Questions and Answers (Q&A)

[Matthias720]

And as we have said many times before, don't hesitate to contact one of us if you have any questions or concerns.

[HeadInAnotherGalaxy]

Just wondering, why was posting pictures removed? I'm guessing that it has something to do with spam. Is that it?

[Taggerung_of_Redwall]

It mainly had to do with the possibility of future damage. Attachments aren't as safe as uploading otherwise, so it was decided that security held better without it, including for future preference.

[Tiria Wildlough]

 ;DThanks for telling me. Just wondered! 

[Gonff]

Why are there so many people becoming moderators? Did you just pick them to be moderators?

[James Gryphon]

Well, I didn't make the decision about who to pick or when , so I'm probably not the best person to ask, but my best guess is the administration decided that it was better safe than sorry, and that new mods in place now would help keep track of any influx of members later.

[Matthias720]

Why are there so many people becoming moderators? Did you just pick them to be moderators?

It's been rather difficult for three people (Lady S, ToR, and myself) to keep track of absolutely everything that happens on the forum. To get some extra help we chose 4 people to act as local mods to oversee certain boards.

[HeadInAnotherGalaxy]

And to ruin everybody else's fun in the Count as high as possible before a moderator posts thread... 

[Gonff]

We can still have fun, we just altered the game a little.

[Nightfire]

I have a question. How do you stop the website from sending emails to you every single time someone respons to a post? I got 70 emails at once!

[James Gryphon]

I have a question. How do you stop the website from sending emails to you every single time someone respons to a post? I got 70 emails at once!

Well, you have two choices; you can read my attempt at helping you, or the Simple Machines Forum Manual.

If me, well, I can't guarantee this will work, but try this:
1. Go up to the "Profile" link at the top of the page.
2. Click on "Notifications and Email" on the left panel.
3. Set "Receive reply notification for only the first unread reply", which might help in cutting down on the blatant spam.
4. Deactivate "Turn notification on when you post or reply to a topic".
5. Open the "For topics and boards I've requested notification on" menu. Set it to either "Nothing at all" or "Moderation only" (if you want to be notified if one of the staff moderates your posts).

Unfortunately I haven't used it much, and I haven't had that problem myself, so if it is already set up properly, I can only recommend you consult the manual and experiment!

[Tiria Wildlough]

How do people become moderators?

[James Gryphon]

How do people become moderators?

Whenever the users-to-moderators ratio has grown relatively high (that is, whenever there's way more members than there are mods), and the staff feels that it might be having trouble watching every part of the forum, the administration may choose to bring in new staff members to help out.

In the event of that happening, the administrators will look for people who they believe have the time, and other things that might come in handy for moderating these forums, and give them consideration for the position. If they decide that those people could be right for the job, then they send the prospective moderator(s) an invitation; if that person agrees to become a mod, then they're part of the team.

Nobody should feel discouraged if they didn't get an invitation to moderate; there's a lot of potential good candidates to look through and the forums are too small to promote everyone. Anyway, as the forums grow, it's entirely possible that more moderators could be brought in to help keep things ship-shape.

Finally, remember that while it is definitely an honor if someone is chosen to moderate, it isn't all a bed of roses either... a perfect forum would require no moderators. The only things that the mods really do that members don't -- besides add negative numbers in the count game -- is resolve problems; make sure everyone's posting by the rules, keep spam from cluttering up the forum, and break up a fight if one's building up. None of these tasks should be especially enjoyable, although some of us might take some strange pleasure out of it anyway.

[Taggerung_of_Redwall]

Correct. It's kinda like just being on duty, in case things happen.

...and making sure there's no a major lead in the Count as high as possible before a moderator posts

[Matthias720]

And, I might add, moderating is real work. None of that fake work here; just 100% all-natural work.