Beginning Moderation

[SoftWareRevue]

If you had it to do all over again, what would have helped you be a better moderator had you known something from the beginning?

What could you have learned that would have better prepared you to be a moderator?

Is moderation strictly a "learn-as-you-go" position, or are there tools that would help us be better moderators at the beginning?

If you were to write a book on how to be a successful moderator, what would your signature chapter be?

I think that's enough questions to get the discussion going. :spin:

[mobosof]

had i known first??
humor doesnt travel :)
found that out soon enough,how people can turn on a phrase or read between the lines and come up with 2+2=5555555
learnt pretty soon to curb my natural flippancy

better prepared??
learnt from my peers by looking at the mods posts and how they replied

learn as you go??
I think so, as you do see endless repeats of questions but realise people are different, and need maybe replying to differently

write a book??
"not for want of trying...part 56676588679699"

[Scott]

I agree bits of it you need to learn as you go on, mostly policies and how that particular forum operates.

Learning the actual software is a different matter. There should be some form of documentation or test board with identical mods to allow trainee moderators to get to grips with how to moderate.

I don't think you can make a book covering every possible scenario a moderator will face, but you can cover the tools and this is what I would look for.

[TheDPQ]

Chapter: Mad Monkey Nazi Mods

Just about doing your job and not getting hung up on the popularity details. Anyone in authority will be attacked, slandered, and have to deal with pissy users. You 'fail' when you let that get to you and let it effect how you moderate someone.

I say i wouldn't mind having a mad monkey nazi modding my forum as long as they did their job and didn't cause their own drama. Although i usually say that in response to people claiming you need a popular and well liked person to moderate your forum rather then a person who knows how to manage people.

[Jan]

mostly policies and how that particular forum operates.
Right, which is why I am all for choosing quality members from your own community. You often see people advertising for moderators on their forum. How can they know the policies, the rules (even if they did read them on signup), the current staff etc if they have never been to your forum before?

My second mod position (even though it was known I had modded at a similar software type, much busier forum for quite some time before, had a "template" transitional mod instruction test. To pass the test I had to move, copy, merge, split threads. That would have been helpful in my first mod position :goggle:

In that vein, maybe have a similar hands on instruction for mods who have never modded before or are used to a different software if they do have mod experience elsewhere.