I don't know if anyone else has noted, but recently we have been experiencing a significant uptick in posting volume. There have been several days in the past week where the number of new posts has exceeded 100 (the forum's list of recent posts cuts off at 100 so I can't tell the actual number). My practice as a Moderator is to look at every post. What I mainly look for is to see if posts are entered into the right places in the boards. I also look to see if the posts change the direction of threads or amount to hijacking, either intentional or innocently. Of course, I am also on the lookout for spam or attempts of members to slip in free advertising without becoming Supporting Members. Unlike other forums, such as the PMQ forum, our forum is based on an indexing system. That system is only as good as its integrity is maintained. If it is corrupted, then ultimately members may be forced to use the forum's search feature, and particularly the Advanced Search feature, to find what they are looking for. While many members use the search feature before asking for help, there are also many members who will not use that feature and instead just pose their questions to the membership, even if they have been answered countless times before. Admittedly, with the increasing popularity of the forum and the ever increasing numbers of posts on the forum, it is not always easy to find things as easily as we once could. Hence, the need to be sure that our indexing system is kept as pure and intact as possible.
I estimate that I now move about three or four posts daily that have been misfiled. I generally do this quietly behind the scenes. I used to send PMs to notify members of my actions but with the dramatic increase in membership and new posts, I had to discontinue that courtesy because I was spending far too much time on it. Sometimes, as a courtesy of our members, I will wait until a thread become less active before moving it so that continuity is maintained as much as possible.
Where most misfilings occur is in the "pizza making" boards and in the separate ingredients boards. Some members use the boards directed to the individual pizza styles, including the New York style, the Neapolitan style, the Chicago style, etc., as catchalls for anything pertaining to those styles. Those boards are intended for "making" the particular styles of pizzas, with a heavy emphasis on recipes and technique. By contrast, the ingredient boards are intended to embrace ingredients that are used in making the different styles of pizzas. Those boards are independent of pizza style. They exist in good measure such that the style boards don't become so long that using the indexing system becomes a real burden and a real chore on our members. The second major area of misfilings is filing posts on resources in the individual ingredients boards. Apparently, many of our members have not noticed that there is a Resources board where they can post on sources they have discovered for different pizza ingredients or where they can ask resource-specific questions.
Occasionally even I can't tell where a particular post best belongs. So, I just use my best judgment, knowing that I can move posts around again as a thread changes direction for some reason. But my mind is always on the indexing system and maintaining its integrity. That is also why I try to pay attention to changes in direction of threads and hijacking of threads. I will often split threads to separate topics that have materially changed direction, which can be a time-consuming and laborious task, but sometimes the threads can take on a direction that it is just about impossible to do a split. So, I ask that our members think about what they are posting to be sure that the posts are consistent with the tenor of the threads as originally started. If in doubt, I would rather the poster start a new thread.
Compliance with the above should help all of the Moderators, all of whom are volunteers and do the same kinds of things discussed above, do a better job moderating the forum, particularly as the membership rolls continue to expand and the volume of posts continue to expand along with the increased membership.
Peter
