EnMasse

[Tehanu]

Dear EnMassers,

Thank you for electing us. As of this date, we have been moderating for slightly over a week. We're still learning, we're not experts, and we're trying our best. The first few days were, generally, a nice honeymoon. We appreciate that. However, there has been enough crap slung around in the past couple of days that we feel it is necessary to remind everyone of a few things, so we've crafted this letter.

1. Use us or lose us. We're serious about this. We're volunteers, and we're busy people. Want us to burn out and quit?

2. Read the AUP and follow it. That goes for veterans as well as newbies. The board voted on the AUP. You elected us to interpret it. And in the AUP it also says that the moderators' decision is final.

3. Ascribe good intentions, even of people you dislike. We are not mindreaders. We reserve the right to disagree with your interpretation of someone else's post. We'll ask someone to clarify a post if it appears to be questionable.

4. You can't have it both ways. In other words, you can't expect us to crack down on someone when you're behaving badly.

5. Respect each other's forums. If you're not a member of a group and you post in that group's forum, be sensitive and appropriate.

6. Realise that the moderators aren't on the board 24 hours a day. We don't read every thread. We can't always react immediately. Sometimes, we'll need to discuss things with each other and have to wait until the other two have responded.

7. The moderators do not have special friends. If you think there's an inconsistency, let us know. Be aware that we might be moderating by sending people private messages. In spite of the fact that you might want to know everything that's going on, sometimes you won't.

8. If you're angry, take an hour off. Do not post while angry. Therein lieth flame wars. It's a message board, not the United Nations.

9. Don't assume everything's about you. It's not.

10. This is a progressive board. Act accordingly.

11. Realise that we're trying to strike a balance between over- and under-moderating. When a flame war erupts, there's no one way to deal with it that's going to make anyone happy. Let alone everyone. So don't have flame wars.

12. Have a problem with what the mods are doing? Feel free to PM us. If you send the PM to contactus@enmasse.ca we'll all see it, if you PM one of us, only one of us will see it. You don't need to publicly state that we're doing a bad job, we have our own internal critics that are doing that for us quite well already.

13. Enjoy yourself, and learn from each other. We're here to be progressive, to inform each other about what's going on, to debate issues with passion and integrity, and to have fun. Remember that the mods might like to do so too, occasionally.

We love this board. Because of that, we've stepped forward to volunteer to moderate it. We care about ensuring that this is a strong community of progressive people who care about issues and who have fun discussing them. Let's get back to doing that!

Tehanu, Diane Demorney, and Cartman.

[Diane Demorney]

I just wanted to add something, in case anyone gets the wrong idea...

[Cartman]

[Tehanu]

I want at least several beers. And none of that Kokanee stuff. We're talking premium.

[skeptikool]

Make it a pint of arf-n-arf or a Guinness. Oh no you don't there! More beer and less bubbles.

[Diane Demorney]

bumping.
_________________
Scissors cuts paper. Paper covers rock. Rock crushes lizard. Lizard poisons Spock. Spock smashes scissors. Scissors decapitates lizard. Lizard eats paper. Paper disproves Spock. Spock vaporizes rock. And as it always has, rock crushes scissors.

[Hephaestion]

[DSquared]

Here's an idea. How about we all chip in and pay all expenses for the mods to come to the Grey Cup in Winnipeg? A game that will likely be played between the best teams in the CFL, the Blue Bombers and the Roughriders!

[shavluk]

want to take another stab at that??

bc all the way
its called depth