Hi-dee-ho, Meezers! In the wake of Lucy announcing that the administrators were accepting applications for new moderators, we’ve been swamped over here at HQ with applications & emails asking how exactly to become a part of our super-fly Mod Squad.
Well, Meezers, recently I had a chance to chat via email with four of the 26-ish AMAZING volunteer moderators of Meez.com: Jubileegirl06, Monchhichi, Sailormars84 and Cravepain were all hand picked by the administrators and voted upon by their peers before they became members of the Meez Mod Squad. And, they were all kind enough to take time out of their super busy schedules to chat with me about the good, the bad and the ugly of moderating the Meez forums & MeezNation.
Forum Insider: How long have you been a Meez Moderator?
Jubileegirl06: I’ve been a moderator since last July, so it’s been a year! A great year, I might add. I’ve been through a few online communities, and Meez is the best one I’ve found!
Monchhichi: Since May 2008.
Sailormars84: I’ve only been a Meez Moderator for a few weeks. I’m one of the newest among their ranks, but the other Mods are so welcoming; you’d have thought I had known them for years.
Cravepain: I have been a Moderator on Meez for little over three months.
FI: Are you a Junior or Senior Moderator?
Jubileegirl06: Senior!
Monchhichi: I am a newly minted Senior Moderator and excited to start this new chapter of Meez.
Sailormars84: Junior Mod ^_^
Cravepain: I am currently a Junior Moderator.
FI: What forums/Hoods do you moderate?
Jubileegirl06: Technically, since I’m a senior moderator, I can and do moderate all forums and Hoods. Before the new forums were in place, though, I was over the Controversy and Gaming forums, and I am one of two moderators who are officially assigned to Chillville. I don’t think that Whateverfloats and I have had any bad people causing a ruckus in Chillville yet! They seem like a good bunch.
Monchhichi: I have the honor of having Role Play, 13-15, Fashionista Central and Hell’s Kitchen Forum and all of the Hangouts in Hell’s Kitchen.
Sailormars84: I moderate the Welcome Newbies, Meez Videos, Controversy and Geek Central.
Cravepain: The places I am assigned to Moderate are; Art, Comics & Drawing, Meez Contests, and Multimedia. I am also the Moderator in Meez Nation’s Burbia.
FI: When did you join Meez?
Jubileegirl06: I joined Meez in January of 2007. I think I saw some of my friends making their avatars and posting them onto their MySpaces (back when I actually used mine, lol), and it looked like a very artsy and fun avatar system, so I joined up. I found the forums soon after, and the rest is, as they say, history!
Monchhichi: May 2007.
Sailormars84: I joined Meez in July of last year. (Now that you mention it, I just passed my one year anniversary!)
Cravepain: I joined Meez in October of 2007.
FI: What’s your favorite forum to hang out in?
Jubileegirl06: I love hanging out in the Controversy because I’m very interested in controversial things (and hearing people’s opinions on such things; ) but, I also love the Moderators forum because of the friends I have there. I also spend time in Gaming and Multimedia.
Monchhichi: Of course I love the forums I moderate in and I try to spend as much time in those to get to know all of the people that post in there often. I started out on Meez in Meezer Geezers and that forum will ALWAYS have a special place in my heart.
Sailormars84: I have a few favorite forums. You’ll usually find me in Meezers Geezers (where all of us that feel old when someone says “What’s Fraggle Rock?” hang out,) Controversy (I can’t pass up a good debate,) the Art forum (art is a huge part of my life) and “Geek Central” (where I can be proud that I’m an uber-geek!)
Cravepain: My favorite forum, and the one I consider my ‘Meezy Home’, is Weekly Creativity Contest. Everyone is amazing and very down to earth. They are creative, inspiring, and so talented. I couldn’t think of a better bunch of people to be around on a daily basis.
FI: What’s your favorite forum to moderate?
Jubileegirl06: I love moderating the Controversy forum. It’s a tad different than moderating other post-specific forums because you have to decide whether the thread is of “controversial merit” or not. Also, controversial things don’t always go hand in hand with Meez’s PG-13 rating, so I’m always wary of the threads that could possibly get the R rating–we had a thread about masturbation a while back that got very descriptive, for example.
Monchhichi: Hell’s Kitchen. I got to start with them from brand new. I have enjoyed seeing how it grows from its infancy.
Sailormars84: My favorite forum to moderate is definitely “Controversy”. There’s always something going on, the discussions are great to take part in, and the regulars are great. Feisty, but great! ^_^
Cravepain: My favorite forum to Moderate would be Weekly Creativity Contest. I am very protective of the ones I care about, and enjoy making sure everything is running smoothly and no one is getting harassed or bothered.
FI: What is your favorite thing ABOUT being a moderator?
Jubileegirl06: Hate to say that I love the responsibility, but I do. I’m not responsible for many things except for my grades in college, so it’s good to be one of the few that the administration trusts to keep the site clean.
Monchhichi: Helping all of the Meez users. I love having someone that doesn’t know how to do something and then I show them and even though it is all in text I can almost see their face light up with happiness. It has been one of the funnest experiences for me ever. I sincerely love every single Meezer on Meez. The make me smile everyday and sometimes they even have me laughing so hard tears roll down my face.
Sailormars84: Frankly, the Moderator forums are my favorite thing about being a Mod. I feel really lucky that I’ve gotten to know the other Moderators and Admin in the last few weeks. Chatting with them, seeing a bit of what happens on the inside of Meez, seeing the hard work the others put into this site – it really makes me see Meez from a new perspective.
Cravepain: My favorite thing about being a Moderator is being able to help people more so than I could as a regular Meezer.
FI: What’s the hardest thing about being a moderator?
Jubileegirl06: Giving infractions to/banning long term or vocal users. Not only is it hard for me because I’ve been around for so long and seen and liked many vocal users, good or bad, but they have the ability to cause untold amounts of drama, if warranted.
Monchhichi: Well I would be lying if I didn’t admit that it is hard to take all the bashing you get from turning someone in for not following the rules or Terms of Service. All of the moderators experience this at some point. When we help we are the best friends they ever wanted but when we have to be the “bad mod” it amazes me the intensity with which they focus their anger on me.
Sailormars84: Knowing that other Meezers view us differently now – that’s probably the hardest thing about being a moderator.
Cravepain: The hardest thing about being a Moderator is reporting your friends. Even with everything else we go thru, the spam and harassments, for me reporting friends is still a heart breaker.
FI: Why do you think you were asked to be part of the Mod Squad?
Jubileegirl06: Back when I became a moderator, there weren’t many moderators to begin with–the only one I remember was shannon_timebomb. As one of the Controversy constants, I was very upset about the lack of moderation because of the onslaught of off-topic posts that were coming into the Controversy Forum. Also, the administration didn’t like us bumping threads, so we had to sit there and stare at “i want a bf/gf” threads. On top of that, none of the forums had the ability to stay on topic, they were rarely kept clean, from what I saw, and in the RP forum, there were always TONS of co-ed locker room and lez/bi party threads which ALWAYS turned into cybering fests. I wanted the forums to be clean and used for the purposes they were made for, so I PMed Angie about the predicament.
Long story short, I think it was a combination of being trustworthy and being so willing to help.
Monchhichi: I have always loved to help the newcomers even when I started and a lot of that has to do with the people who helped me when I was a newcomer. Any new thing I learned I wanted to pass on to the group of friends I developed. I hope they wanted me because of that and my friendliness. I am never one for a loss of words.
Sailormars84: Haha, I sometimes ask myself that. ^_^ I suppose I was asked to be part of the team because I must have demonstrated some good judgement at some point. It also helps that I had gotten to know a lot of people on the forums — I suppose I had made a name for myself as someone trying to be tolerant and helpful.
Cravepain: In all honesty, I have no idea. I mean, I try to obey rules no matter the website I am on. I also like making friends and being as much as a help I possibly can. Perhaps they seen those traits in me? I really don’t know, though I would like to know as well! Hehe.
FI: What advice do you have for other Meezers who want to become moderators?
Jubileegirl06: First of all, don’t come onto Meez expecting to become a moderator at 200 posts. I have gotten plenty of PMs from many people that I have never seen around the forums asking me to make them a moderator. Number one, I don’t have that power, and number two, you just aren’t qualified, kay? If you truly want to be a moderator, refer to my other suggestions, please!
As always, be kind and helpful around the forums and be involved. Get yourself positively noticed, but not overly noticed, if you know what I mean. You need to be involved in the community as well as being helpful, not one or the other. Oh! And don’t break the rules! If you’re sincerely sorry for what you did, it’s okay, but constantly breaking the ToS is a good sign that you won’t ever become a moderator.
Monchhichi: Take everything with a grain of salt. Don’t let the Meezers that “hate” you one day get you down, they will “love” you tomorrrow. Soak up as much knowledge as you can from these very same Meezers, they are a very intelligent bunch. Enjoy it!
Sailormars84: There’s this underlying knowledge that the Moderators should set an example for the other Meezers. I think it’s important to think of yourself as always setting an example for others – be helpful, be polite, be mature, but also remember to be yourself. I certainly didn’t become a Mod by being perfect. ^_^
Cravepain: What I would say to them is; Make sure to obey the rules and do what is needed, but always make time to socialize. Doing what needs to be done is important, but talking with fellow Meezers is just as important. Without them there would be no use for Moderators, and there would be no Meez.
*Thanks to the ladies for taking time out of their busy schedules to chat with me. If you want to apply to be part of the Meez Mod Squad you can fill out an application by going here: http://forums.meez.com/forums/newthread.php?do=modapply
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