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Jo Anne Green

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Re: Looking for answers !!!! U R invited :-)
6/2/2008 2:43:19 PM

Sunny Greetings from California, Pauline!

Thank you for taking the issue of the criteria for the Best Forum Award to public discussion.

You posted the
opinion of one of the judges about moderated forums: "In my opinion a moderated forum is not really community related since the forum owner can choose not to approve a post if they so wish. An act that is the opposite of community related. I think this should be taken into consideration in regard to the criteria of the BFA."

Here is my opinion regarding that particular judge's opinion:

1) The selection of the Best Forum should be based on the quality of the forum, particularly the forum owner's creation of interesting topics, quality of forum content, and quality of community participation.

2)
Consideration should be given to the care that forum owner gives to the forum, how well the forum owner organizes the forum, and how the forum owner responds to participants' posts.

3) It is entirely appropriate for a forum owner to set standards and parameters for the forum with the objective of improving the quality of the forum. If a forum is not moderated, the forum owner has no control over content and no way to maintain standards, and therefore deserves no credit or criticism for how good or how poor the forum is.

4) AdlandPro, as you know, has its own sets of rules and standards and allows moderated forums to be created so that forum owners can also apply rules and standards to their own forums as they see fit. If
a forum owner chooses to apply rules and standards to maintain the quality of the forum, that should not be held against the forum owner.

5) Rather than disqualifying moderated forums summarily, judges should take into consideration whether the forum's rules are clear and unambiguous, how well they contribute to the quality of the forum, whether or not they raise the bar for the Adland community at a whole, and whether they are enforced fairly and uniformly.

6) Nothing in the guidelines or criteria for the BFA says the moderated forums do not qualify for the award. If the judges believe that moderated forums should be disqualified for consideration for the BFA, then that should be spelled out clearly in the BFA guidelines and the award should be renamed the Best Unmoderated Forum Award.

7) The judge who objected to moderated forums expressed the view that they are not "community related," presumably on the assumption that any kind of moderating restricts community participation. It does not. Moderating, properly used, is a tool to enhance the community experience.

8) In my view, arbitrarily excluding all moderated forums from consideration for the BFA is, itself, a community-unfriendly restriction and is therefore hypocritical.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to participate in this discussion.

Have an Awesome Week!

JoAnne Green 
Principal/International Risk Management Advisor

Integrity + Experience + Dependability






Sunburst International Risk Managementwww.InternationalRiskManagement.comSunburst Worldwide Insurance Serviceswww.WorldwideMedicalPlans.com
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John Partington

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Re: Looking for answers !!!! U R invited :-)
6/2/2008 2:53:47 PM

Hi Pauline,

I totally agree with that judges statement.

I have warnings on all my forums and woe betide anyone who sticks a blatant add in, because they get short shrift.

I do understand that there are members who are frightened of upsetting anyone or don't have the time to patrol their forums!

But I personally think moderated forums are a pain in the arse!

Best Wishes

John.

A Free Add Service For The UK? Go to uk.bexp.org

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Geketa Holman

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Re: Looking for answers !!!! U R invited :-)
6/2/2008 3:31:54 PM
Hi Pauline,

I have to agree with John on this .. I hardly ever post in Moderated there are two I do post in and that is only because the owners are very good friends of mine. Forums already have rules in place for forum actives and personally I think moderated forums are rather communistic in nature.

Blessings and hugs

Geketa
Hear, O Israel the L-rd our G-d,the L-rd is one http://www.DHGBoutique.com
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Jo Anne Green

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Re: Looking for answers !!!! U R invited :-)
6/2/2008 3:37:16 PM

More Sunny Greetings from California, Pauline!

Based on some of the posts on this topic, it is apparent that there is some confusion regarding the meaning of "moderated."

There are two ways for a forum owner to moderate a forum. One is to have the forum set up in such a way that the forum owner can pre-approve each post before it shows on the forum. The other is to monitor each post as it appears on the forum and then decide whether or not to remove that particular post.

Most forum owners (including myself) prefer the second method, but whether one chooses to pre-moderate one's forum or to moderate it on the fly, it is moderating all the same.

There seems to be a general agreement that having and enforcing rules on a forum is a desirable thing. The issue seems to be whether those rules are enforced before or after the posts appear for public view.

I personally do not find either method to be intrinsically more or less community friendly than the other. That depends more on what the rules of the forum are, how fairly they are applied, and how diplomatic and gracious the forum owner is in communicating to posters the reasons a particular post was removed.

I think that every forum owner should be free to select the method of moderating that best suits the nature of the forum and the forum owner's own circumstances.

Again, thank you for allowing me to join this discussion.

Have an Awesome Week!

JoAnne Green 
Principal/International Risk Management Advisor

Integrity + Experience + Dependability

Sunburst International Risk Managementwww.InternationalRiskManagement.comSunburst Worldwide Insurance Serviceswww.WorldwideMedicalPlans.com
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John Partington

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Re: Looking for answers !!!! U R invited :-)
6/2/2008 3:45:47 PM

Hi Pauline.

This is for Joanne,

There is only one method of moderation in forums here at adlandpro and thats the pre-approval method, with this method the forum owner can also edit any post before allowing it to go online.

I personally prefer the tried and tested method of deleting their post and telling them about forum etiquette and that if they do it again I will tell them to go forth and multiply!

Best Wishes

John.

A Free Add Service For The UK? Go to uk.bexp.org

A Free Add Service For The USA? Go to usa.bexp.org

Please Follow Me on Twitter Click Here

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