How does the Fluther moderator process work?

I think a new section under FAQ is needed. I see a new question about the moderators every day.

I’ve had both a question and an answer modded.

Both times, I received an email letting me know what the issue was and what steps, if any could take to correct it. I don’t take offense to that because I know how tough it must be to appear fair and balanced when there are 400,000 people visiting the site every month.

I have not been here long, but have received moderation on a question. THey told me my question had not enough details. I added details, which they seem to like. I don’t yet understand the rules how they are applied. I will learn.

I have no idea but I’ll be interested to see what someone knowledgeable says.

I purposely flagged this question (MY own question) in hopes that it would get to the attention of mods and they can respond.

Why don’t you just PM them and ask?

Or why don’t you check out the Blog and read through the transcript from the open chat room session that ben and andrew hosted this week since it was all about how the moderation process works?

Or why don’t you plan to attend the next session of the chat room?

Also, when you go to a restaurant, do you think it is your right to ask what people get paid?

@fireside, thanks for the suggestions. Are my questions answered in the blog?

“Also, when you go to a restaurant, do you think it is your right to ask what people get paid?”

I’d consider it FAR WORSE if I called someone out on it and he didn’t even ASK that. I’d feel it would make me look stupid.

Hopefully, a mod will show up. I can answer some of your questions.

1. Moderators are not paid.

2. Moderators can moderate a question on their own, but they confer a lot, because they work hard to be consistent.

3. You can appeal by PMing the moderator that contacts you about your issue. I once had an answer removed, because someone mistook it for a quip. When I explained the answer, it was put back in. I suspect that does not happen often. Most of the time, I accept their decisions.

4. Andrew explained much about this in the chatroom round table discussion the other day. He also is revising the guidelines and will include a section on how moderating works on the site.

5. Moderators are asked to be moderators by the founders. You can express an interest if it is something you want to do. They are looking for people whose answers show even handedness, calm, and a love for and concern for the site.

6. In a way, all Flutherers contribute to moderating the site by flagging questions or answers that do not conform to the guidelines.

I’m sure I missed it but when and where did Fluther announce the chatroom session that would address mods and moderating?

Here

I saw that after I posted. Thanks.

[mod says:]
1. Mods do not work certain shifts.
2. Yes, we moderate whenever we are on Fluther. This is why there are some times when no questions get removed, because no mod is online. Sorry if this bugs some of you, but we have to sleep/study/take care of kids/eat/work/etc.
3. The stuff that is blatantly against the guidelines and be removed by any mod individually. If something is iffy, then mods discuss it before taking any kind of action.
4. Yes, that can happen, but we try to discuss things as much as possible and stick as close to the guidelines as we can.
5. What we do to try to ensure uniformity is stick as close to the guidelines as possible. They are available for everyone to read and familiarize themselves with. All we do is follow them and try to make sure that the rest of Fluther does too.
6. If there is any question about a question or answer, the mods talk about it first. If you’re asking if they can be appealed by the person who wrote them, the answer is yes, of course. You can PM any of us to ask why your question or answer was taken down (though a lot of times it’s just sent back to be edited, not removed completely) and we’ll try to work with you to explain why. There is no guarantee that it will go back up.
7. Mods are not paid. It’s a labor of love. (bats eyelashes)
8. A lot of Futhering, levelheadedness, a commitment to want to make Fluther better. Andrew or Ben ask you if you would like to be a site moderator.
9. The mods are: myself, omfgtalijustIMdu, augustlan, GD_Kimble, shilolo, sndfreQ. The community managers are: PnL and richardhenry. The founders are: Ben and Andrew. (Sometimes sferik pops in too.)

It’s just out job to remove the questions, it’s your job to flag flag flag. Sometimes we don’t even notice a question or quip until it gets flagged. Once it’s flagged, we get an email and then we have the opportunity to do something. So please… FLAG!
You can always ask us questions via PM. Like I said before, we aren’t online every minute so it might take a bit before you get an answer, but you will get an answer.

Anything else feel free to ask.

Awesome answer! Thanks.

One more question then, “WHAT“S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A MOD AND A COMMUNITY MANAGER?”

[mod says:] Mods and Community Managers both monitor the site by pushing Qs back to editing, removing quips, inserting mod comments into threads etc. Community Managers also deal with community “drama” as in “So and so called me a jerk! Get him/her out of my fluther” etc. Typically, it is not that juvenile, but you get the idea. That said, mods also do deal with such situations, but they are free to hand it over to a community manager if the situation escalates or they just don’t want to deal with it any longer. Community managers also deal with sending ban emails, train new mods and have community meetings/week with Andrew to discuss the current state of the site + features needed.

Features needed? I vote for a “stop following” button on the BOTTOM of the posts.

That’s a good idea.

Why take up the real estate?
I would just wait for it to come up in the Activity section and then stop following.

If there was a button for every option which would avoid an extra click, the layout would drive people away.

Have you even LOOKED at the “stop following” button on the top of the page? Look at it now. I’ll wait. You call that “real estate”? Give me a break. OK. So they should MOVE the button to the bottom of the page. No “real estate” sacrificed.

Is hitting the Home key really that difficult?
Or tapping the bar on an iPhone?

Er, tapping the bar on an iPhone would be kinda hard for those people who don’t have one. Don’t you think?

Does EVERY change affect you like this? WOW!

I only added iPhone so that you didn’t say, “I don’t have a Home key, I’m on an iPhone”

I’m just saying that the bottom of the screen is pretty full.
Should they redesign and reprogram the site to suit everyone’s wants?

When you go to a restaurant, do you tell the diner that you think the restaurant should rearrange the tables?

Are you for real?

@Mr_M You’re no longer a monkey! Is that a picture of you, or someone else?

I want to back you up by saying that when I tap the bar to go to the top of the page to unfollow, going back to the bottom of the page to get to “next activity” is a lot to scroll through. That’s why I like the idea of adding a “stop following” button at the bottom of the page – at least for the iPhone.

@Trustinglife , it’s me. I shaved! (Actually it’s 10 years old. More grey at the temples now.)

Hey, I think the idea is good. I suspect a lot of people read through the recent posts, decide it’s not worth following anymore, then go back up and click on “stop following”.