Hello, I am intrigued by the wonderful work ZooChat moderators do, like jbnbsn99, Chlidonias, etc. The moderators are great and important, helping to make the vibrant group of ZooChat even more vibrant. I notice that most moderators have thousands of posts. Why is that? I would love to become a moderator. How can I become one?
Having done it on other forums, it's really not that exciting. But in answer to your question, they are selected by Sim, who is the Zoochat administrator.
When Sim asks you to be a moderator. My suggestion is to contact him directly outlining why you want to do the job, rather than campaign publicly for it.
It is actually no fun at all, with little appreciation and if you have to intervene you end up with no one being happy with your actions. So take into account what you ask for.
I remember reading a post from Sim re how to become a moderator. From memory, "Would prefer people to not ask he will select them when required". Still waiting ....
I also was a Mod on another site, for a couple of years. I found I spent more time reading through threads I wasn't interested in than I did reading the ones I wanted to read. And I commented much less, many of the comments being directions to behave. Every week someone would ask how to become a moderator. Almost all of the queries came from children (there was a fair proportion (>10%)that were young), and the only reason they became Mods was so they could ban people on the site. On occasion when some of the kids were argueing, one would state that they were "a friend of Hix, and he'll ban you for life." As I had a rule to only have the other Mods as friends, this was an outright lie and I would usually suspend the offender for suggesting I had bad taste in friends. I think on most forums like this one kids are not of a sufficient maturity to be moderators IMO. Hix
I am sorry if I appear to be spamming; but I do not want to ban people at all. All I want to do is make the wonderful ZooChat community even more wonderful. I hope you accept my apology if I appear to be spamming. -cloudedleopard
As mentioned by other posters - Moderators are chosen by me with input from existing mods. I look for people with a long history of contributing to the community in a positive way and who seem to have the maturity and common sense to be able to deal with the issues that moderators need to deal with on a daily basis. Something to keep in mind - asking to be made a moderator will generally render you ineligible for consideration. People who are desperate to become a moderator typically don't make good moderators - their motivations are all wrong. Focus on the community and contributing in a positive way - let your actions speak for themselves.