Moderating the masses

About a year ago Mauricio asked me to join the moderators here on Geekzone (which I was rapt about).  Before that time, I was very curious to see what happened behind the scenes here, and was able to get the odd sneak peak from scottpalmer and freitasm through #geekzone chat - I thought it would be helpful to blog about what happens here, for those who are also curious.

The biggest difference for a moderator is how we see posts made on the site, as shown below on one of my own posts:



Across the top we get an extra button (edit) which allows us to move posts and edit the content if we need to (we then append [Mod (N8): Message] to inform the user).  On the bottom left, we have a handful of functions such as Trust (gives a user their Trusted icon), Stick (sets that post as always appearing at the top of the forums) and Hide (useful when spammers post and we need to remove a post).  My favourite link is Ban, which does the obvious.

You will also notice on the moderator's view the IP address that appears under the avatar - for every post the IP address of that poster is saved.

We also have a private Moderators Forum to discuss posts on the site, user bans etc - unfortunately I can't screenshot it here, however, it looks the same as all the other forums here, just with more smack talk between the different moderators.

To finish, my top 5 pet peeves from Geekzone users:

1. SPAMMERS! - what's the point in going through the signup process, for us to hide your post and banninate you forever?  We're not interested in what you are selling (we hide/ban on average one user a day), and your post is normally gone within the hour.


2. Spelin and gramer errors - some days I wonder whether the New Zealand schooling needs an overhaul, with some users lacking the basic ability to put a coherent sentence together. Issues with its and it's plus their, there and they're are common.


3. Formatting - it doesn't take long to add links and images (resize, resize, resize!) to illustrate your post - take the extra 2 minutes, and it helps all of us understand.


4. Complaints about ISP speeds - unless it's a question about your setup or sync speeds, don't post about your ISP being slow.  If you want better speed, swap to a different ISP - it's not that hard.


5. Astro-turfing - if you have a website you want reviewed, or a product to promote, use the correct Offers and Wanted forum - don't pretend to be an independent third party that's discovered this "amazing product" then link to it - it's blatantly obvious: your IP and email address, plus a WHOIS of the domain exposes you for the d-bag you truly are.  Don't do it.

Other than my whingeing above, I enjoy moderating and participating in the forums on the daily basis, and it's always great to put faces-to-names at the Geekzone pizza evenings and other events - I also enjoy regularly catch-up with the other moderators and ex-moderators.

In my time here, I've seen that there are some very clever people contributing to Geekzone, and I look forward to possibly meeting more of you in the future.