A Moderator is a very trusted position which holds a lot of authority and responsibilities.  Their job is to make sure that the forum rules are being followed and that the forums remain a safe place for discussions and the community.  This person must be fair and unbiased, not break the forum rules themselves, be understanding and compassionate but at the same time operate with the authority that comes with the job. 

Moderators remove spam, organize the forum by moving posts to the correct forum area, enforce forum rules by giving warnings or penalties up to and including banning.

At CaribbeanChoice, we prefer to only take experienced moderators who have moderated on other forums, instead of train new ones.  But if we had to train our own, we would look at a person's character and fairness and diplomacy in dealing with issues that arise, and then train them on how we specifically want them dealt with.  For example, when to move or delete posts, when to warn someone and when to ban then, what constitutes a violation of the forum rules and what does not, etc.

Mostly it must be someone who is respected, but not feared, who can enforce the forum rules with fairness and deal with conflicts with diplomacy.  Unfortunately those are some things that are hard to train in a small amount of time, which is why we prefer people who already have those qualities.


Edited by Scott - 11 Jan 2010 at 10:40pm

Currently it is a volunteer position, although if CaribbeanChoice grows to a point where we can compensate, we'd love to do so.

Thanks Scott.

I don't think vutje meant that you'd give the job to Arra because she's your mate, Scott. I think she meant that Arra is right at your side and sees how you managing CC, i.e. reorganizing posts and other forum related tasks.

Thanks.

Lurking probably ... that girl need to listen to her body ...