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.
What if it has been over two years since your last ban? Are your chances still severely limited by a past you can't change?
Cormyn: 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.
I know, however considering some of the things posted on the forums, the temp-bans I've received have been completely unwarranted...
That sounds unlikely, but generally, you should bring any injustice up when it happens so something can be done about it. That is, either through email to a mod or admin, or waiting till the ban is over and then contacting a mod in the privacy of the comments. But, as mentioned, I don't think I have ever seen a ban be "completely unwarranted". I have seen vague ban messages, that might lead to a misunderstanding on the grounds for the ban, but no "completely unwarranted" full time bans. But, let's imagine we are now dealing with someone who was the victim of the first ever power abuse from a mod, and they didn't actually try to work it out with a mod or admin when it occurred: In that case, you are a lot better off just accepting it and not bring neither it nor any idea of appealing it, since the other mods would still be working heavily on observations done in the community when finding a new candidate. Complaining about the ban, calling it completely unwarranted or otherwise making comments that indirectly call the banning moderator an imbecile or power-abuser or otherwise give off the assumption that someone isn't doing their job properly is moderatorly suicide, and no one would trust you to work with them, no matter how unwarranted said ban was. You have to work with those people, the mod that banned you included, they have to trust you, you have to trust them, and on top of it all, complaining about bans in such a manner tends to be read as a whiny little kid, that can't handle that someone told them no.
Anyway.
As for the matter of past temp bans, they only really play in, if they are recent or severe (or you are not a publicly known face to the community). The rest of the decision making is based strongly upon observations on the general behaviour of the modidate, as well as how they handle themselves. I guess, a ban due to breaking some of the major points of the TaC would mean that there is little to no chance of becoming a mod due to the simple, but severe nature of those rules, while a three year old spam ban due to an overly hyper newbie-hood would be overlooked, but be good reason for the other mods to make fun of you on a friendly basis.
That's the staff for you. Too bad it isn't chosen with as much care as the mods. Which kinda means it's easier to talk to a mod when the ban is done and over with anyway. Note worthy, however, is the fact that bans can easily be done to make the user cool off, or remove them from a situation, where something is going to blow up if nothing is done. I can't remember your ban records (obviously), but as far as I do, it seemed like one of the situations where removing one or more participants from the situation because they will do worse to each other than they already have, would be the proper course of action. This does not mean it is not warranted. It is likely to mean that a long line of other things have gone before the incident, and you did something stupid.
Either way, I doubt it was as unwarranted as you believe it to be, not because I am a brown noser for the mod team or anything, but because the mods really aren't someone to go about banning people because they said a swear or something minimal. If they had, it would had become an issue in between the mods, and thus also something sully noted for later consideration, which means you should not worry about it anyway. Go talk it through with a mod, if this is still bothering you.
It is a pretty hard thing to do, but with hard work comes with great opportunities.
They work so hard nothing else is working... I kinda hope it doesn't pay that well, because if it does, much of what is happening isn't justified at all...
