What attracts you to moderate?

For those of you who are moderators and not administrators, what attracts you to a moderating position? What interests you and encourages you to volunteer your free time to help a community out?

 

Well, before I was ever an admin I started out as a Moderator on some oooolllllldddd forums. I'm sure this holds true to many.

There were a few reasons why:

1. Being able to better help new people. New users tend to value the words of moderators more than regular users.

2. Get to know the big guys better. I feel like once you're on staff, it opens up a new world. Suddenly the people who you have perhaps looked up to will rely on you to do certain things. This can start new friendships.

3. Sometimes, just clean the damn place up! Sometimes the forums were just a mess and you're like "wow this place really needs a moderator..."

4. And, not going to lie, having magic abilities for the forums is always fun (sticky threads, lock threads, ban users etc.). Of course it's important not to overstep your bounds or be overzealous but there's no shame in liking the new perks and buttons you get

 

Well I think you are missing a key point here Nick. In my opinion, administrators should still be involved in the day to day moderation of a forum. Obviously if your forum has millions of posts, you may have to focus your skills elsewhere, otherwise I think it's important an Administrator keeps hold of their 'Moderating' side.

One main reason which attracts me to moderate a site is definitely the topic. Simply put, if the topic is boring, or if it is something that isn't of interest to me, what is the point moderating it? Yes a moderator is a 'duty' but you've got to have an interest, otherwise you will simply end up becoming less and less active, therefore giving yourself a bad name in the moderating world.

 

I've always felt the desire to moderate, regardless of the management position that I hold. There is something about assisting the community in growing and maturing that is entirely rewarding - even when dealing with problem members.

 

Me too. If fact, I think it was this that lead me to create my own forum in the first place.

 

Exactly. Just because you're an administrator doesn't necessarily mean that you have to eliminate your position as a moderator.

 

I wasn't trying to imply that administrators should abandon their moderation duties; I'm in complete agreement with what has been said so far.

You may not have noticed yet, but this post was made in the ModeratorAddict forum which is where we attempt to cater to forum moderators - unlike all other Admin Forums out there. We as admins have countless resources on the internet to become better at what we do. But what about moderators? They're usually averge people who have no experience with moderating a community and only have your advice to guide them - but we try to offer them a place, too. See the sticky thread in this forum. I'm hoping this clears things up a bit

 

Good moderators are a valuable assett to any forum i find.

I would like to hear the views of moderators as to what tools they would like to see introduced on vbulettin software that they think will be of more benefit to them.

I to started as a mod and now i admin 5+ forums..mainly a tilers forum as i'm a tiler by trade ...

So the views of mods imo are very valuable..

 

That's another very good reason for offering a forum for moderators. They can tell us administrators what they want and need to be able to better perform their duties as well as share their thoughts on certain things that Administrators do.

 

Heh, this is true but I don't think you'd be in a forum that didn't interest you in the first place :spin:

 

No worries. I'm fully aware of what you intended - I remember when this forum started out as Webmaster Meets Admin in its early stages. The niche was unique then, and it still is today.

 

I'm not a big fan of moderating. Surprise, surprise as I moderate at many forums. My biggest motivation for moderating though tends to be the ability to help the site owners more, as a moderator really the only thing I can do that a regular member cannot is remove/edit posts and ban people. I really enjoy banning spammers aside from that I participate just like any other member in the community. Some moderators get on a power trip and it's kind of funny to see. :lol:

The only downfall to moderating, I feel, is that most forums have either a badge or colored user names for mods, which is nice and makes it easier for someone to see who the mods are if they need help however you cannot always state your true opinion of something when you're moderator. Lots of times on a forum where I'm a moderator I won't post on the more controversial threads because of the possibility that my option could be perceived as board policy or endorsed by the owner/admin. Or that later on down the road when/if the thread has to be locked my posting on it can be perceived as the thread being closed because I didn't like what was being said.

As someone who's been on both sides of the coin (mod and admin) sometimes being a mod feelings like being an admin with my hands tied behind my back, especially when mod tools are restricted to where mods cannot really do anything except sit there and look important. :spin:

 

This is very true. I've also found people give much more weight to what a moderator says, even if they are posting as a 'just a member.'

I agree. I think some people like doing basic clean-up - moving threads and the like - but don't really want to get involved in the member-contact part of it. I like seeing various levels of mod permissions being easy and clear to assign.

 

Ah, the memories. I think that's even still up somewhere, under a weird URL.

That niche was, and still is, one of a kind.

 

Had a further thought about this ... I think mods emerge from one of two places - they have a passion for the subject and are interested in facilitating the discussions - they are selling goods/services related to the subject and see modding as both a give-back service and a way of getting to know their customers.

I think some are born facilitators and have the necessary mod quality of never loosing their temper. I think others find they didn't quite know what they were getting into.

 

I've always felt that being a mod presents not only a chance to do more to help people out, but also to be law when someone does something... Well, stupid, to be frank. Sometimes, it can't be helped. But, ever since I became a mod some months ago, I've considered it a thrill ride ever since.

 

i always wanted to be a forum mod because i wanted to see what it was like-at first i saw forum mods as these all powerful entities (mainly cause the first and second forum i ever joined had completely anonymous mods), and i wanted to see what it was like to be one, are they people like us? is being a mod their job? are they robots? do they get paid?

then once i got out into the forum world i saw that mods are just normal people with added responsibilities, but i still wanted to see what all the buttons do! also there were times when i saw forums that were poorly moderated and thought.....if i was a mod i could have helped and sorted all of this out, or i felt like my thoughts on the running of the forum werent respected as much cause i was an ordinary member and they were mods. especially after one forum i was on got "hacked" and i worked out exactly which admin deleted everyones accounts (going off who was the most power mad, who had the most motivation to do so, and how it could be done...for a start, she said her own forum got hacked too, but when i logged on there it was still up and running with no changes). i thought this while the mods and the admin who had their accounts deleted and had to reregister as normal users were panicing about what happened and making all sorts of theories about what happened, i felt like i was in the background, even though i stayed calm, lurked on the support forum seeing if anyone else reported any problems..and suprisingly, when the only admin whos account was untouched came on and read the admin log...i was right! if i was a mod people might have listened to me

now i have my own forum i still think "i would like to be a mod here" if a forum is badly moderated and i think that the mods dont really know what they are doing, and need help removing the trolls and spam. but you cant exactly ask so i just help other members in the hope that they are hiring one day.

also sometimes if the forum is different to mine, i will want to be mod cause i want to see how each different forum works, without having to make my own forum, which i couldnt really do, cause i have other forums to run. especially if you have to pay to make one, cause id rather spend that money on my other forums that i am not just making as a test or on myself or my family.

 

I like moderating because I like power >
I like the benefits that come with moderating and I think it's just an all around fun way to spend my time. :þ

 

For me, its about helping control a site I really love, while enjoying the powers I get, to do just that .

 

When I use to moderate on a few forums I stated my opinion on anything I wanted. If someone perceives my post about some movie or political issue as endorsed by someone else or policy then there's no way of saving them from their own idiocy.

There's nothing in particular that I can think of that attracts me to be a moderator, as I don't go around requesting or applying for modship. I'm either modded, asked to mod, or never made a moderator.