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offline

Carlie

6,823 posts

Blacksmith

Posted December 16, '08 11:01pm UTC

This is a compilation of an introduction to the moderators, answering questions on how to become a moderator, and what our merit standards are.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. The Moderation Team
2. Want to be a Mod? Want Merits?
3. Our Merit Standards
4. Our Moderator Standards

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The Moderation Team

Questions can normally be answered through the Help page, so if you have a general site question, please make sure to look there first.

The Moderators on Armor Games make sure that users are following the Rules and Regulations, and help enforce these rules. You may see them around the site, answering users questions and taking care of SPAM. Moderator comments show up in blue in the forums, so it is easier to tell when a moderator is responding on a topic. All site moderators and administrators can be viewed on the About page.

Without further ado, here is a list of the most current Moderators:

dank

Devoidless

Estel

Moegreche

NoNameC68

Strop

ubertuna

Zophia

Armor Games also has a Community Manager, who acts with the Moderators to help improve the community:

Carlie

Much thanks to all of the Moderators that help keep the site clean of spam and abuse!

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Want to be a Moderator? Want Merits?

Then DON'T ASK!

We love that you love Armor Games enough to try to become a moderator or that you want extra points for writing a great review but we will not make you a moderator or give you a merit if you ask.

Why?

Because we choose our moderators by selecting members of the community who are responsible, mature, and contribute in great ways to the site. We watch in our own eyes and suggest to each other who should become the next mod. If you say to us "hey, I want to be a mod!" you are hurting this process because we want to choose based on qualities of users we need... leadership, responsibility, maturity, respect, and dedication to make the site awesome. Saying "I should be mod!" makes us think twice... mod material comes from people who SHOW US they can be a mod, not ASK US.

So don't:
Ask a mod to make you a moderator on the site.
Ask an admin to make you a moderator on the site.
Suggest a user to become a moderator on the site.

As for merits, we don't want you shoving your merits in our faces. We have quite a few people scouring the site looking for awesome comments to merit so if you wrote something good most likely it will be found. If it isn't found, that isn't to say you didn't do something great for the site. People who write lots of good comments end up becoming mods as well, so maybe you won't get the merit but you might get something even better!

So help the site by being good Armor Games users, but let us choose the next mods and merits on our own accord.

Thanks!

(Thanks to John for this section)
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Merit Standards

We have been getting a lot of complaints lately about people not getting merits for their comments. This is not necessarily because we have not seen them, but because we have heightened our standards of what constitutes a merit worthy comment. We have put our standards into some guidelines, so that you guys can see what we look for in a merit:

1) Perfect or near perfect grammar. Remember to use capitalization and proper spelling.
2) Structured - try to give some flow and structure to what you are writing. Don't just around from topic to topic.
3) Comprehensive, and with unique insight into the game that we somehow deem to be valuable.
4) Coherent. A lot of reviews that follow the recommended template become an exercise unto itself i.e. they don't really make sense when you actually read them. They sometimes even contradict themselves. These sort of comments don't get merits. Just because it is long, does not mean it will get a merit. It has to make sense too.
5) Contains constructive criticism of the game. Tell us the changes that you would make to the game, and why. What do you approve of? What don't you like?
6) Do not ask for a merit. Chances are, if you have to ask for a merit, you will not get one. It highly reduces your chances of receiving one, and makes us sad every time you ask

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For further hints and tips, check out the N&N and Greg Merit Guide. But remember to always follow the guidelines listed above.

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Moderator Standards

"If you would like to become a moderator, you first need to show that you are responsible on the site; show a good posting record and maturity and you may be granted these exclusive rights! We will usually hand pick moderators, but if you feel you have what it take, contact us on the Contact page... we are really, really picky though!" -Courtesy of the Help page.

Now here are some of this things we look for in moderators:

1) Responsibility. Potential moderators must be responsible, mature, honest, and trustworthy. There is not a specific age requirement, but maturity is a big aspect of moderation. This is why we do tend to choose members who are older.
2) Good posting record. We look for members who have a good posting record. This means they have an adequate amount of forum posts, game reviews, and merits. We look for people who post clearly and intelligently with very few spelling or grammatical errors. We will never choose someone who spams any of their writing for points. We look for people who post comments to help improve the site, instead of just posting for points.
3) Helpful. Potential moderators are members who are very helpful and courteous to other members of the community. They answer questions for other members when possible with a friendly attitude. They are active and constructive with suggestions and support. Moderators have a genuine interest in helping improve the community.
4) Activity. We only ask members who are moderately to very active on the site. This helps us ensure that they will be accessible to members of the community, and be around to help enforce the rules of the site.

If you would like to be a moderator, please do not ask a moderator or administrator directly. Chances are, if you have to ask to be a moderator, you probably should not be one. We normally hand pick moderators, and none of the moderators that we currently have were chosen because they asked for it. We don't really go by the 'Ask and you shall receive policy.'

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Last updated by Carlie on December 16, 2008

This is a compilation of an introduction to the moderators, answering questions on how to become a moderator, and what our merit standards are. \r\n\r\n[b]TABLE OF CONTENTS [/b]\r\n\r\n1. The Moderation Team \r\n2. Want to be a Mod? Want Merits? \r\n3. Our Merit Standards \r\n4. Our Moderator Standards\r\n\r\n\r\n[b]+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-[/b]\r\n\r\n[b]The Moderation Team[/b]\r\n\r\nQuestions can normally be answered through the [url=http://armorgames.com/page/help]Help[/url] page, so if you have a general site question, please make sure to look there first. \r\n\r\nThe Moderators on Armor Games make sure that users are following the [url=http://armorgames.com/page/Commenting-Rules]Rules and Regulations[/url], and help enforce these rules. You may see them around the site, answering users questions and taking care of SPAM. Moderator comments show up in blue in the forums, so it is easier to tell when a moderator is responding on a topic. All site moderators and administrators can be viewed on the [url=http://armorgames.com/about]About[/url] page. \r\n\r\nWithout further ado, here is a list of the most current Moderators: \r\n[img]http://armorgames.com/image/armatar_15_200.200_c.jpg[/img]\r\n[b][url=http://armorgames.com/user/dank]dank[/url][/b]\r\n\r\n[img]http://armorgames.com/image/armatar_18_200.200_c.jpg[/img]\r\n[b][url=http://armorgames.com/user/Devoidless]Devoidless[/url][/b]\r\n\r\n[img]http://armorgames.com/image/armatar_178_200.200_c.jpg[/img]\r\n[b][url=http://armorgames.com/user/Estel]Estel[/url][/b]\r\n\r\n[img]http://armorgames.com/image/armatar_176_200.200_c.jpg[/img]\r\n[b][url=http://armorgames.com/user/Moegreche]Moegreche[/url][/b]\r\n\r\n[img]http://armorgames.com/image/armatar_140_200.200_c.jpg[/img]\r\n[b][url=http://armorgames.com/user/NoNameC68]NoNameC68[/url][/b]\r\n\r\n[img]http://armorgames.com/image/armatar_4_200.200_c.jpg[/img]\r\n[b][url=http://armorgames.com/user/Strop]Strop[/url][/b]\r\n\r\n[img]http://armorgames.com/image/armatar_34_200.200_c.jpg[/img]\r\n[b][url=http://armorgames.com/user/ubertuna]ubertuna[/url][/b]\r\n\r\n[img]http://armorgames.com/image/armatar_148_200.200_c.jpg[/img]\r\n[b][url=http://armorgames.com/user/zophia]Zophia[/url][/b]\r\n\r\nArmor Games also has a Community Manager, who acts with the Moderators to help improve the community: \r\n[img]http://armorgames.com/image/armatar_119_200.200_c.jpg[/img]\r\n[b][url=http://armorgames.com/user/Carlie]Carlie[/url][/b]\r\n\r\nMuch thanks to all of the Moderators that help keep the site clean of spam and abuse! \r\n\r\n\r\n[b]+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-[/b]\r\n\r\n[b]Want to be a Moderator? Want Merits?[/b]\r\n\r\n[b]Then DON'T ASK![/b]\r\n\r\nWe love that you love Armor Games enough to try to become a moderator or that you want extra points for writing a great review but we will not make you a moderator or give you a merit if you ask.\r\n\r\nWhy?\r\n\r\nBecause we choose our moderators by selecting members of the community who are responsible, mature, and contribute in great ways to the site.  We watch in our own eyes and suggest to each other who should become the next mod.  If you say to us "hey, I want to be a mod!" you are hurting this process because we want to choose based on qualities of users we need... leadership, responsibility, maturity, respect, and dedication to make the site awesome.  Saying "I should be mod!" makes us think twice... mod material comes from people who [b]SHOW US[/b] they can be a mod, not [b]ASK US[/b].\r\n\r\nSo don't:\r\nAsk a mod to make you a moderator on the site.\r\nAsk an admin to make you a moderator on the site.\r\nSuggest a user to become a moderator on the site.\r\n\r\nAs for merits, we don't want you shoving your merits in our faces.  We have quite a few people scouring the site looking for awesome comments to merit so if you wrote something good most likely it will be found.  If it isn't found, that isn't to say you didn't do something great for the site.  People who write lots of good comments end up becoming mods as well, so maybe you won't get the merit but you might get something even better!\r\n\r\nSo help the site by being good Armor Games users, but let us choose the next mods and merits on our own accord.\r\n\r\nThanks!\r\n\r\n\r\n[i](Thanks to [url=http://armorgames.com/user/John]John[/url] for this section)[/i]\r\n[b]+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-[/b]\r\n\r\n[b]Merit Standards[/b]\r\n\r\nWe have been getting a lot of complaints lately about people not getting merits for their comments. This is not necessarily because we have not seen them, but because we have heightened our standards of what constitutes a merit worthy comment. We have put our standards into some guidelines, so that you guys can see what we look for in a merit:\r\n\r\n[b]1)[/b] Perfect or near perfect grammar. Remember to use capitalization and proper spelling.\r\n[b]2)[/b] Structured - try to give some flow and structure to what you are writing. Don't just around from topic to topic.\r\n[b]3)[/b] Comprehensive, and with unique insight into the game that we somehow deem to be valuable.\r\n[b]4)[/b] Coherent. A lot of reviews that follow the recommended template become an exercise unto itself i.e. they don't really make sense when you actually read them. They sometimes even contradict themselves. These sort of comments don't get merits. Just because it is long, does not mean it will get a merit. It has to make sense too.\r\n[b]5)[/b] Contains constructive criticism of the game. Tell us the changes that you would make to the game, and why. What do you approve of? What don't you like?\r\n[b]6)[/b] [b]Do not ask for a merit.[/b] Chances are, if you have to ask for a merit, you will not get one. It highly reduces your chances of receiving one, and makes us sad every time you ask :(\r\n\r\n+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-\r\nFor further hints and tips, check out the [url=http://armorgames.com/community/thread/1174971/nn-and-greg-merit-guide]N&N and Greg Merit Guide[/url]. But remember to always follow the guidelines listed above.\r\n\r\n\r\n[b]+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-[/b]\r\n\r\n[b]Moderator Standards[/b]\r\n\r\n"If you would like to become a moderator, you first need to show that you are responsible on the site; show a good posting record and maturity and you may be granted these exclusive rights! We will usually hand pick moderators, but if you feel you have what it take, contact us on the [url=http://armorgames.com/contact]Contact[/url] page... we are really, really picky though!" -Courtesy of the [url=http://armorgames.com/page/help]Help[/url] page. \r\n\r\nNow here are some of this things we look for in moderators: \r\n\r\n[b]1) Responsibility.[/b] Potential moderators must be responsible, mature, honest, and trustworthy. There is not a specific age requirement, but maturity is a big aspect of moderation. This is why we do tend to choose members who are older. \r\n[b]2) Good posting record.[/b] We look for members who have a good posting record. This means they have an adequate amount of forum posts, game reviews, and merits. We look for people who post clearly and intelligently with very few spelling or grammatical errors. We will never choose someone who spams any of their writing for points. We look for people who post comments to help improve the site, instead of just posting for points. \r\n[b]3) Helpful.[/b] Potential moderators are members who are very helpful and courteous to other members of the community. They answer questions for other members when possible with a friendly attitude. They are active and constructive with suggestions and support. Moderators have a genuine interest in helping improve the community. \r\n[b]4) Activity.[/b] We only ask members who are moderately to very active on the site. This helps us ensure that they will be accessible to members of the community, and be around to help enforce the rules of the site. \r\n\r\nIf you would like to be a moderator, please do not ask a moderator or administrator directly. Chances are, if you have to ask to be a moderator, you probably should not be one. We normally hand pick moderators, and none of the moderators that we currently have were chosen because they asked for it. We don't really go by the 'Ask and you shall receive policy.' \r\n\r\n\r\n[b]+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-[/b]\r\n[i]Last updated by [url=http://armorgames.com/user/Carlie]Carlie[/url] on December 16, 2008[/i]

524 Replies

offline

nichodemus

14,991 posts

Grand Duke

Posted August 9, '09 4:11pm UTC

I was wondering can a moderator give humself/herself a merit....

No. I remembered a certain someone blowing his top at Strawpony and claiming he gave himself 50 merits. Let me assure you, no!

offline

SwordAndShield

567 posts

Nomad

Posted August 9, '09 8:21pm UTC

Carlie

How do you become a moderator?

offline

Cenere

13,657 posts

Jester

Posted August 9, '09 8:30pm UTC

How do you become a moderator?

I assume you did read the first post, right?
Anyway: There is this wheel that the moderators spin to find out who to elect as the next mod...

Or, as it happens in real life: Any member that seems to be good enough for the post will be discussed by the moderators and Carlie, before being asked if he or she wants to become a moderator.

offline

Cholokid

1,667 posts

Shepherd

Posted August 9, '09 8:54pm UTC

Or, as it happens in real life: Any member that seems to be good enough for the post will be discussed by the moderators and Carlie, before being asked if he or she wants to become a moderator.

That is nonsense. It is just the wheel that does the choosing.

offline

jt111444

73 posts

Nomad

Posted August 10, '09 12:14pm UTC

Thank you Carlie, I always wanted to know what you look for in a mod and now I do. Thanks!

offline

446k

17 posts

Nomad

Posted August 11, '09 8:55pm UTC

I think this was a well put together write up. Nice job.

offline

IaXe

24 posts

Nomad

Posted August 13, '09 12:37pm UTC

I have a question about merits.

Suppositively, of course, if someone writes a good review that's really worth a merit, how much does it take from the time he/she makes the comment until the merit is given?

It's not necessary to tell me an exact time, just approximately.

offline

shayneii

2,492 posts

Peasant

Posted August 14, '09 2:26pm UTC

It can depend. If it's a really obscure game, it could take a year maybe! I wrote one last year yet no mod has looked at that game :P

Sometimes it might only take a couple days if it's a popular Game, but now there are less merits being given. It's completely random how long it takes!

offline

Xcalibur45

1,830 posts

Farmer

Posted August 14, '09 2:32pm UTC

Man, I'm never going to be a mod.

offline

IaXe

24 posts

Nomad

Posted August 14, '09 3:15pm UTC

Thanks for the reply.

Hmm.. this doesn't sound like it's going to give you a good motivation to write a review.. and it's something that takes time..

I think I'll stick with the "great, nice, boring, awful" type of comments!

offline

shayneii

2,492 posts

Peasant

Posted August 14, '09 3:24pm UTC

No... do not do one-word comments like that! That is spam! When you right a comment it should be at least a couple sentences.

The point of comments is to give feedback and information about the game to the people who are playing it, going to play it, and the developer. If you just say boring, they won't know what you mean by that!

offline

Green12324

4,097 posts

Peasant

Posted August 14, '09 4:20pm UTC

and it's something that takes time..

It doesn't take too long. Usually 5-10 minutes for me.

offline

IaXe

24 posts

Nomad

Posted August 14, '09 6:49pm UTC

I was kidding, I don't make one-word comments, but I only write a couple of lines, not a review.

It takes me about 5-10 min too, to write a review, but still, you do that on every game, unless you have a good motive.

I think the whole merit process should be improved by adding a voting option, and then the admins would select the ones they like to give merits too. The important thing to do that, for instants, every week. It should be a specific day that the merits would be given.

Otherwise, if that is impossible, I would suggest the merits feature to be removed. Is there really someone who goes through 30 pages of comments to read a meritted review? Or if you say that this is mainly about helping the developers, then what merits have to do with it? If someone has some suggesions he/she can visit the developers profile, and simply tell him/her exactly what he has in mind. At least that's what I do when I feel the urge to tell something to the developer, without expecting a reward for that.

To sum up, my point is that there will always be some limited number of people who help without expecting a reward. But if you want to encourage more people to make reviews to help the other players or the developer by giving a motive, a reward, then the least you should do, is to do it right.

Am I wrong?

I was kidding, I don't make one-word comments, but I only write a couple of lines, not a review.\r\n\r\nIt takes me about 5-10 min too, to write a review, but still, you do that on every game, unless you have a good motive.\r\n\r\nI think the whole merit process should be improved by adding a voting option, and then the admins would select the ones they like to give merits too. The important thing to do that, for instants, every week. It should be a specific day that the merits would be given.\r\n\r\nOtherwise, if that is impossible, I would suggest the merits feature to be removed. Is there really someone who goes through 30 pages of comments to read a meritted review? Or if you say that this is mainly about helping the developers, then what merits have to do with it? If someone has some suggesions he/she can visit the developers profile, and simply tell him/her exactly what he has in mind. At least that's what I do when I feel the urge to tell something to the developer, without expecting a reward for that.\r\n\r\nTo sum up, my point is that there will always be some limited number of people who help without expecting a reward. But if you want to encourage more people to make reviews to help the other players or the developer by giving a motive, a reward, then the least you should do, is to do it right.\r\n\r\nAm I wrong?

offline

shayneii

2,492 posts

Peasant

Posted August 14, '09 6:57pm UTC

[quote=laXe]I was kidding, I don't make one-word comments, but I only write a couple of lines, not a review.[/quote]

That's awesome

[quote=laXe]I think the whole merit process should be improved by adding a voting option,[/quote]

Well there used to be an up-vote function, but that didn't really do anything. All it did when people clicked on good comments was increase the text size. It helped good comments stand out better. However, this feature was removed due to the AG site optimization. As well, when this was removed people said that merit-worthy comments should stand out by themselves, without increasing the size of the text. Don't know if we'll see this feature back again after the optimization?

[quote=laXe]Or if you say that this is mainly about helping the developers, then what merits have to do with it? If someone has some suggesions he/she can visit the developers profile, and simply tell him/her exactly what he has in mind. ... that's what I do when I feel the urge to tell something to the developer, without expecting a reward ...[/quote]

If people aren't rewarded with something (a merit), most people wouldn't want to write a long review for 2 AP, when they can write "boring 3.5" for the same 2 AP. That is why we have problems with spam on the game comments.

Most people wouldn't go comment on a developer's profile because they won't get the merit.

I agree with most of your points there.

[quote=laXe]I was kidding, I don't make one-word comments, but I only write a couple of lines, not a review.[/quote]\r\n\r\nThat's awesome :)\r\n\r\n[quote=laXe]I think the whole merit process should be improved by adding a voting option,[/quote]\r\n\r\nWell there used to be an up-vote function, but that didn't really do anything.  All it did when people clicked on good comments was increase the text size.  It helped good comments stand out better.  However, this feature was removed due to the AG site optimization.  As well, when this was removed people said that merit-worthy comments should stand out by themselves, without increasing the size of the text.  Don't know if we'll see this feature back again after the optimization?\r\n\r\n[quote=laXe]Or if you say that this is mainly about helping the developers, then what merits have to do with it? If someone has some suggesions he/she can visit the developers profile, and simply tell him/her exactly what he has in mind. ... that's what I do when I feel the urge to tell something to the developer, without expecting a reward ...[/quote]\r\n\r\nIf people aren't rewarded with something (a merit), most people wouldn't want to write a long review for 2 AP, when they can write "boring 3.5" for the same 2 AP.  That is why we have problems with spam on the game comments.\r\n\r\nMost people wouldn't go comment on a developer's profile because they won't get the merit.\r\n\r\nI agree with most of your points there.

offline

IaXe

24 posts

Nomad

Posted August 14, '09 7:18pm UTC

I think I have a good idea about it that would probably stop the spamming that's EVERYWHERE on this site and it's the main flaw of it.

The up-vote should be added again, but with some basic changes that will make the difference.

At first, just like you said, the "enlarging text" thing is a bit unnecessary. If you want the voted comment to stand out, you should add a "sort by votes" feature on the comments, alongside with the default "sort by date" (in that way they will see and vote for most recent comments too)

And most important, you should remove the merit feature and reduce the comment reward of 2 AG to 1 AG and the users will be rewarded an extra 1 AG point for every vote. Simple, and affective.
That's because if the reward by writing a good review is so accessible and direct, almost all of the players will attempt to write, if not a long review, something that makes sense, instead of the one-word spam comments!

And the 1 AG standar comment reward is very important too, because it's small and the player will want to earn something more, but at the some time he/she won't be disappointed if the comment doesn't get voted!

I think I have a good idea about it that would probably stop the spamming that's EVERYWHERE on this site and it's the main flaw of it.\r\n\r\nThe up-vote should be added again, but with some basic changes that will make the difference. \r\n\r\nAt first, just like you said, the "enlarging text" thing is a bit unnecessary. If you want the voted comment to stand out, you should add a "sort by votes" feature on the comments, alongside with the default "sort by date" (in that way they will see and vote for most recent comments too)\r\n\r\nAnd most important, you should remove the merit feature and reduce the comment reward of 2 AG to 1 AG and the users will be rewarded an extra 1 AG point for every vote. Simple, and affective.\r\nThat's because if the reward by writing a good review is so accessible and direct, almost all of the players will attempt to write, if not a long review, something that makes sense, instead of the one-word spam comments! \r\n\r\nAnd the 1 AG standar comment reward is very important too, because it's small and the player will want to earn something more, but at the some time he/she won't be disappointed if the comment doesn't get voted!

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