The user names of moderators and administrators are always in red (admin) yellow (forum leaders) or purple (mentors) in the upper corner of a post.
Mentors are selected for their special life experiences as adherents to Sikhi. They can be expected to interact on a regular basis whenever they feel they can give guidance in an area of personal interest or expertise, as per gurbani and the Sikh Rehat Maryada. We do not want to put a burden on them as this is completely their seva to SPN. Therefore, they should feel they can pick and choose when and how much to say as fits their time and energy.
Forum leaders have been selected because of their expertise in one or more areas, to include Sikh history, scriptures, or Sri Guru Gtanth Sahib ji, and gurmat interpretation of the shabad. Naturally, their expertise is to be shared, to prevent discussions from going off course and thus risk the impression that Sikh Philosophy Network is not first and foremost a Sikh site. They are also empowered to enforce Terms of Service, which includes warnings, infractions, and redirection of threads that have gone off course. Forum leaders also help members privately, and they post new content, according to the time they can give to the forum. They have responsibility on all threads. Their seva is without any sort of compensation.
Administrators (Aman Singh and spnadmin) fulfill a number of different roles. Our duties include posting new content every day; helping members with many different kinds of problems, including technical problems; deleting spam and banning spammers; and fixing any technical problems we spot on threads related to formatting, images, and url's. We take a daily and more systematic hand in managing threads (deleting, moving, sticking, bumping, opening and closing, editing, etc.). Administrators also lead discussions among mentors and forum leaders about problem threads and problematic members, new ideas for forum themes, the selection of new mentors and leaders, and maintaining search engine rankings. This is a short list. Administrators do participate in thread discussions in one of 3 ways:
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=33118Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=33118
1) to warn members when they are closing in on frank Terms of Service violations;
2) to comment in ways that will either get a wandering discussion back on topic, or extend a conversation that is fixated, and has yet to look at a new angle; and
3) to contribute their understanding from a gurmat perspective. This last point is important because Sikhs who are versed in their religion do expect intervention to occur when Sri Guru Granth Sahib is misinterpreted. And because Sikhs and non-Sikhs alike should not be left with the notion that any and all opinions are consistent with Sri Guru Granth Sahib.
Administrators are not compensated.
All mentors, leaders and administrators are encouraged to welcome new members.
Let me add: All revenue from donations and sponsors barely covers the cost of server rental and software licensing and upgrades.
Finally we would like to see an increase in the number of members who actively comment in the threads. Research has shown us however than on any forum the percentage of active members who actually do post tends to be small.
I hope that clears up your questions.
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