Question For the Mods

[Vex]

Hey guys,

I was just wondering how it is that you became moderators for AO (no, I'm not asking to become one.)
Do you guys get paid?

I'm just curious...


Thanks,

[Cha0tic]

long time posters that tom felt were mature enough to become mods as AO grew. rob and black are associated with AGD though, or at least rob is?

[Army]

Tom needed people that looked good on camera...............not!

Webby is Steve Novak, prolific writer for many major paintball magazines, notably APG. Webby is also a dedicated player. His byline and player name is Mister .44

Rob works and plays at Pevs Paintball in Fairfax Va. and is a highly qualified 'Mag tech, and does pretty good work on other markers too.

BlackVCG is a dedicated student at Oregon Institute of Technology and operates his own landscaping business when he isn't SCUBA diving or competing in Smallbore Rifle. He is also a prolific player.

Miscue is a student at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Soon to get his BS in Computer Science, he relaxes by whupping anyone in Ping-Pong and chess. He has recently begun to play paintball again after a horrific broken leg last summer.

Cphillip was brought on after we noticed the time-zones across America were not smoothly represented. We basically had east and west coast Mods. Phil has been the Mod everyone loves, whether they like it or not! He is also a player with great insight into the Collegiate level of play. Phil also takes over when most of us are called away for tourneys, trade shows, or in my case when I have to go to the field, and does an exemplary job of Chief Cook and Bottle Washer. (and he has the longest hair of all of us!)

I really am in the Army, and make a living by getting to study, shoot, and break the worlds firearms, then study why before sending reports to the Dept. of Defense. On occasion, I get to play with exotic explosives. When needed, I also step in to make repairs to Abrams M1A1 Main Battle Tanks and M2A1-2 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles. I don't play nearly as much as I want to, since life keeps getting in the way!

As you may have figured out by now, we are not a group that has not paid their dues. We are mostly all members of AO from before AGD bought it, and all have been playing the game for a while. Miscue is the "newbie" of the gang at a little over 3 years, with Webby playing for well over 6.

About 6 months after Tom Kaye purchased AO, he and Webby decided they could use some mature and learned help monitering the rapidly growing site, and contacted BlackVCG, Miscue and myself privately, and seperately asking us if we would like to be Mods. Well, of course we would, Thanks!

I think I can speak for the others and say; being a Mod on the worlds greatest single issue paintball site has been incredibly rewarding. No, we do not get "paid" to be Mods, but do get to have insight into the industry long before the rest of the world has a clue. When at major tourneys, I have been shocked to find out that complete strangers know who I am. "Hi, I'm Dave from Automags Online" "Yes, I know! You're Army!" Even Rocky Cagnoni knew who I was. Very cool, and a little scary too (the situation, not Rocky, who is just cool)!

That alone is a wonderful payoff for having to log-on as much as possible every day in order to help keep the site on an even keel and at a PG-13 level. Dave

[FooTemps]

Just don't want to take you guys for granted... Good job modding AO... I mean with so many members and all...

[ThePatriot]

ARMY!! You left out that long haired moderator...i am very upset, whats wrong, did thinking of him with his long hair frighten you?? I know it frightens me...

*EDIT* Oops! sorry Phil!

[cphilip]

Nice Job Army. I didn't see this until you had added me in so I can just act like it never happened.

One correction though. I have been playing less than Miscue. About two years. And my 45 year old tired body makes it even less of what you might call "playing". I mostly am a target but a willing one. I am in to this mostly at the urging of my 15 year old Son giving us something to do together. And my Mentor, Dr Walt Ligon. He is the Clemson University Club advisor. My Son Caleb is very much becoming a good player. I am very into the technical end of repairing and modifications. And I play when I can but my mind cannot make my body do all it is capable of thinking up to do. So I fear I will never be that good at it. My back is so bad I just cannot stoop over behind the bunkers for very long. If I can stay upright I am alright but alas that is not likely is it? So Walt and I are spending more and more time working towords the Professional Ref thing.

But anyway I enjoy Moderating although it is not as much fun as you may think it is. Imagine having to read every single post every day. Over and over. Even the ones you are not interested in and reading it over again as each one is posted to looking for problems. Even all the classifieds! Going in and changing little slips on the posts. Emailing people and arguing with them about minor and major infractions. That happens daily. And a lot of it is behind the scenes and you never see it. Responding to reported posts thanking the person for reporting and dealing with reported posts. Mediating disputes between two or more members. All done off the boards where most of you never know it is going on. Making decisions about what people might be offended by or not based on your own experience. That is realy hard to do believe it or not. Knowing even then people will not always agree and seem to assume you haven't even given it any thought. Sometimes that is the most frustrating part of the job. Being fair and impartial all the time. Never letting your anger cloud your judgment. Trying to only post nicely because you are held to a higher standard when you realy want to jump someones...well you get it don't you?

And no we are not paid we are volunteers. We are rewarded occasionaly for our efforts by Tom when he feels we deserve it. Because as we all know Tom is a generous guy. Plus he knows we go out and represent his company where ever we are. We are not eligable for contests. And we have to be extra cautious of how we present ourselves as we can easily be the cause for negative impressions towords AGD and AO. It's a very serious and heavy responsibility and Army is right it scares me the credibility that it brings you. Right or wrongly. So you quickly realize you must be on your best behaviour at all times.

I am on EST time so I mostly on around 8 to 5 during the weekdays EST and pop in the other times just to see if one of the other Mods is around. If not I stay in for a while till one shows up.


And I have the longest hair! And self proclaim to be the cutest. Everyone realy knows it's Rob and Miscue that are.

[Webmaster]

Wow - army makes us look good- maybe he should go into PR.

[Miscue]

Really, I don't post much differently from how I did before I was a mod or before AGD took over the site from Andy. For all I'm concerned, I'm still a normal member with an extra couple of buttons is all. It's not 'fun'... "Oh Boy! I get to edit threads! What fun!" Not like that at all. But like cphilip said... you just end up having to skim through stuff over and over - whether it interests you or not.

But really, we don't have many problems here at all. Just look at other forums, there is a stark contrast between AO and other places. AO is a very civil place with a lot of good information... and a lot of perspectives. You guys make it easy for us!

A while back the mods got challenged a lot. People would accuse us for abusing authority and stuff... horse puckey really. You guys who have been around I'm sure have noticed that we leave pretty much anything up so long as there isn't really bad language or something... even if someone's talking bad about AGD or whatever... we leave it up. It takes 2 seconds to delete a thread and ban someone if we wanted to... but we never do anything like that. Well, let me clarify that... some of us, including me have had moments of weakness... we are human after all. But I think we've grown past that and won't repeat it.

Well, I'm glad that you guys trust us in making the decisions that we have to make... and even back us up sometimes - which is very appreciated.

[Snewk]

the mods of this forum rock more than any other...they have their work cut out for them and i think they should deserve to get paid. AGD forums is the best one i have been apart of yet and that is why i keep coming back to post many times a day! keep up the good work moderators

[Vex]

Thank you for the insight!

Hey guys,

I just wanted to thank you all for taking the time to share a little bit of your personal sides with us, the regular Joes--AO! I think that you guys do a super job. I'm not able to post everyday--usually just during the week on the government's time...hehehehe! I don't know if I have a favorite mod, maybe Army, but only because of what we have in common: we both serve our country in the armed forces; however, I made a smarter decision and joined the Air Force...

BTW, when did Tom buy out AO? I remember finding the website before the purchase, but I don't think that I had joined yet. I used to just check in and browse the site. Then I remember when the announcement came that AGD was buying the site. Another one of my famous "just curious" questions.

Thanks,
Jeremy

[Croix71]

You guys are doing a great job keep up the good work!

Thanks for the history lesson, Army.

[Jonno06]

webby,I had no idea you were mister .44.I remember your article on the Bushmaster2000.In the June2000 issue of paintball Magazine.Was that anecdote true or did you make that up?about your store owner and the team that was in car accident and stuff(the highlanders right?)

btw..very nice article,i loved it,and thanx to all the mods,for uh,modding.