Our moderators

[Tom]

Hi Torsten

I am worried about our forum.

As all of us members may know, Conchita’s name has once again disappeared from the moderator’s list—but what bothers me is that ( I may be wrong) she did not go through the “smooth exit”. I can guess that much because she changed her name from “Conchita” to “Ex member”. Does this mean that she was offended by something—and to the extent that she decided to pack her bags and leave the scene?

When I became a member of the forum last year, we had five moderators here. Alan Amy, MM, Jamie and Conchita. Then two of them decided to get their names deleted form the moderator’s list, Amy and Jamie, but both of them, in particular Amy, kept on helping us with what we may call 13 posts a day. (I would call it a big number). Although she has almost left this forum, she's still on top as far as the total number of posts per day is concerned. See:

http://www.english-test.net/forum/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=1750

Torsten, if I may ask, why weren’t the matters facilitated for them so that they could stay? Why is this not happening on other forums? The list of their moderators is expanding and ours…

Now we are left with two moderators only — MM and Alan. For a few months Alan has not been very active here like he used to be. MM posts almost on all English language forums, which means that he cannot afford to respond to two posts a day. In this situation who is going to handle the avalanche of posts here? What about forums like “What do you want to talk about?” Have you ever seen MM there but twice?

You may have known that Amy has been given the moderator status in englishforums.com. And I also notice(d) that she is very active there. So is this her personal choice or the circumstances here? I would guess the latter.

During the last two weeks my posts in the forum remained unanswered due to the non-availability of a moderator, which is not a very healthy omen.

I would request you to arrange for these people to get back here again. Torsten, I must insist you design a “special page” for the moderators which can be their ‘recognition’ here and everywhere. I mean no disrespect to anyone, but I hardly see any of those good ladies here whose pictures have been posted at the top of the forum page? Why can’t we make one page for the moderators like that? There must be some incentive for them, too.

I noticed that there was some unpleasantness on the tests. But couldn’t that be resolved through a “moderator forum”, which needs to be introduced too?

I hope you won’t mind my going that far, but you may remember that Mr. Pedantic, who is a very active and important member in many forums, posted here for a few days, but suddenly disappeared. When he started posting here, there was one other forum he started posing in. He continued there and resigned here. Did you ever consider why? I did! Mr.Pedantic here:

http://www.english-test.net/forum/ftopic13372.html

I think we are missing something somewhere and a degree of flexibility needs to be shown somewhere.

I hope this long message is taken in a positive way because it has been written in good will.

Tom

[Alan]

Hi Tom,

I'm sorry you feel that questions aren't being answered on the forum. We all have our own activities apart from checking the forum and by and large it seems that most points are aired, answered and discussed. I think the style of our site is a little more relaxed than you find in some of the other English language sites.

Alan
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[Ralf]

A bit off topic, I would like to confess that the initial reason for contributing to the "What do you want to talk about forum?" was a controversial debate. Though I was initially put off by an acrimonious dispute which didn't really fall much short of what you could call angry skirmish, I did and still find it intriguing to participate in controversies. And I can see no profit other than asserting my position or learning from others in it.

Still, at times I feel that the tone could be somewhat less hot tempered. I was amazed to stumble across an exchange of opinion between Alan and Jamie. Alas, this took place some 20 months ago, and it could serve as an inspiring example for all of us.

Jamie:
...the axe I'm grinding is not with the British, but with people who misconceive the nature of English.

And most of the British know that they rely on us, and without us they would probably be wearing lederhosen now.

Alan:
What is the point of making oblique references like these about the British when on this site the language is the thing:

Jamie:
I admit that was much too sarcastic. The US did get called on, however, to deal with several dictators that the Europeans let get out of hand. It's a historical pattern.

There's another thing I notice, which is that the countries of eclipsed empires tend to spread language and cultural centers around the world.

Alan:
I must confess I found the last quote deeply ironic but I'll resist the temptation to counter that remark

Jamie:
I know the irony you perceive there. Thanks for not getting into it, and thanks for being direct.
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[NinaZara]

I agree that Amy was extremely helpful. As to why she is no longer a moderator, I don't have the faintest idea. And Jamie sounds like a capable moderator too. I wonder why he isn't one.
But I have trouble accepting Conchita's new ID, it doesn't sound like her at all. Maybe you (or we) misunderstood something here.

[Lost_Soul]

BTW, why did Conchita quit? I saw that her login name had turned into "Ex member"...
The forum will not be the same without her

[Prezbucky]

yeah, where is Amy?

Amy! We love you, girlfriend!
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[Torsten]

Hi Tom,

Thanks a lot for all your observations and your valuable suggestions. You are absolutely right, a forum is only as good as its moderators, members and users and we should do everything to create a situation that is beneficial to all of our community members. As you know from your own experience, creating and growing an Internet forum is an ongoing process that requires patience, persistence and creativity. Yes, there obviously have been reasons why Conchita, Amy and other moderators and members have decided to use another forum instead of ours. Now we are going to analyze what exactly happened and what we should do differently in the future to make sure that every member of our community feels at home. As for your proposal regarding the "special moderator page" -- what exactly should it look like? What kind of information do you think a moderator would like to publish on a page like that?

Also, could you please tell me more about this suggestion of yours:

[Lost_Soul]

[Tom]

Hi Torsten

By a “Moderator forum” I meant a forum where moderators and administrators could discuss all those issues which could not be discussed publicly, for example, one of them is “Errors in the test.” It’s no secret from any one of us that the differences of opinions on the “tests” and their “quality” caused a lot of unpleasantness. I am sure if you had introduced a private forum to all those members who were working hard on the tests, things would have been much different.(better)

Besides, I really do not know if any effort was put in to hold back the complete “team” of English-test.net. By starting this post, I meant to discuss with you why our own senior people are getting so disillusioned of the forum. Why is one leaving after the other? If MM also leaves, the forum will comprise the same “team” that it did in way back 2003.

By writing “something missing somewhere” I meant the same thing. We must analyse:

1-Are we not paying attention to something that requires immediate attention?

What is your analysis of the whole situation, Torsten? May I ask if you contacted your “team” and asked why they left? Perhaps the situation could still be worked out and we have our “team” back!

…and perhaps that’s what I meant by “showing some degree of flexibility”

Waiting to hear from you,

Tom

[Alan]

Hi Tom,

As one of the co-founders of the site I would like to jump in here before Torsten replies and my apologies for intruding on your posting that was in fact not addressed to me. Nevertheless I must make a comment: I think the situation has got out of hand when you feel obliged to talk in this vein with your suggestion -

[Yankee]

Hi everyone

In my opinion, Tom made some good suggestions and some very valid points last December in this thread.

[Torsten]

Hi Amy,

You are absolutely right -- many of our forum members have made very valuable suggestions and we should try to implement them. I've started to create a guideline on how to use the forum and look forward to your feedback. As you can see, it just covers some basic questions potential and new forum members might have. This is only the beginning and I'd be happy to hear what you and other forum members have to say. In addition, I'm going to start a guideline for moderators.

Many thanks,
Torsten
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[Yankee]

Hi Torsten

That looks like a good solid start. Here are a few of my initial thoughts:

In part 5 it might be worth mentioning or alluding to the availability of experts:

[Torsten]

Hi Amy,

Thanks a lot for your quick response. I've included the two bullets point you suggest for question 5. As for the time of day a question is posted, maybe we shouldn't mention that because if a learner from Europe asks a question late at night, a US teacher can answer that very question at the same time because it's mid-morning or early afternoon where they live.

As for question 7, maybe I should first create a guideline for moderators so prospective candidates can see what the requirements are as well as the benefits. I think it's very important for a prospective moderator to understand what exactly they can gain from this activity. Once they see the benefits and the purpose of the forum, it will be much easier for them to as and answer questions and engage in forum discussions.

What do you think?
Regards,
Torsten
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