Forum Guide nominations have begun

[Flaire]

You will see in a bunch of forums that new rounds of nominations have begun. Please take some time to nominate some of your fellow members who you think would be good guides. :)

And, as always, have fun!

[~Owl~]

this may come out sounding really daff, but I've only seen ONE so far. Any ideas on which ones are "up for grabs". I'm interested in contribting, as well as financiallly as well in the nottoo distantfuture,so I'd like to get myself a littlemore embedded in here in the community, in agood way,of course.;)

Any info {411-Yank slang} would be especially appreciated, Flaire. (Or any other admin whose willing to take this up for me.... thanks)

[Flaire]

In order from top to bottom:

Gods & Goddesses (1)
Tarot (1)
Pagan Spaces (1)
Green Room (2)
Political Pagan (2)
Real Science (1)
Paranormal (2)
History (2)
Music (2)
Technology, Computers & Internet (1)
Entertainment (1)

I'm still hearing back from some of the guides, so there will be more threads to come. :)

5 more have been posted here:

Dreams & Divination (1)
Magic & Rituals (1)
Books (1)
Paths: Recons (at least 1)
Pagan Public Marketplace (1)

[Agaliha]

Just wanted to add that the Nomination threads are stickied in the forums listed (that need guides).

[Flaire]

^

And that too. :lol:

[Bethra]

I'm nominating in all of them but some are really hard to choose people for. Activity levels on a lot of the forums are a bit low at the moment.

[SSanf]

I think the request for nominations is premature.


Guides are not moderators. However, we are working on having new "powers" for the Guides so that they may now move, stick, close and edit threads on their own. Guides also encourage activity in the forum, whether by introducing new topics, starting games, etc.

There will be no vote afterwards. When the nominations close, I will take the nominees to the other admins and we will discuss who we think will be a good guide for each forum.

The rules:

1. Nominate two members who you think will make good guides and will have fun at it! We don't want to think of this as work. ;)

2. If you are nominated and don't want the position, you can always decline.

3. No admins. :p


http://mysticwicks.com/showthread.php?t=143773Until you can clearly tell us what people are being asked to do as guides, how can we know who would be best in the position and, if we are nominated, know if we want to run?

It is one thing to nominate a person to be a facilitator of new conversations and quite another to nominate a person who can edit your posts and close your threads.

Those new "powers" could mean, that a person wants no part of being a Guide in a volatile forum, but they might really like to serve in that capacity in a tamer forum. But, they can't make that call without knowing what they are getting in to.

Please, try to clarify the responsibilities of the guides so that we can make informed decisions.

[Bethra]

I think the request for nominations is premature.

Until you can clearly tell us what people are being asked to do as guides, how can we know who would be best in the position and, if we are nominated, know if we want to run?

It is one thing to nominate a person to be a facilitator of new conversations and quite another to nominate a person who can edit your posts and close your threads.

Those new "powers" could mean, that a person wants no part of being a Guide in a volatile forum, but they might really like to serve in that capacity in a tamer forum. But, they can't make that call without knowing what they are getting in to.

Please, try to clarify the responsibilities of the guides so that we can make informed decisions.

Well personally I'm just nominating in the same way we did last time. Since the other considerations aren't valid at the moment I will vote for someone to fill the same position as the forum guides did previously but with the consideration that they might in the future have some mod powers.

A forum guide can always decline at a later date once the new "powers" are sorted out if they don't like the responsibility. It's not life threatening if you say yes and then find out you're in over your head. If you've been nominated and you aren't sure you are up for the position, taking into consideration the new powers you might be asked to take on, then you can easily decline the position. In the same way you should consider the nominations you make with the idea in mind that this person might have some kind of mod powers in the future.

I don't see any reason to delay the nominations, the forum staff take a long time selecting folks once the nominations have come in anyway. :)

[SSanf]

Hummm....Well, if I agree to do something, I like to do it and not bail out because they change the rules mid-term.

That is not a good position to be put in.

[Athena-Nadine]

Ssanf has a good point. Kay, once you get the Forum Guide Guidelines written up, could we post them here so people would know whatthe were getting into, or maybe post the at the beginning of every Forum Guide nomination thread?

[Athena-Nadine]

Copied from PP:

Basically the job will be to help stimulate conversation in the forums, but also there are some forum specific projects we'll be getting into that the forum guides are going to be in charge of. They will have some abilities that they didn't have before like Moving threads, making stickies etc. They will have the ability to edit and close threads too (not to delete) but those are only to be used if there is a dire need. So no, you won't be moderators. You should still be reporting problems to the admins to deal with, but we're hoping that this will help the Forum Guides do their job more easily instead of having to ask the admins to do anything they need done.

[Bethra]

*smiles* so they will be kind of like regular mods but not the admin dish out the rules sort. Just regular janitor mods :D Kind of like what I suggested might be a consideration when we were talking about the new rules. *chuckles* Guess it wasn't such a ridiculous idea after all ;)

ETA some clarification for my chuckles.

http://mysticwicks.com/showpost.php?p=2847201&postcount=196

My suggestion as to how to make the rules work is simple. Have people chosen to over see and moderate individual forums. Have the people who frequent the individual forums nominate someone to moderate over them just as we did in the selection of forum guides. Hell why not let the forum guides moderate in their own forum for that matter since they were already selected as suitable for the position of over seer for that forum anyway? Final decision comes down to Mol obviously but at least everyone feels they are fairly well represented.

In the light of the "no carrying arguments out of one forum into another" rule I feel this is even more important. How can people be expected to maintain a rule they can't be sure will be maintained by Administration? How can we be sure our words in one forum wouldn't be used against us unjustly in another forum? We can't as long as the over riding power over rides the forum as a whole. You are all as human as any of us on here and I understand the human failings we each suffer from. We non of us can claim to be totally imparshal it is ridiculous to suggest such a thing. So why not have a council of mods, say two to a forum, and leave the current team as over all admin staff to be consulted on repeat offenders and more difficult matters. Bring back the difference between Mods and Admins rather than a small few having to struggle through handling everything.

[Flaire]

so they will be kind of like regular mods but not the admin dish out the rules sort. Just regular janitor mods

Basically, yeah.
The main part of having the new 'powers' is to be able to stick, unstick and move threads if necessary. The rest (closing and editing threads) should only use the rest as a last resort. (ie: trolls posting porn and there are no admins on).

I have had some PMs about people who could turn this into a bad idea. Frankly, I thought about that as well, and posted as much in the admin forum long before I even started the process of looking for new guides. But I still got the go-ahead. This program needs a major overhaul, which is why I took it on. And I'm really grateful to the guides who are helping work out the bugs with the powers right now.

Once everything gets worked out, either myself or Kay will post the Guidelines so you will be informed.

[Bethra]

Basically, yeah.
The main part of having the new 'powers' is to be able to stick, unstick and move threads if necessary. The rest (closing and editing threads) should only use the rest as a last resort. (ie: trolls posting porn and there are no admins on).

I have had some PMs about people who could turn this into a bad idea. Frankly, I thought about that as well, and posted as much in the admin forum long before I even started the process of looking for new guides. But I still got the go-ahead. This program needs a major overhaul, which is why I took it on. And I'm really grateful to the guides who are helping work out the bugs with the powers right now.

Once everything gets worked out, either myself or Kay will post the Guidelines so you will be informed.

Tis fine as far as I'm concerned I know when I was doing the Poetry and Lit forum it would have been a lot easier to have been able to stick and un-stick threads rather than having to bother an admin every month to come take down one competition and stick up another one. It makes sense to give the forum guides the power to be the janitor for their forum. I pretty much understood what capabilities they would have right from the start from fiddling with my own forum software and seeing what the mods label allowed folks to do.

I can also understand the problems faced with it since people could go a little mad with the sticky glue or something like that, but so long as database backups are made regularly and the forum guides only have limited amounts of power I don't see there being any major troubles. If everyone understands that a FG doesn't have the power to lay down the rules over them I really don't see there being a problem. The admin staff will obviously choose suitable people who can be trusted not to close stuff at random or use their bright shiny label to beet people with. So yes I think it's a good idea and I think it will make the forum run a lot smoother. Its just like going back to the old ways of there being over all Admins and there being different mods for different forums. :D There's no reason why it can't work out perfectly well. :)

More power to you girl this can't be an easy job to undertake. :D

[RavensEye]

Tis fine as far as I'm concerned I know when I was doing the Poetry and Lit forum it would have been a lot easier to have been able to stick and un-stick threads rather than having to bother an admin every month to come take down one competition and stick up another one Gee that reminds me thanks Bethra I guess I can go unsitckie those old threads now lol. This will take some getting use to..



Originally Posted by Kaylara http://mysticwicks.com/images/buttons/viewpost.gif (http://mysticwicks.com/showthread.php?p=2886115#post2886115)
Basically the job will be to help stimulate conversation in the forums, but also there are some forum specific projects we'll be getting into that the forum guides are going to be in charge of.


Now as far as guidelines, glad to finally have them, but I would aslo like some where to be added that even though we are guides that does not mean that other members cannot post and get activited and such going. That we as guides are not the only ones who can make the forum active... Sorry but that has been a pain in my side since an earlier inccident this year. People assuming we have to do everything and well I just do not want any more problems with it.

[Flaire]

Two days until the threads close. Get those last-minute nominations in! :)

[WokeUpDead]

Yeah. Last chance to vote for me.

[CzechWoods]

Basically, yeah.
The main part of having the new 'powers' is to be able to stick, unstick and move threads if necessary. The rest (closing and editing threads) should only use the rest as a last resort. (ie: trolls posting porn and there are no admins on).

I have had some PMs about people who could turn this into a bad idea. Frankly, I thought about that as well, and posted as much in the admin forum long before I even started the process of looking for new guides. But I still got the go-ahead. This program needs a major overhaul, which is why I took it on. And I'm really grateful to the guides who are helping work out the bugs with the powers right now.

Once everything gets worked out, either myself or Kay will post the Guidelines so you will be informed.

from my experience and POV
i am happy i am NOT an admin. nice that i can clean the section a bit i am responsible for. it was a bit hard and enerving having to ask admins (who are busy as it is) with things like: change this threads name, delete this one, and i recall once we feared a thread we wanted to stay in the forum could be moved by admins. so its nice if we can stickie and unstickie, and merge posts, and do our "homework" without bothering the admins.

as a forum guide you are the "good cop"§ somehow. you bring up nice topics, make people feel welcome and encourage activity. i have to be bad cop in life way enough and it would only destroy the forum guide character if we were also to kick peoples asses for breaking rules

i believe that when someone misbehaves and _wedgie_ dont help, we can still (ands i sure will) call in the ADMINs so they can admin mode peoiple.

i know, this is a somewhat yin/yang way to look at it, but i really apreciate it thius way rather

ps: as of lately, i missed the edit someone elses posts button, when - in a sticky thread, that is to gather information for the newbies etc - someone had quoted someone else, and forgot to include a "/" in [/quote] at the end, so that it didnt look neat.

yeah, i know, i with ym typos and neat, but still, its a sticky you know

[lightdragon]

from my experience and POV
i am happy i am NOT an admin. nice that i can clean the section a bit i am responsible for. it was a bit hard and enerving having to ask admins (who are busy as it is) with things like: change this threads name, delete this one, and i recall once we feared a thread we wanted to stay in the forum could be moved by admins. so its nice if we can stickie and unstickie, and merge posts, and do our "homework" without bothering the admins.

as a forum guide you are the "good cop"§ somehow. you bring up nice topics, make people feel welcome and encourage activity. i have to be bad cop in life way enough and it would only destroy the forum guide character if we were also to kick peoples asses for breaking rules

i believe that when someone misbehaves and _wedgie_ dont help, we can still (ands i sure will) call in the ADMINs so they can admin mode peoiple.

i know, this is a somewhat yin/yang way to look at it, but i really apreciate it thius way rather

ps: as of lately, i missed the edit someone elses posts button, when - in a sticky thread, that is to gather information for the newbies etc - someone had quoted someone else, and forgot to include a "/" in at the end, so that it didnt look neat.

yeah, i know, i with ym typos and neat, but still, its a sticky you know[/quote]
the first paragraph I agree with. Was gonna say you can be a bad cop as well,then thought about it and you can't. i think the only thing you can do is be what i call a neutral cop. Someone who isn`t bad or good. Where if there is a problem you can lock the thread and move it to the grievence section. That isn`t exactly a bad cop but not a good cop either. We are supposed to be guides not Enforcers .

With the edit button. i agree.

[CzechWoods]

lol, just tomite i met the bad cop ;)

with good cop, i meant the nice guiding police ocifer, whoi will help granny acroiss the road, rather than running around swinnging the mace

as for "bad cop" no offense intended

[Prophecy]

Two days until the threads close. Get those last-minute nominations in! :)

So people please go vote for me :fpraise: :fpraise: :fpraise: thank you :hahugh:

[Flaire]

So people please go vote for me :fpraise: :fpraise: :fpraise: thank you :hahugh:

It won't be put to a vote. :) The admins will discuss the nominees and (eventually) come to a consensus.

[RavensEye]

come to a consensus. :D have fun :lol: