In my 10 or so years of modding and admining various boards I have made my own observations. From what I've seen, the (average) burnout rate for moderating a board of this size, that requires NO ANONYMITY is about 2 years. Take into account the nature of a board such as this, with the varying elements, the potential to have to deal with exreme personalities, as people have ups and downs, crazy highs, and hard lows, in my opinion, you could easily cut that time frame down by 1/2. Simply the fact that he/they have lasted this long is more of an accomplishment and unseen rarity than anyone who has not sat in the seat can possibly imagine. Furthermore, if you take into account the limitations of what mods actually have the ability to do here, or rather the inability to do here, you can cut that burnout rate in half again. Has anyone ever wondered why there were what, 4-6 mods when the board had 3500 members, none of whom, for their own reasons, are modding anymore?
The patience, the pressure, the lack of moderator abilities, or rather board (privileges) is hard to imagine. Let me remind everyone, that these two people are not aliens, nor magicians.
They are regular members, just like every one of us. Except they have volunteered a massive amount of time to help their peers, with the least amount of authority I have ever seen, as compared to any board I have ever belonged to. It's really that simple. Harping on a mod is no different than harping on any "regular" member with a couple hundred posts, except there is NO expectation from that person without the title of Mod. Why is this? Perception. Never forget, these are just regular members, with a title, who frankly deserve nothing but support from every single person here.
So honestly, in conclusion, if there is someone who has a complaint about either, or any future mod, unless you have experience, direct experience in this undertaking, you honestly need to STFU.
Change the fucking tudes, and do everything you can to "help" these guys. If anything I have just said has offended anyone, I can say, without shame, I honestly do not give a fuck, whatsoever. Be glad that they do.[/quote
Awesome post !! ]