djmoody said:

Can we have some experienced moderators please.

I would suggest moderators should have:

- been playing the game for over 1 year min

- extensive knowledge and experience of the game mechanics

- have significant history of posting to the forum

- are well connected and known within the game and respected within the community

I vote DJ Moody for moderator!!!

Jezebel said:

djmoody said:

Can we have some experienced moderators please.

I would suggest moderators should have:

- been playing the game for over 1 year min

- extensive knowledge and experience of the game mechanics

- have significant history of posting to the forum

- are well connected and known within the game and respected within the community

I vote DJ Moody for moderator!!!

I 2nd that vote!!!

djmoody said:

This is extremely important when one considers that the forum mods don't just moderate the forums but are given unique access to inside information and the ability to directly voice coms with Plarium staff. They could be a huge positive force in improving the game.... if they understood it at all.

Is this a good idea for active players to have access to inside information?

Such as letting a leagues members know that BG mechanics were going to be changed before they were changed.

djmoody said:

Can we have some experienced moderators please.

I would suggest moderators should have:

- been playing the game for over 1 year min

- extensive knowledge and experience of the game mechanics

- have significant history of posting to the forum

- are well connected and known within the game and respected within the community

We seem to have picked up 2 new moderators recently. You have kindly added a mechanism which tells us how experienced they are by adding the unique user ID to the forums (the ID is sequential). Both moderators are 1.1m+ which clearly marks them out as complete noobs. Nice people I am sure, who through no fault of their own meet no sensible criteria.

The last point is extremely important. For there to be any legitimacy for people to be given powers above and beyond the rest of us and for us to quietly accept that, there is a need for us to respect their authority.

This is extremely important when one considers that the forum mods don't just moderate the forums but are given unique access to inside information and the ability to directly voice coms with Plarium staff. They could be a huge positive force in improving the game.... if they understood it at all.

Can we please end the appointment of random new players who don't know anything about the game, have no feel for the tone of the forums and state of the developer/player relationship and who haven't been around long enough to have contributed anything to have gained any respect from anyone.

It doesn't do anyone any good.

I think this applies to me and Nemanja?
Well to give you hint do not look on date when we registered on the forum ;)

brunsonthomas said:

I am one of the newest moderators. Why am I here? To help people understand the game and how it works. How did I get here? I volunteered and passed the required criteria and a probation period. Am I the best qualified, probably not,but I learn quickly, I have computer experience, 35 years. Programming experience, software knowledge, management experience. I have developed language skills and empathy with frustrated people. What else would you like to know that I can reveal without revealing proprietary or personal information not relevant to the game?

what is Your in game name

what are coords to your castle

what league you play with

how long you have been playing

which server you play on, or both

how much inside access do you get

do you know when beacon drops will come

what is the tax rate on the battlegrounds

why were the battlegrounds changed

can  you see my account and whats in my castle

what is your contact chain to the developers

Where is it that you applied for role of moderator

what were the criteria

lets just start with these. there are thousands more perfectly relevant questions on the forum, the easy ones first.

Drogar61 said:

If these are easier questions, how will look harder? 

P.S.: First two are crucial. 

There is a post he made in another topic 27 hours an 53 minutes after the post in this topic that gives enough info to find location and coords

lords and ladies 

NONE of these questions will define whether a moderator is equipped to be a moderator or not 

i will look at things from a different view :-

1) why would moderators know inside information ??

they will not be able to share it in the forum and there is no way they share it inside the game with friends, league mates without being exposed

and even if they use it for their own advantage without sharing how would they do that 

example:-

- beacon drops 

this requires an entire league to be an unfair advantage in addition even if the moderator is the marshal there would be no chance for him to use the advantage without being exposed and with spies in nearly every league how hard till exposed to the entire game

if a league starts winning on every beacon drop wouldn't the big leagues notice (unless he is in one but competition between top leagues is high he would be exposed immediately) 

2) why would plarium give such an advantage to a moderator, how would he use it for the forums 

 the only way this is an advantage is in game and that means a player with big armies or a very powerful league (always one step ahead)  how is that good for plarium 

what i mean here is that giving moderators inside info DOES not make any sense and has NO good for plarium or the game what so ever 

3) moderators do not have inside information if they do they will be noticed and you all will have an evidence to share here in forums

and that would be something that makes no sense 

moderator tasks are restricted for the forums only 

all they need is info about the game (means that they play it)

there are some experienced moderators and some who is not bottom line is that they answer the questions they can based on their knowledge 

if it is wrong then some players corrects it or  community managers corrects it or a different moderator with more experience and knowledge corrects it 

how is that a big problem and why do you feel current moderators are not experienced some of them ARE experienced

my conclusion is 

moderators do NOT have inside access

there is a whole moderation team not just one person and they all answer to the best they can and there is always a community manager to follow up

and a player becomes a moderator because they satisfied the minimum amount of knowledge and experience required

plarium.com/forum/en/stormfall-age-of-war/suggestions-and-feedback/topics/on-searching-for-key-words/1/#144166/" target="_blank">http://plarium.com/forum/en/stormfall-age-of-war/suggestions-and-feedback/topics/on-searching-for-key-words/1/#144166/

here is one.   a moderator responded by saying the forum search works fine for him. Thats a lie. it is a known bug that if you search the forum you get results from several games, not just stormfall. how could it have been fine for him?!

either he didnt even try the search, and lied about trying or ....if he did try the search, he lied about it working.  

My experience

First of all I want to say "Thank you" to everyone who involved in this discussion. Seeing that you, guys, care about the Forum and about all players is the best thing, I can imagine working as a Community Manager.

As I always say, Moderators are regular players who want to spend their free time helping other players. They don't need to be aware of Beacons drops, of BGs mechanics and so on, 'cause they are players. Just try to imagine how hard it is to find someone with huge experience, deep knowledge in the game, great experience in management, and outstanding communication skills. On top of that this player must be ready to spend 4+ hours on looking through the Forum helping everyone and cleaning all the swearings. Unfortunately, it is impossible to find candidates  who will fill all those requirements.

Every our moderator is ready to help you, guys, and answer your questions. They are here to do this. I'm here to do this.

To close this topic, I want to say that our requirements and questions that we send to our candidates indicate how good the possible moderator is and give us a full picture of all strong and weak sides of a candidate. After comparing all the result, we decide whether we are ready to offer the position or not. This is a complicated process.

Anyone could become a moderator. 

I answered all questions and explained our process. I'm closing this topic. Thanks everyone for the discussion. 

Ok I have managed to get the thread to a point where ppl feel they have to justify themselves which was never the point. It's a fine line to critique the system and not the people. I kind of think it should be possible but its quite possible to also stir up emotions.

Hopefully the posts to date have thrown some seeds out there that the system can be improved though.

Changing tack to something less contentious which won't raise the temperature.....

Out of interest which versions of the game do you play?

My Lords,

my role as Forum moderator  is to preserve the culture of dialogue and advise less experienced players.

The general principle is fair play and, because of that, we have access to the same information's as any of you. 

I play Stormfall for 5 years. I'm not at the leading position in my league.

Members of my league do not even know that I'm Forum moderator cause it did not think it would help those players or improve communication in the Forum.

SlopranoDark said:

Greetings Lords and Ladies,

From where the sudden distrust towards us moderators Lord Turok? Our intention is and has always been helping the players whom need it on the forums. 

Greetings Lords and Ladies,

From where the sudden distrust towards us moderators Lord Turok? Our intention is and has always been helping the players whom need it on the forums. I do understand the frustrations and all the confusions however, if there is an issue regarding one or several moderators, please contact a Community Manager or Administrator instead of spreading the words on the forums. In my eyes this can be considered a light variation of hate-speech, but that's my opinion.

I'm always here to help, if there's really something urgent that's not related to stuff meant for the Support Team, feel free to contact me by message! I can assume fellow moderators are there for you all too! 

We're a team, made for helping the beloved players out here, not to pester or to be annoying. I hope you understand!

IronApex Turok said:

brunsonthomas said:

I am one of the newest moderators. Why am I here? To help people understand the game and how it works. How did I get here? I volunteered and passed the required criteria and a probation period. Am I the best qualified, probably not,but I learn quickly, I have computer experience, 35 years. Programming experience, software knowledge, management experience. I have developed language skills and empathy with frustrated people. What else would you like to know that I can reveal without revealing proprietary or personal information not relevant to the game?

what is Your in game name

what are coords to your castle

what league you play with

how long you have been playing

which server you play on, or both

how much inside access do you get

do you know when beacon drops will come

what is the tax rate on the battlegrounds

why were the battlegrounds changed

can  you see my account and whats in my castle

what is your contact chain to the developers

Where is it that you applied for role of moderator

what were the criteria

lets just start with these. there are thousands more perfectly relevant questions on the forum, the easy ones first.

It depends on which server, but yes I play both servers. If you watch my screen shots I do not hide. However rules say we do not show coordinates.

I am in a league on both servers. Neither have a beacon yet.

I do not have accessto inside information and even if I did I would not release it to anyone, including league mates.

To date, I have been given no more information on beacons than you.

The battlegrounds were changed because a few players figured out how to beat the system. That error in programming was fixed.

I can see what any other player can see in your castle.

I have a Skype link to the International Help Desk and other moderators.

On this forum they requested volunteers and I had to answer a multitude of test scenarios and pass a probation period.

Volunteer and findout what the criteria is.

On very weird way moderators took place of Administrators, even I would like to see Developer or Designer rather than Administrator.

Simple name of role isn't match to what we need.

I agree that moderators have just a simple job: to keep forum live.

But, from time to time moderators take not own role and open Pandora's box. I don't know if they do that by their will or someone smart enough push them in hell. That is main problem in forum.

We can share many info if we want and ask different questions. We have Juglar as mod for long time, and maybe once or twice he said something what started not nice discussion. Almost for forget.

Why no one has hard words with communication with Juglar is question and answer for many last situation where moderators were on pan.

Also, Alyona isn't enough to answer on our questions, but she is only one who speak with us as Plarium person. We need more.

In that case, moderators could be focused on really hard job, keeping forum clean and readable.

When mods take wrong role, very quickly conversation becomes ugly. And that is nothing more than wasting time.

It seems that someone have benefit when we are wasting time, and mods pays for that benefit.

There is no shame do not know, it's a shame to be stupid.