Volunteer Moderators

[Sasha13]

Hi Ed. I see that this has kind of been raised before, but the thought suddenly struck me. You guys are probably very busy with all sorts of things, not least eating all the chocolate cake that gets sent to you :-) Would it be an idea to recruit some volunteer moderators? People that have been contributing to the site for a while or who genuinely want to see the site used for the purpose that it was intended (not sure how the recruitment process would work). These people could monitor the site and deal with the minor misdemeanors that result in questions being reported and that annoy us all. For example, lots and lots of people are asking how to make scoobies at the moment. This is probably too trivial for you guys to deal with, but a moderator could come along and mention to the questioner (?) that it was a repeat question and show them where the answer was. Also would be good for obscene or offensive posts. Not sure about the technicalities and whether this would work, but it seems like if a way could be found, it could improve the site in the long run. What do you think? I know that AB also isn't manned 24 hours a day but if we had a small number of moderators, problems would be ironed out more quickly as people are online at different times.

[acw]

FAB plan, but sadly I don't see it working! :-(

Part of the problem is the conspiracy theories.  Until that got sorted, ABE can't really know who to trust - I know I don't entirely know either!

I agree that the redirecting questions thing is a great idea, but here we could do that out of the kindness of our hearts anyway!  Part of the problem, I believe, lies in the "has this already been asked" search facility that is totally poor and hardly ever seems to bring up genuine previous examples of the same Q.  Part of that problem is exacerbated by the fact that people create bizarre subjects for their questions, or give them the subject that's the topic section, or spell things in different ways. 

I do love your idea and I certainly think that a weekend moderator is needed.  Perhaps with very limited powers, such as ONLY moving questions to the correct category. 

Hmmm - what a mixed response I have offered there! :-S  Sorry! :-)

[MORELLO]

Were/are you a prefect at school?

[AB Editor]

Hi all,

Thank you for the suggestion. We are constantly thinking of new ways to improve the various functions of the site and using volunteer moderators may be something we look into. Keep the suggestions coming.

AB ED

[snoteater]

Oh yes, what a good idea. Please let me be a volunteer moderator - I would be so good at it.

[Sasha13]

MORELLO - I was the Head Girl at my secondary school! How could you tell???!!!

[jno]

nice idea - absolute power, all the chocolate cake you can eat, robots to attend to your every whim, and occasional visits to the monastery. ezapf could probably use the opportunity to update the rules.

[woofgang]

I am a lady (well female anyway) does that mean that I can't visit the monastery??

[jno]

with the long robes and a monky hoody woofgang who's to notice? As long as you don't disgrace yourself with the chocolate cake.

[MORELLO]

Sasha13, take a step back and read your own question. What do you do these days?

[45703]

Now that we have chatterbank the site seems self regulatory no need for moderators, well done ED.