New Moderators

This has been something that I have been considering for several months now. After the incidents regarding SkittlesCat (an ex-member) and his attempts to participate on the forum, it made me re-evaluate how Popedia is monitored and what actions should be taken to protect the security of the forum. As you may remember, the member in question would often log-on to the forum late at night or during the early hours of the morning, when zampakid, Aussie TV and I had signed off for the night. Up until this point, the forum would go un-moderated for several hours, which simply isn't advisable for a forum that is continuing to grow at a rapid rate.

To ensure that such an incident never occurs on Popedia again, the staff have come to an agreement to appoint new moderators on the forum. Having several moderators on a forum is quite standard. For instance, Paul's forum, Funjoint, has six moderators and three administrators, while inthe00s has several moderators (albeit, only one is active). This will mean that Popedia will be moderated close to all hours of the day, ensuring that members and the forum itself will not be under any risk from potential threats to the forum (e.g . SkittlesCat). After a lot of consideration, we have decided on the people who will become the new moderators of the forum and they are:

* Paul
* #Infinity
* Slowpoke
* EyewitnessTV

To say that the decision was difficult is an understatement. I know for a fact that everyone on the forum would do an excellent job at the role, if given the opportunity. Honestly, I would like to appoint every active member here for a staff role (if people were interested), but it just isn't ideal at this point in time. It wouldn't make sense to appoint half (or all) of the current active members as moderators!  

Although the decision to select members for the role was difficult, there were a few reasons as to why the four members, in particular, were offered the role. Paul has had experience with running a forum for 14 years and he does an excellent job with managing Funjoint (his forum). If there was to be a dispute or an incident on Popedia, he would quite knowledgeable on how to handle the situation, due to his role on Funjoint. Also, #Infinity and Slowpoke have shown moderator qualities (as evident here and in this thread) and they would be able to monitor the forum when it is late night/early morning here in Australia. EyewitnessTV is a very active member on the forum and has had experience with similar moderator roles on other forums in the past. 

On a final note, additional moderator/staff roles will become available in the future, so please don't feel discouraged. If you would be interested in being appointed for a moderator or staff role sometime in the future, please feel free to say! It ultimately does depend on how many more people join Popedia. However, the sooner the forum becomes more active and gains additional members, the sooner more staff opportunities will become available. I would like to one day appoint moderators for the chatbox and staff to help run the social media pages of the forum, but again, it's entirely reliant on how many people join Popedia.

Appointing additional moderators to the forum, ensures that Popedia continues to run in an efficient manner and that the overall forum experience is not put into jeopardy, by potential threats who could try to join the forum. If you have any questions or general feedback about the announcement, please let me know.