TM Prerequisites--what do you think?

[BossC]

TM Prerequisites:

Hey all!

I noticed that there was a discussion in General Forum about the way that TM/Mods are promoted/get the level etc and I made a comment about “if anyone wants to come up with rules, let me know and I’ll see what the other mods think.”

I know there has been a lot of comments and topics in the recent months—not to mention a spat between Admin and some Mods—over TMs who hadn’t earned the rank and mods who were promoted without discussion and openness. I thought it might be nice to get some guidelines down and post it where people can find it!

My first idea is to NOT let people request being a TM. I mentioned it in another post a while back and a lot of people didn’t agree with me, but ALL thought we should at least discuss it and vote and not let one person promote just because they got the pm asking about becoming a TM. Even TheCollector (Ian) posted a while back that:

Trainee Moderators will be chosen by Admin and initially recruited on a 2-month trial period.

That says nothing about members asking Admin to be TMs.

Which brings me to the “rules” fanmail.biz currently has. I looked all over the forum for some solid rules and there is advice all over the place about HOW to be a TM/MOD but NOTHING on what you do to deserve it.

As it stands now, people just have to pm Admin and be automatically promoted. That is pathetic. If I recall correctly, one of the spamers who had been banned was able to rejoined and was a TM before someone caught on and had him demoted: there has got to be some guidelines besides willingness! Benedict Arnold was willing to serve in the Colonial army, but he betrayed it later.

Sorry for wandering all over the place, guys my mind doesn’t stay on one subject long.

I got a pm from Khackdrums giving his thoughts on some ideas for rules. His pm:

TM Qualifications:
Board member for at least 5 months.
Minimum of 300 constructive posts in Collecting Help/Autograph Collecting Discussions forums (an average of 60 posts per month/15 posts per week/2 per day)
Minimum of 10 posted successes/RTS’s
Must be a regular on the boards, visit an average of 3 days/week
Must possess the main qualities of a moderator: help / information / knowledge / advice / motivation / peacemaker
-Must give more advice and answer more questions, than ask for advice and ask questions (Bottom line is you should possess the necessary qualities above).Should respect all members.

I EDITED OUT 2 sentences: It's pretty short and simple and straight forward. It's when you start making things drawn out and complicated that people get confused and start asking questions.

Good luck!

Khackdrums

My opinion:
Having a minimum for time joined, posts, and success/RTSs sounds great to me: looking at Khackdrum’s numbers: if you have been a member 5 months, you would need to post 2x a day to have your 300 minimum—that’s not bad either. It is the “Must possess the main qualities of a moderator” and “Must give more advice and answer more questions, than ask for advice and ask questions” that will be hard to determine and will be more open to criticism and people trying to slide by.

I also like the idea of them being on the forum a lot. Three times a week actually isn’t much. (I might not post every time, but sometimes I log on three times a DAY ) This way we can see if they are serious. Sure, I know life happens and Internet time gets cut off by school, work, lack of time, family issues, and a whole lot of other things; but I think you get the picture, we want to see the level of their interest.

What about also having them “sell” themselves with a question, “Why should you be a tm?” That is done with jobs (not that I have much experience in answering that ) so we would hope for answers like, “I want to help people on the forum” “share the joy of collecting” etc.

Once we agree on things like this and post it, when a Mod/Gm gets a pm from a member they look at this first and if they pass that test (all the minimums) then they move onto a poll and discussion about the TM. And if we ask the question “Why should you be a TM?” we post their answer with the poll.

Phew, that was a long post and I didn’t even get to rules on promoting a TM to Mod—oh, well that is a different topic once we get this one figure out!

For now let’s just stick with TM rules: let me hear your thoughts! Does this seem fair and right?

BossC

[lizane]

Hi BossC!

Once again, brilliant idea and post! I agree with everything you said, and the rules seem good to me too! {thumb2} Just one thing: I think 5 months could be a bit too long. yes, I know, we don't want TM's who joined the same day, but a member can learn to know the board in 3 months too (no less). But I'm not really one to talk: it took me 2 years before I became a TM! If a member can post constructive posts in 3 months and prove to be of great help (I already see that the new member "Taio" is very knowledgeable), the why not?

Brilliant rules anyways!!

Many thanks BossC!

[BossC]

One reason I think we should prefer a long time as member of the board might be good is so it gives the veterans a chance. Honestly, before I became TM, I thought the Mods/GMs had to ask you to be a TM, not just pm admin and become one. :neutral: A 'longer" time would give us time to see if they are really serious about this or if this was just a summer hobby while they were out of school and will wear off in a few months. 5 months would require a commitment. {thumb2}

I think that when we make things "official" we need to post our qualifications somewhere (maybe General Discussions?) so people can find it. And we have a link to give to the members who ask and AREN'T qualified.

Also, a big thanks goes to Khackdrums as he helped me along the way. {thumb2}

Can anyone think of some prerequsites that I didn't mention?

The age thing is tricky because you ARE supposed to be 13 before you join-yes there are provisions for exceptions--and I don't mean to point fingers because I am not thinking of anyone in particular, but as a TM/Mod you will be criticized/have confrontations and a TM needs to be able to handle it--and not bite back. Thoughts on this?

BossC

[sunkissed08]

Hi bossc! {thumb2} I love the idea, however I feel if the 300 posts are posted in Request a Celebrity Address it should count. ;) The rest of the ideas are like zanne said, brilliant.

[lizane]

Allright, BossC, I see your point now. I agree, because I've seen many TM's/mods only here for about 3+ months, then they disappear. :neutral: Your right about 5 months because that's long enough to see how serious they are.

Thanks again for posting, and I definitely think these requirements should be posted in "General Discussion" forum so everyone is aware of them. {thumb2} Many thanks for your trouble, BossC!

[BossC]

Ok guys, I am back from my vacation and ready to get this finished.

I will leave the topic open for a couple more days then I will be puting it in a form to be posted on the forum (any recomendations on where? General Discussions? Autograph Collecting Forum?)

Feel free to add any rules or mention things you don't like. {thumb2}

BossC

[Paigey012]

There are a few TM's at the moment that have about 50 posts (most of them in the games fourm), not very active on the site and have very little autograph experience

[annie985]

Maybe this would be kind of hard, but is there anyway we could designate a few GM's or even Mod's that a person must PM about becomng a TM? Some members do PM every GM/mod asking to be a TM. For example, recently there was a poll about someone becoming a TM and they were voted "no" but they are now a TM. I think it would cut down on confusion if members had to contact someone or a couple people initially. Or make it clear that if you contact one GM, then you have to wait for an answer from that person specifically.

[BossC]

Maybe this would be kind of hard, but is there anyway we could designate a few GM's or even Mod's that a person must PM about becomng a TM? Some members do PM every GM/mod asking to be a TM. For example, recently there was a poll about someone becoming a TM and they were voted "no" but they are now a TM. I think it would cut down on confusion if members had to contact someone or a couple people initially. Or make it clear that if you contact one GM, then you have to wait for an answer from that person specifically.

I like that idea, but I didn't want to volunteer a GM to do that--they already have a bunch of responsibilities...but is there anyone who wants to volunteer?

BTW: one reason for the promotion anyway is that all a person really has to do is pm Admin and he/she will promote them: no discussion, no voting... NOT a good way.

BossC

[Paigey012]

Maybe this would be kind of hard, but is there anyway we could designate a few GM's or even Mod's that a person must PM about becomng a TM? Some members do PM every GM/mod asking to be a TM. For example, recently there was a poll about someone becoming a TM and they were voted "no" but they are now a TM. I think it would cut down on confusion if members had to contact someone or a couple people initially. Or make it clear that if you contact one GM, then you have to wait for an answer from that person specifically.

I like that idea, but I didn't want to volunteer a GM to do that--they already have a bunch of responsibilities...but is there anyone who wants to volunteer?

BTW: one reason for the promotion anyway is that all a person really has to do is pm Admin and he/she will promote them: no discussion, no voting... NOT a good way.

BossC

I like that idea and I would quite like to volunteer :razz: