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Dman979

By Dman979
in Kerbal Network

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adsii1970

adsii1970

Posted
Posted
10 hours ago, ShuttlePilot said:

How are you not already dead when there is so much mental load on you.

Each of us moderators carry additional mental stresses, as do regular forum members, besides our volunteer efforts here. Some of us are here for a variety of personal reasons, and for me, being a part of this forum and being a contributor to the health to the forum outweighs the forum's contribution to the mental load I already carry. But each moderator is different and I am sure as other members of the moderation team respond, should they decide to, you'll see a variety of answers on the stresses and reasoning for being a member of the moderation team.

10 hours ago, ShuttlePilot said:

Wouldn't it be difficult to moderate the forums almost every single day?

There are times when I will step back from the forum for a few days at a time. The most is normally three days. It's a combination of things - there are a few things I never do when I am not feeling my mental best:

  • Discipline a child when I am angry or in a bad mood
  • Discuss serious issues with my spouse when I am in a bad mood
  • Grade papers when I am in a bad mood
  • Moderate this forum when I am in a bad mood

I know I can be extremely difficult to deal with when I am in a bad mood. I will grade students' papers much more harshly than I usually would if I am in a bad mood. I will ground my daughter with more severe restrictions than probably would be considered fair under normal circumstances, and I am less tolerant of other things as well. So, with that being said, it is in everyone's best interest when I am having one of those bad mood kind of days for me to take a step back.

In fact, I posted a status update because I recently took a step back for a bit longer this time. I had a few real-life things going on and simply needed to get my head into a better, more stable and happier place.

10 hours ago, ShuttlePilot said:

I couldn't take this, how do you even. Just tell me your secrets how are you not dead from this much moderating. Or is it a relaxing job? (I don't think so).

As @Gargamel said, most of the work is light housekeeping - approving posts from new forum members, moving threads around, splitting off-topic posts into new threads, and merging parallel threads. The thing I hate doing is having to play surgeon to someone's post. I am a freedom of speech guy but there are forum guidelines for a reason.  I don't go looking for moderating work to do, but wait until it is reported by another forum member before I even consider doing anything. And as Gargamel said, we use mod chat to discuss the moderation actions that need to be taken. Nearly all the serious (disciplinary) moderation action taken is discussed and a consensus is made from the available members of the moderation team.

There are aspects of being a member of the moderation team I absolutely enjoy. I really enjoy doing the TOTMs each month. As you may have noticed, I have made it one of my regular monthly "duties." It takes the pressure off the rest of the moderation team knowing it will be done and they don't have to agree which one is going to get stuck doing it. I also enjoy approving and interacting with newer forum members - I'd like their first interaction with a member of the moderation team to be a good one rather than one of those dreaded "hey, you can't do that..." interactions.

Overall, I'd say that it's a mixed bag. From my perspective, it's mostly good things that happen. :)

 

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Vanamonde

Vanamonde

Posted
Posted
49 minutes ago, Admiral Fluffy said:

Why can’t we see when the mods were last online?
Certain members too like Red Iron Crown.

Because it's a setting one can turn off. Most of us moderators like to use it so we can strike from the shadows when you least expect us. 

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Vanamonde

Vanamonde

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Admiral Fluffy said:

This is the only time I have encountered this, but antipro does not have a follow button.

https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/profile/173370-antipro/

One can choose to disallow followers. It's on the main page of your profile under "options" for the followers display on the left. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
Gargamel

Gargamel

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, AtomicTech said:

Question, how often do spam bots show up?

Very Often, it's usually more than a few a day.   That's why new members are required to have their first 5 posts approved.  We have other methods of detecting them too, but we don't talk about that in public, lest we tip them off to them. 

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AtomicTech

AtomicTech

Posted
Posted
7 minutes ago, Gargamel said:

Very Often, it's usually more than a few a day.   That's why new members are required to have their first 5 posts approved.  We have other methods of detecting them too, but we don't talk about that in public, lest we tip them off to them. 

Thanks for satiating my curiosity!

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Gargamel

Gargamel

Posted
Posted
6 minutes ago, AtomicTech said:

How much is "low traffic"?

There's no solid metric for it, but since there have been semi recent posts in each sub forum in each section, they're not dead. 

6 minutes ago, AtomicTech said:

Couldn't it easily be integrated into the regular KSP discussions?

It was discussed many moons ago, but it was decreed from above they want the DLC's to have their own section. 

 

Given the current outlook for the franchise, there has been more talk of how to smoothly expand the forums rather than downsize.   That includes perhaps expanding some of the sub forums for KSP1, along with the general roadmap for the KSP2 sections.

And to answer your next question before you ask, the KSP2 sections will most likely resemble the KSP1 sections, but that's still to be determined. 

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AtomicTech

AtomicTech

Posted
Posted (edited)
16 minutes ago, Gargamel said:

And to answer your next question before you ask, the KSP2 sections will most likely resemble the KSP1 sections, but that's still to be determined

Woah, the moderators are truly powerful, I hadn't even though about that question but still wanted an answer deep down in my subconcious!

Thanks for answering my questions again!

Edited by AtomicTech
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Spaceman.Spiff

Spaceman.Spiff

Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, Gargamel said:

There's no solid metric for it, but since there have been semi recent posts in each sub forum in each section, they're not dead. 

It was discussed many moons ago, but it was decreed from above they want the DLC's to have their own section. 

 

Given the current outlook for the franchise, there has been more talk of how to smoothly expand the forums rather than downsize.   That includes perhaps expanding some of the sub forums for KSP1, along with the general roadmap for the KSP2 sections.

And to answer your next question before you ask, the KSP2 sections will most likely resemble the KSP1 sections, but that's still to be determined. 

I would think that there will probably be a dedicated multiplayer subforum once the time comes for that. 

43 minutes ago, AtomicTech said:

Couldn't it easily be integrated into the regular KSP discussions?

As a wise band once said:

"Gotta keep em separated"

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StrandedonEarth

StrandedonEarth

Posted
Posted
11 hours ago, Spaceman.Spiff said:

"Gotta keep em separated"

Which gets Weird Al-ified into "Got the wrong foot amputated"...

Do I have a question about the forum? Ummm.... Is there ever a "moderating emergency?" I suppose  when a mod account got hackd and threads got mashed together was one... Any others?

And is it annoying when people use ... as much as I do...?

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Dman979

Dman979

Posted
  • Author
Posted
3 hours ago, StrandedonEarth said:

Is there ever a "moderating emergency?

Yeah, some jerk keeps using ellipses with four dots (which end a sentence) instead of three, and capitalizes letters after three-dot ellipses (which indicate a pause in thought and don't end the sentence)!

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Deddly

Deddly

Posted
Posted
10 minutes ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

Ok, now I’m curious…. my notification email said “grammar bad person thread”,  but this says ‘pedant’; but it,s not been edited? I”m confused… What?

A few years ago, the word we don't allow on this forum for the German army in WWII was automatically changed to "bad person". The word filter was later changed to "pedant". Moderators can edit their own posts without the edit being visible, though I usually tick the box to make the edit visible. In this case, I forgot about the change to "pedant" when I typed my joke and made a quick edit within seconds and figured nobody had had a chance to read it yet so no need to tick the box. Oh well. :)

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