I venture back on to the .com forums even though I hate the design every bit as much as when I left for ever and ever and ever the other day, because I actually missed the place. (Compared to .org, it took me ages to get to my first leaving for ever and ever and ever, and when I did it was because of something stupid staff did rather than the posters or the volunteers.) And fairly quickly I stumble upon wank.
Sigh. Once more, I see, staff have made a decision from on high, have not bothered to consult or inform the regulars, and are nowhere to be found when it comes to dealing with the fallout. The authority of your new moderator gets undermined because it looks like you’re trying to sneak his new powers in under the radar and are scared to announce it to anyone. I don’t know whether this is because trent has only actually been active on the forums for three weeks. I don’t know whether he was consulted about becoming a mod or whether it was thrust upon him unasked for, as it was upon drmike. He seems pretty friendly with staff, judging by his blogroll, and is a mod on the bbpress forums. So I don’t whether he just started helping out like the rest of us, or whether he was asked to do so a few weeks ago with a view to becoming a mod. Either way, it looks much more like an Automattic appointment than a wordpress.com community one.
If the process had been a little less cloak-and-dagger I wouldn’t be wondering about this stuff. I would just be ‘yay! new moderator! about time!’ But like I keep saying, if you run around hiding things, it makes people wonder what you’ve got to hide.
wordpress™ wank 
les_tor said
Odds are, Trent just asked for it.
Related? http://comox.textdrive.com/pipermail/wp-forums/2006-November/004059.html
that girl again said
Oh my god. I’d completely forgotten the weird guy who came into wp-forums touting for mod status! Well, it worked for him on bbpress, according to his blog. Maybe he tried the same trick again, and since the powers that be are supremely indifferent to what happens on the forums they thought they’d let him have at it.
Wank’s Law of Forum Moderation, based upon years of observing the behaviour of people who post in forums, states that the desire to become a mod is inversely proportionate to the candidate’s suitability for the post. That said, I don’t actually care whether people are motivated by a desire to help others, a desire for hits or a desire for a job at Automattic, as long as the users get the support.
HandySolo said
I feel I should be offended… but that had me chuckle out loud. Great law 😀
that girl again said
Everyone, please go and read the forum thread. It’s got about four million times more entertaining since I wrote this post a couple of hours ago.
spencerp said
He is a good person in general though, and has been helping a lot lately. In the .ORG forums that is, I’m not sure about the .COM forums though, I’m hardly ever there. But yes, he had come forth and asked for Moderator status in the wp-forums email list, and in the bbDev email list.
Though, he hasn’t been granted a Moderator status in the .ORG, I’m just wondering how long it will be until he does become one there though.. (He probably won’t become one there though, because the “jobs” are full now. Lloyd B recently became one, as well as MichealH and Samboll.)
I do think it’s funny though, not long after I talked with him on Google Talk about my whole moderator status begin removed, and telling him that someone said they thought it was funny that he asked for Moderator status on the .ORG, even though he had hardly ever posted there before, that since then he started being more active on the .ORG forums again, and so forth.
Since not long after talking with him on Google Talk about that stuff, he removed me from his Google Talk contacts list, and started only going up hill in the “status” ranks in various places. Of course though, if you don’t associate yourself with “spencerp” in any way, shape or form, you’ll be able to reach those highest peaks in the WordPress community! LOL!
I guess since he couldn’t become a Moderator on the .ORG forums, they made him one on the .COM forums..? IMHO, if it counts at all, they probably shouldn’t have made him a .COM moderator though, because he wasn’t there much, he wasn’t posting there that much either, until just recently. But, he isn’t a bad person though, he does help where ever he can, and I can’t see him becoming the next me either..
I do agree with the fact that they shouldn’t be doing things like this, without everyone’s knowing about it though. I can’t really talk too much though, because that happened with me basically. Even though I did help a lot in the .ORG forums before becoming a Moderator.. Well shoot, I didn’t even ask to be one, MarkR (Podz) just made me one.. LOL!
All in all, Trent is a good guy. And he does help a lot of people when ever, and where ever he can. Congrats to Trent on this, and to Chris (HandySolo ) for getting the “Moderator+” status.. 😉 🙂 @Wank, I apologize for the nasty things I had said before, and the way I acted towards you on here, and in general.
drmike said
*chuckle* At least someone else noticed that I had moderatorship “thrust upon” myself.
Do note that I started my post that you mention in this post becuase I did not know what was going on. I was in the dark and seriously thought it was an error.
How to deceive and abuse and get away with it « wpbloggingtips: a wordpress resource blog said
[…] I’m in agreement with wank who says: “The whole thing has, as usual, been handled appallingly. Even if she isn’t directly responsible for the sudden wave of banning, censoring and general discourtesy to volunteers, she’s going to end up blamed for it because the timing is just too much of a coincidence and the secrecy has made her look shady (again). […]