Discussion How does one become a FORUM MODERATOR ? *Off Topic Query*

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Metal Messiah.

Metal Messiah.

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Hello Again,

Another silly, but curious/genuine question I need to desperately ask (get it off my chest). So PLEASE kindly bear with me. Though, feel free to LOCK this thread, if this Topic is inappropriate, or against the Forum rules.

Anyways, with that being said, how does one become a FORUM MODERATOR, be it on TOMs HW or any other tech FORUM ? I tried to scour the internet, but couldn't find any concrete answer. BTW, this is just a general question, not just related to TOM"s Hardware forums.

Don't worry, my CV is full with Metal/Rock background experience, so I won't even qualify the first round, LOL. I DON'T want to be a moderator of any forum though. :p

Anyways, Some quick questions:----------->>>>>> ;)

1. How does one apply for a MOD's position ? How does TOM's HW select any moderator ?

2. Who appoints any MOD here on TOM's ? The Community Managers, or the website team/owners ?

3. Did you guys apply for this JOB, or you were hand-picked by the team/community ?

Or, does the forum select volunteers from the community members to hire them as MODs ? I think STEAM and UBISoft Forums do pick up up long time members from the community. Does this same happen here as well, at TOM's ?

4. Does Technical experience and background also count as well ?? Because you MODS out here are really well-versed with stuff related to PC, Hardware and software alike.

To be VERY honest, the replies and suggestions posted here by the Moderator TEAM really impresses me, each time I visit the forum. I also learned quiet a few things here. You guys have excellent knowledge/experience anything related to TECH, or PC. Hats off !

5. BTW, do the Moderators also get paid by the team/website owners, or this is just a volunteer's work ?

I'm sorry to ask too many silly questions though, but If I can get an answer to these queries, then it would be really nice. I would be THANKFUL to you guys !
NICK. :)
 
Colif

Colif

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  1. You don't apply, you get asked. If you ask, you get put at end of list (sorry, thats just how it is). That is Tom's anyway, I don't know if any forums have different methods. I been a mod on 3 forums and was asked all 3 times.
  2. Mods do, we used to have senior moderators on old forum who had higher abilities. We still do but they all listed as Moderators now but we know who they are. If mods don't do it, Community Managers do it
  3. see 1
  4. Helpfulness is something that will get you noticed. Trying to help others and being nice is more important than knowing everything about a subject, I am still learning as I know I don't know everything... people who think they know it all are dangerous lol.
  5. No pay, we just like users. Heralds & Mods are just users who have shown they willing to help over a long term. Community managers & reviewers are staff and do get paid.
You didn't ask but heralds are also asked, no one applies to do anything here :)
 
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Colif

Colif

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Disqualified... if a potential mod is suggested, all other mods have to agree with it or it doesn't happen. So if that person has made a name for themselves in a positive/.negative manner, it will be taken into account when the time comes.

Titan is a title, Herald is a rank. Some people are both. Its how I am a Titan & a Moderator at same time.

Titan is based on how many trophy points you have. They are earned by earning trophies (obvious). I think you need about 80k to be a titan. There is way more than 80k worth of tp attached to trophies, just look at Dark Lord's score as an example
Herald is more mysterious and is based on a number of factors that change so its not something I can get into here
Heralds were started as a team of people who would help on special projects, from time to time.
 
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Metal Messiah.

Metal Messiah.

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Colif said:
You don't apply, you get asked. If you ask, you get put at end of list (sorry, thats just how it is). That is Tom's anyway
Click to expand...

OKAY.....You mean to say the website community managers/forum staff will ask you in person, whether you need to be a MOD or not ? What do you mean by , END of the LIST though ?

Like a STACK/queue Overflow, FIFO vs LIFO ((last in first out, or first in first out)) ? :tongueout:

Colif said:
people who think they know it all are dangerous lol.
Click to expand...

LOL. Can't disagree on this though.

Colif said:
You didn't ask but heralds are also asked, no one applies to do anything here
Click to expand...

OKAY. I get it...Thanks for all the explanation...

Colif said:
Titan is a title, Herald is a rank. Some people are both. Its how I am a Titan & a Moderator at same time.

Titan is based on how many trophy points you have. They are earned by earning trophies (obvious). I think you need about 80k to be a titan. There is way more than 80k worth of tp attached to trophies, just look at Dark Lord's score as an example
Herald is more mysterious and is based on a number of factors that change so its not something I can get into here
Heralds were started as a team of people who would help on special projects, from time to time
Click to expand...

This was really helpful. I was wondering what does HERALD And TITAN actually mean, since I've seen a lot of old forum members having this title. I still don't fully understand what are Heralds though ??

Also, how are TROPHY points actually calculated ? Mine is 3390 as of now. :sweatsmile: And, what does "Estimable" mean ? Is this also a Title or a forum Badge ?
 
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Colif

Colif

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Metal Messiah. said:
OKAY.....You mean to say the website community managers/forum staff will ask you in person, whether you need to be a MOD or not ? What do you mean by , END of the LIST though ?
Click to expand...

Yes, a mod/CM will send the person a message asking, as there have been people in past who for various reasons have declined. Not everyone has the free time to help.
End of list means that IF we had a list of names of people to be offered, those who ask are the last to be looked at, if at all.

Heralds: i was a herald before i became a mod, I didn't even know what their purpose was as the special projects are fairly rare, most of them just help mods by pointing out things around forums we may have missed

Trophy points: look on your profile under Trophies - https://forums.tomshardware.com/members/metal-messiah.2731765/#trophies - that shows some of the totals but points in trophy levels are cumulative, so since you Paladium lvl in the Discourse trophy, you have all the points for the lvls below it - https://forums.tomshardware.com/trophies/palladium.43/

I haven't tried to figure out where all my points came from, not all my best answers are matched up to trophies on this forum, most of them are from before Feb and due to restrictions we couldn't match them all up. Its why most mods don't have way more tp than we would have if they were all linked. We all earning them again, just like all the other users.

How Titles all work will be announced at a later time as we still adding new features to the software as we go. Estimable is a title
 
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Colif

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Colif

Colif

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Showing appreciation and giving gifts to someone who doesn't earn anything can't be a bad thing.

Alas, on here, only way to show that is through likes and upvotes. unless you op of a question and can click the trophy (if it exists)
 
NightHawkRMX

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Colif said:
Showing appreciation and giving gifts to someone who doesn't earn anything can't be a bad thing.

Alas, on here, only way to show that is through likes and upvotes. unless you op of a question and can click the trophy (if it exists)
Click to expand...
There was one point where trophies appeared on all of my threads and I got barked at for clicking on it.
 
Colif

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Due to an unintentional feature, the person who starts a thread can also choose their own answer as the right one. Mods, if we see this, will remove it as its not right that someone should be able to reward themselves. If it is actually the right answer, there is a team of contractors who go through old threads and mark BA, so if its right, op will get it eventually but they should never award themselves.

Hopefully that "feature" is removed as its not appreciated.

Discussion threads generally don't have trophies attached to them. But there are exceptions.

So its possible that was why you got barked at...

If it was last year, on the old software, everyone could see the Best Answer button and it seemed to attract my mouse so we hid it now from anyone apart from opening poster and Mods.
 
Colif

Colif

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Only people who should have set BA on old software were OP, the contractors or any mods. Accidentally pressing the button was common problem.

On current software, other users have a way to help award BA, it is the up arrow. If a question gets 5 upvotes it automatically gets marked as BA.. we want more people to do that as it helps getting questions solved and is less work for the poor contractors who might want more money before they start doing Feb (they normally 6 months behind)
 
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Rogue Leader

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remixislandmusic said:
All of the threads i viewed had troplies. Not just ones i created.
Click to expand...

I think you are talking about tags. On the prior forum software depending what tags the post had was what trophies you would get if you got best answer.

So for example if you got a best answer in a thread and it had the tags "CPU" "Systems" "Graphics Cards" you would get 3 trophies respectively. The glitch was if you wanted to bump your level up was to go back and add more Trophy related tags to a thread, which any user could do.

You were adding tags to a thread to bump your trophy count, hence the warning.

The current software doesn't work that way, tags are helpful for searches but have no bearing on trophies. Trophies are determined by the category the post is in.

Hope this makes sense.
 
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Metal Messiah.

Metal Messiah.

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NightHawkRMX

NightHawkRMX

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The more trophies you get, the more points you get.

Trophies are awarded for things like having x amount of best answers, being part of the community for x years, having x likes, and so on.

Some trophies are also awarded for best answers in various categories like power supplies, CPUs, and motherboards.
 
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