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Oh, I could so see this as a forum shirt!

HA! I think we have next year's Forum Shirt design!!!

And that's a really great idea, too. I love looking at maps, and getting to see where everyone is from beyond just knowing the country when they tell me is great.

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Do Good! (The Humanely, Humanitarian Environmental Forum)

I think Do-Gooders of the Galaxy would be a great name and reference to SG for that forum

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Science & Geeking Forum (The dGreek Forum?)

How about Geeking Out?

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It's not such a big issue if it's an outsider moderator who doesn't participate but if for current members I think some people may not be the best choice for a moderator but apply to be one just for the title and as someone else pointed out- to be closer to David.

And this would be why David would have the final say in the matter. Well, he does anyway, lol, but you know what I mean. I'm sure he'd be able to determine who's a freakfan and who legitimitely wants to help.

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This is not a dig at anyone in particular, I'm just noticing alot of new members or unknowns signing in, making comments and/or potentially thowing their name into the hate and it's quite a title for someone to blag about.

Totally understand, and agree. I don't personally want someone that we hardly know, who only signed up to post here about this, who hadn't been around long enough to prove themselves worthy to suddenly have that kind of power. It's unfair to those of us who do genuinely care about this place and deserve the role.

As for a separate account for anonymous mods, I don't think it would work very well. I've been on sites that have both options and much prefer the ones that have the mods/admins using their regular accounts to do their mod duties. As we've said, this is a family. We don't hide the faces of the parents when we're diciplining children, do we?

I've found that the boards with anonymous mods had less of that family feel than the ones with known mods do. Everyone here that is active is mature enough to know who the mods are and respect their decision. And on the flip side, anyone who is chosen to be a mod would be mature enough to not let things get out of hand either in the boards or in their power usage. In the case of dGeek, I just don't see the need to have anonymous mods or admins. It's like "Don't pay attention to the man behind the curtain." You know?

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But imho anonymity can give people a stalking horse for a power trip too. Well you can see it both ways. Thought I think it won't take too long to figure out the mods anyway. (at least the member/squirrel-mods)

Precisely what I was thinking. I just don't like not knowing who is in charge beyond "The Moderator." If I know who it is then I can ssay ya, this person earned it.

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Maybe it could be suggested that they're not allowed to disclose their identity as part of the job.

I'm sorry, but I think that's just taking things a little too far. It's not like this is some kind of ... strict boarding school or something. We're a family. Anonymizing those who are here to guide us is just not very ... dGeek in my opinion. Everyone here is very open about everything. Why should we be all hush hush about that?

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The only reason I bring this up is because there's a few forums I'm on and where the users are also mods, they can get really full of themselves. There is one forum I keep getting encouraged to participate in but I swear at the next event I see this girl (moderator) it'll take everything in my power not to slap her in the face and knock her down a few pegs . Because she is a moderator and a user, she becomes known and even worshipped as much as the real people the forum is for, and she milks it for all it's worth.

I seriously don't think we're in danger of that happening. I completely understand where you're coming from, I've been there before, and I've also left those sites for that reason. They weren't evne close to being what dGeek is.

And if, heaven forbid, that should happen, David would have every right to knock that person down a peg and de-Mod them. Or even ban them from the site.

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Put it this way - do you know all the names of your street cleaners or bin men?

Actually, I do. Course, the one we had for about two years was my brother in law, too. But Istill know the one we have now. And I live in an apartment building. He just comes to get the dumsters emptied. But I've still talked to him, know his name. And to further that, when I was doing motel cleaning, I had a lot of customers that wanted to know who their room attendants were. For what reason doesn't matter.

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And the moderators for a time zone should understand the differences in expressions, say for the way a European poster would say something as opposed to the way I, being from the Southern USA, might say it.

Oh, good point! Having gotten used to different expressions from all over the world a lon time ago (I love languages, I like to s tudy these kinds of things), I don't even pay attention to it anymore because I know what the person is saying.