What if moderators were elected?

Is this in reference to Fluther? If so, I’m flagging the question and asking that it be moved to the Meta section. (Does that make me a candidate?)

If it aint broke…

You say they would they have to campaign, or would they really be elected by friends and family? I see problems.

No, it would not be good if they were elected. Moderation is discussed among the moderators before action is taken. That makes what happens even-handed in all instances.

Also, moderators should be the site owners’ choice.

I think the best way would be for the existing moderators to write a job description. They know what it requires to do the job well, albeit probably with varying opinions. It might be necessary to find someone in a certain time zone or with a work schedule that would allow coverage for hours that currently cannot effectively be covered.

Once a job description is crafted, it would be helpful to include the reality of the responsibility. It could be posted on their job site. An election of the candidates that qualify might be interesting; I’d still want the moderators and staff members to have veto power.

Let’s start an enormous bureaucracy…committees, fund raisers, debates, by-laws and smear campaigns. After all, what else have we to do? First, we must insist that Ben and Andrew go public and sell common stocks and bonds.

I agree with Zen (If it ain’t broke…).

I would make a terrible moderator. I can be pretty mouthy when people act like jackasses or someone says something that rubs me the wrong way. I wouldn’t be able to hold my tongue.

Flutherocracy!!!!!

I would so easily win. ;)

I would also pass out cookies, sandwiches and beer to everyone. :)

Then I would fly everyone to Hawaii and we would host an all night party at the Aquarium and name a real jellyfish after all the 20k and above jellies.
After some libations we can go to the shark tank and play “Dip the Troll”

The next morning we would all get up, drink mimosas and have a Fluther Longboard Surfing day.

Do I get your vote? :D

@Dog‘s a weiner! =)

@Dog Yes, just for the trip to Hawaii and the party near the jellyfish tower at the aquarium.

I am with @Pied_Pfeffer about job descriptions. Regardless of who’s there, if you know what sort of standards they’re working with, etc., then it’s easier to accept why certain answers get flagged and all that.

I don’t think there’s a problem with moderator selection so much as communication about their reasons. It seems to be happening more, and that’s awesome. Also – remember that the site is, in so many ways, more self-monitored than anything. The mod work happening behind the scenes is more about spam, etc., as I see it going down.

Since it’s a privately owned site, I assume that decisions about moderators include maintaining the tone and quality of the site that the owners have in mind.

And since elections are often popularity contests, it wouldn’t necessarily maintain that quality.

I like that idea, as long as NONE OF THE ABOVE was part of it. ;-)

I personally see no need for electing mods. I think the Powers That Be know what they want in a mod and honestly, I think the mod crew is made up of awesome people. No, I am not referring to myself.. but I will say that I was incredibly honored to be included in such an admirable group. All of us are long-term users, so our behavior and how we play with others has been observed to be consistent. Those of us asked to be mods have consistently displayed fairness and a willingness to play nice with others.

It seems to me that most people are okay with the current moderation practices and there are only a few people that are bothered by it. From my observation thus far, I find the mod team to be incredibly fair. Pretty much everyone other than spammers gets multiple chances to clean up their act. We don’t ‘disappear’ anyone without some sort of discussion or warning beforehand.

I’d vote for none of the above! Nah, only kidding.There are one or two, perhaps even three mods that are okay in my book :¬)

I have occasionally seen requests from the owners for nominations or suggestions, but they do the choosing.

In reality, jokes aside, I strongly doubt that since this job is an unpaid volunteer position that we would get any volunteers if they had to be up for public judgement. I, for one, would not want to see a popularity tally on anyone, especially myself.

Again- we work for FREE and spend hours upon hours in the background keeping standards up and helping users. We work as a TEAM.

Without the moderation team this site would not be as pleasant a place to interact- unless you like to argue with angry, abusive trolls and buy fake designer handbags.

I kind of like it as it is. :)

@Dog I lol4rled at “dip the troll” in the shark tank.

I’d have a hard time raising millions of dollars when child labor laws get in the way of things.

I have a website with mods. I would shut the thing down before electing mods.

@johnpowell HEY!

@dog :: Shut down was harsh. But I would simply stop development or maintenance. And the code is pretty much open source and the awesome lady that is my partner can have a copy of the database if I bail. Luckily no moderation has really be needed. I’m cool if the users are, and they have been.

Please do not leave us. You are one of the funniest users! If you don’t want to code on it anymore I am cool with that but please do not leave. ( and we don’t need no steekin modz)