will be turning the feature back on soon?</strong><hr></blockquote>
Don't change your name, Fran!
Executive order.
I guess I should be flattered?