The PPC Posting Board - Latest posts

As long as being a PG isn't synonymous with having Board powers, or vice-versa, I don't see a problem. I do imagine, though, that anyone given Board power will already be a PG, and I have no problem with that.

Frankly, I think we'll only need one (or two, in case of emergency) administrators, and indeed, we don't need moderators. So I'm all for giving a few people the technical power and just letting it go.

There are two ways of looking at moderators:

One, and it's the way most moderators seem to see themselves, as authorities -- people with the power and authority to keep the peons in line.

The other (which I think is the right way to look at it) is as garbage collectors, hired to clean up spambot droppings and similar detritus.

The trick is, first, to appoint people with the garbageman mindset, and second, to make sure they don't drift towards the dictator mindset.

The problem is, of course, that there's no 100% reliable way to go about it. Or if there is, in 14 years of moderating everything from a BBS to numerous Web forums, I haven't met anyone who's figured it out. The best solution seems to be having a stable, sane, steady, and well-trusted person in charge -- Techno-Dann, in our case -- and having that person act as "benevolent dictator", able to appoint mods as needed to take care of shoveling up bot droppings if and when needed.

Moderating users' posts can be a slippery slope, because there's always the matter of lines and where you draw them. The "what is a flame?" poll in my FFN profile is still live, and it's interesting seeing the spread of the responses. There are people who draw the line maybe a little harsher than I do, and people who think all but the mildest and most apologetic concrit is a "flame", and many somewhere in between. The same thing happens on forums: What exactly constitutes a "personal attack"? How far is it to "off topic"? What exactly is "unfriendly" and is it different for different people? When you have people making judgment calls about that, you get drama.

My rules as moderator:

1. Never mod a discussion you're participating in. At the very least there is a perception of a conflict of interest; at the worst, you'll turn into a modzi.

2. Use the least-destructive moderation possible: For instance, move a post rather than editing it; edit it rather than delete it.

3. If you edit or delete a post, put a copy of the original on the mods' board for review.

Obviously 2 and 3 require a forum that has editing and moving capabilities, and somewhere to put the mods' board. The basic principles, though, remain the same.

Resentment and distrust of the mods is more destructive to an online community than any amount of off-topic posting, flaming, and board drama. 99% of the time, that distrust is self-inflicted, as the mods get above themselves (much like politicians) and see themselves as your masters, not our servants.

So, I propose that the title of anyone given moderation powers on this board be "Bot Manure Shoveler" and they be issued a patch depicting a shovel and a wheelbarrow.

Moderators, like fire, make good servants but poor masters.

I agree with what everyone's said for the most part. Mods should be seperate from the PGs, though I don't see why someone can't be both if they fit the criteria, they should be internet savvy and responsible and they should not be planning on fading out anytime soon.

I vote Dann keeps the admin powers, he's our resident tech expert, right? He's as good a choice as anyone else.

It's actually possible for a spam-bot to get admin powers? What kind of world is this?

The mod wouldn't do anything with the board under normal circumstances, but if another 'bot attacks *knocks wood* they can deal with it.
And if they start to fade out of the group (alas, it happens) they/we can appoint a new mod. /my $.02

...in that case, do we leave admin powers with you and leave them as a 'break glass in case of emergency' type thing?

At the very least, becoming one (a permission giver or a moderator) must not imply the other - they're different jobs, and a person who is good at one may be absolutely the wrong choice for the other.

Onto a more fundamental question... do we even need moderators? We've gone for five years without any, and the only times we've needed any administrative powers have been a few massively ugly affairs- the sort of thing that can easily be removed by a single administrator.

I was going to say that someone Internet-savvy is my first pick, but you said it all for me. {= )

~Neshomeh

... that brings us to the interesting question of who *should* have admin powers over the Board.

I mean, we vote in our PGs because they are people who have been active for a decent amount of time and we trust them, both of which are qualities we'd ideally like in whoever has modly control of the Board. But giving all PGs moderator's powers over the Board, as you say, would be a Bad Thing.

I suppose the fair path to take would be to hold some kind of an election for Board Moderators and choose say three of them, or something, and then make sure that one cannot be both a PG and a Boad Moderator.

Having said that, I think that at least for the moment, Techno-Dann is probably the most logical choice as Moderator given he is computer and Internet-savvy and the person who knows most about the whole situation.

I admit, we should definitely think about making Boarders who have already proven that they are responsible and reasonable. This does include a fair number of the PGs, but also a lot of the oldbies. So maybe community vote?

choose moderators via nominations and votes. If the person/people chosen happens to be a Permission Giver, then so be it. The other Boarders obviously trust them to be able to keep the two roles separate.

/£0.02

This power absolutely has to be separated from the Permission Giving power. They're fundamentally different things, and combining the two would give whoever had both far too much control over things.

I'm open to correction on this, but I think it's a very big mistake if we decide to combine the two roles, or even give Board control to any particular Permission Givers.

hS

The administrator account for the old board has been recovered. To avoid having discussions going on multiple forums, please reply here.

There was one thing I didn't mention in my post over on the alternative board concerning dealing with the spam-bot: The yourwebapps.com people will give control of an admin-less forum to someone who asks for it. This omission was deliberate - spam-bots are annoying. Spam-bots with admin powers would murder this place faster than you or I could blink.

As it stands, I currently have access to the administrator account for the board. I can appoint moderators, or hand the account over to someone else, if need be.

Now, the big question is, what should be done with it?

Tawaki needs your e-mail address, so that we can work on the Six Disentanglers project.

Hurrah for style! Or not... Whatever. XD

Should you choose to accept this mission, you will be contacted within the week.

This message will self destruct.

I could totally play the background piano chords in this song and if I weren't entirely lazy I'd totally pick myself up to find the nearest piano and try to play and sing this... but...

Well, that's just not my style.

Maybe later.

Now all we need is some way of extracting the music from the vocals of the original, and someone to find some pictures to animate with, and we can stick it on Youtube!*cackles*

But welcome anyhow!

Here is an egg. I don't know what it'll hatch into, but take good care of it~

I would be glad to sing this over the weekend.

My roommate thinks I'm weird enough anyway. ^u^'

Or maybe bunnies? Comfortable pillows?

Also, your Agent could study them, but all she'll find out is that yes; the Cultists do have an immunity to Squickfics, but that is only because their literary pleasure/pain centers were switched around, turning what would cause normal people to vomit into something that would give them fits of perverted pleasure.

Thanks!