Randy: Please publicly support the Moderators!
 

Randy,

I know you took the blame for the Security Breach in the TalkTeam Forum, but your decision to close the forum has has what I hope were unintended side effects.

1. Your moderators now do not have access to one of thier most useful tools.

2. The vocal MINORITY of members here who love to bash the moderators are now claiming "Victory".

I am not a moderator and do not speak for any of them, but if I were, I would be concerned about the lack of public support. The moderator team has in my opinion done a fabulous job and do not deserve to be attacked in the fashion that they have. The only way for these attacks to stop is for you to publicly deal with the attackers.

I know you have a business to run and it is usually not good business sense to publicly deal with "Bad Customers", but by the same token it is very bad for "Employee" morale to be constantly attacked.

I've been traveling and without internet access, so I'm just coming back to the latest developments here. Would somebody kindly link to Randy's comments on the subject (or, if he sent a broad email, would somebody forward it to me? My FT email box was overfull when I returned and I likely lost a couple days of emails). Thanks!

gleff. You picked a very wise weekend to be away from a computer IMO. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

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~ Glen ~ sipping bubbly from a UA 747-400 exit row 15 near you SOON!

gleff,

Here is the tread with Randy's comments.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum97/HTML/000934.html

The rest of the crap is gone, but I am sure someone will fill you in.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/thumbsup.gif I agree with with CameraGuy said. It's a thankless job to take on a moderator role that takes so much time, commitment, and "pay", and have to deal with participants who are probably among the most intelligent individuals in our population and who don't hesitate to speak out on issues. I believe the moderators should have their private forum to discuss how to deal with various concerns, and at least learn from one another's experiences. Without a forum, they would probably resort to emails, which would not be as effective as the forum.

If they really want a private forum, this is very easy to set up anywhere on the Internet for free in about 5 minutes. Doesn't even take a hacker to do that http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif.

Randy has repeatedly stated is unwavering support of his Moderators.

Until he SAYS differently, I assume that stance has not changed.

I assumed he closed the Moderator and TalkBoard forums until he could assure they would not be compromised further. I did not take that as a loss of confidence in his Talk Team.

While it is obvious some people have problems with the moderators, I like to believe that most FT members - like myself - still respect the work that the moderators have done for this community.

Keep up the good work Moderators.

William

I firmly believe that Randy supports all his moderation team I do have a question in that, why is any question or criticism of any moderation practice or decision considered an attack on individual moderators, moderators as a group, or FT in general? Would questions and comments not be constuctive with the potential of improving FT if they were considered?

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dallasflyer, Living in Denver and Dallas, oh boy!

Sometimes just SAYING you support someone isn't enough.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/thumbsup.gif

But really, Scott, what would you have him do? These various calls for expulsion are really over the top, in my view. Also, some moderators and their friends do seem to carry a bit too much of a grudge.

I think almost every participant in Flyer Talk recognizes what an outstanding job the moderator corps does over all, and Randy has been unstinting in his praise.

Just as we, the members, have to learn to bite our tounges when the ref makes an occasional bad call, so, too, do the refs need to learn to endure the razzing from the fans. It's part of the job description.

If what the posters perceive to be "constructive criticism" is actually "abuse and cat-calls" in violation of the ToS, well, then, even the occasional fan does get ejected.

But it's his sandbox. Maybe our host should hold a party for the moderators, and include free counseling in anger management? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

[No "attack" intended.]

I'm getting alot of recommendations for counseling these days. Maybe there's something to it.

...

[This message has been edited by alanw (edited Feb 03, 2004).]

No attack intended here either, but without having been a moderator I don't feel this is an issue you can judge us on, seeing a few out of context posts doesn't make one an insider to the task we have to perform.

When countless emails regarding member actions go unanswered and the general consensus is that moderators have to make decisions on their own as the "powers that be" don't respond to some of the troubles we have then you'll see why things got out of hand and had us posting about other members in the manner we did.

Trust me, if emails had been answered and action had been taken OR we were told that we were incorrect or exaggerating the problem then we wouldn't have had to discuss people behind closed doors as we have always respected the decisions of those behind Flyertalk.

Some of the posts I've seen over the weekend make it look like we are a bunch of vindictive power hungry attack wolves, but what it all boils down to is that we are a very dedicated bunch of people that offer up a lot of time every day to help keep our assigned boards a nice and friendly place (moderating omni takes around one hour a day of my time, the past weeks have had one or two moderators giving up 3 or 4 hours of their weekend to keep the place running smooth).

Don't get me wrong, I respect "the big man" as much as everyone else here on Flyertalk, but when the general feeling is that complaints usually go unanswered then you can understand why some have a bit of a morale problem.

I run my own business so understand that Flyertalk is just a very small portion of the daily schedule, but running and offering a board of this magnitude comes with a very large responsibility, all someone needs to do to create havoc is post their stuff after Friday 6pm and they have all weekend to screw around, what if someone started posting kiddie porn? Obvious troll accounts were not dealt with right away and were still merrily posting away this morning.

It has become perfectly OK for members to rant on and on about moderation and moderators and take constant hits at us, which is why as moderator I would have like to seen some words asking people to be more constructive in their criticism instead of constantly trying to find flaws.

Last but not least, we have been attacked for our "gossip and backstabbing" behind closed doors, but some of the emails I've been forwarded made by the more vocal people posting here over the past days make us look like a bunch of kiddies, very personal stuff and of such a nasty and evil nature that I came very close to packing it all in and quitting. Whenever you send someone an email always keep in mind that the recipient might not share your points of view .

But at the end of the day it's all just an internet board and it's not worth getting upset about, but I hope my rant sheds some light on the aggravation I (and many of my colleagues) have. I think the best thing to do now is work together to make sure everyone is happy with the work we do, and that no moderator feels that the task he or she has to perform is under constant scrutiny of a few select vocal members of the community, remember that the time we put into this is our spare time and that we do it for the love of the board.

What ScottC said. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/thumbsup.gif

Amen on all counts.