If you want to be a moderator...

Hello:

OKay, about advices.

Before all: think carefully, WHY do you want to become a moderator. In RU.MODERATOR FIDONet conference sometimes appear new people and ask "I want to be a moderator!àWhat do I need?!" - and we usually say them - ask yourself, WHY do you want it. Do you want to create a discussion group, where people can share their thoughts and ifeas or help one other with technical problems, etc... - or you just want to be a moderator of anything, just to rule other people and feel your power?

It is bad, if someone wants "just moderate"... Any group or forum is a community of people, you need to remember that... alive people, not programms.

Second. I'm absolutely sure there IS a difference between spirit of mailing list, forum on the web and usenet/fidonet group. I feel it and I see it. So decide what would be better for your purposes.

If you want to make your group close, select mailing list. Then you'll have group of subscribers, who will receive all messages from the list (and so, more chances that they will tead them all). Web-forum is open place, but with definitely LESS feel of community than in mailing list. Someone will visit your page suddenly and drop some lines in the forum, then leave and newer will come again. It happens very often. Usenet groups and mailing lists usually have more "regular" group of subscribers.

To start Usenet group isn't very easy; so now people prefer mailing lists (you can get one for free on http://www.egroups.com ) or forums ( nice forums on http://www.cgiforme.com).

You started. You need group of people who will be your first subscribers or forum participants. Call your friends, make some advertisment; but anyway from the beginning group wouldn't be very large, so you will feel yourselves like very close and friendly community. Suddenly new people will come and join you. You will be glad to see them, but not all "old" forum members will be happy too.

So, you'll see all usual things in forums:

• Flames
• Stupid questions
• Offtopics
• Frequently asked questions (the more frequently is the question asked - so more annoying it will be for you and for all forum members)
• Holy Wars and FGC's (Flame-Generating construction). Someone comes and asks "Is Unix better than Windows?!" or "Is Netscape better than Explorer?" and then leaves, and you'll have the typical "holy war", if you'll lose the control over your conference.
• Old subscribers often feel they are the Elite and don't welcome new members

Try to control all this and let the spirit of friendship will rule in your conference. If someone starts the flame, immediately stop him, and simultaneously you can ask other subscribers privately do not join the flame tread.

Stupid questions shoud be or ignored, or answered gently "sorry, it's not a place for questions of such type"... or something.

Create a list of offtopics and make it available for everyone.

Create a FAQ and post it to mailing list or usenet group - or place it somewhere on the Net and give your subscribers the address.

Don't join Holy Wars and ask your fellows to be wise...

If you run an open forum, then you would like new members. So let them feel that in your conference no one is more equal than other, except moderator, may be. When someone posts his first message, he waits for reply; if nobody replies, reply yourself.

Try to find new interesting topics and questions. Share with your fellows all interesting things related to your topic you can find (Hey, if anyone has computer-fiction and computer-related science-fiction texts, share them with me, I'll give you a lot of thanks! ;)

Try to be a gentle host. I imagine the conference like a party house with lots of people. You need to be with everyone, to care, let your party will be interesting for most of your guests. Don't talk with couple of your friends only; you need say couple of words to every your guest...

So... "We are here to serve; that's FIDONet Moderators' pledge". Yes, remember that. You rule your subscribers, and you serve them all; and your best award is, when they say "You're not like a moderator - you're one of us". Yes, you need to forget sometimes, that you're the moderator... and enjoy the conversation... at last, it's what your group was created for, isn't it? ;)

You can find lots of resources about mailing lists anf forums moderating at http://star.ucc.nau.edu/~mauri/moderators.html . In FIDONet, read the MODERATOR (in english) or RU.MODERATOR (if you know russian language). Jokes and funs about moderators' life in russian language (Project ModeFun) you can find on my page. Check big list of one-liners about moderating in english at http://inity.junik.lv/Texts/modef19.txt :)

If you have more jokes, please send them to me!

Tatiana Matveeva / inity@bigfoot.com /
http://inity.junik.lv

• thanks Tatiana... by John, 2/15/99