ATC Forums Moderator Handbook

If you're reading this, you have agreed to volunteer as a moderator for the ATC Forums. First of all, we'd like to say thank you. The creation of a virtual community for North Country educators is very exciting, but it will not work without you. Your time and efforts are much appreciated.

This handbook is a work in progress. It is intended to help you first understand what your role as a moderator will be, and second to provide you with the technical knowledge necessary to carry out that role.

The Role of a Moderator

Being a moderator is much like being a classroom teacher. Your job, in a nutshell, is to promote meaningful discussions while keeping order. Just as in being a classroom teacher, though there are administrative tasks involved, it is supposed to be fun.

  1. Directing Discussions
    • At times, discussions on a message board, just like conversations, get sidetracked. As a moderator, one of your jobs is to try to keep a discussion on the topic of the original post which started the thread. At times, this may mean a gentle reminder posted in the thread to remind participants what the topic is, it may mean splitting a thread, creating a new one to deal with the new topic, or it may mean deleting a post. Although we'd like the discussion to stay as on-topic as possible, we also aren't looking to create a repressive atmosphere, or to turn you into a boot camp drill instructor, so use your judgment.
    • If there is a lull in your forum or in a thread in your forum, as a moderator you can help get things moving again by posting your own thoughts or ideas, directing people to another thread or forum, or starting a new thread yourself. The idea is to give people a reason to frequently drop by the ATC forums. If there is nothing new to read, think about and maybe respond to for several days in a row, they are likely to stop checking. As a general rule, the more active and lively a forum is, the more likely the participants are to keep coming back, posting and bringing in other people to do the same.
  2. Maintaining Order
    • At times, discussion threads require some good ole' classroom management skills. Proving the validity of the statement, "Do as I say, not as I do," teachers can sometimes be downright unruly. It is your job to try to keep your forum a positive place where people can interact without fear of intimidating or harassing behavior. From time to time, you may need to remind people that they are professionals, and they should act the part.
      • We trust your judgment, otherwise we wouldn't have asked you to volunteer. In these situations you should determine how serious the incident is.
      • If you think a deleted or edited post and warning in a private message will take care of things, or if this seems out of character for the individual involved, fine.
      • If it is more serious, you should refer the incident for review in the moderators' forum, after editing or deleting the offending post, which may result in the user being banned from the forums.
      • In extreme cases, you will have the ability to ban a user, which means they will no longer be able to access or post to the forums.
    • Because our forums allow posting by anyone who registers, there is also the scenario in which non-educational posts pop up. This might be legitimate individuals who post topics that have nothing to do with what the forums are all about, to web sites or corporations which are trying to use our forums to advertise their products or services. This sort of post, and this sort of user, are not welcome on the ATC forums.
      • You should immediately delete such posts, ban the user (in the case of accounts that have clearly been created for this purpose), and relate the incident in the Moderators' Forum so others are aware.

The Nuts & Bolts

In this section, you will find a brief outline of the technical side of being an ATC forum moderator. You will be shown how to edit or delete posts, split threads to create a new discussion, and ban users.

Once you officially receive moderator status (the title under your login name will change to Moderator), you will also then have access to the Moderators Forum. This space, which is only accessible by ATC moderators and the administrator, is meant for a couple of purposes. First, should you encounter a problem in your forum, start a thread in this forum and describe the problem. This will not only make sure the administrator is aware of the issue, but also provide information to your fellow moderators. Second, it is a place for the moderators to chat about being moderators. For most of you, this is likely your first time doing something like this, and as such, you will probably have questions from time to time on how to do certain things, or how to handle certain situations. This forum, then, is a place to bounce ideas off one another.

  1. Editing a Post
    • In the event of a post containing something which violates the acceptable use policy, one option you have is to edit the post to edit the post to remove the language or information in question. Again, you'll need to use your judgment, but ordinarily, a post that is a candidate for an edit rather than deletion is mostly on topic, has value in the overall discussion, but has one element that is problematic.

      As a moderator, editing a post is fairly easy.
      1. Make sure you are logged into the ATC forums on your account.
      2. Open the discussion thread in question and find the offending post
      3. Copy the whole post.
      4. Open the Edited Posts thread in the Moderator's Forum, and reply
      5. Paste the original post, note the change you will be making, and state why.
      6. Back at the thread in question, you will notice that in the upper left corner, there is a button that says "edit." Click on it
      7. Make the changes to the post that are needed.
      8. At the bottom of the post, please add a statement in brackets using the following format:

        [edited by: Moderator's User Name; reason: ________ ]

        Reasons for editing would include (but aren't limited to) removal of:
        • inappropriate language
        • personal information
        • offensive comment

  2. Deleting a Post
    • Posts that require deletion also violate the acceptable use policy, while adding nothing of value to the overall discussion. Again, you'll need to use your judgment, but an example might be a post whose sole purpose is to sell something or drive our users to another web site.
      1. Make sure you are logged into your account
      2. Find the post.
      3. Follow the steps listed above for copying the post and pasting it into the Moderators' Forum, this time into the Deleted Posts thread. This is important for a couple of reasons. First, if a user were to contact the ATC staff or Forums administrator concerning the deletion, we will have accurate information. Second, as we are all learning this moderation business together, it provides a learning experience.
      4. Looking back at the post in question, click the "delete" button in the upper left corner.

  3. Using the Thread Tools
    • Sometimes, threads may become hopelessly hijacked or off topic, or it may be better suited for another forum. In these cases, when you click on the thread to bring up it's posts, at the bottom of the screen, on the left side, you will notice a drop-down menu that says "Thread options."
      • Delete - Pretty self-explanatory. This will delete the whole thread from the forum.
      • Move - If the discussion would be a better fit in another forum (i.e. the topic doesn't fit your forum), you can move the whole thing to another forum. Choosing this option from the drop-down menu and pressing go will bring up another drop down menu with the names of all of the forums. Simply highlight the one that makes more sense for the discussion and click the button. If you move a thread, please make a post in the Moved Thread discussion in the Moderators' Forum. This is a matter of courtesy as you have basically just added another thread to someone else's list of responsibilities.
      • Lock - The thread remains where it is, and can still be read by anyone who comes to the site, but no one will have the ability to add a new post to it.
      • Pin - Appropriate for forum rules or general announcements that you don't want to have lost in a list of discussions, and potentially lost from the first page. Pinning a thread keeps it at the top of the first page of threads in that particular forum. For instance, you'll notice that in the Moderator's Forum, the threads on edited and deleted posts and the one on banned users are all pinned. Those will always appear on the list of discussion topics (threads), right where they are right now. So if you edit a post and need to make a note of it, you will always know that it is pinned to the top of that forum and never need to hunt for it.

  4. Banning a User
    • First of all, make sure that you understand that banning is not the same thing as deleting. Some moderators are hesitant to use the "ban stick" because they worry that maybe they are making a mistake that can't be undone. Banning is not permanent in the sense that the administrator has the ability to go into the list of banned users and take names off the list, effectively unbanning them. That's not to say that the administrator will be undermining you and undoing a ban behind your back, but rather, it's meant to assure you that a ban that you rethink later can be undone. Alternately, the moderators may decide to use a temporary ban as a punishment for a violation of the acceptable use policy. All uses of banning will be reviewed by ATC personnel.
      1. Find the offending post(s) which you believe to be worth a ban.
      2. Copy and paste the posts into the Banned Users thread in the Moderators' Forum.
      3. Click on the user's name next to their post. The top choice in the menu which appears will be "View Member Profile." Click on this.
      4. Above the words "Account Information," click on "Ban." That user will no longer be able to post, or even access the site from the location where they created their account.

Glossary

This list is not complete, and it will grow as we go along. If you run across a term being used in your forum that you're not sure about, feel free to contact me, and I will try to help you out, and likely add it to the glossary.