Why be a Mod?

Great thred OP!! I've. Been a member for a couple of years now and come to this site almost every day

All the mods seem very fair and won't put up with BS


I just wanna say thank you to all the mods for doing great work and keeping this site clean and safe!!!




Be safe people

reply to post by TDawgRex


Mods and even high level admins have been banned.

I've been a member of several forums where the staff members were allowed to be total jerks to the membership and acted in a most unprofessional manner.

Some members think ATS modship is an 'Ol' boy's club' but that's not true. Staff members have been banned, had posts removed, pulled aside and talked to, demodded, etc. We hold each other to pretty high standards and are prone to voicing our concerns in staff discussions if/when necessary.

It's truly a pretty good team with a set of checks and balances.

Hope that helps.

reply to post by Taupin Desciple


Its in general when we can, Mods are from all over the world so it works best in our time zones, UK mods tend to get on in the mornings and early US time at night, then the US mods do the night shift lol then you got the OZ mods who work the wee hours and a few SA mods who work the in-between times And the others are all over the place

We give as much time as we can,

for some that can be 6 hours + for others less x

reply to post by asala


I think what you mods need to do is state the exact T&c reasons a post is taken off. Not a stop sign giving a broad explanation. Im saying if you can take down something. There has to be a specific rule or clause saying you can't do that. Not just say an extreme misuse was taken place. Its like being tried without a jury. With the mods being the judge jury and executioner. I hope you understand where im getting at

Originally posted by SonoraUndergroundLabs
All I see is biased supporters of ignorance. They shouldn't be closing threads because something is similar. One mod in particular seems to do things for no reason. This is freedom of speech and there is no t c violation here. Just a person showing his views about some people on it. So mods please stop doing biased deletes. I've also copied this post for future reference. Just in case it magically disappears. But anyhow if your a mod you should only watch and judge completely on t&c. Not personal opinions. Thank you.

Not to speak for the mods or anything, but you seem to be telling them how to do their jobs based on a personal opinion.

Do you have any experience moderating forums?

I'm not picking a fight or anything, but I for one don't like to see 5 different threads on the same topic. It's rather pointless really becasue all they are is a variation on the same theme. I've seen threads weave back and forth with different takes on the same topic over the course of 20+ pages because of different takes on a subject and it all makes for very interesting discussions. When you have 5 diifferent threads doing the same thing as one thread can do........what's the point?

Take this post for example. It's in a thread about what mods get out of their "jobs" and, while I'm not getting off topic because I am discussing their job, I'm putting a new viewpoint in here that can be further discussed. I could just as easily have started a new thread about this but I would rather keep one discussion going than adding another.

That's just me though.

Thanks for the replies everyone

I've been coming to this site for years now, and often wondered why you do, what you do.
I for one really appreciate the fact you give up so much of your spare time, for FREE, to keep us bunch of reprobates in line and stop the site falling into chaos.

I'm glad to see you all do it just for the love of being involed with the site...that nice.

I'm disappointed your screen page is the same as ours though, I don't know what I was expecting it to be like, but something a lot cooler than we have, ah well never mind

Originally posted by Crakeur
Being a mod does have a few perks.

Once we get our security clearance, we are privvy to a variety of government sites that detail much of the mysteries discussed here. I have, personally, manned the controls for the government's remote access aerial light device (raald) and I have to say, it was a blast (sorry stephenville).

We don't get paid any money but we, and our immediate families, will be provided with secured spots on the shuttle when the time comes. You'll learn more about this in the near future.

The hardest part of being a mod, besides the twice monthly blood and urine tests, would be lying to y'all about all the things you guys see and post here. It's very difficult to post about how unicorns and leprechauns aren't real whilst sitting in a room with a lep astride his tiny unicorn but, they tell us, it's for the best if you are kept in the dark.

Oh, and we all get cool "agent" names.


Unfortunately, we all get the not quite as cool "john" so, when the department head yells "john, get the raald up in the sky over california" to distract everyone from (insert any news item here), we all jump up and bang into each other in a mass grab for the controls.

edit on 29-3-2012 by Crakeur because: (no reason given)

I knew it, I knew there was special perks somewhere.
Is like the mason's? do you have to get to a certain level before you get access to these government site's?..I bet you do

And what's so uncool about the name "john" I think it's a fine name.

Originally posted by Taupin Desciple

Originally posted by SonoraUndergroundLabs
All I see is biased supporters of ignorance. They shouldn't be closing threads because something is similar. One mod in particular seems to do things for no reason. This is freedom of speech and there is no t c violation here. Just a person showing his views about some people on it. So mods please stop doing biased deletes. I've also copied this post for future reference. Just in case it magically disappears. But anyhow if your a mod you should only watch and judge completely on t&c. Not personal opinions. Thank you.

Not to speak for the mods or anything, but you seem to be telling them how to do their jobs based on a personal opinion.

Do you have any experience moderating forums?

I'm not picking a fight or anything, but I for one don't like to see 5 different threads on the same topic. It's rather pointless really becasue all they are is a variation on the same theme. I've seen threads weave back and forth with different takes on the same topic over the course of 20+ pages because of different takes on a subject and it all makes for very interesting discussions. When you have 5 diifferent threads doing the same thing as one thread can do........what's the point?

Take this post for example. It's in a thread about what mods get out of their "jobs" and, while I'm not getting off topic because I am discussing their job, I'm putting a new viewpoint in here that can be further discussed. I could just as easily have started a new thread about this but I would rather keep one discussion going than adding another.

That's just me though.

I think I get what SUL is refering too.

Maybe a short blurb as to why a member has been banned so that others do not make the same mistake in the heat of a emotional moment.

For example;

MemberX has been banned for extreme language or has been banned for plagerism while claiming it as his/her own work.

We see how people are punished in the news and in the military they post UCMJ actions so that others may see what NOT to do.

Lessons learned so to speak.

If the site chose to do that I think it would be great. If not, that's cool too.

I've been slapped a couple of times and now walk away from a post that gets my goat.

Most of the time.

Originally posted by asala
reply to post by Afterthought

 

WOS will always be with us xx Just with wings

Agreed.

One thing I am wondering though (because this has floated through my head more times than once), as one mod stated earlier that they aren't working for an alphabet agency, do you mods ever speculate about which regular members are part of these agencies?

We all know they're out there, so I'm just wondering if the mods are thinking the same.
Just curious.

I'm sorry, but they are unable to divulge that information at this time at it might compromise their agents still in the field.

reply to post by Afterthought


In general members are not banned without quite a bit of behind the scenes chatting with the member via u2u ect,
Unless though there is serious breech of T&C,


As for knowing Agents ect lol We dont tend to go looking for them, They are here we all know that but just like all of us there members of ATS and treated the same as everyone else, Its best not to know so we can all allow them there freedom to speak openly as we all want to do,

reply to post by asala

Its best not to know

I'll drink to that!

reply to post by Taupin Desciple


what's sarcasm?


the staff are asked to be here, when they want to be here and when they can be here. We never tell anyone when to work but we have told staff members to take a break from moderating and just be a member for a while. Being a moderator has drawbacks. I've been called a nazi (three days ago), a shill, a psyops agent, a spy, a government spook, and a variety of other names and we get all kinds of nasty private messages and complaints. Against us individually and as a whole. It can wear down even the thickest of skins so, from time to time, when we see it taking its toll on a staff member, the suggestion to take a break is made.

reply to post by DBCooper71


it's exactly like the masons only we've got a cool "hugshake" instead of a handshake and we wear different shoes.

reply to post by Crakeur

we wear different shoes.

I get it now. Why didn't I see it before?
Masonic shoes double as phones and ATS mods have shoes that double as Internet portals.

It's all making sense now...

Originally posted by Crakeur
reply to post by Taupin Desciple

 

what's sarcasm?


the staff are asked to be here, when they want to be here and when they can be here. We never tell anyone when to work but we have told staff members to take a break from moderating and just be a member for a while. Being a moderator has drawbacks. I've been called a nazi (three days ago), a shill, a psyops agent, a spy, a government spook, and a variety of other names and we get all kinds of nasty private messages and complaints. Against us individually and as a whole. It can wear down even the thickest of skins so, from time to time, when we see it taking its toll on a staff member, the suggestion to take a break is made.

Yeah......you're good. (And no, that WASN'T sarcasm )

Thanks for the other info too. I've always wondered about that.

Originally posted by Taupin Desciple


How much time is asked of a mod on any given day? Is there a certain amount of time and certain times of the day when you need to be active on the site, or is it more of an on-call type set-up?

No one is required to put any amount of time in. We all have real lives and other responsibilities. Families, jobs, school, other things we are involved in that take up time. Sometimes, we can be away from the site for months. Sometimes we are here everyday for a long stretch. No one expects or asks us to put in X amoun t of hours a day/week or anything like that. We give what time we have, when we can. If that's a half an hour a day, that's good. If it's 10 hours a day( yes some do hangout here that much, me being one of them now and then) than that's cool too. If one of us can't be around for a a time due to whatever reasons, that's A-OK too.

reply to post by GAOTU789


Posting as a staffer here, this is why it is better to use the Complaints function as opposed to PMing a single staffer. You may do that, we don't mind but you don't know if that staffer is going to be on vacation, sabbatical, whatever. Complaints sends a message to ALL staff.

I think what you mods need to do is state the exact T&c reasons a post is taken off. Not a stop sign giving a broad explanation. Im saying if you can take down something. There has to be a specific rule or clause saying you can't do that. Not just say an extreme misuse was taken place. Its like being tried without a jury. With the mods being the judge jury and executioner. I hope you understand where im getting at

Well, chances are, the mod did just that...TO the specific member whose post was removed. Probably via a U2U message. There's no "rule" we have to do so, but most of us consider it a common courtesy that we'd want to be shown. In cases where it's pretty blatant though, may not get such a message.

Remember too, you can always U2U the mod and ask them. And if it wasn't YOUR post removed..then well, that's really kind of between the member and the mod. The stop sign display happens as a result of us hitting the action button on the post. Because of this automation, it has to be kind of a broad message. Most mods are happy to explain why they took an action, if you ask.

As mentioned above, there's always the complaint feature though. It may be hard to predict when a given mod is online (as we are volunteers, doing this on OUR time). So, the complaint feature is handy, as it's a notice to ALL staff.