I moderate a Le Mans motor race forum - more of a social forum that about racing. Although it is more relaxed than here in terms of what is allowed, we still try to maintain a reasonably dignifed discussion. There are a hard core (15 - 20) of very regular contributors, who know how far they can go, then quite a number of weekly/fortnightly visitors, then the occassional "newbie".
I could do my job there in about 5 minutes or less a day, but I have personally found moderating has increased my interest and also my social circle when going motor racing, so am happy to spend more time than that in the forum.
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I guess it depends on the level of interest and number of posts you get each day. Certainly you need to consider that only one post a day can be a nightmare if it's the "wrong" post and you don't see it until all and sundry have read it.
The actual editting side of moderating takes very little time in the overall scheme of things, but the constant monitoring of every new post can be quite demanding if you want to ensure that any transgressions are promptly dealt with (after all, that's the point of moderating; stopping the site falling into disrepute by limiting exposure to harmful posts)
Between the three of us on this site there is pretty much 20 hours of coverage per day, although the actual amount of time we spend actively looking at posts is much less than that.
Let us know how it goes.
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Between the three of us on this site there is pretty much 20 hours of coverage per day
Which are the other 4 hours? ;-))
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And is my account still active?
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Oooh yes, very droll.
As you may have noted there is no time of day that you can consider yourself safe. [cue evil laughter]
I am an insomniac by nature, as is DD, and Mark has been known to rise at an unearthly hour. All three of us have been known to post at 4:00am from time to time.
:o)
No Dosh
mailto:Alan_moderator@honestjohn.co.uk
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>>And is my account still active?
Fortunately you chose one of the four hours when we weren\'t watching !!
With regard to the original query;
It depends how you want it run, how you want it to appear and what type of people you attract.
Here we wish no bad language, no politics, no rows, no insults, etc. etc. etc. That is because we believe that it gives us the profile of a chatroom that we want. We avoid becoming a single issue site, which is always a danger with motoring, particularly with speeding. However, we do want to be Motoring oriented. Think long and hard before letting someone go off-subject.
You will always get the occasional prat who thinks it is hilarious to post trash, and frequently offensive trash. But fortunately that are few and far between, which is just as well because they can take a lot of time.
The actual moderating is, as No Dosh said, usually not particularly time-consuming. However, the reading and checking of everything is. Here it is much more important that we are available across as much of the day as is possible, rather than actually spending a great deal of time in here at any one go.
You shouldn\'t do it for the popularity, there isn\'t any involved. Whatever you do, whatever decision you make, you will receive a spate of e-mails about.
For every one fervently disagreeing with you, there is another thanking you for doing it - there is quite a vocal we-hate-mark\'s-moderating crowd around, usually from the safety of other chatrooms, but I\'ve yet to see an issue where the complaints and compliments were unbalanced. You have to avoid being swayed by opinions and stick with what you think is right; and certainly you have to avoid the whiners & moaners, they aren\'t worth the effort.
Some of the complaints are silly - people complaining that they aren\'t allowed to swear for example. However, for the most part you do need to consider each complaint. You might have missed something, you might have misunderstood something, or you may not have realised that something was offensive - and other than the sad little people who typically whine about the same things repeatedly, most people are telling you something that genuinely bothers them, even if it is not reasonable that it should do so.
People can\'t draw their own lines. Someone wishes to use a mild swear word. You stop them and they think its outrageous. However, if you allowed it then someone would use a worse word that they didn\'t think offensive, and so on.
You need to have a thick skin. We have some saddos who send me abusive mails, some twerps who sign me up for stuff, and a whole bunch of frustrated little people who content themselves with incessant whinging, petty insults or simply making life difficult in silly little ways. And they all believe themselves to be beyond reproach and totally correct.
You\'ll also find people who are quite sure that your chatroom will die if they leave, and frequently say so. Those are the ones you need to leave. The good ones often do not complain, they simply leave.
Faces come and faces go, and that\'s a good thing. Whilst you very much need regulars, you need a constant flow through of other people as well to keep it fresh. Don\'t become complacent with your membership levels or it can become stagnant and \"cliquey\" very quickly. Make sure that you take steps to always have new faces showing up.
I don\'t know about pottery, but I\'d guess that unlike motoring where *everybody* has an opinion, its likely to attract a smaller cross section audience. You aren\'t likely to attract the drunk, challenged kids on a Friday night in the same way that we do, for example. I would expect this to mean that you had much less hassle across the board.
People can take chatrooms and the things said in them far *too* seriously. It is, after all, only a chatroom.
You will have to deal with all these things. However, don\'t let me darken it for you too much. By far and away the vast majority of people we get in here are welcome, behave well, are supportive, follow the spirit of the rules as well as the letter and frequently offer to lend a hand. Most of them are people who know things or have experiences that the others do not - I personally learn a great deal of things here, a surprising amount not related to motoring.
I would miss many of the people in here if they didn\'t show up, even if they only do it infrequently.
A couple of Smokie\'s comments ring very true, particularly around it expanding my own level and scope of interest.
And finally, you will get it wrong sometimes. We all do*. Don\'t worry about it too much, just be ready for it next time.
(* As if to prove the point, Mark is wrong in stating that we sometimes get it wrong. We are never wrong.... Oh, hang on, that\'s got the logic circuits baffled. ND)
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Moderating Clarice Cliff pottery is unlikely to lead to slanging matches and swearing, imho!
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Maybe, maybe pot. Er, not.
Someone's gone to get my coat. ND
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The actual moderating is, as No Dosh said, usually not particularly time-consuming. However, the reading and checking of everything is.
Hangs head in shame. I somehow missed Malteser\'s question on moderating advice. Just goes to show that you need more than one moderator to spot everything that goes on around here.
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A big "Thank You" to all you Mods who took the time to reply to my question. Much appreciated!
You would, perhaps, be surprised at the passion generated by "pots"! The value of some art deco pottery is so high these days, (a particularly desirable shape/design tea set in Clarice Cliff can cost serious money) - more than the price of many a new car. ( Motoring related!)
There is a real problem with fakes being made and sold on eBay and other auctions and some vendors get, shall we say, upset at being "outed", so I guess it wouldn't be all sweetnes and light!
WE shall see.
Roger.
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