Forum staff addition

We would like to welcome Malcolm Lewis (malcolmlewis) as a new member of the forum moderator team. Malcolm has been around for quite a while and has been helpful for that same amount of time. :slight_smile: You can always see who the members of the forum staff are buy clicking on the ā€œView Forum Leadersā€ link at the end of the forum list on the home page.

Care to explain how mods are chosen? I’ve been on SUSE forums for more than 3 years now (including the old SLS forum), constantly help out when I have time, contribute to SUSE packages, have written various wikis and improved others, am a openSUSE member too, yet I’ve never recieved any invitation to be a mod. Note that I just want to know how a mod gets chosen around here, and currently have no interest of being one even if offered

To the new mod, many congrats :wink:

Moderators are chosen by the existing staff. The things that are looked at are helpfulness to others, attitude in discussions, stability of participation, congenial personality, willingness to help the staff, among other attributes that the staff thinks are important.

Welcome malcolmlewis ! Glad to have you onboard.

So I must always be falling out when it comes to ā€œattitude in discussionsā€ solely because mods are often unwilling to take any action in rant or troll threads (some of them even needing to consult with other mods before doing anything. /me looks at oldcpu) which are full of lies and bogus claims which I’ve easily debunked in the past… :slight_smile:

Also, concerning the staff, it seems mostly older folks get in. How come? I don’t know how old Malcom is but I do know that most of the mod staff is older folks (with exception of G0NZO which is my age), like oldcpu, caf, swerdna, deltaflyier, etc. Is there any particular reason for this? Do most of them think younger people can’t mod as well due to not having ā€œenough experienceā€ or something?

Hi microchip8
Thanks :slight_smile:

Guess I have too much time on my hands… I’m a stay at home dad to a
2 and 1/2 year old and will be 50 in late December… call me a
late bloomer… :slight_smile:

–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 (x86_64) Kernel 2.6.27.25-0.1-default
up 14 days 2:11, 2 users, load average: 0.27, 0.26, 0.15
GPU GeForce 8600 GTS Silent - Driver Version: 190.18

Hi oldcpu
Thanks :wink: looking forward to being part of the team :slight_smile:

–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 (x86_64) Kernel 2.6.27.25-0.1-default
up 14 days 2:16, 2 users, load average: 0.13, 0.15, 0.13
GPU GeForce 8600 GTS Silent - Driver Version: 190.18

And my theory gets confirmed even more. Again an older person gets chosen to be part of the mod team and thus the mod team is virtually mostly comprised of people of age. Very nice indeed and very fair too

PS: this is not aimed directly at you, Malcolm :wink: rather at how the mods are preferred and chosen by the staff.

Congrats Malcolm.

Microchip,
Don’t get paranoid about things. Your turn will also come one day and complaining too much won’t help.

I first used linux in the early 90’s and have always played around with it. I supported and did admin for windows for a good few of these years and have been M$-free for the last 2 years. Linux (whatever distro) has progressed faster than windows in this time.
The spirit of linux is to help others when you can and not seek too much credit. ā€˜Free’ software for the older guys also means free help often without much thanks or recognition.

Eh? Paranoid about what? This is a fact - mod team is mostly comprised of older folks and when they want to add a new mod to the team, the chance is much higher they’ll choose a person of age than one who’s young. It’s been going like that for years and hasn’t changed at all. What I argue for is to give equal chance to younger people too and not always prefer the older ones due to some illusion they may share in thinking old = better experience/attitude/knowledge

As for me, I already wrote that I currently don’t want to be a mod even if offered so I don’t know why you bring me into this :wink:

1st, Congrats! Malcolm happy to see you made Mod!

2nd, microchip you gotta be nice to Kim & his fly.:wink:

Congratulations Malcom. I have been impressed with your significant contributions to opensuse.org along with your ā€˜user-friendly’ communication style for sometime now. I think most would agree: a valuable human asset to this forum. Crack open the beers!

PS I’m 42 with a 19 month old son - I got started late too :slight_smile:

I was nice, wasn’t I? Or is there a secretly censoring program going on which prohibits users on this forum to express their view and some facts wrt to mods (and I haven’t even mentioned the inefficient forum rules wrt dealing with rant/troll threads)? :wink:

Good job MalcomLewis on getting the Staff assignment!

Off Topic, but in regards to Microchip8 question concerning staff selection at a Forum. One of the problems a large site such as openSUSE Forums has is the many valuable contributors such as himself and the need to reasonably control having too many people as Staff. There are other factors like Mr. K Groneman went into as well for the existing Staff folks to be able to get along with each other. I do think that giving someone Official recognition of their contributions is easy to forget to do.

Though the Forum I run is much more modest in size than this one, I would love to offer to all the more constant members Staff status. People do want to feel that the time and effort they have put into a Community is being noticed. It becomes impractical however to do so. Not that everyone would want the distinction or the implied work load. Though just the offer can make a person feel a part of things.

I do not think it is age related that certain people are selected. If that is the case simply adopt a new persona, after all, on the Internet no one know that you are a dog.

Getting old is bad business, it does not make you any wiser, it just means you are falling apart.

Wise sentiments MattB! There are many experienced members contributing on this forum. But it doesn’t make sense to make them all staff members. I for one like to contribute just to help others and share solutions. It makes me feel happy to do so. I like the humble, friendly style exhibited by most here. :slight_smile:

microchip8 wrote:
>[snip]
> Also, concerning the staff, it seems mostly older folks get in. How
> come? I don’t know how old Malcom is but I do know that most of the mod
> staff is older folks (with exception of G0NZO which is my age), like
> oldcpu, caf, swerdna, deltaflyier, etc. Is there any particular reason
> for this? Do most of them think younger people can’t mod as well due to
> not having ā€œenough experienceā€ or something?
>
>

Through the discussions on choosing staff, no one ever asks about age.
It isn’t even a thought, I just think it is pretty much coincidence that
there is a group of staff that is older. Not sure where I’d fit as I’m
in my early 30’s.

kgroneman wrote:
> We would like to welcome Malcolm Lewis (malcolmlewis) as a new member of
> the forum moderator team. Malcolm has been around for quite a while and
> has been helpful for that same amount of time. :slight_smile: You can always see
> who the members of the forum staff are buy clicking on the ā€œView Forum
> Leadersā€ link at the end of the forum list on the home page.
>
>
Welcome Malcolm!

Welcome Malcolm !!
Very pleased you could help us out.

@microchip8

And my theory gets confirmed even more. Again an older person gets chosen to be part of the mod team and thus the mod team is virtually mostly comprised of people of age. Very nice indeed and very fair too

FYI: I had absolutely no idea how old Malcolm was when I voted for him as part of the Mod team. Your accusations are completely unfounded. Obviously a level of maturity is required for Mod’s and if you were to review the participation of Malcolm in the forum (without your paranoia hat on), you would see he has the qualities required of a Forum Moderator.

As for your own qualification in this. Well, if you feel you qualify, you can register your interest with the current bunch of ā€˜Old Folk’ Mods.
I’m NOT trying to be funny here @microchip8 and in no way intend to minimize the valuable help you provide as part of the openSUSE community!:slight_smile:

On Tue August 18 2009 04:16 pm, kgroneman wrote:

>
> We would like to welcome Malcolm Lewis (malcolmlewis) as a new member of
> the forum moderator team. Malcolm has been around for quite a while and
> has been helpful for that same amount of time. :slight_smile: You can always see
> who the members of the forum staff are buy clicking on the ā€œView Forum
> Leadersā€ link at the end of the forum list on the home page.
>
>
Congratulation Malcolm, here’s to you


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I tried to scan in a beer, but it went flat. Dang those flat bed scanners.

–
P. V.
ā€œWe’re all in this together, I’m pulling for you.ā€ Red Green

I found Malcolm very helpful and cool person around here. He help, not rant on others. If some body is in need of help, we have to provide help, not rant. Attitude matters everywhere and anywhere.
IMHO, Age doesn’t matter here… i am still in early 30’s(26). But i don’t bother about age. If you have qualities, you will find your place one day as Caf mentioned.

Anyway many Congrats Malcolm. keep up the good work :good: