Jump to content

Recommended Posts

  • Administrators

I wanted to publicly share a few observations about our expanded moderator team and the role of moderators in this forum. All of this information has been privately given to the moderators themselves.

 

In the past week, we've expanded the moderator team from two (OldGreyEagle and HopsScout) to seven. The people selected to join the moderator team were chosen for a variety of reasons (and many, many others were also considered to be excellent candidates, and from time to time we expect this moderator team to change and others asked to serve). OGE (let's call him "Moderator Emeritus" for now) has asked to step away from the role for a bit. HopsScout, the one Scout on our team, will continue to do a great job for us, and hopefully injects some much needed "Scout perspective" into our team.

 

The other new members of the team: Eamonn, Acco, Fscouter, JohnDaigler, Uncle Guinea all have shown a commitment to advancing the discussion in this forum, and a willingness to act fairly and moderate in the way they interact in the discussion. You will also notice that this new team represents a fairly broad spectrum of opinions and perspectives, and is intended to be very balanced. They all have shown they have Scouting's best interests at heart.

 

This team will work within their group to help guide each other and make some collective decisions when appropriate.

 

The role of the moderator in this forum is not very heavy handed. In fact, the moderator role should rarely - if ever - be noticed.

 

They can edit, move and delete posts within the forum to help keep things organized and ensure quality content. On rare occasion, the Moderator might need to step in and edit or remove a post that violates the Rules of Decorum for the Forum. It is a shame when a Moderator has to do this, and it doesn't happen very often. Sometimes a Moderator may close a thread, which is not done to force the end of any discussion. It's meant simply to bring a pause to a discussion which may have gone off course, and any topic that is closed may easiily be restarted in a new thread if the forum member desires. The Moderator is not here to censor opinions, just to keep the discussions honest and filter out the non-sense, if necessary.

 

I've said this before: A big part of the moderator's role is simply to "guide" the discussion forward. Moderators are at the wheel of our little boat, rolling gently down the river. We're all in the same boat, heading in the same direction together. Moderator's just try to keep us between the shores, and occasionally speed or slow the boat when things might get out of hand. (And once in a while our moderators might chase off the occasional loon that tries perching on our deck.)

 

The moderators are not restricted from contributing their own opinions - heck, we hope they will. And when they do so, everyone (including them) should feel as if they are speaking simply as another member of the forum, expressing their own points of view. No "status" comes from being a moderator, only cheerful service to help improve the experience for those posting in this forum and the more than 100,000 others that read here each month.

 

 

TERRY HOWERTON

 

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 3 months later...

Suspending Bob and Ed for a month is a load of crap. Suspending these guys for arguing, yet letting merlyn and backpacker spew their hateful vomit at will makes me sick. There is nothing worse than politically correct server nazis. So, you are suspended from my computer.

Link to post
Share on other sites

With regards to spewing "hateful vomit", if I recall correctly wasn't it Trail Pounder who, in a discussion about gay Boy Scouts, gleefully spewed "No flames in tents!" ...

 

Personally, I can think of many things that are worse than being "politically correct". Small-mindedness comes to mind.

 

Ed and Bob are both excellent fellows (albeit sometimes annoyingly argumentative) and I look forward to their rejoining the campfire. However, I won't mind this forum being permanently "suspended" from certain other computers.

Link to post
Share on other sites

As a moderator (who did not weigh in on the recent suspensions) I look at how a message is delivered more than the message itself. In my book, I disagree somewhat with the message that our friend Merlyn delivers but not with how he delivers it.

 

I think it is the Rush Limbaugh factor for many of us. I'm a political conservative but Rush is an entertainer (for some) who generates much of his entertainment value from his delivery style, not his content.

 

So yes, a suspension for arguing makes more sense to me than a suspension for someone who presents an idea that we simply don't agree with.(This message has been edited by acco40)

Link to post
Share on other sites

When I first came across these forums, I was impressed by how much relevant material there was, on a whole host of Scouting topics. I was also a little bit disappointed in the bickering that surrounded some of the topics. So I do appreciate that the forum communications are going to stay around long-term in searchable format. The more helpful they can be, the better, and lots of posts with no useful content don't add to the value at all.

 

I support the moderators in their attempt to raise the level of discourse.

 

Oak Tree

Link to post
Share on other sites

 

Well, the last four out of five posts in this thread were well worth reading. I do enjoy it when a poster proves the opposition's point so tellingly. The arguments do get tiresome and do have a very chilling effect on any attempt to exchange ideas and information. Good for you for taking a stand! I also applaud you for giving the parties enough rope to hang themselves and not reacting too quickly.

 

Vicki

Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...