What goes into being an Admin?

[Nuclear Lunchbox]

The idea came to me as I was sitting in my chair, idly poring over the Graveyard Thread. When it comes down to it, what are the responsibilities that the Admins and Mods have to fill? What goes into your jobs? Do you worry about the fallout of your decisions? Do Admins and Mods have tenure? How are you guys chosen?

I guess I'm just trying to place myself in somebody else's shoes and understand more about what goes on here.

EDIT: This isn't a joke thread. I'm actually hoping for some serious responses here.

[TMBounty_Hunter]

In 1972, a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. These men (and women) promptly escaped from a maximum-security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem... if no one else can help... and if you can find them... maybe you can hire... The A(dmin)- Team.

[Fazmotron]

Mods and Admins have the ability to slowly suck the life out of the rest of the forum members. With every keystroke you make we take that little bit more of your life away from you, to be stored in our collective enormity until we become so powerful that we will be able to MODERATE THE WORLD.

[UrsusArctos]

In short : we do what's needed to keep the peace.

Full answer coming in a while.

[NemZ]

The job is just keeping the peace. Mostly that means just trimming out nonsense and trying to keep discussion flowing. Of course, to do that we need to actually read what is going on. Not everybody reads everything or is available all the time, but between us we have decent enough coverage.

For bigger problems we discuss things in closed session and build a consensus before acting. Only an admin can ban someone, but on general principle nobody pulls the lever on just their own initiative.

Of course we worry about the fallout of our decisions. Do you think we want to constantly have all this drama? That's the reason we discuss matters before acting, and it's why we've been trying to increase the transparency of our operation.

New staff members are selected by the existing staff, of course. There are no specific qualifications other than being an established regular who we think isn't a complete jerk and could probably handle it. The general procedure is to give new mods limited access on a trial basis until the rest of the staff are convinced they're ready for the job in full. There's a hidden subforum for mods in training to ask questions and practice with their new forum tools.

We've had no discussions of 'tenure' or such, but mods (and admins now and then) do occasionally get scolded for ill-concieved actions. Such discussions generally happen on the staff-only forum however, so the forum in general isn't going to know about it when this happens.

[UrsusArctos]

The idea came to me as I was sitting in my chair, idly poring over the Graveyard Thread. When it comes down to it, what are the responsibilities that the Admins and Mods have to fill? What goes into your jobs?

Trying to keep up the zeroth law of forum administration : Thou Shalt let others have their fun. Simplest of rules to state, hardest to enforce because "what's fun" varies from person to person, and so does "what's acceptable". We try to deal with those issues amongst ourselves, because we're not a hivemind or something and we all have different opinions - although we try to act as a collective entity on the boards as far as is possible.

Do you worry about the fallout of your decisions?

We get upset if the decision turns out to have been a bad one or does unforseen harm, if that's what you mean. We try to take decisions by committee more often now, so major decisions - especially things regarding warnings, bans and so on are a decision by all the staff, rather than by a single staff member. It cuts down on rash, spur-of-the-moment decisions regarding bans.

Do Admins and Mods have tenure?

We're volunteers, not college professors! Nothing formal, although a couple of really old, inactive moderators have been downgraded to "committee member" status, and there are a couple of longstanding community members from the early days who are on the committee as well. I asked to be downgraded during the year and a half that I was off the site, which meant that I could join in discussing administrative matters but couldn't moderate.

How are you guys chosen?

Usually, an existing mod, admin or committee member selects a guy with a good record and a long experience, someone who gets along well with the community and who'd usually fit the staff. It's a small group that has usually been at the core of most things on this forum, and the old guard (people like EM and Reichu) have been around these forums ever since the beginning, ten years ago.

The forums aren't a democracy, as such, partly due to the origins of this place as the forums on Eva Monkey's site. Also, it's just a handful of people who've been at the core of it all from the beginning. Some of them have put years of time and effort (and money) into this place and are really concerned about keeping it up to standard - so we tend to be pretty strict about things especially when they're not going well (true enough, sometimes we tend to go overboard, but we're only human and there's only so much we can do). We're a pretty tightly connected group, and we don't pick an extra mod/admin unless we're running short of people or unless we really think we need new faces.

I hope that answers your questions. Feel free to ask about anything if you don't understand - just don't ask any specifics about what forum administration matters we are dealing with at the moment. We keep things of that sort private, for good reason.

[The Eva Monkey]

It also needs to be mentioned that some of us do specific things. Ornette does a ton of sysadmin and forum hacking stuff. ObsessiveMathsFreak pays for everything. I did a bunch of the front-end stuff, advise on things of that nature, SEO, whatnot. Reichu oversees Wiki/commentary stuff.

I myself don't get super involved in the day to day, thread to thread stuff. If I see a thread that interests me, and I see something that needs to be done, I do it. Beyond that, I just float around, and throw ideas and questions at the rest of the team, kind of like I'm on an imaginary board of directors. I also prefer not to get involved in disciplinary stuff. So 99% chance that if you were banned temporarily or permanently, (for better or worse) I was not involved.

[Dataprime]

Beyond that, I just float around, and throw ideas and questions at the rest of the team, kind of like I'm on an imaginary board of directors.

I couldn't help myself, I'm so sorry

[TMBounty_Hunter]

I made a silly reply to this but apperently deleting those is part of admin duties

[NemZ]

It was taken out because Nukey said he wanted this to be a serious topic. However several other people are joking it up including Faz, so it's been moved back.

[pwhodges]

I don't know how the mods and admins here feel in private about what they're doing; but on the forum I'm admin of we actually get through quite a lot of angst out of public sight (largely on account of the amount of personal relationship stuff that is covered and that we have to maintain the forum's sensitivity to). At times this can be a bit overwhelming (and it can take only one or two troubled users to produce that feeling), and I'll admit that we can stumble - on my forum I suspect we did briefly early last autumn, and I'd say that the same happened on this forum just over a year ago. None the less I'm pleased to be doing the job at QC, and only feel occasionally that it is misunderstood by the main body of users! But it's the very occasional PM I get unexpectedly that really encourages me and keeps me at it.

[Sephizim]

Reading this thread has actually kind of gotten me interested in the whole admin and mod thing. While I'm quite aware that at present I'm nowhere near up to snuff, it certainly remains something to aspire to.

...I haven't really contributed anything useful to this conversation, have I?

[Stryker]

As years pass and people leave (and join), more moderators and administrators will be needed to keep pace (whether it would be a growth of community or a lack of moderation). It's important to see there are those eager to contribute, because there are instances where those people the ones fit for the job (mind you, this isn't always the case).

[Aiko Heiwa]

So 99% chance that if you were banned temporarily or permanently, (for better or worse) I was not involved.

Dammit.

Now who will I curse if I ever get banned?

[NemZ]

Yourself.

[Monk Ed]

Reading this thread has actually kind of gotten me interested in the whole admin and mod thing. While I'm quite aware that at present I'm nowhere near up to snuff, it certainly remains something to aspire to.

I don't advise that people see it that way. That way lies the staff-aspirant equivalent of "nice guy syndrome" -- being chosen for a mod is based not on whether or not one "deserves" or has "earned" the position but rather the need for the position to be filled. It's more like becoming a superhero -- it's not something you ask for or seek out, it just happens to you when the universe has a need for a hero. (Except that unlike most superhero origin stories you actually can turn it down, and it's happened.)

That doesn't mean you can't want it, though. In the interest of full disclosure, over the course of several years I made several decisions about my forum behavior that were clearly influenced by the prospect that if I behaved myself I'd be more likely to get picked for staff should the need arise. It was nowhere near purposeful enough for me to say that I was aspiring to be a mod, but I did think to myself numerous times "I probably shouldn't post that if I want any chance of being a mod some day".

And then NemZ got elected right alongside me. The universe works in funny ways.

[pwhodges]

Not to mention, there'd be no point in accepting an invitation in any case without being prepared to have a certain degree of commitment to doing what's required.

[UrsusArctos]

I joined the committee due to my work on the wiki back in 2007 and 2008 (I never thought I'd join it or be part of the board staff), and asked if I could join the moderation staff after a bad outbreak of spam and trolling back in 2008. (Six years now? Wow.)

[Blue Monday]

All I want to know is what I have to do to get myself some of those pink badges Dr Nick has.

[Giji Shinka]

^I want orange colored cubes.

OT: Admins/Mods job sounds pretty boring, definitely not for me.