we desperately need more mods (and how you can get your entries approved on the first try)
at one point in this wond'rous community, we had 7 active mods. life was beautiful! entries were getting processed within minutes of posting, everyone was happy. slowly those wonderful mods have been trickling away, leaving only lavajin and myself to handle everything. (and well, with 5,000 members (i don't know how many of those are active, but there are a lot of you) it's really a toll on us.
it seems that every time we bring aboard another mod, they lose interest fairly quickly. so i'm hoping at least 3 of you will raise your hand, and try your hardest not to lose interest. i really hate making these pleas. for one, they're off topic! (i mean, unless you want to see a recipe for ex-moderator stew, but that'd also be off topic because it's totally not vegan!)
i think part of the reason why the newer mods don't stick around is because they weren't around during the dark ages prior to entry moderation. trust me, you don't want to see what this community would be like if the entries weren't moderated. it was around august 2005 that we started moderating entries. we deleted the completely off-topic entries, but the entries without subject lines and outdated links (because the recipe wasn't pasted into the entry, so we're SOL if we're curious about a particular recipe that's now lost) feel free to browse around back then. it was atrocious. if you would like to be a part of keeping this place awesome, please volunteer.
so, newbies who haven't been added to the mass of the unmoderated yet. first and foremost, please try to remember to give your entries a descriptive subject line. for example, check out this link. http://community.livejournal.com/vegancooking/2005/07/ that page would be so much more useful if those "(no subject)"s actually had a descriptive subject line. it can still be flowery, if you're used to making your subject lines all foofy, but please try to put information in there.
second, please try to include the recipe in the text of the post. like i said above, links get outdated, and vegancooking will stick around. but just because you paste the recipe in the entry, doesn't mean don't also post the link. the link will act as the "give credit where credit is due" part.
so, those 2 things if adhered to, will alleviate 80% of the pressure on the mods. (so maybe the new ones will stick around a little longer?) and it will also accelerate your addition to the pile of bodies that is the unmoderated bunch. speaking of which, i try to keep on top of this, but sometimes i approve entries while i am away from my e-mail, where i usually do the search to see your posting record. so if you think you have made 3+ entries in a row without having been rejected, let me know, i'll check, and if all is good, i'll remove you from moderation.
and thirdly, please check the tags (for the more recent entries) and the memories (for the pre-2005 entries) if you think your question might be a common one. like egg replacer or soymilk, or if you're looking for a chocolate chip cookie or cupcake recipe. and speaking of tags, they're only useful if you use them. try to always add a tag to your post. (you can't create new ones, only choose from what's there. but if you think there should be a new tag created, there should be an entry on vc_moderators for tag requests.
ok. that was a lot of stuff. hopefully it wasn't tl;dr for you.
so in summary, mod hopefuls raise your hands, and worthy moderateds poke me in the ribs.
it seems that every time we bring aboard another mod, they lose interest fairly quickly. so i'm hoping at least 3 of you will raise your hand, and try your hardest not to lose interest. i really hate making these pleas. for one, they're off topic! (i mean, unless you want to see a recipe for ex-moderator stew, but that'd also be off topic because it's totally not vegan!)
i think part of the reason why the newer mods don't stick around is because they weren't around during the dark ages prior to entry moderation. trust me, you don't want to see what this community would be like if the entries weren't moderated. it was around august 2005 that we started moderating entries. we deleted the completely off-topic entries, but the entries without subject lines and outdated links (because the recipe wasn't pasted into the entry, so we're SOL if we're curious about a particular recipe that's now lost) feel free to browse around back then. it was atrocious. if you would like to be a part of keeping this place awesome, please volunteer.
so, newbies who haven't been added to the mass of the unmoderated yet. first and foremost, please try to remember to give your entries a descriptive subject line. for example, check out this link. http://community.livejournal.com/vegancooking/2005/07/ that page would be so much more useful if those "(no subject)"s actually had a descriptive subject line. it can still be flowery, if you're used to making your subject lines all foofy, but please try to put information in there.
second, please try to include the recipe in the text of the post. like i said above, links get outdated, and vegancooking will stick around. but just because you paste the recipe in the entry, doesn't mean don't also post the link. the link will act as the "give credit where credit is due" part.
so, those 2 things if adhered to, will alleviate 80% of the pressure on the mods. (so maybe the new ones will stick around a little longer?) and it will also accelerate your addition to the pile of bodies that is the unmoderated bunch. speaking of which, i try to keep on top of this, but sometimes i approve entries while i am away from my e-mail, where i usually do the search to see your posting record. so if you think you have made 3+ entries in a row without having been rejected, let me know, i'll check, and if all is good, i'll remove you from moderation.
and thirdly, please check the tags (for the more recent entries) and the memories (for the pre-2005 entries) if you think your question might be a common one. like egg replacer or soymilk, or if you're looking for a chocolate chip cookie or cupcake recipe. and speaking of tags, they're only useful if you use them. try to always add a tag to your post. (you can't create new ones, only choose from what's there. but if you think there should be a new tag created, there should be an entry on vc_moderators for tag requests.
ok. that was a lot of stuff. hopefully it wasn't tl;dr for you.
so in summary, mod hopefuls raise your hands, and worthy moderateds poke me in the ribs.