Which Moderator is Online?

[sscritic]

When I want to report something to a moderator, I tend to report to names I know. Sometimes, it will be several hours before the moderator reads the PM (they have real lives too).

Is there a way to know which moderators are online so that my PM can reach someone with less of a delay?

P.S. I started a thread recently on memory loss. My memory tells me there used to be a list of moderators or users that were online at the bottom of (some of) the pages, but I don't see that anymore.

[The Wizard]

Would be best, I think, to have something akin to a Mod Forum.
Regular users could post to it, but not read it, due to sensitive info.
Moderators would have read access and could avoid duplicity of effort.

[simplesimon]

On the forum index at the bottom of the screen (in the box "Who is Online") it tells you who is currently logged in. Moderators will have their name in bold green letters. As of this writing, there doesn't seem to be any moderators logged in.

[Gabriella]

Hi sscritic,

If you click on "Forum" at the top of the main page, you'll see a box "Who Is Online" below the forum topics list. If a moderator is online, the username will appear in green.

Gabriella

[jcompton]

That said, it's odd that the forum doesn't offer a general "Report" feature like many others do. I'm not sure if it's not offered in the (clearly aging) version of phpBB run here, or if it is for some reason disabled. Either way, I'm quite certain phpBB offers it these days, so one way or another it should be possible for the administrators to enable it.

[sscritic]

simplesimon and Gabriella:

Thanks for the confirmation that my memory isn't totally gone.

Positive: I did remember that there was a place with the list of users online.
Negative: I couldn't remember where it was!

Perhaps the same information should be on the other index: http://www.bogleheads.org/

[JupiterJones]

That said, it's odd that the forum doesn't offer a general "Report" feature like many others do.

I concur. There was something spammy I saw a while back, and I remember looking for such a button (and being puzzled to not find one).

JJ

[tfb]

another vote for upgrading the forum software with this alert mod feature.

[Eric]

Is omitting a "report" button a bug . . . or a feature?

If it's too easy to contact a moderator, the moderators may be swamped with requests for action on borderline posts. A lot of minor problems will sort themselves out if ignored.

[NAVigator]

Is omitting a "report" button a bug . . . or a feature?

If it's too easy to contact a moderator, the moderators may be swamped with requests for action on borderline posts. A lot of minor problems will sort themselves out if ignored.

I agree.

There is a whole subforum devoted to "Forum Issues and Administration". Reporting a spammer or a violation of the forum rules is best done with a PM to a moderator, imho.

Jerry

[Taylor Larimore]

Our forum Adminstrator, Alex Frakt, is attending the Bogleheads Reunion. I am sure he will reply when he returns.

[stratton]

I was talking to Alex about this one night.

Evidently the next major revision of PHP BBS makes it easier to notify a moderator. The problem is getting the time to do the upgrade.

Paul

[CABob]

Just thought I would resurrect this conversation since I just saw what I judged to be spam as a first post by a user. What should I do?
Well, what I did do was to check to see who was online and found there was no moderator or administrator online.
So then my choices were to:
1. Forget about it and let someone else deal with it.
2. Send a PM to Administrator.
3. Send a PM to all (or several) Moderators.
4. Send PM to a Moderator selected at random.
My appreciation of this forum doesn’t make me want to select 1.
Selecting 3 seems like overkill and creates somewhat of a burden for many moderators, but, I don’t know who is apt to be online in the near future.
I selected door number 4. Sorry Mel you were chosen.
So my question remains, What should be done?

Edit:Well I guess something good happened. I went back to the conversation in question and it no longer exists so someone took care of it. My question still remains for the future.

[natureexplorer]

another vote for upgrading the forum software with this alert mod feature.

Why change a working system?

[fishnskiguy]

Just thought I would resurrect this conversation since I just saw what I judged to be spam as a first post by a user. What should I do?
Well, what I did do was to check to see who was online and found there was no moderator or administrator online.
So then my choices were to:
1. Forget about it and let someone else deal with it.
2. Send a PM to Administrator.
3. Send a PM to all (or several) Moderators.
4. Send PM to a Moderator selected at random.
My appreciation of this forum doesn’t make me want to select 1.
Selecting 3 seems like overkill and creates somewhat of a burden for many moderators, but, I don’t know who is apt to be online in the near future.
I selected door number 4. Sorry Mel you were chosen.
So my question remains, What should be done?

You did fine. I took care of it two minutes after you posted to that spam.

Chris

[CABob]

You did fine. I took care of it two minutes after you posted to that spam.

Chris

Thanks, Chris.

[Alex Frakt]

I still need to update the forum software.

That said, we now catch spam fairly quickly. Whichever one of us is the first to get up in the morning (usually Mel), goes to the memberlist and checks on first posts by new members. I'll do the same a couple of times throughout the day. Most spammers are pretty obvious so we can weed them out with this initial check.

By all means if you see something, let us know by sending a PM to either an online mod or one or two of your favorites. Even though we are pretty good at finding obvious spam, other problems like politics and personal attacks will slip by unnoticed unless we get a PM.