BastardHead wrote:
Even in the mod forum, the ogmetal thing is mentioned in basically one or two sentences and asked to just let it be. So basically no, there won't be any elucidation in this thread.
Well, it doesn't hurt to give a reason and be transparent. People develop other priorities in their lives - like in this case running a label - which may not necessarily work with moderating an encyclopedia.
Many of our moderators have stepped away from the job because their priorities in life change, and for one reason or another they want to move on. It doesn't mean that they didn't do great things here, or their contributions aren't valued, but that they no longer see it worth it or they no longer view the job as a hobby (like it's supposed to be!). Ogmetal sometimes gets a bad rap among some people here because, well, to them he went from a person they viewed as a friend to a sales person who only wanted them to buy his merch. But I like to remember him fondly. He was a good moderator who moved on to become a good label owner. He seems happy with what he's doing nowadays, and that's all that matters to me personally.
It's worth reiterating the point though, that this place is a hobby. You don't get paid. You don't get any special perks, really, beyond getting your reviews and band submissions automatically accepted. And even then they're still gonna get scrutinized one way or another (obviously if it's crap, it WILL be called out). Your band submissions are still held to the same standards as those of everyone else. Same with your contributions and your actions. Moderators do this as a hobby. We generally pick people who have already contributed a fair bit to the site - so they already see contributing as a hobby - and who would meld well with the way we do things (which doesn't always go hand-in-hand with being the "greatest" contributor). But, at the end of the day, the reason moderators volunteer and stick around is because they enjoy the work. And, boy, can there be a lot of work. It's one reason we've gotten the reputation of a site full of "autists" because, I suppose, the notion of volunteers willingly putting up with the busy work on the site is just ludicrous to some. All that said, though, being a "hobby" also means that the people who contribute don't
have to be here. They're not obligated to work on the site. They do it at their leisure and only so long as they enjoy it. So, like failsafeman stated earlier, due to burn out, or life changes, or simply boredom and inactivity moderators eventually step down. Those of us who've been around longest are here only because we haven't (yet) gotten to that point. I'm hoping I never will. The vast majority of people brought up as "missing" left because they no longer want to be a moderator. It's as simple as that. Honestly, the vast majority of ex-mods could be welcomed back with open arms, in my opinion at least. But, more often than not, once a moderator has chosen to step down they are quite happy to no longer be a moderator. Some actually even stick around as active, regular contributors. It certainly is less stressful and more forgiving to not be a moderator, and just stick around as a regular user.
Regarding Witcher, though, well... to be honest, we don't know. He has a terrible legacy because he was highly confrontational and incredibly protective of his work space (particularly the band queue, which he dominated), but he was also a fiercely loyal moderator who generally acted in what he thought were the best interests of the site. He loved this place. He wouldn't have worked here otherwise. But, he disappeared without any notice back when we shifted from V1 to V2 of the site. We don't really know what happened with him, but my own suspicion is that he couldn't adapt to the new site, got busy in his offline life, or both. Wherever he is, I don't doubt he'd probably doing fine without MA in his life (and perhaps less angry!). And that's OK.
The way moderators come and go... it's not very exciting is it? More often than not, it's like watching a candle slowly flicker out. I'm just happy we still have the crew we have today. They're a solid crew.
Oxenkiller wrote:
My one question was, I have heard some of the old-timers talk about the Symposium forum, but I think it ended right about the time I joined. (actually, I think I signed up around 2008, but didn't really spend any time with the forums until much later.) What was it, was it like the Tavern?
Heh, BH kinda explained it (in short) but the long answer is, well, it was an idea gone terribly, terribly wrong. We've had a few of those "ideas gone terribly wrong" over the years - the earlier incarnations of the "Post Your Picture" threads are a perfect example of that. The Symposium was the "serious discussion" off-topic forum. It was dedicated, in principle, to discussing and debating serious topics - from politics, to religion, to sexism and racism and all that wondrous stuff. Sadly, like so many serious topics, though, most discussion devolved into chaos. It doesn't help that certain moderators thrive on that stuff, too, and so you'd get threads with endless arguments between regulars and those staff. You sometimes see that on the rare occasion here, too, but it was really, really bad. In any case, the Symposium was a nice idea on paper, but a terrible idea in practice. Drone and I were the two who advocated for it, and well, let's just say it disappointed us thoroughly.
Lich Coldheart wrote:
I thought it would be interesting to have a thread where people can ask questions about certain aspects of the site and the forum. The topics may vary from certain habits (i.e. Who had the idea to have an annual April's Fool on MA?), certain users (i.e. What happened to Nightgaunt? Has anyone any idea why he's not frequenting the site anymore?) to almost anything related (i.e. Since Derigin is an admin why isn't his name displayed in the typical admin yellow?). Should the mods agree to approve the existence of this thread, I think it may actually thrive. I am sure there are users with more interesting questions than mine and if the users who possess the knowledge feel like answering, I'd like to find out the answers to my own questions I posted above. However, no suggestions and complaints questions are to be asked since there's already another part of the forum meant for that.
Others have answered some of these already, but I'll give my two cents, too.
(1) The April Fools' jokes have kinda grown into a long-standing traditional... at least over the last 5 or so years. It kinda gives the moderators and users an excuse to have a bit of fun. Some of the jokes bomb and some of them are so good they get the attention of mainstream news (like the one where we faked getting a copyright takedown). That was perfect timing. We did it only a week or so after Megaupload (I think) was taken down and getting traction in the media. The Nickelback one was also really surprising, just because people were buying it. As far as how jokes are created, well, we bounce ideas off one another and usually just go with whichever one someone takes initiative on. This year's joke was brought to you, mainly, by TheStormIRide, for example. While that Meshuggah one years ago was Zodi's initiative. We'll see what happens next.
(2) Like others have said, Gaunt is still around but mostly in IRC. He's a busy man these days, but drops on by to chat once and a while. You could almost say he's in comfortable retirement, where his counsel is occasionally requested but where he no longer feels compelled to partake in his janitorial duties as much anymore. That's fine. The nice thing is that moderators are valued, regardless if they are the busiest and most active moderator at any given time. We don't ask them to do a minimum of work, because - at least as far as advice goes - you can't really quantify valuable input here. This kinda relates to a point alluded to in this thread about
former staff. We've had moderators removed for being totally inactive (at their own choosing, or because they never get back to us). Maybe it's a testament to the fact that we don't choose fuckups.
We don't kick you out if you're busy, or you're burnt out, or you want to just give advice or provide support. Whenever possibly we DO ask you if you are comfortable sticking around, but we wouldn't push you into a forced resignation. Moderators step down when they want and when they are ready. I know some people might see this as horribly inefficent - because, well, "it means you would have inactive staff" - but you'd be surprised how common it is for inactive staff to step down on their own. And usually that's when it's really bad - like they no longer have any interest working on the site or they've disappeared for years. Gaunt and others are very, very far from that point. But it's one of the facets of this place being a hobby. It's work you do when you want to do it and how you want to do it. So long as you do something, you're contributing and that's good for the rest of us, and good for you.
(3) Blame phpBB3. The forum software requires that anyone with full administration access be in the "Administrators" user group. It also requires that the "Administrators" group is always displayed. In my case, I was added as an administrator for the forum so that - like Morri said - I could work on the software. However, that means I'm in the "Administrators" group whether I like it or not. The yellow coloring comes with the group. I could switch my name to that color on the forum, btw, but I choose not to. Not only do I not want that attention - I like operating "in the shadows" so to speak - but it's also a color that doesn't belong to me. It belongs to the founders and webmasters, and so that's who gets it.
Feel free to ask more questions - even policy ones - I'm here all night long.