Moderation of this forum

A request has been made elsewhere to make it clear how this forum is currently moderated.

I am an administrator and a moderator. I am employed by MTM.

David Clark is a moderator and works for MTM on a freelance basis.

Stewart Hart is a volunteer moderator and is paid for (nominally) one day a week on a freelance basis.

JasonB is a volunteer moderator with no other connection to MHS or MTM.

John Stevenson is a volunteer moderator with no other connection to MHS or MTM.

Wolfie is a volunteer moderator with no other connection to MHS or MTM.

Several other employees of MHS who have an occasional requirement to post on this forum will appear as 'Moderator'. These employees are not 'magazine specific' - they work for all MTM titles or MHS.

I hope this helps.

Diane Carney
Editor, Model Engineer

Thanks Diane,

That's a useful posting.

It's probably worth making "Sticky", and updating it as-and-when circumstances change.

MichaelG.

Diane

Another thing that might help (me at least) what powers the moderators actually have and how it relates to real life.

Some moderators have the ability to edit (maybe even delete) posts as DC1 at least does, in order to remove long links etc. How and why are volunteer moderators chosen and do have they have the same or more limited functions?

If all first posts are moderated does that mean that all moderators get sent a copy at the same time (so one might approve and another reject) so how does the system physically work?

Are volunteer moderators given any training, rules or guidelines as to what they can and cannot do?

What I am saying really is that I don't understand the whole moderation process, as Michael G suggested this subject should be one of the site stickies.

Ian P

Diane,

For the benefit of the uninitiated (like myself) could you please explain the function and powers of the volunteer moderators?

Many thanks

Eric

In answer to both posts above:

I personally chose a small number of people to help me out with the moderation of the forum as it was / is virtually impossible for me to keep an adequate eye on proceedings alone. The choice was based on two years of involvment with the forum.
The volunteers are able to edit or delete a posting and approve or otherwise a first post. The way that works is simply that the first person to notice there is a first post waiting decides whether to approve or not. If they are in any doubt they will ask me. Sometimes (rarely) we have a discussion.

For the avoidance of suspicion, I can tell you that:
a) virtually all first posts are approved. The only ones that are not are spammers (the main reason for the system) or suspected commercial advertising - and even that can be border-line sometimes. Two of the volunteers, due to their various committments, are able to check for first posts several times a day which I am not. I simply don't have the time. That's all there is to it.
b) Volunteer moderators have no other administrative rights on the website. They moderate the forum only.
c) No, they have not had formal training; it is not required. Common sense is all that is needed.

I hope this helps.

Diane

Hello everyone, I have just signed up to this forum today and I am from Australia. I am trying to subscribe to both your Model Engineer and Model Engineers Workshop publications.

I am totaly frustrated now as I feel you make it extremely difficult for people overseas to subscribe as you don't have credit card or paypal methods of payment available. Also ther is no where that I can find a subscription package that covers both mags and as far as I'm concerned they go hand in hand.

And my final dissapointment is that only UK buyers get the special subscription gifts when we overseas tend to pay a premium due to postage, are not good enough to be able to take advantage of special offers. I have been buying your magazines for some years now but lately the intermitent availabilty here has let to me missing out on issues. I am quite dissapointed, your web site is very confusing and hard to get around and most of all I feel your online subscription process is complicated and confusing. If you are to attract more subscribers I seriously suggest you simplify the process and offer aditional payment methods for o/seas subscribers.

Diane,

Why do employee's appear as Moderators? I feel that they should appear as either 'Staff/Employee' or as normal members.

What powers do these people have as to editing/deleting posts? (If they have edit/delete permissions, then they can edit/delete other peoples post's that take a different view to them)

Dave

Yes, Dave, indeed they could.
They never do, though, do they? That's perhaps why they were chosen.
As I said - common sense prevails.

Diane

Diane ... I was refering the the staff/employee's editing the threads they start.

(I trust David, Jason, John, Wolfie and yourself .... not sure about the employee's though)

Dave

For the curious here is a snip of the screen that we get to see as a Mod. You will notice at the top right in the green bar there is an "admin" tab which will take us to an area where the first posts are shown as well as of few other things.

There is a bar at the top of each thread which allows us to move, delete or edit it. Under each post we also have a few options.

I don't know if Diane had any input in choosing the pale lilac colour or not.

In the Admin area we can also see any reported posts generated if someone clicks the icon at the bottom of a post and also raise a "bug report" if we find there are problems with the site such as the recent issue of icons not showing up.

J (mod)

Edited By JasonB on 23/08/2013 13:31:27

Thanks Diane for not even to bother acknowledging my post even it might be in the wrong area as I don't know where else to post it. As a newbie my post has had to be approved by moderator prior to it being posted and it's pretty P*** poor that there has been NO acknowledgement of my concerns or answers to my questions, WHY DID I BOTHER???? Obviously being from o/seas my money or subscription is not worthy of your valuable time. Thanks for nothing.

Tinkerer58

I believe that you have raised some valid points concerning difficulties with overseas subscriptions, however I have no sympathy with your second and rather rude posting. This is because;

1. You should have raised the matter as a new thread not tack it onto and existing one that is not directly concerned with your problem.

2. You are rather impatient as you seem to expect Diane to to acknowledge your posting in less than 24 hours! Most posts to this site are not formally acknowledged anyway as this is not the way it works.

3. There is not really a place on this forum for bad language even in asterisk form.

Regards

Eric

Tinkerer58

Diane does not work 9-5 on the magazine and cannot be expected to read every post let alone ones that are tacked onto non related threads.

The site has the unfortunate ability to add moderated first posts in chronological order so if your first post sits waiting for a few hours and relates to an active topic it may well appear part way through a thread rather than at the end and its all to easy for people to go back to a thread where they last read it and miss any posts that have slipped in earlier.

I have just entered a ficticious Australian address in the subscription details and it leads me straight to a card payment screen. As below

Make sure you click the "Non-UK Subscribers" part not the big red button

There has never been a package for both mags though maybe MTM may want to think about it with a slight saving.

The issue of free gifts to overseas subscribers has been covered in the magazine and this forum before, basically the cost of postage means it is not economical for MTM to send overseas.

Jason (mod)

Edited By JasonB on 24/08/2013 08:23:22

Edited By JasonB on 24/08/2013 08:26:46

Tinkerer58,

I agree with everything Eric has said, however please stick with it and you will find this to be a very valuable forum.

I subscribe from overseas and have always paid by credit card so you must have missed something.

Dianne is very busy and cannot possibly answer every post especially those not addressed to her.

Russell

If you want a direct response from Diane, then there is a contact on the Home page. However, subscriptions are nothing directly to do with the magazine editor. Don't expect her to read every post on here.

There are already threads on this topic if you don't want to open a new one.

The contentious issue of free gifts for overseas subscribers has been raised on a regular basis since Adam was a lad, and will continue to be so. The answer will always be the same.

Phil

I sent recently a book to someone in the States, over £14.00 second class. so do not expect a low cost freeby to be winging your way. UK postage is very high.

Bob

Edited By Springbok on 24/08/2013 11:30:51

Well my applogies regard the post post to Diane and withdraw my comment aimed at her. I have also sent an email to My Time Media and all I got was a machine generated response.

The way this site is set up it looked as if Diane had responded to other topics after mine was posted and due to the frustation and the complicated way this site opperates it was just the last straw. I did also state that I may have posted this in the wrong section as I could not find an appriate section to post it in, but again there was no guidance or responce correcting me from anyone on this forum. Soo my frustrations just kept boiling. Again my appolgies for the language also.

As stated I am new to this site and have never come across such a dog's breakfast and lack of instructions or even where to find them. I just want to subscribe to a darn magazine, I have subscribed to quite a few other online also from o/seas and none of them required you to a science degree to do it, why make it soooooo complicated, I would rather spend my time in the shed instead of spending hours going over a website trying to subscribe.

Thank you for your kind assitance and instruction JasonB, I will follow the links.

Lambton: If you read the post I did say that I may have posted this in the wrong section, and I was not aware that what I said had bad language in it and I also didn't realise that people would be so sensitive, my appologies.

I hope my previous post and this explains my position, so lets please just move on, thank you for out lining your concerns they have been taken on board.

That said I do call a spade a spade and if that offends anyone please advise me if I have.