I was once a moderator for a site in English at my school.
My job was basically correcting spelling mistakes and removing any silly comment the students might make.
What do you guys do at Booktalk?
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Question for the moderators.
Forum rules
Do not promote books in this forum. Instead, promote your books in either Authors: Tell us about your FICTION book! or Authors: Tell us about your NON-FICTION book!.
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Do not promote books in this forum. Instead, promote your books in either Authors: Tell us about your FICTION book! or Authors: Tell us about your NON-FICTION book!.
All other Community Rules apply in this and all other forums.
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Ophelia
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Question for the moderators.
I'm curious.
I was once a moderator for a site in English at my school.
My job was basically correcting spelling mistakes and removing any silly comment the students might make.
What do you guys do at Booktalk?
I was once a moderator for a site in English at my school.
My job was basically correcting spelling mistakes and removing any silly comment the students might make.
What do you guys do at Booktalk?
Ophelia.
Ophelia -- it's a good question. I've moderated one discussion here, and I don't think I did a very good job...discussion died down. It was the first time that there were two NF discussions, and the Freethinker book was much more popular.
Anyway -- my take on the job (as I will be experimenting with again on the Pinker book) is that it is similar to my old job as a teacher of adult ESL communication classes: let the conversation go where it will, and join in by all means, but should it lag, toss a question into the fray, or bring up a discussion point.
Others will have different approaches, no doubt!
Anyway -- my take on the job (as I will be experimenting with again on the Pinker book) is that it is similar to my old job as a teacher of adult ESL communication classes: let the conversation go where it will, and join in by all means, but should it lag, toss a question into the fray, or bring up a discussion point.
Others will have different approaches, no doubt!
"All Beings are the Owners of their Deeds, the Heirs to their Deeds."
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Ophelia
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- Oddly Attracted to Books
- Posts: 1543
- Joined: Sun Nov 25, 2007 7:33 am
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Loricat,
As Jales4 notes, Booktalk moderators don't seem to be aware of this question, so were' left to discuss it without them.
I think at BT moderators are not the same as discussion leaders.
Some moderators double as d l, but not all d l are moderators.
I think moderators help Chris (when he succeeds in getting their attention), for example they helped to organize archived discussions from previous years.
P-S: Nice new avatar Loricat!
As Jales4 notes, Booktalk moderators don't seem to be aware of this question, so were' left to discuss it without them.
I think at BT moderators are not the same as discussion leaders.
Some moderators double as d l, but not all d l are moderators.
I think moderators help Chris (when he succeeds in getting their attention), for example they helped to organize archived discussions from previous years.
P-S: Nice new avatar Loricat!
Ophelia.
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Chris OConnor
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Nick is right. Other than myself there is nobody really helping me with moderating BookTalk. And as a result of this I am often unable to read every post, even if they are directed at me or about something that I ought to handle. As you can probably see I am working on a lot of things to enhance the BookTalk experience, and this takes up the majority of my time. I'm starting to feel as if we're close to being where we need to be in terms of cosmetics and features. More will be added, but we're at least presentable to the online world.
A BookTalk moderator should log in regularly. They should pay close attention to whatever forums they personally moderate. When something needs to be addressed they should address it.
Examples:
- moderate disputes or arguments - keep things civil
- move threads if they are in the wrong forum
- attempt to stimulate discussion by posting interesting questions & comments
- edit posts with bad links, bad coding or bad formatting
- edit thread titles so search engines and humans know the subjects
Mods are not responsible for editing bad spelling - or they would be busy non-stop. If the misspelled word is in a title it is a wise move to correct that spelling because search engines need proper spelling.
Basically, be involved in the forums in which they have been assigned moderator powers.
Moderators do not have to remain objective and avoid taking sides. If someone makes an argument that doesn't make sense to the moderator they should feel free to refute the position in a mature and civil fashion. Moderators are not supposed to present any one particular position over another. They're their own person with their own views.
Selecting moderators has been a continuous challenge for me and at this point I have found it easier to just handle things on my own. I was spending so much time debating every decision that things were not getting done. As you can probably see things are now getting done, we're growing quickly and I'd say improving in many ways.
Our current moderators are people I trust completely. I'd give them the keys to my house with no questions. And this is something I am placing a higher value on than the quantity of posts. It would be a dream if the current moderators actually logged in a few times per week and moderated something.
A BookTalk moderator should log in regularly. They should pay close attention to whatever forums they personally moderate. When something needs to be addressed they should address it.
Examples:
- moderate disputes or arguments - keep things civil
- move threads if they are in the wrong forum
- attempt to stimulate discussion by posting interesting questions & comments
- edit posts with bad links, bad coding or bad formatting
- edit thread titles so search engines and humans know the subjects
Mods are not responsible for editing bad spelling - or they would be busy non-stop. If the misspelled word is in a title it is a wise move to correct that spelling because search engines need proper spelling.
Basically, be involved in the forums in which they have been assigned moderator powers.
Moderators do not have to remain objective and avoid taking sides. If someone makes an argument that doesn't make sense to the moderator they should feel free to refute the position in a mature and civil fashion. Moderators are not supposed to present any one particular position over another. They're their own person with their own views.
Selecting moderators has been a continuous challenge for me and at this point I have found it easier to just handle things on my own. I was spending so much time debating every decision that things were not getting done. As you can probably see things are now getting done, we're growing quickly and I'd say improving in many ways.
Our current moderators are people I trust completely. I'd give them the keys to my house with no questions. And this is something I am placing a higher value on than the quantity of posts. It would be a dream if the current moderators actually logged in a few times per week and moderated something.
Please consider supporting BookTalk.org by donating today!
Moderating
I am guilty as charged! I do love this site and respect Chris greatly. The long-time members know that I used to be more active. I have just posted in the Introductions thread on the issues that have kept me preoccupied. I know I am no model moderator. I try to be a sounding board for Chris whenever he wants to discuss BookTalk issues and I will give my opinion on anything he asks me about. I know this post doesn't really answer the question posed in this thread, but at least you finally have a response from me!
