Number of Moderator Positions

[berkeman]

I was quite serious the other day when I praised Greg's Super Moderator Guide. I was going to start my own thread in FF&A to the effect that that guide should be read before you start complaining.

After some years, one can interpolate the rules and structure of the forum without ever having read them. (I'm a man. I never read the instruction manual...) I was amazed though that this whole forum is still sticking to an apparently well thought out plan.

Perhaps you could institute a multi-phased set of rules for newbies:

for those with severe ADD (or men in general)
1. Play nice or Die

for those with short attention spans
2. 10 basic rules of the forum...

1. Play nice or Die
2. No swearing
3. No spam
4. No trolling
5. No fighting(except in the P&WA forum)
6. No fighting(unless it is about magnets. even Feynman wouldn't explain them.)
7. No, um, what are the rules?
8. No banned topics(hyperlink to list)
9. No crackpottery(hyperlink to definition)
10. Play nice or Die​

for the wannabelawyers
3. Full set of rules...(TLDR)

for the curious
4. Reference the S.M.G. as a guide to who and what these demi-gods called mentors are, where they come from, why they are necessary.

for anyone 16 and older
5. Tell people a 16 year old started this forum, and ask what they did when they were 16, besides pick their nose.

6. etc. etc. etc.

You left out the Homework Help admonitions. That seems like about half of what we Mentors deal with daily...

 

[OmCheeto]

You left out the Homework Help admonitions. That seems like about half of what we Mentors deal with daily...

Really? That's a surprise. Are people solving other peoples homework? Maybe I should sneak a problem in. I have a poly-dimensional mathematical problem that I don't even know how to write down, much less solve.

 

[jtbell]

No, the "Homework Help admonitions" are for newcomers who haven't found the HH forums yet and start out by posting homework exercises in the other forums. You probably don't see very many of them because we move most of them pretty quickly.

 

[harrylin]

No. He owns this place.

Holy Moses! The SMG is an excellent read. (saved to desktop!) Good job Greg. Did you make all that up yourself?
[..]

Hmm... probably - and regretfully - the following rule is applied here:

If there’s a dispute between a member and a moderator, side slightly with the moderator. Of course, there are always exceptions to this rule, but try to follow it as much as possible. -http://www.sitepoint.com/super-moderator-guide/

 

[tiny-tim]

I'm never quite sure about where and when to reveal my level of ignorance of things. At 50+, I've heard of the Mikado at least 1000 times.

But, I've never known what it was, where it was from, nor from what time it came.

to see how the Mikado was created, watch Topsy-Turvy

 

[OmCheeto]

to see how the Mikado was created, watch Topsy-Turvy

Bookmarked, to the bar.

Thank you.

 

[drizzle]

...

...

[off topic]
Just out of curiosity, who's the guy next to you... and how ol are you?
[/off topic]

 

[Borek]

[off topic]
Just out of curiosity, who's the guy next to you...
[/off topic]

Gomer Pyle (actually Leonard Lawrence).

 

[OmCheeto]

[off topic]
Just out of curiosity, who's the guy next to you... and how ol are you?
[/off topic]

Borek got his initials right, but backwards. His initials are P.G. He talked me into joining the Navy. We'd been best friends since 7th grade. We were both 18 in this picture.

I decided that our friendship needed some slowing down about 4 years later, when he tried to kill me*.

*He gave me a ride on the back of his brand new Harley Davidson on a cold drizzly November night up on Whidbey Island. A drunk lady pulled out in front of us, and we hit her @ ~55 mph. I lost my big toe nail. Pat spent 6 months in the hospital. He used the insurance settlement money to buy a truck, which he totaled a few months later. He eventually got married, still rides Harley style motorcycles, and has become what I would refer to as an evangelical christian. I on the other hand, remain single, have had an aversion to motorcycles since the incident, and more than anything else, consider myself an evangelical scientist and part-time bohemian. I doubt our paths shall cross again. Except perhaps at high school reunions. We do have fun reminiscing how we didn't die.

 

[berkeman]

have had an aversion to motorcycles since the incident

Well, that's pretty understandable. Sounds like your friend needs some riding/driving lessons. Glad that all you lost was a toenail.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

This thread has gotten way off topic. Can we get back to how lousy the moderators are?

 

[berkeman]

This thread has gotten way off topic. Can we get back to how lousy the moderators are?

Excellent point. You're banned. Thank you for your support.

 

[Evo]

Excellent point. You're banned. Thank you for your support.

BAN HIM!

 

[dlgoff]

This thread has gotten way off topic. Can we get back to how lousy the moderators are?

Excellent point. You're banned. Thank you for your support.

BAN HIM!

Keep him alive. Maybe next year he'll be open to PFs "Best Humor Award".

Never mind. Ban him.

 

[Evo]

Keep him alive. Maybe next year he'll be open to PFs "Best Humor Award".

Never mind. Ban him.

 

[berkeman]

Rut rho. Evo, he has one of your Get Out Of Ban Free (GOOBF) cards still. What were you thinking?!

 

[berkeman]

Oh wait. Maybe that's just a GoofBall card. Need to look this up in the Mentor Card FAQ...

 

[Evo]

Oh wait. Maybe that's just a GoofBall card. Need to look this up in the Mentor Card FAQ...

Lol, yeah, we need to keep track of those. At one time, a bunch of counterfeit GOOBF cards were printed and distributed. Some people had billions.

 

[dlgoff]

I'm putting on my t-shirt.

 

[Drakkith]

I have kittens and puppies for the mods. Don't ban me!

 

[OmCheeto]

Lol, yeah, we need to keep track of those. At one time, a bunch of counterfeit GOOBF cards were printed and distributed. Some people had billions.

You mean like my Zimbabwean GOOBF bill?

It's still negotiable, isn't it?

 

[drizzle]

Borek got his initials right, but backwards. His initials are P.G. He talked me into joining the Navy. We'd been best friends since 7th grade. We were both 18 in this picture.

I decided that our friendship needed some slowing down about 4 years later, when he tried to kill me*.

*He gave me a ride on the back of his brand new Harley Davidson on a cold drizzly November night up on Whidbey Island. A drunk lady pulled out in front of us, and we hit her @ ~55 mph. I lost my big toe nail. Pat spent 6 months in the hospital. He used the insurance settlement money to buy a truck, which he totaled a few months later. He eventually got married, still rides Harley style motorcycles, and has become what I would refer to as an evangelical christian. I on the other hand, remain single, have had an aversion to motorcycles since the incident, and more than anything else, consider myself an evangelical scientist and part-time bohemian. I doubt our paths shall cross again. Except perhaps at high school reunions. We do have fun reminiscing how we didn't die.

Interesting story Om. But it's awkward that you lost interest in motorcycles just because the incident. I know a person who lost an arm in a car accident-- wasn't his fault too-- and still drive cars till today.

Anyways, glad you only lost a toenail.

 

[Evo]

You mean like my Zimbabwean GOOBF bill?

It's still negotiable, isn't it?

Oh dear, it's worse than I thought!

 

[Drakkith]

Oh dear, it's worse than I thought!

Evo, I have a confession. I ate all the oreos. Drank all the milk. And printed all the counterfeit GOOBF bills.

By the way, you should probably change your password from the first 5 numbers of pi. It was deliciously easy to get in and take what I needed.

Also, Omcheeto made me do it. He said he would take my lunch money if I didn't. A man's got to have his half-pint of milk, you know?

 

[Evo]

Evo, I have a confession. I ate all the oreos. Drank all the milk. And printed all the counterfeit GOOBF bills.

By the way, you should probably change your password from the first 5 numbers of pi. It was deliciously easy to get in and take what I needed.

But Om told me no one would guess that password.

Also, Omcheeto made me do it. He said he would take my lunch money if I didn't. A man's got to have his half-pint of milk, you know?

Milk does a body good.

 

[Drakkith]

Milk does a body good.

What!?
*Spits out his milk*
Down with the Milktocracy!
All Glory to the Hipnotoad! Err I mean Soda!

 

[NemoReally]

... re rules. I tried to ask questions on an unmoderated physics newsgroup and gave up after noting that most of the replies were from people propounding some form of conspiracy theory or espousing physical theories that harked back to good old Newton and Aristotle - no need to get entangled in the strings of quantum theory at all (*)! Please, keep the Reasonable Rules. All in all, I prefer living under the Moderator's In Black tyrannical yoke of oppression than trying to eke out an existence in Theory-Rich, Fact-Free Anarchy.


-----------------------------

Note:
(*) I think it was usually an alien, under contract to the CIAFBIKGBIlluminati guvment people, crashed his UFO into the Towers to release the secret chemicals into the air that emulate global warming. Sounded plausible but I couldn't find an independent expert - they all suffered from amnesia after being "probed". Oh, and that Einstein fellow ... he was clearly wrong and there are half-a-dozen proper theories out there that prove it (or at least they will when a few little points have been addressed (like agreement with experimental evidence)) thus making fools of the secret cabal that denies funding to research that disagrees with the New Doctrine.

 

[G01]

As it happens, this is also the largest forum on the net, and for advanced questions the only place where you're likely to get an answer.

Perhaps you should consider that the size, quality, and utility of this forum exists thanks to, and not in spite of, the moderation rules?

People could just block people like on Facebook, or vote to hide their posts as on Youtube. This is my last post on a forum ever. The groups on Facebook are much smaller, but they'll have to do. They'll grow. I'm not the only one who's had enough of forums.

If you think quality science discussion will be better served by public opinion polling over moderation by professional scientists, please start a forum based on that construct.