Moderators

[Serge]

Who are the moderators? Can we put their names in the header? Who is in charge of which section? Who should we ask with questions?

 

[dirk]

Hi Serge,

we are at the moment in an interims phase, because DPreview was not closed at April 10th as originally announced.

We have currently 5 moderators and probably 2 will join additionally after the DPreview forum is closed. I mean really closed

Can we put their names in the header?

You see the name of the moderators, if you click at the top on "members". Those are the ones, who committed for DPR forum already. The others will be displayed as soon as DPreview closed.

As long as the DPreview forum is open, all moderators still have to work over there. Although I am not sure whether they really have to, because as far as I understood it, there is no contract etc.

But I can understand, that the "real switch" is better after the close. So, we are behind our schedule, because DPreview is still open.

Now we see slowly, that the DPreview becomes a ghost town. This will give our moderators more flexibility to be here mre often.

Since the software is still new for them, they will need some time to get used to the moderation features. Please bear with them. In the meantime, I do the moderation and explanation stuff here and the other will chime in more and more over the time.

Who is in charge of which section?

This is not decided yet. Again, DPreview slows us down here too.

Only after we have restructured all forums/subforums, we are able to discus internally, who wants to focus on what. But we will not change anything in the current structure, as long as DPreview forum is still open. We need the old structure to be able to offer a smooth transition for all old users. Only after that it makes sense to talk about changes in subforums etc.

Who should we ask with questions?

All moderators have moderator status for all forums. This is different to dpreview. But as soon as traffic increases, it will be more efficinet to set different focus points. As soon as this is done, it will be displayed in the subforums. In the meantime you can contact every moderator you want to incl. me.

 

[Serge]

Thanks for the helpful reply Dirk!

I'm really impressed by your quick and correct answers

The transition period could be endless, considering that dpreview has given up on closing down and is waiting for the situation to settle down. But then the uncertain situation with moderators will continue for a very long time.

By the way, my question on dpreview still unpublished... ))

 

[dirk]

The transition period could be endless,

Yes, this is a problem and we have to think about our next steps and when doing what over the next couple of days.

It is a waste of time to still post or moderate at DPReview. That time would be better spent here. We have to discus this internally, but I do not want to push the moderators. If you are moderating for a long time there, you do not just jump from the sinking ship.

On the other hand it seems that the management at DPreview is not willing to inform the moderators about the next steps with a timeline etc. You can not expect loyality from unpaid moderators, if you are not loyal to them and do not support them in this difficult time.

By the way, my question on dpreview still unpublished... ))

yeah, this is still a nightmare over there. There a 2 moderators at dpreview, who try to ban or sandbox like they would earn money with it. By accident most often if I post something positive about DPRF

We have to get used to this....

 

[Tom Caldwell]

Thanks for the helpful reply Dirk!

I'm really impressed by your quick and correct answers

The transition period could be endless, considering that dpreview has given up on closing down and is waiting for the situation to settle down. But then the uncertain situation with moderators will continue for a very long time.

By the way, my question on dpreview still unpublished... ))

View attachment 1570

Moderators on dpreview only have responsibility for the forums they have committed to and are ordinary members on all other forums.

The theory is that the whole forum is far too large to be moderated en globo. Martin Ocando and myself were kept pretty busy as a team with just the M4/3 forum and a few other small forums as well.

Therefore just because you are a dpreview moderator does not mean that you really know what is going on in other dpreview forums that you are not actively dealing with. In fact some forums here don't have a moderator at all and have relied on someone from admin checking in having a look every now and then. And so with the involved in the stables of close down time might be short to check up on moderators who might have slackened vigilance or simply to check on forums that are not moderated.

Moderation of course is a voluntary job and we all give it as much time as we can spare but we have other lives, jobs, and things to do, and the amount that can be spent on moderating is not always in regular time slots.

I have brought this impending moderator issue up with the dpreview management team as they are aware of it. But like anyone who has taken a job on with serious intent I am not about to resile from carrying it out until it becomes impossible to do so or some other solution is found.

As Dirk has suggested a team of moderators has arrived here but we are still new to this forum and its own intricacies. That we remain dedicated to our previous commitment must show that to that extent we should be reliable as team members should be expected to be.

 

[Serge]

Moderators on dpreview only have responsibility for the forums they have committed to and are ordinary members on all other forums.

The theory is that the whole forum is far too large to be moderated en globo. Martin Ocando and myself were kept pretty busy as a team with just the M4/3 forum and a few other small forums as well.

Therefore just because you are a dpreview moderator does not mean that you really know what is going on in other dpreview forums that you are not actively dealing with. In fact some forums here don't have a moderator at all and have relied on someone from admin checking in having a look every now and then. And so with the involved in the stables of close down time might be short to check up on moderators who might have slackened vigilance or simply to check on forums that are not moderated.

Moderation of course is a voluntary job and we all give it as much time as we can spare but we have other lives, jobs, and things to do, and the amount that can be spent on moderating is not always in regular time slots.

I have brought this impending moderator issue up with the dpreview management team as they are aware of it. But like anyone who has taken a job on with serious intent I am not about to resile from carrying it out until it becomes impossible to do so or some other solution is found.

As Dirk has suggested a team of moderators has arrived here but we are still new to this forum and its own intricacies. That we remain dedicated to our previous commitment must show that to that extent we should be reliable as team members should be expected to be.

Thanks for the detailed reply Tom, as well as the excellent work on moderation on Dpreview and, hopefully in the future on excellent DPRForum!
I completely agree with your opinion. Learned something new about how dpreview operated...

I've been a member of the forum.ru-board.com admin team for many years, with over 2 million users, so moderating is a regular thing for me. As well as in several forums and telegram channels related to Sigma cameras. But the number of users is not more than a hundred because of the lack of such photographic equipment on the market.

Of course, with such a large number of users and posts, there's more emphasis on self-organisation and adherence to a few, rather strict rules on the ru-board. For example, whoever opens a topic can moderate it within certain limits, etc. Enforcing the rules and dealing with conflict situations is up to me and the whole admin team. Of course, all moderators work on a strictly voluntary basis.
The principles of moderation and administration are more or less the same everywhere, and in terms of experience in implementing and maintaining such projects, I see excellent potential for the development of dprforum. My best wishes to your team for a lot of perseverance, flexibility in decision making and a lot of luck.

 

[grsnovi]

Moderation is such a thankless task, that's for sure. I was involved with high-end CAD s/w for years and moderated a closed discussion forum limited to our best users. Even when the audience is controlled the task can be difficult. I've always tried to go out of my way to thank the moderators on the various forums I've been on. It takes a special person to keep a forum going.

 

[Tom Caldwell]

Moderation does take time and I am lucky to be retired, but I do have other pressures on my time and obviously we work around where there is goodwill.

I have taken the approach where I can allow small breaches of the rules of common sense and etiquette and there are forum rules of course. But good humour and patience with those who don't have English as a first language should prevail. If anyone steps out of line then something like a caution might apply but deliberate breaking of rules and deliberately savaging (even quietly provoking) other members or questioning moderating decisions should see the force of the iron fist inside the velvet glove.

Normal rules of polite society are fine and should not be lost just because we can hide behind a computer keyboard.

I don't think it thankless but I do regret those who have refused to play by sensible rules have had to be banned in my experience on dpreview. Worse still when they have left whilst proclaiming loudly that their rights to cause ill feeling on the forum have been infringed.