Animation Source Forums

Before I begin this rant, please note that I am not asking to be a mod, since most people who make a rant/complaint about the moderators seem to be accused if that. Now on with my rant.

I've noticed recently, that certain moderators are a lot less active than usual. Maybe they don't have the time anymore or have lost interest? Who knows. But for the members it's getting rather annoying. In the shout box, some are as active as usual, but most aren't living up to their real responsibilities (Minus the Shout Box moderators.) for example, fan works updates are being performed several days apart, however I recall they used to be updated once - maybe twice a day not long ago. Members are losing patience with this, as many fan art/fics/images/etc. moderators are coming and going on the SB, and as soon as someone asks for an update the response is "I'm not the only [section] mod you know >>'" or something similar. Perhaps you're not the only one, but it's still your responsibility. So why try to shift it onto another mod? I can think of a few names but I won't be naming them here in public to personal conflict. Though I think these people know who they are...

Another thing I've noticed is the not-so-weekly fan news updates. If anything it's updated once a month if we're lucky. In the past 5 months we should have had at least 20 updates, but what's this? Only 5? Strange. It's a shame because most of our fan news editors provide very interesting articles that myself and others look forward to reading. However each one has the same excuse, "I forgot", "I've been busy" etc. And as far as features go, the most ridiculous excuse is "There's no one to feature." Forgive me if I'm wrong but aren't there 90 pages of fan art galleries, 38 fan images, each one holding 18 galleries each. (On my settings at least.) As well as many video-editors and such? As far as music goes that's a reasonble axcuse. But those featuring other fan works have no reason to not know who to select other than laziness. Itdoesn't take that long to find a new artist...

If anything, I think we either need new, interested moderators, or the current ones are in need of a reminder of their responsibilities. Which includes how they all share the same responsibilities. The same applies to fan news editors. I understand it's not a job, there's no benifit for them, etc. But that's hardly an excuse either, it's still their responsibility. That's like say, a volunteer in a charity shop not showing up one day because they had "Better things to do." Don't take the position if you can't live up to the role...

Rant over.
-Keilidh.

I completely agree.

The 'Selection of the Week' thing is updated, like ... once a month.

And even though I don't send art or images anymore, I've seen a lot of people complain about things taking too long to be accepted. And I've also seen effortless images still being accepted, even though they shouldn't be.

Great rant, hun. New and/or more mods are definetely needed.

I'm going to say the same here as I've always said;

If you have reason to believe that a moderator is inactive/not doing his/her job, send a PM to Togo (or me, or Steet, or any global mod, if you'd like) and he/we'll make sure it is looked into.


But I beg you n_n Please rather PM us instead of ranting, especially when the subject has been brought up an X amount of times ...

The reason the Mods are inactive is because they're busy with with things that occur offline,not that I'm pointing the finger at anyone for that matter.

I'd rather send a PM to you, or chat with you about it on MSN, since Steet is probably busy with other things, and I sent Togo a PM regarding something similar quite a while ago under Steets instruction, regarding the fan news editors, and still haven't gotten a response. ._.'

Sorry for bringing it up again. I just felt like it was necessary seeing as the problem hasn't been resolved yet.

But I didn't see your responses to the other topics like this, sorry. ^^' If I had I would have spoken to you about it in the first place rather than making this.

I do agree it is becoming a problem and it does need to be sorted, like, now.
Fan fictions I can understand more seeing as fan fic mods have to read all of every fan fiction before they can update it and if it's a particularly busy day/few days or the fan fics are long then it can take a long while.
That's no excuse mind, if fan fic mods are having a hard time keeping up there's a section to talk about and suggest new mods who could help just waiting for them to post in.

The news editors - I don't even know what's going on there. There was a proper system/regime put into place a while ago but it appears like it's definately not being kept.
New news editors are probably needed to be honest as I know at least one doesn't even visit the site anymore.

Though Lux already pointed out the best course of action to take:

Concerning the Forum moderators, the following are "active" enough to do there Job:

1. Togo
2. Luxy
3. UK
4. Swords
5. Rusty
6. Kirada
7. Aniu
8. balto678
9. Lone wolf
10. (ONLY on the site) Drew

And... that makes 90% of forum Moderators are active, as for the site Mods - The only real way is to check via Mod logs, which will reveal that only a few mods are really doing there job.

I think more mods should be put into place around the fan sections, because it is kinda hard to read through so many fanfics per day.

i agree with you 100% and true there are mods that are as active as ever as that list shows, but i think that having more mods then you need is better then not having enough!

But Kazzy (Keilidh) has seen certain site mods on the shoutbox instead of doing their job...

Exactly what Vivid Legacy said. I've already pointed out that the moderators (Section ones, not Shout Box.) are coming onto the Shout Box to chat rather than living up to their responsibilities.

I love you for this. ^^

I completely agree. I don't have much more to contribute. e.e Uhm. Well, I really think the fan news editors situation is inexcusable. It's their job; if one editor can't do it, another one can.

Maybe Steet can hold an activity check for the mods? =]

Also, fan images need to be checked more thoughtfully. I've seen accepted images that don't belong in the section at all, and images that aren't using stock (Stock Topic here. There's not too many of non-stock images, since Balto screenies can be taken right off BS, but I've seen them). =/

Pretty much everything I have to say echoes what Lux said. If you're concerned about a certain moderator's activity (or lack thereof) in their section, feel free to pm or e-mail Steet and Togo. It's better to go to the boss and let them know what the problem is so that it can be dealt with than to make a rant about it where it will be seen, but it may not be seen by Togo and Steet for a little while.

This is true. And I'm not trying to make excuses for anybody. I know before that I've let myself fall short when it came to moderating the site. I had said that my real life was getting in the way (and though I was having troubles, that shouldn't have been an excuse on my part.) I should have let others know the troubles I was having and given up my responsibilities until such time that I could return to them. But I didn't, and when I did come back and start doing my job again, I had a lot to make up for. You're right, sometimes that excuse is given and people are just being lazy, sometimes they do have issues, but above all, they do need to communicate what's going on and, if necessary, give up their position while they are unable to do the job. And I appreciate you bringing this up. I hadn't thought about this aspect when I'd made my above reply.

Perhaps, like is being discussed in the other topic, we should get some sort of moderator evaluation system put in place. It can be anonymous and similar to the report feature, where a member can explain the problem and which moderator is not doing their job. And, in the case of prejudice in favor of popular members (as is being discussed in that topic) occurring in warnings of the shout box, people can send in reports on the moderators that, instead of going to the normal reports section that we see on the banning page, it goes to Steet or Togo and they can decide if the moderator was acting fairly or if they were putting more favor toward a popular member. I'll copy this into the other topic in a bit as well. Too many windows open right now, XD.