How to help our volunteer moderators

Some of the biggest help to me is community flagging threads:

  • this is a violation
  • this is a duplicate (with a link to the dupe)
  • this belongs somewhere else

I welcome these helpful flags. In this way, the community is already helping, and they don’t have to have a fancy hat. :grin:

17 Likes

I think I see a lot more duplicates than violations. I’ll start being more proactive if it will help :slight_smile:

I don’t need a fancy hat, but could I get a regular one? I’m balding, it would help. :stuck_out_tongue:

8 Likes

I often run into new posts and my first thought is well this will be merged to “wherever it belongs” soon but I’ve never tagged a mod before. I’ll try tagging y’all whenever I see it in the future tho

7 Likes

That’s good to know. I’ve always been cautious about flagging but if this is appropriate use of flags, I’ll start using them in these instances!

3 Likes

My thoughts on the discussion:

Yes.

1 Like

Volunteer

( [Essay, Community Content] Why I donate my blood, sweat and tears )

Power

On many forums, moderators can significantly alter and/ or delete topics and replies.

Finding good moderators is hard.

Authority

Mods have a level of authority, that other users do not.

If a new user asks how best to do X, it may take several days of discussion.

If a Mod replies with answer Y, right or wrong, the discussion will often stop.

This is bad for complex, hard topics but awesome for common, easy topic ( farming, Wanted elemental monster mission chest, titan loot tier, buildings needed for legendary training, etc. )

Reference section

SGG has not set up a reference section, but this is usually the second most fun part of being a mod.

@zephyr1 Beta Beat comes closest to it but does not have its own sub forum.

Marketing/ Legal

Often volunteer mods can say things staff is barred from saying due to marketing, and legal, departments.

Deniability

Mods can ask Devs questions, and paraphrase the response, giving the Devs deniability.

This is both the best, and worst, part of being a volunteer mod.

Especially when the Devs tell you something you are not allowed to pass on to other players. Usually discipline actions.

Mod Team

This.

As a forum mod in another game, you will be in alliance chat and a teammate will pop then let you know the alliance recruitment sub forum blew up in with a small group flaming each other every minute.

So forum mods often feel they need to put in time to help out the team.

There is a reason SGG staff have stealth account and public accounts.

Hobby

In my experience, chat and forum moderating is like a second hobby in addition to playing Empires.

Volunteer mods are like parents who participate in bake sales and school fund raisers while Staff are like the administration that fights for the yearly budget.

Forum team

Just like alliance co leaders, mods and staff, can get into arguments as much as they help each other out.

It really reminds me of the dynamics of an alliance and depending on the people involved, just as much work.

8 Likes

Regular

Perhaps a sub forum for Regulars?

I stopped using my Regular powers because the original poster kept undoing my changes.

Usually forum mods have additional powers when it comes to locking edits, category and titles.

2 Likes

I’m still reading through this thread, but I kept coming up on bits about how SG ought to pay us. This is my reply for me (thanks Kayo!):

This is exactly why I don’t want to be paid.

(I don’t ask to be paid for my leadership gig in Misfit Toys either, and I’ve been doing that for 2.5 years!) :grin:

That doesn’t mean that SG hasn’t mailed me care packages of goodies (because they have, and No, you can’t have my T-shirt!) but it does mean I think the Forum moderator gig is a casual thing, which I do when I can because I want to and not because there are timecards involved etc.

This arrangement allows moderators to be players too, and have our own opinions. :wink:

13 Likes

I probably misunderstood what you wrote in your first post and mixed it with comments of people who wanted mods to be paid. My bad. I do thinks mods deserve more compensation though.

2 Likes

I love being able to come and go as I please (I’m a cat, after all), not on anybody’s clock.

Seriously, with my RL schedule, even a part-time job would not be possible. I pop in here and there, 5 minutes, 15 minutes, longer, as I have time throughout the day. Having to account for that time would drive me crazy. :grin:

I think the key to mod sanity is a few more of us, and those more would need to know and love the game, and be Forum savvy (which can be taught).

It’s about sharing the load. Zephyr’s been carrying a mountain of it because “he is that darn good”… :grin:

18 Likes

@zephyr1 just wanted a cabin boy…I think if he had gotten a Peter…he would’ve been re-energized for at least 3 weeks.

…I know exactly what I said and how I phrased it…

5 Likes

I think it’s funny that I haven’t got an HOTM yet. Surely no one else has worse luck than I? :rofl:

I am purposefully “not getting it” you naughty thing!

7 Likes

I think there needs to be more staff presence instead of grinding through volunteer mods’ goodwill. We need more folks like Petri and mhalttu interacting and engaging. If one is worried about staff having to deal with tr0lls and bad actors, use the APL (which serves very little purpose at the moment).

Think about the amount of information, work, and overall feeling of presence our current and former mods perform. Think about the effort of the content creators to inform the general playing audience of newly released features and their structure in amazing detail and readability. These are all things that staff could realistically be doing (SG has the money but has chosen to stay ‘small’, but a couple more staff to take this over/chip in is too much) ? Do not forget the constant presence of the game specialists who help guide folks looking for help and directing conversations to salient points on overall gameplay.

For sure SG has been pumping out a lot of new content (which is cool); but I haven’t really seen a big push of staff/forum interaction on game mechanics since they were trying to fine-tune the war matching. Tournament matching adjustments seemed to be more about them making tweaks than asking how to improve it. Even in beta, the amount of interaction is very limited. When I see mods in the dark in beta, I remember how frustrated I was as a mod in a different game when things were awry and my contacts to the company were silent. All of this means that 98% of the interaction is left to a small group of volunteers; an unbelievable pile of work for a game so widely played across the globe.

Just my opinion, for what it’s worth.

TLDR; Get more paid community staff to create infographics and act as an intermediary between developers and players to lighten the mod/content creator workload.

5 Likes

Well see as how @zephyr1 does nothing but set on his dairy-aire he could give us regulars a trainer course in exactly how to move new posts where they belong.
Will we get access to mod channel??? LOL :stuck_out_tongue:

2 Likes

@JonahTheBard has that covered: Be a Regular Hero 🤹 - guide for Regular Forum Users

:slightly_smiling_face:

5 Likes

Me am I one zeph???

2 Likes

I just learned how to move threads. I’m a regular lvl 2 now :crossed_swords:

7 Likes

You’re a Regular…not sure how regular you are, though. :stuck_out_tongue:

5 Likes

Let me show you…:upside_down_face::stuck_out_tongue::yum::stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye::crazy_face::stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes::money_mouth_face::stuck_out_tongue::thinking::roll_eyes::crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face::crazy_face: gotta stop my mouse is starting to where out but I am sure you get the point

4 Likes

As you level up, and feel your place in the world is more secure… please know that this path you are on is not as it seems. You are on a dangerous road indeed.

12 Likes