AJ, on 30 Jan 2009, 19:08, said:
Well I didn't imagine I'd see this thread ever again. Ah well. As you say, there are two very specific times when this forum peaks. These are evening time GMT (2000-0000), and early morning GMT(0400-0700), as far as I can tell. It would also be fair to say that the first of these times is by far the busiest times, with the bulk of the posting members posting around this time, due to their timezone. As the evening goes on, activity drops until the early morning GMT, which is when essentially, the evening for the Americas kicks in.
Therefore because of the European-centred staff there is about 7 of them active in GMT evening, and about 2 at most active in GMT morning.
AJ, on 30 Jan 2009, 19:08, said:
The bulk of the stadmins reflects these timezones, with all of the moderators bar Comr4de and JB occupying timezones in Europe, thus being available for the time periods when the forum peaks, and then JB and Comr4de, along with Stinger to a degree, keep the forums ticking over while the rest of the team sleeps. Nonetheless, the stadmins moderate when they are available to - it's too much to ask for one of the European-based moderators to moderate into the very small hours of the morning. I would, however, agree that from the perspective of somebody in a similar timezone to yourself, that the stadmin presence is limited, considering how you occupy the times that most of them are asleep or at work/educational institutions. Sadly, I don't think that there is much that can be done about this, as the majority of members here are from the European areas, and this is reflected as such in the locations of the Stadmins. I won't go so far as to express my thoughts on redundancy, but will simply leave it at that additional heads can be helpful in decision making circumstances, and not everything needs to be in plain view of the public.
You missed Overdose there, but that's about all. While the European admods moderate "when required", they just aren't required as the more dedicated ones do things and the others just sit there doing nothing, they may make a post or two, but several of them I haven't seen do any moderating action in a long while. If you actually do look in "Today's Active posts" at the bottom of the main page, you'll see that there is about a 50/50 split in the forum activity, but a 1/5 split in admods. With the redundancy, take this example:
It is currently 2200 GMT, at peak time - admods 1 through to 5 are all active. Admods 1 and 2 are the dedicated ones, who do most of the forum related maintenance, admods 3-5 haven't moderated for a long time and therefore I believe them to be redundant as moderators. On decisions: do they need moderating powers they
do not use to help with decision making?
AJ, on 30 Jan 2009, 19:08, said:
As to the 'ignorance/hypocrisy/arrogance/inactivity' I will point out that the moderating team is always active, as you pointed out in your opening paragraph - hence the 'inactivity' point is redundant. I am yet to see a misuse of power from the team, but if you wanted to link to an example of said arrogance/hypocrisy I would take it into account. Currently, the stadmins fulfils their duties, and take into account the views of the Community, while still being firm on areas where they feel that the Community would benefit - the PA changes are testament to that, even if it wasn't the complete change that some people were hoping for, it was certainly a step in the right direction as judged from what we suggested. However, the stadmins have proven that they can listen - not everything was done perfectly, but no human is perfect, and the result has proven to create a better vibe between the stadmins and the rest of the community. Frankly, don't fix what isn't broken, and currently, I can't see how it is. My only thought for change would be to perhaps balance between the two timezones a bit more, but I'd only perform that change if the forums became more active overnight, while they appear not to be at the moment.
The moderating team is not always active (I said majority, not all). Certain people disappear for months, others don't use their powers for months, some others think their position gives them some forcefield against criticism. The admod team as a whole fulfils their duty, but it is half of the actual team that does this duty. The others just aren't needed. In order to 'balance', you either need to subtract or add, and due to the admods already covering all the duties required, it makes sense to demote the ones who aren't doing anything.