I intend to run for President of the TalkBoard and I am going to tell you why.

It's really quite simple: Randy set up Flyertalk as a command and control managed entity. There was the beloved benevolent dictator. And Flyertalk is to this day managed by a group of self-selected moderators who operate by self-set standards and are accountable only to each other and then ultimately to Carol.

Would you set up a management structure that way? To me it makes no sense. There ought to be ultimate accountability to the posters. Not to each other. And the FT TB is the focus group of the posters, elected by and so presumably reflective of the posters at large. Not a perfect representational system but the only one we've got right now.

Should the posters not be given access to the semi-secret Moderator Best Practices so we can know where the actual lines are?

Should the posters not have an opportunity to air grievances to a representative body that actually has the authority to affect the day-to-day FT experience?

The reality is that Randy put these rules in place and they worked for him. But look at what he has done at MilePoint: taken a completely different approach. Still ridiculously secretive and opaque, imho, but the point is that 'because that's the way it has always been done' is pretty much the worst reason ever to do something a certain way.

Greater transparency, better and more direct poster input to the day-to-day operation of FT are things worth exploring. Worth trying. At they very least worth talking about in detail.

I don't have all the answers. I have some ideas. So do many others. Maybe my ideas suck and there are other, better ways forward. But since the dawn of FT moderation we have been kept silent on certain issues.

That's dumb.

The world has changed. IBBs have changed. Randy cashed out and took some of his buddies with him. So I am saying it's time for some critical self-evaluation and analysis. Time to get the hell out of the box in our thinking.

I'm not here to tell anyone what to do. I'm here to stir the pot, get folks thinking and see if there isn't a better way forward.

As for wanting to be emperor, puh-lease. That's not my gig. Like my last stint on the TB when I led the effort to create greater transparency and structure to the TalkBoard itself, my goal this time is to improve and bring transparency to the day-to-day operation and processes of the rest of FlyerTalk, then once the that's done fade quietly back into retirement.

Or fail trying.

And, yeah, this is how I am going to try to do it: bluntly and forthrightly. In the light of day with all my cards on the table. Because it's not a game to me, it's a sincere effort.

Finally, I want to emphasize (because I know this argument is coming), yes, Carol is a worthy successor to Randy. Dare I say it? Yes I do: an improvement. She is consistent, open minded and I consider her a personal friend. The fact that this thread as not been nuked and I have not been suspended (yet ) is a testament to those facts.

And yes, the mods are ultimately responsible to her.

But I don't care if it's Carol or Randy or even me in that position, the structure is, to me, something that ought to be analyzed and improved.

Yeah...sometimes I'm an idiot. Sorry.

Or maybe more than sometimes....

I have received no elite status as a result of being a mod. The only 'payment' I've received were two stipends for attending mod dos - neither of which were sufficient to cover all the costs of my attendance (which is not a complaint, if I had been unwilling to spend money going, then I wouldn't have gone) and a FT t-shirt.

No, I'm held accountable presently. What I am not willing to do is continue to be a mod if I'm going to be subject to audits and performance reviews, and threatened that if I don't comply and toe the line as TB thinks, then I will be removed.

TB is a popularity contest. I know it's good points and its flaws intimately. It's not the body to regulate moderation, which is commonly unpopular - while TB is all about maintaining popularity. I do not want someone overturning my management of a forum because it might get them some votes - this is the group which voted one way and then immediately raised a motion to reverse the result of the first vote. Forums cannot be managed on a whim like that.

^

(underline mine)

Jenbel, will you please run for TB next year? At least consider to run?

Yes. They should be managed by individuals whose actions can't even be mentioned without the threat of deletion or banning.

Ultimately ultimately to IB.

Koko, what do you believe is so inherently or normatively deficient about self-set standards? Aren't TB's rules largely self-set?

I'd venture that you find the management structure does make sense but that some of the particulars personally rankle you. It doesn't follow that what you don't like is a normative matter. Perhaps you could you expand on what you mean by 'ultimate accountability to the posters'? There's something rather charged about that statement but the more I read it the more vague it sounds.

Aren't we already and constantly analyzing FT's structure?

^

IB has been pretty awesome about letting the guards run the asylum. I'm simply suggesting letting the inmates have a fuller say in how it's run too.

Because they are done in secret. Transparency would be better. So would having folks other than the enforcers have input on them. The TB guidelines process was transparent and open to comment and input by all posters. The mod selection process is done in secret using guidelines that are not open for review and the best practices are kept under lock and key.

Actually I am not 100% sure what the entire management structure even is, because 1) the best practices guide is a semi-secret, 2) Mod training is done in private and 3) I don't know what else I don't know.

Who is 'we'? Certain aspects of FT's structure are only analyzed by those allowed to talk about it in the moderator forum. Again, in secret.

I'm sure it all makes perfect sense to you though. You are on the inside. That's what I mean when I say that people with different jobs around here have very different perspectives...

I always held the view some of Randy's bans needs to reviewed, He is no longer here, so why should certain members who have full access to the site be barred from certain sections? These users severed their punishment and if they have not been suspended or whatever else since then, should (IMHO) be given the chance to post everywhere, even if it means a probationary period for an year...

I am confident that our Community Director has an open mind to any reasonable request. Might as well try the front door before breaking in through the back window. @:-)

Attempted break-ins often have... consequences.

Never Mind

Perhaps no reply is in and of itself a response. @:-)

Or looking the other way if it has to do with Mod actions.. @:-)

ewrfox or anyone else, if the Community Director does not respond to your question, I volunteer to help. If you can share the question with me via PM and if I agree with you that it's a reasonable request, I will present it to the Community Director in a way that is likely to get an answer.

Probably most other TalkBoard members would do the same for you.

Consider this option a side door.