Sporting Moderator's Cap

In his piece, ‘About us and our Groups’, Sri Sivasubramanian Perinkulam, pities the ‘hapless moderator’ of having to sort daily “20 to 30 mails on various subjects, some abusive, arrogant, and others substandard or with spelling mistakes...” He sums up he will go mad in ten days as a moderator. Ten days is a long period. Siva-ji. I bet I will achieve it in two days, given a re-look at what is in store.

A pertinent suggestion was made to detach the incoming mail while posting comments. We are still inundated with mails incorporating everything from the beginning. (Truth be told, I have my share, having still to master response sans the incoming mail.) If as a moderator I were to enforce this suggestion I will have a tough time blocking all such mail or in deleting redundant portions by myself – after first mastering the technique, that is.

Must read, Watch this link, Worth Forwarding, Read till the end, are the patterns many of the messages are capped with, leaving recipients clueless on the possible contents. It will thus be my job to coin a heading on what each piece is about, to alert reader if it is his cup of tea or not.

I will have to be equal to the occasion to delete one piece when someone posts all his messages in duplicate. Right now probably the readers undertake this task to reduce the incoming mail to two-thirds before unloading them.

Be it so that the thought-for-the-day message is tapped from a solitary source, but gets presented by more than one. To delete one’s name will be to the discomfiture of the other. To retain both will be taxing the reader. To attribute authorship by turn will keep the Moderator on his toes.

Then there are persons, like Parasuram with a raised axe, ready to deliver fatal blows to any unsuspecting piece that comes their way. Am I supposed to prevail upon them to present their piece not with an archrival mindset, but to pack with content rather than contempt? To tone down myself such responses would be a horrendous task. And I am not supposed to do that either. But then can I let go such devastating attack unchecked?

To pre-empt such bombardment, one member has made a clever move. He ends his piece with a rider: “Not for debates or discussions, please.” Hopefully some respite for the Moderator.

If I am still left with time, I will take a chunk of it to block forwards that are already tired of several rounds.

Some in the garb of educating members on health, wealth or happiness, use the forum to promote their professional interests. I will get my terms of reference clear whether it will fall within my purview to discourage such publicity.

One member, unable to produce anything afresh, digs out decades-old pieces and makes a flamboyant display of his mediocre ability (Guessed who?). In such a case if the moderator and the contributor happens to be the same person, it will be difficult to decide whether to let him bask in his ‘past glory’.

Siva-ji, aren’t these sufficient to drive me mad in two days as a moderator?

V.V. Sundaram

www.vvsundaram.blogspot.com

25 January 2012