$1936

Soooooo.

You all know I lurk as much as possible but I'm never really visible, and that's only about to get ten times worse because I'm moving to Manchester in 5 weeks. You read that right, 5 weeks.

Since I also have the organisational skills of a 3 year old, I'm probably not going to be here regularly any time soon. And not only that but I have no idea when I'm stopping having internet before I leave. It'll take me a few days to get back on my feet when I'm there - however, I'm booking my ticket to leave on Thursday coming and that means I should be leaving on either the 28th or 29th of November, with a bit of luck.

Did I mention I'm terrified, having never lived outside of Northern Ireland in my life? HELLO, CULTURE SHOCK. Either way, confusion and discord abounds. See you guys when things settle down again. You know, when pigs start flying?

Hello fellow mods,

you might be invisible, but I'm sure many of you will nevertheless see this entry. To make it short: the mod sitution is kinda bullshit again (sorry for that - but that's actually the right word). We have several new, almost inactive moderators - I know there's always a bunch of reasons for it - and I don't want to trigger new justifications with my message.

But - the users must be confused and it's a LOT of work to check patterns with more or less only two active mods that are Lonike and me in the moment. And I'm super thankful that our best Foz is still out there to support pattern checking and to answer forum entries etc. (you all know that Foz is keeping up the site for quite some YEARS now anyway, which is stunning!) And there are others of you as well, Sassy, Jeckle, Tony, who did so much for the site and did it constantly for a long time as well. So, to make it clear, I'm referring to our newest mods, who were added within the last few months and I would be glad to hear from you if or when you'll be able to be involved here a little more again. Also with respect to the contests and monthly challenges etc., because in the last weeks our turn-taking list didn't really work out any more?

And I just also saw some questions in the current swap-thread yesterday about when the pics will be posted and when the bracelets will be sent out, too. What should we tell the users, Tony?

Lonike and I also talked about the possibility of adding another moderator and we thought of thematt711?

Well, sorry for all my ranting, but it's a somehow strange situation with so many "ghost mods" in the background...

no need to apologise, Sina, honest. I'm one of the "ghost mods" at the moment too, and only pop in from time to time -- where I mostly dash through the pendings, and don't do a whole lot more. I did see the last pattern of the month voting threads, but felt weird voting since I'd not been around to see the pattern itself, or any of the questions and/or pictures. I will definitely try and refocus on at least keeping track of those contests, if I haven't the time to actively participate in hosting :-)

and I think it's never bad to have another mod :-) Matt's a bit on the over-enthusiastic side for my taste, but I can't think of anyone right now who would suit me better. I'll give that a think too, though. :-)

First off, I apologize. I could say that I have been too busy to be on here, but thats a lame excuse because we are all busy. Truth is, I just haven't been making enough time for the site, and I feel bad about that. I'm sorry and will try to be around a little more :)

Thanks, Sina, for voicing this. I'm sure that there will be no offense taken by any of us "ghost mods". Certainly no offense taken by me. When I first disappeared a few months ago, I had no time to put into the site, because I had to put all my effort into personal family matters. Then, I took a new job that left me almost brain dead at the end of the day, and I simply couldn't focus enough to do an effective job moderating. Now, I suppose I have the time and the attention span, but honestly, I've lost all the desire. I've only stayed on the team hoping that something would reignite my desire to take part again, but I don't see that happening any time soon (if ever again). I apologize for my absence, because I do know how much work it takes to keep the site operating when we're all active, nevermind when there are only two or three. Having said that, this is what I needed to help me decide to take my step back, to make room for another who is willing to take an active part and be a help to the team. I don't want to just fill up a space on the admin page without doing my part to earn it. I really enjoyed working with you all. You guys are awesome. <3 <3 <3

I'm sorry that you're stepping back Kim, but I believe you've done your share in the past and I can imagine me saying about the same thing in a few years time. Especially the pattern-checking isn't a job you can do for more than a couple of years, I think. It simply takes too much time, especially when there are not many active mods. We're all just volunteers, so once in a while someone else has to take over.
So thanks for all of your work in the past and happy crocheting! :-)

Thanks, Lonike! I've messaged Stefan, and he's agreed to remove my mod status when he's about. I appreciate you guys!

Kim - before you can't see the entry any more: now I'm a bit sad having posted this, because what I wanted to say basically has nothing to do with you awesome guys, who may have disappeared a bit in the last few months, but come on - you have your reasons and you did so awesome in the time you were active as a mod. I of course accept your decision (have to I guess ;) - but please let's stay in contact and I hope to see you around here or on fb from time to time! - Same goes for you Foz - you were definately not the person I meant to "complain" about and I think it's totally fine if you continue doing the things you are doing in the moment, that's a real help, too!

Thanks Dolly, for your answer as well, I appreciate your comment! What's with the others, Karishma for example, and Lacy? - You did the mod job for a few weeks (that's how it felt for me) and then you vanished. What's up - no interest any longer? I know my question is a bit provocative, but you know, I have two jobs, friends and family myself and I still manage to check some patterns the one or other day, so I presume that can't be the actual reason ...

First off, I apologize for my absence. And I knew it would come to this point where I'd have a little challenge balancing things off. The past couple of months has been pretty rough with regard to my family which is a long story and I do not want to come off as giving excuses as to my absence. But just to remind you, I still am ever so passionate as I was before about being here amonst peers and having to keep things running smooth on the site. And I apologize for not having mentioned this to all of you before-hand. I thought I could handle it, but it turned out completely the opposite. Because of the time barrier, I stuck to just disposing and accepting of voted patterns.
That said, I will try my best to be on the site more often and promise to make up for all that I've missed.

No offense taken at all here; I have indeed been a ghost mod as of late. I've only been doing the less visible things like checking photos, profiles, keywords, similars, etc. for quite some time...and I can still take my turns hosting the weekly contest according to the most recent schedule. I'm frequently away from the internet completely for a week or two (or months during the summer) so I'm not incredibly reliable right now for online things. That's not really a good excuse, but it's the way my life operates for the time being. If you all think it's too confusing for the users, I'll PM Stefan to remove me as a mod as well.

I can't imagine being a mod without you Sassy! You were added just a few months before me and we stumbled through a lot of newbie mod things together. <3

Just a suggestion though. Perhaps we could approach adding new mods better...or differently, maybe it wouldn't be better. Anyway, what if we decided on 2-3 new mods at a time or spaced shortly apart? That way it might not be quite so intimidating to join all the experienced mods and they could make all the newbie discoveries and mistakes together. Pattern checking also shouldn't be such an ordeal if there are multiple fresh mods to tackle them with the experienced mods. (Not that it's easy to find good new mods though :( ) Thoughts? Am I crazy/too tired to be posting this late? ;)

Thematt711 is also the only possibility that comes to mind right now, but I'm a liiiittle worried about his temper. We've seen him go off on users in the past (not referencing the current forum post with Sue's ridiculous request).