Who will Bell the Cat ?

The Thin Line – Moderating Biking groups.

Being a moderator is no easy task – You have to brush aside your personal preferences, egos, and bias and even sometimes kill your jealousy, anger by saying please and try to be a neutral person. This is not for your interest. It is in the larger interest of the Group and its members.
As a moderator, the group and its members are larger than everything. And as in a democracy, most of the times the majority wins.

E-Groups are all about communication and sharing of ideas,experiences, pictures, videos, meetings and all fun the related group can have crossing the boundaries of distance and time worldwide. We all live only once.– And we may never meet many of the people in the group.

The moderator has to draw the line in many cases relating to comments or information by the members. Diplomacy, patience, tolerance and a persuasive nature are the main ingredients.
One of the Primary concerns of the moderator should be to ensure that the members are not attacking other members in the group through comments of the nature of – Racism, Hate, Political views, Abusing with foul language. Etc.

More importantly, “the moderator should control his language” irrespective of the outbursts of the groups members. If the moderator starts using the same language – he basically stops being a moderator and joins the Hoi Polloi. So basically then you have a Group that “does not have a NEUTRAL moderator”. This results in a fend for yourself situation where the group members have a choice to either support the Moderator or the supposed offender who posted the (ok or not ok) remark. Or have a field day …saying whatever they want.

This is a wanton waste of Time and Energy.

Again if the moderator finds some remark unsuitable, asking for an apology in the “first instance” is TOTALLY WRONG unless it’s that gross or a national crime!

Group members are valuable people. The moderator has to respect them and act diplomatically. We live in a free country and can voice our opinions. The moderator’s victory lies in restoring peace in the forum in the event of a controversial remark, and by retaining members from leaving the forum. So basically by his moderation he can make or break a Group.

I do hope this helps in making better e-group moderators.

BT