Subj: The Need for a Chief Moderator/Administrator
Date: 9/23/2007 9:15:56 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time
From: WPraeder
To:

Bill,

We know your current plans are to provide a disconnect between the
Moderators and the FOC. The Moderator's would be empowered with full
moderating authority and sanctioning capability and the FOC would
become a body for hearing sanction appeals. We hope this will
eventually foster a more constructive environment where members can
interact with their leadership and discuss difficult issues.

Terry and I left the FOC to create an opportunity to rapidly
transition to this new structure and to give the Moderators some
unhindered practice at guiding the forums. We strongly urged you to
continue along the line of empowering the Moderators with strong
moderation powers backed by a revamped AUG. The key aspect of this
new structure is that it will focus on a simplified set of rules that
should not be further parsed below each complete thought. Under such a
system the Moderators are completely empowered to moderate the forums
without the need for interpretative intervention from outsiders. We
still believe we need to empower a Moderator like a sports referee. We
hope that by moving to a simpler system based on a proven and more
open model will improve our speed, consistency, and the enjoyment of
our guests. It is important to note that the USCF President has also
agreed with the suggestion that the Moderators be allowed to make
decisions and issue sanctions, with the FOC available to hear appeals
to these sanctions.

It is critically important that if someone is violating the AUG in his
or her forum conduct, it should be reported privately to the
Moderators, and the Moderators should act quietly, discretely, and
swiftly. The focus is to stop inappropriate use of forum resources
rather than trying to punish members. We can find no other successful
forum that uses the concept of the FOC with a committee structure to
interpret rules, debate sanctions, and publicly embarrass violators.

To be effective with this new structure it will be important not to
model the Moderators and their process like the FOC. Since not all
moderators will be experienced in forum administration and cyber law,
as any tricky situations arise where the Moderators can't agree on how
to handle it in a timely manner, you need an experienced Chief
Moderator/Administrator that can always step in to break the deadlock
and provide necessary guidance to both protect the organization while
enhancing the enjoyment of the forum guests. This supervision will
also serve to keep Moderator bias in check more effectively than just
relying on appeals to the FOC.

We need to think of our Moderators as forum hosts rather than
sheriffs. I hope we have learned from our previous experience and thus
I would strongly recommend we move to a referee model system rather
than a committee model system for moderation under the supervision of
a seasoned Chief Moderator/Administrator.

Regards,
Wayne Praeder