New Moderator questions

[gwells]

Hi, guys.

 

After receiving the email asking for volunteer mods and offering to help out, I have a couple of questions.

 

I don't frequent a bunch of the forums, primarily General Discussion and What Is It. Sometimes I'll take a look at some of the Ford forums, but I visit the first two mentioned at least once a day and sometimes multiple times.

 

I am noticing a lot of posts that really should be moved from General Discussion into one of the new Sales and Wanted forums as well as posts that really should be moved into What Is It.

The question is whether or not I should move such misplaced threads into more appropriate locations? 

Second question is whether to leave a link in the original forum to point to the new location of a thread. (I think this is still an option in .v4). On my own forum, I don't do this, but it might be advisable so members can find where their threads were relocated. It also works to educate posters on where they should be posting other similar items. And the practice of leaving a link when a thread is moved doesn't have to continue forever.

Just so folks will know me a little better, I have been running an active hobby forum using the IP.Board software for over ten years (I am currently on still .v3 but should be upgrading before the end of the year). Some time ago I offered to help Peter when I could, which is why I have admin level permissions even though I plan to largely operate in the mod role.

[cahartley]

Depending on the activity of the user, whether frequent or infrequent, I leave an expiring redirect.

For example if a user is a very regular user who logs in often I often leave redirects for 3 days to a week.

I want the user to know where his/her thread went but don't want misplaced threads cluttering the forums.

[MCHinson]

If a newbie user posts something in an obviously wrong forum, I will typically move it and use an expiring redirect so that they can find it. If an experienced user posts in the wrong forum, I typically move it and don't leave a redirect, as I figure they will be able to find it. 

 

If there is a thread posted in the wrong forum but it gets an appropriate response, i.e., someone posts a what is it in the General Forum and gets their answer, I don't typically take the time to worry about moving it. With more moderators, it might be that some of us have enough time to more strictly regulate things being in the most appropriate forum.  That might be a good thing, but I would just caution you that it is usually best if the forum users are not upset by what they may perceive as "heavy handed" moderation. We have a number of users that get upset with any changes made by the moderators. I try not to upset anyone unnecessarily. Less intervention by the moderating staff is typically preferred rather than more intervention. As long as it the posts are civil and people are being able to get questions answered, and people are enjoying civil interaction on the forum, I try not to upset the applecart.  Hope that makes sense and is not too much rambling.