There would seem to be little point in nominating candidates, unless said nominees had expressed their willingness to act as moderators by throwing their hats into the ring.
The word “moderation” means the avoidance of extremes, but already in this first thread about moderator selection, there is a strong US bias amongst the names that have been mentioned thus far. In my view, that was one of the things that was wrong with this board in days gone by, and which led to jingoism in the post-911 era, with many heated exchanges and closed topics as the result.
Looking to its title, I would have thought this thread was to be a discussion about a process to decide upon new moderators. But with some nominees already indicating their acceptance of the role, it’s beginning to look as if this thread has become the process of selection, and that's no way to do it.
Some people have in the past made the chest thumping proclamation that “this is a US board”, only to be corrected by HTC and reminded that we are an international community, composed of people from perhaps as many as 40 different countries. Therefore, moderators should come from different parts of the world – not saying we need 40 though! To arrive at a balanced, ie “moderate” team of moderators, it would be wrong to have 90% of them from the same country without a secret ballot such as a pop-up poll in the game. (If that does indeed elect a panel composed 90% of a single nationality, then so be it) Otherwise the contest becomes based on “who shouts the loudest” – a bit like the “show of hands” strike votes held by British trade unions in the 1970s.
My comments are not borne of any malice towards America, or any of the people whose names have appeared thus far. But any student of Britain’s political history since 1997 up until 05/05/2005 will see that when one camp is heavily overrepresented, democracy ends and decisions are simply railroaded through. The key is balance, so…
My list – straffo, dowding, nilsen, nashwan – already mentioned. In addition, cpxxx. We need the land down under to be represented, so tronski and vulcan. To keep my list balanced ie moderate, which is what it’s all about, I’d nominate one further American who I believe would do a good job – DMF/Levi.
