In my time at Armor Games, I've seen a few new moderators come on board, and every time we promote a user to Moderator status, there's always a flurry of "why wasn't I picked?" or "I think _____ should be a Moderator" or "why is ________ still a moderator" or lots of other questions about what it really takes to be a Moderator on the site.
As of this writing, I have three comments on my profile asking for 'exact' requirements for becoming a Moderator.
I know we have information scattered around the site, but I wanted to sum up briefly a few of the core things we look for in a user in order to be nominated to become a Moderator. Hopefully this will help clear up some of the confusion.
This topic is meant to be informational in nature. I will delete any message containing text which is negative towards our current team, comments suggesting some other user be nominated, replies of "well, I guess I'll never qualify" or anything else off-topic -- even if your message contains other good ideas. This is not the place for *those* discussions.
Also, it should be obvious that this list is NOT complete, because we don't want to give away EVERY detail about what we look for in a moderator. And this list is also subject to change over time, especially when AG3 launches.
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BACKGROUND
We are obviously much more strict in our criteria than other sites, but that's only because we already have the best users out there and we want to be sure that anyone being a Moderator can follow our rules, guidelines, and get along with others.
THE PROCESS
In a nutshell, candidates are presented to the entire Moderator team, and are reviewed thoroughly by an Admin. The Moderator team decides unanimously (the exception being users who are on hiatus/holidays) on whether to accept the user or not; a negative response could either be "this user should never be a moderator" (and give reasons why) or "let's check back in 3-6 months". If an affirmative decision is made, an Admin user will Email the user asking if they'll accept the role and responsibilities. If the user accepts, the Admin user will promote them to become a probationary Moderator. We guide probationary Moderators for a little while and then release them into the wild.
HOW WE FIND USERS
There are two ways we find potential nominees.
First and foremost is by daily interactions within the forums or user profile comments. That's not to say that ONLY "opular" people will get nominated, but we're not likely to nominate someone that nobody really knows. We've recently passed on a half dozen users because none of us really know them as individuals. We'll start paying more attention to them now, of course.
The second method we use is a piece of software I wrote which takes some of the quantifiable criteria mentioned below and scans our database looking for users who qualify. Generally, this software finds HUNDREDS of users, and then starts disqualifying them based on other factors. Once it reports the users to me, I examine the user profiles, and then present a final list of nominees to the Moderator team. Candidates to whom the Moderator team give a definitive 'no way, never', we add to a 'skip' list so the software won't even look at them next time. There's a second "skip list" for users we want to check back on in a few months.
The last scan I did, which resulted in Freakenstein being added to the team, found almost 400 users, filtered them down to less than a dozen, and we were left with one definite 'yes' (Freakenstein), and a handful of "let's check back later" candidates (who we will not name).
SOME OF THE CRITERIA WE LOOK FOR
To be considered as a Moderator nominee, here are SOME of the things we look for. This list is not complete and is subject to change at any time without notice. We may or may not alter this forum posting to describe new or changed criteria. Also, meeting all of this criteria doesn't guarantee anything, because the rest of the Moderator team still has to vote on accepting you into our small team.
- You obviously need to have an excellent understanding of our Terms and Conditions for being on the site, and know the Rules & Guidelines for both the forums and game/user comments. And you follow them yourself.
- You need to stay up to date on things happening at Armor Games, especially with Armor Games v3 coming out later this summer. Users who have been in the beta since late last year will get extra points.
- You need to have an exceptional grasp of the English language (excellent spelling and grammar) but being fluent in one other language for support purposes may help your chances. You don't need to be an English professor, but 1337-speaking / textmsg writing styles, or writing styles which are difficult to read/understand will disqualify you.
- You need to be able to take criticism, from Admins, other Moderators, and especially other users. And you need to humbly accept this criticism when it's "constructive", or learn when it's "destructive" and deal with it accordingly without losing your cool.
- You need to be at LEAST 18 years of age; if you don't share your birth date on your profile (at least the year and month), you'll never even show up on our radar. And we have backups of our user data, so don't go changing your profile birth date trying to cheat the system -- we'll ask for proof.
- You need to have been an active, consistent member of the site for a minimum of 12-18 months. Big gaps in your login/posting history will generally reset this timer.
- You must be a genuinely helpful person within several forums. We watch where you post, how frequently you post, how many times you've posted in each forum, whether you're posting just to jump in on the conversation or genuinely getting involved in the topic, etc.
- We look for well-rounded users who also have good communication via user comments, but not to an excessive (spammy) degree. As such, users who carry on really long conversations back and forth (technically against our rules) will probably get passed on.
- We look for a minimum participation level from forum posts AND user comments. We need to see that you don't just focus on one type of commenting. Obviously we won't quantify these "minimum" values, because we don't want users trying to cheat the system.
- We look for a minimum number of rated games and game comments, and *recent* game ratings and comments, because we need to know you're actually playing the games and having fun too, not just hanging out in the forums 95% of the time. If you never participate in game comments, how will you recognize bad game comments versus merit-worthy comments?
- You must not have excessive quantities of user/game comments removed as spam. "Excessive" is subjective, but we can see how many comments you've had deleted, and we weigh that as a ratio against your remaining active comments.
- Generally, we tell users that even a single temporary ban will disqualify you. A temp-ban for flaming, spamming, harassment, fighting, racial comments, excessive swearing, or blatant rule breaking like hacking will certainly disqualify you. But if the temp-ban happened a long time ago (more than a year and a half), while we never "expunge" them from your history, we may treat them lighter than if your temp-ban was more recent.
WHAT DO WE EXPECT FROM OUR MODERATORS
New Moderators will start out working on cleaning up game comments and forum posts, and looking for merit-worthy game comments. They'll also continue to be helpful in the forums and via user comments to offer help and support, making sure other users are aware of the rules of the web site (and follow them).
We understand that life throws a curve-ball now and then, and while we certainly don't expect Moderators to be on the site every single day, we do expect that you're on the site several times per week. We also expect Moderators to take a break/holiday from time to time. This isn't a paid job, you're doing it for free, so don't feel guilty if you need to step away for a little while. Excessive absences may get you demoted back to regular user status.
And of course, you can always turn us down if you don't want to be on the team, and you can leave the team at any time as well.
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Hopefully that helps clear up some of the confusion about what kind of users we look for as Moderators.
I am an active member on armour games, I try to be helpful on games, giving ideas for future games, e.g, I wrote this to con artist games about their popular zombie series, The last stand, and I wrote "on Last Stand Dead Zone,Make more games like this, but you should be able to add attachments to your gun at king pawns, make it longer, plus please make another game with the same graphics, they are perfect as they are. Make the campaign longer, plus make it so you can have more companions, like 4 companions. Also make more sub missions, and more buildings to search. But it is a brilliant game, and this may help it become better"
I feel like this was quite helpful, but I never get recognition for my helpful comments. As you may see, I have decent English skills, so that is a advantage, plus, I can speak some Spanish and some French
(Spanish) Puedo cubrir fundamentos básicos de la lengua española, colores, meses verbos. Lo cual es una ventaja
Which means I can cover basic grounds in the Spanish language, colours, months, verbs. Which is a advantage. But being only 14, puts me down. I am about to enter my GCSE's, so I do have a grasp in certain skills. But my age, does that give me a disadvantage?
not a disadvantage, it completely removes the possibility of being a moderator on armor games. this quote from the OP will splain
You need to be at LEAST 18 years of age; if you don't share your birth date on your profile (at least the year and month), you'll never even show up on our radar. And we have backups of our user data, so don't go changing your profile birth date trying to cheat the system -- we'll ask for proof.
Not sure if this is true, but isn't all activity on AG supposed to be strictly in English? A friend told me that a while ago, but at the time I didn't believe him.
What I mean to say is, would knowing a second (or third) language give you an advantage over other candidates who want to become a moderator? If AG is an English only site, then being able to speak in another language wouldn't be so useful.
Just curious as to the answer, don't mean to deter those aspiring to become moderators from doing so.
As stated above, your lack of activeness would be your main obstacle. Get involved in the community more - talk to people, post in the forums etc.
Not sure if this is true, but isn't all activity on AG supposed to be strictly in English? A friend told me that a while ago, but at the time I didn't believe him.
Yepp, all posts etc are to be in English, so sadly other languages aren't an advantage.
Get involved in the community more - talk to people, post in the forums etc
Most importantly, don't worry if you'll become a moderator or not. Sure the blue text and title look cool, but it's something that takes a lot of your time, you have to deal with rule-breakers and children, and you get put down for not doing a well enough job. Huh, guess it's like being a middle school teacher.
If I signed up 4 years ago, I could be one right now.
If you were 18 or older now, you could technically qualify; of course, keeping in mind that that's only a base qualification and that there are loads of other things you have to keep in mind besides your age.
Anyways, good luck to all who tries to become a Mod (luckily).
Trying to be a mod is not looked highly upon here.
It isn't that hard to tell who would make a good moderator by their behavior, the way they write, and the way they interact with the site. A lot of people think they can be a moderator, but hardly any realize that they wouldn't be a good moderator. Most people wouldn't be good moderators. The rest would be okay but crack under the stress, not break but crack. A handful would be good and fewer would be great.
No matter how well liked you may be, there will be people who just hate you and people who will harass you. No matter how right you may be, there will be really stubborn people who will flat out fight you every step of the way when they are clearly wrong but believe that they are not. No matter how patient you may be, there will be really petty people who will test you. That is true in any position of responsibility. On the rare occasion, all of these types of people manifest as the Manipulative Two-faced Fiend. It will test your character and break you if you get distracted by its cult.
Oh, and the spam. Oh my god the spam. No, not the short comments that don't say much. Actual spam. Spam spam. Advertisement referral link spam! The Many-bodied Beast of the Internet that cannot be contained by the depths of Tartarus!
What stress are you talking about? I think it's a matter of caring too much. You obviously have users that ask why threads get locked and persist, people demanding mods do certain stuff, getting put down for a lack of good job in forums and comments, and other things like that, but if that gets to you then you care too much. I don't think it's that serious, and I don't understand how or why people do. If you could explain this stress and how/why people would crack, that'd open some eyes.
It doesn't seem like a difficult or damaging job, just tedious, but I'm sure that's the only way it'll get if all you do while you're online is mod stuff. You're not enjoying the site anymore, just constantly working.
It doesn't seem like a difficult or damaging job, just tedious, but I'm sure that's the only way it'll get if all you do while you're online is mod stuff. You're not enjoying the site anymore, just constantly working.
I think it's got to be kept in mind how many active mods there are on the site at the minute, not that many - thus all the mod work is being completed by only a few. I understand why Gantic is warning about stress, i'm sure it would be stressful. It'd be hard to balance enjoying the site and doing an appropriate work load. It's not caring too much in my eyes, just a temporary necessity.
If the admins don't want to give the mods appropriate/UPDATED modern tools to manage the site or the users a better way to flag comments, they shouldn't feel obligated to work that hard.
I really don't understand why they go through the trouble to clear spammy comments. For example, sites like Kongregate and YouTube. They don't have mods/whoever actively wasting their time going through comments on all the games/videos. They have decent systems however. Up/down vote option in comments and ability to flag comments, if enough people flag them they get dealt with.
They're currently clearing spam, but once they refresh, there's more spam. I can understand why they do it in the forums; easier to manage and not as active. Even if the forums were as active as game comments, they would require a better system, otherwise they would be garbage. Two-three mods to clean up the messes users leave behind on such a large scale, not going to work. Doesn't work in comments.
