Looking at
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=45813
I begin to question the moderation system. May I suggest:
1) That moderators be elected and also subject to a recall vote?
2) That the moderators and their last x number of actions be currently displayed somewhere so that moderation does not appear to be a "behind the scenes" click/conspiracy.

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Boinc Button Abuser In Training >My Shrubbers<

Looking at
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=45813
I begin to question the moderation system. May I suggest:
1) That moderators be elected and also subject to a recall vote?

1st question, who would be in charge of the recall? Admin doesn't have the time to worry about the forums, they have the project itself to worry about. Can't leave it in the hands of the mods themselves, as this would be unfair to the mod being recalled.

2) That the moderators and their last x number of actions be currently displayed somewhere so that moderation does not appear to be a "behind the scenes" click/conspiracy.

Good idea.

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Looking at
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=45813
I begin to question the moderation system. May I suggest:
1) That moderators be elected and also subject to a recall vote?

1st question, who would be in charge of the recall? Admin doesn't have the time to worry about the forums, they have the project itself to worry about. Can't leave it in the hands of the mods themselves, as this would be unfair to the mod being recalled.

2) That the moderators and their last x number of actions be currently displayed somewhere so that moderation does not appear to be a "behind the scenes" click/conspiracy.

Good idea.

Not a good idea. The problem is that the reason for the action has to be hidden or the action itself is worthless. If a post has profanity or nudity and the post is displayed then what is the point of hiding the post. Unfortunately, the only believable reason for an action is the post itself.

Elections would tend to be popularity contests. What is needed is moderators that enforce the rules set by the administrators and to some extent the regents of the University. A popularity contest could not accomplish this.

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BOINC WIKI

Not a good idea. The problem is that the reason for the action has to be hidden or the action itself is worthless. If a post has profanity or nudity and the post is displayed then what is the point of hiding the post. Unfortunately, the only believable reason for an action is the post itself.

Elections would tend to be popularity contests. What is needed is moderators that enforce the rules set by the administrators and to some extent the regents of the University. A popularity contest could not accomplish this.

Eh, true, didn't think that one through. And I agree with the 2nd paragraph. Choosing moderators is a hard thing to do.

A: The admin may or may not know the person/persons personally.
B: How do they know who is a "good" moderator or not? Just simply selecting people randomly probably isn't a good approach. Maybe creating a personallity question/answer sheet? I dunno, just a thought.
C: How does admin know or not know when a moderator is abusing his/her powers?

Just some idea's to throw around. Maybe things that can be used, maybe not.

Thanks for keeping this thread open, hopefully everyone keeps it civil and it can remain open and a good discussion can come out of it. I know, I know, been there once, twice, who knows how many times, but worth a shot.

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C: How does admin know or not know when a moderator is abusing his/her powers?

There is at least one SETI Administrator that receives all Modlist emails (if not more than one). Assuming this(these) person(people) have the time to read their emails, they know about every single action and discussion taking place. They can see who is "abusing" and who is simply trying to perform their duty.

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C: How does admin know or not know when a moderator is abusing his/her powers?

There is at least one SETI Administrator that receives all Modlist emails (if not more than one). Assuming this(these) person(people) have the time to read their emails, they know about every single action and discussion taking place. They can see who is "abusing" and who is simply trying to perform their duty.

Ok, fair enough. But expanding on this a little, we all know Matt doesn't care about the forums, Eric doesn't have the time to read the forums, and really pushed to have more moderators here to handle the work to allow him and the rest of the crew to focus on the important items, such as the project itself.

So with that, How does admin know or not know when a mod is being abusive?

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But expanding on this a little, we all know Matt doesn't care about the forums, Eric doesn't have the time to read the forums, and really pushed to have more moderators here to handle the work to allow him and the rest of the crew to focus on the important items, such as the project itself.

So with that, How does admin know or not know when a mod is being abusive?

This is not quite true....Eric has been posting to our list often. Due to some recent events that we (all the mods) are currently prohibited from disclosing, he is checking his modlist email daily and is acting quite quickly on concerns or issues.

I've personally requested he read and post on this thread when he is available to do so

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But expanding on this a little, we all know Matt doesn't care about the forums, Eric doesn't have the time to read the forums, and really pushed to have more moderators here to handle the work to allow him and the rest of the crew to focus on the important items, such as the project itself.

So with that, How does admin know or not know when a mod is being abusive?

This is not quite true....Eric has been posting to our list often. Due to some recent events that we (all the mods) are currently prohibited from disclosing, he is checking his modlist email daily and is acting quite quickly on concerns or issues.

I've personally requested he read and post on this thread when he is available to do so

I think you and the other mods are doing a fine job policing the forums, which I am sure is not an easy task to maintain.

Jeremy et al

Without all the boring detail, every moderator knows what has been done to a particular message and why it was removed. In some cases a message was put back because "as a group" it was felt that message was within the posting guidelines (mostly new moderators learning). In some cases when a user asked "SetiMod" why a message was removed an explaination of what was not with the guidelines helped a user understand, or in some cases what was questionable was understood. Yes, we understand that English is not everyones first language. We are all human.

To answer the question how does Admin know when a moderator is having problems. In most cases it is the moderators policing the group that handles that "everyone learns about moderation on the job." The current group of moderators are from diverse backgrounds, education and nationality. While they may not all agree on "everything" the moderators have worked together long enough that they can reach a consensus.

The moderators email addresses are in the "accept list" in Eric's Spam Filter. Should someone have a question anyone can pose an issue to Eric personally.

For the larger part, anything that a moderator can do another moderator can undo.

If all else fails, there are several moderators who have phone numbers that can contact Eric immediately.

For the last part, Eric stated that he would like to have more moderators from different parts of the world to insure that all time zones are covered. If anyone would like to "volunteer or recommend a person" You are welcome to email me, I will insure that is forwarded to Eric.
For those that may not recall my public email address it is al.setiboinc at gmail.com (Yes, replace "at" and the spaces with the @ symbol). Yes, there is an unpublished selection process that is involved.

C: How does admin know or not know when a moderator is abusing his/her powers?

There is at least one SETI Administrator that receives all Modlist emails (if not more than one). Assuming this(these) person(people) have the time to read their emails, they know about every single action and discussion taking place. They can see who is "abusing" and who is simply trying to perform their duty.

Ok, fair enough. But expanding on this a little, we all know Matt doesn't care about the forums, Eric doesn't have the time to read the forums, and really pushed to have more moderators here to handle the work to allow him and the rest of the crew to focus on the important items, such as the project itself.

So with that, How does admin know or not know when a mod is being abusive?

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Jeremy et al

Without all the boring detail, every moderator knows what has been done to a particular message and why it was removed. In some cases a message was put back because "as a group" it was felt that message was within the posting guidelines (mostly new moderators learning). In some cases when a user asked "SetiMod" why a message was removed an explaination of what was not with the guidelines helped a user understand, or in some cases what was questionable was understood. Yes, we understand that English is not everyones first language. We are all human.

To answer the question how does Admin know when a moderator is having problems. In most cases it is the moderators policing the group that handles that "everyone learns about moderation on the job." The current group of moderators are from diverse backgrounds, education and nationality. While they may not all agree on "everything" the moderators have worked together long enough that they can reach a consensus.

The moderators email addresses are in the "accept list" in Eric's Spam Filter. Should someone have a question anyone can pose an issue to Eric personally.

For the larger part, anything that a moderator can do another moderator can undo.

If all else fails, there are several moderators who have phone numbers that can contact Eric immediately.

For the last part, Eric stated that he would like to have more moderators from different parts of the world to insure that all time zones are covered. If anyone would like to "volunteer or recommend a person" You are welcome to email me, I will insure that is forwarded to Eric.
For those that may not recall my public email address it is al.setiboinc at gmail.com (Yes, replace "at" and the spaces with the @ symbol). Yes, there is an unpublished selection process that is involved.

C: How does admin know or not know when a moderator is abusing his/her powers?

There is at least one SETI Administrator that receives all Modlist emails (if not more than one). Assuming this(these) person(people) have the time to read their emails, they know about every single action and discussion taking place. They can see who is "abusing" and who is simply trying to perform their duty.

Ok, fair enough. But expanding on this a little, we all know Matt doesn't care about the forums, Eric doesn't have the time to read the forums, and really pushed to have more moderators here to handle the work to allow him and the rest of the crew to focus on the important items, such as the project itself.

So with that, How does admin know or not know when a mod is being abusive?

Very good answer, thank you.

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Boinc Button Abuser In Training >My Shrubbers<

This thread was started by ohiomike asking some questions about moderators and moderation, and he was happy about the replies he got, which he stated in this post.

These issues have been discussed over and over, again and again, and usually threads like this develop into some mod bashings of some certain moderators, myself usually included.

So to prevent this thread from going into the same direction, as usual, again, in this case towards Pappa, and to enforce the stricter rules which were introduced recently and announced among others here, I therefore lock this thread.

If the thread owner, ohiomike, wants it unlocked, he can address the mod list with his request, and his arguments for having it unlocked will be discussed there.

Thank you all for your co-operation.

The email address to the mod list is setimods at ssl.berkeley.edu

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"I'm trying to maintain a shred of dignity in this world." - Me