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Dear Cupid > Forums > Site Feedback > A question to fellow Moderators

A question to fellow Moderators

Jadzia1127, posted over a year ago

I am wondering if other moderators have observed this?

I have noticed questions that have been waiting to be authorized for over 400 minutes (that's over 6 hours) with over 10 other questions sitting for more then 2 hours, but there are hardly any or no answers at all waiting to be approved.

I have also had the moderator box appear and I went to log on but was told someone else was there. So I went back to answering a question. A few minutes later the box reappears with the answers gone but all the questions still there.

This seems to becoming more and more frequent. Maybe it is a computer glitch because I doubt that most moderators would neglect the desperate questioners waiting for help.

Or maybe I just log in at weird times when people need a lot of help, but don't have any answers.

I would like to know if any other moderators have witnessed the disappearing answers?

Posted on 26 September 2006 @ 23:16 (London time) - permalink
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, posted over a year ago

I think it's because answers are way quicker to moderate than questions. Questions involve reading it in its entirely, formulising a suitable question header and then categorising it.

Answers, on the other hand, involve more of a quick scan-read to check their suitability.

Posted on 27 September 2006 @ 0:17 (London time) - permalink
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Toria, posted over a year ago

I had that tonight, although with me I actually got to log in and there was more answers than questions and as I was about to start checking through the questions my PC crashed, when I came back the screen came up, I went to log back in and someone else was already logged in so like you I continued answering questions and the screen come back up after about 10 minutes to find only questions there to be checked and no answers.

Toria :o)

Posted on 27 September 2006 @ 5:0 (London time) - permalink
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Wendyg, posted over a year ago

Yeah its happend to me at times, but never really thought much about it.

The answers that seem not to be there, even though it says log in there are answers, I always thought was someone logging in when they shouldnt and knowing it, so approve the answers but realise someone else will be on so wont approve the questions..

Have had instance where others have still logged in (not always had the red bar to tell them to!) at the same time as me and have approved the same question! Ie im busy reading,editing it and it disappears! or gets another title to the one I gave! thats annoying! As have spent a fair amount of time reading it and so on!

As for the question being there for 400 mins, I tend to think thats someone not approving the question and hoping someone else will log in and give it a title, or they are maybe not sure whether to approve it or not. I have noticed that quite a bit that the most recent have been approved and they have left the older ones. So i do think that some are logging in when told to, approving the odd one and not the rest, hence others then getting the red bar which just adds to the confsion lol. I have also noticed though,if you log out by accident the site will still tell you to log in if it knows there are things awaiting .. Ie i closed it cos the boss came in, 2 mins later I went back on, red bar came up, it said someone else already logged on, there wasnt, it was still in the mode that i left it and hadnt refreshed so thought I was logged on still. Think it takes like 5-10mins sometimes to refresh. To be sure I dont log in but wait a few mins ... So this might be why you keep seeing the red bar as it thinks you need to log in as there are questions etc still waiting.

You can look at the other stats screen click the link on the main page right hand side and see if there are questions/answers waiting also, to give you a good idea if someone else is in there moderating (ie by refreshing the screen it will reduce the number waiting if someone else is in there) or it just didnt refresh when you logged out. I think the system will continue to flash with the red bar until the number of questions is reduced, so sometimes someone may just log on to approve the answers(dont know why) but thats the feeling im getting, and not the questions so the system then flags it up.

Posted on 27 September 2006 @ 9:38 (London time) - permalink
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DearCupid, posted over a year ago

Hi guys

This is because sometimes people logon and just moderate the answers (as Pete says, it takes much less time). There is then a small time-lag (minutes, I think) in which the system will wait until it becomes "safe" to display the logon message triggered by the remaining questions.

Does this answer it?

Ideally people would moderate any really old questions they see... but everyone is a volunteer and any effort is appreciated!

I am going to put some stats online soon so we can see the "output" of the various moderators (via the management system - not public). Should be useful info.

Andrew.

Andrew

Posted on 27 September 2006 @ 11:23 (London time) - permalink
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Yos, posted over a year ago

fyi I've tried moderating a couple of times recently and got a 'you don't have priviledges' message. I was getting javascript bugs before (i'm using a mac) so it might be something to do with that. Doesn't sound like it though

Posted on 27 September 2006 @ 12:58 (London time) - permalink
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DearCupid, posted over a year ago

Hi Yos

Sounds odd..

Can you take a screengrab/note of the exact message next time?

Most mods should be able to do most things but questions over I think 3 days old can't be modified... basically in case someone loses their details to someone malicious and they try and trash the whole database.

Thanks!

Andrew

Posted on 27 September 2006 @ 13:23 (London time) - permalink
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, posted over a year ago

- "I am going to put some stats online soon so we can see the "output" of the various moderators (via the management system - not public). Should be useful info."

... along with the moderators forum, Andrew ;)

Peter

Posted on 27 September 2006 @ 17:1 (London time) - permalink
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, posted over a year ago

I know as a moderator I check in at various times of the day, as well. I do agree that sometimes if I have time contraints in place, I can't always review the questions, right away. I will scan the answers quickly and accurately and post them, just to get them out there on the site. Like Peter says, reviewing the questions does take more time. I think the question askers do realize there is a 24 hour time frame, to expect their questions to go up on the site. It clearly states this, in the 'ask a question' window. Four hundred minutes equals basically 6 hours-so this is not the time to go into panic mode. Like Andrew says, we are all volunteers and he understands it takes time to getting those questions posted. If you see questions getting up to 800-1000 minutes, (I've seen them upwards of 900 or so) then you know...it's time to move our butts and get them out there on the site.

One other thing, and I have to say this.:) I hate those little ampersand thingys that question askers use, instead of writing out the word "and". I have painstakingly went over some loooong questions looking for those little suckers and it drives me bonky sometimes...lol Andrew, is there any way to let question askers know NOT to use those thingys? Or do you have some way, of working your system to accept this, in the future? That's all I have to say. Have a great day, everyone!! :D

Posted on 27 September 2006 @ 17:53 (London time) - permalink
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, posted over a year ago

Ooops..I made a mistake!I stated that question askers could see their questions posted within 24 hours. Wow..was I off the beaten track. I thought I had read that at one time? But in fact, under the site's FAQ, it clearly states that questions are posted within 12 hours! Would love to blame my error on forgetfulness and and baaad eyes, but I can't! lol An oversight on my part. So moderators..I was wrong. Apologies for that.

Posted on 27 September 2006 @ 20:33 (London time) - permalink
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DearCupid, posted over a year ago

Pete - yes the mods forum is on my imminent list! Did you see I had made the answer box bigger for you!?

Irish - I say 12 hrs but I'd like to aim for much quicker than that... I'll dig out a stat on average time-to-publication. I am recruiting new mods to help speed things up but it's a slow progress because I purposefully don't want to add people to quickly and only those I think I can trust!

Irish - the ampersand bug is going to get fixed within 2 weeks, I promise!

Andrew

Posted on 28 September 2006 @ 10:19 (London time) - permalink
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tux, posted over a year ago

yeha that & is a pain :) nothing like going through a question and seeking to kill them :)

Posted on 28 September 2006 @ 18:16 (London time) - permalink
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tux, posted over a year ago

as for some older ones.. I think it's right to say that some questions are so questionable to decide whether or not they are postable or not to which I wont accept or decline them because they are too borderline for me.. perhaps we could use a feedback comment box on those to which we can put our thoughts on it for the next mod to look at..

Posted on 28 September 2006 @ 18:19 (London time) - permalink
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DearCupid, posted over a year ago

Hi Tux - I'd prefer to keep the management system as simple as possible...

If you're not confident just leave it and somewhere along the line someone will make a decision. To be honest I'd rather you just made the call, if it's borederline to being approved I'd just approve it (* anthing dangerous/talking of self-harm/suicide should always be rejected). If anyone disagrees strongly it can always be removed retrospectively?

But, good feedack.

Posted on 28 September 2006 @ 18:32 (London time) - permalink
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DearCupid, posted over a year ago

tux - agree fully on the ampersand... nightmare. Shoddy programming on my part ages ago! I know a fix just need to make happen :-)))

Posted on 28 September 2006 @ 18:39 (London time) - permalink
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, posted over a year ago

Can't you just do something like

originalText= Replace(originalText, "&", "&amp") like you can in VBSCRIPT/ASP?

Ps the bigger answer box is a little better, but it is still too small. Sorry! I'm appreciative but I think it still needs a little enlargement. Love you really Andrew, haha! :)

Peter

Posted on 28 September 2006 @ 22:47 (London time) - permalink
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Wendyg, posted over a year ago

Tsk Pete, your worse than a woman demanding this bigger box lol...

I often wondered if it would not be better to have the page split horiontal with the question then answers underneath ?

Just a thought I suppose, I like it the way it is, but sometimes when there is a reply with lots of words it would scan better if it had more of a page, ie at the bottom of the question so it goes left to right ... sometimes feel the anwers are a bit squashed when to the right of the screen, i guess only because I harp on lol... Anyway not major just a thought.

Posted on 29 September 2006 @ 9:13 (London time) - permalink
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DearCupid, posted over a year ago

It's a little more complicated than that Pete... but I do love you too!! ;-)

I need you guys to keep pestering me for things because I'm pretty busy and it's the only way things happen!

xxx

Posted on 29 September 2006 @ 13:28 (London time) - permalink
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Toria, posted over a year ago

I just want to be able to use a different font and font colour sweet smile hehe

Toria x

Posted on 1 October 2006 @ 3:13 (London time) - permalink
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Toria, posted over a year ago

Okay, sweet smile was suppose to be an action not part of what I was asking for lol

Posted on 1 October 2006 @ 3:15 (London time) - permalink
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David Lewis, posted over a year ago

Grrr, that ampersand bug.

There was a question with about 40 ampersands, I changed them all, then had to re-read because I had forgotten question. Came up with imaginative title and tried to save.....but another mod was logged on!!!

Posted on 9 October 2006 @ 19:59 (London time) - permalink
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DearCupid, posted over a year ago

Aarrghhh!

My fault. I'm going to look at a quick fix tomorrow.

Things have been hectic in CupidLand recently

Posted on 9 October 2006 @ 21:42 (London time) - permalink
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snowbird, posted over a year ago

Cupid, I want that sweet smile too!!! lol xxx

Posted on 9 October 2006 @ 22:51 (London time) - permalink
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