h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

*nods sagely, while, in reality, he is merely bookmarking this page*

{[B17]} me too, i'm afraid!

You bad boys!
Your bookmarks managed by bad luck to occupy the top of a new block of 20. So I'd like to summarise (with help from y'all if I missed any points) what's been discussed to this moment. And then newcomers will have a sense of what this chat is about.

The consensus seems to be emerging that shunning is SO heavy a punishment that nobody really wants to use it. If one is enduring heavy spamming, abuse or vandalism of a moderated discussion, then one has prima facie evidence in the form of the thread itself to bring to the attention of the PTB.

We also agree, I think, that threads are owned by the researcher who sets up the forum. I find I've begun using the word 'moderator' a lot since these discussions began. I think that, by making me the inhabitant of the pagoda, redbeard has made me a co-moderator for these threads. When Irv went off on hols he made me and Babel co-moderators pro tem for the cafe. Can anyone think of threads that appear to be absent of ownership?

"I Have Take A Trip To Madess". That forum had no leadership at all. Granted, it was of such a nature that it didn't need leadership, and it is now an unused forum, but I think that it never really had a leader.

As I said before, the very nature of this site is that a moderator is provided for every conversation... whether that moderator chooses to participate, though, is another matter. Every forum is spawned off of an article, a journal entry, or homepage, and whoever created the thing that the forum is attached to is the default moderator... of course, it is possible to name alternates, as your own experience with the Cafe shows. I also think that the Powers in the Towers carry a sort of super-moderator status (at least the visible ones... Moxon, Peta, Lynn, etc) wherever they go by nature of their job titles.

"Trip to Madness" -- never saw it, actually. Might it have lived if someone had moderated? Not to put too fine a point on it, a thread often benefits from a gentle goosing now and again; participants see the thread bob to the top of their list, grow curious to see why, and are led to participate again. That, I believe, is exactly what the Dead Forum Revival Unit bunch do.

"I Have Taken A Trip To Madness" was something I started on a whim in the Random Conversation forum. It lasted a lot longer than I expected it to, actually.

To tell you the truth, I was experimenting with something I was writing IRL. Seeing if doing it improv would be better. But it's a kind of pointless forum, IMHO. It's fun for a while, but was occasionally pushing other conversations (Cafe, Donut Stall, etc.) out of view.

A conversation you started in Random Conversations? No wonder you didn't see a moderator... it was you, and you didn't know it.

Moderator, moderate thyself!

Yes, I contributed to that thread, and I would say that Affy was the moderator, since he started it and continued contributing (at the end, there were only 2 crazies left - any guesses who? )

As long as the two crazies are happy on their thread, there's no issue, really, is there!

True. Affy was just trying to think of an example of a thread with no moderator. I agree that there isn't such a thing, although the term moderator doesn't quite fit in some cases, where "owner" or "authority" might fit better. For example, when you leave a message on someone's home page to ask them a question, or to simply let them know about something. It may only require a "thank you" message from the owner of the home page, but they are still the authortiy or owner for that thread. Another example: on the page I made for the snowball cannon, other people started threads for snowball fights, which still more people joined and took sides. In that case, who the moderator is, is slightly ambiguous - probably, the two original people fighting are co-moderators.

Ah, the kids. Kids cut across all lawns, real or virtual!

I freely admit to being a bit of a control freak, and in my duties as temp caretaker at the cafe along with Babel, I've really borne down on the activity on that forum. Interestingly, Irv wasn't entirely pleased when researchers founded "ladies" and "gents" threads without consultation, especially considering the level to which those threads sank. Since the upgrade, though, the middle parts of both those threads -- which were very very long -- have gone away.

Anyway, bearing that in mind, I have dropped (nicely) into each thread that has appeared independently and invited the poster to join the "official" conversation.

In respect of the subadult snowball fights, it tickled me when Affi offered a referee announcement during one of them, and one of the kids said "And who are YOU?" or words to that effect.

I came to my understanding of how this works through my experience running the FFFF. All I really intended was to provide the forum, and then invite interested parties to hang out. Then people started deferring to me, saying things like "That's just my take, but we'll see what GargleBlaster has to say." I was like, "Why me?" I really had very little to do with the formation of the FFFF's goals and atmosphere... it was formed through the discussions in the first meeting threads, and it was by universal agreement. So when someone would ask for clarification on the mission statement, and they would refer the questioner to me, I was like, "they're you're rules, and it's your foundation... I just update the page." That's when I began to realize that everyone else saw it as *my* foundation, and it didn't matter what I thought about the matter. However, I will say that it is a much simpler thing to manage than some of these other places. For some reason, we don't have the problems that I hear about from other places. Even the passing Christian who has stopped in for a chat has been very polite. The reason, I believe, is that all are admonished on the main page to "Be excellent to each other." Plus, I'm not a control freak... as long as there is no rancor, they can talk about whatever they please. For the most part, the intense debate type things occur on pages outside the foundation, and the inside is basically for news, gossip, and stuff. This isn't by my design, though, just something that seemed to happen. The members still dictate what goes on in there, and aside from settling points of protocol, I just update the page and start off new forums.

I wonder who the moderator of the "Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re..." forum was. I'm not even sure I remember who started it.

And no sooner do I say I never have to wield any authority than I find a new thread started by a Christian who has some concerns... That'll teach me to make declarative statements.

I wonder if this person sitting behind me in Churchill college will notice this post?

LOL

I often wish the person sitting in back of me in the coach section of the aircraft would notice this post.

I rather liked the ladies and gents pages.

It is a widely held theory that doing crass, uncouth, "scandelous" activities, once in a while, help to keep decent people decent. Thus the "stag parties," Friday Night Drinking, and other activities. That's just a way for me to justify the w & m rooms