Animation Source Forums

I have been reading a lot of suggestions and rants lately, and I have seen many, many complaints about what AS is becoming. I never really paid attention to all of these issues before, preferring to just stick with roleplaying forums and letting the rest of the site go on without me paying attention to it. Now that I am starting to actually feel like a senior member, I thought it time I started caring, hence why I have been reading through the most recent rant and suggestion topics.

A trend that I have noticed often suggested is that this site needs more moderators. For those who don't know, AS used to have a lot more mods until they got out of hand and started bullying members and trolling the site. I am not an expert an exactly what happened, but I do know that it ended with Steet firing all the mods and hiring a few new ones. And by a few, I mean way less than is required for a site that has grown as huge as AS has.

I am not quite sure how many mods there are nowadays, but there still seems to be the need for at least a couple more. Just looking at the past few rants, more dedicated mods could really make on improvement. Mightbalto's topic on members creating too many characters: this really needs more supervision, but sorting through so many bad characters will take time that the current mods don't have. Sakujo's complaint about the must-see images: mods deal with so much that they don't have time to search for really good images and drawing that deserve attention. Even my own topic about the lack of good roleplaying: more mods to over-see the forums in general couldn't hurt.

I know that trust was lost when some of the old mods abused their power, but I think that there a plently of members on AS that really want to help out the site and definately wouldn't abuse their power. But how do we find those people? Just like any other job! An application!

I think that AS should start a mod application to help sort through the people who want to moderate because of the status and power and those who would really bring improvement. There should be requrements ment before even being able to apply, though, just as a member having to be a certain age and having been a member for so many years. They should have to right a short essay on way they want to become a moderater. It should also include what sight they spend the most time on and what section of the site they are more familiar with and would want to moderator the most.

I know that this process isn't perfect, but I think something needs to be done. I also believe that a few select mods should have more power over the site so that they can help Steet run this site. I lot of suggestions seem to end with "It doesn't matter what we think. Steet will not listen and won't do anything about it." Well, I think that if Steet won't do it, give someone who will do something the power to actually do it.

What is everyone's feeling on this? Do you think it would work or be a complete fail? I really want to hear people thoughts on this!

Thanks for reading!

Unfortunately, I have my doubts that Steet will ever do anything, I've lost hope in him. It shouldn't have to be that way, but it is. Only a miracle could make things better.

This is true. I think what made steet not listen to anyone anymore was because of all the changes he made to the site, and the uproars that came along with them. I guess he just didn't want to take it anymore, moved onto Talespin, and was obsessed ever since...

While this idea is not a bad one in my opinion, you have to look at a few things first.

1: Who's going to be looking at the applications and deciding? Will it be steet? More than likely no since he's never around. And if it would be the current mods (and I'm accusing no one here) there's always the chance one of them would be overly biased or unable to make a fair decision.

2: And what about admins? Will there be administrator applications also? Some of the previous admins didn't really seem to care about the site they were doing the job for.

3: As far as the age limit is concerned, I don't think it should be limited to 18, but with exceptions. My reasoning behind this is because generally 18-25 year olds have lives, they're in college or work a job. Sometimes teenagers have more time to be on then college kids would. And with the amount right now, there's definitely a lot of time required if the changes suggested in other topics were made. I think giving it leeway to about 15 or 16. But monitor and study the applicants behavior first. It's not fair to some teens that actually are mature being judged because of the majority of bad ones. This is just my opinion I'm not bashing the 18 year old idea Lol, but then, there have been grown adults that act less mature than teens do.

4: Sometimes an application doesn't tell everything, I think there should be a time to watch the applicant (if the applications is one of the standouts). That way it goes through two filters instead of just one.

Again, this is just my opinion on the subject, I think most of these ideas are reasonable.

1) Lol, steet actually doing something? [/s] I dunno, one or two admins would probably take something like this on. I think that makes sense.
2) I doubt it, one of the main reasons you appoint an administrator is because you trust them. I doubt a simple application process would justify the appointment of an administrator.
3) I like this idea. I could understand a 16 or 17 year old having a higher level of maturity compared to some of the adults on Animation Source. I think this could be the sweet spot with regards to age.
4) Of course, I highly doubt they'd just do it based on application anyway.

1. I think Steet should have some kind of say if he has the time. But I know that relaying on him doesn't always work, so I think it would have to be the current mods' decision. Maybe some kind of voting system that would help to weed out anyone just wanting to help out their friends? For an example, five mods have to approve an applicant before they are accepted as a mod. And if one mod really has something against an applicant, they can just bring it up to the others. There could be like an approve button that has to be clicked by five separate mods, and maybe even a disapprove button that, if 5 mods click on, deletes the application.

2. I don't really know what the role of an admin is... so maybe?

3. As I previously discussed, I would say the age limit should be 16+.

4. I definately agree with this! I think that after an application is accepted, that member should be promoted to "mod in training" or something like that. They would have all the powers of a mod put the other mods also can de-mod them is they get out of control or bully others. This time period should like for a month or two. That may seem really long, but that way there can be limited mistakes in giving power to someone who can't handle it. Also, it really shouldn't matter how long the "training period" is to someone who wants to be a mod for the right reasons.

3: As far as the age limit is concerned, I don't think it should be limited to 18, but with exceptions. My reasoning behind this is because generally 18-25 year olds have lives, they're in college or work a job. Sometimes teenagers have more time to be on then college kids would. And with the amount right now, there's definitely a lot of time required if the changes suggested in other topics were made. I think giving it leeway to about 15 or 16. But monitor and study the applicants behavior first. It's not fair to some teens that actually are mature being judged because of the majority of bad ones. This is just my opinion I'm not bashing the 18 year old idea Lol, but then, there have been grown adults that act less mature than teens do.