So you want to be a Mod?

Cat · 2010-09-21T10:12:43Z

A lot of people ask me how to become a Mod on N4G and the NewsBoiler Network. It’s not a closely guarded secret, so I’m sorry it took this long for me to post about some of the basic “criteria”. While it can be hard to quantify all the qualities that make a great Mod, here are a few things you can do if you want to work on becoming a good candidate for Mod on N4G! The biggest thing we look for are people that are really familiar with the site - all of the site! That means you should be exploring the comments section, the forums, user reviews and blogs, and of course, submitting news. Lets look at each of those in turn: Comments: We have a comments section! You don’t have to be a faithful commenter, but getting in there and replying to stories and comments you find interesting helps you to familiarize yourself with the members, frequent commenters, the commenting system. Knowing how things work is the key to being able to help other members if they run into problems. Plus, your comments help us get to know you! The Forums: Do you know where these are? Check ‘em out. Introduce yourself, make some posts, maybe even start a thread. Being active in the forums introduces you to a lot of the N4G regulars and important sections that members use to provide feedback, ask questions and voice complaints. Seeing the types of problems that arise and where the answers can be found is an important part of speedily helping members. User Reviews and Blogs: These are features on the site that you might overlook. For a mod it’s important to understand these features so that you can help out members that have questions. This means understanding appropriate content, how to effectively submit that content, and the sorts of things other members expect from these features. Submitting News: News is kind of like the juicy core of the site, so knowing the ins and outs of the submission process (from tips to top story) is important. We don’t expect or need you to be a top contributor, but learning to submit news and doing so regularly ensures that you know all the rules, all the exceptions, all the sticky points and what it’s like to be a contributor on N4G. It’s an important role to understand! Everything else: Have you tried out things like adding games to your channel? Adding friends? Uploading different avatars and images? Updating your status? Do you know where to find the TOU and the Guidelines? These are all small parts of a big site that members need help with - and the Mods to help them! "But what if I have warnings/restrictions?" Hey, we all make mistakes, and so far every member of the NewsBoiler staff is human, not robot. Remember, how you respond to warnings/restrictions often says a lot more about you than the warning/restriction itself! When you’re a good mod you’re both a member and a staffer, representing member feedback and issues and working to help them out when they run into problems. While we could come up with a feel-good list of personality traits that we think are ideal in a Mod, the reality is that everyone on a Mod team is different! Everyone brings something new, so be yourself, and of course: don’t call us, we’ll call you. ;)