Missing Mentor Tom Mattson - Research Forum Not Moderated Since 4th July

[BDOA]

Hi, wondered what happenned to Tom Mattson, he's supposed to be
moderating the independent research forum, but hasn't logged in since
the 4th of July. Means my submission and presumable lots of others haven't
be looked at.

 

[arildno]

Tom has a busy teaching schedule, I expect.

 

[jim mcnamara]

I think BDOA means that we need a plan B mentor. Another human who is willing to do that job since Tom is MIA. Although you did answer his direct question :)

 

[Moonbear]

Unfortunately, last time he disappeared because he got too busy, I took over, but I'm too busy to handle all that right now too. It takes a lot of time to review and moderate submissions to that forum, so nobody jumps into take over very quickly when Tom's away. (And now that you point out he hasn't been in there since July 4, I'm afraid to look at how many submissions are piled up waiting for action. )

 

[Gokul43201]

Perhaps it would be wise to temporarily close the IR forum to submissions - at least until someone can take over and the backlog is cleared? It really makes no sense to have that forum open to submissions, if there's no one available to look at them.

 

[Moonbear]

In theory, I agree, but in practice, I'm not sure what we'd then do about threads that should be posted there if we don't have it open.

The other mentors are rallying. It may be tag-teamed for a bit. The biggest issue is that from the mentor's side of that forum, it's a rather daunting looking place with threads in all sorts of stages of review and moderation. I've sort of figured out what Tom had been doing, and then tried to make it a bit more systematized so anyone else can just pick up and know what's going on, but it takes a good 20 min of head-scratching the first time you stare at it and figure out how posts move from moderation queues to post courtrooms (where the reviewing gets done) and then what gets done if it's rejected or accepted, etc. Once you get the hang of it, it goes faster.

 

[J77]

Someone who moderates an IR forum should get, how do you Americans say it, the Medal of Honour!

 

[rewebster]

In theory, I agree, but in practice, I'm not sure what we'd then do about threads that should be posted there if we don't have it open.

The other mentors are rallying. It may be tag-teamed for a bit. The biggest issue is that from the mentor's side of that forum, it's a rather daunting looking place with threads in all sorts of stages of review and moderation. I've sort of figured out what Tom had been doing, and then tried to make it a bit more systematized so anyone else can just pick up and know what's going on, but it takes a good 20 min of head-scratching the first time you stare at it and figure out how posts move from moderation queues to post courtrooms (where the reviewing gets done) and then what gets done if it's rejected or accepted, etc. Once you get the hang of it, it goes faster.

my, my-----it sounds like there's quite a bit going on 'behind the curtain' (non-visible threads) to continually keep the forum in tip top shape--keep up the good work