ADMIN: Friendly vs Unfriendly; Moderator Roles, Etc.

[Penny & Bryce Linsenmayer]

No: HPFGUIDX 16526

Good morning everyone --

Well, receiving a message like the one from Andrea in my inbox first
thing was really not the best start to my day.  :--)  I started
composing this nearly an hour ago and at this juncture, was about to
say, "And I'm giving up my morning walk to address this."  Then I
thought, "No!  I am *not* giving up my walk for this."  So .... I've had
a refreshing (well, it's *muggy* here so it wasn't all that refreshing)
walk & a shower and feel ready to address some of this in a reasonable
way.

Thanks to Dai & Heidi for chiming in with some perspective of the
"old-timers."

NEWBIES: I personally would *love* to have the time to send each newbie
a warm, personal welcoming message.  But, with 1100 members & growing,
this just isn't feasible.  I care very much if the group is perceived as
an unfriendly place or if the group of old-timers is perceived as
cliquish.  We want this to be friendly and fun for everyone!  There are
some relative newbies who've jumped in with great success, but we do
want it to be easy for everyone. I must admit that I believe it would be
easiest on everyone if the newbies would do their part & be sure & read
the Welcome Message, VFAQs, Netiquette and Acronyms files.

The Moderators have already raised the subject amongst themselves this
morning though of creating a "Moderator for Newbies" position.  This
would be someone who's willing to answer newbie questions, direct them
to the group resources, encourage them to read the VFAQs, etc., act as a
sounding board for their initial forays into discussions, send them a
personal message if they seem to be venturing into already-covered
ground -- essentially be the equivalent of the person who welcomed you
to kindergarten with a plate of warm cookies & a glass of milk.
Ideally, this person would be someone who: (a) has a reasonably long
background with the group -- enough that he/she is familiar with the
Files area, frequently-discussed topics, etc.; (b) has good people
skills; and (c) is on-line & available to answer questions on a very
regular basis.  If you fit the bill & you're interested in acting in
this capacity, please contact the Moderators at
HPforGrownups-owner at yahoogroups.com.  Even if you believe that you
couldn't devote yourself full-time to this position, let us know if you
would be willing to share duties with another Newbie Moderator.

RULES/POLICING: I must admit that I'm still reasonably confused by
Andrea's message.  On one hand, she seemed to be saying that we the
Moderators care too much about enforcing rules & too little about making
people feel welcome.  OTOH, she also seemed to be arguing that we didn't
do enough to address the post where Rita nitpicked someone's grammar or
the posts where old-timers complain about frequently-raised subjects.
I'm not sure what the balance is really.

Here's my personal perspective though (for what it's worth).  Whatever
the quiz was that correlated your personality to those of the characters
-- I came up with Dumbledore, Hermione, Percy & McGonagall as my top 4
matches.  Hmmm .... I am *clearly* someone who LOVES rules.  I do like
rules; I don't deny it.  I think they bring order & stability to the
environment.  We've gotten alot of messages recently with off-hand
remarks about the Moderators and the "rules" -- the insinuation being
fairly clear that there are people who think we go over-board on the
rules aspect of this list.  My personal belief is that with a group this
large, if there were no rules and no Moderators enforcing anything, it
would dissolve into complete & utter chaos within a week.  The
OT-Chatter group is very active.  If suddenly that were dissolved &
people were told they could post whatever they wanted to the main group,
the message volume would go through the roof.  We'd probably take down
the Yahoo server!  <g>

If you have an opinion about the rules and whether there are too many or
too few, please feel free to email the Moderators at
HPforGrownups-owner at yahoogroups.com.  We do care about people's
opinions.  Word of caution though: serious responses only (I'm not in
the mood for sarcastic or even joking replies to this when I'm 3 days
away from my due date, nor do I want to go into labor & leave the other
3 moderators with an inbox full of messages of this sort).

That brings me to my next point.  Most everyone here I think does
appreciate the Moderator Group.  But, there are those who seemingly
don't understand what's involved.  You wouldn't believe the number of
messages that we field on a personal level each day (cc'ing each other
so that we don't duplicate responses).  We're happy to do it; that's why
we're Moderators.  But, please recognize that being a Moderator of this
group is a *VOLUNTEER* position -- something that the Moderators are
working into their otherwise busy & fruitful lives.

Finally, I'm about to be taking a sabbatical of sorts with the baby
coming any second now (sometime in the next 10 days or so, you can
expect that I will just disappear -- possibly for weeks.  I don't
know).  Please realize that the other Moderators will be busier than
usual, but please feel free to contact them.  For those of you who don't
know, the Moderators other than myself are:

Jim Flanagan (best person to contact with techie questions) (EST)
John Walton (UK)
Neil Ward (UK)

But, please contact all the Moderators as a group at
HPforGrownups-owner at yahoogroups.com (rather than individually).

Thanks for listening and hopefully I haven't offended anyone any
further.  :--)

Penny
The Magical Mod Squad