Hi All,
As a former moderator at Reef Central and a current moderator on another reef board, I have been biting my tongue while reading this thread.
I thought that I might offer some perspective from someone that has "œbeen there done that" but no longer has a personal stake in the day to day running of this board.
I was privileged to be a moderator here when it was going through its explosive growth/startup phase, several years ago.
1 My 1st observation is that someone that has not been a moderator at a board this large/busy cannot really appreciate how much time and effort the moderators have to put in to achieve even a modicum of control over the board. When I was an active moderator, I was at a point in my job/career situation that allowed me something approaching 6 to 8 hrs a day of purposeful moderation. And remember that this was a totally (monetarily) uncompensated effort.
2 One of the results of the high member to moderator ratio is that problem threads would often simmer before they came to the attention of a moderator. So from some of the thread participants perspective, the threads were being inconsistently "œmoderated".
3 For those of you that think that the obvious answer is to "œacquire more moderators" that has its own set of problems, even if an infinite pool of competent volunteer moderators existed. (At least those that could put the required # of hours in each day. The financial model of even this board precludes more than a small subset of "œpaid" administrators. Managing the moderators is an exercise in itself.
4 For those of you that wonder what is discussed on the moderators (private) forums, I will say that much of it is spent in working out a consensus among the moderators as to what is and is not an allowable thread/subject matter. At one time "œpolitical discussions" were allowed on this board. But I am here to tell you that the amount of "œmanagement" that these threads required was out of all proportion to their usefulness to the board. There are a bazillion political boards/blogs out there for that purpose. THIS IS A REEF BOARD.
5 The net result of the work load/brain damage that a mod on a board like this has to endure should get them nominated for some kind of "œcombat decoration". Once my work work-work situation went back to a typically full schedule, it was just too much for me to manage and I resigned. (Even with my trying to exist on a couple of hours of sleep a day).
Regards,
Scott