voting

I sure hope what I’m going to attempt to put into print will make sense and not offend the forum.

I am a fairly new member, and I will admit I have taken every advantage of the forum in regards to asking question after question, and have benefited from the many answers I’ve received. Did I vote? No! Why? Because I really did not what I was voting for or who I was voting for!

Sure I know that it was for a moderator, but excuse my ignorance, what is and what does a moderator do? Yes I’m sure had I not been so lazy and had done some research I could have easily found the answers, but I had on blinders and was really only interested in my selfish quest for knowledge in woodworking.

I know the importance of group participation. I’ve gone thru the chairs in the Elks Lodge and served as Exalted Ruler. I’ve served as president of the Kiwanis, and the Rotary Clubs and have served on many state, local and national hospitality committees prior to retiring from the Hospitality Industry. To vote for officers, committee people, etc is not just to give recognition to it’s members but it’s the catalyst in helping to make a group grow and succeed.

I’m sure that there has to be other “freshman” members who have the same question I had. Maybe there should be a blurb prior to elections defining the duties and or functions of a moderator. Perhaps there should be a nominating procedures of members to allow us that are really familiar with those you feel are qualified to do the job.

Now I know someone is going to tell me that these things exist and was just to stupid to see them, if so I truly apologize for my ignorance. I do know that when I ask a question I always receive a immediate answer, and these answers seem to come from the same people every time. I notice that these same people are either past moderators or are the new moderators, and I really feel that they deserve it, my congratulations.

I guess what I was attempting in this post is to see if it could light a spark to get more members involved and active,

Jiggs Elphison
 
Jiggs, I for one am delighted that you posted these questions. I think you raise valid points here. I will share with you and hopefully the people your post intended to reach some thoughts that may cause a little head scratching that I did in my journey of getting involved on the forum.

Although I grew up in the tech sector and tech revolution and did my fair share of new tech adoption, even dot com dabbling, I have always been a little hesitant to adopt new ideas or concepts as far as the internet is concerned. So my joining a forum and participation took several years for me to come round to.

However the aspect that inspired me to get off my but and join came from my exposure to the USA in general via business. As the internet took off for commercial use, and people started to upload a ton of knowledge and info it struck me just how open the USA society is. Just consider something like the CIA factbook a wealth of info open for all to see and use.

Being a product of the cold war, and an oppressive regime i had my own fair share of paranoia to deal with after all their was an enemy of the state under every stone back in those days.:rofl:

My formative years were spent dealing primarily with Europe and the United Kingdom where the concept of reserved and guarded seemed to be invented. Information was power and not shared. Yet in the USA with the rise of the internet (going back many years now) suddenly all sorts of info was on the web. Companies started using it to provide investor information and I became quiet fascinated and captivated by the openess. This openess has two sides, one is positive and enables progress and provides freedom through the liberating sharing of knowledge and competitive use thereof and the other a negative where access to certain info can be used against the supplier of information.

Example I used to use lists of distributors my main competitors placed on their website (for potential customers to find an outlet) to contact these private businesses and try to poach these distributors away from my competitor.

But in my opinion as the years have passed by the positives and benefits of sharing this info have outweighed the negatives by far. Just consider Google.

Having also served in prior roles in some form or another in various community institutions, I am also acutely aware as you have indicated you are, that non profit organizations do not survive without volunteers and i think for anyone reading this that is not a member or registered to vote, the aspect of registering to vote and excercising that vote should be considered the least that they can do to give back for the information they have recieved. For the better the selection of personnel to administer the forum, the stronger the forum will be and the longer it will be around for all to enjoy and share.

Then comes the comment Stu made a few days/weeks ago with reference to keeping the entity such as the forum alive, inspiring and stimulating.

Once one is past the paranoia associated with the web, regardless of your level of ability, contributing your experiences in the field of woodworking are the next level of participation required in order that the forum may survive and be a rich entity in many ways.

After doing that for a while one will soon come to realize that to be fair in the playground one needs to help keep it clean and tidy one needs to be prepared to pick up a broom and dustpan and keep the playground clean.

Sure there is intrepidation and fear at stepping up to help in the playground, afterall I was never any good at using a broom, heck thats why vacuums were invented :D. But just as with the assistance you recieve here on how to use your plane you just bought and had the world celebrate with you, so too will those same helping hands guide you in keeping the playground clean and using the broom and dustpan.

Any frequent user of this site cannot honestly say they have not recieved a ton of information, fellowship, entertainement, joy, sadness and encouragement to persevere that has taken place here in the sharing that continues freely.

Heck the blockbuster posts of Stus Aprato renos, Allens adventures and Larrys tours in my mind have rivaled the best mini series on television...errrr except Centennial;).

And so to my last and I feel most important point. Nothing comes for free in a free society. There is one overiding responsibility in my humble opinion and that is the responsibility to participate to the level of ones own ability. Sometimes that participation will require sacrifice in order to sustain the freedom. On our forum and little piece of cyberspace the only sacrifice one is having to make in order to keep the playground clean is a little time. It does not even involve heavy lifting or bending unless you stoop to switch the power switch on to your computer.

Finally I have come to accept without question that as has been said here so many times by so many of the long standing members, that there is no stupid question. I have witnessed how tirelessly regardless of how many times a particular question has been asked, members will answer, and point a fellow member in the right direction and do so without ridicule or any sort. Unless of course its poor Larry.:D

I hope this gives some lurkers some food for thought and some non participants an urge to reconsider their level of participation and hey if you feel there is something skew with what i have said, feel free to add to the debate.:)
 
Jiggs, great post :thumb:

I've been here from when we opened the doors, so the questions you are asking I'd not even thing to ask, as they are second nature to me, thank you for asking them :thumb:

There are some posts explaining what is what, but I think, at your suggestion, it might be prudent to consolidate them in an easy to access reference.

Sounds like a good job for one of the new Mods :D :wave:
 
good questions Jiggs and a great response Rob :thumb::thumb: and i agree that we can make a summary post that will define the duties of a moderator.. there are many time when its a walk in the park but if any of yu have been involved in any group organization from school days to professional life yu know that not everyone works well together all the time and that is where the mods step up and try to settle the problem or answer the questions.. as for who to vote for jiggs,, yu need to look at the post os the volunteers and what they have to say and use that bit of info to see if they look at things the way you think and if yu think that they ar here to help or hinder the forum..also if yu have questions of there qualifications to do the job,, pm them and ask your questions all of the volunters understand that we are here to serve and that we ARE accountable for our actions be them good or bad!
 
i`m a new/recycled mod maybe i can kinda answer?

the code of conduct was written by the group who started fww and it`s pretty simple....no cussin`, no politics, no religion.........basically "play nice".

a moderators duty is to make sure the coc is followed.

the main difference between fww and the other woodworking sights i`ve been to is that fww doesn`t give any one moderator the power to actually "do" anything...it takes a group effort to even agree to edit a post and that`s only after asking the poster to edit it himself.

the reason we have elections is so nobody gets burnt out on the job and so that as the forum population changes the moderators can reflect those changes with new blood.
 
Jiggs, no problem, great question. Uhhhhh, ummmmmmm, nothing to add after reading the excellent post by Rob. That in itself is a great narrative that could be taught in local schools as to the need to vote.
 
Jiggs, I am also fairly new I have talked with many of the guys on here but still am not acquainted with the dynamics of the group enough to know the procedures of the voting here yet. I did think of some of the questions you asked but I figured that they were not important of figured as you stated. So you done good Probe ! good post :thumb:
 
I've got a minute here, so I'll add some more thoughts to the list......

As Tod said, "Play nice" in a nutshell covers it.

Where the debates go on, behind the scenes is what defines say "Religion" or for that matter "Cussing" :)

Also to add to Tod's point about the fact that no one mod has the power to do anything, I'll just sharpen that point to say "Do anything permanent". For example, in the case of a clear violation of the CoC say some spammer kind of guy posts some porn pic, the first Mod on the scene of this clear violation can and will move the post to the "Questionable Post Drop Zone" which is in the Admin/Mod area of the forum (only open to Admin and Mods) the point to be made is that nothing goes "Poof" here, in this kind of case, the post would be edited by a mod, moved to the "QPDZ" and a place marker is left so that the original poster knows what is going on, it would say something like "Post under review by the staff". Then, the original poster would get a PM from the Mod explaining what happened and why the post got moved, they would be provided with the original text and asked to please edit it so it meets the CoC. If the original poster does now wish to change their post, then the mods will vote on what to do, it is a simple majority vote, and then action will be taken.

Is this long drawn out set of checks and balances sometimes a bit of work, you bet it is, but what we are trying to do is make things as fair as we can, and be as consistent as we can in applying the rules to everyone, if you are a member of the staff, past member of the staff, if you have 10K plus posts, or have only posted once, we strive to be fair. The other reason for the elections is that all of us staff all server at the pleasure of the membership, if someone gets heavy handed or over the top, they can be voted out.

We are not the largest site on the web, but I like it here, it has taken some hard work to keep us where we are, and it will continue to take some hard work, the vast majority of the membership never sees that hard work,but trust me, it goes on.

For me, at the end of this week, I'll become just another member, I've been on the staff here since we opened this place up, on October 26th 2006, so just shy of three years, it is time I take a rest. I have every confidence that the current and future staff will keep things popping along as smooth as ever.

Jiggs, I hope that sheds some light on things here, I also hope that you take it upon yourself to vote the next chance you get.

Cheers!:wave:
 
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