Moderating Duties

[martin ewen]

always wondered.
the 'who's online' page sometimes shows guests engaged in 'Moderating Duties'
just curious.
Additionally in my lurking I sometimes see.
Guest:Reporting a Post.
How many of these do you have to field Jim?
Whats a typical report deal with?

[Jim]

Re: Moderating Duties

Originally posted by martin ewen
always wondered.
the 'who's online' page sometimes shows guests engaged in 'Moderating Duties'
just curious.

No idea, Martin. I'm the only one with "moderating duties" and I hardly ever "moderate" anything. I occasionally move a thread to an appropriate forum or fix a broken link, but luckily, these forums pretty much run themselves these days. Everyone is playing nice.

Additionally in my lurking I sometimes see.
Guest:Reporting a Post.
How many of these do you have to field Jim?
Whats a typical report deal with?

I think I've received TWO reports about posts since these forums went live in February. Neither report was anything critical. I think people may be clicking on that "report a post" link out of curiosity... just to see what it does. But after clicking on the link, people have to fill out a form and click again to submit it. So I bet most people just click back and don't submit the form.

I try to read the latest posts every day just to keep tabs on what's happening. Luckily there aren't dozens and dozens of posts every day. If things got significantly busier here, I'd probably start assigning moderators to help read threads. Right now, it's very manageable to do it myself. And these forums (vBulletin) have GREAT administrative tools compared to the old UBB system.

Next time you see a guest doing "moderating duties" and I'm online, let me know and I'll try to check into it. I've never noticed that before.

Later,
Jim

[Jim]

Re: Moderating Duties

Originally posted by martin ewen
always wondered.
the 'who's online' page sometimes shows guests engaged in 'Moderating Duties'
just curious.

Martin, here's an even better explanation from the vBulletin support forums:

"This just means that a Guest has clicked on a link for one of the Moderator options and has gotten the 'no permission' screen."

This makes sense. People (or even search engine spiders) may just be clicking on the thread/post editing links at the bottom of the threads. They are sent to a "permission denied" page, but the forum logs the click as a "moderating" action assuming only a moderator would click those links. The guests don't have "moderating capabilities" but the link clicks are registered as such.

No big whoop. Nothing to worry about.

Jim

[Mr.Taxi Trix]

Truth Will Out.

Mmm hmm. Nice try, Jim.


As one of the very few, elite members of pnet to actually send Jim money in support of this website, I can tell you all about moderating duties. Shortly after Jim posted the original "hat" to collect random suupport funds from the online performing community, the trouble started.

From nowhere, well, from LA, actually, six figure donations started piling in. And I mean piling. we all thought at first, of course, that it was just Butterfly showing off, but they kept coming in, and Jim flew us first class to Boston, for a conference, to decide what to do about keeping it coming in.

It was there, at the Boston Park Plaza, penthouse suite, amid bikini-clad sushi chefs and exotic dancing midgets, that we were given our moderating duties. These involved not only checking up on every post and following through with written reports, for which we were given amply-shaped underlings and interns, but physical follow-up, flight plans and chartered jet passes, bodyguard massseuses (mine was named Olga) and limo rental credit accounts, to cover the planet and see just who was doing all this posting, and why.

It was thought that we should go to all lengths to keep this forum running smoothly, that the checks might continue rolling in. I was living high and loving it (The considerable salary even had dental!) until I posted the words "Tennis Shoe" one night, and in the morning, my post was deleted. My moderator's password, which had allowed me not only to change the content of a given post but also its intent, no longer got me in. Perhaps the saddest, yes,
Olga was gone.

It was later revealed to me that Jim has discovered where all the money came from. It was no mistake, no international banking scheme, no movie cartel trying to suck up to pnet. It was Alakzam, who had donated the full contents of one of his Saturday night hats.

Future moderators should be treated with the envy they deserve.

[worldwidese]

So That's It?

Mmm hmm. Nice try, Mr.Taxi Trix, but I think the rest of us should try and locate Olga and let her tell us what's really going on.