Do you think the "mods" give lurve to encourage people to stay on Fluther?

No. They are the neutral judges, artibiters, ombudsmen, tie-breakers and interpreters of reality.

By definition, the role of a moderator is to be impartial. No shaving or loading of the dice, no marked cards, no bribery or back stage chicanery and no favorites, ever.

If you want to actually tilt the scales, send jellies (like me) privately turkeys or hams at Thanksgiving, lottery tickets, a sports car, a year’s supply of cat food and grooming for Milo and simply money. (SASE on request,)

Mods are mods, but they’re not always “on”. They get to participate in the life of the site as civilians whenever they want, and just put on their mod hats when called for. So I’m going to assume that they do the same thing that I —and no doubt others—occasionally do, and give a little gratuitous lurve to newbies. It’s definitely not a policy to do this, though.

Don’t know about the mods although I can’t imagine they would do that, but I sometimes give GA to new Jellies,especially when I feel they are nice additions to Fluther and when I feel they need a bit encouragement.

I don’t think there is any sort of policy about just giving lurve. How do you know that it is mods giving the lurve?

I don’t think the mods think of giving lurve as part of their job.

I know that I and several other members give lurve to a new jelly’s good answers to encourage them.

I never did.

It’s certainly not a job requirement. I do tend to give out a lot of lurve, but I’ve been doing that since before I was a moderator.

Why would getting lurve make anyone stay or leave Fluther? It’s not like you can cash it in for glamorous prizes or vacation destinations.

@chyna I imagine because it would make people feel welcome. Someone who never received a GA probably wouldn’t feel like sticking around.

I don’t think so, but I have seen Auggie encourge newer users by her kind words, right on a thread, if it looks like they’ve been discouraged or spooked, but it doesn’t seem like it would be very useful to give fake lurve. When I was new, even though I had heard the word lurve, I didn’t then and still rarely look at my lurve score. I’m really bad at math and numbers so stuff like those numbers don’t have much meaning to me, kind of like I don’t know what numbers are good and bad for blood pressure or cholesterol either. And don’t even get me started talking about the new figure skating scoring method. I get that you recieve or lose points for every single move, but I wouldn’t know the difference between a score of 100 or 1000 because I never understand what the baseline number is. It was so much easier when it was just a score between 1 and 6. That made it pretty obvious who was doing well.

It’s definitely not our policy, but as a personal matter, I do give lurve to new users as long as what they post is decent. Not to encourage them to stay, but to make them feel welcomed.

As has been said, I don’t give out lurve as part of my role as moderator. I do tend to try to be supportive of new people though and yes, will give lurve to new people on good questions or answers. I might also spend a bit more time giving them feedback and explaining why a question they posted was modded than I would with a long-standing member.

Other than that though… no.

Yes, they do. I just joined yesterday, and they gave me all this “lurve” for some reason. Not sure why.

@Kardamom

I’m like you in that I rarely pay attention to my lurve and numbers are generally a big amorphous blur. But there has been one fairly recent exception.

And I guarantee that when you repeatedly start hearing comments about how high your blood pressure is and a Dr. Begins trying to find a med which will successfully reduce those numbers consistently, they will come onto focus (and memory) with startling clarity after you get a home NP monitor to keep track regularly :)

But of course those are the ONLY numbers which have much meaning for me…......

No. In my experience they give neck rubs and bake cookies.
but it may just be me.

[Not a Mod Says]: I often give lurve to threads and answers I am not following. I often give lurve for matters I have no interest in but think the question or answer was interesting.

Considering it’s anonymous @Aster, what makes you think the mod is the one giving the lurve?

I do not, as a mod or as a jelly, give lurve to entice people to stay. I give lurve when lurve is deserved.

@SuperMouse:Milo here; So how do you explain the regular deliveries of turkey, ham, single malt scotch and fresh catnip that arrive here monthly for me? The tooth fairy? I don’t think so.

@Milo, I thought we had an agreement not to discuss that.

@SuperMouse: MIlo here; Sorry. Have your lawyers call mine.