If you stick around long enough and don't offend the right people you'll be made Mod

737max

Some sub-forums are very cliquey.
Boards.ie re-enforces this by appointing members of the clique to the moderation team.
Forums become echo chambers and if a person with a contrarian view posts something which is going against the now directed group think then they are moderated in to oblivion by the person who was patient and motivated enough to bide their time to become a moderator.

Some posters ingratiate themselves to the clique and find their way in to moderator roles.

Perhaps boards.ie sees itself as being neutral but many of the forums are driven towards the agenda of the moderator.
This manifests itself in many ways, some of which are more benign or malign than others. A moderator can allow certain posters post some reprehensible viewpoints and I am convinced that certain forums are an unofficial indoctrination and communication channel for vested interests.

A good rule of thumb in selection of moderators would probably be that if their post count is above 3% of all the posts on a forum then they should be let nowhere near the levers of control on that particular sub-forum.

Is there any clear checklist adhered to by Boards when selecting Mods and is it reviewed to see if it is fit for purpose? I've seen someone appointed as a Mod recently who definitely shouldn't be a Mod. The clique think the appointment is great.

SCOOP 64

Don't know why anyone would want to be a moderator.

CINCLANTFLT

The 3% measure is an interesting starting point... now to try and establish some credibility, when I'm not giving out about unions and cyclists on boards, I am quite senior in my profession and one of expert areas is regulation and compliance... you'll just have to believe me!

Now, having a supervisor / regulator that is removed or separated from the domain they are policing is a basic and important principle... look at how chummy things were between banks and the financial regulator and where that ended up.

Next if you are a supervisor / regulator, you have to be really careful about any statement you make... you are making policy when you speak...

Lastly, you have to be professional and assertive...

So when a moderator makes any post in a forum and thus takes some position, then they are breaching these simple principles...

A simple answer may be that you can no longer post where you moderate...

dr.fuzzenstein

Well I've been hanging around the motors forum for yonks and no one has asked me!

boardsuser1

Being a boards mod would be nice indeed.

The Hill Billy

Quit with the 'test' posts please. Help Desk posts are pre-moderated.

tHB

CINCLANTFLT

The Hill Billy wrote: »

Quit with the 'test' posts please. Help Desk posts are pre-moderated.

tHB

But I'm getting the attached error instead... your site seems to need a little work!

Zaph

CINCLANTFLT wrote: »

But I'm getting the attached error instead... your site seems to need a little work!

Although you may be getting an error message, we can see all your posts on the thread and as tHB mentioned above, in this forum they must be approved by an admin or one of this forum's mods before they are visible. However I will bring the error message you're getting to the attention of the guys in the office.

737max wrote: »

Is there any clear checklist adhered to by Boards when selecting Mods and is it reviewed to see if it is fit for purpose? I've seen someone appointed as a Mod recently who definitely shouldn't be a Mod. The clique think the appointment is great.

We're happy with the current procedure for the appointment of new mods and see no particular reason to change it. Unfortunately not every appointment will be 100% popular, but that's just the way it goes. If we had to wait for unanimity first we'd probably never end up appointing any new mods.

CINCLANTFLT wrote: »

A simple answer may be that you can no longer post where you moderate...

As has been stated numerous times on Boards, most recently in the last few weeks in Feedback iirc, we will never impose that restriction on our moderators. Who is going to have any interest in modding a forum they're prohibited from posting in? It's the person's very interest in the topic that suggests that they may be a good candidate in the first place.

It's not really clear to me what the purpose of this thread is other than to possibly have a bit of a moan. However as I said, we have no concerns regarding how mods are selected so there's not a lot more to discuss. Thread closed.