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The Responsibilities Of A Board Moderator
More than doing anything else the Moderator is responsible for maintaining interest in, and activity on, a board. You will also have the ability to modify, move, and delete all posts on your board. This ability must be handled with responsibility. The users and staff are trusting you with that power and responsibility, please weild it wisely.
Moderators also have the responsibility to keep harmful or offensive posts and people out of their boards. What we mean when we say "harmful or offensive" is material that is unequivocally an abuse of the system itself, the exploitation for commercial gain or maliscious intent of the congregation of the membership general and our ability to freely communicate. We mean blatant advertisements, multiple posts with identical content ("bombing" or "spamming" or "cross-posting"), or attacks against members or acuramdx.org that have been written by individuals whose only reason for being here seems to be to attack.
What A Board Moderator Can See & Do
When you become a Board Moderator you will see some changes in the appearance of your board and in the way some of its features behave versus the appearance and behavior the membership general experiences.
First, what a Moderator sees: In the Author area of any of your posts on the board, even ones from before you became the Moderator, you and the membership general will now see your Member Group listed as "Board Moderator". On all other boards you will retain your normal Member Group status. At the bottom of any given topic screen, under the last post of the topic, you will now see additional buttons and tools that were not visible before you became the Moderator. Those tools are defined below.
The behavior of certain tools on the board you moderate will change to recognize your new abilities as Moderator.
Open/Close Any Thread
You will now be able to lock or unlock a thread, preventing or allowing new replies to be added. One of the functions of a Moderator is to keep the board organized and easy to use. Threads are allowed 15 posts per page; after 15 posts a new page is created. While the pages are easy to navigate either from the thread list or the bottom of the messages pages, a popular thread can grow unweildly fairly quickly.
If one thread is too big, in your opinion, you should lock it and begin a new topic continuing the first. Don't delete the first topic, leave it there for future readers as long as it has relevance. It's always a good idea, when splitting threads, to make note that the active thread is not the the first.
The best way to do this is to cite it in the topic title, for example when locking a topic called "special fx in film", make the new topic title "special fx in film (part 2)".
Move/Copy Any Thread
This tool only applies if you wish to move a thread from one category to another.
Edit/Delete Any Post Or Thread
You will now be able to modify or delete any post on the board. When you modify another member's post, that member's name and information is retained as the author; your name will not replace his even though you were the last to modify the post. This is one of the primary reasons why being a responsible and trustworthy Moderator is so important.
Merge Thread
You may now merge threads. When you merge two or more threads, it is best to place a small note stating why. Usually the purpose of this is to prevent posts on a similar topic having active threads in various categories.
Split Threads
You will now be able to split threads. When a thread has posts a several posts that have gone off the main topic of the primary thread, and are a relavent group of posts it is best to split it and create new thread in the same category with the selected posts.
Stick/Unstick Threads
This tool only applies if you wish to have a thread stay at the top of a category. This is helpful when you need to place posting rules, announcements, or advice for a specific category .
Actions A Board Moderator May Take
Occassionally tempers flare and attacks ("flaming") occur. They can be directed against an individual member, the Moderator, or Our website as a whole. Attacks can be a few angry posts (minor), spamming the board (moderate), or spamming PM boxes and e-mail addresses (severe). In addition to watching out for get-rick-quick, mlm, and similar attacks, Moderators must be wary of, and quick to put out, temper fires. Most people will use a bulletin board responsibly. It is only the occassional rude individual, who tends to ruin it for everyone. And it's the job of the Board Moderators to identify, isolate, and expunge posts and/or individuals who do threaten the membership general. If either type of posts do appear the Moderator has several tools at his disposal, depending on the severity and frequency of the problem.
The most important tool a Moderator has is his own judgement. Use it. Often members invite others to visit their websites. This is perfectly acceptible. If the majority of the person's posts, however, are advertisements for his website, then that is not acceptible, unless that member is a sponsor with acuramdx.org. If you are not sure, email info at acuramdx.org
Request Member Edit The Post
For minor problems, especially with regard to angry posts, the best course of action, and the one least likely to further anger anyone, is to politely request via PM that the author modify or remove his post. Explain calmly and cooly why you believe the post shouldn't remain active as it is. You may also wish to suggest that the angry member settle his differences with the opposing member privately.
Lock The Topic
If the post or topic does not include an objectionable URL or photo, or is simply a heated argument that has apparently cooled, but which you do not wish to remove, you may wish to lock the topic so no further posts may be added. This allows the post(s) to continue to be read, however, so keep that in mind. If you find the topic very objectionable but have chosen to lock it rather than remove it, leave it locked for a few days then remove it.
Delete The Post
You may delete individual posts simply by clicking the "delete" button toward the top of any post. Occassionally members posting replies hit the "send" button too many times and multiple copies of the message get posted. This is an honest mistake; simply delete the extra copies. It is always a good idea to copy (author information, date and time, and body of the post) any post you delete (other than duplicates), and PM or e-mail it to the Administrator. By doing that you will have fully informed the Administrator in the event your judgement and action on the matter is ever questioned.
More than doing anything else the Moderator is responsible for maintaining interest in, and activity on, a board. You will also have the ability to modify, move, and delete all posts on your board. This ability must be handled with responsibility. The users and staff are trusting you with that power and responsibility, please weild it wisely.
Moderators also have the responsibility to keep harmful or offensive posts and people out of their boards. What we mean when we say "harmful or offensive" is material that is unequivocally an abuse of the system itself, the exploitation for commercial gain or maliscious intent of the congregation of the membership general and our ability to freely communicate. We mean blatant advertisements, multiple posts with identical content ("bombing" or "spamming" or "cross-posting"), or attacks against members or acuramdx.org that have been written by individuals whose only reason for being here seems to be to attack.
What A Board Moderator Can See & Do
When you become a Board Moderator you will see some changes in the appearance of your board and in the way some of its features behave versus the appearance and behavior the membership general experiences.
First, what a Moderator sees: In the Author area of any of your posts on the board, even ones from before you became the Moderator, you and the membership general will now see your Member Group listed as "Board Moderator". On all other boards you will retain your normal Member Group status. At the bottom of any given topic screen, under the last post of the topic, you will now see additional buttons and tools that were not visible before you became the Moderator. Those tools are defined below.
The behavior of certain tools on the board you moderate will change to recognize your new abilities as Moderator.
Open/Close Any Thread
You will now be able to lock or unlock a thread, preventing or allowing new replies to be added. One of the functions of a Moderator is to keep the board organized and easy to use. Threads are allowed 15 posts per page; after 15 posts a new page is created. While the pages are easy to navigate either from the thread list or the bottom of the messages pages, a popular thread can grow unweildly fairly quickly.
If one thread is too big, in your opinion, you should lock it and begin a new topic continuing the first. Don't delete the first topic, leave it there for future readers as long as it has relevance. It's always a good idea, when splitting threads, to make note that the active thread is not the the first.
The best way to do this is to cite it in the topic title, for example when locking a topic called "special fx in film", make the new topic title "special fx in film (part 2)".
Move/Copy Any Thread
This tool only applies if you wish to move a thread from one category to another.
Edit/Delete Any Post Or Thread
You will now be able to modify or delete any post on the board. When you modify another member's post, that member's name and information is retained as the author; your name will not replace his even though you were the last to modify the post. This is one of the primary reasons why being a responsible and trustworthy Moderator is so important.
Merge Thread
You may now merge threads. When you merge two or more threads, it is best to place a small note stating why. Usually the purpose of this is to prevent posts on a similar topic having active threads in various categories.
Split Threads
You will now be able to split threads. When a thread has posts a several posts that have gone off the main topic of the primary thread, and are a relavent group of posts it is best to split it and create new thread in the same category with the selected posts.
Stick/Unstick Threads
This tool only applies if you wish to have a thread stay at the top of a category. This is helpful when you need to place posting rules, announcements, or advice for a specific category .
Actions A Board Moderator May Take
Occassionally tempers flare and attacks ("flaming") occur. They can be directed against an individual member, the Moderator, or Our website as a whole. Attacks can be a few angry posts (minor), spamming the board (moderate), or spamming PM boxes and e-mail addresses (severe). In addition to watching out for get-rick-quick, mlm, and similar attacks, Moderators must be wary of, and quick to put out, temper fires. Most people will use a bulletin board responsibly. It is only the occassional rude individual, who tends to ruin it for everyone. And it's the job of the Board Moderators to identify, isolate, and expunge posts and/or individuals who do threaten the membership general. If either type of posts do appear the Moderator has several tools at his disposal, depending on the severity and frequency of the problem.
The most important tool a Moderator has is his own judgement. Use it. Often members invite others to visit their websites. This is perfectly acceptible. If the majority of the person's posts, however, are advertisements for his website, then that is not acceptible, unless that member is a sponsor with acuramdx.org. If you are not sure, email info at acuramdx.org
Request Member Edit The Post
For minor problems, especially with regard to angry posts, the best course of action, and the one least likely to further anger anyone, is to politely request via PM that the author modify or remove his post. Explain calmly and cooly why you believe the post shouldn't remain active as it is. You may also wish to suggest that the angry member settle his differences with the opposing member privately.
Lock The Topic
If the post or topic does not include an objectionable URL or photo, or is simply a heated argument that has apparently cooled, but which you do not wish to remove, you may wish to lock the topic so no further posts may be added. This allows the post(s) to continue to be read, however, so keep that in mind. If you find the topic very objectionable but have chosen to lock it rather than remove it, leave it locked for a few days then remove it.
Delete The Post
You may delete individual posts simply by clicking the "delete" button toward the top of any post. Occassionally members posting replies hit the "send" button too many times and multiple copies of the message get posted. This is an honest mistake; simply delete the extra copies. It is always a good idea to copy (author information, date and time, and body of the post) any post you delete (other than duplicates), and PM or e-mail it to the Administrator. By doing that you will have fully informed the Administrator in the event your judgement and action on the matter is ever questioned.
