Does this board need a moderator?

BJ

Hello everyone,

I have always viewed this forum as YOURS...a place where you can debate, learn, vent, question, rant, joke, meet others, and have fun. Occasionally, Carol or I have had to step in to calm things down and bit, but in general this board has been self-monitoring. The participants on this board, for the most part, are smart, respectful, and down-right entertaining.

There have been a few times when I have posted a message on a thread where I thought the original post was off-base, ill-informed, or just plain wrong, but other than that, my participation in the forum has been very limited. I think most people know by now they can email me direct if they have a question regarding the registry.

Recently, it was suggested to me that the board needs a full-time moderator, not only to handle disputes but to answer questions regarding the registry. What do you think?

tradedollarnut

IMO, if you had a personable (much like yourself!) moderator with a bit of knowledge about coins but a lot of knowledge about people, who interacted with the posters and also initially addressed problems/concerns, it would be a great idea and possibly a good addition to overhead. Wouldn't even need to be a full time position.

Perhaps someone who needs to be fired but has a huge severance package so you need them to quit instead?

keithdagen

Would always be a good idea to have some kind of moderator for each board who had some knowledge of the purposes of the Board.

Keith

CarlWohlforth

I appreciate everything BJ has done for the Registry. Thanks!

I like knowing we can email for help if someone is getting too abusive. I like knowing we can email if we have questions about the Registry.

I also like freedom of speech. I'm in favor of minimal intervention. Believe or not I even think those who I disagree with should be able to continue to write what ever they want So I don't think we need one.

DHeath

Moderate or not, I would just like to say thanks for providing a fun place to talk shop and learn from other collectors. I think this resource is invaluable when you need a tough question answered, and most certainly has made me a better collector and made me rethink many of my collecting beliefs and objectives. Very few companies provide a free forum where friends and critics alike can share their views with the company's customer base. Good job!

kieferscoins

I don't think we need one, but if PCGS has to have one teach Stacy how to use these boards.

Cameron Kiefer

grip

BJ,
Are you hiring? Im on the boards 9 hrs a day .Al

wondercoin

BJ: I like the idea of a moderator very much. Wondercoin.

Typetone

I think there are a lot of good ideas presented on this Board. Perhaps one role of a moderator could be to show some of the ideas back to PCGS as well as tell us what PCGS is thinking. This way more people could participate in giving feedback knowing what others are saying. It would probably make it more efficient for us to communicate consensus opinions.

Greg

cosmicdebris

I don't think we need a qoute unquote "moderator" in the baby sitter sense but an ear that listens and provides feedback to PCGS would be nice. There were a few posts in the resent past from one specific person that were in very poor tatse and completely unnessesary. I sure we all know what posts I am reffering to. Other than those few posts I know we can get a little heated every now and then but it's all in fun.

braddick

Maybe not so much a moderator for content but one to quickly toss off those who choose to use vulgarity. There should be a zero tolerance for filth. No warnings. No 'second chances'- just the authortiy to eliminate the post and cancel the account of the author.
Again, content- although sometimes disagreeable, shouldn't be altered- we can each do that as contributors and responders to that of what we read.

Last week there was a thread or two that dealt with a topic that was heated. One poster decided to use the thread for a platform of profanity. He needed a quick and sever boot.

Fairlaneman

Bill:

Recent Past ? Was that last Saturday ? If so the Mass of Posts that were put up on this Forumn were Totally Un-called for. It would have been Real Nice to see those Posts Deleted Immediately. Not Sticking Up for Who they were Aimed at but Really thought the Posts were of Very,Very Poor Taste and Not Needed on a Public Forumn.

Moderator Needed for examples like that YES, but Full Time just to Answer Questions...............NO........IMHO.

Ken

cosmicdebris

Yes Ken I am sure we are reffering to the same posts.

Mark

Ken:

I also was taken aback by those posts. Indeed, I thought they likely had been contributed on Saturday so that no one would be able to remove them until Monday. Giving someone the ability to quickly remove profane posts, as Braddick suggests, would potentially be a good idea.

As far as contributing ideas to PCGS, why not create a board for ideas for PCGS? In that way, someone from PCGS could quickly glance at the board once a day and see if there are new (and good) ideas. The PCGS person would not need to wade through a bunch of posts about other topics, eg, how Mercs rule. I presume that a board whose purpose was for ideas for PCGS would not be heavily used and so it wouldn't be that much of a burden on PCGS to monitor it. And, such a board would at least give the appearance and hopefully also the reality that PCGS was listening to its users' input.

Mark

wondercoin

CU is a public company and this is CU's board . The decision to not employ "zero tolerance" is a very risky one imho. To permit 10 or 12 posts of the same genre and view that as a "single" minor infraction worthy of a warning is misguided. Yet, CU, overall, does an exceptional job of managing these boards, so I view that decision as the rare mistake on CU's part. Wondercoin.

Fairlaneman

Mitch:

It was Just Stated above that CU considers this Board Yours. Please Now, the Posts that were put up Attacking You Personally made the Whole Weekend on the Forumn quite Un-Enjoyable.

Enough Said that Kind of Crap must Go. No Ifs,Ands or Buts about It.

Swan

BJ, I think the way you have managed the forum on behalf of PCGS and the members has been excellent. I don't think we need to add any bureaucracy to this forum; however, if you see a problem you should handle it as you have in the past; with a PM or thread from PCGS.

perfectstrike

A moderator might be the only thing, depending upon the software. A monitored forum for registry set issues would be appreciated.

I don't know the capability of the FUSE software, but other BB software has the ability for operators to hide replies and topics.
Add a few people that could do this and leave the "delete" privs in the hands of PCGS staff.
Some BB software also has the ability to identify "online" privileged users. PM or chat could be used to discuss a sensitive area.

David

ps, thanks for fixing my recent problems BJ!

Dabigkahuna

It is comforting to know that that a that there is someone like BJ watching out for us and I do appreciate that but I don't feel there is anything more needed other than the type of monitoring that we have had in the past. I agree that profanity is completely out of line since there are younger members that view these post and it just not welcome. We have had very prominent people post to these threads before and I would like to see more of that type of interaction than the occasional tirade that do unfortunately occur from time to time. IMHO

Thanks BJ,

Larry
Dabigkahuna

Gembens

I apologise to the board for my comments and use of profanity. I didn`t even think for a momment that children would read my comment`s.

kranky

I also appreciate that CU provides these message boards, and by and large there's not much need for moderators. But I don't see what it could hurt to have a couple trusted board members be appointed as moderators.

All they would need to be able to do is remove inappropriate posts when necessary (profanity and personal attacks come to mind). Let them forward the posts to someone at CU and then CU can decide if further action is indicated. I looked at the Sports Card forums tonight and it is deteriorating rapidly.

gmarguli

Recently, it was suggested to me that the board needs a full-time moderator, not only to handle disputes but to answer questions regarding the registry. What do you think?

Moderation frequently prevents the fast exchange of questions and replies. Those few sites still using moderators frequently aren't well visited. No one likes posting a question and waiting 3 hours for it to show up. Then when someone gets around to approving the follow-ups, there are 10 people answering the same question. I seriously doubt that PCGS is going to employ someone in the "full-time" sense to handle this forum. There aren't enough posts to it for a full-time job. Quasi-moderation will result in the above. Moderation sucks.

Moderation to handle disputes is a sure fire way to piss off a lot of people. The moderator is (rightfully) viewed as taking sides.

I don't know why PCGS needs some full-time moderator to answer questions about the Registry. They don't even have a part-time person answering all the valid questions in the US Coin Forum and their Customer Service people practically never reply to any email questions. If PCGS wants to hand out a full-time job, then they should dedicate that job to answering email sent to Customer Service.

dragon

I agree with braddick, there should be a zero tolerence regarding profanity and extremely distasteful comments that do not address the subject at hand.

Dragon

dpoole

This Board is self-moderating. You said it yourself.

Like any human enterprise, things chug along amicably in the middle here most of the time. Once in a great while there's a surge of brilliance and humanity on the one end, or crass boorishness on the other. I've, like many others, been here from the beginning, and have seen this time and again. There's a stir about one end of teh spectrum or the other for awhile, and then things settle back down.

As always, it is the human impulse to make sure that the bad stuff will "never happen again." Most of the time, though, the institutional efforts to implement such a resolution, always create the bad "unintended consequences, and the bad stuff merely changes shape.

Leave it alone, and don't worry about it.

kranky

Greg, I don't think that moderators would approve posts beforehand. They would do just like BJ and the others do now - when they see a post that is over the line, they can take action.

cointime

Bj,

I think it would be great to have someone to give/get answers to questions that do come up from time to time. I do not think it is nessary to have someone (as a sysop) to boot or warn members to stay within the lines. IMHO.

Kenny

danarchy

should we start a poll?



dan

DMWJR

I don't think we need a moderator. I for one will not respond to those sorts of posts anyway. Nothing is more profound than the silence following a post that no one will acknowledge. If you feel like you have been personally attacked or offended, just PM the person that posted it, and if that doesn't work, e-mail BJ. This is a clean adult forum. If you want to start a "junk" forum, do it on yahoo.

Doug

"The stealth at which I climb the Lincoln Proff registry ladder is so good it is unknown even to myself"

grip

I agree with no tolerance for profanity,period!And that includes name calling as in personal attacts,it does nothing but run off our knowledgabl collectors and this forum will turn into another "free for all" I was kind of joking when i said i spend a good amount of my time and would be more than happy to be appointed "sargent at arms" I will do this if asked for the good of the hobby=Free.Al

madmike

Uh-oh.... Dan said the "P" word! (that would be "poll" for those of you keeping score)

I don't think we need much moderation. The board doesn't fill up with porn links and spam like some others I've visited. And our troll percentage is fairly low.

As far as profanity goes, wasn't there a filter taking care of that?

And if the filter is still in place, can we add the word "poll" to the restricted words?

Dirty, dirty word (and four letters too!)



madmike

RegistryCoin

Actually, this was a simple test. BJ doesn't care about our answers, yes or no.
If this thread ended with a riot - we need a moderator.
If the thread went without a riot - no moderator is necessary.
Good job guys. Just stick to "no maniacal posts" and we should be ok.

MikeB

<< <i> I know we can get a little heated every now and then but it's all in fun. >>



You might know that, but newer members certainly don't. The signal-to-noise ratio on this board is so low, sometimes, that I'm reluctant to participate because it's hard for me to find anything custructive at all.

Foolish threads like last weekend and the one late in February (uh, I think) aren't very good for newer collectors.

.B ekiM

K6AZ

I don't believe a moderator is necessary. Most of the time, these boards are cool and levelheaded. I like the idea of a hands-off administrator better. In other words, action should only be taken when someone has violated board policy, such as foul/obscene language or threats to another member. Anyone who does that should be given a swift boot.

BJ

As always, you have provided me with very constructive feedback. And, again, I thank you.

It seems that most people on this forum feel this board is pretty well self-monitored and that the only thing you ask is that a swift boot be sent to those using profanity or slander. I will discuss with Charlie Kahler, the CUI customer service manager, about how we might more quickly react to these kinds of situations.

Some of the best ideas for the set registry have come from members. And although I don't want to set up another messageboard for suggestions because it means monitoring yet another board, I would like to find a way to tap into your incredible idea bank. If I set up a "suggetion box" on the set registry home page, would you use it?

QuickMiata

naw keep them out, heck we are doing well flaming each other.

and + Trolls know they are safe here

littlewicher

I'll be the moderator for $25,000 a year. I'm serious too.

RegistryCoin

I agree: "naw". We're self-entertaining, and self-baby-sitting. There are few exceptions. I am sure your time, BJ, is more importantly and productively used elsewhere. Have fun.