[wp-forums] Regarding Custom Titles

[Mark Duncan]

Hi to all,

Personally i don't think we should include roles in the name, such as 
"moderator", "admin" or anything else that indicates a given user has 
special power over others on the forum.

I'd like to see something a little more generic like "Support Volunteer" 
... it indicates firstly that we're volunteers, secondly describes what 
we're primarily on the forum to do... and both terms are quite universal.

Going a step further a codex entry/sticky/whatever could exist to 
clarify exactly what a "Support Volunteer" is.. which to me is simply a 
volunteer who offers support but also keeps track of spam, removes 
inappropriate posts, etc, etc...

Of course that's not really an exciting title, and i do enjoy custom 
names (ninja,maven,diva ..etc), but i'm thinking more in terms of how 
users view and interpret what these titles mean. For me, one question 
remains, what's most important here, how cool/fun the titles are for us 
or how the users interpret the title?

Ultimately, i'm easy, i really don't mind.... just my two pennies .. ;)


Regards,
Mark / t31os

On 21/09/2010 09:26, James Huff wrote:
> I had a very enlightening discussion a few days ago with WordPress.com Support Maven Mark Riley.  Those of you who have been around too long probably remember him as Podz.
>
> Basically, he was following up on topic that was directed to plugins@, and he noticed my custom title as "Volunteer Moderator".
>
> First, a little bit of backstory.  Several days ago (maybe weeks), I was the only "heavy hitter" on the forums for several hours, and for some reason I was begin accosted by three different users who demanded nothing less than the pinnacle of dedicated customer service.  One even demanded to stop using WordPress if I I didn't call and walk him through a few template modifications.  I'll pause while you finish laughing hysterically. :)  In response, I changed my title to "Volunteer Moderator" and that seemed to have shut them up for the rest of the day.  I had meant to change it back, but it slipped my mind.  Mark kindly reminded me that the other moderators were volunteers too. . . oops.  I apologize for anyone this may have offended.  Now, on to the actual discussion part.
>
> Mark also noticed that despite many of us being Administrators, we have set our titles to Moderator.  In fact, at the time Chris was the only one of us brave enough at the time to bear the Administrator title.  This raised the concern that Chris would be sought out more as the only apparent administrator for the crazy requests (delete my account, change my password, etc), and I do agree this is a valid concern.  It also makes Chris look more important than us, and we certainly don't want that, just kidding.
>
> So, the question was raised, why do we hide our role?  When I joined, Samuel suggested changing my title to Moderator so that I wouldn't come "under attack" by crazy requests, but I was still receiving direct emails requesting user name changes, threads deleted, and one is currently threatening to sue me if I don't suspend a "Powered by WordPress" site.  I'll pause again while you finish laughing hysterically. :)  So, figuring that the false moderator shield is not really protecting me, I've switched back to Administrator.  Perhaps the rest of us should consider doing the same?
>
> Of course, we also have tech ninjas, forum janitors, multisite mavens, and members (miklb, you sneaky person), which raised the next question.  Mark suggested that it would be cool if we all picked custom titles akin to our own unique specialties and then perhaps added our roles (Admins and Mods) to the Support Forum Volunteer Codex page.
>
> Personally, I haven't decided what I'd like to do, hence I'd love to hear your thoughts.  Should we continue as is?  Should we proudly display our role?  Should we get creative and come up with our own titles?  Should we keep a list of admins and mods on the Codex page?
>
> I'd love to hear your thoughts!
>
>
> ________
> James Huff
> http://www.macmanx.com
> http://weblogtoolscollection.com
>
> _______________________________________________
> wp-forums mailing list
> wp-forums at lists.automattic.com
> http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-forums
>