There was no reason to start looking that long ago,we lost 2 mods fairly recently,it was needed 4 months ago.
There are times to stay put, and what you want will come to you.
But there are times to go out into the world and find such a thing for yourself.
I aint no abacus but you can count on me.
It's about being proactive, not reactive. If you start looking for more mods before you need them, then they will be ready by the time you do. Since the mods have stated previously it's a process that takes a few months, if you had started looking a few months ago, the new mods would be ready for now.
Well it breaks my heart to see you this way,
The beauty in life, where's it gone?
And somebody told me you were doing okay,
Somehow I guess they were wrong.
How do you become a mod anyway? Do you have to have no infraction points or have been a member for a certain amount of time? I'm just interested, that's why I'm asking.
xx
"How can I be a gynecologist? I can barely look a woman in the eye!"
♥
It can be surprisingly difficult to pick new mods. They are picking from a pool of people with a range of emotional problems, after all. Picking the wrong members can be a problem when it does happen. I don't know whether or not RYL needs more mods, but I just know it's not easy to get more mods. It's probably even more difficult when the administrator of the site appears to have all but abandoned it.
Basically, to become a moderator, we take into consideration the person's personal stability at the moment, what other things they have going on in their lives, how much time they have to dedicate to the site, what roles they have already have on RYL, how they handle those roles, how they interact with members, following the rules, whether they'd be more suitable for a mod role or another staff position, infractions, how long it's been since they've been in trouble (if that applies to the person), etc. There are a ton of things we take into consideration.
But, also, it's not that we don't keep an eye out at all times for new mods. Just because we're not actively searching doesn't mean that we don't notice people we think would be a good candidate if we decided we needed new mods. As it stands it seems as though we're keeping up well with the workload.
And, as stated above, it can be difficult to just pick new mods. We have to take a lot of different things into consideration, and things always change. A person's situation may be wonderful for them to be a mod one day then, suddenly, they're not doing well and they're dealing with too much to handle being a mod.
But, as it stands, no, we're not actively looking for new mods. We've mentioned it in passing but it's not something anyone really seemed to feel we needed to focus on at this point in time.
lol shaaaaan,basically you said what i wanted to say much better that i could :P
There are times to stay put, and what you want will come to you.
But there are times to go out into the world and find such a thing for yourself.
I aint no abacus but you can count on me.
I was only asking becasue it seems as if some of the current mods have either moved on (waime and craimee) or are getting ready to move on... So I was just asking if mods are going to be introduced to replace those that have moved on. I wasn't saying we need more mods, just that we need to keep the level of mods where it was.
"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."
Yeh, I agree with Jess, though you may be keeping up with the workload that isn't everything.
Say next week you lose another mod, perfectly possible. Then you're in a worse position to start recruiting. To recruit it will take time to get them fully ready, settled in and used to it.
If you keep losing mods then it gets to the point where, you have your current workload + the strain of getting more mods recruited/ 'trained'/ settled in + less mods to do it--> you won't be able to do a job efficiently and effectively as well as not putting too much stress on yourselves + real life. It's better recruiting when you first see a drop, not just keep putting it off until your workload gets too much because then you'll just be adding more load on yorself causing more stress for the mods resulting in more leaving...
I have noticed less of a mod presence for some time or a greater need for mods. We're a big site and often there does feel like there aren't enough active mods who can deal with the problem AND who aren't in a great deal of stress themselves with things other than RYL.
Yeh, mods, if you stay at the current number you may be able to cope and it will seem like hassle to get new ones on board BUT wouldn't it be better to recruit now so by the time you feel you need it you have effectively reduced your workload(which per mod would've increased seen as at least 2 forum mods have left within the last few weeks) so you can still cope but also have more of a chance to do other things rather than waiting until the situation becomes critical which will lead to it crashing if not careful.
Also, think about reasons why mods are taking breaks. I don't want this to be mentioned here (because yeh, I don't think it is fair for them to post stuff like reasons for it) and I'm not saying mods shouldn't, I STRONGLY agree they should take breaks when they like, but if the reason is to do with stress which may in some way be connected to RYL then something needs to be addressed sooner rather than later
I don't mean this to sound bad... but with so many mods seemingly having to take ages away from RYL/leaving moderating/leaving the site for good - surely that could be an indicator that we need more mods to share the workload so they don't get stressed out so much? I mean, even if it isn't RYL causing the stress, if each person had less to do "per head" it could only benefit the mod team in general?
I could be talking wubbish and poppyc*ck and whoopsie, but I've thought that for a while *shrugs*
owh :( Ive been making an effort to be more active,so have other mods.x
There are times to stay put, and what you want will come to you.
But there are times to go out into the world and find such a thing for yourself.
I aint no abacus but you can count on me.
No offence, but none of this is new, and as some mods have stated in this thread, it's not like the mod team deliberately ignores potential candidates. It just seems tiresome to drag out things that have been said months ago, and which have been taken into consideration by the mods already.
Face your life
Its pain, its pleasure
Leave no path untaken
(oo posting at the same time in response to liv)^^ I have noticed that actually in like the last 3 weeks I have seen mods abotu more but even so it doesn't seem much because there are soo many members the ratio just seems a bit out.
You're entirely bonkers. But I'll tell you a secret. All the best people are.
I dont mean to sound rude, its ok saying it would be nice to see the mods being more active and replying to threads/posts but you cant have everything. The mods have there own life and they are incredibly busy.
More mods wouldnt really solve the problem of being more active anyway,because they would do the same as we do (IE,check all the mod boards,edit posts etc) and then go to the other boards afterwards. To be honest somedays I only come on for an hour and as much as i want to post in GC or whatever, all my time is taken up on the mod boards and i dont think that would change much with more mods.
But we have taken on board what everyone is saying and we know that sometimes it seems like were not participating properly etc.
There are times to stay put, and what you want will come to you.
But there are times to go out into the world and find such a thing for yourself.
I aint no abacus but you can count on me.
i agree with liv that i dont think more mods would make a difference to activity on the main boards purely because i think its something that mods have to make an effort to do and for me anyway its not related to how busy i am on mod stuff really. i do agree with chels though that it wouldnt hurt having more of a mod presence around.
i dont think we're in desperate need for new mods, we're managing the work load behind the scenes pretty well (if i do say so myself ha ha) but beginning to look for new mods wouldnt do any harm either.
To be honest, I don't see a real need for it right now. The mods are doing fine, sorting **** out on the boards etc etc. Who are you to tell them they are not coping? You wouldn't know. Only they themselves can know and I think you will find most have them have come on here and said they are fine, none of them have been like "yeah lets go and find some more mods". They will decided who and when they need to.
2 mods moved on. Thats it. It's not the end of the world. Just do your job so it makes it easier on them if you are so worried about the moderator situation.
I don't really feel it necessary for more moderators - unless the moderators have clearly stated they're struggling with the workload, and to my knowledge this hasn't been stressed by anyone.
Of course, the moderators who have left will eventually be replaced no doubt, but that's a case of as and when. It's not urgent.
And i'm in agreement with Monsoon - moderators aren't able to do everything, sadly. Although they do their best, the majority have school/college/university/work, on top of there mod duties on here, so they really aren't able to be on the boards as much as they'd like.
I'm pretty sure they know what there doing anyway :)
