What’s with the admin?

How does one become admin? I mean we have some admin literally moving comments from a specific route to regional forums with absolutely zero context. Then there are the multiple threads in the general forum that only relate to a specific crag or region and belong in a regional forum. Makes no sense to me. The general thread is already cluttered enough without people mistakenly posting regional questions in the general thread. 

Regional Admin candidates are typically nominated, either by another admin or by themselves (via Contact Us form on the Help page). Candidates are then evaluated by a set of factors like how long they've been an MP user, how many routes, photos, etc. they've contributed, and so on. If there are already admins for the area in question, we reach out to them for their thoughts about the candidate and whether there's a need for a new admin based on the amount of content needing review. It's more of an art than a science but we try to be as consistent as possible. 

Admins are volunteers who graciously offer their time and knowledge to help the climbing community. Though there are general best practices around managing content (like providing an explanation about why comments were moved to the forum), it can vary from one region to another and from one admin to another. 

Comments on route or area pages should be specific to the route or area, and longer discussions moved to the appropriate sub-forum, which admins are asked to help with. On the flip side, admins are not managing or moderating the forum so misplaced threads are not their responsibility. These threads can be flagged with a note about where they should be moved to and a moderator can help with that. 

Let me know if you have further questions! Happy to help.

Hey Zander, I wonder if the “Admin” tag in the forums isn’t needed for admins of regions? It seems like this causes more confusion than good. Having the admins for an area listed on the area seems ample and would cut down on these threads about the “admins”.

Zander Göpfert wrote:

Regional Admin candidates are typically nominated, either by another admin or by themselves (via Contact Us form on the Help page). Candidates are then evaluated by a set of factors like how long they've been an MP user, how many routes, photos, etc. they've contributed, and so on. If there are already admins for the area in question, we reach out to them for their thoughts about the candidate and whether there's a need for a new admin based on the amount of content needing review. It's more of an art than a science but we try to be as consistent as possible. 

Admins are volunteers who graciously offer their time and knowledge to help the climbing community. Though there are general best practices around managing content (like providing an explanation about why comments were moved to the forum), it can vary from one region to another and from one admin to another. 

Comments on route or area pages should be specific to the route or area, and longer discussions moved to the appropriate sub-forum, which admins are asked to help with. On the flip side, admins are not managing or moderating the forum so misplaced threads are not their responsibility. These threads can be flagged with a note about where they should be moved to and a moderator can help with that. 

Let me know if you have further questions! Happy to help.

All that is good and fine but who is supposed to be moderating the general forum? It seems like literally 4 out of every 5 threads started in the “general forum” are people asking questions about a specific region, often even a specific crag.

Maybe I don’t quite understand the purpose of regional forums vs the general forum but it sure as sh!t seems like someone asking about the conditions of RMNP or Utah partners or info about specific crag in West Virginia belong in the regional forums.

I also have no issue going through and flagging the numerous threads (as you suggested) that belong in regional forums, but I also didn’t sign up to “volunteer” my time to be an admin…

Prince Kitty Hatr wrote:

All that is good and fine but who is supposed to be moderating the general forum? It seems like literally 4 out of every 5 threads started in the “general forum” are people asking questions about a specific region, often even a specific crag.

Maybe I don’t quite understand the purpose of regional forums vs the general forum but it sure as sh!t seems like someone asking about the conditions of RMNP or Utah partners or info about specific crag in West Virginia belong in the regional forums.

I also have no issue going through and flagging the numerous threads (as you suggested) that belong in regional forums, but I also didn’t sign up to “volunteer” my time to be an admin…

Trevor, would you be willing to pay for a website that is more to your liking?

Tradiban wrote:

Trevor, would you be willing to pay for a website that is more to your liking?

You're slipping' old man. Re-read the username before you come talking' out yer neck. I unfortunately did not receive any monetary compensation to leave MP, as it seems Trevor did...To answer your question; no, I would not, and fwiw I very much don't dislike this site and the suggestion from the admin (a few posts up) has seemed to fix my quarrel...  

Uh-huh.