(This message is from Huss and JonnyQuest and is being posted in each forum by the moderators.) Dear BigSoccer Members and Premium Members, As we hope you all know and appreciate, we are always striving to make BigSoccer the best community it possibly can be. One of the keys to our community is our moderators. They work hard to provide a fun and safe environment for everyone on the site. Of course, we realize things don't always go smoothly and that when some people have praise others have complaints. We are instituting a new procedure for reviewing our moderators, and that involves soliciting feedback from you. This is a serious excercise and we ask you to only participate if you take it seriously. We are asking you to post your praise and criticism, and suggestions, regarding the moderation of THIS PARTICULAR FORUM in this thread. Personal attacks will be binned (the mods have our approval to do this) and we are only looking for thoughtful criticisms or compliments. Though we'd prefer you didn't, if you are uncomfortable posting in public, please send EMAIL to help@bigsoccer.com. Thank you for your participation. Huss and JonnyQuest
the mods here are wimps. Wimps, I tell ya! Actually modding this forum has got to be among the most thankless volunteer jobs at BigSoccer. A true no-win situation. I should know. Anybody that gives folks who attempt to mod this forum stick or abuse, just don't know what it's like.
Thanks for the comments Andy. It's true, I (and nancyb and JMAC) am wimpier than some would like, but I feel one of the differences between this forum and say MLS N&A is that this is one of the main congregating places for US fans. Although discussion is fairly restricted to news on MLS N&A, people here don't have team forums to fall back on to talk about games, rumors, etc., so I think there should be more leeway in what constitutes "analysis." The goal obviously is to have fewer frivolous threads, polls etc. here, but I think it can stifle discussion if moderators are too concerned about stamping out anything that is borderline. It's also true that there is more leeway given when times are slow, like now. My main thing for this board is that people are civil -- and I think it has improved over the way it was in the past when there was less of a moderator presence on this forum and so-called pissing contests would go on unchecked for pages. I know that some still have complaints about the overall level of quality of debates here, but to some degree, that is out of the moderator's hands. Of course, how things are run here are always open for discussion, and more people should chime in if they have opinions. Now is a good time to do it.
Just wanted to say that I think the mods in this form, dark knight in particular, have done a great job. Much of the trash talk seems to have dropped into the US Men General Form, and I find the conversation here to be generally interesting, informative, and pertaining to N&A of the MNT. There are exceptions, of course, but in the past the exception was a thread that actually DID have something to do with N&A. dk has done a good job of helping that process along without resorting to the heavy hand certain other moderators used from the get-go.
I agree--the mods here to a great job. Their interventions are infrequent, but when they come they're typically well considered and fair.
Thanks for the kind words guys. Those of you who put a lot of time and effort into your posts here are the ones that really deserve the credit for making this forum interesting. I'm unstickying this thread, but feel free to continue commenting.