Super mods

It's that time again, when the members are buzzing and bids are being placed for power, there's more disarray than usual, and people are clamouring at the suggestion forum for answers: Rich has super mods. Three of them — Aeshma, Nintendo_dude, and me.

Contrary to the first moderator applications, however, there hasn't been much euphoria among us, since there are only three of us and the idea was a serious matter way before now enough to deny public application. The concept of moderation wasn't implanted until October, when a lie about Grand Theft Auto San Andreas' release date was closed, and later on someone piped up about the idea of employing moderators (if you have the patience to traverse the dead topics squeezed in the back of the forum roster, you'll see how much it mattered to them in an environment of aristocracy) and it suddenly became an issue as hot as the 2000 American presidential election — people were bickering over who was competent and who wasn't, the arguments made it hard for the forum to recover from the ignominy of Spam Fest, and the registration influx came to a screeching halt.

Then, on 17 March 2005, the problem seemed resolved. Rich had announced that he was going to appoint moderators for forums and he was taking applications at an email address on the server. On 20 March, the mods were set and it took a day (against the forecasted week) to get the mod functions running. Applications for the General Boards were to follow shortly.

Personally, I can see the psychosocial logic in applying for moderator, but I think it's somewhat odd to give someone the sceptre when they ask for it. Moderators, as you know, run individual forums with the power to move, close, and delete topics and/or posts. Such actions must be backed by enforcement of the rules of the forum. While I'm prepared to bet that the bulk of applications came from really dependable people, I also have seen applications for my own forums from people who hadn't read the rules and probably wouldn't be willing to enforce them as per my orders; next to these were topics on the Super Cheats forums asking for the definition of 'moderator' and an application for one. The answer to the question surrounding this is the psychosocial requirement of uniqueness — if you have a certain title, people are going to remember you by it. And it's evident, too.