Moderators and Commerce........A Conflict of Interest?

[jam]

It seems that to become a moderator lately, you have to actively selling some kind of product on the forum and filling it with large number of pictures and verbiage of you wares...................to make a buck the guilty parties are crowding out useful informative (learning) threads with pages of crap about things like gainclone knobs.....for example.

The forum needs to get back to its roots, that is a tool for the exchange of ideas and information, not a supermarket for selling product, especially by moderators, who administer the forum.

It is already obvious that the quality of the content is on a downward spiral. Walt Jung, a noted author, left after having to deal with abuse by some ignorant members and some trying to make money off his designs without permission. Where were the moderators then? Probably too busy trying to make money from plagiarized work.

It would probably a good idea to start a separate section for trade and keep it separate from the main forum.

What is the requirement for the selection of a moderator?

Do thay have a set of rules to follow?

And more importantly, who moderates the moderators?

Regards,
Jam

P.S. This is not an attack at all moderators, because there are some good ones...but I wonder if they are concerned , by what their fellow moderators are up to

[tiroth]

Hmm, I'm not sure the problem is so severe as that, but it did make me realize I don't even know where the comprehensive list of moderators is! The listing in the /forums/ view is certainly not accurate.

Personally, I don't think there is a problem in making people aware of neat things to buy--people should be MORE aware of this, and it is too bad the sections of the site dedicated to this purpose are also out of date.

Where it crosses the line and starts to become offensive is when moderators or others are actively attacking or criticizing those who could be considered competitors. Even if their intentions are for the best, the conflict of interest should be avoided, IMHO--the price you pay for having a commercial interest is the requirement to be more tactful of others than one would normally be.

[usekgb]

Originally posted by jam


It would probably a good idea to start a separate section for trade and keep it separate from the main forum.

Have you checked out the "Trading Post" section on this forum? This is where people offer up their wares for sale. Personally, I like all of the group buys on knobs, PCB, chassies, etc. They give novice DIYer's a chance to build something without having to engineer everything from scratch. Just my 2 cents.

Cheers,
Zach

[fdegrove]

Hi,

Good points, Jam....

Question is how do the moderators with a commercial audio activity feel about this themselves?

I couldn't help but notice the way some people automatically feel entitled to attack a moderator from the moment he starts a commercial venture.

This is absolutely uncalled for as this person certainly hasn't changed his attitude towards the other members and was always helpful and a joy to deal with in the past.

However, this aside, I do feel inclined to suggest that people with a vested interest in the industry, no matter how small, should not be moderators at this forum.
It tends to make their job as a moderator unnecessarilly hard and undermines the credibility of their actions.

IOW, if it were me in that situation I'd step down as a moderator and resume ordinary member status.

Cheers,

[Sandy H.]

I think the Trading Post is being under utilized with respect to the group buys. It is quite a fine line, though. I understand a thread begins, a layout matures and the group buy is started, most often in a trading post thread. But, sometimes, the original thread becomes a giant where ideas and concerns seem to bring out the worst in some people, most likely due to the fact that the group buy is lurking in the background.

I hope the group buys don't stop, but I think they could easily be more segmented into their proper place, if everybody tried to do that.

I find it ironic, that when I first started browsing a year or two ago, a couple of guys came off as hard nosed EE types just talking down to others. Other people seemed real easy to get along with and were very free minded, focusing on tuning designs. After all this time here, I have realized, for me, the guys I thought were often talking down had an amazing sense of humor and in light of that were often very sharp in the reply, but technically really help learning a lot. The free spirits have not really helped me understand any more. Maybe the tips are worth doing, but I didn't learn much.

Sometimes initial impressions are not quite true.

Sandy.

[till]

my vote: people doing business in the diyaudio sector, selling kits etc, should not be moderators.

[dhaen]

Originally posted by till
my vote: people doing business in the diyaudio sector, selling kits etc, should not be moderators.

And politicians should not have business interests......

[till]

Is the fact politicians are some kind of criminals reason enough to handle the moderation on this board on the same ethical level like politics works? (take a look how freedombringer politicians handle human rights)

You do not bring a reason for doing moderation as it is done at the moment, you tell we should not think how to make it better as reality is allready everthing is ****ed up we have to live with that. great.

[Magura]

I agree 100% with Till. There is an obvious conflict between being a moderator and running buisness here.

Besides that I as well find it dosnt make much sense that all the non profit trade is going on in the trading post forum, but the commercial buisness is all over the board.

Something should be done about this to keep the high standard this board is known for.

Magura

[fdegrove]

Hi,

And politicians should not have business interests......

As a matter of fact they shouldn't...They're paid more than enough not to need it anyway.

What's next? Corruption is O.K.? A little theft? A small murder?

Oh well, some politicians are downright massmurderers anyway so why should anyone give a hoot about the forum's mods, right?

Wrong.

Cheers,