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. 
You can always see who the members of the forum staff are buy clicking on the āView Forum Leadersā link at the end of the forum list on the home page.
Care to explain how mods are chosen? Iāve 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 Iāve 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 
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 āattitude 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 Iāve easily debunked in the pastā¦
Also, concerning the staff, it seems mostly older folks get in. How come? I donāt 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 canāt mod as well due to not having āenough experienceā or something?
Hi microchip8
Thanks
Guess I have too much time on my handsā¦ Iām a stay at home dad to a
2 and 1/2 year old and will be 50 in late Decemberā¦ call me a
late bloomerā¦
ā
Cheers Malcolm Ā°ĀæĀ° (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 looking forward to being part of the team
ā
Cheers Malcolm Ā°ĀæĀ° (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 rather at how the mods are preferred and chosen by the staff.
Congrats Malcolm.
Microchip,
Donāt get paranoid about things. Your turn will also come one day and complaining too much wonāt help.
I first used linux in the early 90ās 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. āFreeā 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 theyāll choose a person of age than one whoās young. Itās been going like that for years and hasnāt 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 donāt want to be a mod even if offered so I donāt know why you bring me into this
1st, Congrats! Malcolm happy to see you made Mod!
2nd, microchip you gotta be nice to Kim & his fly.
Congratulations Malcom. I have been impressed with your significant contributions to opensuse.org along with your āuser-friendlyā communication style for sometime now. I think most would agree: a valuable human asset to this forum. Crack open the beers!
PS Iām 42 with a 19 month old son - I got started late too
I was nice, wasnāt 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 havenāt even mentioned the inefficient forum rules wrt dealing with rant/troll threads)?
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 doesnāt 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.
microchip8 wrote:
>[snip]
> Also, concerning the staff, it seems mostly older folks get in. How
> come? I donāt 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 canāt mod as well due to
> not having āenough experienceā or something?
>
>
Through the discussions on choosing staff, no one ever asks about age.
It isnāt even a thought, I just think it is pretty much coincidence that
there is a group of staff that is older. Not sure where Iād fit as Iām
in my early 30ās.
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. You can always see
> who the members of the forum staff are buy clicking on the āView 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.
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 Modās 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 āOld Folkā Mods.
Iām 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!
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. You can always see
> who the members of the forum staff are buy clicking on the āView Forum
> Leadersā link at the end of the forum list on the home page.
>
>
Congratulation Malcolm, hereās to you
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I tried to scan in a beer, but it went flat. Dang those flat bed scanners.
ā
P. V.
āWeāre all in this together, Iām 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 doesnāt matter hereā¦ i am still in early 30ās(26). But i donāt 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: