The Moderator Personality

I was curious what everyone had to say about this.

Do you think that there is an ideal personality you look for in a moderator?

Considering that we do not usually need to know much about the moderator to vote them in, is this a good thing?

The foundational requirements are, of course dedication and activity, but what about their personality?

I notice that moderators on numerous forms have to moderate themselves and their behaviour. Why is this? Is it because the ideal moderator ought to be a neutral party and not be inclined to side X instead of Y? Should the best moderator be the one who does not take sides but just contributes simple agreements and acknowledgment to threads?

That is not fair. Moderators should feel free to roam.

I have been a moderator myself on several forms, including this one. I realize that there is a shift in behaviour, but why?

Do you think the ideal moderator should be a neutral party? Or perhaps moderators ought to be allowed to have a platform, much like a politic? If so, should there be parties that are made for forums as well?

Before you really answer, consider a Christian form. Is it better if all the moderators are Christian or ought they have an Atheist on board for the sake of discussion development.

I think what I would suggest is nominating someone who does not believe in Lucid Dreaming as a moderator. This will cause interesting discussion.

However... what do you think?

~

I administrate a forum
www.freemagicschool.com
And yeah, I noticed everytime, a moderator is picked, there personality changes!
Most of the time, I pick them bassed on there personality.
But it normaly changes for te better. Thay act more mature. and what not..
I changed alot when I was picked to be the administrator.
A while back, I had been moderatoing the forum for about 2 years. and sudenly the site is hacked, people were posting pirated stuff, the forum split, and now I administrate it..
Weird.
but yeah.. I do think the ideal moderator should be a nutral party.
becayse he/she is there to help EVERYONE... but I think thay could kimda stick to a side, but theres a difrence between "Your wrong!! blah blah blah" and "In my opinion as me, I think blah blah blah, but as ,y opinion as a moderator blah blah"

I think moderation should be impartial, based on recognised firm set of rules.

Regardless of personal sway, however unfair on the moderator this is. A moderator is only a tool to enforce rules created by whatever party created them. As a tool it should serve impartially and efficiently.

I always thought moderation should be an anonymous thing, that seems like it would keep the process more impartial.

Great question, but i dont think there should be any one particular type of moderator. I personally think it should differ between each.
But while doing their job of actually moderating, they should be impartial, not having an unhealthy bias.

I've been the Administrator of two forums. One of them I recently created. Maybe some of you have heard?

Being the Administrator means you really have to rise to the plate and keep everything organized and running smoothly. Incidentally, the Root Administrator of the other forum I was a part of was completely insane, posting things like the pain olympics and meatspin inside his own private forum that all the staff could see. He was constantly doing weird shit which eventually led up to my banning and the crumbling of the forum itself due to the fact that he was unable to maintain its userbase. This was a person NOT fit to be the Webmaster.

Well, I'm not a full moderator, but we Dream Guides do have some level of moderation. We have a set of rules to follow, but depending on each of our personalities, we will be more strict with one over the other. In my case, I don't care much if someone has an alt account in chat, as long as they are being friendly and nice. When it comes down to it, all I care about is people being nice and caring towards others at DV. If your not, then I'll start. But being a low level moderator, I have this luxury.

I think moderators should be part of the forum, an active force that people can know and trust and recognize. I don't want some random person in the sky to tell me what to do. I would like to know who they are and where they're coming from. Moderators can have a bias, they are human. As long as they are following the guidelines set up by the forum, then they can bend them as they see fit based on what matters to them.

Take Asher for example. It is so hard to reach him to change small things or to be in tune with DV. I remember how awesome it was to have Ice or Seeker just put things up very fast. Just knowing that my Admin was part of this place makes me feel my time is worth while. With an invisible Admin, I feel like he does not care about DV like I do, and there is a disconnect. Imagine if we never had press releases from our president? OR never saw him on TV... Having a face to the leaders makes for good feelings.

Moderators should also believe in what the forum is about. How are they going to understand what a member posts or needs help with if they don't have faith in the subject. If there was a Mod who doesn't believe in Lucid Dreaming, I would be aggravated because they do not believe in the basic foundation of this place. That is to promote awareness and practice of Lucid Dreaming.

I have seen that forum Black eagle!

That was VERY well put Barbizzle!

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That is not fair. Moderators should feel free to roam.

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I wish this were true. But I don't think this can work due to the fact that you should remain impartial at all times. If you are active staff member you find yourself in positions that often require you to be --- politically correct? Maybe that's not the best word. But you have to practice what you preach.
Given the nature of some of the discussion boards on this particular Forum it can be challenging to remain impartial.
As a Moderator yourself O'nus, have you found that to be a challenge?

I have often considered having a duplicate account to be more -- myself. :P
To really put it out there like I would like to say it.
(I guess then I would have to ban myself?¿ :P)
All joking aside, I think this is why rules and regulation are SO very important. It is like being a judge. You can follow the book rather than your own subjective opinions. So if the rules are set in place as they should be.. then you are right in saying that we as a staff member should be able to roam as freely as the next. But again, it seems to not work this way.

With regards to having leadership without the staff involved in the underlying concept of the Forum they are moderating. This would to some extent allow the person on staff to moderate less biasly. Much like Asher. I don't see much involvement with him and lucid dreaming regardless of his claims. But using him as a counter argument he is disconnected to the community. So which is the lesser of two evils?

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Originally Posted by O'nus

I think what I would suggest is nominating someone who does not believe in Lucid Dreaming as a moderator. This will cause interesting discussion.

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Seems like we could get all the benefits of discussion and whatnot by simply recruiting some regular members in the forum who don't believe in LDing. I don't see the benefit in giving them a ban hammer though.

I don't think anyone should have to break the rules to be themself and post how they feel. The only time a moderator really needs to be impartial is when a rule is broken. As long as the rules are clearly defined and adhered to, moderators should be able to post as they please.

My main point, really, is if you have to vote for a person to be moderator - what personality are you really looking for?

~

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Originally Posted by O'nus

My main point, really, is if you have to vote for a person to be moderator - what personality are you really looking for?

~

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Someone with the ability to easily disconnect emotionally when the need arises to enforce a rule or make a decision in a dispute.

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Originally Posted by Xaqaria

Someone with the ability to easily disconnect emotionally when the need arises to enforce a rule or make a decision in a dispute.

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And each time we do, we get castrated for it. :P

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Originally Posted by Howie

And each time we do, we get castrated for it. :P

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Not caring about that is part of the detachment.

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Originally Posted by Xaqaria

Not caring about that is part of the detachment.

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In some respects yes. But I personally think that it is vital for a staff member to care for the community they are involved in administrating. Don't you?

For example;
When I am resposible for imposing an infraction rule or whatever, I have that "detachment" attitude because it is the rules that I am following. However when the punishment is carried out and it trickles over into the general Forum and it's members and they have a general disliking for what has been done.... it does affect me in a more personal manner. Mostly for the reason that I feel the members seem to respond as if our (the Staff's) decision making is just a knee jerk reaction. When in reality there is a ton of back and forth feedback from Dream Guides to Admins.
That certainly not to implying the members are not entitled to their own opinion. I just feel a lot of the time it is perhaps a miscommunication between members and administration.

Do admins have any powers Mods don't.

Yes. These include making direct changes to user accounts and forums, as well as many others.

Well since the beginning of time ManOfSteel was handpicked by the greatest minds and thus the ultimate form of moderation began... Personality Unchanged + Great Person + Etc. + Etc. + Etc. Setting the standard for generations to come.

You need to know when to let some trolls live, and let some trolls die. Also, redirect the noobs' posts to the dump, and try not to close every thread you find.