Ask the Mods questions about the Forums!

[Vanamonde]

6 hours ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

  @Vanamonde ..well?? 

Or do this... we do not speak of? 

What thread? 

[CatastrophicFailure]

1 hour ago, Vanamonde said:

What thread? 

Disregard, actually was answered a couple pages back... 

[qzgy]

Hey, As it seems the background color has been changed, can a bar be added to the top, or the color of the page buttons on the top be changed so that it contrasts better and doesn't blend in? That would be cool.

[Mrcarrot]

Just because I want to know:

How does one become a mod? Just wondering- not necessarily interested

What all do mods do?

Do mods get paid

[Vanamonde]

3 hours ago, Mrcarrot said:

Just because I want to know:

How does one become a mod? Just wondering- not necessarily interested

What all do mods do?

Do mods get paid

We recruit from time to time. 

We approve the first 5 posts of each new account to be sure they're not spambots, help keep the forum organized by moving threads that are in the wrong place and stuff like that, and enforce forum rules, either from reports people have submitted to us, or things we find ourselves. 

No.

[Snark]

On 9/16/2017 at 3:59 PM, Mrcarrot said:

Do mods get paid

Nope.  Nor do most of us have any affiliation with Squad, other than having been given special powers in the forums.  We're basically just regular forum users like you.  (Exceptions:  Our fearless leader @Badie works for Squad, which is why she has an orange "SQUAD staff" under her name.  Also @technicalfool is staff.  But the rest of us, who just have the plain green "Moderator" under their names, are mere mortals like yourself.)

We only do this because we're masochists volunteers who enjoy helping people. 

[Mrcarrot]

3 minutes ago, Snark said:

Nope.  Nor do we have any affiliation with Squad, other than having been given special powers in the forums.  We're basically just regular forum users like you.

We only do this because we're masochists volunteers who enjoy helping people. 

Is there anything you can't do that regular users can? e.g. posting Mods(add-ons), fan works, etc.

[Snark]

12 minutes ago, Mrcarrot said:

Is there anything you can't do that regular users can? e.g. posting Mods(add-ons), fan works, etc.

No, in technical terms we can do anything a regular user can.  (I'm fairly well known as a modder, for example.  If they had said to me "you'll have to stop modding" when they asked me if I'd like to be a moderator, I would have said "no thank you."  Not gonna give that up!)

Becoming a moderator just gives us extra powers:  we can ban users, hand out infraction points, move / edit / remove other people's posts, approve posts from the queue, etc.

That said:  although there's no technical limit preventing us from doing whatever a regular user does, we do feel morally constrained.  "With great power comes great responsibility," and all that.  We're very mindful that our "superpowers" put us in a perceived position of privilege, and we really don't want to create the impression that we're throwing our weight around.  So we have to be careful.

For example, one cannot both moderate a thread and participate in it, because that creates a conflict of interest.  It would be really unfair for me to be arguing with you, if I'm also editing what you say.  So we're careful not to do that.

For example, I can (and do!) argue in threads here all the time, since I have been known (ahem) to have opinons.  But I'm scrupulously careful to make it clear, in such cases, that I'm just speaking as a  forum user rather than as a moderator.  And if there's a thread where I've been active as a participant, and then something pops up there that does need moderating... I recuse myself from taking moderator action there, and let another team member handle it.

[Mrcarrot]

3 minutes ago, Snark said:

No, in technical terms we can do anything a regular user can.  (I'm fairly well known as a modder, for example.)

So you're a modderator?

Not a typo

Edited September 18, 2017 by Mrcarrot

[adsii1970]

19 minutes ago, Snark said:

Becoming a moderator just gives us extra powers

_{[Edited by adsii1970 for relevant content to what I wanted to comment on]}

*falls down on and bows before the mighty @Snark* Oh, bless me, my master... oh bless me!

 

Edited September 18, 2017 by adsii1970

[TheEpicSquared]

25 minutes ago, Mrcarrot said:

So you're a modderator?

Not a typo

Modmoderator

[CatastrophicFailure]

So... moderators are imbued with special powers and great responsibility while being completely separate from the actual authority and instead operating with its tacit approval while it takes no actions on its own, hmm...

 

so mods are superheroes? 

[Mrcarrot]

Is the fact that you cannot see whether a mod is online from his/her profile page intentional?

[Snark]

35 minutes ago, Mrcarrot said:

Is the fact that you cannot see whether a mod is online from his/her profile page intentional?

The fact that you can't see me is intentional, yes.    But that has nothing do with special moderator powers; anyone can do that.

When you log on to the forum, there's a little "Log on anonymously" checkbox.  It's unchecked, by default.  If you check it, then nobody can see that you're online:  your "last logged on" time won't update, nobody can see what you're currently doing, etc.

I like to leave it checked because as far as I'm concerned, it's nobody's business but mine whether I'm online or not, or what I'm doing.  (Well, okay, it's the other moderators' business, to a certain extent; but we have a separate chat channel for that.)

 

[Just Jim]

14 minutes ago, Snark said:

When you log on to the forum, there's a little "Log on anonymously" checkbox.  It's unchecked, by default.  If you check it, then nobody can see that you're online:  your "last logged on" time won't update, nobody can see what you're currently doing, etc.

Oh, so that's how that works. This whole time I've never tried it. 

[adsii1970]

3 minutes ago, Just Jim said:

Oh, so that's how that works. This whole time I've never tried it. 

Hmmm, I'm thinking, "Secret agent man... secret agent man..."

[Just Jim]

Just now, adsii1970 said:

Hmmm, I'm thinking, "Secret agent man... secret agent man..."

They've given you a number, and taken way your Snark name... lmao... 

[Deddly]

2 hours ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

so mods are superheroes? 

Yes

[CSE]

3 hours ago, Snark said:

opinons

Fundamental particle of thought. Some travel faster than others.

[Vanamonde]

5 hours ago, Mrcarrot said:

Is there anything you can't do that regular users can? e.g. posting Mods(add-ons), fan works, etc.

We are not eligible to win prizes in Squad-run competitions, challenges, raffles, or whatever. 

[Mrcarrot]

33 minutes ago, Vanamonde said:

We are not eligible to win prizes in Squad-run competitions, challenges, raffles, or whatever. 

Ah. So no Daily Kerbal challenges, or what?

[Vanamonde]

1 hour ago, Mrcarrot said:

Ah. So no Daily Kerbal challenges, or what?

No to just about all of them. People would wonder if we were using our access to rig them and stuff like that, and also we sometimes help pick the winners. 

[Darth Badie]

17 hours ago, Vanamonde said:

We are not eligible to win prizes in Squad-run competitions, challenges, raffles, or whatever. 

That´s bad  we can make a special challenge for moderators  

[Snark]

24 minutes ago, Badie said:

That´s bad  we can make a special challenge for moderators  

Oh, we moderators already have plenty of special challenges, every single day.

(I won't name names.  You all know who you are.)

[Darth Badie]

Just now, Snark said:

Oh, we moderators already have plenty of special challenges, every single day.

(I won't name names.  You all know who you are.)

lol okay agree, that´s enough for you