Forum Moderators Needed!

This thread may come as a surprise to those of you who actually took the time to read my giant post on how Forum (and other) Moderators are hired. In the past, we have stated that "Every post you make on the forum and every comment you make to other users on the site is your application to be a Forum Moderator." And while this is still true, our "applications" have been steadily reducing to nothingness.

During our last nominations process, only 3 candidates in 15 ended up completing and passing all rounds of the application. And these were nominations that we spent several weeks compiling. Many users criticised us of only choosing moderators which were active in series boards (seemingly forgetting that one of the big complaints we hear often is how episode discussion threads need more active moderation). Truthfully, it was never our intention to select only these moderators. Unfortunately, it just worked out that the candidates we had that posted regularly and reasonably in AD/CD either were not interested in the position or did not make it through the application process.

After thinking considerably about this problem and how we might tackle it, we decided that changing things up for once - as a trial run - might be beneficial. And while internal applications are preferable for Forum Moderators since trust in a user's community skills is not something that can be demonstrated on an application form, it could be that we are missing a few passionate and dedicated individuals during our searches. We'd also like to dispel the myth that it's impossible to become a Forum Moderator and any general apathy that this idea may foster.

As I stated in my previous post on the matter, I am probably the strongest advocate for open applications on the staff. They are a lot of work and often increase the number of unsuitable applications that need to be processed, but it brings the moderating team in closer contact with more members of the community and has the potential to unearth "hidden gems". With the Review Moderators, we attempted to trial a "nomination" application system (partially because I was curious to see if we could extend this to Forum Moderators), but in the end it just created more confusion than anything else. For this reason, I do not believe we will be repeating this process again. My subtle request for community nominations at the end of my giant post also went completely unanswered (not a single PM!).

I would like to firmly note that we will be judging all applications on the same level as we would an internal nomination, which will also include a thorough evaluation of the candidate's conduct on the site and a second round of practical testing (aka stalking and sadistic grilling). The core of the selection process will not change. All this "trial run" will likely mean is that we have more applications than normal.

If this application process does not yield any better results and is just more work on our part (yay!) without any benefit, then we will return to our traditional method of internal nominations and private messages. But I hope that this trial run with change things up just enough to find some excellent Forum Moderator candidates from amongst the community that we may not otherwise.