Message,Boards,amp,#58,Moderat DIY Message Boards: Moderator Ethics

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A properly moderated message board is one of the true pleasures of theinternet. The constant interaction of dozens or even hundreds of peoplein continuous conversations is a sight to behold and a joy toparticipate in. I have fond memories of the countless hours I spent"talking" with friends whose faces I have seen about an endless varietyof subjects.On the other hand, an unethical moderator creates friction, annoyspeople and causes an incredibly large number of problems. These messageboards tend to consist of flame wars, derogatory comments and massiveposts about the moderator (justifications and vilifications).Oftentimes, the moderator will desperately attempt to control the boardby deleting posts and banning members (with virtually no success), andoccasionally they may shut down the board in disgust (leaving with avile comment or two back to the members).An ethical moderator should be a friendly presence, someone who isalways present, yet is virtually invisible in many ways. Their job is tomake the conversations flow smoothly, keep them on topic and keep peopleinterested. Some of the tasks performed by an ethical moderator include:- Promoting the board to obtain new blood - all boards need a constantflow of new members to survive and prosper. Without new people lurkingand posting, the board tends to become stale and useless.- Gently keeping the subjects reasonably on topic - There is usually noneed to bring out the sledgehammer. A simple note here and there is allthat is necessary in most cases.- Keeping the old guard happy and making new people feel welcome - Thisis a very critical function of any moderator. The board must be usefulto both groups to thrive.- In extreme cases, removing hostile entities - some people just want tocause trouble. A good moderator knows the difference between a troublemaker (constantly flaming everyone, for example) and someone who isupset or does not have the best social skills.- Actively contributes - This is a must for all good moderators. Theymust contribute constantly to their own boards to keep the conversationsgoing.A very important fact that must be remembered by all ethical moderatorsis they don't need to agree with a post - they just need to keep thingsmore-or-less on topic and civil. Boards with moderators which attempt tocrush all opposing views quickly degenerate to hell holes of deletedposts, banned members, flame wars and constant disruption andaggitation.Some examples of ethically run message boards include:Webmaster world (http://www.webmasterworld.com/index.htm) - This boardhas a number of topics of interest to all webmasters. I like this boardbecause it makes both old hands and newbies alike feel at home. You cantell other people like it as well because of the massive number ofposts.Ring Manager (http://www.topica.com/lists/ringmgr) - Want to learn aboutwebrings from a group of great, caring, intelligent people? Join thismessage board and you will feel like you are part of a friendly group.The best example of unethical moderators that I have ever witnessed wasduring a three or four month period starting in roughly August 2000 witha Yahoo Club known as WebRingNews. I found this club (a club is a kindof enhanced message board) and immediately thought I had found a greatgroup of people. There were quite a few people posting their views aboutwebrings, which was a topic in which I had an interest. The communitywas closely knit and virtually everyone enjoyed themselves.At that time there was a rumor going around that Yahoo was going tochange webring into a new and wonderful place. There were some vagueletters supporting this - which naturally led to many discussions aboutthe ramifications and possibilities.In September 2000 Yahoo destroyed webring, which caused the Webringnewsgroup to get very active. Everyone was extremely unhappy, because theYahoo implementation was, well, severely lacking (this is anunderstatement if I ever heard one). The conversations grew heated andthe anti-yahoo sentiment got high.The moderators did not like this kind of behavior and began deletingposts without warning. They banned people who refused to bow to theirdemands to cease discussing alternatives to webring, and even wentthrough ALL of the old posts going back months, deleting each and everyone. These moderators became shrill and totally desperate, until thegroup finally fell apart.This is the perfect example of completely unethical behavior on the partof message board moderators. Yes, on occasion a moderator may need todelete a post or two (especially in regards to spam), but it iscompletely wrong for mass deletions to occur. When moderators startbanning people right and left, perhaps they should step down and letsomeone else hold the reigns.In fact, a good indicator of a moderator who is out ethics is a vastnumber of posts from the moderator attempting to explain his actions,and a large number of posts from others (sometimes on other messageboards) who have things to say against the moderator. Note thatsometimes this is not bad - a good moderator may have to ban or annoysomeone once in a while. The key indication is that the topic of the message board changes toprotecting the message board. In addition if the moderators seem to bespending most of their time keeping out individuals and deleting posts,then perhaps they need to take a hard look at their ethics.It's as simple as that. Good message boards almost run themselves, andthe effort required by the moderator to keep it going smoothly andon-topic is minimal. Bad message boards require huge amounts of effortby the moderators and become barren wastelands in short order. There arefew things on the internet that are more sad than a once-proud messageboard reduced to rubble by an incompetent or malicious moderator. Article Tags: Message Board, Message Boards