[Erin]

TestMagic just keeps growing, faster and faster all the time, and I find that the forums will best continue their growth if we empower our already watchful eyes with some moderating powers. There are several of you who regularly PM me or use the button to notify me of posts (you know who you are!), and to you, I am thankful.

A few important things you should know:

• What do moderators do? Well, the main thing is simply keeping an eye on things, such as spam, double posts, posts made in the wrong forum, etc., and taking the appropriate action--deleting the posts, moving threads, and so on. Pretty simple stuff, actually.
• This would be a completely voluntary position, at least in the beginning. I very well may be able to offer a small bit of compensation in the future, but for the time being, I cannot commit to this simply because I have no idea of the kind of ROI (in terms of improvement to the quality of the forums) that the TestMagic forums could expect from the investment. However, as a moderator, you would have easier access to me to ask me questions, and I would try my best to help you if I can and if I have the time. I should point out, though, that the one thing I cannot do is edit papers or essays, as it’s just much too time-consuming. Just want to say that in case that’s a consideration.
• I will give preference to regular visitors with a history of good, meaningful interaction. In the future, I would imagine only forum members of 1,000 posts or so would be considered, but I know there are some great members with fewer posts who could really make great contributions.
• Moderators should visit fairly regularly (at least several times a week), although it’s quite common for people to leave for a short period (vacation, finals, etc.) and return. And I would ask you not to volunteer if you don’t think you’ll be around in another six months or so. For example, if you’re just going to be too busy come summer because of your upcoming round-the-world-before-your-Ph. D. trip, then I’d prefer to choose somebody else.
• No hard feelings if you’re a regular contributor and just want to stay that way.
• I envision two levels of moderators--a starting level and an advanced level; because you just never know how things may turn out, first-level moderators will have fewer “powers” than second-level moderators. All moderators will start out as first-level moderators (although I intend to change the name to something catchier) and will hopefully be promoted to the second level as warranted.
• I’m thinking that some people will feel comfortable only in certain forums; for example, an FPGEE moderator may not ever venture into the GMAT forums and may not want to moderate there; or a grammar person may never visit the math forums. This is fine; I would hope that the coverage would work out in the end, though.
• I would hope to start with a relatively small batch of moderators, say five or so, and see how it goes from there.
• Moderators MUST be professional, tactful, helpful, and polite. I think most of you will agree that TestMagic is generally a very friendly and helpful place, and anybody who represents TestMagic in the forums must promote the spirit we have come to expect here.
• No ppl, ur, u, l8r, plz, wrt, and the like. I don’t mean to denigrate anybody, or their Internet habits, but really, this is an academic forum. I fully realize that some people have learned to use a lot of abbreviations to speed up their communication, but for us, more complete sentences are better. And some abbreviations are acceptable--BTW, LOL, ROFL, IMHO, YMMV, etc. I’m not passing judgment on anybody, but anybody who represents TestMagic simply needs to write in educated English.
• Moderators must engage in moral, ethical, and legal behavior on the forums. This means no uploading or “sharing” of copyrighted material, no foul language, no sexual harassment, discriminatory behavior, etc.
• There are more guidelines, but I will go into greater detail for those who are interested and who I think may work out.

This is the first time I’ve ever made a public post about moderators, and to be honest, I hope it’s the last. No, not that this group will bring TestMagic into the great beyond, but I would expect to contact people privately in the future; it’s just that now the need is a bit more pressing than I think it will be in the future, and I need to get the word out fairly quickly.

Post general questions here; ask whatever you want. If you want to know what’s involved, how much time it will take, etc., I’ll try my best to answer here in this thread. To show your interest, please PM me.