Improving ASR as a member/moderator

[RickS]

Hello fellow ASR members!

Just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge some less obvious, but valuable efforts that go on here. I have seen a few posts since I resumed moderator duties that emphasize that there is only one ASR moderator now. While it is true that I am the only current holder of the moderator badge, the resulting activity is greatly improved by:

1. Several key supporting members that add their time and effort to improving moderation here. Some bring added experience and others just put in some extra effort. As many may not want their contributions known, will not identify these members specifically, but want to thank you for your support! I do not do this job alone.
2. Amir (who actually does a little moderation) has been supportive as I am still an apprentice moderator here. Navigating a membership that is culturally diverse, technically diverse and often strongly opinionated is challenging. Balancing tolerance while maintaining order is notably so. When frequently dealing with more negative issues, it can be difficult to see the more positive side. Amir has helped me do so.
3. All the ASR members who show restraint, respect others and contribute your talent to help others here, my sincerest thanks as well.

Finally, would just like to emphasize I may not always be your notion of an ideal moderator but am trying. Before I take action, I usually will give you some early feedback rather than issue warning points or a ban. If you have a question or complaint, use the Report feature or start a personal conversation with me. I try my best to be fair and objective. If you do not like my response, you can always appeal to Amir. Posting your complaint on a thread is less likely to help your cause and any extended dialog only clutters it for others.

Thanks again for supporting me and ASR!

Sincerely,

Rick

 

[respice finem]

Thank you for your work and keep it up, it obviously works well and almost "invisibly", which is an Art.

 

[thegeton]

@RickS , you're doing a great job.

I will miss @AdamG, @BDWoody, and @Jimbob54. Haven't seen them on the forum for some time now.

 

[Grotti]

Your are doing a great job, no doubt about that! I can't even imagine how much of your time is occupied by keeping us all on track!

 

[Chr1]

Appreciate all your effort.

Primarily: v time consuming...
and generally mostly thankless, no doubt.

Muchas gracias to everyone involved.
All the best from Scotland!

 

[respice finem]

Exactly, like in many other situations...

https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/dependency_2x.png

 

[Zgrado1970]

Thank you for doing a thankless job.

 

[OldHvyMec]

Sometimes there is an improvement by subtraction. I had one issue with one other moderator, and he knows exactly who he was. He is better suited as an observer. I think you are doing a thankless job and more over a great job. I had no issues with any other moderators. They were fair and all on the same page less one.

Thanks Rick for keeping the heard between the curbs. It's never easy.

My best regards.

 

[Liberal Democracy]

Hello fellow ASR members!

Just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge some less obvious, but valuable efforts that go on here. I have seen a few posts since I resumed moderator duties that emphasize that there is only one ASR moderator now. While it is true that I am the only current holder of the moderator badge, the resulting activity is greatly improved by:

1. Several key supporting members that add their time and effort to improving moderation here. Some bring added experience and others just put in some extra effort. As many may not want their contributions known, will not identify these members specifically, but want to thank you for your support! I do not do this job alone.
2. Amir (who actually does a little moderation) has been supportive as I am still an apprentice moderator here. Navigating a membership that is culturally diverse, technically diverse and often strongly opinionated is challenging. Balancing tolerance while maintaining order is notably so. When frequently dealing with more negative issues, it can be difficult to see the more positive side. Amir has helped me do so.
3. All the ASR members who show restraint, respect others and contribute your talent to help others here, my sincerest thanks as well.

Finally, would just like to emphasize I may not always be your notion of an ideal moderator but am trying. Before I take action, I usually will give you some early feedback rather than issue warning points or a ban. If you have a question or complaint, use the Report feature or start a personal conversation with me. I try my best to be fair and objective. If you do not like my response, you can always appeal to Amir. Posting your complaint on a thread is less likely to help your cause and extended dialog only clutters it for others.

Thanks again for supporting me and ASR!

Sincerely,

Rick

Its a interesting undertaking, isn't it mate .

Losing perspective during time, not just spent here moderating but also in general when engaging on social media platforms is a real danger, that can effect one on more fronts than meets the eye.

Its particularly difficult given there is no ' real world ' , ASR existing online only with all the interactions being virtual. It can become a very unbalanced, unhealthy and distorting influence on individuals, especially when indulged in long periods.

As a moderator that danger and subsequent challenge can be keenly felt . One has to regularly check in on oneself and keep a high level of personal honesty going.

Non of this is real ! The people are fictions created from fractions of the actual physical interaction and social involvement one really needs, the scaffolding that real friendship building requires is missing along with just about everything required . Alas we are left with a poor facsimile of actual healthy and rewarding human interactions . Put in audio fidelity terms we are at victorian levels of audio capture and reproduction.

I see the dangers realised in a great deal here , from the very top down to the last guy through the door .

One needs to keep perspective, many do but equally we are all susceptible to the more negative aspects, especially ones friendly neighbourhood moderator..., and forum owner !

Have a look down the pit filled with the bones of the former ASR moderators all hailed and lauded in their time , dust only remains , but the forum is still here . There's a lesson in that.. ,

Keep up the good work !

 

[teched58]

If I'm honest, and I'm actually reticent about being too frank, because I did that on another forum during L'Affaire Tekton (It definitely wasn't audiokarma) and got a permanent ban. Anyhoo, here's how I feel:

It's GREAT, it's the best it's ever been that we have only one moderator now and that the moderator is @RickS . Because he moderates with a gentle hand, and he seems to trust the membership to mostly do the right thing.

That's absolutely the correct philosophy, because when you treat members like children who constantly have to have their posts deleted, they will act like children. (And, like children, heavy moderation will kick off a cycle where they throw tantrums and members and moderators get into fights, and then members are either tossed or self-deport.) OTOH, when you treat members like adults, they will act like adults. And that's they way things should be.

Most of all, the reason I appreciate the current regime, in that there were some previous moderators (or maybe moderator single) who kept telling everyone how neutral they were. And that they were never politically motivated, and that it was only the member(s) who they were moderating who where political, and that's why said members had to be moderated. To them, I ask, who's paying those tariffs now? (Is it the country you insisted would pay, or is it moi the 'Murcan consumer?)

Forgive me for going on at @MattHooper -ian length, but I'll make one final analogy, drawn from my years writing for the electronics and computer industry trade press, including editing several print magazines and, later, web sites. (I.e., I was a @John Atkinson type, but not as handsome and I can't play bass.)

In journalism, you can think of writers as akin to members who post, and editors as their moderators. There are two types of editors: the first (bad, usually stemming from a lack of confidence borne of a paucity of talent) believe that their job is to take the writer's copy and use it as a starting point from which to completely rewrite an article in their own image.

The second, and quite frankly more rarely found type of editor, views their job as that of elevating the copy that they're working on. Making it better, but with a gentle touch. Clarifying the ambiguous, smoothing the clunky, identifying real bias (not simply statements that trigger them personally), making sure the whole piece hangs together and works. When they're finished, it's still the work of the original writer, but incrementally better. That's the ideal type of editor, and by analogy, the best kind of moderator one could ask for.

[EDIT: To be clear, I'm NOT saying we should only have one moderator. I'm saying that, as more are added, they should have the sensibilities exemplified by @RickS and @amirm .]

 

[pkane]

Non of this is real ! The people are fictions created from fractions of the actual physical interaction and social involvement one really needs, the scaffolding that real friendship building requires is missing along with just about everything required . Alas we are left with a poor facsimile of actual healthy and rewarding human interactions . Put in audio fidelity terms we are at victorian levels of audio capture and reproduction.

A very good point, Thomas! (note to self: keep remembering this!)

 

[Todd k]

thank you Rick. I am a daily reader and I think you are doing a terrific job, very much appreciate your effort to keep ASR so awesome. Also to Amir for creating this site.

 

[Somafunk]

Good luck, from experience as a forum moderator years ago I discovered the folk that get upset and spit the dummy over being moderated are generally the type of folk I’d have thrown out the pub I used to work in*, I’ve no issue with being warned to reign my neck in every now and then, a quick word or two is enough before ultimately being shown the door if the abuse continues

* some folk needed thrown out with rather more force than others, and often repeatedly (small Scottish fishing town/community)

 

[tmtomh]

I am a co-moderator of a couple of large, high-maintenance social media groups, and so I know firsthand how much work it is and how difficult it can be at times - so I am grateful to @RickS - thank you!

I also want to thank all the past moderators, who in my view did just as good of a job. And so I'm going to push back against the criticisms of them in this thread. In my experience, the vast majority of member complaints about moderators - not just here, but everywhere - are about personal beefs that develop from members not liking the rules or guidelines of the forum and blaming the moderators for essentially just doing their job. Of course that's not usually how the aggrieved members experience it, and that's never the claim those members make - it's always cloaked in some claim of a principle like "censorship," "treating people like children," "treating me in this way but letting others do whatever they want," and so on. But most of the time those claims don't hold water when subjected to scrutiny.

 

[Mart68]

I moderate on a much less active forum* than this but still have some idea of how hard it is, you're doing a bang-up job Rick.

(*also helps that, reference @Thomas Savage comment, most of us there meet quite often in 'real life' and so there's almost zero personal conflict)

 

[Liberal Democracy]

Good luck, from experience as a forum moderator years ago I discovered the folk that get upset and spit the dummy over being moderated are generally the type of folk I’d have thrown out the pub I used to work in*, I’ve no issue with being warned to reign my neck in every now and then, a quick word or two is enough before ultimately being shown the door if the abuse continues

* some folk needed thrown out with rather more force than others, and often repeatedly (small Scottish fishing town/community)

 

[Ropeburn]

I've seen a whole lot of different moderation styles in all kinds of communities just like all of us, and I came to the conclusion that a mostly "silent" or "invisible " style such as yours @RickS is almost always a good sign. Members never see the work behind the scenes, so it's too easy to dismiss it as "lazy", but really it means unobtrusive, well weighed moderation decisions are made.

Appreciate your work and everyone else's. Thumbs up!

 

[RickS]

Its a interesting undertaking, isn't it mate .

Losing perspective during time, not just spent here moderating but also in general when engaging on social media platforms is a real danger, that can effect one on more fronts than meets the eye.

Its particularly difficult given there is no ' real world ' , ASR existing online only with all the interactions being virtual. It can become a very unbalanced, unhealthy and distorting influence on individuals, especially when indulged in long periods.

As a moderator that danger and subsequent challenge can be keenly felt . One has to regularly check in on oneself and keep a high level of personal honesty going.

Non of this is real ! The people are fictions created from fractions of the actual physical interaction and social involvement one really needs, the scaffolding that real friendship building requires is missing along with just about everything required . Alas we are left with a poor facsimile of actual healthy and rewarding human interactions . Put in audio fidelity terms we are at victorian levels of audio capture and reproduction.

I see the dangers realised in a great deal here , from the very top down to the last guy through the door .

One needs to keep perspective, many do but equally we are all susceptible to the more negative aspects, especially ones friendly neighbourhood moderator..., and forum owner !

Have a look down the pit filled with the bones of the former ASR moderators all hailed and lauded in their time , dust only remains , but the forum is still here . There's a lesson in that.. ,

Keep up the good work !

But you are still my real friend! Right?

 

[Ropeburn]

But you are still my real friend! Right?

 

[Liberal Democracy]

But you are still my real friend! Or not?

Well , the question might be , would you still be my friend when in knocking on your front door at 10am with a 24 pack of beers and needing a shower from the night before.

If the answers yes , and I caution you , iv form for inviting myself as Amirm will attest , I guess we've a shot at real friendship.

I'd certainly take a call from a jail cell from you , moderator code of allegiance insists as much but id not post bail for you ..