[wp-forums] From today's chat: How to Pick Moderators and some Handbook Cleanup (long, sorry)

[Half-Elf on Tech]

Since this DOES get asked now and then, we banged around an idea to not 
so much formalize the process, but explain what's going on.

That said, before I get to the new thing I'd like to add, I've fixed the 
structure of the handbook so we have forum moderation under the 
'Contributing to the WP Forums' section. I also cleaned up a lot of the 
stuff that was in the "I ..." format, since that was from my emails ages 
ago, and needed updating. I also consolidated some pages and added a 
couple new ones.

NEW PAGES:

https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/faq/
https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/contributing-to-the-wordpress-forums/
https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/other-support-locations/

EDITED PAGES:

https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/contributing-to-the-wordpress-forums/forum-moderator/

Added: Rule 6: You’re here to help people, not preach about right and wrong.

https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/contributing-to-the-wordpress-forums/forum-moderator/administration-overview/

Added: We have guidelines, not rules, for a reason: guidelines should be 
followed, rules <em>must</em> be followed. Never let the literalness of 
the guideline override your common sense. After all, we're here to help 
people, not build a wall to keep people out.

https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/contributing-to-the-wordpress-forums/forum-moderator/bbpress-basics/

Added a reminder: We don't like to call it bozing in public (even on 
this list) becuase it's 99.99999% of the time taken the worst way 
possible. Try to call it b-tagging, and never ever EVER tell them they 
were bozo'd, tell them their account was set to require moderator 
approval on posts.

PROPOSED EDIT:

https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/contributing-to-the-wordpress-forums/

Forum Moderator:

If you're interested in being a forum moderator, that's awesome! We 
don't have a formalized process for getting new mods, but here's how we 
handle it:

We're a team. We pick people we feel will work well with the current 
members, uphold the high level of support and friendliness of the 
forums, contribute with no adverse ulterior motive, and be a polite 
member of the forums in the face of raging angor.

What do we mean by 'adverse ulterior motive'? It's actually pretty simple.

* Contributing to the forums to help people while learning more about 
WordPress is good.
* Posting replies only to get people to use your plugin/service/product 
is NOT good.

* Using your moderator powers to determine a poster is hosted by your 
company, and asking them to contact you/your company is good.
* Using your moderator powers to get a poster's email address to contact 
THEM about your product/service is NOT good.

* Asking to be a mod because you've been tagging posts for spam cleanup, 
email/personal information/passwords removal, and make sticky posts for 
major issues is good.
* Asking to be a mod because it will make you contribute more is NOT good.

If you can't tell, the idea here is to do good for the sake of doing 
good. It's not that we're looking for people who have no higher 
aspirations, it's that the aspiration we're looking for is very self 
evident when it exists. And certainly you don't have to be altruistic 
about WordPress to be a moderator. Some of us are encouraged by our 
companies to volunteer, in order to help the community. But that's 
really the point. We're looking for people whose goal matches ours: Make 
WordPress better for everyone.

Not being asked doesn't mean you lack those qualities, however, nor does 
it mean we feel you're a bad person. There is no magical combination of 
actions to be picked as a mod, and many people, even those who ask about 
being one, are surprised the day that they're asked if they'd like to be 
one. The reason is that the absolute best moderators are the ones who 
are just going to do what they do, regardless of formal recognition. 
They see something that needs doing, and they do it.

And THAT is what we look for.

-- 
Mika A Epstein (aka Ipstenu)
http://ipstenu.org | http://halfelf.org