Mar 18 2009
We’re looking for volunteer moderators
Hello. In the last week, we’ve had about 650 comments. Currently, Cadet Davis and I do basic proofreading on each one. That’s a lot of work! As a result, we’d like to begin taking on volunteer moderators/proofreaders. If you might be interested, please read on.
QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPECTATIONS
1. You’d have to be ready and able to spend 5+ hours a week proofreading comments.
2. You need enough proofreading talent to score 80% on our Proofreading Contest. If you don’t pass the first time, feel free to take it again in a few weeks.
3. It will really help if your comments on this site have demonstrated how friendly and civil you are. In particular, we’re looking for people that have generously given their time to help authors that have had significant mechanical issues. We’re also particularly impressed by commenters that are able to resolve conflicts in a professional and friendly manner.
4. You have to be able to keep secrets. More on this if you get hired. 😉
BENEFITS AND PERKS
1. Full access to HTML coding. That means you will be able to insert line-breaks, pictures, links and the like into your comments as well as the comments you edit.
2. Full access to our comment database. Ordinary visitors only get to see our last 12 comments; as a moderator you will be able to browse all 6000 comments going back to 2007.
3. It’s a neat resume item, particularly for a motivated high school student thinking about college. “A professional writer trusted me to proofread a website with hundreds of thousands of readers.”
4. We will provide a letter of recommendation based on how consistently, diligently and carefully you work.
5. If you’re a fan of the writing we turn out, this is a great way to show your appreciation.
6. We trust our moderators with many of our business secrets. For example, did you know that Cadet Davis is actually a cyborg? (Oops).
I’ll post more on the responsibilities and job description later, but the short version is that it’s 90% proofreading and 10% mood-control. For example, you might have to tweak a comment to make it feel more friendly.
You linked Dforce, but I’m shockingly interested. Hahah…
So what is it I do? Do you want the test e-mailed to you?
Yes. It can be emailed to us at superheronation-at-gmail-dot-com .
I emailed it to you guys. (At least I hope it was you)
Ok, we just got it. I apologize if the passage was horribly hard to read. That’s why we need proofreaders! 🙂
🙂
Hmm, I’d love to help with moderations. Although all of my time isn’t free being a student, most of it is.
I’ll email you when I get home.
Oh … when are we notified of how well (or terrible) we did?
I’ll have a go. I’ll email that test to you soon.
As a heads up, I probably won’t have time to be on here a lot from about early May – mid June. I have a bunch of exams then. (I figure this is relevant whether I end up a moderator or not).
I won’t be available in alot of the times that B. Mac is, and when most people comment. However, unless it’s some ridiculous wave of comments I should be able to get through them.
I’d be happy to become a proof-reader, but I probably won’t be able to do as much as the current guys, although I’ll try my best!
I, on the other hand, spend nearly all of my time at least occasionally refreshing this site. xD; I’ve got pretty much no time that I’m not available.
My goodness! It was like brain surgery! I really hope the passage was made up and not actually written by someone… Lol.
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My response should be on its way. (Hopefully you guys will hark back and lemme know if you got it?).
No shirt here either, but at least I qualify for a position.
Hell yeah!
Ragged Boy, did you really just make me edit your comment announcing that you qualified for a proofreading position? *slap* 😉
I bet it was a grammatical error, I’m blind to them.
Right there! Comma splice, Ragged Boy! You did it again!
Sorry, I’m just joking around (but there really is one there)
I’m. Never. Using. Commas. Again.
I thought you could use commas to separate similar ideas.
You can, but there has to be a connector, like the “but” in this sentence.
Wow. This feels really weird, teaching English while I’m still in high school.
Seriously though, I’m not some kind of grammar freak. I’m just messing with you.
Yeah, I know about connectors. That’s common knowledge.
I’m still in high school, in fact, I think most people here are in high school.
I think I may have comma-phobia now.
You could use semi-colons, but be careful; they’re addictive.
Ellipses and en/em dashes are addictive as well.
Oh God… ellipses… I love them…
I love commas, but their so tricky. I don’t understand semi-colons enough to use them.
*They’re* so tricky. Dammit!
I have a quick question. How are my comments in the way of spelling, grammar and punctuation? On a scale of zero to ten, zero would be “horrendous” and ten would be “practically flawless”. Thanks.
I’d say it’s really good. Your comments have always been easy to read and understand.
I say 8. Just to give you some leeway.;-)
(You made a grammatical mistake in your last post. Forgot a comma.Haha.)
Let’s see. In spelling, I’d probably go with a 10. I can’t remember the last time I’ve had to edit one of your comments for a spelling mistake. In grammar/punctuation, I’d probably say around an 8.
Australians all let us rejoice, for I know how to spell! Haha.
I think I’d be interested in a position as a volunteer moderator. 5+ hours a week of editing is quite a bit, especially with all my homework, but I’m sure I could spend some of my free time on the site. After all, I already do! Haha.
I hope I fulfill the friendliness requirement. It’d be below my standards if I didn’t. 😛
Do I email the test?
Yeah, please e-mail it to us.
I’m sure you probably thought about this already, but I’ll mention it anyway. When you are choosing your volunteer moderators, I suspect it would be good to have at least one moderator in another time zone. For example, I noticed that when I go to sleep at 11pm and check the computer at about 6am, there is a massive wave of overnight comments. I suspect we have a few people in different time-zones that can be receptive of comments that would be inconvenient to us here in America (I’m not implying that I’m automatically a moderator, I’m just saying).
Good thinking. In the past few weeks, I’ve noticed an uptick in the amount of comments between 3 AM EST and 7 AM EST, mostly from Oceania, India and Japan.
I sent the test. 😀