The Exploitation of Moderators?

crazy_guy

Scarlett1 wrote: »

ok serious question, what does it matter to you what Martin earns from the site

if you dont like to think that he might be scoffing profits why are you even on his site

its not just board guides that help with the running of the board its the team at money saving towers and they do most of the work and they are paid, board guides volunteer and they do it knowing its not paid so whats the problem, and why is it grating on you when you arent even a board guide

you certainly live up to your name

Its not grating me, i simply put this thread up because i was somewhat curious on seeing the amount of effort one particular board guide had to put up with one evening, and i thought to myself why the hell do they put up with this !!!! for nothing in return while they were maintaining a site for the benefit of someone else......they must be more charitable than me and thats the last of it because it seems i am rubbing against the grain which is hardly suprisingly when this is martin lewis's site lol

I'm on this site because i find it useful, i simply don't agree with people working their !!! off for the benefit of someone else who owns this site for profit making purposes - its like volunteering at your local bank.

The End

tyllwyd

I used to be the equivalent of a board guide for a forum on a different commerically owned website, which was a bit like this one in that a lot of the boards were based around members supporting and helping each other. I have reservations about the unpaid time and effort I put in on behalf of a profit making company, but equally when guides were paid in my opinion sometimes they hung on when their hearts really weren't in it, and it would have been better for the boards if they had moved on when they had lost their enthusiasm. I enjoyed being part of the community on 'my' board, and I liked feeling that I was doing something useful at a time when I wasn't in employment so I gained in that way, I suppose.

jamesd

Key to this is having enough guides so that the workload doesn't become onerous for them. That may involve several per board sometimes. Not a problem so long as people find it interesting and are having fun. If it becomes a tiresome duty, trouble arrives, sooner or later, either things not getting done or people becoming upset and more inclined to fight.

Enough is also useful for the participants who aren't guides or moderators, since well-maintained places tend to discourage misbehavior and that in turn implies having enough people doing it so that there's a good response time even when people are tired or on holiday or busy at work.

Moderating the moderator's private sections can also become interesting when there are enough of them... Been there, done that.

I've managed volunteers doing this under contract to an AOL company. I'm not after a job doing it.

Queenie

crazy_guy wrote: »

After viewing another thread about the amount of effort board guides have to put in just to control the forum and to ensure no-one is breaking the rules i thought, why don't they get paid? ...

And the same could be asked (and often is!) of many other forms of "voluntary" work. It's the nature of the beast

I've moderated forums as a volunteer and when it reached a point where my enthusiasm was no longer in it, it was easy to stand aside and give someone esle the opportunity. Had I been paid to do it, there would have been a stronger pull of obligation and the money may have kept me there doing something I'd lost motivation in; it wouldn't have been good for me or the forums I was moderating.

I've worked in other voluntary work - thoroughly enjoyed it - and was doing exactly the same work as the employed. Once again, when it came to a point in my life that I no longer felt the same drive/enthusiasm, I could walk away without any misgivings.

People volunteer to do perform all sorts of roles and take on all kinds of responsibilities because they *choose* to. If the role becomes too demanding, they can *choose* to retire from it.
Being employed to do it puts a whole different spin on it.

System

I do it out of my sheer love of Martin (but dont tell the MSG i said that).