It struck me that the forum doesn't have a definitive source for prospective moderators to look at for some advice and tips on what to do, and what not to do, in moderating a NES. Why not gather a list here so we all don't have to reinvent the wheel? Sure, there's the NESGuide, but that is increasingly obsolete, being 3-4 years old by now. And by tip & tricks of modding, I mean any scrap of advice, whether it's some small procedural technique that speeds up updating, or how to organize some detail in the NES itself (say, drawing the map). Any advice, no matter how seemingly obvious, helps! I'll start! 
1.) Plan out natural events and disasters several turns out in advance, so that when the turns themselves come rolling by, you aren't persuaded by the current situation to be nice to players (and not do anything).
2.) I've seen this used by Dachs and Perfectionist recently, which is to go offline from the forums for the duration of completely the update, free yourself of distractions here.
3.) Providing lists of who has sent orders and who hasn't! From personal experience, tends to motivate me (more) to send orders.
4.) Post a clear deadline for orders in a noticeable format at the top of the opening post! Eliminates %95 of those posts asking, "When's the deadline?!?".
5.) Plan first how long you expect your NES to last. How many updates, at which frequency. Guess or compute the workload needed to actually compute the update and process orders from N players. Then see if you can do that work, at which pace, and how long it would last. Check your schedule and see how many updates you can reasonably expect to moderate before having to end the NES due to it becoming too hard, it being 'won' by someone, or your having to move to another planet where you can't access the forums. (LDiCesare)
6.) Once this is done, make sure your rules/timeline will allow the NES to evolve correctly over the planned duration. Namely, if you plan to have tech progress matter, then make sure the NES lasts long enough for it to have an effect, and conversely make sure you don't run out of techs/reach an unwanted era before the end of the NES. (LDiCesare)
7.) What I have determined from my experience of modding is that any NES that relies largely on players interacting with each other more than on the contents of orders is doomed. (spryllino)
8.) Also, in my opinion, funds that the player can spend should always be complicated in how they are calculated and have multiple factors determining their value, for example precise and realistic consideration of the sources of tax income, corruption, infrastructure, tariff rates, upkeep. (spryllino)
9.) Mods should also be careful to make sure that everything the player does has a carefully considered impact, and they shouldn't ignore anything the players write. In fact, mods should generally be extremely careful with stats. It totally undermines the point of the NES if the player carries out a project and it succeeds, but the effect on the player's treasury accidentally gets missed out when updating the stats. (spryllino)
10.) Mods should carefully avoid things happening that are incredibly unlikely, and should avoid making things happen that really don't make much sense just for the sake of the storyline. (spryllino)
11.) It's no bad idea for mods to carry out detailed and many-sided campaigns on #nes if they have the time, participation, and will. (spryllino)
12.) Lastly, mods should update quickly and set deadlines that allow them to do so. (spryllino)
13.) Mods usually should announce with a preview thread or in the New NESes thread at least a week before starting to garner initial support.(Charles_Li)
14.) Mods should be lenient for players, but also have to balance that player with ability of time to update and other players. My suggestion is one extention for newer players, and two for reliable players that needed a bit of time, and Three at most, and that is for good reasons, old reliable players, complicated situations that need time, ect. (Charles_Li)
15.) Mods should update areas with finished orders as soon as possible, and give that region a small boost. I was making a chart of which regions finished first to give boosts in ChuckRTOR, but it ended too soon.(Charles_Li)
16.) Make a plan on how to address the randomness for war, and stick to it.(Charles_Li)
17.) Rapid updating and a kind of schedule are incredibly, but incredibly important to every kind of NES, whether it is a popcorn-type NES or a more realistic kind.(Dachs)
18.) Be cold-hearted/objective; if your black-box/dice-roll tells you to throw an earthquake, a drought, and a major mutiny at a country all in one turn, don't out.(qoou)
1.) Plan out natural events and disasters several turns out in advance, so that when the turns themselves come rolling by, you aren't persuaded by the current situation to be nice to players (and not do anything).
2.) I've seen this used by Dachs and Perfectionist recently, which is to go offline from the forums for the duration of completely the update, free yourself of distractions here.
3.) Providing lists of who has sent orders and who hasn't! From personal experience, tends to motivate me (more) to send orders.
4.) Post a clear deadline for orders in a noticeable format at the top of the opening post! Eliminates %95 of those posts asking, "When's the deadline?!?".
5.) Plan first how long you expect your NES to last. How many updates, at which frequency. Guess or compute the workload needed to actually compute the update and process orders from N players. Then see if you can do that work, at which pace, and how long it would last. Check your schedule and see how many updates you can reasonably expect to moderate before having to end the NES due to it becoming too hard, it being 'won' by someone, or your having to move to another planet where you can't access the forums. (LDiCesare)
6.) Once this is done, make sure your rules/timeline will allow the NES to evolve correctly over the planned duration. Namely, if you plan to have tech progress matter, then make sure the NES lasts long enough for it to have an effect, and conversely make sure you don't run out of techs/reach an unwanted era before the end of the NES. (LDiCesare)
7.) What I have determined from my experience of modding is that any NES that relies largely on players interacting with each other more than on the contents of orders is doomed. (spryllino)
8.) Also, in my opinion, funds that the player can spend should always be complicated in how they are calculated and have multiple factors determining their value, for example precise and realistic consideration of the sources of tax income, corruption, infrastructure, tariff rates, upkeep. (spryllino)
9.) Mods should also be careful to make sure that everything the player does has a carefully considered impact, and they shouldn't ignore anything the players write. In fact, mods should generally be extremely careful with stats. It totally undermines the point of the NES if the player carries out a project and it succeeds, but the effect on the player's treasury accidentally gets missed out when updating the stats. (spryllino)
10.) Mods should carefully avoid things happening that are incredibly unlikely, and should avoid making things happen that really don't make much sense just for the sake of the storyline. (spryllino)
11.) It's no bad idea for mods to carry out detailed and many-sided campaigns on #nes if they have the time, participation, and will. (spryllino)
12.) Lastly, mods should update quickly and set deadlines that allow them to do so. (spryllino)
13.) Mods usually should announce with a preview thread or in the New NESes thread at least a week before starting to garner initial support.(Charles_Li)
14.) Mods should be lenient for players, but also have to balance that player with ability of time to update and other players. My suggestion is one extention for newer players, and two for reliable players that needed a bit of time, and Three at most, and that is for good reasons, old reliable players, complicated situations that need time, ect. (Charles_Li)
15.) Mods should update areas with finished orders as soon as possible, and give that region a small boost. I was making a chart of which regions finished first to give boosts in ChuckRTOR, but it ended too soon.(Charles_Li)
16.) Make a plan on how to address the randomness for war, and stick to it.(Charles_Li)
17.) Rapid updating and a kind of schedule are incredibly, but incredibly important to every kind of NES, whether it is a popcorn-type NES or a more realistic kind.(Dachs)
18.) Be cold-hearted/objective; if your black-box/dice-roll tells you to throw an earthquake, a drought, and a major mutiny at a country all in one turn, don't out.(qoou)
