Hi
Ralf was recently made a moderator here. (Congrats again, Ralf.) There are also some other active members here who would make good moderators for the site, in my opinion. I don’t know whether they’d actually want such a “job” or not, but I can certainly imagine Tom, lost_soul, or NinaZara, for example, taking on some moderator duties.
Any thoughts on this?
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Hi, Amy
Thank you for your trust 
I wouldn’t mind being a moderator, or seeing Tom or NinaZara as moderators, that’s fine with me.
Oh, it feels nice that you thought that of me, Amy. But honestly, I don’t think I can be a moderator if you are not one. Seeing all the work, time and energy that you’ve contributed to this forum, I think they should consider making you a partner.
Hi Nina
When you look at the explosion in new members here, it seems to me that a couple of new moderators might well be needed. (That’s just my personal opinion.)
Even though I chose to give up my moderator status here, I think you’d make a great addition to the “[color=green]green team”.
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Thanks, Amy. Hmmm, now you’ve made me wonder how I’d feel if my name was in [color=green]green… I must admit, I don’t hate it. 
Dear Amy
First of all, thank you very much for the heartening suggestion. You really made my day. 
…but, Amy, I really believe that my language skills do not allow me to do a moderator’s job on the forum. That said, I would love to see the following people as moderators here.
I will wait for Torsten’s take on this. Matters can always be facilitated–I mean, if Jamie remains busy with his schedule, he can be given one forum for instance, i.e. What do you want to talk about, and I assume that he likes to contribute here. And MrPedantic and Barbara can take responsibility of English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms, and so on and so forth.
I will come back after Torten’s reply.
Amy, thanks again.
Tom
Hi Tom
Sorry, Tom, but you can’t convince me that you don’t have the language skills. :lol:
I do think you have the language skills to do it, and you certainly are a devoted member of this site.
It seems to me that the very nature of a team is complementary. Teammates complement each other. (Compliments are always nice, too. :lol:)
In other words, Mod A might be better at doing X than Mod B is. Mod B might be better at doing Y than Mod A is. Mod C might be too busy to do X on a particular day, but Mod D isn’t. Mod E might have a different way of explaining something than Mod A. And so on.
Naturally, Torsten and Alan will ultimately decide what does and doesn’t happen on their site, or how many moderators they feel they need. This is a very open site, though, and since the topic of moderators has been in the air recently, it seemed an appropriate time to make some suggestions.
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Anyway, there is nothing to say that any particular level of language skill is required-- just a level head. Here is the definition that appears in English-test.net’s FAQs:
A moderators’ main job is not to answer language questions, but to be moderate and maintain a modicum of decorum.
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Hi MM
Oddly enough, I was not aware that I could lock, unlock, move or split threads when I was a moderator. Or is that something new? I don’t recall ever having seen anything that would have enabled me to do those things. Delete and Edit functions, yes, but not the other things.
I agree that a level head is very important for a moderator, and I must say you are one of the most level-headed people I’ve ever known.
Totally agree with Amy.
Though I’ve never met him in person, I feel I could entrust MM with balancing a handmade powder keg on one foot 
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Ak! I hope I’m never put to that test, Ralf!
(I don’t know whether the button has always been there, Yank, but I finally stumbled on the ‘Move’ etc access down at the bottom of the page.)
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Couldn’t agree more, Amy!
Tom
Although I’ve never personally witnessed the powder keg feat, I’ve seen MM balance several ESL forums with very short fuses on one leg while simultaneously bending over backwards to answer exhaustive questionnaires about the present perfect; which is considerably more difficult.
MrP
It’s amazing, considering you live in Japan, MM, where people tend to be long-winded. But I think that explains the patience.
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I guess you’re all too far away to hear me grinding my teeth, eh? But thanks for the strokes. Now let’s see if we can get another Mod or two.
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Yes, according to the definition, a moderator is rather an invigilator who scans threads and bans obscenity, off-topic posts when required and should not be necessarily involved in answering questions. I agree that Alex, Tom and ultimately Nina would make excellent moderators but I also second the list of candidates for a mod position submitted by Tom. Since the ‘English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms’ forum poses a core forum attended by a great many of members, Amy, Mr. Pedantic and Jamie (K) would receive a majority if the voting took place
Hi Amy,
Really? I thought moderators are entitled to use these buttons on every site they moderate and are not restricted to few. Evidently, administrators decide what buttons make available and what not. Personally, I had all those buttons when moderated a couple of sites but gave up my moderator status as I couldn’t spare much time sitting there.
Hi Pamela
That is what it comes down to; does the effort balance out with the benefit. Lots of moderators here and otherwise need to consider if they can be the “only paid contributor” or do it for other forum/ learner centered or altruistic reasons. We don´t all get such a privilege, do we. ; )
It is nice to have the time, but we all need to be paid to pay the bills. ; )
cheers stew.t.
Hi Pamela
Yes, in addition to answering questions, the splitting, moving, locking and unlocking of threads (along with a number of other things) all seem to be pretty standard moderator responsibilities elsewhere. Spam deletion, too.
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Hi Torsten
In case you haven’t seen this thread yet, I thought I’d just bump it up so it would once again be “current”.
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