Posted by mair on September 9, 2002, at 22:06:09
In reply to Re: moderating on an on-going basis » Dr. Bob, posted by Dinah on September 9, 2002, at 10:59:24
I'm not in any position to challenge Dinah's impressions of why using posters as moderators is a bad idea. She draws on personal experience. However, I don't think that the relative calm of the Board in Bob's absence can be dismissed simply as the result of there being no controversial threads. I think there were several threads that could have turned sour and didn't largely because of her gentle intervention.
I don't mean this as a criticism of Dr. Bob, but I think people on this Board are more apt to want to spare a poster/moderator alot of aggravation. We tend to take care of one another better than we do of Bob, and I think are sensitive to the difficulties facing a poster/moderator. Because Bob is not strictly one of "us," he seems to become a lightening rod for criticism about the Board. A poster/moderator is only a surrogate and is not in any position to act on the criticism of others. Also for reasons that are not altogether clear to me, Bob making the plea "I'm doing the best I can" holds no where near the same weight as a similar plea from a poster/moderator.
I can appreciate that it may be too much of a burden to impose on a poster to act as moderator. However I really dislike the idea of having other outside moderators. It seems to me that many of the criticisms lodged before involve situations where some people thought that statements Bob found objectionable were inappropriately taken out of context. It would be very difficult for an assisting outside moderator to have the same "feel" for the Board as does Bob or the more active posters.
My preference would be that Bob find a way to continue to incorporate posters as moderators, maybe not for such a long period of time or for as long as Dinah's recent term and not necessarily to the exclusion of Bob. The Board seemed to be in excellent hands both when Dinah acted as moderator and also when Mark stepped in - I think there are a lot of positives to using posters in this manner.
Mair
poster:mair
thread:7094
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20020725/msgs/7341.html