In message <3A0EB611.E5691E58@achilles.net>
Charles MacDonald <cmacd@achilles.net> wrote:
[snip]
> The Great mystery is WHY the eager helpers require so long (even under
> good conditions) to bring up to speed.
The problem is not with the volunteers, but that there is only one person
(actually, two, now; Ping Huang has just volunteered to help) doing the
training, and he cannot devote a lot of time to it due to illness.
It takes a couple of lessons before a trainee moderator can be let loose
on his/her own on the system to do basic moderation tasks. Three of us
have had one such lesson (mine was curtailed because of permissions
problems that it took the maintainers of RTFM to resolve), that is all
David has been able to manage due to his illness. I for one am not
about to blame him for that, and I would suggest that you don't either.
The learning curve for the moderation tools themselves is not steep for
those familiar with the Unix environment (as, I believe, all of the
trainees are), although the AFS file system in use at MIT takes a bit
of getting used to. It's the learning curve for the non-automated part
that's tougher: you have to learn on what grounds to approve or reject
postings, for example, some of which can be quite complex. The automated
FAQ checker makes this substantially easier, but not everyone uses it.
Then there's dealing with non-FAQ submissions, such as requests for
items to be removed from the LoPiP. It takes time to become familiar
with how to deal with these.
> I personaly DON'T have a lot of time to work on such a project, but find
> the total lack of published documnetation a serious gap.
One of the trainees, Duane Ebersole, is working on a guide for new
*.answers moderators as he goes through his lessons, and I intend to
produce a complete manual for the moderation procedure when I have been
fully trained.
Cheers,
Nick
-- It has been suggested in various quarters that I write all my books in my sleep. This is hurtful and unfair and no more than 40% accurate. -- Tom Holt, alt.books.tom-holt************************************************************* To unsubscribe send a message to majordomo@faqs.org as
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