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[Foxeye]

Update: Mods have been chosen.

Since it looks like we'll be working with Warg and Mirr to transfer the site and domain to a new host, and they have both said that they welcome the inclusion of other members on their team, I'm starting a new thread in the hopes that we can flush out who would like to be a mod.  

While I'm not a fan of cattle calls, I think at this point it probably does make sense for those who are willing and interested to put themselves forward as community herders leaders.  

Here are the kinds of responsibilities a mod could find themselves doing. You might find that you want to do all of this, or the council that forms may find themselves separating into specialities (ie, tech mod, activities coordinator, new member vett-er, etc):

General:
- Work with the rest of the council to define the rules and determine how and when they should be adjusted as new situations arise

Community-focused:
- Google the names/emails of new applicants, to confirm that they are not spammers
- Keep on top of forum posts/comments to catch anyone violating the rules
- Keep an eye on art uploads to be certain no one is violating copyright
- Organize and run events; act as cheerleader to keep members excited (see: Windrider's awesome work with calendar)

Tech-focused:
- Troubleshoot gallery problems that members have (usually permissions-related)
- Help answer any "how do I do this?" questions that users have, possibly creating "how to" posts in advance
- Find new smilies to add to forums (very important!)


I suspect that Mirr and Warg will have a pretty good handle on the tech-specific tasks, so it's the first categories that could use the most help (though the more people know how the gallery works, the more quickly users will get a response).

If you are interested, please post not only that you would like to be a mod, but also your level of interest (ie, "I really would love to do this!" vs. "I'd love to help out, but no biggie if you have enough mods already"). The more you guys talk it out, the more likely it will form itself without any actual voting being required.

Once  a council is formed, Kael and I would be happy to create a "mods only" section where you can start hashing out your plans in anticipation of the new world order.  Kael and I have a number of questions we're eager to ask the new team, to help us with our pre-migration preparation.

[Treefox]

Whew, I got my guts together and would like to apply as mod, community focused (surprise, surprise). I would very much like to do this, out of love for this community, for art, for being a real long-time EQ fan, for being in the fandom relatively long (hm, not that long compared to others), for being more or less the unofficial work council of the company I work for and maybe able to settle some things...
So all in all I would be one of the "I'd love to help out, but no biggie if you have enough mods already". But you all know how crazy I am about commenting on everything here... One downside might be the full-time job, so if I would be the only mod I guess I had to decline. Furthermore I live in CET area, so I am probably asleep when the site is most active. Just throwing my thoughts in here.

[Tevokkia]

I know I'm fairly new to the site, but I'd like to volunteer to help out with some of the community moderation if it's needed. I'm not going to be "OMG please pick meeeeee!," but if you need someone to Google new members and watch out for copyright infringements, that's right up my alley.

[Maggie]

I'm old, I could be an elder...ok, not old, mature really, like aged cheese.

I'd totally be up for General/Community focused type stuff but if I am honest I have always wanted to be a cheerleader, well not really but I would be up for organizing and running events. I have done such things before with success; also I work with children so it is kind of my job to keep bored and unfocused minds excited so as to avoid biting and tantrums.

Also, do I get to wear a chief’s knot and a fuzzy vest at these council meetings? Cause that right there sounds like a fun idea for the entire council, see I told you I’m good at this stuff.

[DestinysGift]

I know I'm pretty new here, and also young, but I've got a lot of free time and I watch both the art and posts a lot already, so I can do community-focused things for the site. I can also do general things and some tech-focused, if needed! I really love thie site and I want to take part in any way to keep it running smoothly!  

Also, do I get to wear a chief’s knot and a fuzzy vest at these council meetings? Cause that right there sounds like a fun idea for the entire council, see I told you I’m good at this stuff.

Seconded!

[Foxeye]

We'll leave this open for a week, until the end of the day this Sunday.  I figure if someone hasn't posted by then, they are either too busy or don't check the site often enough to make sense as a mod.

Oh, and if anyone isn't interested in being a mod, but has an opinion of what you'd like to see happen insofar as site leadership is concerned, this is as good a place as any to talk about it.  

(I have no idea if Warg & Mirr prefer to pick mods, or if they would prefer that the community vote on it, or if they want to draw names out of a hat.)

[Treefox]

Also, do I get to wear a chief’s knot and a fuzzy vest at these council meetings? Cause that right there sounds like a fun idea for the entire council, see I told you I’m good at this stuff.

Now if this isn't a great incentive!
And it's also good to hear that I am not the only one who would be interested in becoming a mod. Hurray!

[Warg]

(I have no idea if Warg & Mirr prefer to pick mods, or if they would prefer that the community vote on it, or if they want to draw names out of a hat.)

Well, I know I'd prefer if people with enough free time steps up and tell us they want to mod the site, as then we're sure that only the people that actually have the time and enthusiasm gets promoted. If too many people apply (as in, 2 mods for every normal member) then I'd like a community vote, but unless that happens, barring people not in good standing with the site, the people who want to will most likely become mods.

Still have to get Mirr's input, but that's my view of things.

[branchscamper]

I wish I could help but I will definitely be the first one to say I don't have enough time to be a dedicated mod. I will happily be that annoying member who (if I see something) reports it to a mod or even starts new ideas etc, but that's about as far as I could go right now.

I'm sure whatever decision is made will work out as this community has a lot of love and friendship going with it 

[Miss Gillespie]

seriously? You checked my name and e-mail on google, when I registered? Neither of them shows up in google (I try to keeping it that way)

[Foxeye]

In your case it was that I knew you from elfquest.com

[Obi-Rak Kaeliri]

In general if your name, email address, or username doesn't show up on Google, we use a bunch of criteria to figure out whether you're legitimate. There's a lot of heuristics going on

For instance, you...

• ...get rejected if the IP address you used to register belongs to an open proxy
• ...get rejected if your username is obviously automatically generated with an equally dubious email address, unless there are Google-hits proving you to be legitimate
• ...get rejected if your username looks automatically generated, the IP address you're connecting from belongs to a webhost or colo provider, and there are no Google-hits proving that you're a legitimate user
• ...are left to stew for up to 48 hours if your IP address comes from a country with a track record of dubious sign-ups and there are no Google-hits; usually malicious IP addresses show up on stopforumspam.com or botscout.com within 24 hours
• ...etc. etc.

This is in addition to the automatic filtering that uses the stopforumspam.com and botscout.com databases.

[Mirr]

It seems like we have a suitably large bunch of dedicated people that have signed up so far (but I'm fairly sure there's room for a few more, should anyone else be interested), so I'll simply nod to Warg's statement posted earlier

And Kael seems to have a very well tested and documented approach there, to make use of.
I guess the mods will learn more about the antispammy databases soon enough!

[Maggie]

Well, I know I'd prefer if people with enough free time steps up and tell us they want to mod the site, as then we're sure that only the people that actually have the time and enthusiasm gets promoted. If too many people apply (as in, 2 mods for every normal member) then I'd like a community vote, but unless that happens, barring people not in good standing with the site, the people who want to will most likely become mods.

Still have to get Mirr's input, but that's my view of things.

I know I already posted that I would like to offer my services as a mod but I wanted to let you know that I usually have a few hours each night (after work) and then week-ends free, so I would be able to put in the time needed I believe.

[DestinysGift]

Well, I know I'd prefer if people with enough free time steps up and tell us they want to mod the site, as then we're sure that only the people that actually have the time and enthusiasm gets promoted. If too many people apply (as in, 2 mods for every normal member) then I'd like a community vote, but unless that happens, barring people not in good standing with the site, the people who want to will most likely become mods.

I got as much time as you'd like to have, Half my day goes to school but some morning and all after noon is completely free... Boringly free... Friday to sunday I'm free, though saturdays depend.
And there's some change in the future, next month I will be having final testing and may graduate so I will hopefully be getting a bit more free time.
However! One thing I will say though, in the fall I'm applying for an art institute, I'm hoping I'll still have time by then, but because of that I'm a bit cautious of doing this.

[Treefox]

Tired and on my way back home from munich I'm wondering if it might be a problem if one of the mod's native language wasn't English like in my case. I was just thinking about my rather weird pm to Foxeye yesterday and how I wasn't able to get across what I wanted to say. Do you think this could actually become a problem if we ever need to discuss or settle serious matters here?

[Warg]

Tired and on my way back home from munich I'm wondering if it might be a problem if one of the mod's native language wasn't English like in my case. I was just thinking about my rather weird pm to Foxeye yesterday and how I wasn't able to get across what I wanted to say. Do you think this could actually become a problem if we ever need to discuss or settle serious matters here?

Neither mine nor Mirr's native language is English, so in my opinion that's no issue as long as you can make yourself understood.

[Treefox]

Sounds good to me. I was just thinking of how many misunderstandings we have at my company when all our languages mix (is tremendous fun though). And most of the communication here will probably be done in written form which also can be helpful when one wants to reread something one has written. concerning the time issue, I usually have some time or will make some time after work. In the worst case I can do a couple of things during work time or like now with my low-tech cell phone during travelling. It's slow but it sorta works.

[windbourne]

I have a modicum of free time and would be happy to volunteer some of it every week to keep the forumspam/fake membership down. I'm pretty old school, as EQfanart counts time, but I changed my name when this board opened up, and have mostly lurked due to a peculiar shyness since then.

[Afke]

@DestinysGift, you don't need to worry about situations that aren't here yet. I really like it you want to step up and help out now. Should limited time prevent you from doing mod stuff in the future that's okay, just let us know and perhaps we could look for a new mod at that time. If one thing this has taught us it's that nothing is set in stone.

I can't be a mod right now, but I'll be a good cheerleader to those who can and will; you're the best!

[DestinysGift]

Thank you Afke!
My computer I was using has gone out (multiple viruses, how did they get there?) so I will be sending my extra one to upgrades so I can accomplish more than just lurking on websites with it. Its year 2002 with absolutely no upgrades to it, just going on devart proves to be a problem. I'm hoping to get it back before the end of the month so for now I'm just going to be watching updates every so often!

I may not post much because this computer hardly wanted to post this at all. I'm currently using my mother's office computer, its not very good internet-wise.

[Foxeye]

Looks like we have our team! Five is an ideal number, imho. It's also good that there is a mix of both long-time and newer members...the former will have a good instinctive sense of what has worked for the community over the years, while the latter will have a fresh perspective.

Admin:
Warg
Super-Moderator:
Mirr
Moderators:
Treefox
Tevokkia
Maggie
DestinysGift
windbourne

Does that sound right? If any of the people in the list of mods have changed their mind, now's a good time to speak up

Later today I'll give the above people access to a separate forum so Kael and I can ask some policy questions and you can use that space if you desire to do a review of the site rules.

[Treefox]

 That sounds good, indeed. We shall be the fellowship of Elfquest Fanart! *sparkles*

[Eregyrn]

*thumbs up*

Thank you to everybody for volunteering!  It means a lot that folks are willing to step up and work to keep this place going!

I didn't feel able to pledge the time it would take to be a mod, but like Afke, I will try to contribute by cheerleading.

Also, Treefox, in answer to your concern above: I think that the benefits of having a mod, or mods, who are multilingual outweighs the possible miscommunications that might arise.  It's by no means certain that such miscommunications WILL arise or become a serious issue, while we know that a significant constituency of this group is European, so I think it's great that we have mods who represent a lot of different backgrounds.

At least you know that it MIGHT become an issue, and that's all that anyone can ask.  If you're really worried about it, just make sure that folks who you're communicating with know that you're ESL, and have someone on the mod team whose first language is English ready to be called in if you sense there might be some misunderstanding happening.  But you're prepared already, and that's half the battle.

[Treefox]

You're already great at cheerleading, thanks!