Can we get a list???

 Paige and Karen are moderators.

 aren't there others thou?

 That's a good idea :)  I'll add one to the Forum Rules.

 The mods are:

 Me - Sera_J

Paige -  Miranadobe

Karen - KPWLee 

 Great! Thanks!

For curiosities sake, are there any admins? Or just mod's?

 Pretty much, just Mods :)

 Wow. 3 mods to run a site this size.  Kewl. :) Thanks for the info.

   We have a good forum with awesome members -- but, it's tough to get everywhere, which is why we really appreciate it when people use the REPORT ABUSE button!! :)

What are the differences between mods and admins? What are their responsibilities, duties, etc? Also, how are they selected? Do you receive a PM from the Hand of the Powers that Be, are you nominated, volunteer?

Just curious.

Sera_J

   We have a good forum with awesome members --

True that.  It's been quite awhile since anybody caused any problems or had to be red-inked or publicly chastised. That's pretty amazing considering what a diverse group we are. Even when discussions got heated (like before the election) everyone managed to stay respectful of everyone elses POV.

Joyce

I agree this is a very good group of folks. However...well, I'll just come out and say it.

Lately I feel like differing opinions aren't quite so welcome.  Recently I was going through some old threads just for fun, and I noticed there used to be a lot of very heated, yet respectful discussions on various topics.  And while a few people would be disrespectful or mean, they were promptly warned & edited, BUT...the discussions were allowed to continue.  There is so much we can learn from good debates.  When those debates are shut down due to the actions of a few bad apples, well, that's not really helpful to the rest of us.  I can think of two threads recently that were good learning and good debates, but were locked and/or completely removed.  My question is, why such drastic measures?  Why not edit and/or ban those who can't seem to play within the rules and be respectful?

I do understand that this forum is a privately run, and it's a priviledge to be here, not a right, but I, personally, feel the recent actions have stifled debate.  When that happens, no one learns anything.  I know the mods don't get paid to do this, and they have a hard job on such a large forum, which leads me to wonder....has there been a change in the attitude of those running the site (ie-not the mods, but higher up folks)?  If so, why?

To be quite honest, that is the reason I haven't posted here much.  I do lurk, I do keep up with what's going on with everyone, so I am thinking about y'all, but IMO, a lot of what I love about this place has gone.  I have noticed a drop in activity...do others feel the same? 

My hopes are we can get that back.  Because this is such an amazing community here, full of really awesome dog lovers, and we have a lot to share with each other, even if we don't always agree on everything.

It seems that real conversations/discussions have tapered off.  There's less activity, more copy-and-paste type answers to basic training and behavioral questions.  I do most conversing about training on other forums mainly because there's not really anyone else here I can have a convo/debate about training a dog to target a bite suit, using tracking articles the size of Scrabble pieces to get a deep nose, and the other things I'm working on right now.   I don't post as much because I'm not one for one word replies or just kidding around back and forth.  I do lurk quite a bit and enjoy the photo threads and keeping up with other members, but don't usually post in every thread.

 Heather I will take a stab at answering - basically to be totally honest we try to let things go a little more than at other times on the forum.  Unfortunately some topics can have legal implications and those aren't acceptable for this forum due to its alliance with dog.com.

aerial1313

I can think of two threads recently that were good learning and good debates, but were locked and/or completely removed.

most of the rules are very clear and we do rely on the members of the forum policing it as appropriate, which we appreciate tremendously as we cannot go through all the posts and honestly we likely only see a small percentage.

aerial1313

I do lurk, I do keep up with what's going on with everyone, so I am thinking about y'all, but IMO, a lot of what I love about this place has gone. 

Lani, Paige and I do the best we can, we have very little support from admin and it usually takes a while to get responses.  There is no way for us to hold down jobs and lives and moderate the forum non-stop. We have to make decisions based on the stated rules as well as approve every request from new members,  If you think the OOPS message is annoying imagine that same software being your portal to each action.

I'm not saying any of this to say oh the poor mods - just to let everyone know that there is a tremendous amount of stuff that goes on behind the scenes. 

We encourage active debate on acceptable topics but no personal attacks and the topics can't put dog.com into a libel situation.

I really would like to hear how appropriate threads were quashed or if you just have some questions, I welcome them

kpwlee

Lani, Paige and I do the best we can, we have very little support from admin and it usually takes a while to get responses.  There is no way for us to hold down jobs and lives and moderate the forum non-stop.

I totally understand, and that's why I was wondering if something was going on at a higher level (aka-dog.com powers that be) that would explain it.  If we had a group of new mods and changes happened, I would think it was connected to the mods.  But you three have been around for a while but the differences I, personally, have seen, are recent.

kpwlee

We encourage active debate on acceptable topics but no personal attacks and the topics can't put dog.com into a libel situation.

That makes total sense.

You & I can talk privately about the specific threads I was thinking about.

aerial1313

I can think of two threads recently that were good learning and good debates, but were locked and/or completely removed. 

aerial1313

Lately I feel like differing opinions aren't quite so welcome. 

Sounds like you think a recent 50 page whopper of a thread (containing quite the spectrum of "differing opinions";) is down because you think Mods didn't agree with the content.  Is that what you mean by "differing opinions aren't quite so welcome"??  Because, truly, that thread had quite a bit of differing opinion in it!! 

The only reason it's down is because we had a system glitch (nothing new around here these days, right??).  The thread had run its course and participants agreed, so the debate was done.  However, there's good educational content in that thread, so it will go back up once the glitch is fixed.  Simple.  No dark devious plan.  No squelching of debate.  Why would we let it go 49 pages if we wanted to squash debate and discussions??

Thanks for asking the question publicly!  I'd hate to see what else is running through the rumor mill! lol  If there was ever a group of Mods who welcome debate of subject (in the context of the Forum Rules -  no personal attacks, advertising, etc) you've got 'em!  We're a pretty straight-shooting group and try to moderate just to forum rules and let the membership take the tone and content where they want it.

Some of us old idoggers remember the best parts of the old forum activity and we've worked with Admin to get back to that place, with less red ink (for things like going off topic, etc), and more freedom for debate.  Of course, we have rules to keep things civil (debate the topic, don't attack the person who posts it), but we really want to encourage debate and discussion!  We've all learned a lot through those debates.  Things being cyclical, the forum does seem to have slowed down for other reasons.  Maybe having more to do with the advent of social networking sites that allow immediate communication with your dog friends through chat and whatnot, or members taking their discussions off line of their own accord.  But again, the MEMBERS set the tone and take the content of the forum where they want it to go.  The fact that there's so little red ink these days is an indication that we don't want to squash the tone and content, but we do work to protect our members from spam, adverts, privacy concerns, abusive personal attacks, and libel issues.