Mods: share some of your experiences with us from the dark side?

It’s not at all what I was promised. We’re prevented from eating for days at a time so we’ll “keep our edge”. And then Augustlan won’t let us play with the hot pincers and thumbscrews cause they’re “for business use only”. So yeah, it’s frustrating.

But it is awfully fun swatting down questions at random and ignoring the plaintive little pleas for explanations (snort).

We do our best to adhere to the fluther guidelines.

Given the things I’d seen happen on unmoderated sites, I’m glad to have been chosen to help prevent that sort of thing here.

@The_Compassionate_Heretic You made the switch from wis. quickly my friend.

Yeah, but that guy I called a shithead was a shithead, so what’s up with that?

Sometimes Allie will accidentally delete something when her burrito falls on her keyboard.

That is all I kwon.

@pdworkin Who?

@Zen You know, that shithead guy.

@pdworkin calling someone a shithead is considered a personal attack and we will continue to moderate such content regardless of shithead/non-shithead status.

@Zen I made no change. I’m the same person I was before.

OK, but I call no fairsies.

Many people on Fluther get along just fine without calling people shitheads.
It’s a better way to go.

Uh, @The_Compassionate_Heretic, I was kidding around.

So, @pdworkin , do you “kid around” with the TSA , too? Hmm? We have a new award here for jellies who kid around with the mods. It’s called the “Davey Jones”. Get the drift?

Davy Jones and “drift”. Not bad for a pedant, unless it was an accident.

It’s not true that I’m a pedant. The kid was lying.

I’m sorry. I was just being a shithead.

I knew you were joking with your orginal remark, @pdworkin. I thought it was funny. But @Harp is right about the TSA, you know.

As a mod and ex community manager, I got to learn a lot about my fellow Flutherites and just people nature in general. It is always interesting to see how different people take to moderation. Some (as we all know) hate it and get really upset if their creation was pushed to editing for whatever reason. Others will just reply saying that it’s all good and thank the mods for doing their job. Others will keep RETURNING that Q back to the mod without making any changes at all. That, by the way, has never worked and never will. Eventually the mod will give up and just reject the Q and you won’t be able to edit it anymore (na na na na! sticks tongue out).

As for asking Qs that won’t get moderated, I know it sounds boring, but seriously, just stick to the guidelines. We get a lot of “my Q isn’t okay with the guidelines but I saw so and so ask a SIMILAR question and their’s wasn’t removed.” To which, the answer always is, we can’t catch everything because we have lives (as opposed to we don’t like you which is why we pick on you). And for those special people who think the mods conspire to get them at every mistake, quit flattering yourself :P. I don’t go to such extremes to bug people irl and I most certainly wouldn’t do that in a virtual environment.

We are human, I am sure each of us prefer certain members just based on compatible personalities/humor over others. But we don’t let that get into our moderation. If we did, there would be 7 other mods asking you why you did that. Checks and balances are wonderful. And yes, we do honestly argue about something if one of us thinks it was wrongly modded. For example, we were recently arguing discussing a quip that got removed that some of us think shouldn’t have been removed. The conversation started over the weekend, and is still going on. So we do take our duty to be as unbiased as possible very seriously.

Quick answers:

What’s it like from over there? – Lots and lots and lots of emails. We get emailed every time a quip/Q is flagged and removed. And also when one of you edits your Q after we had pushed it back.

Is it frustrating? – At times, especially during the major migrations since we are a pretty small team and we can only handle so much at a time. But we’ve definitely been getting better at handling those drifts.

What drew you to moderation? – Andrew asked me if I would become one and I took the blue pill.

Why didn’t you quit after day one? – The mod team likes each other. We enjoy joking around and keeping up the site quality. Personally, I enjoy reading what people wrote on the CIA thread

Edit: I forgot to add, if you have read the guidelines as many times as I have, you definitely have a critical slant when reading the Qs asked. Even when I am taking a break from modding, I always end up flagging stuff that’s against guidelines because I know them so well that it’s hard not to do something about it. But then, I used to be a literary critic for my school magazine, so maybe that’s just something that’s ingrained into my personality.

@PnL You know what’s going on in the CIA thread? Screenshot pls pls pls?

I have a couple of old screenshots.

I am the newest on the Mod Squad and I can only add that the hazing is hell.

~For those who do not know the ritual I can only say that I am forced to wait on Bendrim each day from 3–5 am and the rest of the time have to recite the secret oath of adoration every ten minutes while hopping on one foot balancing a plate of pancakes in one hand and cake in the other. So far I have been able to keep up but I did drop the cake once when I sneezed because of a leak in the salt and pepper shakers on my head. The dropping of the cake cost me a night in the frizzer.

About the modding though- it is never personal to push a question back for editing. If we can we try to add suggestions as to how to quickly get the question ready to re-post. If it is a simple typo or title adjustment I will try to wait around to re-post it right away.

I can tell you that the mods do not single anyone out. (quite frankly there is not any time to play favorites as email piles up too quickly)

What impressed me was seeing that for the most part the mods really try to help new users (even those who violate the guidelines) giving them guidance and a chance to become part of the Fluther community.

Why did I accept? Because Fluther has taught me so much I wanted to help.

Tips on posting to avoid push back to edit?

Be sure your title is a clear question and that the description matches the title.

Know that we push to edit when there are typos in the title.

Please use “I” not “i” when referring to yourself. Yes-it really does matter.

And finally- please do not post a question if it can be answered with a yes/no agree/disagree. Such questions do not inspire quality conversations. If you really want to post it then elaborate on the question or add details so that a dialogue can ensue.

I must go get ready to recite the adoration now… :)

Why wasn’t @Harp‘s initial answer removed because of the first-answer-must-be-serious clause? And shouldn’t @pdworkin‘s “I’m sorry. I was just being a shithead” have been removed as a personal attack? ~

Edit: On a more serious note, you guys’ saying “Just follow the guidelines” is only somewhat helpful. There are nuances in the guidelines, and the questions that slip past you are evidence that there is some squish room in those nuances (or they would all be blaringly obvious, no?).

What’s it like over here? It’s… interesting. There are moments of exhilaration, illumination, frustration, and despair. Not to mention the giggles and the glares. As for what drew me, Andrew asked and I foolishly said yes. Truly though, it’s been my privilege to contribute to maintaining the quality of the site. And, yes… we can see the whole CIA thread!

Regarding Harp’s assertion that I won’t let anyone use the hot pincers and thumbscrews… If I’ve told him once, I’ve told him a thousand times: they’re “for business use only”... and augustlan’s bedroom.

@wildpotato Because he was totally serious and because he totally wasn’t.

!! Some of our best and most creative work was on the CIA thread. Just like cut flowers, its beauty was so poignant because we knew it would die. I did not know you had it preserved under glass.

@Jeruba Is beast work something… kinky?

typo, dammit, typo…I never get it right the first time

@Jeruba Freudian… beast?

TYPO

@Jeruba oooo allcaps and bold: denial?

I’m gonna have to do some beast work in a minute there, @Zen.

Meet me in the chat for some real-time beast… ahem

Not while you’re wearing that saffron robe. That is just too darn kinky for me.

BRB

@Jeruba Better, babes?

@wildpotato Of course, you’re right… there is some wiggle room. It’s definitely not an exact science. It’s more of an art, and a subjective one at times. As @PnL pointed out, even we don’t always agree.

We do miss some questions that should have been removed, but other times the difference is all in the details. Sometimes a question that seems kind of silly has great details that keep it from being moderated.

The one thing I hope everyone takes away from this discussion is that it is definitely not personal. We try to be equal opportunity hard asses. ;-)

We lurve you, @augustlan.

@Zen, oh, I love HHDL. I also love HRHQE2. And Jean-Luc. (Don’t know about BG, you shape-shifter, you.) I just can’t imagine cozying up to anybody who’s been recycled at the top of the chain for 400 years or so.

I’m actually not Picard, I’m ODO! the shapeshifter

Well, first I wake up and I immediately find one question at random to remove. I don’t even fill in the details or check the checkbox, I just remove it for being unlucky.

Then I start emailing the mod team. Usually I try and find a youtube link or a chain letter to raise their morale. Have you seen the kittens running up the slide?

Then I find augustlan on IM and start yelling at her to do her job better. I try not to give her any encouragement, because that just breeds weak moderators.

Then I take a copy of the constitution from its drawer and cross off anything having to do with freedom of speech. Once I’ve done that, I take a photo, and then burn it. I forward the photo to the mod team.

Then I log into fluther and look at the list of people who have joined today. I select, either randomly or based on the phonemes of their username, a few whom I deem to be “bad apples”. I ban them before they can post anything.

Around 5 I feed Ben and if he hasn’t been whimpering too much, let him look at the sun for a few minutes. Then I put him back in the cage.

Then I look around the internet for any Chipotle’s that have closed today. I email them to Allie and PnL with the subject “HA HA HAAA”.

Once I’ve done that, I play FarmVille. If I’ve made any accomplishments, I email the mod team.

Finally, right before bed, I start going into old discussions and removing old responses that no one will notice, then I create a new account and ask a relationship question, and go to sleep.

He is not even kidding.

@andrew Lurve you for that. Thanks. Thanks for… fluther.

@andrew is a dictator. An evil, evil dictator… and he doesn’t like bears with burritos. Blasphemy.

@Zen: thecompassionateherectic switching over from wis.dm rather quickly. He didn’t, actually. As I recall, it took awhile for him to warm up to the idea of another social site.

@andrew: *“Around 5 I feed Ben and if he hasn’t been whimpering too much, let him look at the sun for a few minutes. Then I put him back in the cage.”

omg- it’s just as I suspected!

Now he’s busting my chops.

@Zen It’s what we live for. ~

I live for the hope of taking you out on a date sometime, @A.

We’d have to take my husband along! ;-)

You know I have no problem with that, eh?

[Mod Says:] Keep it on topic folks! :)

um, what’s a TSA?

Transportation Safety Authority (the serious-looking guys with sidearms at the airport).

Aha! I consider myself warned.

—Great Question @Zen