There's no secret to the magical process of becoming a member of our community support team. It's Wizardry 101.

No, seriously... We recruit new moderators when we feel the team has dwindled to a too low number to handle the number of forums, posts and members we have, as old moderators retire or lose interest in the responsibility of the job. This happens about twice a year, sometimes more often.

Moderators are nominated by the team itself, from the existing membership. What are the criteria? We're looking for members who've been here at least 6 months, who have a good head on their shoulders, appear to use common sense, can listen to and respond to feedback appropriately, appear to be empathetic and caring in their replies to others, appear to have the time to moderate, are here almost every day, and have never gotten into any serious trouble with other members.

We do take self-nominations, and they are considered equally as others. If you volunteer for a moderator position and we decline your offer, it doesn't necessarily mean you don't have the qualities we're looking for. Sometimes we're just full up with enough moderators.

Note that seniority is not a criteria for becoming a moderator. While we appreciate all of our older members here, it's not how we choose members for our community support team.

Somewhere between 30-40 percent of the members we contact decline our invitation to join the team, usually because of time constraints or simply they don't want the added responsibility of moderating.

I choose administrators or super-moderators in cooperation and consultation with the existing administrators when we feel the team or community would benefit from additional help at that level.

Hope this helps clarify the process and removes the mystery from it.

Best,
DocJohn