I'll add...
Are you doing it for the right reason, the right way, at the right time...
But we're drifting off topic.
Maybe I can tell you a story about how it felt to me to be a mod...and why I would never do it again:
At ADV, I was a n00b....only been there less than two years. You don't get to be made a mod in 20 months...ever. But the board had a problem.
In some ways it was like this place, we were travelers. On motorcycles, but we went and met each other in meat/meet space. Many really did know each other around a campfire; mods were dear friends with the community in a space where they weren't mods. It was intimate in some ways. The difference there was that on the board it was a friggen free-for-all. Adventure motorcyclists like to push boundaries. When it came to the board people knew the mods intimately and didn't give a shit sometimes. People would post tits, and still doo, from time to time just to go on a little ban-hammer vacation. The rulz were lax, too. You could do pretty much anything but threaten the Prez or beat up someone's kin. It was a shit storm. There's a member here who knows and could chime in, if felt the need. Anyway, they saw me as an unattached entity who had the chops, given the postings, to be a mod. Putts might be able to come in and do shit we can't 'cuz nobody really knows theis dude up in Montana. So they made me a mod.
Holy smoke! It was like entering a new universe. It wasn't the change in authority though, it was the internal change I had to go through to take the position. All of a sudden I did have authority; what would I author into this community? That's a heavy responsibility. That changed me internally, I had to cope with the fact that every post had double weight because of it. People knew I was to be aware of; how do I speak to that?
I could tell you stories.
Bottom line: One mod dude from Texas said it best, "I was a better mod before I became a mod just by posting." It's true, when you're the cop, in many ways, you end up being less influential. IMHO, as a member you can say almost anything; as a mod, you can not. When you become a mod you have to speak for the board; as a member you get to speak for yourself. For me, it felt like I huge difference. For me it was a big price to pay. As Queen said, I would never do it again.
I need to add, however, it became to me incredably obvious how important mods were to the board. And even more obvious that some of then put in countless hours, hours I would never ever commit, into the work on the board. But I tell you, that board, ADVrider.com, is the best motorcycle board on the planet. And 20 people deliver a working resource for 300,000 people. A-mazing!
So, yeah, I sure hope I don't piss off the mods here for getting up close and personal, but this is a damned good forum. Thanks.
