New Moderator Needed: h(AVEN) & Tea and Sympathy: Nominations

[Kelly]

Join the team!

 

If you think you would be interested in being the new h(AVEN) Co-moderator & Tea and Sympathy Moderator, throw cookies, cakes, your hat, turnip, or whatever you have into the ring. Just be sure to make it clear that you wish to run.

 

Eligibility requirements include being a member for at least 6 months, and having at least 100 posts that are not in the Just for Fun or Welcome Lounge forums. You also cannot run with an active, current, warning. You may run for only one election at a time.

 

Also, see the following for election rules:

 

http://www.asexuality.org/en/topic/90514-rules-and-procedure-for-elections/

 

Voting will be by a vote of confidence. A bio is required to be PMed to me by voting time.

 

This is the timeline for this election:

Thursday, 7 May to Thursday, 14 May: Nominations.

Thursday, 14 May to Sunday, 17 May: Dedicated Q&A period.

Sunday, 17 May to Sunday, 24 May: Voting.

[Skycaptain]

Speaking as the moderator covering T&S pending elections, this is a low traffic forum, so reading through the posts is only a couple of minutes a day. Having a degree of empathy is helpful, as is the ability to post cute images in the "hugs" thread. 

[Ldlelee]

7 hours ago, Skycaptain said:

Speaking as the moderator covering T&S pending elections, this is a low traffic forum, so reading through the posts is only a couple of minutes a day. Having a degree of empathy is helpful, as is the ability to post cute images in the "hugs" thread. 

^What Cap said, but please bare in mind that these threads are a huge responsibility and need to be carefully looked after as well.

[Iam9man]

@Skycaptain & @Leedle-Lee thanks, that’s helpful.

 

That volume sounds a lot (lot lot) lower than for example JFF. Have the forums been split this way because the care & responsibility are higher?

 

I’m guessing neither forum get a lot of reports either, but when they do they’re more sensitive/serious. Would this be a fair assumption?

[Skycaptain]

There's, as you say, almost no reports in either forum. JFF/Arcade can have a lot of posts to look through. Most work in both forums is tidying up duplicate posts and requests for a post to be moved/deleted.

(h)AVEN I've never seen a report in. 

For T&S having the ability to respond kindly to posts is an asset. On a lighter note, being able to posts images and GIFs of hugging animals is well received 

[Homer]

Yeah I'm going to have to throw a wrench into this. Yes, you won't have 20 new pages to read every day, however the things you do get to read are often quite lengthy and cover deeply personal topics. You'll likely spend much more time thinking about how to word a single reply in Tea & Sympathy and/or (h)AVEN than reading an entire page of the fun stuff.

[Iam9man]

4 hours ago, Skycaptain said:

There's, as you say, almost no reports in either forum. JFF/Arcade can have a lot of posts to look through. Most work in both forums is tidying up duplicate posts and requests for a post to be moved/deleted.

(h)AVEN I've never seen a report in. 

For T&S having the ability to respond kindly to posts is an asset. On a lighter note, being able to posts images and GIFs of hugging animals is well received 

Also appreciate your thoughts on whether modding these forums is, on average, less than 1 hour, more than 1 hour or more than 2 hours per day?

[Skycaptain]

T&S usually only takes five minutes, (h)AVEN seconds, it's not unknown for there to be no posts 

[michaeld]

Of course there's also other admods work to do, e.g. voting on reports from other forums and taking part in policy discussions. I'll let actual admods comment on how long this takes on average.

[Homer]

1 hour ago, Skycaptain said:

T&S usually only takes five minutes

I haven't had that happen to me ever. Just so nobody ends up with a surprise.

[Guest]

T&S was my favorite forum to mod.  I kind of just let people...be.  I can suck at words sometimes so it was easier to let other people deal with the words and I just made sure the words were okay.

 

But when things blow up they...blow...up.  You need to know how to deal with people on the verge of...well anything really.  It helped me to focus on the replies more than the OP.  When I did that the forum felt less sad because everyone would just come together to support the OP.

 

That's my 2 cents.

[Iam9man]

2 hours ago, CBC said:

So has anyone actually thrown their turnip or whatever into the ring yet?

Not yet from what I can see.

[Homer]

There's something that hasn't been mentioned yet when it comes to modding these forums. It's going to be tough at times because you see people struggle with all kinds of crap, but on the other hand you absolutely have to bear in mind that the things you can do are very limited. There's a protocol in place for really really urgent stuff where you reach out to the member in question, but other than that, reassuring people that there'll always be someone there to listen, sharing experiences and posting pictures of cake and cute animals is basically all you can do. If you approach these with a mindset like "There's this problem a member has and now it's on me to solve it", you're not going anywhere.

 

You're a random person on the internet, interacting with another random person on the internet, probably thousands of miles away. You can always try to make a difference in the very moment this person reads the thread, but you will not save the world by modding AVEN boards.

[Iam9man]

I see on the Who mods what page that (h)AVEN is listed as “Administrators, Moderators“. Is this a change making a specific mod responsible for it?

[Skycaptain]

@Iam9man, yes. It's just to make sure that we don't end up in a situation where everyone thinks someone else is covering the forum, and nobody does. 

[Iam9man]

3 hours ago, Skycaptain said:

@Iam9man, yes. It's just to make sure that we don't end up in a situation where everyone thinks someone else is covering the forum, and nobody does. 

Thank you, that makes sense. Is there a specific assigned Co-moderator?

[Skycaptain]

32 minutes ago, Iam9man said:

Thank you, that makes sense. Is there a specific assigned Co-moderator?

Yes me, although I'm not listed as such - because of the nature of the forum we feel it's best not to give it to a new moderator on their own, when they may never have had access to the forum before 

[Tanwen]

My third module has finished early due to COVID and as I am now retired (put under house arrest from 23 March, retired 31 March) I think I have the study/rest of non existant life 'balance' sorted, so I'd have the time. 
Persuades friendly dragon to go and sit in the circle for me (bribes with burgers)

[Janus the Fox]

3 hours ago, Iam9man said:

Thank you, that makes sense. Is there a specific assigned Co-moderator?

In some sense, everybody co-mods with another mod.  It’s a team effort for nearly all things in Admods, if unsure? There’s other Admods that help.  Need assistance in Reports? Another Admod will help, Away from the Internet for a time? Another Admod will step in.

[Phantasmal Fingers]

1 hour ago, CBC said:

I'm in.

Is that so you can berate others for complaining when it's quite you clear you are more in need of tea and sympathy than they are? 

 

Hence they snap out of it and you get tea and sympathy? 

 

A cunning plan, if ever there was one! 🙃

[Ldlelee]

1 hour ago, CBC said:

Ok, after much -- very much -- serious thought...

 

I'm in.

!!!!!!!! HELL YEAH!

[Ldlelee]

7 hours ago, Tanwen said:

My third module has finished early due to COVID and as I am now retired (put under house arrest from 23 March, retired 31 March) I think I have the study/rest of non existant life 'balance' sorted, so I'd have the time. 
Persuades friendly dragon to go and sit in the circle for me (bribes with burgers)

I thought dragons preferred cake.

 

And yay! I'm excited to see so many candidates running for these elections!

[Qutenkuddly]

On 5/8/2020 at 3:56 AM, Homer said:

Yeah I'm going to have to throw a wrench into this. Yes, you won't have 20 new pages to read every day, however the things you do get to read are often quite lengthy and cover deeply personal topics. You'll likely spend much more time thinking about how to word a single reply in Tea & Sympathy and/or (h)AVEN than reading an entire page of the fun stuff.

 

On 5/9/2020 at 1:04 AM, Kisa needs a latte said:

T&S was my favorite forum to mod.  I kind of just let people...be.  I can suck at words sometimes so it was easier to let other people deal with the words and I just made sure the words were okay.

 

But when things blow up they...blow...up.  You need to know how to deal with people on the verge of...well anything really.  It helped me to focus on the replies more than the OP.  When I did that the forum felt less sad because everyone would just come together to support the OP.

 

That's my 2 cents.

 

On 5/9/2020 at 6:32 AM, Homer said:

There's something that hasn't been mentioned yet when it comes to modding these forums. It's going to be tough at times because you see people struggle with all kinds of crap, but on the other hand you absolutely have to bear in mind that the things you can do are very limited. There's a protocol in place for really really urgent stuff where you reach out to the member in question, but other than that, reassuring people that there'll always be someone there to listen, sharing experiences and posting pictures of cake and cute animals is basically all you can do. If you approach these with a mindset like "There's this problem a member has and now it's on me to solve it", you're not going anywhere.

 

You're a random person on the internet, interacting with another random person on the internet, probably thousands of miles away. You can always try to make a difference in the very moment this person reads the thread, but you will not save the world by modding AVEN boards.

 

I agree with all these points. On top of that, you also need to be ready to deal decisively with those who need to be demonstrating a problematic lack of empathy. T&S needs to be a place where people can open up emotionally, if they need to. You have to be ready to make decisions regarding whether or not to hide a post on your own. I created this post, in part, to enable myself and future T&S Mods to act quickly and decisively when needed.

 

 

[Qutenkuddly]

9 hours ago, Tanwen said:

My third module has finished early due to COVID and as I am now retired (put under house arrest from 23 March, retired 31 March) I think I have the study/rest of non existant life 'balance' sorted, so I'd have the time. 
Persuades friendly dragon to go and sit in the circle for me (bribes with burgers)

Oh wow, retired? I know it's kind of hard to judge with the pandemic situation going on, but how are you finding it?

[Tanwen]

13 hours ago, Qutenkuddly said:

Oh wow, retired? I know it's kind of hard to judge with the pandemic situation going on, but how are you finding it?

I'm considered in the 'at risk' category so have been under house arrest since 24 March. I have been known to make the odd break for freedom, and I take the dogs for their walks (carefully keeping the 2 metre separation), but could be a lot worse, and definitely better than COVID 

[Tanwen]

On 5/10/2020 at 10:36 PM, Leedle-Lee said:

I thought dragons preferred cake.

 

And yay! I'm excited to see so many candidates running for these elections!

Haven't been able to get a burger in so long...though Maccy D's (drivethrough) is supposed to be opening some time this week. KFC alsready is 

[Kelly]

*closes to start campaigns*