Hello,

I think every few months we should have one of these little chats.

Basically? I'm thinking that I'm going to start holding all moderators responsible for promoting the best environment possible on the Forge.

Even though technically everyone but Clinton and me is a moderator only on his individual-game forum, we all have that green-bold thing going on with our names, and people get the idea that that status applies in the general forums.

And at least of couple of you are not above throwing around a little weight on those forums, in the "well he gave me an inch" fashion.

Now, best-environment does not mean "Ron's way" at all times. It does mean thinking very hard about that area of shared-overlap that I recently described on the "Lots of people at the Forge" thread in Site Discussion, and working both in content and in comportment to promote that shared value system.

That means two things: (a) how you encourage or guide others to act, and (b) how you just plain act yourself.

The top issue at this time is post-count. You'll note that I don't post as frequently as I used to, and this is on purpose (to some extent) - I'm trying to let discussions evolve without me nudging'em every three or four posts. Those of you who post a lot in RPG Theory or Indie Game Design may consider backing off - perhaps focusing on "shaping" a thread in its early stages to develop focus and provide a good model for behavior, and then letting others be the main contributors for a while.

Some of us have life-styles that allow us to check in at the Forge almost constantly, and that means being able to post almost constantly. That's actually scary to other Forge users - if they check in once a day or every two days, there's always a post from Person X starin' at them. It's as if they're being stalked. I would very much appreciate it if people would develop a feel for how often a given person posts, and try to match that or stay slower than that with replies to that person (e.g. in a thread they start).

Oh, all this is for the general forums by the way; in your own forum, you're King, so whatever you want goes.

Yeah, I'm asking you to consider a lot of stuff. Well, if I do say so myself, being a moderator at the Forge is actually getting to be a matter of note in the RPG biz. I expect it to be a significant thing in said biz by GenCon next year. Here's where I'm asking you to consider what kind of responsibility to the Forge's identity and to the hobby that brings.

All discussion is welcome.

Best,
Ron

As Garfield would say, "Hey, I resemble that remark!"

Sure, Ron, kill all my fun. ;-)

But seriously folks, I personally get the message. All well said, Ron. I for one will try to follow the guidelines that you have set out for us above. As for discussion, I can't really think of anything to say. You are correct, it seems to me, in all particulars.

Interesting about the "Bold Green" thing. I had erroneously assumed it meant people I had clicked on to see their profiles (to PM them; silly assumption when I look at it more closely). I wonder how many people realize just what the bolding does mean?

Mike

I knew what the bolding is for, which is why I always perk up when I see a new green name appear. To me, it's a tip-off that something is up.

And I'm completely comfortable with taking a position of leadership in setting the tone for the Forge. In fact, I think that this will go a long way towards debunking the idea that this is only Ron's playground. If the moderators as a whole work at establishing the tone (not making policy, BTW), then the Forge will begin to develop an identity as a quasi-institution and move away from "Ron and Clinton's pet project". We all have forums here; therefore, we all have a vested interest in the health and well-being of the Forge. Why shouldn't we be front-and-center in promoting the positive values of the Forge?

Of course, this does mean that the Forge needs to be careful about who is allows to be a moderator, if it's not just about having your own forum. I'll be the first to admit that my own forum has lagged from time to time. (Actually releasing the bloody game will probably help matters in that respect, though.) However, I certainly hope that my presence here has been helpful to someone.

I also like the idea of having periodic moderator conversations. Helps keep us all on the same page, so to speak.

Seth Ben-Ezra