Personally I would like to see more moderators with 'lock' and 'move' powers in the n900 space, preferably people in a range of time zones. Perhaps something that could be done as part of the redesign?

The thread which sparked this thread was several pages old before I got to it. If a mod had moved it to the 'competitors' forum when it was fresh, I suspect the flames would have died in the low-oxygen atmosphere there. Equally, once it was well alight, a 'fire door' policy of closing it with a statement to the effect that it has become too agressive and would be -reopened when tempers are cooled would have stopped it deteriorating, and it could have been reopened quietly in a few days time when it was on the 6th page.

The effect of this would be that people who have constructive criticism to offer would still get their chance to post and contribute, while the rabble rousers and pitch-fork brigade would learn very quickly that their behaviour was unrewarded.

Please don't see this as a criticism of the existing mods: I know they do a tremendous job and what I'm suggesting would be yet more work.

Edit to add: I've been in places where n00b restrictions were of various ty[es, but I really don't think preventing new thread posting would work. Many of our n00bs turn up, ask a question they can't find an answer to anywhere else, get an answer and never reappear. I'd hate to lose that facility for people who're stuck on something.

what about having the first thread created by the user to go through moderation before it appears on the site? once you have an approved thread, you're allowed to start new threads without passing moderation. this approach works well for wordpress comments in my experience.

this gives the moderator a chance to
- give a personal welcome to the new tmo member
- prevent duplicate threads from being started
- all in all give good advice on the specific issue, should it not seem to be a good idea for a new thread to be created.
- and also, even if the thread is perfectly fine, the moderator could send a generic welcome dm to confirm approval, including good tips and tricks for tmo.

Now that's creative thinking... though a lot more work for the mods.

/me volunteering to assist.

I think edgar2 would make a great moderator.

Hi,

Could we have a status update regarding edgar2's and my own candidacies? Regardless of the respective decisions, it would be nice if there could be some kind of communication with the involved parties.

Thanks,

(damn I sound like a manager)

Probably not a bad idea to at least get an update on the admins thought process - quite a few people here have very good ideas on how to improve, and some i think would be very good mod's
(I allways thought of Kathy as more of a rocker - sorry Tex, another UK based joke i think)

Anyway, would be nice to see in one list who has stepped forward, been nominated etc - people like Andre the bugmaster, Tex, Qgil and General A make my life so much easier, as they are just willing to reply sensibly and with the correct information, even if they have done the graft, so to speak finding all the answers.

So Kudos to you all for being so helpful - more help is always needed!!!

(I'm the last one in my office on xmas eve, eeeeeeeeeeeeeek! Time to go to the pub i think! - Happy Xmas! ) - yeah i know, wrong forum post/thread thingy - that's what mod's are for, hehehe!

I'm disappointed to see how little reaction there is to this thread.

Reggie, I was hoping at least an ounce of communication was possible, but sadly it would appear that the no-com memo has seeped into other spheres as well.

Nearly a month has gone by since I initially offered to help moderate the forums, however nothing has been communicated. Not even a simple private message explaining moderators aren't currently sought after, nor a reply to the thread explaining my candidacy had not been accepted.

I can understand that moderators and admins are busy, however I do not understand how we can let people ruin this forum with useless rants and posts, and do absolutely nothing about it.

I also wonder what is the problem here?

CrashandDie is now a moderator of General, Community, and Fremantle.