IMHO only, for three reasons:

1) Ambassadors have a different task and require a different skill set than moderators. There is no reason to look at them identically. Unlike moderators, ambassadors have no administrative power nor the ability to look at a private forum, the private moderator guidelines nor the secret moderator discipline database. It is less a position of trust and more an acknowledgment of the contributions and positive attitude of particular posters.

2) As an acknowledgment of a FTer's body of contributions and attitude, I see no reason to base granting the title on whether or not the poster has had moderator action taken against them or, indeed, has moderator action taken against them during their tenure as an ambassador. I think that whether a person has earned the title should have to do with their entire body of FT work, not on their moderator database record (although, as acknowledged in the proposed guidelines, such record certainly will be taken into account as part of that entire body of FT work).

3) Moderation is outside the TB's purview. We cannot tell Randy/the moderators that one punishment for a suspended ambassador is the stripping of the ambassador title. That said, the TB can at any time strip the title for conduct unbecoming. If the TB is to bestow the title, it should be the TB (or the poster him/her self) that denies or removes it, not a mandatory minimum sentence, particularly one imposed ex post facto.

FWIW, I've made these same arguments several times during development discussion of these guidelines in the private TB forum over the past week or so.


The entire concept here is to get more folks involved and acknowledge and encourage people who are a positive influence on a particular forum. I really, really, really hope we can keep the ambassador program entirely separate from moderation issues and focus on recruiting, rewarding and encouraging positivity rather than on law-and-order punishment issues. And am a little sad that they are the first thing that someone thought of in response to the proposed guidelines.

But that's just me, and other Flyertalkers and TB members may feel differently.