Appointment of a Non-Indian mod?

[1.44]

As DFI grows so will the number of member from different nationalities.
I have been wondering on the appointment of a mod from a fast growing community(non-Indian) so as to make the members feel more-at-home discussing various topics and get equal representation among the administration of DFI.
I have spoken to the mods about this but was hoping to get the opinion of some members.
Any feedback would be helpful and appreciated.

Regards
Rohit

 

[tarunraju]

AV is from Russia?

A moderator's job is to moderate, not opinionate (when moderating), so the process of moderation itself is mechanical, and hence it shouldn't matter if he's from India or from somewhere else. Maybe the existing moderators can set their flags and location fields blank if it makes others feel any better.

 

[dineshchaturvedi]

I am ok with it. We are more libral and we should be ok with it. However he should earn his place not just because we need someone.

 

[tarunraju]

I think the one thing that warrants mods from outside India is distribution of them based on time-zone. So there's coverage 24/7.

 

[qsaark]

While something like this will certainly prove a trend setter or a ‘trend breaker’, the preference MUST go to the Indian nationals as it is their right. I believe with all honesty that there are already well deserving Indian nationals in the queue waiting for their dedication with this forum to be acknowledged by the administration.

This forum is already offering the ‘Star’ membership to the non-Indian nationals, which by itself is something very unusual and in my opinion quite sufficient an incentive.

 

[Rage]

I second this suggestion thoroughly. As was discussed prior, the inclusion of a non-Indian mod among the executive serves as a gesture of goodwill rather than a purely functional decorum. It also gives our non-Indian members a say and a stake in the running of this forum. The proposal mooted was to have a 'guest moderator', by rotation, for each of the three international subsections- the Indian subcontinent section, the NATO & Eastern Europe section and the Asean and Far East section.


Members that qualify as potential candidates for each of these would be those members that possess a high degree of ratiocination, have demonstrable maturity and moderation in their posts, are deemed not to have any subversive intent, and are willing and able to dedicate a part of their time towards their moderation obligations- members that come most immediatlely to mind are qsaark, musalman, leonblack and Kabuli for the Subcontinent section, Vladimir or ZmeySmirnoff, Office of Engineers or even Tankie for the NATO/Russia subforum, and for lack of a present better alternative, yang or badguy for the ASEAN section. The idea is to have each of these moderators moderate for a fixed duration - perhaps a period of a month - with the mantle passed on to other members deemed fit for the gesture once the period is over. Of course, members can be re-elected after they have been elected once, as will likely happen if for instance they have found to be most germane to the task or there is a paucity of suitable other alternatives.


However, as also discussed, so as to avoid unnecessary controversy and to refrain from any fortuituous brouhaha that might ensue from the wrong-taking of a decision of such a mod by one of the members, it was suggested that such 'guest moderators' be subjected to the ultimate authority and scrutiny of our existing mods- so that any decision that is deemed to be callous or unfair or not keeping in with the decorum of this forum- the Defence Forum of India, by such a mod, would be reversed or anulled in accordance with the decisions of our regular mods or a supermod. Members are also assured that any violation, misuse or misdirection of their powers by a 'guest mod'. would result in the immediate, possible permanent removal of that mod, and the debarment of that mod from any future consideration in line with and pending the ultimate decision of the mods.

 

[ppgj]

a welcome step. deserves to be taken forward.

 

[NSG_Blackcats]

I am not sure about the inclusion of a non-Indian moderator. The pros and cons of including a non Indian moderator are to be calculated by DFI Management. DFI is offering Star membership to non Indian member which is a big gesture. We have also Military Pros and Think tank from different countries. Now how including non Indian moderator is going to have an effect on non Indian members is debatable. Does the current DFI Management feel that the Indian Moderators are biased? I do not think so.

The job of moderation is 24*7. So if DFI members feel they need some moderator in other time zone; they can appoint Indian members living in other time zone. As per me this is an Indian defense forum and all the moderators, Senior Moderators and Administrator should be Indian. Now if you want to appoint non Indian moderators for the sake of making the forum different one; it is a different issue.

 

[tarunraju]

Does the current DFI Management feel that the Indian Moderators are biased? I do not think so.
Now if you want to appoint non Indian moderators for the sake of making the forum different one; it is a different issue.

If I were to answer that, not at all. You have plenty of Americans, Chinese, Pakistanis, speaking their minds.

Since finding something not deserving of a posting, and closing/deleting threads, penalizing members, etc., is more of a mechanical thing than something to do with the mod's opinion on the issue, you can make any level-headed person a mod.

 

[A.V.]

ok guys this is quite a sensitive issue and has been addressed many a time on the shoutbox or via PM.

as a dfi staff member and admin of the forum i would like to make some things very clear
1. from the start dfi was not averse to getting staff of various origins into its management team and this does not include only moderators there are a lot of senior members on the forum who form a very important part in directing the affairs of the forum which many of you might not know but i will clear up the confusion

2.a lot of core members are given the addition responsibility and one fine example in this regard is the creation of the member of the month, also we have the dfi buzz of the week which is maintained by the DFI TEAM comprising of daredevil,rage,pintu and sohamsri who although are not moderators presently but have independent saying forum matters and direction
recently we have introduced the dfi technocrat team led by satish and p2prada they will lead the forum in technical discussions, we are also on advanced stages of deciding other dfi team members as well where we will have foreign nationals serving as mentors/guides/ambassadors for their own countrymen and guiding the forum discussions

we have the respected MP who have a big say in management decisions already and the mps are not chosen based on nationality


when dfi came into existence we had an open invitation for all members who would like to apply for the post of moderators , the details can be seen on the announcement section
we choose the first mod team from there depending on their credentials there we no nationality requirement to apply for the job
subsequent moderators were chosen depending on the contribution and experience


dfi would also like to announce that shorty we will be making an open application to all members irrespective of nationalities who can form as a part of the dfi team and ready be be the face of the forum details on announcement section soon.


now the most important part about the moderators, let this be clear that choosing moderators is not a democratic election its a serious job that required a lot of dedication , you can get an idea by looking at our mod team here how much they work during the course of a day, at times we almost miss enjoying the forum because we have to do the moderation duties. many have proposed rotating mods or elections every year while we have heard them patiently but we the DFI management do not exactly share the same idea because we have set high standards and even moderation where we work as a team and not as an individual making changes to a team does not help at all and we are not for it

as per the recent data we have the largest dedicated and hardworking mod team around compared to the member to mod ratio at a given time there will always be a minimum 2 staff members online, most of the time we are in invisible mode but any problems are attended to at the earliest by the team always
we are not against having moderator of foreign nationals as is made clear by our present team which are so diverse their their own way yet work as a team always, so in the future when we look to add more staff members we will not look at nationality as a criteria that has never been the case before as well.

if you have spent a while on DFI one thing will come out strongly in our handling of forum affairs that we are nationality blind,religious blind what we are not bind to is low quality posts and members

 

[A.V.]

i hope i have made all the points clear about staff appointment , more details will be on announcement section soon
purpose of the thread fulfilled and addressed in detail so thread remains closed for posting