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In the Name of God بسم الله

Moderator Election Campaign Week

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  • Site Administrators
Posted

Salams All

A big thanks to all who made an effort to nominate suitable candidates. 

We will now commence 'election campaign' in which you can ask questions from the candidates and the candidates get the opportunity to explain why they are suitable for this role. 

Let's make it interesting but civil. Kindly avoid personal or offensive questions/remarks/comments.

Good luck to the nominees. Let the show begin :D

Regards

Abbas

  • Chatroom Moderators
Posted (edited)

You can only nominate one? :(

 

Well, I can't say much about the others, as I don't know them well, but I'm sure Khadim would make a fine mod. I hope that this ends up being another step in a series of steps taken by some of the team to improve and strengthen SC. 

 

 

Cake, You're already a mod, a chat mod. Do you agree that we're all power hungry to an extent?

 

"It is a curious thing, Harry, but perhaps those who are best suited to power are those who have never sought it.  Those who, like you, have leadership thrust upon them, and take up the mantle because they must, and find to their own surprise that they wear it well."

Edited by Cake
  • Site Administrators
Posted

Starlight, if you are involved in a heated debate and your opponent writes some border line inappropriate comment (grey area), what would you do? Issue a warning or something else? Please provide reasons :D

  • Site Administrators
Posted

This is a question to all candidates. Who ever answers this has my special blessings. 

 

If a member with 3 warnings (poor history) contacts you with a serious accusation against me (or any other admin) how will you deal with the case being the "people's representative"?

Posted

Starlight, if you are involved in a heated debate and your opponent writes some border line inappropriate comment (grey area), what would you do? Issue a warning or something else? Please provide reasons :D

Annihilate him/her from the face of the earth?? :rolleyes: :p :p

I would remind the poster that he/she is going into dangerous territory.

I probably won't issue a warning if we were the only two persons in the debate. If there are other members actively involved in the debate and his remarks are directed at them too then most likely he/she will get a warning . Also I would take into consideration the the poster's past behaviour. Someone who has a history of inappropriate and rude behaviour will probably be dealt with more strictly.

This is a question to all candidates. Who ever answers this has my special blessings. 

 

If a member with 3 warnings (poor history) contacts you with a serious accusation against me (or any other admin) how will you deal with the case being the "people's representative"?

Being the people's representative I would hear his side of the story,stay unbiased, talk to the admin and try to resolve it.

If that fails I might have to involve other members of the team.

If all fails....... Run to sis Hameeedeh :p

I hope by special blessings you meant 10 extra votes.

Guest silasun
Posted

This is a question to all candidates. Who ever answers this has my special blessings. 

 

If a member with 3 warnings (poor history) contacts you with a serious accusation against me (or any other admin) how will you deal with the case being the "people's representative"?

 

 

I would ask them to provide evidence for what they have accused you of. If they don't provide evidence and it is slander then I would refer to the "moderator handbook" of how to deal with it, which is surely going to be a ban. Obviously Muslims never stand for slander.

 

But if there is reason to believe what they say then I would follow it up and ask the admin about it. Perhaps we can use the mod forum to find a good solution to the problem if there is any bad behaviour on your behalf

 

A more fitting reply could be: Shout Naraay Haidari and aid the slander ;) , lol

 

 

 

  • Veteran Member
Posted (edited)

Let's make ShiaChat great again.

 

So, you took that hallowed slogan for yourself, then? :P

 

 

This is a question to all candidates. Who ever answers this has my special blessings. 

 

If a member with 3 warnings (poor history) contacts you with a serious accusation against me (or any other admin) how will you deal with the case being the "people's representative"?

 

It's pretty boilerplate stuff, I'd say. Given the number of people asking for banned members to be brought back, I'm assuming I'd have to deal with this more than once.

 

As for how I'd deal with it, I think the answer will be common across all of us. According to the rules, I'm supposed to be strict, I suppose, and maybe even go for a ban given their history. Being the 'people's representative', however - and because I'm nice! :P - I'd try to defuse the situation. I'd ask for proof, then contact the accused party and hear their side of the story, go back to try and see the posts in question and try to come to a judgement. If I can't make up my mind due to a lack of information/data, I would ask another moderator to step in and give their opinion. If either side still doesn't seem to have the moral high ground, well, I'd want both parties to just drop it, if possible. If not, I'd let him go with a stern warning for now and keep an eye on their profile, and my hand on the trigger finger.

 

EDIT: Of course, the reaction also depends on exactly what this 'serious accusation' is. Are we just talking about members who are disgruntled with a recent ban or is it something more sinister?

Edited by Khadim uz Zahra
  • Veteran Member
Posted (edited)

Salam, question for all. What will you do personally to encourage more people to join this forum, and also to encourage more participation and interaction on the forums from all members?

 

I suppose one thing would be to, as I've said before, be a little more lenient with bans. The mods already are very fair in my opinion but the lack of people like ImAli, despite however controversial they may have been, is certainly showing on this forum. We have, to put it bluntly, too clean a forum. Without people like that, we wouldn't have the Feminist Fitnah or the Waqifi Wars that we saw before and, without those, forum has certainly become less appealing.

 

I can't do this myself but someone talked about advertising the forum on other sites. That would also be a very good way of doing things.

 

The biggest problem with the forum, as I see it, is that we have a lot of people consuming content but not enough people creating it - i.e. too many guests who don't register. So, we need to find ways of enticing them to register. That can be through taking away functionality if you don't register - I know, it's a bit harsh - so that they'll go through the hoops of creating a free profile. Another thing would be holding AMA style sessions so you have to register if you want the visiting scholar to answer your questions, for example. Once these guests have created an account, hopefully they'll stick around (I know I did).

 

We could also do partnerships with sites like theshiapedia.com or any other sites who provide detailed information about Shi'i belief, more of a publication than a forum. We provide a community here, yes, but what those users who are looking at thousands of articles about Shi'ism daily but just don't know about us? By partnering with such sites, we have a better chance of exposing them to the forum, of providing them a place to discuss all that information they just digested, and hopefully this will net us some new members.

 

Salam all and congrats for your nomination.

Why do you want to be a mod?

 

Because the e-power is entoxicting.

Edited by Khadim uz Zahra
  • Forum Administrators
Posted

I suppose one thing would be to, as I've said before, be a little more lenient with bans. The mods already are very fair in my opinion but the lack of people like ImAli, despite however controversial they may have been, is certainly showing on this forum. We have, to put it bluntly, too clean a forum. Without people like that, we wouldn't have the Feminist Fitnah or the Waqifi Wars that we saw before and, without those, forum has certainly become less appealing.

 

 

Would you have any red lines beyond which someone would be banned and what would they be?

Guest silasun
Posted

We need somebody in here to do commentary as if it's a Formula One race...

 

 

And magma gets off the line with a wonderful start.... Silasun takes a pit stop with a punctured tire on the first lap... :(


How would you make the chatroom active again?

 

 

Bring back Al-mufeed!  Oh, and fix the darn Naraaay Haidary emoticon.............

  • Forum Administrators
Posted

My proposals:

1. Consolidate similar threads into larger threads for easier accessibility.

2. More creative and strategic pinning of threads

3. Contests, games, puzzles

4. Have an honorary member of the week to make everyone feel special

5. I will personally drive discussions and make sure they stay interesting

6. Bring back interview threads (could be with honorary member)

7. Arrange times for live chatting or Skype

8. I would also be lenient on banning.

9. I will work hard and be on as often as possible

  • Advanced Member
Posted

oh and all of you nominees, do you think you could persuade/pressurize/harass whoever is responsible for fixing the emoticons into actually putting an effort and doing so? 

Guest silasun
Posted (edited)

Thanks for your question and we're going to make ShiaChat great again. I would demand evidence and references of concurrence by others, with the burden of proof on the accuser. If I'm not satisfied, they will face the big beautiful firewall I'm going to create. Of course there is a large door of mercy for those who are legitimate. You need someone with energy and judgment to make these calls. Let's make ShiaChat great again.

 

magma, you snake. Stop Trumping your way to victory :P .... What next, you start giving gifts to whoever votes for you :/

 

Reminds of this Arthur episode, from 8:44 ish:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkFdVbf8rUs

 

I feel like Arthur

Edited by silasun
  • Veteran Member
Posted

Would you have any red lines beyond which someone would be banned and what would they be?

 

To be honest, I think that if I was a mod, and was aware of all the details behind the scenes, I would probably do all the same things as you guys. The 'people' often think that those with power are somehow abusing it and, when the get it themselves, end up doing the same because, well, they now see things from the same perspective. I've always maintained that the mods are very fair and don't ban indiscriminately whenever a thread saying the opposite has come up.

 

Still, you can't deny that people like ImAli gave a spark, a sense of controversy to the overall discussions on the forum that we are just lacking today. Which is why I would want rules to become a little more lax than they currently are. For example, one of the things I wasn't really not happy with was how MacIsaac was stripped of his powers and left (whether it was his own decision or because he was forced or because he was being treated unfairly, I honestly don't know). He was one of the people who started conversations, and who encouraged people to participate. Now that people like that are gone, we have current members asking people like me what we'd do to solve this problem.

 

My red line would simply be that people maintain a certain level of respect. I wasn't a fan of ImAli and she was often borderline rude to people but she wasn't that bad - or, for that matter, Waiting for HIM (I'm using the two as examples because they are some of the most prolific members that were banned). Then again, I didn't get a notification every time she did something wrong like you do.

Posted

Salam, question for all. What will you do personally to encourage more people to join this forum, and also to encourage more participation and interaction on the forums from all members?

I made a post here (#96)

http://www.shiachat.com/forum/topic/235029303-more-guests-less-members/page-4

where I suggested that it would probably be a good idea to make some areas of SC members only access. e.g 'hot threads' spanning multiple pages. That would definitely get more people to register.

We can do a Q&A thread where we can choose one popular member per week and all the others can ask random fun questions which he/she will have to answer. A light hearted interview kind of a thing,overseen by mods of course.

There is so much useful information available on SC, both on Islamic history and Fiqh which is sometimes difficult to access quickly because its scattered all over,some buried under a zillion threads, interrupted by off topic posts. I think it would be great if we can get some interested members involved and compile it into a few sticky threads . The members would of course get the due credit for their hard work.

  • Forum Administrators
Posted (edited)

I wasn't a fan of ImAli and she was often borderline rude to people but she wasn't that bad - or, for that matter, Waiting for HIM (I'm using the two as examples because they are some of the most prolific members that were banned). Then again, I didn't get a notification every time she did something wrong like you do.

 

I note that my warnings to ImAli were because she had been suggesting fairly graphic sexual violence against men she was disagreeing with.

 

Would you have had a limit as to the number of warnings issued (in that instance or any other) or not?

Edited by Haji 2003
  • Veteran Member
Posted (edited)

I note that my warnings to ImAli were because she had been suggesting fairly graphic sexual violence against men she was disagreeing with.

 

Like I've said, I don't know everything that happens. In this case, like I've said in the previous post, I'd do the exact same thing. Sexual and vulgar content is definitely at the top of my list of 'red lines'.

 

I'll give you the example of this guy called Ahlulbayt, who was banned maybe 4 years ago. He was an extremely liberal member and, due to this, most of the mods had become antagonistic toward him. I was new to the forum, then, and defended him in the name of inclusion. A few days later, I found pictures on his Facebook account of naked women with pro-Shi'a slogans on them being used as memes! (I don't know why anyone would want to do something that perverted.) I instantly wanted him banned.

 

Still, taking someone like MacIsaac, we can't say that he had the same problem, can we? I don't know how, but we do need to find a way of somehow integrating the more 'enthusiastic' members like her and Maula Dha Mallang and Mac and others, who don't always toe the party line, someway of keeping them in the fold but also not disregarding our rules. How we do that, I don't know but this is definitely a growing problem on the forum.

Edited by Khadim uz Zahra
  • Forum Administrators
Posted (edited)

For example, one of the things I wasn't really not happy with was how MacIsaac was stripped of his powers and left (whether it was his own decision or because he was forced or because he was being treated unfairly, I honestly don't know). 

 

IIRC he had the good sense to de-Admin himself when he could not longer publicly claim to be a 12er Shia, which is one of the requirements for the post.

 

I liked MDM a lot and had off-board exchanges with him, but again there were repeated transgressions.

 

I think there is a well-known anecdote about the famous cricket player W.G. Grace which sums up the situation perfectly:

 

Though notionally an amateur, Grace knew his worth and made sure he was paid it. Stories of his cheating have endured too: "They came to see me bat, not you umpire," he supposedly said once, when given out lbw. But these tales came from exhibition matches when he was telling the truth. Everyone did come to see him bat. And we go on watching cricket in the hope of seeing another like him.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/440091.html

 

There are some posters here (and on other sites I visit) who know quite well and quite correctly that they draw an audience and often it can be too tempting to push the boundaries and that is why we often lose some of the most popular people.

 

 

Edited by Haji 2003
  • Veteran Member
Posted

IIRC he had the good sense to de-Admin himself when he could not longer publicly claim to be a 12er Shia, which is one of the requirements for the post.

 

That's one of the other things I'd love to change. I didn't mention it in Abbas' previous thread but when we're considering a moderator position, I don't see why we need a 12er Shi'a. It's not like we're making them an admin. And, there'd be 20 other mods and admins who'd be there to correct any mistakes they made. If we want more people to participate, we need to broaden the range of discussions. I used to be a very active member but, honestly, I've stopped posting a lot because it's just all the same stuff being repeated daily. If we can change the rules and let Christianlady or LeftCoastMom become a candidate, I'll even drop out because that is one way, an important way, of keeping the forum alive. If we had a non-Muslim on the moderating team, this American Hindu we used to have before (who was also very active but whose name I can't remember) would may not be banned today. We need to have more controversial voices, and we need to be accepting of a broader range of opinions, if we want to engage the normal users and having an outsider on the mod team would be a perfect way of doing that.

  • Development Team
Posted

I voted for starlight, she is smart, calm and level-headed and plus as said earlier, if the going gets tough for her, she will refer to sis Hameedeh, which I think is a very wise decision. I think that she will most likely do many of the same proposals that Magma said.

  • Forum Administrators
Posted

I am against illegal users, and we need leaders smarter than them. I only want legal members. Banned numbers will never see the light of day with my IP address viewing skills. I can talk with them behind the scenes and assess their sincerity and discuss reinstatement.

  • Veteran Member
Posted

I am against illegal users, and we need leaders smarter than them. I only want legal members. Banned numbers will never see the light of day with my IP address viewing skills. I can talk with them behind the scenes and assess their sincerity and discuss reinstatement.

 

Do you think we should build a giant firewall around ShiaChat?

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