Booooooooooo.

I mean, yayyyyyyyyyy.

Funny.

For a Montanananananer.

FZ for honorary mod:

I might be movin' to Montana soon
Just to raise me up a crop of
Dental Floss

Raisin' it up
Waxin' it down
In a little white box
That I can sell uptown

By myself I wouldn't
Have no boss,
But I'd be raisin' my lonely
Dental Floss
...

I don't think WN should be a mod. His avatar might attract moose hunters like Sarah Palin.

-- Ed "teenage girl filter" Yetman

You're one funny moose.

They serve moose at Montanan Jack in the Box? All we can get in Tucson is rattlesnake. It tastes like chicken, only without that real chicken flavor.

So I leave for a day or two, come back to see if this is all sorted out, and I get moose and rattlesnake at Jack in the Box? Oy. Okay, I guess I have back through the other pages. Curse you.

Rattlesnake is best eaten al fresco anyway.

Speaking of curses, check out my last post in "World Religions."

Mods: PircAlert, Sam Hardwick IV, South Coast Kevin, The Gelatinous Cube.

To injure Shakespeare, some are born Mod, some achieve Mod, and some have Modness thrust upon 'em. If after reading all these threads I erred and you don't want to be a mod, just pretend you aren't.

First, thanks to SachBinger for his eons of servitude. I can't remember if I sent gifts to the last batch of exiting mods. I know I did to some at some point but I probably shouldn't bring that up in case it pisses off people who didn't get gifts. Never mind.

I have to go on the air live at Chess.FM for Corus round 1 with Svidler in, oh, 3.5 hours, so I'll be brief. Just about everything I can imagine wanting to say about moderation has been covered in the past few days. You can check my recent posts if you like. TGC has some guidelines in another Feedback thread. I don't take technical protocol "violations" so seriously as long as it's not abusive. E.g., not explaining a link is a not polite, or it can be funny, but it's not abuse (harmful) like spam and flaming. Same goes with me-tooism. You're not here to enforce the sparkling nature of the conversation.

TGC is Mod Emeritus and just for fun I made him a Global Mod, which has no more power than the other Mods since they are all in all forums. He does, however, appear with blue lettering, so there's that. As far as I can tell, everyone else either volunteered, declined, begged off with martyrdom in full effect, or all of the above. Suck it up. Time to help your fellow Ninjas. Thanks much. And you get a custom title. Woo-hoo.

The Mods main job is to exist. Good job already, Mods! This means showing up regularly. NOT showing up looking for things to moderate. Just go about your usual business. It helps for members new and old to see the place is moderated by such fine, intelligent and handsome people.

Flaming, spamming, and blatant hijacking are the only real crimes. Not the humorous non sequitur, not the enthusiastic me-too, not the friendly jibe. Someone asking a semi-related question is not a hijack, even if it would have been better to start a new thread. Conversations evolve. Don't read each thread now as if you're looking for something to mod. Chill. It's all right if a long thread no longer fits the topic title exactly. As long as it's not going to confuse people. "Is it abusive?" is the only real question. Abuse can, in rare cases, be cumulative. If someone is consistently annoying, warn and explain.

The Off-Topic and To the Contrary boards deserve lighter treatment in every respect for what I assume are obvious reasons. Arguments evolve quickly if they are any fun. Unless it's incredibly blatant, it's hard to imagine anything counting as a hijacking in Off-Topic.

Use your Mod powers sparingly. Unless an offense is blatant and an easy call, give a warning either in the post or as a reply. A PM is also possible if it's touchy, but usually public is good. Explaining what you did and why is also good. New mods, please let me know by email the first time you use your powers.

Moving, closing, merging, and stickifying topics should also be done rarely. If a topic has long outlived its natural, on-topic life, it can be closed. That forces people to start a new one with a correct title. Sticky is nice for general event discussion threads so we can find them easily. Just remember to unsticky when the event is over.

Encourage people to use the board features to control things themselves instead of running to mommy and daddy mod. E.g. the ignore feature. It works.

Admin powers that can dispensed on request include temporary banning and post throttling. These would only ever be used if everything else has been tried and at least one warning given to the member in question.

Answering questions is another part of the job. Not mandatory, but appreciated. Reading the FAQ is a good idea.

Post count has been as removed as possible. Too few benefits to compensate for people getting excited about it one way or another.

Thanks to the Mods new and old and to all the members. Click a sponsor banner now and then so we can pay for these upgrades. Heck, even buy something!

Saludos, Mig

I did actually say I don't want to be a mod after all, but in the interest of minimising fussiness I'm ok with it. And the other mods are so good I trust they've got my back when the excrement hits the rotary blade -operated cooling device again.