Some New Marshals in Town

As blogs grow, the general rule seems to be that their comments sections deteriorate. Winds is determined to buck that trend - and fortunately, we have a pretty solid community on hand. As Chip Morningstar and Randall Farmer explained in The Social Dimensions of Habitat's Citizenry and Habitat Anecdotes, there is a cure:

The path of Ascension

Passive -> Active -> Motivator -> Caretaker -> Geek God

Encourage everyone to move one role to the right, and the result will be a living, self-sustaining and thriving community where new members can always feel encouraged to become vital citizens.

In light of recent events with Paul Lukasiak, we've decided to accelerate a program that has been on the drawing board for a while - and deputize a few Blog Marshals. Allow us to introduce:

Old Range Hands

• "Smokin' Joe" Katzman - joe@...
• Marc "Armed Liberal" Danziger - armed@...

In addition to their conventional moderation powers, Joe and Marc operate the blog's Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator in situations where more permanent solutions (like IP bans) are required.

Newly-Deputized Deadwood Marshals

• AMac a.k.a. "Marshal Festus" - amac@...
• Marshal Cicero, a.k.a. "The Quiet Man" - cicero@...
• Lewy14, a.k.a. "Marshal Leroy" - lewy14@...
• Marshal Robin "Straight Shooter" Burk - robin@...

All of them have already spent considerable time improving the Winds comment section by their presence, their example, and their diplomatic skills. These individuals will still use those approaches most of the time. When those approaches fail, however, they will be armed with the same moderation powers A.L. and I have - the power to edit or disintegrate any comment in any post on Winds.

Comment editing powers will almost always be used to make changes requested by a commenter in their own comment, or to replace a deleted comment with a warning and/or rationale. See here for a recent example (for which Raymond apologized).

All Marshals have Winds of Change.NET email addresses if you need to call on them. They're apt to speak softly - but they do carry a big .44... and more Marshal positions may open up in the future as Winds evolves and likely candidates declare interest and/or follow the Path:

Passives [Readers] -> Actives [Tips & Comments] -> Motivators [Bloggers and/or Major Community Members] -> Caretakers [Marshals] -> Blog Gods [Administrators]

As our new Marshals begin their service, please join me in welcoming them and thanking them all for their willingness to step up. We sure do appreciate it, out here in our little town on the frontiers of cyberspace.

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