Flying Pig joins Moderation Staff

[Lefty Scaevola]

Flying Pig has join moderation staff.
After a few days poking around the gears in the staff rooms, he will be patrolling the Off Topic and World History Forums.

 

[Cutlass]

Good luck.

 

[Bootstoots]

I'm sure he can handle it. As we all know, all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

 

[Camikaze]

Welcome!

 

[Mise]

Congratulations, FP!!

 

[leif erikson]

Welcome and thank you for volunteering to help out.

 

[gay_Aleks]

Volunteering, eh? Guess it's in the blood!

Good luck, man! You'll need it.

 

[The_J]

Congrats .

 

[Commodore]

I always wondered how one becomes a moderator? Is it like becoming a Spectre in Mass Effect, where you get secretly monitored and if you meet some special criteria an offer is made?

 

[Kyriakos]

A solid choice! FP is cool

 

[Bootstoots]

I always wondered how one becomes a moderator? Is it like becoming a Spectre in Mass Effect, where you get secretly monitored and if you meet some special criteria an offer is made?

Sort of, although it's really more mundane. Basically we just had a lack of moderating activity among the current moderators. Most of them became less active on the site as a whole, and I became more active as a regular OT member which means I couldn't moderate some of the more active threads because I was participating in them. Additionally, we could really use a WH mod as well, as Plotinus has been fairly inactive lately too. So we looked at current posters for who would have the right temperament based on their posting style. We decided that a certain avian swine would be the best we looked at, so a couple of admins looked over his latest posts to make sure and then gave him an offer, which he foolishly accepted.

 

[shadowplay]

Good luck!

 

[Commodore]

Sort of, although it's really more mundane. Basically we just had a lack of moderating activity among the current moderators. Most of them became less active on the site as a whole, and I became more active as a regular OT member which means I couldn't moderate some of the more active threads because I was participating in them. Additionally, we could really use a WH mod as well, as Plotinus has been fairly inactive lately too. So we looked at current posters for who would have the right temperament based on their posting style. We decided that a certain avian swine would be the best we looked at, so a couple of admins looked over his latest posts to make sure and then gave him an offer, which he foolishly accepted.

I hope it doesn't have a huge impact on his posting. I know if I were a moderator I wouldn't feel comfortable participating in threads as much as I do now.

 

[Bootstoots]

I hope it doesn't have a huge impact on his posting. I know if I were a moderator I wouldn't feel comfortable participating in threads as much as I do now.

That's always a concern, although looking back through his recent posts, he doesn't really have anything that's borderline for a moderator, so he will (hopefully) still feel comfortable participating. Still, we generally do try to moderate only threads we haven't been major recent participants in, so there is a negative effect on participation that way.

 

[Tee Kay]

My condolences.

I'll miss your usually enlightening posts.

 

[Flying Pig]

My condolences.

I'll miss your usually enlightening posts.

I'm hoping not to have to replace all of my posts with stern warnings about bad language and signature lengths, though there is a phrase about how rank insignia cut off the circulation to the brain...

 

[gay_Aleks]

I think that virtual rank insignia has cleared this problem, once and for all, didn't it?

 

[ls612]

I hope it doesn't have a huge impact on his posting. I know if I were a moderator I wouldn't feel comfortable participating in threads as much as I do now.

As a non-OT mod who is occasionally in OT I don't see myself modifying what I say more so than how I say it. You can express almost any opinion in a respectful and productive manner. That said if I see a thread that will go downhill quickly I stay out of it even if I have an opinion on the matter.

 

[gay_Aleks]

Doesn't a mod commenting on a thread make people think "Oh whoa, mod's watching this thread, let's quiet it down..." - which, to be fair, isn't all that bad, but can kill some discussions, for good or bad.

 

[Commodore]

As a non-OT mod who is occasionally in OT I don't see myself modifying what I say more so than how I say it. You can express almost any opinion in a respectful and productive manner. That said if I see a thread that will go downhill quickly I stay out of it even if I have an opinion on the matter.

It would just be my personal mindset on the matter. In my mind, I would see it as my responsibility, once I were in any kind of position of authority, to remove myself from personal involvement in the activities over which I have authority so as to avoid having my perception clouded.

But that's just how my weird mind works.