A couple of weeks ago I posted about a new poll on Moderator Central and asked that you cast your vote on “Where is the first place you’d look to learn the basics of being a moderator?” and I have to admit I am surprised by the results.
Just under 500 people voted and this is how it broke down:
| FAQs within Moderator Central |  43% |
| Groups Help | 25% |
| Message Boards on Moderator Central | 9% |
| Y! Groups Blog | 6% |
| Moderator support focused Y! groups | 10% |
| Other | 10% |
| 495 Votes to date |
Based on these results, a great deal of moderators look to the “FAQs on Moderator Central” to learn the basics. The FAQs I was referring to when creating this poll can be found here.
I am curious to learn if these are the FAQs that those of you who voted are also referring to. If so, and so many moderators are looking to this source for answers, I’d love to hear your feedback on what additional FAQs you feel should be added by commenting below.
Based on these results, I’d also be interested in learning if you would you like to see more tips on the basics of being a moderator here on the Groups blog.
Big thanks to all who cast their vote! I look forward to your participation in the next poll – if you have a suggestion for a fun poll, please post your suggestion below in the comments area.
P.S. For those of you who chose “other”, where are you finding information?
Thanks!
Jami Heldt
Groups Community Manager
Tina,
I have been looking for you for a long time, the last time that I saw you was when you were stationed in corpus christi. I drove down from houston to see you. We were in boot camp together, if you are the tina that I think you are!! We were in KO26 in orlando. I have a really great life now and IO have the most wonderful husband. Not he asshole I was with the last time I saw you.
Brandi
Please email me if you get this message.
peters_brandi@att.net
I was a moderator for several years before I stumbled upon yg-alerts only because a moderator on a group I was on posted one of the alerts, that lead to Moderator Central, and I just recently found the Moderator Groups. I still get frustrated at the non-response to questions there.
I know several other moderators that have never heard of either and are surprised when I first give them info from one.
I don’t believe I participated in the poll but I would have to say that for my first several years I did all my searching, and got all my frustration, from Groups Help link and non-responsive Customer Care. I know other moderators/owners that do the same and don’t know there is another venue for information.
I think a great feature would be that when someone becomes an owner or is changed to a moderator that Yahoo Groups would send them an email telling them about Moderator Central, the Moderator Boards, and other helpful places.
Moderator Central sort of implies by name that all you need to know is right there.
You could add a support board for each Q in an FAQ then users and you can delve more into each topic via Q&A, and later delete questions and refine the answer on the FAQ. So, each Question would feature a link titled ‘more info on this subject’, takes you to a MC type board dedicated to that topic. Other users and MC staff can take up the answering role there.
I look at moderator central as a way for us neophytes to educate ourselves in the fine are of running a group site. I think a more organized approach as to the help and contibution that all can enter to aid others in betering their groups would be helpful.
I have participated in several online education sessions from various schools using a format similar to this and have fond it to be quite a good tool . that is what I was looking for here.iortw
quite frankly ….. I’m totally confused as to exactly what Moderator Central offers! It appears to me as thought ModeratorCentral is merely a directive to other sites that offer actual information.
is anyone going to ever fix the Moderator Central Forum? it has a glitch. when someone posts, the poster no matter what shows on the main page as someone else being the one just leaving the message. makes it very confusing to look for updated posters
This message is for tina grogg. I am interested in talking to you after reading your message. If you could e-mail me at peters_brandi@att.net, that would be great.
Thanks, bep
I was a list moderator for at least three years before I found out about Moderator Central. Or any of the other yahoo specific moderator lists/groups.
When I needed to know something, it was either the O’Reilly book on list administration and management — the one that describes how to set up and run MajorDomo — or the various RFCs.
xan
jonathon
Re the poll – yes, I am a member of Moderator Central – but I may not check the blogs for days or even weeks! Time available to do so is my problem – I DO check when I get an e-mail that there is something important that needs reading. I checked here today because I saw the Poll mentioned in a link on the BETA group home page – and it was my first time there in a week. Not for lack of interest – lack of TIME!
How can I get more people to join my group?
I don’t think the blog or Moderator Central group is a good place to offer info, not for new moderators and owners anyway. People also cant post on Moderator Central group, and I have read posts they just don’t ‘get it’ why they cant. I also think the poll wasn’t too specifc so voters would know the difference between FAQs within Moderator Central and Message Boards on Moderator Central. The two are too close in title, so what voters were thinking these two places are would make for an inaccurate poll.
If anything, the MC forum would be the place, however I still think many miss pinned threads and valuable info just the same. Maybe if it was made more eye catching, more would see it. I also think users of Yahoo Groups want more people contact, and direct replies which the MC forum provides.
Andrea:
> Can you please tell me how puffin 49@aol.com can ban me
It’s their group; they can do what they want. Clearly if they treat /all/ their members like this they won’t have many left.
You have no method of appeal. Groups are (usually benign) dictatorships where what the owner says goes, no discussion, no appeals, no nothing. Groups are not usually democracies.
Just leave the group and find another to put your requests on.
Can you please tell me how puffin 49@aol.com can ban me for posting a wanted ad for an exercise bike wrong. I read the instructions over and over on how to post and thought that I did it right . Everytime I try to post an ad she emails me with nasty things . She is very mean and now has banned me because I post the ad this way Wanted: exercise bike, Mahwah , Nj please tell me how that was worng and what can i do now because she banned me from the site for nothing I didnt do anyting worng to deserve that I just wanted a bike I lost 60 lbs and was trying to not be so flabby. I have 3 children and cant buy a bike for my self . This is her email
Subject Wanted: Exercise Bike,Mahwah,NJ
From puffin
Date Tuesday, February 26, 2008 8:59 pm
To anjsoha@optonline.net
Since 2006 we have asked you to please follow posting guidelines.
These are the dates of our emails to you asking you to please read and save
the guidelines for reference prior to posting:
Jan. 20th, Jan. 14th, Jan. 12th, Nov. 25th, ’07, July 11th, ’07, April 12th, ’07,
Nov. 26th, 2006, and June 26th, 2006.
The last ‘conversation’ we had was in January in which you felt put upon and
said you were leaving the group. We think maybe you should and so we
will help you in that endeavor.
I am interested in starting my own blog sight for patriotic women please send me the info and how to get started….I have the venue available in locl papers for my conservative commentaries to be published from time to time…… thank tjg
Hi Peter,
It doesn’t apepar on this end that the RSS feed is broken, can you provide more details around what isn’t working for you?
Thanks for the heads up.
- Jami
Well considering that this is the first time I was made aware of this poll, it’s not surprising that of the people who were aware of this blog, the majority would use where the blog is based as a primary resource.
I’m sure if it was asked elsewhere, say on one of the moderator groups of which I’m a member, the vast majority would not be choosing moderator central, since most of the members on those groups are unaware or uninterested in the fact that moderator central exists.
Talk about bias in a poll….
dudes – your rss feed is broken.