Just wondering if the moderators at WHT are payed or its a free volunteer job? :)

The latter.

kool

That said, some of us feel that they *should* be paid, especially considering that WHT is now being operated commercially by Rackshack.

I think you should be paid...it seems like a full time job.

Well, chicken should be :)

Well, chicken should be

I Agree! :D

lol hey can i be a mod i could use the money to buy some new servers lol jk

I think CP brought up a good point about how this being commercial.

The mods technically arent volunteers, they are asked and accept.:cool:

Ok mods should go on strike then.

good point...:smash: :karate: :nuke: :uzi: :flamethr: :bomb: :argue: :dgrin: :puke:

LOL

Originally posted by Lonny
Well, chicken should be :)

I didn't want to make a distinction between them, but I must agree that Chicken is the most obviously hard working moderator. (But who knows? Maybe the rest are simply working hard behind the scenes to keep the server running.)

Originally posted by interactive
hey can i be a mod i could use the money to buy some new servers

Hey, that's a point... maybe Rackshack should give a free server to each moderator. I mean, at $99/month each that's only $6K/year, which I'm sure is much less than they paid to buy WHT. (I don't know how much they paid, but people were talking about $20K or $30K.)

Originally posted by cperciva




Hey, that's a point... maybe Rackshack should give a free server to each moderator. I mean, at $99/month each that's only $6K/year, which I'm sure is much less than they paid to buy WHT. (I don't know how much they paid, but people were talking about $20K or $30K.)
Fantastic gesture.

lol yes that would be awesome now i just need to be a mod lol

While I think it would be nice to see the mods get paid I don't think they should. Mostly for the fact that if they were getting paid then I'd no longer consider them an independent voice, and their actions would be more questionable. I'd much rather have non-paid mods with no loyalties to anyone than moderators paid out of rackshacks pocket, and I also disagree, they shouldn't be given free servers either, it yet again sways their objectiveness. If WHT were an independent voice and an independent company like it was before rackshack bought it, then yes I'd say the mods should be paid, but in this situation it would only serve to make the mods puppets of rackshack.

Daniel nailed it.

I completely agree with what you've said, Daniel.

Well I don't and here's why...

As most of you know, up until a very short time ago, this forum was owned by Matt and all of the moderators worked (and continue to work) very hard to keep the forum in order. Much time is spent per day to keep things going, and this has been going on for years now.

I don't think you could honestly say that the goal of the moderators has been to profit in any way from being a moderator. I won't speak for everyone here, however I know that they most likely would agree that we just do it so that there is a place to come to to discuss things. Almost anything. It may get closed, or you may take some heat over your posts, however in the end, you're pretty much free to ask almost anything or post an opinion about almost anything you want. Note almost -we have to limit some things.

The fact is that these people have worked for the community as if they were paid employees for many years, and that wouldn't change should they be paid. We're here to do a job, bottom line.

When the forum was sold, a RS server was made available to the mods for personal use. Judging from Matt's emails to everyone, it seems no one used it. For me, it was just that I didn't have a use for using it, not because I felt that it would make me partial or impartial. Didn't really matter, and I don't think it mattered to anyone else either. As I said, Matt emailed saying it was a shame the server was just sitting there with no one using it, so I take that to mean that the others didn't use it either.

If I ever needed a server, I would have no qualms about asking Robert for access to one, should I want to use RS for my provider. Believe it or not, I actually make choices on whom I'd use, just as you would, and I wouldn't choose RS just because I can get a free server, I'd choose them because that's where I'd want a server from. (Sounds like a politician's answer eh?)

I will only speak for myself, however you know the rest of the staff here by now as well and can pretty much tell that what I'm saying applies to all of us. Point is, your fearless team is what it is, paid or not, servers or not. I look at every post submitted by any member and try to determine if it is fair, and if the replies are fair to that person. Fair might not always mean nice (there are times where I'd persaonlly word things differently), however this applies to hosts as it does members posting about hosts. It also applies to posts about RS, and posts not about RS.

People ask some tough questions here, and there have been some heated debates, however we make judgements as to how each thread is going and the posts submitted every day. A few hundred dollars a week, or a server isn't enough for me to bend my judgement either way, and I highly doubt it is enough to alter how the staff has been moderating this forum for he past few years. Simply put, we don't do this for 'the money' as they say, in the same regard that many of you don't come here and post 'for the money'. Some do I realize, but you have to have faith in the staff to do the job, regardless if they are paid or not, or given a server to use. It isn't the point, and won't ever be.

Nice post, Chicken.

It has changed my outlook on this subject.

I think someone needs to take away Chicken's moderator flag until his "vacation" is over. Or maybe even ban him completely. :D

I think paying the mods would give that extra incentive for them to work harder. It won't make them more biased. If it did the thousands of WHT members would see it right away and the entire forum would lose credibility (infopop censoring anyone?).

WHT being unbiased and not selectively censored is the reason for its success. Mess with that and kapoof WHT will be replaced by another Webhosting talk forum.

I think that there is a possibility that it could sway their judgement, but thats only a very small possibility. They have worked here long enough to prove that they are here to help and not profit from it.
I do think that they should be paid though, even if its only a smalish amount.
I know chicken has a young child, i don't know about the other mods, but they give up their time to help out and i think they should get something for it, other than praise.