How to become a Moderator in SDN Forums

[jignesh_mehta3]

Hello All,

When does one qualify to become a moderator in SDN Forums?

Thanks,

Jignesh

[former_member183164]

I wants to be a SAP Moderator for ABAP.

Whats the procedure for that?

[former_member183424]

In MM space, there are 5 moderators.

But I can see only two moderators are active members.

As Jurgen Sir is not there, so I think Jyoti sir is cleaning the garbage and I am the mediator to pass the garbage to Jyoti sir via alert moderator .

Can you believe I have pressed the button "Alert Moderator" more than 100 times in these 2-3 days.

[jignesh_mehta3]

Hello Dev,

I do that regularly, even when I am not actively replying to questions on Forum, I make a point to report the posts.

I feel that is the minimum we can do to keep this wonderful space clean.

Thanks,

Jignesh Mehta

[former_member182378]

Dev,

You pressed alert moderator a 100 times in 2-3 days!

Could you please explain the reasons? (type of posts etc.)

[former_member183424]

3 reasons.

1. Basic questions

2. Replied an old thread

3. Wrong space.

And the happiest thing is that, my all abuses are approved by moderator .

[Former Member]

All your abuse reports, not all your abuses.

[former_member183424]

Yes yes. My abuse reports.

[Jelena]

Dëv Päträ wrote:

2. Replied an old thread

And this is posted in 2014 as a reply to the 2010 discussion. Hmm... "Some animals are more equal"?

[Former Member]

Glad the irony wasn't wasted just on me...

[BenedictV]

One more entry to 'Funny posts/threads' discussion

[former_member182378]

Jelena,

You came and hit the ball out of the park!

12 likes...and growing....

[Former Member]

@JIGN: MATT is becoming a moderator of your personal life too....as he made you happy with his "Little joke" mail

What a marvelous work he is doing....

Regards,

Nick Loy

[matt]

Just call me "Big Brother"

😮 eek

[Former Member]

[Brother Bear|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brother_Bear]

[matt]

I was thinking more of [this |http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Brother_%28Nineteen_Eighty-Four%29]guy.

[jignesh_mehta3]

Thank you all...

I will wait for a email "Welome to SDN Forums as Moderators"

Thanks,

Jignesh Mehta

[OttoGold]

It is 1st of June today. Please share the news with us when the email comes. I wonder how long does it take to get such email.

Otto

[matt]

Watch this space...

[jignesh_mehta3]

Hey Otto,

Today is 1st of June & I have received the "Welcome to SDN Forums as Moderator" today itself...

But before you raise your eyebrows, this email was sent by Matt "Little Joke"... .

That was nice Matt...

Thanks,

Jignesh Mehta

[former_member184555]

I appreciate your sentiments, saslove. But a certain level of knowledge is needed 
to correctly judge postings.

Currently the moderation is majorly on enforcing the rules and I never observed moderation on the content of the posting. We need SMEs(Subject Matter Experts) in the forums (like Moderators) who should look into the content randomly, correct it if required and keep the quality of forums. There should not be any threads with zero replies. Either they should be locked(if not eligible for replies like FAQ etc.,) or should be answered. The SMEs should take the responsibility if no body is replying to those orphan threads.

I completely agree with SAS that the best of the members should not be made as moderators. The number and quality(replying to tough issues) of replies are definitely not as before. Earlier they even use to spend some time to research and post their replies to help the people. Now the time may not permit them to do so. Though I cannot generalise this, it happens with many moderators.

[OttoGold]

Then introduce a SME (subject matter expert) status and you will get plenty of em. One needs to have a goal that can be achieved (what is not a moderator or a mentor status) and will probably work hard to get there. Otto

p.s.: read through this thread: and support the ideas you like and don´t fortget to add yours.

Edited by: Otto Gold on May 21, 2010 9:43 AM

[former_member184119]

>

> Then introduce a SME (subject matter expert) status and you will get plenty of em. 
> 
> Edited by: Otto Gold on May 21, 2010 9:43 AM

Thats really Super IDEA Ravi & Otto.......Its like a recognisation where more talented people will follow through this PIPE LINE ...

I asked few people about the contributions in SDN who are working since 10 years..They just simply asked what will I get....

i Dont have a perfect reply "We dont have gifts, we can't assure them they will become moderators"...But this one Yes if some one is really doing good JOB they need to recognized Community wise which will help them for personal carrer also....We need to Keep levels so that we dont miss the RAPO ......

Cleaning the Forum upto date deleting threads , warning people ..I dont think its a CUP OF TEA for a experty..he can spend time in sharing , helping , improvizing the answers .....

.I am sorry if it sounds odd but as MATT said its not sentiments but its some sort of belief with some people I dont forgot the way you guided for me for OOPS Matt, and Thomas has almost replies for my threads with improvizing answers ( Although I got answer he always suggest the best ).

Ssa

Edited by: saslove sap on May 21, 2010 9:55 AM

[matt]

I barely get to spend any time on the forums nowadays. Too busy in the real world keeping my clients happy. So when I have the chance, I tend to moderate. However, I think I've neglected the other side of being a member, so I hereby promise to spend at least half my forum time looking at issues.

Trouble is, when I scan through a forum, if I see bad subjects, FAQ, requests for pinots, suddenly - I'm moderating again!

[Former Member]

There is no process for this, it is a journey

As a general recommendation, if you are active in a forum or wiki or blog area and the SAP Product Managers take note of you and want help then you are on the right track. It also depends on the product and therefore forum area.

Originally I contacted folks in SAP Product Management about moderating because I wanted to improve forum quality, which was unprofessional bla-bla-bla guess-work and points-gaming sometimes (particularly in the quality of the questions, which infected the answers).

Going to TechEd's and being active with the application area support via service.sap.com etc does not help at all if you target it, but does help a lot if you have real opinions and issues to take up with SAP and can talk with them about it on the same "code page". They get to know you.

If you do more than just answer questions in the forums (e.g. with links, etc) but rather engage in interesting discussions, defuse tricky ones, provide appropriate insights (this is some calling which you have deep inside you and needs to be cultivated) - then you can simply do that which comes naturally to get there on SDN, but it might take some time if no one notices (like all other humble tasks on earth... :-).

May I ask what it is you want to change or improve on SDN or a specific forum? Sometimes a small minority of abusers just need someone to take care of them...

Cheers,

Julius

[jignesh_mehta3]

Hello Julius,

Good to see your post.

See I belong to Sales & Distribution forum & I see that now-a-days comstantly repeated questions are asked which are probably answered hundred of times.

Also there is no recognization of the regular contributors & people are taking the contributors for granted...

Thus I felt that I could contribute being a moderator...

Thanks,

Jignesh Mehta

[OttoGold]

Also there is no recognization of the regular contributors & people are taking the contributors for granted... 

That is what I don´t like! For granted! If anybody could come up with a solution for this, I would really apprecaite that, because that is not anybody´s obligation to help the cheeky and lazy... Otto

[former_member184555]

Also there is no recognization of the regular contributors & 
people are taking the contributors for granted...

What kind of recognition you are looking for? If the OP is not recognising your efforts or not respecting the help extended, then stop replying to the threads raised by those kind of people. It is the peoblem with their behaviour and cannot be changed with moderation of forums. The regular members will always have an idea about regular contributors based on their level of contribution. If the contributions are limited to standard, regular, simple questions, then the respect/recognition will be less. If the contribution is limited for complex scenarios, critical issues, logical issues, unanswered questions etc, then the respect will be very very high. The recognition/respect is never directly proportional to the total points or the posts-points ratio.

Thus I felt that I could contribute being a moderator... 

Clicking the ABUSE button is also a kind of moderation (but with no powers). This way we can contribute for keeping the forums in a good shape.

Not every moderator is doing justice for their moderatorship. Few are spending more time (at the expense of their personal life also) and few are never visible in forums. I say this becasue, Sales and Distribution has four moderators and only one moderator is active and I never see two of them any time in the forums and one has become inactive one and half years back. If they are doing other works, then these people can be replaced with active and interested members.

[Lakshmipathi]

Sales and Distribution has four moderators and only one moderator
      is active and I never see two of them any time in the forums

Hopefully it is not me one of those two moderators

It is a fact that till mid of 2009, I could spare time 4 to 5 hours daily in sales forum and I could contribute more quality suggestions as much as I can but after that, literally, I am over loaded with my employer and I have to sit late night to monitor the sales forum. Though I have to sacrifice my sleep to some extent, I feel some satisfaction in moving the forum in a healthy manner.

In fact, you wont be surprised, couple of years back, I had nominated your name to become as a Moderator and I am not sure on the outcome.

thanks

G. Lakshmipathi

[former_member184555]

When I checked the list of forum moderators for SD, I am surprised to see four members. They are.,

1. Martina McElwain

2. Yathish Kumar

3. Amber Naseer

4. G. Lakshmipathi

Lakshmipathi is the only active moderator in SD forum and the other three are not seen moderating the forums. Yatish Kumar was active till mid 2008. I am not aware of inactive moderators of other forums in that big list. The SCN Community management should reveal the reasons for continuing these inactive moderators. If members from other forums also posts the list of inactive moderators, the management may think about changing them.

There are many members in SD forums who are far better than me and I never considered myself eligible to become a moderator. I cannot do community service (non billable) beyond a certain extent, sacrificing other things. Moderators should have lot of patience and sometimes they should be ready to face public criticism questioning their actions (happened many times).

[Former Member]

You should see what goes on in ERP MM and AA...

Best and fastest help to SDN is to use the Abuse Reports. Be level headed, catch ponits-gamers, spammers, etc. That is anyway the hardwork part of active moderation so that others dont even get to see it and if you cannot get it that way then answering easy questions is not sustainable either...

Additionally, good contact to SAP Product Management and Global Active Support helps if they are active themselves on SDN. SAP looks there first for moderators, which might explain some people who like to go to meetings...

Links to SPRO paths is not really my thing, so I am out of my league from this point onwards...

Cheers,

Julius

[marilyn_pratt]

This thread has so many topics, I'll need to try to be very specific about which of these threads inside of threads I'm addressing.

Let me start with the problem of "inactive" moderators which Ravi particularly highlights.

Gali (and in the past Craig) kept a list of over 650 moderators for the various topics. Moderators for the most part were SAP employees but about 50 of the 650 folks moderating were non-SAP folks who by merit of their active contributions or by nomination from an SAP employee or nomination by other members of the forum in a particular topic were asked to be a moderator. Moderators submitted a request form and were accredited by topic experts or other SAP contributors.

In the case of SD for example, 2 of the four names I see on the list are from SAP's support group and are employees. If they are "outdated" or inactive, Gali will need to ascertain that with her ERP resource and they should be removed or prodded into activity and/or replaced.

As you can well imagine, keeping track of 650 or more moderators to ensure their "activity" is a pretty daunting task and it is through your comments and suggestions about their levels of activity that we can quality check as we are not subject experts in your individual forum areas: you are.

One another theme here, I agree with those that posted (albeit with a bit of sarcastic humor) that the role of moderator is not so much an acknowledgement and recognition of talents but a challenging chore. And we certainly salute those who enter the coliseum (you know like the gladiators) to fight the good fight of keeping things useful and clean here.

Now if that chore negatively impacts good contribution abilities of the same gladiators, that really should be examined. But I also see a very positive outcome of stepping aside to moderate and contribute less directly and that is that a number of those moderators are actively helping to create new "stars" by encouraging and highlighting and promoting the good activity of others. In other words, they help create new "top topic contributors". And if they aren't doing that, they should be because moderation isn't just about policing; its also about encouraging others.

[OttoGold]

As you  can well imagine, keeping track of 650 or more moderators to ensure their "activity" is a pretty daunting task

In fact, the machines can do this for us, right? What means: if you have the hidden functionality for the moderators, and I believe there is something hidden, not for the ordinary people, one more tab, where one can see the list of the moderators sorted by their last contribution/ active moderation is a simple report. It is like a day of work (I believe) and hard to believe you don´t have such thing yet.

Otto

p.s. and of course the people on the "top" will be fired:))))

Edited by: Otto Gold on May 25, 2010 8:43 AM

[former_member46]

Thank you Marilyn for sharing this thread. I haven't been a coffee corner regular for a while... there aren't enough hours in the day...

Thank you Jignesh for bringing up the topic. In the future if someone is worried about the quality of a certain forum moderation please don't hesitate to reach out to me directly.

I can promise that I am following up in this matter as we actually have more than 4 people who are supposed to be moderating the SD forum. The problem with our public moderator lists is that they are not always maintained properly. Each new moderator is supposed to add his/her name independently and remove it when they are no longer active and this is sadly, not always done.

Regarding moderator qualities, Thomas provided sound advice. SME, who makes use of the abuse system, contributes, shows community spirit etc. Of course these are the types of people we look for when a moderator is required.

Otto you brought up what each one of use wishes, to be recognized for our contributions. However I agree with Ravi that active members are recognized in the sense that they 'build' their name. Certain people are 'stars' in their areas because they are willing to help and are very knowledgeable. They might not be top contributors or mentors, many times they become moderators but not always. Still community members know who they are. They are respected and consulted. They are appreciated greatly by those they help. This is true community spirit in my eyes.

Gali

[OttoGold]

Each new moderator is supposed to add his/her name independently and remove it when they are no longer active and this is sadly, not always done.

I don´t understand. I am sure you can clarify. When I see a moderator, I can recognize him/ her by a M flag next to the name. That means there is a clear evidence (in the database) that one is a moderator. Then, a list of moderators, does NOT have to be maintained manually. It is just another "report". That means, with my message for Marilyn above, that you can ask your developers to build two simple reports for you (and us) to ease our lives.

Otto

[former_member184119]

>

> p.s. and of course the people on the "top" will be fired:))))
> Edited by: Otto Gold on May 25, 2010 8:43 AM

Hmm ..I believe this is a BAD move ......Some one who has recongnized by his contributions shouldn't be treadted badly ....

1) You can send E-mail to the persons on the TOP-LIST (Otto code + Email funcitonality to the report ) just a message about this , or information that they are our of scope from long time....and ask them to suggest some one on behalf of them ...

2)or else You can always keep a window period like 1 year such as renewing the Moderator .....

But finally the spirit should be maintained ..

Sas

[OttoGold]

The part about "getting fired" was a joke! Of course I would never treat anybody in that way. I wanted to point out, that it is a simple report that could ease the moderator "status" check. You can send the email yourself, you can create a rule so the machine will send the email for you, but that is NOT important. The IMPORTANT part is the one about MACHINE can DO this FOR US. I am sorry, if i used inappropriate words or something, I didn´t mean any offense.

Otto

[matt]

I spend a lot of time working through abuse reports. If I reject, approve or delete a post, as far as I know, there is no record that it was me wot dunnit. ( I think moderation should be transparent, so when I reject or delete (unless overwhelmed by quantity, which happens quite a lot), then I do usually give the member some kind of notification - either editing the post before rejection, or sending them a message). Only if I edit a post, or reply with my "mod" hat on, (perhaps I should sign such posts mâtt, to show I've got my hat on), while my contribution be recorded.

(hmm, if mâtt means I've got my moderator hat on, what would mätt, màtt, mátt or mãtt mean?)

[OttoGold]

mätt, màtt, mátt or mãtt

Lycanthropy?

[OttoGold]

From my point of view, this repeated questions has some deeper meaning/ value. I have seen the question few times and in my opinion people ask how to become some "recognized/ appreciated/ not-standard" members of the Community. For some people the points are not important but such status would be. I can understand that and feel in very direction.

It is almost impossible to become a Moderator or a Mentor, when one wants to (typical case).

And if one doesn´t want to or doesn´t have time to become a top contributor, then remains an "ordinary member" forever. Despite the contributions, these people don´t get anything back (of course we learn through answering and stuff, but you can probably understand).

Regards Otto

[ThomasZloch]

It sure is more work and less time for actually answering questions, points to post ratio going down significantly, whether that matters or not. You will also be called dictator, people will not agree with your actions, etc.

In my case, I was consistently using the abuse report systems and refraining from answering the "bad questions" (unless sarcastically) until I was asked by email if I want to become moderator in the ABAP forums.

I believe when the SCN administrators think that additional moderation in some forum is required, they will ask among moderators who they think would be suitable for the "job", and surprisingly my name fell on this occasion.

So, keep contributing, care about forum quality, use the abuse button, don't answer lazy, blunt or easily searchable questions, and see what happens

Oh yes, you want to be a subject matter expert in your moderation area as well.

Thomas

[matt]

To become a moderator, you have to have done something really bad in a former life. And be a megalomaniac in this.

[former_member184119]

After Becoming Moderators I feel I really lost the guidance from above 2 people Thomas , Matt

PS: Both of them are from my domain :)...

To much knowledgable persons should given Moderator power for quality but shouldn't ask them to Moderate forum and put their efforts(Time) in things which common people can also do

Sas

Edited by: saslove sap on May 20, 2010 12:00 PM

[matt]

I appreciate your sentiments, saslove. But a certain level of knowledge is needed to correctly judge postings.

[OttoGold]

I believe you cannot apply for the job. You must be awarded with such honor. Otto