Saturday, July 26, 2008

Moderating

I'd love to see more discussion of mediation techniques people think work well and maybe links to some posted discussions elsewhere, if you know of them. I've read just about everything I can find that Teresa Nielson Hayden has posted at Making Light and at Boing Boing about her methods. I was drawn to this post at Making Light yesterday because I've seen James in action over at Absolute Write where I am a moderator, too.

I co-moderate the Politics and Current Events (P&CE) forum at Absolute Write with MacAllister Stone. That part of AW has been going through some interesting changes lately.

MacAllister and I have been attempting to create a place where there can be rough and tumble discussion by the members who like that sort of thing, but also create a more comfortable space for the ones who don't feel comfortable in that environment - a topic that the comments in "Got it in one" back on July 1st explored to my great edification at at time when we were just making our changes (the "new P&CE" began on June 30th).

It's been exhilarating, exasperating and exhausting at times to moderate there, and I'm always on the look out for discussions that will help me do a better job.

I hope to see some comments...well, I always do, but this time I'm hoping even more.


note: thank you Dr. Science, for your comment on the above-mentioned thread, where you discussed posting your comments into your blog - I hadn't considered that before now!

1 comment:

T. M. Hunter said...

Unfortunately, proper moderating is always going to piss people off, regardless of how well you do the job.

Just do things that make sense to you toward reaching your goal (in creating an environment everyone feels comfortable in). You may decide to change things down the road, but just remember that old adage about being unable to please all the people all the time.