The kilted MOD squad - How does it work?

[bricelythgoe]

As I was sitting here at a very slow night at work, I was thinking about this place. I am one that is very curious about how things work and their relationships. I am wondering how the current MOD's became an MOD. Did you know the owner of the site or were you just a member that got a promotion? I would also be interested to know about the relationship between the MOD's i.e. Do you know each other? Do you meet in person or are you spread out around the world? Although please do not limit your responses to just these questions. I am just curious.

Also, please do no take this as a way for me, in a round about way, to ask to me an MOD. This is just pure curiosity, nothing else. Also, I was not sure where to put this.

Brice

[McMurdo]

I can only talk for myself, but I've never met Hank or Steve, I was simply a member of the forum, after some time here the owner and the mod squad asked me if I wanted to become a moderator. I accepted, I've met a couple of the current mod staff while in North Carolina earlier on this year. I would absolutely love to make it out to Vancouver to meet the rest of the team, however that will be impossible.

[Panache]

Brice,

Pretty much you just are a member that shows respect toward other members, communicates well, is able to follow the rules, is positive, knows kilts, and is willing to stand up for what is right.

I was a member of the forum for a while and then was contacted by one of the then current "Mod Squad" (it may have been Mike1) asking if I would like to be one of the Celebration Zone's House Chairmen. I said yes I would be happy to. Sometime later I was contacted by Nelson (the KiltedMusicLover) and told that the Moderators had thought I would be a good addition to the team.

When it came time to recruit new Moderators and I was on the staff side we looked for people that...

Showed respect toward other members
Communicated well
Were able to follow the rules
Were positive
Knew kilts
and were willing to stand up for what is right



I do count my fellow Mods as friends. I was absolutely pleased as punch to have Nelson and his lovely wife stay at my home. With great anticipation I am looking forward to meeting Brian and Mike in Victoria later this month.

On the whole we get along well. Do we always agree? Certainly not. But we do all respect each other. We are willing to play "Devil's Advocate" against the rest to make sure each side is heard when we debate. When we vote, it is always what we feel is right, not convenient. If we feel we can't be impartial then we abstain from that decision.

I was tapped by Hank to be the Leader of the Mods and when Steve became the forum owner he asked me to be the forum manager.

The Mod Squad is a very fine group of gentlemen and I am very proud to be their Captain.

But I am prouder still to a member here, and one of the gentlemen of xmarksthescot.com.

I'm not sure if this was what you were looking for Brice, but that is my history here and with the Mod Squad.

Cheers

Jamie

ith: :blimp: :ootd:

[bricelythgoe]

Panache,

That is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks!

Brice

[Panache]

Brice,

What is really funny is that there are a number of rumors on the Internet all about the Mod Squad.

Apparently we are a scary bunch!

For the record


We don't read PMs ever! (never have never will)
We don't arbitrarily ban people ever!(never have never will)

and we don't worship any Lovecraftian Elder Gods (most of the time)

Cheers

Jamie :ootd:

[Splash_4]

I can add my two cents in as well. I have been a member on this board for a few years and have hopefully contributed some to the membership as a whole. To date, I have not met any of the other mods and like Jamie am looking forward to meeting him, Brian (BeeDee) and Steve in Victoria later this month.

I was absolutely flabbergasted when the mod team asked me to join their august body a couple of months ago. I can tell you that I like and respect the gentlemen that have 'volunteered' their time to make this the best kilt forum on the net. As has been stated, we do not always agree and sometimes our discussions are rather interesting, but at the end of the day we all want the same thing. With that in mind, we are able to maintain friendships that I feel will last long past the time I spend on this board.

Mike

[GDub]

We play an original tune with hints of the "Mod Squad" theme woven into it--but I digress

The Mod Squad --the original.

You MODS should put together a video remake of the intro--kilted! Now that would be a hoot!

[Steve Ashton]

Because I'm sure that others would like to know too.

And because I too had to learn this very quickly, perhaps I can help answer the second half of the question.

What do the Moderators do? And for that matter what is it that I do here?

There are currently 7 members of the Moderation Council.

Jamie (Panache) Forum Manager
Bill (Tartan Hiker)
Bradley (Tattoo Bradley)
Brian (BEEDEE)
Glen (McMurdo)
Mike (Splash 4)
Nelson (Kiltedmusiclover)

The next time you log on to the forum check at the bottom of the page in the Who is online list. It is very rare that at least one of these people is not online.

They read every post. Not like you and me who scan through and see if anything new has been added to the threads we are interested in. These guys read everything.
They are looking for policy and rules infractions. Especially Pornography, Personal attacks, and Spam.
They usually can catch stuff like this and get it off our forum before the rest of us even know it was there.

They also review almost every new member who registers. I say almost because I have yet to figure out how to put all new registrations into a moderation queue where the mods can pre-screen them. So the Moderators have to hunt for them. They check the lists at the bottom of the portal page and they keep their eyes open while reading threads.

You see, there are people out there who think it is OK to use forums like ours as places to send all their Junk Mail. I recently did a check and the Moderators have found over 4,000 spammers and kept them off our site.


The Moderation Council also enact the rules of our forum. Like any group we have to have some rules to govern ourselves. The Moderation Council have talked over, discussed and debated each and ever one of our current rules. And they are currently working on a re-write of those rules at my direction.

And that brings us to what I do here. Well, it's actually quite simple. I am the Executive branch of our forum. I provide the global outlook. By global I mean I look at things like the overall appearance of the forum. I give the forum its overall direction and "vision" if you will.
I'm the guy who works behind the scenes. If the Moderation Council vote that we need a new forum section I'm the one who makes that happen in the admin control panel.
But what I don't do is vote on issues that the Moderation Council are working on.

And perhaps the most important Job the Moderation Council does is enforces our Policies and Rules.

I have gone back through each and every case where a revocation of membership has happened. I needed to insure to myself that there was no hint of impropriety, favoritism, or unfairness.

I can tell you that before anyone has had their membership revoked that person had blatantly violated our rules on more than one occasion.
I can assure you that every effort was made to communicate with the person. Their comments, views and opinions were heard. They were warned, often repeatedly, that their behavior was in violation of our published rules and that further behavior of the same kind would result in their membership being revoked. Then they came back and willingly did it again.

Now I know that most of you have no idea why or how someone's membership was revoked. And that is the way it should be. Discussions of violations of our rules should be kept private between the Moderation Council and the offending member. We don't drag that stuff out into the public parts of the forum for everyone to see out of respect for the reputation of the individual member involved.

It is sort of unfortunate that most of the work that is done by the Moderation Council will never be seen by the general membership. But I can assure you that they work. They work hard.

And the current members of the Moderation Council are some of the fairest, honest, dedicated, and in a word, Moderate, members of this forum. They do the job simply because they love this place and are trying to make it better.

[BEEDEE]

My experience was very similar to to Mike's (Splash4) as I joined at the same time. And we are spread around the Americas for now, with several on the East Coast, McMurdo in Canada, and Jamie in California. We used to have a mod in Europe and hopefully when we next look we will go further afield.

I've met Nelson and Bill (Tartan Hiker) at Grandfather Mountain and Steve when I went out to Victoria earlier this year and ordered a kilt (wasn't an mod then) and I'm also looking forward to meeting Mike and Jamie later in the month.

The unique feature of this forum, and not restricted to the mods is the way that friendships develop and grow without necessarily meeting in person. But without exception, every XMTS member I have met in person is someone I am proud to call friend.

Brian

[Ozark Ridge Rider]

Mods, and Steve - thanks to all of you for what you do. This forum is a place where I have learned a lot, maybe added a bit(?), and look forward to the back-and-forth between members. I appreciate the civility and respect shown, and look forward to 'checking in' evenings or whenever.

It's a comfortable place to be. I often call my wife to check out a post or a picture with the assurance whatever is here will never be inappropriate. I'd be proud to meet anyone on here and am sure we'd meet as friends.

Thanks again,
Dan