Since I started this, I'd like to respond.

First of all, my post was also meant as constructive criticism. I think doc also expressed many of my concerns.

I recognize the need for moderators, but I'd like to avoid heavy-handed action. I think a moderator only needs to get involved in extreme cases, but having additional moderators allows us to do it a bit more proactively than we used to do it in the past. I thought that the main thing was to keep a lid on the personal attacks and stop those things from getting out of hand.

Well, I think that's we should only move threads if they are really really off-topic. I think we have to take a different direction with the first forum in the the forum list, and relax the rules for that forum.

Secondly, I think it's imperative that if a moderator moves a thread, by locking/closing the old one with a message, it's imperative that you go back and add a link to the 'closed/moved' message in the locked thread with the link to the moved thread. Those of us that post "correctly" do this all the time .. I would just look at it as part of the job, and if you don't want to take the extra step of copying the link from one window into an edit window in another window, then just don't move it. It's just too hard to follow the thread around otherwise.

Remember, if you're moving a thread, it must add value to move it, and part of that value-added is to link the closed thread to the new thread. Otherwise, moving it isn't adding any value, in my opinion.

Anybody that posts to FT (or moderates FT) should use the same rule of thumb. Does my action 'add value' or not? At some point, everybody forgets this, especially me

Yes, that's really more of a technical issue and not a moderator issue. I should have posted this in 'suggestions' or separately.

Skipping number 3 ..

I think it's going to take time to get it right and strike a better balance. My opinion is that moving or closing a thread should only be done under the most dire circumstances, and then only to add value. Some of the topics that have been moved to 'in the news' should have been left in 'buzz'. My opinion: relax the standards for 'buzz' or whatever the first forum in the forum list happens to be. Heck, you could even add a 'coffee break' forum and make that one first in the list if you want to. People will always post general topics in the first one in the list no matter what you do, and moving them makes it harder for the community. Obviously, this is quite subjective, and I've seen some that had only specific value to a specific hotel chain or airline, but, it doesn't really matter, because once posted, it doesn't add value to move it.

The 'federal miles' topic should not have been moved. Even the one that Randy mentioned could have been posted in several places should not have been moved. If there's even an iota of doubt, don't move it. How about the 'get xxx miles for xxx program' .. They all got moved into the xxx forum, but the target audience of these things is broader than xxx airlines. I was surprised those were also moved.

Just because it's related to a news story doesn't automatically mean that it belongs in 'in the news'.

I guess I just don't see the value added in moving them.

Well, for one thing, where would you move it to? Sure 'mileage run' is appropriate, but so is buzz. Again .. what value is being added by moving these things around? If it's the organization of the data base, it might be more appropriate to add a one item post to where you think it belongs that contains a link to the 'real thread'. I've often wished we could post single item threads that you can't respond to if they contain a link to the real item. A data base allows a cross-section view of the data, allowing a user to search on their own criteria. Unfortunaly, the FT data base organization doesn't currently lend itself to cross-forum searches, so we don't have that functionality. The presence of moderators moving threads around won't fix that.

I think we need to take that into account. If you can't notify the community, don't move it.

I think part of the problem here is that there's always been a disagreement about what constitutes an off-topic thread. Several months ago, there were a relatively minor number of members that thought it was necessary to post a 'this topic belongs in xxx' in any post in a forum that they thought was off-topic, while the rest of us remained silent. The silence, in some cases, wasn't because we didn't care .. we did, and believe me, it was annoying to have to re-read a thread only to find the only new information in that thread was "this belongs in the xxx forum" .. what a waste of time that was .. why? Because a post that consists of only "this should have been posted in xxx" adds no value to the information. Thus, posting a "please don't post messages that consist solely of -- this topic belongs in xxx -- would also be a similar waste of information".


Skipping 8, 9 and 10.

Yes, and I appreciate it, but I think it's going to take time to strike the right balance.

When you are working as a moderator, the hard part is to not let your own bias affect the work since this is all so subjective. That's a difficult thing to do. The moderators will also have to moderate each other.

-David