Congrats LordM, fantastic news!!! Can't believe I'm just seeing this now...so late I'm on page 3! As long as this only increases your workload and does not decrease your threads, I'm OK with it!
I would think there is some truth to that. Both. First you get drafted (i.e., invited/appointed). Then you volunteer. That's nuts. Sounds like a great way for a forum to sabotage itself. Yes. "You're drafted!" was the actual title line and the "draft" was real enough (albeit worded in a tongue-and-cheek manner) but obviously I was given some say in the matter. Actually, not a bad approach. Appeal to one's patriotic duty as a CoinTalker. Sorta like the old WW1 Uncle Sam poster (or Lord Kitchener, to you Brits). Only the entity pointing at me to enlist had both the hat AND the mustache. And when you're pointed at by an otherwise-invisible entity wearing a gangster 'stache, shades, and a Crocodile Dundee-style hat with teeth from dinosaurs he personally slew, well ... then you listen to what he has to say.
After reading most of the comments, etc. above, I begin to wonder...just what does a moderator do? Apparently it is a higher ranking position on this forum than that of other peons and serfs. Does the moderator break up fights? Deep six offensive postings? I like to think I have behaved pretty well on here, and not incurred the wrath of the lordly moderators, so now I will want and see if more explanation follows. Most likely all the answers are already somewhere on this massive site, in the FAQs or Rules of the Road.
Pah! My old Holey Gold Hat was much better. Don't see no Byzantine solidi, ducats, guineas, or USA $3 pieces on that other one!
Yes, and yes. The mods police the place, mostly behind the scenes. (I'm just now getting my first glimpses behind that curtain, though as of this post my mod clearance and credentials are not yet complete, let alone my "training". It's interesting.) It's a credit to the staff here that the moderation on this site is well balanced and for the most part discreet. Firm, but polite, without being too draconian. (Opinions may vary.) Having been scolded by one of PCGS' corporate leaders (not just a mere moderator) on their forums (mostly via PM, but also publicly), I know all too well what heavy-handed forum moderation feels like, because I've been subjected to it. The person who took me to task over there (sometimes deservedly, other times less so), no doubt meant well but had such a brusque and condescending manner that it really turned me off. Look, I get it - a corporate-hosted message board site is (and almost has to be) a dictatorship, not a democracy. But a message board site can and should be a benevolent dictatorship. I like to think that's what we have here. (And to give PCGS their due, aside from a certain corporate executive of theirs taking on a bit too direct an involvement in their forums some years ago, they have a great community too, or I wouldn't have spent 16 years there before making this site my primary online destination.)
Lordmarcovan - Do you actually wear that hat, walking down Main Street ? If so, I take my hat off to you !!!
Trust me, they do ! But typically those that vary are offered up by those who have been on, shall we say, the "receiving end" of moderation. Kind of like the drivers who swear up and down that they don't deserve the ticket In fact some have gone so far that years ago I was once dubbed "Ogre of the Internet". To which another member, (one completely uninvolved), when he saw it responded by creating this image - Needless to say I laughed right out loud when that was posted But, I have proudly borne the moniker "Ogre of the Internet" ever since, it's one of my favorites And I say favorites because that's just one, there are many
I know you are a high school student and this reminds me of one of the first college chemistry classes I taught. The first class was an elementary chemistry class during the summer and I had quite a few high school students because if they took this course, they could get high school credit and not have to take the high school class. On the first day of class I had one of the high school students to stand up and announce that they wanted to vote on having take-home exams. My answer was first that my class was not a democracy and second, they would not want to take a take-home exam I would make up. (Do like your Electoral College quip though) This is Peter's site and he makes the rules.
Wore the whole outfit into a Mexican restaurant once. Got a dab of refried beans on the vest and one or two of the coins. The coins didn't care, having had worse treatment when they got holes drilled through 'em centuries earlier. They told me they would've rather had guacamole, though.
Welcome and congrats @lordmarcovan Hmmm a Mad-Hatter Moderator... I THINK I understand... Or... for the TRADITIONALISTS among us...