New Foxxinnia
05-12-2005, 03:57
Chapter I. The Kinds of Forums That Exist
From the beginning of the internet, internet forums have evolved from newsgroups and electronic mailing list to the modern forums of today. These forums exist as corporate forums (companies to converse with customers), exclusive forums (a small group of users with related interests), site forums (a general website that adopts a forum), associated forums (mini-site/exclusive forum in a forum hosting system i.e. Invisionfree), and superforums (multiple site forums lumped into a single forum primarily for server bandwidth). For the purpose of this thread I will cover site/super forums, the only forums which truly require the use of constant moderation.
Chapter II. Concerning the Promotion of Poster to Moderator Through Age or Friendship
One of the ways a poster becomes a moderator is through either extremely good terms with the admin or that they joined at the very beginning of the forum. Actions such as these are normally the result of an amateur or naïve admin. These appointments almost always lead to the complete and utter failure of the forum.
The problem regarding the promotion of the admin's friend results in a certain anonymity between the posters of the forum and the new moderator, because the moderator has no real idea of the who's who and also the rules of the individual smaller sub-forums; he will often pass poor judgments which cause the posters to demand an overruling of it by the admin. The admin would of course side himself with the moderator. The friend then finds that he could more-or-less do whatever he wants regarding moderation and the admin would look the other way. The posters then would in general become fed up with the conditions of the forum and either leave or set-up a rival forum leaving the initial forum nearly desolate.
The more severe problem of naïve moderator appointment ship is the random appointment of moderators at the beginning of the forum consisting of the first few members. What happens with this method is that the regular posters begin to follow their favourite moderator eventually develouping a form of deity worship making threads based around the individual moderators. Eventually the groups begin rivaling themselves against each other. They flame each other and then the moderators begin deleting and banning the other moderators’ followers. In the end the forum breaks into smaller exclusive forums constantly at war with each other leading occasional fronts against one another.
Chapter III. Concerning the Promotion of Poster to Moderator Through Goodwill
The better form of the promotion from Poster to Moderator is the promotion through trust, quality posting, and overall good terms with everyone. The new moderator must use his new powers very lightly at the very beginning of his reign, for if he makes too many moderations the posters that initially supported him would turn against him thinking that he has become drunk with power. The moderator then loses his initial popular poster support and he must either resign his position or continue moderating shunned. The moderator should slowly increase the moderating progressively until an estimated point where the moderating needs are equivilent to the moderation. From there on the moderator can become an active member of the forums while being an effective moderator.
From the beginning of the internet, internet forums have evolved from newsgroups and electronic mailing list to the modern forums of today. These forums exist as corporate forums (companies to converse with customers), exclusive forums (a small group of users with related interests), site forums (a general website that adopts a forum), associated forums (mini-site/exclusive forum in a forum hosting system i.e. Invisionfree), and superforums (multiple site forums lumped into a single forum primarily for server bandwidth). For the purpose of this thread I will cover site/super forums, the only forums which truly require the use of constant moderation.
Chapter II. Concerning the Promotion of Poster to Moderator Through Age or Friendship
One of the ways a poster becomes a moderator is through either extremely good terms with the admin or that they joined at the very beginning of the forum. Actions such as these are normally the result of an amateur or naïve admin. These appointments almost always lead to the complete and utter failure of the forum.
The problem regarding the promotion of the admin's friend results in a certain anonymity between the posters of the forum and the new moderator, because the moderator has no real idea of the who's who and also the rules of the individual smaller sub-forums; he will often pass poor judgments which cause the posters to demand an overruling of it by the admin. The admin would of course side himself with the moderator. The friend then finds that he could more-or-less do whatever he wants regarding moderation and the admin would look the other way. The posters then would in general become fed up with the conditions of the forum and either leave or set-up a rival forum leaving the initial forum nearly desolate.
The more severe problem of naïve moderator appointment ship is the random appointment of moderators at the beginning of the forum consisting of the first few members. What happens with this method is that the regular posters begin to follow their favourite moderator eventually develouping a form of deity worship making threads based around the individual moderators. Eventually the groups begin rivaling themselves against each other. They flame each other and then the moderators begin deleting and banning the other moderators’ followers. In the end the forum breaks into smaller exclusive forums constantly at war with each other leading occasional fronts against one another.
Chapter III. Concerning the Promotion of Poster to Moderator Through Goodwill
The better form of the promotion from Poster to Moderator is the promotion through trust, quality posting, and overall good terms with everyone. The new moderator must use his new powers very lightly at the very beginning of his reign, for if he makes too many moderations the posters that initially supported him would turn against him thinking that he has become drunk with power. The moderator then loses his initial popular poster support and he must either resign his position or continue moderating shunned. The moderator should slowly increase the moderating progressively until an estimated point where the moderating needs are equivilent to the moderation. From there on the moderator can become an active member of the forums while being an effective moderator.