MobileRead and Editorial Policy

[ekaser]

There's been a fairly large discussion in one of the Astak threads regarding "frontpage news", how and why it gets chosen, with suggestions that "company reps" should identify themselves as such in their profiles and posts (amongst other things). I think this is a very important discussion, for the health of MobileRead, and deserves attention by a broad range of folks on this forum, not just those who read the Astak threads. Hence this thread.

There has been much discussion particularly over the issues of company reps pushing their own products and denigrating other companies' products, and some of the MR moderators have responded in this discussion. Part of the problem, as I see it, is that I have NO idea WHO runs MR. WHO are the moderators? Which ones oversee which aspects of MR? Do any of them have ties to any ebook or reader companies? What ebook reader(s) do each of them own (which will certainly effect their interests and points of view)?

In any 'news' publishing endeavor (think 'newspapers'), the publication ALWAYS has a particular 'editorial' slant, controlled by the publisher and the editor. There's no problem with that, in newspapers or in MR. But at least newspapers PRINT who the publisher and editor are, and who writes particular opinion pieces, and from that information, much can be "read between the lines" about what is actually published (and what isn't).

I feel that MR consists of primarily three parties:
1) The owners/moderators.
2) The users/readers.
3) Company reps.

There is almost certainly overlap between ALL of those groups. It would make for a MUCH healthier forum if ALL moderators were required to have "MR MODERATOR" in their profile, and all posters who own, are employed by or have a financial interest in ebook or ebook reader companies should be required to identify THEIR "special interests" (the company they have ties to). That way, the USERS (without whom this forum would be meaningless) could get the maximum information from the postings they read.

There MAY be a listing somewhere on this forum, of who the owners and moderators are, but if so, I can't find it. It should be RIGHT UP FRONT, easily found by everyone.

Please note: I think MR is a GREAT forum, a GREAT resource! But it could certainly be even better with a little effort and thought.

Everett

[FizzyWater]

You may not have realized it yet - it took me months to notice - but the moderators names all appear in green, not black like all the others. So once you figure that out, you can figure out who all the moderators are.

[desertgrandma]

I can't address all your concerns but I can say this.

All mods are shown in green......its easy to see who is a mod.

[ekaser]

Originally Posted by FizzyWater

You may not have realized it yet - it took me months to notice - but the moderators names all appear in green, not black like all the others. So once you figure that out, you can figure out who all the moderators are.

Thanks for the "head's up", Fizzy!!! That's definitely good to know, but awfully arcane. I still think an obvious listing somewhere (including general forum responsibilities) would be a "good thing", rather than just a statement added at the top that "All forum moderator names are in green."

[Wetdogeared]

When I first became a member of MobileRead, less than a 8 months ago, I found it relatively easy to discover the following information:

As previously pointed out, all moderators are green.

At the bottom of the MobileRead Forums page, there is a link called View Forum Leaders. How up-to-date this list is, I don't know.

As far as I'm aware, the owner is Alex.

As far as Company Reps are concerned, some openly admit their affiliations, others do not.

WetDogEared.

[Patricia]

I'm a moderator. So my name is green.
Technically this thread isn't news but feedback. So I'm moving it to the feedback forum.

None of the moderators have any commercial links with E-book companies. So there's no financial information to declare. We are volunteers who love ebooks and reading devices.
The forum is funded by advertising. We don't get any money from any device manufacturers or ebook companies. At most, we might get the loan of a device for a review. You can see which reading devices we own by either looking at the list on our forum profiles, or under our avatars.

Moderators come from a wide range of backgrounds and nationalities. (I'm an academic in the UK.) And they own a large number of diferent devices.

[Who are you?]

It's not just the moderators who are green, also the other people involved in the site (Alexander Turcic as the owner (or at least manager) and Verencat as facebook maintainer).

Also many people who work for or own ereader/file format/publishing companies or are writers post here mostly for personal reasons and not because of their work. There are a few people who use this site for advertising, but they are easy enough to recognize.

The people crying censorship and claiming moderators are in the pocket of Sony and Amazon in the Astak thread were way off base in my opinion. The thread they wanted promoted to the front page was a thread about a temporary price cut, i.e. pure advertising. That 4 Sony threads managed to get to the front page in a short time was because each of those Sony threads contained some new information about the readers, which is interesting for everyone.

As for your claim that the forum would be MUCH healthier with your changes, I think you first need to show that the forum is not healthy as it is. The same with you saying that which device a moderator owns influences their moderating.

[Patricia]

Originally Posted by Who are you?

It's not just the moderators who are green, also the other people involved in the site (Alexander Turcic as the owner (or at least manager) and Verencat as facebook maintainer).

Verencat is now a moderator, with full mod powers. She is particularly responsible for our Facebook page, just as HarryT oversees the book upload sections. Alexander Turcic is the siteowner. His name appears in green because he also moderates!

[ekaser]

Originally Posted by Who are you?

Also many people who work for or own ereader/file format/publishing companies or are writers post here mostly for personal reasons and not because of their work.

Perhaps, perhaps not. It's called "conflict of interest." When their relationship with those companies is not revealed, we have no way of judging whether their statements may or may not be influenced by their relationships.

Originally Posted by Who are you?

The people crying censorship and claiming moderators are in the pocket of Sony and Amazon in the Astak thread were way off base in my opinion.

Although I was trying to avoid the specific issue of Astak vrs Sony/Amazon/etc, you opinion presents me with a problem: I don't know whether you're associated with an ebook/ereader company, so I have no way of assigning any value to your opinion. The point I was trying to make is that "knowing who people are" (in the sense of what products they favor and what companies they might favor) is about the only way opinions can be given any value besides having a long history of exchanging opionions and developing a track record.

Originally Posted by Who are you?

As for your claim that the forum would be MUCH healthier with your changes, I think you first need to show that the forum is not healthy as it is.

Nonsense. It was clearly stated as my opinion, and was not represented as fact. It was my opinion that opinions are pretty worthless when you don't know who's opinion they are. Most folks in this forum have the usual "on-line avatar" names that completely hide who they are, and that inherently renders their opinions, as it does mine, as well, of course , far less useful. Only with knowledge about the person providing the opinion can any value be attached to the opinion.

Originally Posted by Who are you?

The same with you saying that which device a moderator owns influences their moderating.

That seems pretty self-evident to me. We're all human beings, after all, not machines (well, most of us...), and EVERYTHING we do and experience affects EVERYTHING we think and do. NOTE: I am NOT accusing any of the moderators of any form of bad or poor behavior. I think they do a pretty fine job. I'm suggesting that the more we, the users, know about the moderators, the more trust (hopefully) we can have in the actions they do or don't take and the decisions they make. Same goes for knowing what devices individual users favor or own, and what (relevant) companies people work for.

Have you ever bought a new car, a type of car you've never owned before, and suddenly you start noticing all of the other cars of that type on the road that you've never noticed before? It's the natural filtering that the human brain does, and it WILL and DOES affect what we 'see', what we 'notice' and thus what we THINK. Sometimes to a small degree, sometimes to a large degree. But it all comes back to assigning VALUE and TRUST to the opinions of others. That only comes with knowledge.

Everett

[ekaser]

Originally Posted by Wetdogeared

At the bottom of the MobileRead Forums page, there is a link called View Forum Leaders. How up-to-date this list is, I don't know.

Thanks for pointing me to it. I looked top and bottom on several pages, menus, didn't find it. So far as I can tell, that link only shows up at the bottom (somewhat) of the main Forums page. Surely that information deserves to be a more prominent link at the bottom of EVERY page, or possibly even on the "Contact Us" page?

[Sparrow]

Originally Posted by ekaser

Only with knowledge about the person providing the opinion can any value be attached to the opinion.

I don't agree with this statement.
*Some* value can always be attached to an opinion, imho, regardless of how much or little you know of the person supplying it.