Ok, what about free starbuck coffee 
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A lot of companies have staff that monitor the forums. In my honest opinion SG lacks that direction. They just do not get on enough to answer questions directed at them or player concerns. It’s almost as though this forum is an after thought. They have free moderators so why bother spending someones paid time to answer their player base. This is what keeps them going…
This is an online game and requires online interaction from them. I like to compare this to my current company.
We are an eCommerce business that sells very niche products (3d printers, CNC’s, robotics). So not everyone needs them. So the importance of our online presence is detrimental to our survival. We have a manager that thinks creating product pages at a rapid rate is worth more to us than our online marketing and social media presence.
Point being SG needs to take more time to recognize their player base. Mods are great but at the end of the day they are just like the rest of us. They just volunteered to do more for less…
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I think the title of this thread suggests that the primary concern is that the volunteer moderators should be replaced with paid moderators. It’s an eye catching thread title so I’d probably keep it but might cause some of the discussion to trend in this direction.
I think your suggestion to limit moderator time is an interesting one. But… I’m not sure ‘how.’ The in forum time should be tracked for you guys imho. More moderators seems like low hanging fruit.
And ideally, paid employees as the backbone of the moderator force seems like a good idea to me. Especially if they’re turning in the high quality production work like @zephyr1 does.
Ultimately you guys and gals need to know your limits and whatnot. But would I be a fan of SG helping to ensure that Mods aren’t giving ‘too much’ ? Yeah. I would 
I’ll try to brainstorm some ideas for how… that seems tricky to me. Especially when zephyr could write up a post in a word doc that takes an hour to write; and paste it here in ten seconds 
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Perfectly timed.
20laughs
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Manipulating the forum is an ex-mods bread and butter
Yeah, it’s tricky. If there were more, they could have their permissions turned off for one week in three maybe?
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The right employee as a community ambassador and communicator can be an amazing asset.
Case in point for me would be Brasse (for those that may have played an mmo or two). Someone who has a clear passion for the games they work with, and who knows how to translate information between devs and players in a way that comes off as a real person and not a canned response.
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@JonahTheBard
This post really shows the class that you have demonstrated in everything you do here and have done.
Our alliance leader is also a moderator for this forum. For all the time and effort that @zephyr1 puts in here He also graciously and efficiently teaches all of us to become better players and imparts an atmosphere that is family orientated resulting in a bunch of content Scally wag’s that have a blast together.
Thanks for taking the time to recognize these individuals and to devise a constructive plan that could alleviate future burn out from the wonderful people that currently serve as moderators and game specialist.
Hopefully the powers that be will see the need to compensate fairly and balance the hours so that these true heroes of the game will feel more appreciated and also encourage others to possibly serve in this capacity.
And finally thank you for being you and putting aside some of your time to care for others.
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For what it’s worth, kerri and garawyn have both walked away from the game And the forum moderator position. Not just moderator. And believe you did the same at 1 point.
So to me that makes it a bit more difficult to just pinpoint it to the forum moderator as being too time consuming leading to those departures
I have no preference with how SG handles the mod role, just wanted to make sure the info above is kept in mind and known. If it was just the moderator role leading to these departures, then they would step from the role but continue to game.
Sidenote: garanwyn had real life stuff come up and stepped away from all activities including game, line, and forum. Also noted he would return at some point but didn’t give a timeframe.
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That’s a fair point, Rigs.
Yes I jacked in the lot, too, for a few months.
So yes, it’s difficult to say how how much game play also contributes to the drain.
I would say that being a moderator is much more emotionally draining than playing, as it involves a degree of conflict and responsibility.
And similar to Garanwyn and Kerridoc, I had real life issues.
That being said, it’s the moderator role that reduces ones emotional and energy resilience to some of those issues and it’s hard to put down just the game or just the moderating, because they become part of your identity in the community.
And, of course, @rigs I’ve often thought you have the makings a moderator inside you
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Lol I’m no makings of a moderator for me, to outspoken.
I hear what you’re saying.
But do you find it odd that everyday we see players quit the game for different reasons, either rage quitting or just saying the game is too time consuming and we all just give them a nod in agreement and bid our farewells.
But when it happens to be a moderator, we feel that their particular role must play a part in it.
Not saying it doesn’t. Just that i find it to be an odd scenario.
I mean moderators are players like the rest of us. If we’ve watched 100s(lowballin it) of players quit the game or cutback, then isn’t it only a matter of numbers and time before a few are mods or big name players?
Idk, grabbing more coffee and puttin a pin in this thought. Pot #3 here i come…
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It’s a fair question.
For me I have never been a moderator, so I’m not sure of the commitment level.
@JonahTheBard says that being a moderator is a much bigger emotional and time commitment than playing, and I trust Jonah a lot.
Because of that trust, I will believe him on this critical point that many of us don’t have direct experience with.
OH THANK GOD 
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Yes, of course people would move on anyway. In a way the problem with working out the reason is the very small sample size (@garanwyn loved sample sizes 
)
And maybe the small sample size (six mods in three years) is the reason for the problem.
But it’s all still open to speculation 
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This is a very enlightening thread from the perspective of a moderator and for me, it heightens the level of appreciation I have for what you all do.
Most everyone knows (or should be aware) that a good moderator will have spent a lot of their personal time corralling participants into a said forums standard. Some of you go above and beyond, becoming an integral and informative part of what makes this forum pleasant to come to. Blurring the lines of enforcer and community brethren/sistren.
With that said, I’m disgusted to know that you’re not compensated for the time you put in and acknowledged and/or regulated. I feel silly to have assumed you folks get paid in tokens or some other form of perks. It takes a special breed of passionate individuals to charity their time to a for profit industry and it’s time they recognize it.
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Can I like this more than once?
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I was thinking yesterday that there should be a position called game antagonist and that this would be a perfect position for you. And I would read all of your post and I would prosper 
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@Rigs you would make a much better moderator than me, at least.
I know that’s not saying much. In fact, it’s pretty much saying less than nothing. But that’s kind of my specialty, using a whole lot of words to say a whole lot of nothing.
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Perfect 20 Votes from me.
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I just enjoy discussing the game 
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