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Hell all, I just want to start off my saying that I’m really happy to be back on staff here, and I’m going to jump right in with my ideas about improvements.
In this thread I want to address a concern I have about the staff’s appearance on the forums.
I guess it’s been maybe a year, maybe even two (??) since we implemented the Team Leader, Advisor and Mentor roles. I want to see if we can keep these roles in reality, yet sort of reorganize them.
So basically, Team Leaders are global moderators. Perhaps, we can rename the “Team Leader” back to Global Moderator, and they continue their Team Leader skillz behind-the-scenes.
Regular advisors would be just clearly known as “Moderators”. I’ve noticed a lot that some members who post don’t give respect to the staff, because they truly don’t really know that they ARE staff. Obviously, an advisor does give advice about moderating situations and IM-related answers, but it doesn’t give strict attitude that sometimes is needed. When people look up, and see a moderator, they truly know NOT to challenge one. But, with advisor LOOKS like a rent a cop. They are there to tell you what not to do, but you can still challenge them.
I don’t want us to just drop mentors, even though they SORTOF are pointless. I just think we should leave them the way they are and just allow them to mentor new members in the forums and help out the way they have been.
Your thoughts and opinions (other than, “its fine the way it is” *rolls eyes*)
I totally disagree. If anything, we need to explain the roles, but I don’t want to do away with any of them.
I agree with det’s point about perhaps renaming the roles back to their old names – globals and moderators. (i think mentors are aptly named.) it does help members readily identify who does what around the forums, whereas “team leader” and “advisor” don’t really *mean* anything to anyone other than us. granted, TLs don’t really have global moderating abilities (at least, not that I know of) but something like that would be more informative to the general public.
edit… ok, Team Leaders do have global abilities. thanks for the info, vanessa.
Tigerblade: Team Leaders do have global moderating abilities. 😉
I do agree about going towards the other names. We are moderating as well as giving advice, but just today i got a PM from a regular member asking for advice, he named it “need advice”. advisor=advice So i think this slightly undermines the authority we should slightly keep to be able to keep things in order. They may think we are just here to give advice, not moderate them.
The word team leader also confuses people because it doesn’t let people know that those people have global powers, yes i know they are mainly to be with one group, but it’s okay to say global and show that they can moderate any section when and if necessary.
I think we all agreed at the beginning that it would be a great refreshing feeling with a change. It made BBB unique, and that is obviously something special. BUT, now with the experiences, I don’t think it worked out as well as planned. Jeff wanted 3-4 advisors and 3-4 Mentors for each section, and we evidently discovered that this was WAY too many staff members. It even caused some staff to bump heads, and they didn’t even realize who was on their own team network.
I want to rephrase what I originally said (especially seeing as the title of this thread is misleading, sorry my mistake). I love the ideas of the current staff organization. What I would like to see is the current staff organization stay intact, but just simply rename staff titles. This way, we don’t have to explain to people who we are and what we do, by making them read a thread about it. If they see “moderator” by definition they know it means “someone entrusted by the forums administrator to help regulate postings”. As said earlier, if members know who we are before committing a challenge against us, it would deter them from even thinking of doing it.
AFAIK, I think you guys had already explained this, so that new forum members wouldn’t have to get in trouble and be publicly embarrassed by a staff member by deterring them from the start. An example was removing formatting options.
Does this clear anything up, Jeff?
I hate to not take a stance on this, but I really could care less what I’m called. It’s not the name, it’s the content. It’s the fact that I manage a team that works and can assist in other areas if necessary is what’s important, not what I’m called. Do what you like.
Spike wrote:I hate to not take a stance on this, but I really could care less what I’m called. It’s not the name, it’s the content. It’s the fact that I manage a team that works and can assist in other areas if necessary is what’s important, not what I’m called. Do what you like.
Spike, I’m trying to put forward a point that you don’t seem to understand. I mentioned that I agree with keeping the roles of current staff organization, I just would like to see them renamed, to help newer members understand who the staff are and what we do. What you’re called to US means nothing, true, but what we are called to forum members is what does matter.Hm, you’re right. I had to put myself in a user’s position for a second, I’m so used to the way things are here now.
You’re right, it would probably be more helpful, especially in the more active areas (I haven’t had too much of a problem with this, personally), I agree. But let me play devil’s advocate for a minute.
Would it help at all if there was a static page easily viewable, or maybe a little box on the side of the fourms that said TL=Global Mod, Mod=Advisor? Would that make any difference whatsoever?
That’s obviously a possibility, but something I was trying to avoid suggesting. It makes users have to read away from why they are here. If it’s blunt and easily understood without having to go the extra mile, it should be what is done. And seeing as this is what BBB is trying to accomplish at the moment, I see it as a great fit.
I like the idea of add “staff” into the badge, and I agree that we need to publicize what exactly what a Team Leader, Advisor and Mentor is and what they do. I don’t think the words “moderator” mean jack **** to most members, as long as they know who is on staff and what they do.
“Moderator” is a globally known word for its purposes. I really don’t understand why some of us are trying to avoid using the term moderator. It’s more difficult to avoid it as it is to just use it. And logically, it makes more sense to just use it.
I have not had ONE member ask why we call them Advisors. I know you care, but I don’t think the general membership cares.
Remember, we get a lot of people who are not familiar with any other forums.
Jeff, without trying to challenge your authority, may I ask why you don’t think adding the term moderator back is a good idea?
And I also want to stress that, this change isn’t directly targeted solely on those who come for advice purposes and leave, but for those who like to challenge authority. They do come, and it was apparent during the Yahoo blackout. I’m not saying that Vanessa could have had it easier if she has “moderator” as a title, but I believe it would have deterred the little PITA’s from starting.
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