- Admin
- #1
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- 3,422
- Reaction score
- 2,772
- Location
- Fayetteville, AR
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- SKYWARN® Volunteer
Over the last few days I have been plugging away at securing the forum and a lot of backend work that is normally done well in advance of a forum launch. However, I felt it important to get the forum back online as soon as possible. In the mess of notes during the past few days one was to make a formal notification of our administrator and moderator teams and explain their duties.
First, I want to take a moment to thank several of you that have reached out to offer your services. We have been able to retain the full team that was on the old site with two additions. A site as great as TalkWeather doesn't operate well when forum users feel intimidated or unfairly treated. I've never heard a complaint about any of the members of the administration or moderating team I'm about to introduce, so I feel we are in good hands.
Our administrator team is responsible for the site as a whole including the configuration and monitoring of the server, firewall and site configuration. Sounds easy but it is actually quite complicated when you factor in member groups, ever growing databases and the constant threat of SQL injection and DDOS attacks. With that in mind we haven't changed much in this area.
Administrators:
@WesL , @Jack Watkins , @Mike S and introducing @greenem81 .
Jack and Mike have held this role for a while now and have done an excellent job of it in the past and have already picked up the new backend administrator control panel like pros. I'm also pleased to bring in my best friend and long time lurker @greenem81 as an additional administrator as well. He and I have known each other for over 30 years and I feel he will be a great addition to our team.
Our moderation team are really the people on the front line. They serve as the backbone of the site and work to make everyone feel welcome and at home here at TalkWeather. I knew as soon as I came on board I wanted to keep the same team if possible. We reached out to each of them and thankfully they agreed to come back to their former roles.
Moderators:
@Brent , @Lori , @StormStalker , @Tyler Penland
With myself included, we now have a total of 8 people keeping watch on the forum with 170 users. As I have told several of you we are implementing a ratio of moderators to users to help us gauge our moderation needs. At this point we do not expect to add any additional moderation staff until we reach 500 users. For some that may seem really far off but I feel we will grow quickly over the next few weeks. I will also note that we will have other opportunities for helping the forum come open.
When the time does come to add an additional moderator, an announcement will be made in the Special Notice forum. Nominations (including self-nominations) will be accepted for a period of 5 days via a process that will be defined at that time. Our current staff will also be asked to nominate based on their interactions with users and provide input on the nominations received. Once the nominations have been compiled, the Administration team will consider all the nominations and select our new moderator.
If you read my first message in the facebook group, I offered to buy the site and wanted to work to do some cool things with it. I never expected it to be handed over to me and my plans haven't changed. Short term and long term planning are already underway and we hope to have some new features online in the coming weeks and months. I hope that I have built your trust with having the site back online and stable so fast and while we still have a few fires in the background, I feel that the TW administrator and moderator teams along with all of you that have come back to the site have built a great foundation to build on.
Finally, please feel free to reach out to me night or day with any suggestions, ideas or concerns you may have. I typically answer private messages within an hour or so. If you need to discuss anything urgent please feel free to use the Contact Us link at the bottom of each page or reach out to any of the team.
Thanks again for growing with us and I look forward to the future of TalkWeather.com.
WesL
First, I want to take a moment to thank several of you that have reached out to offer your services. We have been able to retain the full team that was on the old site with two additions. A site as great as TalkWeather doesn't operate well when forum users feel intimidated or unfairly treated. I've never heard a complaint about any of the members of the administration or moderating team I'm about to introduce, so I feel we are in good hands.
Our administrator team is responsible for the site as a whole including the configuration and monitoring of the server, firewall and site configuration. Sounds easy but it is actually quite complicated when you factor in member groups, ever growing databases and the constant threat of SQL injection and DDOS attacks. With that in mind we haven't changed much in this area.
Administrators:
@WesL , @Jack Watkins , @Mike S and introducing @greenem81 .
Jack and Mike have held this role for a while now and have done an excellent job of it in the past and have already picked up the new backend administrator control panel like pros. I'm also pleased to bring in my best friend and long time lurker @greenem81 as an additional administrator as well. He and I have known each other for over 30 years and I feel he will be a great addition to our team.
Our moderation team are really the people on the front line. They serve as the backbone of the site and work to make everyone feel welcome and at home here at TalkWeather. I knew as soon as I came on board I wanted to keep the same team if possible. We reached out to each of them and thankfully they agreed to come back to their former roles.
Moderators:
@Brent , @Lori , @StormStalker , @Tyler Penland
With myself included, we now have a total of 8 people keeping watch on the forum with 170 users. As I have told several of you we are implementing a ratio of moderators to users to help us gauge our moderation needs. At this point we do not expect to add any additional moderation staff until we reach 500 users. For some that may seem really far off but I feel we will grow quickly over the next few weeks. I will also note that we will have other opportunities for helping the forum come open.
When the time does come to add an additional moderator, an announcement will be made in the Special Notice forum. Nominations (including self-nominations) will be accepted for a period of 5 days via a process that will be defined at that time. Our current staff will also be asked to nominate based on their interactions with users and provide input on the nominations received. Once the nominations have been compiled, the Administration team will consider all the nominations and select our new moderator.
If you read my first message in the facebook group, I offered to buy the site and wanted to work to do some cool things with it. I never expected it to be handed over to me and my plans haven't changed. Short term and long term planning are already underway and we hope to have some new features online in the coming weeks and months. I hope that I have built your trust with having the site back online and stable so fast and while we still have a few fires in the background, I feel that the TW administrator and moderator teams along with all of you that have come back to the site have built a great foundation to build on.
Finally, please feel free to reach out to me night or day with any suggestions, ideas or concerns you may have. I typically answer private messages within an hour or so. If you need to discuss anything urgent please feel free to use the Contact Us link at the bottom of each page or reach out to any of the team.
Thanks again for growing with us and I look forward to the future of TalkWeather.com.
WesL
