doktor5000 wrote:Well, the forum admin says there is no need for another moderator. Maybe he answers to you, because to me he doesn't.
I know that first hand because like you i definitely see the need for another moderator, and so i applied as moderator,
because that's what i'm doing for mandrivauser.de for quite some time, with also ~9500 mostly support-type posts.
But he declined my application, because he sees no need.
Which of the 4 admins do you mean?
About moderators - there really seem to be lots of moderators.
- I see 4 Global moderators - in the forum I see Germ and Isadora quite often, the other 2 seem to be rather IGMs (Invisible Global Moderators)
- then I see a long list of moderators, don't know what all these are needed for, the large forums I know (>20K users) normally have 6 or 7 moderators. Is this forum so controversial that so many moderators are needed? From my 2 weeks residence here I did not have this impression.
My overall impression, gathered in 2 weeks and without knowing possible backgrounds for certain issues:
The people who are leading this forum do not seem to have much experience in forums (sorry if I am wrong with that, but the overall picture shows just this). Reasons in detail:
- 4 admins listed but none of them responsive in reasonable time span. Even if one or even two may be rather "technical only" administrators there should be more and faster response from the rest.
- 4 Global Moderators listed but only 2 of them active (why are the other 2 listed? is visibility in the forum no "must-have" for being a Global Moderator?). If they do not have the time to fill their position then find others who do have that time, I am sure there will be adequate replacements if you look close enough. This is also valid for the admins. People who do not have the time to do their job right, should pass the job to others who can do it.
- different moderator classes (causes confusion on user side about which moderator to address where and about what). Many moderators listed whose actual reason-to-be is not clear - what is their task?
But even if there was not much experience available in the beginning, the people in charge should have learned by now that there are weak spots / issues / mistakes made and they should have done something to improve the situation. Unless they close their eyes and do not want to change anything (although I could not think of a sound reason for such a position).
Harsh and straight forward, I know. But IMHO sometimes it is much better for the whole thing to share your opinion than to keep your mouth shut and wait for some automagic improvement (and just walk away when that does not happen). This is to show that I wrote this with the best intentions, without meaning any personal offense to anybody.
And the most important point:
All this is my personal view, based on a very long experience in this field, a 2 week experience in this forum, and my personal way of thinking. If my impression is not the same as yours, fine. No need to get heated up all over, I gave this assessment once and I have not the slightest problem with reading that you all think: WTF!