CmdrWilkens wrote:RedImperator wrote:Thanas wrote:^I don't think we need any more mods in testing - Surlethe is on the ball already and several (mini-)mods/senators already participate in it, me included.
I don't think so either. I was just throwing my name out there in case it really was too much of a drain on mods' time to change the policy. That should put an end to that particular objection.
Two things:
1) I've yet to see a mod (not a mini-mod) chime in in support of this so I'm just wondering if the time issue is one that is out there. Let me clarify that i have no way of knowing but when the only super-mods and mods I've seen have argued against ending the lock it makes me doubt the time issue.
Then let me speak in my capacity as 1) a former supermod, and 2) one who volunteered to oversee Testing for a while: Testing is piss-easy to moderate, would take almost no time even without the page 3 lock, and I'm preemptively calling bullshit on any mod who might claim otherwise.
Let me explain why Testing is easy:
1. No forum topic. That means that the only threads you have to move are the occasional ones which have drifted onto a main forum topic
and are good enough to merit saving from the autoprune.
2. Unlimited editing for users. You never have to fix broken tags.
3. Almost no flamewars.
4. Low pressure. Since nothing but the best stuff is saved for posterity and Testing's content is generally silly, you're not worried about fucking up as a mod.
5. It is a silly place. The practical result of this is that you almost never have to split, merge, move, lock or unlock anything. In fact, my guess is that removing the autolock would
reduce the number of mod actions taken in Testing, not increase them.
6. Autoprune. Seriously, autoprune alone makes Testing a piece of cake. No matter what you do, it's getting flushed in a few days.
The only things you have to watch for in Testing are these:
1. Serious rule violations. Since mods should be checking for these all the time anyway, it doesn't matter if you're searching one six page thread or two three page threads. And since you should stay on top of your threads, it shouldn't matter if a thread goes to ten pages or something, because you should have at least been glancing at the previous nine as they went up. And the Report button really makes this much easier; Warsie's little stunt would have been shut down in five minutes if that had existed at the time.
2. +1 spam. And really, it should take about ten seconds for any experienced mod to spot this. Shit, half the time, I can tell when a thread has turned to spam from the
outside, just judging by who's posting, what's the topic, and how fast it's growing (similarly, I can usually tell if a flamewar is going on without even opening a thread; if it's in N&P, has ballooned five pages in the last day, and Axis Kast is the most recent poster, I'd bet my car on it).
2) Volunteering is great and I would honestly assume that given your past mod history that there would be no objection but as the Senate (were it to vote on the issue) lacks the power to make you a mod again I would prefer confirmation that this would be an acceptable stand by.
The point is moot because Surlethe and Thanas are semi-regular Testing contributors and I see no evidence fgalkin and Bean are ready to just let Testing do whatever it wants. Plus Ghost Rider is occasionally in there, too. That's more mod attention than I feel like fucking N&P gets, sometimes.
